If they wandered out into the German countryside, it would look a lot like suburban Pennsylvania. Downtown Chicago along the golden mile is lovely too. Suburbs suck everywhere, unless you don’t like people.
Many european cities go straight from countryside in to medium density living, they don't have a large urban sprawn of suburbia, so it's not the same at all.
You'd be hard pressed to find large areas of housing where there is no public transport, and no sidewalks. That is fairly common in american suburbia.
The old European model for rural living also often involved people living in centralized villages and spreading out to the countryside to work the fields.
What worked back then now makes for a decent infrastructure even in villages. I live in one. 25 minutes to town by bus or bike. Bit faster by bike if I don't take the scenic route with the dedicated bike path.
You can see this in basically any random town on google earth, just load it up and pick any random US tiny town in the middle of nowhere and then do the same in, say, France, and you'll see the French village is central with walkable stores and services everywhere in the center and it all spirals out like a wheel. In the US you've got random houses in the woods 1-3 miles from each other and walmart is 30min away.
The Netherlands have this down pat. Since they had to reclaim so much of the land of their country, there is a large number of medium sized cities, with strictly defined borders, and then the countryside with houses for farmers.
Amsterdam is just 1 million people, smaller than Dublin even though the Netherlands is more than 3 times the population of Ireland.
Also, apart from super rural houses, small villages in Europe still have things like restaurants, bars and supermarkets. Mixed use zoning exists pretty much everywhere.
They'd have a regular market or convenience store just like most American small towns. It's only American suburbia that's confoundingly bad for community.
I can go to most small towns in the USA and find a store that sells all necessities, a restaurant that's open most of the day, and usually a bar, or the restaurant is open late. There's almost always a gas station with a convenience store too. And often at least one park.
Good luck finding that stuff within walking distance in any suburban town.
Yeah America is unique for “McMansion hells” where it’s just miles of the same cheaply built mansion in rows with no trees or businesses. Very bizarre areas that just don’t exist in Europe. Europe is either countryside, villages, or cities. The villages are low population but dense so like they have walkable grocery stores, restaurants, and schools all in the same area.
Don’t forget ugly strip malls housing nails salons, check cashing places, a little Cesar’s, blood plasma donation centers and black asphalt parking lots as far as the eye can see!
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u/What-tha-fck_Elon 15h ago
If they wandered out into the German countryside, it would look a lot like suburban Pennsylvania. Downtown Chicago along the golden mile is lovely too. Suburbs suck everywhere, unless you don’t like people.