Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

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And, before people start saying "you don't understand, America is so big, we need cars," well, that's only true when you're talking about farmers and rural residents.

In reality, most Americans live in cities and suburbs, concentrated on the costs and in the Midwest, with urbanization only increasing over time.

In other words, most people in the US already live in areas where there is sufficient density and short enough distances to live in a place where maybe you need to own a car but you shouldn't necessarily need to use the car for every type of trip.

There are suburban designs emphasizing single family homes that can still accommodate a lifestyle that isn't using a car for every type of trip, but North America has simply not developed that way.

Development in North America goes wildly beyond just accommodating cars, it instead actively designs in hostility toward pedestrians, cyclists, and generally having the chance of using anything but a car for getting around. Features like:

- Winding suburban developments separate themselves from the main street grid to eliminate thru traffic, but that also makes walking/cycling out of the development impractical by extending travel distance

- Stroads [1] and big box developments make it unsafe/impossible/impractical to walk to businesses that are right next door or otherwise in the same development, never mind crossing the actual street.

- Transit system design and schedules that emphasize downtown travel during bankers hours.

[1] https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/3/1/whats-a-stroad-...

I don’t know about needing, but the only place I actually preferred not owning a car was NYC, and I wouldn’t want to live there now that I have kids.

I think a lot of people just prefer to live in their own house with their own yard where they can’t hear their neighbors. And those people prefer to travel in private transport that can hold a few kids and is protected from the weather.

I agree with that sentiment, but I think you can have your own space and the conveniences of the suburbs and also live in a suburb where you don't need your car for every trip.

Regarding yards and noise: you can have a yard and a garage and a separated house without having winding suburban sub-developments that chop off walking access to businesses and attractions. In my opinion, the best kind of suburban neighborhoods are connected to the normal street grid. Instead of depending on the elimination of thru traffic to keep the street quiet, the street design itself calms traffic (relatively narrow streets, frequent stop signs, and street-parked cars naturally slow traffic to around 25mph).

A great example is Lakewood, Ohio. It's an inner-ring suburb with a diverse set of income levels where most kids walk or bike to school [1]. You can take a Bus Rapid Transit service or train to downtown.

Families that live there generally own two cars and a detached home just like the deeply car-dependent suburbs, and they'd probably drive to the grocery store and often drive to work, but people there don't need to use their car for every single activity like going out to restaurants, bars, parks, school, etc.

There are also a number of apartment complexes, duplexes, and quad-plexes that provide a diverse housing stock, so it's not just a single family home suburb (enforced by restrictive zoning) where a specific type of homeowner is catered to.

[1] https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-lakewood-ohio-walking-...

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