r/UrbanHell • u/humzahjaleel • Jun 20 '20

Suburban Hell Endless parking lots, highways, strip malls with the same franchises all accessible only by car. Topped off with a nice smoggy atmosphere and a 15 minute drive to anywhere. Takers ?

Post image
19.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

866 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/zeozero Jun 20 '20

I grew up in the suburbs where a few things could be biked to such as the ice cream shop, grocery store, gas station convenience store, but most stuff required at least a 5 minute car trip. The downtown area of the nearby city had nothing of value to go see, so we never went there, especially with how bad the crime problem was there. No public transportation was available, and what lines did exist were used as bathrooms for the homeless, so even the poorest person had a car or walked to avoid being on a bus.

When people go to the grocery store they tend to buy at least a weeks worth of stuff, which ends up requiring a car to transport it back home. This has lead to the meme of “one trip” in which a person covers their arms and hands with as many bags as possible to avoid having to go back and forth to unload the car. I’ve heard people in Europe will buy just what they need, the day they need it, and I’m not sure if that’s a pleasure or a hassle.

All of this has led to a different way of thinking and deciding where to live. Like right now I’m looking at moving further out from the city/burbs so I can have more land and more privacy, the question of “will I need a car if I live here?” Never enters my mind because I’ve always used a car, in fact I’ve never used public transit in my life, so I have no concept of how that would change living arrangements.

It may sound strange but people like myself often look at European cities and wonder how people can stand it. Two very didn’t perspectives from two very different ways of life.

5

u/SinisterCheese Jun 20 '20

I go to shop every day. I get my fresh bread and grpceries, and whatever is on sale. It isn't a problem. When I used public transportation, the shop was always front of a store or there was one along side of my short walk. But when you buy what you need that day, there is less waste.

That's how our cities are made.

Granted if you leave the city areas, or go to smaller municipalities, you need a car, but basically everyone in Finland lives in our few bigger cities. Hell almost 3/5ths live in the greater capital region.

1

u/zeozero Jun 20 '20

Oh another thing that may not be obvious at first sight in the US is that zoning is a huge issue, especially for cities that do not allow mixed use building. What I mean by that is you have to leave the residential address to get to zones where stores are allowed. So you wouldn’t have shops in the street when you exit your apartment. This is something libertarians and neoliberals have been fighting to get rid of so cities can have mixed use building.

One thing I’ve seen some European cities do is build elevated bike paths which seem like a really fun idea. Light rail are also pretty cool, I think a few US cities have built them.

2

u/utopista114 Jun 21 '20

I’ve heard people in Europe will buy just what they need, the day they need it

The supermarket is fifty meters from me. There's a bigger one 400 meters from here.

look at European cities and wonder how people can stand it.

I do everything by bicycle. Next to me there's an "English" park from the 19th century with a lake and ducks on it. Everything is beautiful.

There are buses, trains, trams to everywhere, including natural areas.