Dude, get a Toyota. I refuse to bitch about gas prices. Gas was $5 a gallon in Norway when we were there thirteen years ago.

I don't think there is a single definition of "simplicity", and I don't think "simplicity" and wanting to make a smaller impact on the environment are interchangeable terms. A friend of ours decided to "simplify" so he gave away a bunch of stuff, sold his car, and moved to a smaller place. However, since most large towns/cities are not set up for people sans personal transportation, he then either had to spend hours a day on the bus or bum rides all the time. Just getting to work and doing basic errands became a half-time job; it didn't simplify anything.

Likewise, we could move closer into town but it wouldn't necessarily simplify our lives to have to deal with city traffic every time we had to go to the grocery store, or scramble for parking (which is all but nonexistant here), and it would be vastly more expensive than suburbia. Much as I dislike suburbia, even. Is there a happy medium between God's country and the city--approaching affordable but without the commute from Hell?