Be like Berlin

Paul Krugman tackles Americans’ unsustainable auto-dependent suburbs, arguing that the way out of this gas price crisis is to learn from the Germans:

Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin—but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars. And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia—

utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas—

it’s starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.