Today’s The Washington Post has published an article describing the difficulties that thousands of Washingtonians on the exurban periphery have getting broadband Internet access. Staff Writer Amit R. Paley quotes one woman as saying, “My husband is just screaming his brains out because it’s so slow,” she said. “It’s killing us. It’s absolutely killing us.”
My reaction: Duh! What did you expect?
A remarkable number of people who move into the exurbs, with their low taxes and low cost of housing, bring with them an expectation of an urban level of services. It just doesn’t work that way. Not only does scattered, disconnected, low-density development make transportation expensive to provide, it makes utilities expensive to provide, too.
The Post quotes Steve E. Collier, vice president of emerging technologies at the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, as saying that subsidies from the federal government probably will be needed to ensure that high-speed Internet access extends to the most far-flung parts of the country. The Post doesn’t quote anyone mentioning the obvious alternative: If broadband is really important to you, don’t move to the stinkin’ exurbs! Or if you do move, don’t expect everyone else to subsidize your poorly planned locational decision!!