North America makes its cities catered to cars rather than people and then people spread out into suburbs. Then North Americans say they can’t make the cities suck less because the people are too spread out.
If you compare the population densities of mid-sized American cities, they’re not really all that different from Dutch cities that are famed for their bike, public transit, and pedestrian infrastructure. In fact, a lot of cities in the Netherlands as recently as the 70s looked like any old town USA with a bunch of mid-rises choked with cars going down the street. It was, AFAIK, about 20 years of consistent policy choices that changed it to the public transit mothership it is today.
What I mean to say is that our urban design is terrible. It didn’t used to be, and it’s an issue that impacts a lot of aspects of life in even smaller cities, not least of which is that it makes it far more expensive both for you and the city. We’ve arrived here by decades of consistent policy choices prioritizing cars over people, and we can get out of it through policy choices, too.
East Asia is full of small areas with a lot of people crammed into those spaces. North America is the exact opposite.
North America makes its cities catered to cars rather than people and then people spread out into suburbs. Then North Americans say they can’t make the cities suck less because the people are too spread out.
Urbanisation is actually much higher in North America
If you compare the population densities of mid-sized American cities, they’re not really all that different from Dutch cities that are famed for their bike, public transit, and pedestrian infrastructure. In fact, a lot of cities in the Netherlands as recently as the 70s looked like any old town USA with a bunch of mid-rises choked with cars going down the street. It was, AFAIK, about 20 years of consistent policy choices that changed it to the public transit mothership it is today.
What I mean to say is that our urban design is terrible. It didn’t used to be, and it’s an issue that impacts a lot of aspects of life in even smaller cities, not least of which is that it makes it far more expensive both for you and the city. We’ve arrived here by decades of consistent policy choices prioritizing cars over people, and we can get out of it through policy choices, too.
Here’s a really good primer on it from a really good channel if you’re interested: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa&si=RPLl3xnLSaFujsld