Inaccessibility of countryside to city dwellers

It is a known fact that people only feel comfortable when they have access to the countryside, experience of open fields and agriculture, and access to wild plants and birds and animals; yet the growth of cities makes this increasingly difficult as continuous sprawling urbanization destroys life and makes cities unbearable. Consequently, countryside has become a mass phenomenon, but people do not have a access to the whole countryside, only to public footpaths, national parks and access agreement lands.

A Gallup poll in 1972 in the USA gave strong evidence that people living in cities need contact with the true rural land. The poll asked the question, 'If you could live anywhere, would you prefer a city, suburban area, small town or farm ?' It received the following answers from 1465 people: city 13%; suburb 13%; small town 32%; farm 23%.