The costs of sprawl for family budgets

Via the Sydney Morning Herald, The Oil Drum, and the NYT's Paul Krugman, we have this fascinating graphic of how, in Greater Sydney, Australia, families that live in the new developments that sprawl further away from the city center find that, as global gas prices rise, their gas (petrol) charges will take up an even greater percentage of their annual income than those living closer in:

I think the black areas there are the sea.  The percentages of annual income given there are based on the idea of a liter of gas costing AUS$1.50.

I think it would be handy if planners in some US cities could produce similar graphics...  That would help us understand that present planning norms in the US which-- as in Australia-- encourage sprawl that ends up forcing families into a deep dependency of private autos, need to change.

One of the problems with sprawled out habitation patterns like these is that even if people living in these widely scattered suburbs and exurbs want to use public transportation, it is extremely expensive to provide such services to communities that don't have a basic density of both population and transit ridership.

Long-distance bike-riding , anyone?