America's most fuel-efficient neighborhoods, according to Forbes

Mainstream publications are falling all over each other trying to come up with new angles on gas prices and, in quite a few cases, how those prices are affected by, or are affecting, neighborhood choices.

In its new article on the subject, Forbes asked the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which has long worked with NRDC and other groups on the transportation efficiency of neighborhoods, to come up with good examples.  CNT delved into its vast database of transportation expenditures (car ownership and maintenance, gasoline, transit costs, etc.) per household per month and helped Forbes pick ten neighborhoods that are relatively cost-efficient for transportation:

• Brooklyn Heights, New York City (cost: $643 per month)
• Koreatown, Los Angeles ($658)
• Logan Square, Chicago ($742)
• Arlington, VA ($747)
• The Mission, San Francisco, ($746)
• Fishtown, Philadelphia ($674)
• Jamaica Plain, Boston ($728)
• Woodward Corridor, Detroit ($728)
• Greenville, Dallas ($745)
• Montrose, Houston ($760)

As the article notes,

“Energy usage can vary widely within the same market. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, the average household in the leafy urban neighborhood of East Isles, adjacent to Lake Calhoun, drives 9,420 miles per year and spends $620 a month on transportation costs. That compares to 21,684 miles per year in exurban Rosemount, where monthly transportation costs top $1,000. 

Read the explanations and view the gallery here.