example of how American suburbs are designed to be car dependent
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I find the folk in here defending car shopping, and maybe the people downvoting them are both missing something:
We can have both!
Nobody is suggesting taking away your cars. You want to drive? Go ahead! You have a disability or need to get $500 in groceries or just don’t like the heat? Go ahead and drive! That’s cool!
But look at it this way: if things are made more walkable and bikeable, people will have choices! And! That’s less people you have to fight in traffic or fight for a parking spot with! If you like to drive, you should love the idea of people being able to walk!
And if you’re a pro-walker, don’t shit on the drivers. They’re cool. They may legitimately need to drive or they may just like it. That’s great. They have the cash and that’s how they want to spend it. Good on em.
tl;dr: Just build this shit smarter so there are choices.
The thing is, they’re already built. I agree newer developments should be more walkable. But the already developed cities it would cost a shit ton and take years to make the city more walkable. A lot of voters just don’t want to deal with higher taxes and years of construction for a “choice” when they’re already comfortable with the status quo. And I don’t blame them.
But it's still cheaper than the alternative, so cost is a pretty dumb argument (though I am aware people make it).
The developed cities still invest money in infrastructure. Every year they expand roadways and change layouts to try to keep up with increased demand from an expanding population. But moving people away from cars, over to usable public transport, bikes and walking is way more effective at decreasing congestion and the infrastructure that's required is cheaper to build than car centric infrastructure.
And that's ignoring that roads require maintenance. Every time you resurface a large portion of road, would be a good opportunity to make that road more suitable for other means of traffic than just cars.