From ancient Rome to modern Atlanta, the shape of cities has been defined by the technologies that allow commuters to get to work in about 30 minutes.

Key findings

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The Marchetti Constant is the idea that people have always been willing to travel about a half hour one-way from their home.

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The addition of streetcars made it so that people could travel further distances to work and not have to live in tenement housing in the inner cities.

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The greatest promise for matching technology to the modern worker has always been the idea of divorcing work from transportation entirely: telecommuting. Despite evidence to the contrary, employers remain skeptical of the productivity of remote workers.

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