Mistakes Were Made

Bought Sim City 4 last night, but was busy doing this and that and couldn't start playing until around midnight. Next thing I knew it was 4:00 AM and now I'm very tired. Impact on sleep aside, from an urban policy perspective, the game has several flaws and one hopes Sim City 5 will allow for mixed-use buildings (apartments with ground floor retail, etc.) and take some account of bicycling as a possible mode of transportation. At the same time, the game is curiously optimistic about middle class people's willingness to ride a bus to a subway station then take a subway then get on another bus and take that to work. Maybe when gas costs $20 a gallon, but in the real world I think people who aren't in desperate financial straights are only going to use transit if it's reasonably convenient.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/05/mistakes-were-made/44844/