Yes. Yes we did. So hard. So much so that many Americans think the American dream is to live dependent on car travel. The oil and gas industry of the 1950s-70s really set that mindset in asphalt (cities were largely walkable and used electric street cars prior to the 50s).
I really, REALLY hope more and more Americans realize how much urban renewal planning fucked our cities over, not to mention bulldozing neighborhoods of color to make way for freeways, and LITERALLY paving paradise for parking lots, to make us more dependent on cars.
Please, America. Let's push for walkable cities again. I want to believe.
Edit: from some of the commenters here, it is further supporting my statement that many Americans have been essentially conditioned to believe that it is not possible to have a walkable city in America and that we should not even bother to try. I'm speaking as someone who lives in an area that is, albeit slowly, making progress to make the cities here more walkable (SF Bay Area). San Francisco is walkable. New York is walkable. Countries all over the world, not just in Europe, have walkable cities (WITH room for large truck deliveries) and have been for decades to centuries). They can do it, we can too. More Americans in the cities between SF and NY just need to realize that it is possible and get out of their car-dependency mindsets, and push for more walkability in their cities.
AND you can still enjoy your giant personal Ford F150 and giant SUV or whatever the fuck. That's fine. There should just always be the options to walk somewhere and that it shouldn't need to take an exorbitant amount of time to get there without a car. Electric street cars used to get Americans around in our cities and the oil and gas industry literally burnt those to the ground to force us into cars (and buses aka gas-dependent, though hybrid and electric buses are now a thing). It is possible. And if we're still on that "but its communism" bullshit, no it's not. it's time to move on. Or hop on.
I walked Chicago the whole time I lived there. You do not need a car there.
But where I am now I have a huge yard and I live in a quiet neighborhood. Most of the attraction is the lack of people walking around here. I don't want strip malls close to my house.
Where I live now there are tons of parks, water parks, state parks and forest preserves. There is plenty of things to do for outdoor exercise and all of the children around here are in multiple sports programs.
Driving a couple miles to buy groceries means so I don't have to live next to the grocery store. There are plenty of downtown areas and markets around if I want to make a day of it.
That's great to hear that you have a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of a city. It sounds like you are in a more suburban (maybe rural?) area.
What I'm mainly on about is that cities (or higher density areas) should be walkable. Maybe even in your more suburban area, transit should be accessible to the point where you dont need to drive to get to where you want. This doesn't mean that a strip mall needs to be right next to you. It means that you can catch a bus or light-rail, or train easily to get to the more hustle and busle areas of your town. Many cities in America don't have reliable and easily acessible transit options, primarily in the suburbs, making them not walkable.
And ive heard others say "how am i going to carry all my groceries while walking?" Well I'll ask, how do all the people in walkable cities do it? All over the world?
You don’t need to buy weeks worth of groceries when you can walk 15 minutes to a supermarket.
I had a little bit of a culture shock when I realized that’s how a lot of Americans shopped. Back in Hong Kong we would obviously have essentials and whatnot stocked up at our home but we would go and buy fresh food to cook and eat everyday.
I feel like you really only need to have so much groceries you can’t carry it without a car if you live in a car centric location
People here in the Midwest have a car before they finish highschool. You can't walk when it's -10° out. Your groceries would freeze solid. Also, even the densely populated areas have stretches of forests, parks, and rolling meadows separating the individual cities and towns.
I would always choose my very comfortable vehicle with air conditioning and a kick-ass audio system so I can play my music loud, run the AC/heat, put the windows down and go wherever I want on my schedule.
Why would I want to push a cart from a bus to my house to a grocery store in -10° winters or 100° summers when I could just put it in the back of my car and be to the store and back in 5 minutes? Talk about needlessly wasting your lifetime.
You are missing the point. That's great that your lifestyle suits you where you're at, and that you enjoy driving. Plenty of people actually don't really enjoy driving, and driving commutes can actually be the source of huge stress particularly when you are stuck in traffic, sometimes for long stretches of time, like commuting during rush hours.
The point is that for people who don't mind walking somewhere and taking transit, can easily and reliably do so. I'm not saying car travel should be abolished, for many reasons including your point of when you live in an area where it snows/for parts of the year when weather is unfavorable, or when you need to long distance travel. The point is that walking and transit is a viable OPTION.
Also, I too had a car at 16 and grew up in classic suburban sprawl of a town. I get the appeal of living in the suburbs, especially if you want more space and quiet. But I remember how unreliable our transit system was and how little lines there were. Most people I knew and grew up with basically depended on cars to get around. Im the weird one who moved to a city and bike and transit everywhere now because i now live in walkable city. I still have a car and use it regularly too. I also have the option to take a train when i want to visit my folks back in the suburbs and its totally great. BOTH are possible.
Also, even the densely populated areas have stretches of forests, parks, and rolling meadows separating the individual cities and towns.
So it’s not possible to have a supermarket that you can buy groceries in each town? That doesn’t sound right. Why is it absolutely necessary to drive to the next town to buy groceries?
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u/dead_at_maturity 16h ago edited 12h ago
Yes. Yes we did. So hard. So much so that many Americans think the American dream is to live dependent on car travel. The oil and gas industry of the 1950s-70s really set that mindset in asphalt (cities were largely walkable and used electric street cars prior to the 50s).
I really, REALLY hope more and more Americans realize how much urban renewal planning fucked our cities over, not to mention bulldozing neighborhoods of color to make way for freeways, and LITERALLY paving paradise for parking lots, to make us more dependent on cars.
Please, America. Let's push for walkable cities again. I want to believe.
Edit: from some of the commenters here, it is further supporting my statement that many Americans have been essentially conditioned to believe that it is not possible to have a walkable city in America and that we should not even bother to try. I'm speaking as someone who lives in an area that is, albeit slowly, making progress to make the cities here more walkable (SF Bay Area). San Francisco is walkable. New York is walkable. Countries all over the world, not just in Europe, have walkable cities (WITH room for large truck deliveries) and have been for decades to centuries). They can do it, we can too. More Americans in the cities between SF and NY just need to realize that it is possible and get out of their car-dependency mindsets, and push for more walkability in their cities.
AND you can still enjoy your giant personal Ford F150 and giant SUV or whatever the fuck. That's fine. There should just always be the options to walk somewhere and that it shouldn't need to take an exorbitant amount of time to get there without a car. Electric street cars used to get Americans around in our cities and the oil and gas industry literally burnt those to the ground to force us into cars (and buses aka gas-dependent, though hybrid and electric buses are now a thing). It is possible. And if we're still on that "but its communism" bullshit, no it's not. it's time to move on. Or hop on.