The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology has generated great buzz about their new Abogo tool, a simplified version of their Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that allows people to calculate the average amount they would spend on transportation if they live in a certain area. The tool also crunches another sobering number: how much CO2 they produce due to their transportation.
Try Abogo: Type in any address in a major metropolitan area in the U.S. and get your estimate, based on the cost of car ownership, car use, and public transit use in an area.
MPC has long been a fan of the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, which recently was adopted by the State of Illinois as a planning and investment tool for making development decisions that are good for our communities and our pocketbooks. While Americans traditionally consider housing affordable if it costs 30 percent or less of their income, the H+T Affordability Index, in contrast, offers the true cost of housing based on its location by measuring the transportation costs associated with place. The index also is helping the federal government redefine "affordability," one of the major goals of the Obama administration's Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which is supporting more sustainable, economically competitive communities by coordinating policies and investments in housing, transportation, and the environment.