Maybe not all, but there also aren’t really suburbs here anyways. The “suburbs” are their own mini cities which are also walkable with everything you need. I travel out there often for different things like unique shops.
Each little “suburb town” has a train station which is usually directly connected to the city center
Edit: the suburbs here are usually a bit less dense though, with plenty of row houses and a some single family homes (close together). Still far more compact than the US though.
I do live in a particularly good country (Netherlands), which is definitely worth noting, but I think my experience in lots of traveling helps that I’ve never been limited in where I can go
Very true! I’m positive that there are places that don’t fit my experience — but I think the majority does seem to match, at least in the places I’ve been (most of the popular Western European countries)
Density of the entire country is not super relevant — the vast vast majority of travel is within a city or two away from where you live.
I’m not saying that nobody should ever drive, and if you have a long ways to go between obscure locations it totally makes sense to drive.
But if the US optimized for the 99% of trips that people make, within 30 miles of where they live, then it just comes down to regular urban planning where density can be “whatever you design”.
But yeah this is specific to cities and suburbs, I’m not trying to imply anything about people who live further out or who are making far-away trips.
If your household only needed one car for the monthly trips to grandmas or out for camping in the wilderness, and you didn’t need to drive at all around your city, that would still be a huge win for Americans today. Especially those with kids who depend on the parents for transportation by car.
The 30 miles on each side of most people in the US includes a lot of open space.
NYC isn't 30 miles east of me. There are rural farms only a few miles west. This is representative of the edge of the most dense metro region in the US.
That's the density argument. Belgium and the Netherlands are 10X more dense than the US in aggregate. That 10X makes things wildly different and it tells you how relatively frequent cities and suburbs are there vs here.
The US does optimize for our open space. We have car infrastructure.
Each little “suburb town” has a train station which is usually directly connected to the city center
Edit: the suburbs here are usually a bit less dense though, with plenty of row houses and a some single family homes (close together). Still far more compact than the US though.
I do live in a particularly good country (Netherlands), which is definitely worth noting, but I think my experience in lots of traveling helps that I’ve never been limited in where I can go