Whether this works or not depends a great deal on the size and geography of the city you're talking about. Where I grew up outside of Seattle, we could get from our very suburban home in Bellevue into downtown Seattle in about 20 minutes, close to your range. Where I live now in London, on the other hand, it takes 45 minutes to get into the center and I would still consider my zone very urban, with few or none of the benefits (space, isolation, safer neighborhoods, etc) that suburbia brings.

When I have children, I fully intend to move back into the suburban ring around a mid-sized city where I can regain those benefits without cutting myself off from civilization entirely.