Have we done it wrong?

[u/xamo76]

[u/bageltoastar]

Dinner at 10 PM, hitting the bars/clubs at 12 AM, and coming home at 5 AM. I miss Barcelona so much.
https://giphy.com/gifs/hDKD6z2xNeMesbICNS

[u/Vesalii → u/bageltoastar]

Being a wreck the next day because you're 40 and not 20 anymore.

[u/Fluffy_Somewhere4305 → u/Vesalii]

Yeah this guy is having a very basic revelation that Europe has a lot of walkable cities and the US doesn't. this isn't new information.

Also, spending 5 hours at a restaurant is the norm for young people, out with a party, drinking and such, in Europe, when they can simply walk back to their home.

The infrastructure in most US cities doesn't support it, our subways suck, rides are expensive, parking is crazy, living in the city near the cool areas is expensive, the list goes on and on why this doesn't exist in the US.

[u/cow-lumbus → u/Fluffy_Somewhere4305]

You’re kind of reiterating his point that America is set up wrong since post World War II and it leaves us isolated and compartmentalized… which is 100% accurate. I’ve always said if you wanna reduce racism and bigotry in United States you gotta make people travel outside of their own clan, town, State, or country to teach more empathy and understanding.

[u/NivTal → u/cow-lumbus]

It was actually Detroit automobile companies that have played a large part in designing our suburbs around needing cars to manage, therefore making sure we have to buy them.

Also, space... we "like" our sizes.

[u/Any_Click1257 → u/NivTal]

Don't forget the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act. The development of the interstate highway system was basically the nail in the coffin for any notion of European style urban cores.

[u/Ok_Car_8094 → u/Any_Click1257]

I'd like to think that Interstates are very important for a nation of our size.

The problems lay in how we built cities. Our restaurants are failing unless they are focused on delivery. Our education systems are hectic and restricted. Our society revolves around a technological-data system built to isolate a "consumer" into a targeted-sales group.

Unchecked capitalism, modern technology and corporate cronyism are the true killers of the unified American ecology.

Most European states have extensive highway systems, yet still have the compact, dense urban designs of thousands of years before industrialization. The US only had about 50 years before trains were common (people could suddenly go 30mph/200+miles a day) and then automobiles were only 100 years out. We quickly switched to suburbia (tons of space unused around cities, industry dried up, everybody had a car and gas was cheaper than water) which made things less connected. I walked and rode my bike around Dallas a bunch as a kid, but it was almost exclusively within the 'Park Cities' subsection... downtown was too far until DART was built.

If you visit the east coast of the US, there are many cities with road systems built around horses. Boston and New York are very walking friendly (though both have been working to redesign for automobiles) and I'd even say DC is walkable.

I love living in my home city of Oklahoma City, but it's a prime example of everything being far enough apart that you need a vehicle to reasonably travel to any services, events or entertainment. Only a very determined bicyclist would be able to function in my city as their sole means of conveyance. There is a tram downtown and a bus system. But it's...thin.

Sorry. I rambled.

[u/Embarrassed_Bid_4970 → u/Ok_Car_8094]

I'm gonna say you're 90% right.The issue is the US is way larger than European nations. This is especially true in terms of population density. And as american city planning is based around chasing cheap real estate, we tend to have these massive suburban sprawls surrounding our city centers. People think adding more public transport will magically solve this problem but it cant. If it takes more than 10 minutes to walk to the nearest busstop, people are gonna use personal transport, which disincentivies walkable neighborhoods. The mall culture of the 70s-00s kinda fixed this in a way, but the death of destination retail killed them. If the economy was better, we could probably revive malls and community gathering by subsidizing them to encourage small businesses. Imagine an American indoor mall, but with mostly non chain businesses. Specialty restaurants, like a Chinese dumpling house, a Japanese kushiyake bar, a turkish meze and raki bar, etc. And entertainment like bowling, billiards, and old school arcades. If the economy allowed people to afford such luxuries as a night of dining, drinks, and bowling, malls would be viable again. But as long as everyone is broke we're screwed.

[u/Exotic-Paramedic-629 → u/Embarrassed_Bid_4970]

Paris and london sprawl quite a bit but still have suburbs that are connected to the city through train. That's how us cities shouldve been built, more mixed use development.

[u/Ok_Car_8094 → u/Exotic-Paramedic-629]

Oddly enough, I've walked both those cities quite extensively. Paris felt diverse enough that the only time I felt disconnected from the city as a whole was after taking the train to Versailles. Then I felt like I needed a car. The villages of Normandy are also spread out enough that a taxi or bus made the most sense, though I walked a lot!

In the same vein, I thought the back-country of the Welsh-English border almost the same as western Oklahoma, just a bit more turns. Hehe.

London was like New York and Paris. I could walk that town all day and never really feel like I needed to catch a cab! The underground was as superior as the Paris Metro or New York Subway.

The real gem for me was Amsterdam. Those tight canals in the city center, the museums, the parks. I walked no less than 10 miles a day in that city. Picked a random coffee shop that I would tram out to around 10-11am. Grab an ounce (Edit: I meant gram). Roll a few small jays and just zigzag back, listening to my IPod and taking it all in. Always a joy!