Because the only way to guarantee that people have less than an hour of commute to their job is to create extremely dense population center which means extremely small living spaces which are almost universally hated. And most jobs cannot be done remotely, so to guarantee that each individual has space, he must accept to be some distance ways from the hub where people concentrate to perform their daily tasks.
Think of how many people a big hospital employs, and how you'd need to organise living center if all of them had to have a reasonable living space within few minutes of commute. Now you need stores and restaurant there as well and the space to host the workers of these places too, etc. The only way is to build huge tower hosting tons of small appartements, kill all green areas to gain as much space as possible. People don't seem to like that idea that much.
I live in Liverpool, a moderately large city in England (and work in the city centre). An hour's cycling, let alone driving, will get you basically out of the city. And, for all that there isn't space for vast exurb-style tract houses, there are a ton of houses of different sizes up to large detached houses with decent gardens, large parks, and all the other nice things.
Travel-to-work areas are circular-ish, and the available space for housing increases with the square of the distance. Accommodating a large hospital's workforce won't make a sizable dent in that. Compulsory tiny rabbit hutches in the sky it is not.
> The only way is to build huge tower hosting tons of small appartements, kill all green areas to gain as much space as possible.
This is precisely backwards! Dense housing creates green areas, sprawl devours them. This should be obvious if you think for even a moment—-dense housing requires less land per person housed, which leaves more for nature.
I live in a cluster of small towns with a major regional hospital, almost exactly the situation you describe. After decades of sprawl, we’re finally starting to do an OK job of building dense housing right next to the hospital, and it’s saving a huge amount of wild space.
Most people who are commuting for jobs in the service industry in the US likely live within 15 minutes of their job, though. Most of them have cars by necessity, and they don't have that kind of money to blow on fuel.
The vast majority of jobs cannot be done remotely. The HN crowd is heavily skewed toward programming / engineering jobs that can sometimes be done remotely. But overall, most jobs do require a physical presence.
Think "people care" (and all the ramifications or that: babies, children, sick, elders + everything around that). All people working in stores (unless we exclusively want online shops). Transportation of goods. Building, sanitation, construction. Any job that requires specialised equipment (like factories), ... .
The whole idea that we can transition to a society where people don't have to move to get to work is an illusion. COVID gave us a false glimpse because most activities were closed or significantly reduced, so it felt like people didn't need to get to work anymore but that's just because they simply did not work. And it was not sustainable on the long run. We made the - right IMHO - choice to subsidise their income, wether directly via stimulas checks, or indirectly by helping their employers, but all that was based on the bet/assumption that we would be able to resume "normal society" and we would be able repay the debt we incurred over the next years.
This is a discussion I've had with a number of folks.
To shift to a world of "mostly" remote work in reality means the smaller population of higher paid desk workers working from home, and everyone else having to commute to in person jobs.
Worse if companies don't adjust wages to match local rates (per the protests of many tech workers) we end up with deep income disparity between the remote workers and in person ones. Bringing many of the problems of a place like SF to all the other locations.
It feels like something has to give, or the society that results is awfully dystopian.
Think of how many people a big hospital employs, and how you'd need to organise living center if all of them had to have a reasonable living space within few minutes of commute. Now you need stores and restaurant there as well and the space to host the workers of these places too, etc. The only way is to build huge tower hosting tons of small appartements, kill all green areas to gain as much space as possible. People don't seem to like that idea that much.