As a European, I knew Americans have been asking for walkable cities but i had no idea it was literally this hostile
WHERE DO YOU WALK YOUR DOGS!?!
lol yeah
Its to the point where most Americans can’t conceive of a walkable community because everywhere is like this and several generations have now grown up in a world like this. There’s hardly anyone that can conceive of a world that isn’t like this. Most people either cave in and get a car or end up isolated. I live in a city that’s mostly walkable by North American standards and I still end up walking in the dirt on the edge of a stroad a lot of the time.
And don't forget, we can't get decent public transportation either.
The other symptom of the car-centric design is that everything is spread out to make it a comfortable driving distance. If everything is right next to each other, that makes the car traffic there really congested. So things--EVERYTHING--are very spread out.
Would more people walk or bike if there were good bike lanes? Probably, but that's really only addressing one (VERY IMPORTANT!!!) part of the effects of car-centered design on USAmerican cities. The other thing is that stuff has to be close enough to you to be able to walk or bike there. That requires zoning reform.
USAmericans don't drive everywhere because we're lazy or we can't stand the heat/cold or because there's hills or because we're unmitigated car-lovers. Like, any of those things may be true for any given USAmerican. But the real reason we don't walk anywhere is because we can't. Like, not only is it a 4-8 mile (6-13km) round trip in whatever weather or terrain (maybe that's not a lot? But it seems like a lot to me), there's also no sidewalks, high speed limits, huge cars with massive hoods, horrible sounds and smells, no shade, and nowhere to sit down on the way. If you have a wheelchair or stroller/pram or other wheeled thing of some kind, it's even more difficult. Theoretically it's possible to get around your average USAmerican city by walking, and realistically many people have to, but these places are really, REALLY not built for that; and practically speaking, if you have ANY other option, you don't walk.
But yeah, by this time, most USAmericans can't imagine things being any other way. I didn't understand all the hype around walkable cities and public transit until a few years ago when I watched this video essay that was like, here's what you could have instead. A nice walk where you're outside and it doesn't suck and you don't have to sit in traffic. It was like a light went off in my head 😅 but a lot of people here just are never exposed to that and don't know what they're missing, plus they're inordinately scared of street crime, and there are the massive car and fuel lobbies in the mix, too. It's an uphill battle making this country more friendly to humans :/
