I write this from the confines of my office, which happens to be the ground floor of my house. Lucky me! I resolved to never work further from my home than I could walk, ride a bike, or take a bus. I've been doing this for the past ten years. I am fortunate that my vocation isn't in manufacturing which, if I stuck to my credo, might mean living somewhere other than where I live now. I have a friend in Saratoga Springs, NY whose company relocated and in the process of doing so, his commute went from about 15 minutes to 40 minutes (off peak). They give him monetary compensation, each paycheck, for the additional stress and time "lost." I have another friend in Boulder, CO who commutes to Highlands Ranch (about 60 km one way). He takes a bus from Boulder to Denver, jumps on the light rail, then catches another bus, just to get to work! This is insane, but his job is more important to him (and, I trust, his employer) than the sacrificing of five hours each workday! BTW, Charlie gets no compensation from his employer. The suburbs were created in the US by the rich who wanted to "escape" the stench and squalor of the manufacturing centers, so they created park-like manors in the countryside. Well, here in the US, there ain't no countryside left. After 9/11, many larger corporations succumbed to their fear that the cities were unsafe, especially the skyscrapers, so they moved into office parks well outside so many "Ground Zeroes." In the process, many urban dwellers had to commute out of the city that served them so well. And the mendacity continues to roll right along... I like your idea, but I think we need to rethink our the dominant landplanning paradigm (based on cheap fuel and one car per person) to get past the automobile-centric spatial patterns of work and residence we see in North America.