Neighborhoods such as Clarendon, built around public transit lines and zoned for a mixture of residential and commercial use, generate about half of the auto trips of less-dense suburban areas, according to Reid Ewing, a professor of urban planning at the University of Utah.
Yet Clarendon, for all its walkability, didn’t offer me and my wife much living space. When we couldn’t afford a two-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood, we moved to a nearby 5.2-minute neighborhood in Rosslyn, Virginia. As our condo fills up with toys, board books and diaper boxes, we are starting to grasp the appeal of suburbs.