The Wall Street Journal ran an “oh no, gas prices are too high” article on the Monday front page, but with an interesting twist:

The pain at the pump only intensifies a deeper problem for America’s low-paid workers: sprawl. In dispersed metropolitan areas like Tampa, the new jobs often are far from the affordable housing. Public transit isn’t a viable option because it isn’t keeping up with the growth. That leaves low-income workers with little choice but to shoulder the cost of a car — and, when the price of gas shoots up, to bear it.

The postwar modern American city was built on a foundation of cheap gas that allows even low-paid workers to drive to and from their jobs. Take away the cheap gas and the foundation begins to crack.

“We’ve always known that sprawl has a cost,” says Bruce Katz, an urban-policy analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “But now we’re seeing it, as a result of higher gas prices, in a visceral way.”

The article profiles Tampa, where an average household spends 23.2% of its income on transportation — more than they spend on housing. (The poorest 20% of Americans spend over 40% of their income on transportation!)