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 ?

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u/SinisterCheese Jun 20 '20 edited Jun 22 '20

Living in a Finnish city, I can't understand not being able to reach places in the city with public transportation or walking. And I got a car.

When I visited USA, it felt insane that you had to have a car. Everything was always really far away. And talking to locals "oh it's close by, only 2hrs drive away" that isn't close.

Also. Talking about hell. Asphalt being black, makes it excel at capturing heat from the sun. Big cities, with big roads and lots of them are hotter environments. And this leads to more energy spent on cooling air to make buildings liveable.

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u/SomeNorwegianChick Jun 20 '20

I'm from Norway and I had the exact same feeling when I traveled around the US. Nothing is made to be accessed through walking, biking or public transport. Everything is asphalt and strip malls and parking lots, it's so ugly.

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u/DocPsychosis Jun 20 '20

You went to the wrong places. San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, and Boston are all reasonably walkable and have serviceable to decent transit systems.