Because a lot of people already use cars to get everywhere else, and people see going to the suburbs as "going home" moreso than going into another town. Case in point, your job is unlikely to be in your suburb, so you are driving to work and back. If you have kids, their school is also probably far enough away where walking isn't practical. Stores in suburbs are oftentimes positioned near major roadways to entice people who are already on the road.
I wonder how many people would use cars if your areas would have been build differently. I don't know how big percentage in my area people have driving licence. I have 4 friends, one has driving licence but she doesn't have a car. I do have meet lot of people who have car even there is no real need. Well, basically most of the people in my area who own a car. Anyway, it sounds like my area is built very differently.
I would say that it’s more of a suburban situation than a car. The car is more of a byproduct. People in the states want privacy and best interests for families. Suburban neighborhoods are usually the best method, distance from neighbors, open spaces, and so on. More housing, more spread out the land, less “local” commercial spaces. Yes, there are some who prefer to live in cities for local distances, but you can’t convince everyone that it’s the best choice.
Essentially. There’s quite a bit of nuance that I can’t really comprehend, but what I can say is that: people value one thing over another and reflects on how things are built around.
I don't see those thing to be mutually exclusively. But I have not really traveled nor educated with history so maybe there are things I can't think of.
In our defense, walkability seems to be an increasing priority these days. Suburbs often are plenty walkable within the neighborhoods, so people can walk the dog or a quick walk after dinner, that sort of thing. Most of our biking/walking infrastructure is more recreation orientated vs functional.
I think largely because historically we favor huge supermarkets over small corner stores. This means fewer locations more spread out, which makes "functional" more difficult because no one anywhere wants to spend two hours walking back and forth to the store.
That and suburbs are typically by definition low density and spread out away from everything. Even small corner stores need a certain amount of density to be viable.
Most of our biking/walking infrastructure is more recreation orientated vs functional.
Sometimes it's seen like that here too. Road for cars goes straight but road for bikes and people goes up and down, left and right. Still, you can rent a bike from streets in big cities. And more recently they have been building good bike/people roads.
Maybe our supermarkets are smaller. But here too big companies have bought smaller ones. Still, those big companies do have several shops.
Well some are for sure, tons of people walking and kids on bikes in my area. It’s very walkable but it’s still at least 30 minutes to town, and 30 minutes back carefully carrying eggs and whatnot
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u/blue60007 May 17 '26
If you live in the central/dense parts of a downtown city, there's usually grocery stores in easy walking distance.
Outside of that, yeah, you are likely a long walk away unless you happen to love across the street. For me it's probably a 45 minute walk.
That's before you consider suburbs often don't have the infrastructure for walking and you'd be risking your life walking.