What higher gas prices could mean for the future of transportation in the north

Abhi Kantamneniand his wife have lived in northern Ontario for three weeks and they're doing it without owning a car.

So far.

"It was actually one of the biggest things in the 'no column' when we were trying to decide if we were going to move up here to the north," says the 32-year-old.

"A lot of people told us we might have to end up getting a car."

The couple previously lived in Guelph and got around walking, biking and taking public transit.

Kantamnenisays so far he finds Greater Sudbury Transit suits most of their needs, but he wonders about the long run, especially with his wife beingin the skilled trades, where most of the work isn't along a bus route.

He says many other people in their 20s and 30smight not be as willing to try going car free in northern Ontario.

"We all want to live in a place where we feel a sense of community, work for a job in which we feel connected to what we're doing, but getting from where you live to where you're working" is a critical part of that decision, says Kantamneni.

Matti Siemiatycki, the director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, says this is a common feeling among millennialswho see a car as"something that is more like than appliance that you use when you need it, rather than something that is so core and central to your being."

But he says it's "not exactly clear" how that will play out in the long run, especially as most of this generation has yet to start having children.

Siemiatyckisays one of the big questions is whether transportation concerns in a place like northern Ontario will trump the rising cost of housing in larger cities.

"They're moving in some cases further out and commuting into the city and in other cases, giving up on city life entirely," he says.

But whether that outmigration from big cities will extend past where public transit runs is a looming question.

Toronto-based automobile industry consultant Dennis DesRosierssays there is a tipping point where gas prices and the other costs of owning a vehicle get so high that people move away from cars.

But he predicts that is still a long way off.

"If they increased the price of baby food, would you feed your baby less? No, it's a necessity. Well, in most parts of Canada, a car is a necessity. If you have a job, you have to drive to your job," says DesRosiers.

He says the next big move will likely be towards electric vehicles, but he says until the technology improves, in places like northern Ontario they'll only be for "believers and tree huggers."