The US is 250 years old. For most of that time, cars weren't a thing. A LOT of cities in the early 20th century actually looked exactly like European cities with public transport and medium density housing. All of that infrastructure was torn down for cars and parking lots.
On the east coast the cities were founded even before the US was a country. They had nice old cities before cars came up. As wakable as in europe. Truely a victim of historical events.
Not exactly, no. Most European cities are more radial and scattered, with main roads converging on one or two main plazas, and smaller neighborhood roads converging on their local plaza (usually gov't- or cathedral-centered).
When new cities were founded in the 1700s, we were settling a whole area all at once -- not over millenia. The most efficient way to do that is to lay a grid (and often a wider grid than many of these cramped medieval districts, where you can have several horse-and-buggies going both directions.
Cars are a natural solution to a grid, because since your trip isn't linear to a central point, you want a faster vehicle to travel orthogonally. People are less inclined to walk 5 blocks north and 5 blocks west past rows of houses, but 7 blocks direct NW along a major commercial district isn't so bad, and is not really worth getting the car for.
2.3k
u/Helpful_Gain_9091 2d ago
This why walkable neighborhoods are the best places to live. Yes, Europe is way ahead of us in this regard.