My first thought is who walks barefoot on asphalt? I did a google search for black concrete driveway and there are alot of good examples.
This one is nice {{gwi:1483274}}

Concrete with exposed aggregate can look historic. It depends on the color of the concrete, the color of the stones, the size of the aggregate, etc.

{{gwi:1483275}}

I was going to suggest an exposed aggregate concrete. You can use whatever color aggregate you like. It looks great I think. We ended up doing an integral stain in the concrete of our driveway (french gray) with a bluestone apron. We had to have a stone apron per ARB guidelines and there were limited stones that looked good with our house.

I am happy with how it turned out and it was much less expensive than an aggregate driveway. I have always heard asphalt is much less expensive than concrete. . . is that not the case where you are?

I wanted to do the aggregate, but dh convinced me that it was not a good idea with frequent snow plowing.

Was he just yanking my chain??

Dlm2000a-what do you mean by a permeable surface? Are you talking about rock or something like that?

I live in NE Ohio, and one of my biggest concerns would be plowability, too. I don't see how aggregate could be useful when for 4-5 months of the year, a plow will go over the surface. Especially since the driveway will be long - you just can't do that with a snow blower.

I've seen both concrete and asphalt. Personally I think concrete looks nicer and I see concrete in many of the more expensive homes on the east side, but I suppose it's just opinion.

Do whatever is the cheapest on the approach and save the pretty stuff for immediately adjacent to the home.

Our GC and DH wanted to do concrete. I wanted asphalt. Like the look more out in the woods. But they won, since asphalt is a wearing surface and would need more maintenance in the future. We did a stained concrete, ochre

Our POA requires asphalt or black concrete at the street for X yards to mimic asphalt (it's more dark gray than black). Black is more expensive to do - takes more to color darker.

The price of asphalt is tied to oil, and it was more 7 years ago when we did ours. Price wasn't the deciding factor, but we priced both at the time.

@ red_lover - permeable surface is anything that can allow water to drain through, unlike asphalt or concrete where it has to run off. Pavers, bricks, turf (where the grass grows through or around a hard surface in a grid or pattern) are types of permeable surfaces. Our neighbors added a parking apron with very large flagstones. With crushed limestone in the joints it's a permeable surface.

Ok--gotcha. Thanks. Love the pavers.