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Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by rayiner on Sunday February 07, 2016 @05:04PM (#11055124)
Suburbs are highly segregated economically and racially. I grew up in the Northern VA suburbs and didn't meet a black person until middle school. Suburbs also make kids totally dependent on their parents to get to activities, friends, etc. Finally, suburbs are incredibly dangerous. The #1 cause of death for teenagers is car accidents. Your 15-19 year old is a lot safer in the city than driving around the suburbs.
Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by abalashov on Sunday February 07, 2016 @07:04PM (#11055661)
Suburbs also make kids totally dependent on their parents to get to activities, friends, etc.

Yes! And the deleterious effect of this is underappreciated and understated. It's not just a convenience and logistical issue; it materially alters the nature and quality of the connection one has with surrounding society, and leads to _different kind_ of social relations over time.

Kids cannot "be kids" when their life lacks social spontaneity (and in fact, there is some question about adults being adults as well), when their life is a directed graph and a collection of automobile vectors, subordinated to the rhythms and whims of their parents to drive them.

As a child, I did not immediately understand this paradigm shift as I underwent it, which led me for years to struggle with this great, nonarticulated malaise for which I had no name. It's only with the benefit of hindsight that I understand that I was unable to cope with living "nowhere in particular", which suitably describes 90% of inhabited areas in the US, including places that are notionally urban. Much of DFW should be reclassified as a rural area.

Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by matwood on Sunday February 07, 2016 @06:00PM (#11055404)
Not all suburbs are created equal? I grew up in a suburb and only had to be driven to school (took the bus). My friends mostly lived in the same neighborhood and roughly 1/2 were black. The burb also gave me a lot of freedom. The only rules were not to cross the highway on one side or the rather large river on the other. There was a closed down school nearby along with a lot of parks so we had ample space for sports.

Maybe you just don't like affluent, segregated suburbs?

Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by abalashov on Sunday February 07, 2016 @07:12PM (#11055691)
New vs. old might also be a factor. I live in Atlanta and detest virtually all Sun Belt development in the last few decades because it's so spread out.

The suburbs in the Rust Belt, in places like South Bend, IN (where I spent my elementary school years), or Buffalo, NY, are a lot more dense and palatable in this regard. I'd still dislike living there, but it's a far cry from living truly, honest-to-god in the middle of nowhere in places like ATL, DFW, PHX...

Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by yompers888 on Monday February 08, 2016 @02:51AM (#11056851)
None of ATL, DFW, or PHX can honestly be described as the middle of nowhere. Perhaps "middle of nowhere" is just your strongest verbal condemnation of a location, but using it as such dilutes the quality of discussion by robbing it of precision.

On a separate note, ATL, DFW, and PHX are all awful to me as well, but that's because of the life-draining sprawl, not because they're sparse. I fear for the future of housing every time I have a window seat in or out of ATL looking at those developments.

Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by zasz on Monday February 08, 2016 @03:53AM (#11057049)
Er, sprawl is sparse. Sprawl is practically by definition 'low-density.'
Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by CM30 on Monday February 08, 2016 @01:35PM (#11059960)
Maybe it's different over there in the US, but as someone who lived in a lot of surburban places in the UK and other parts of Europe... well, they're not all that different from the standard town or city here. Perfectly possible to get around without a car, with a decent high street, various transport connections and a bunch of nearby activities for kids and families. You could (theoretically) live and work in these areas while relying solely on public transport.

Yet despite this, I'd say that the decline in the number of kids and young people driving is a fair bit less than it seemingly is in the states.

Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by tptacek on Monday February 08, 2016 @01:44PM (#11060026)
It is very different in the US. US suburbs were designed around the automobile, and their original raison dêtre is to be accessible only via car: they were sited just far enough by from the nearest urban area (or adjacent suburb) to allow predominate free-standing houses with yards.
Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by rayiner on Monday February 08, 2016 @04:33PM (#11061041)
"Suburb" has shades of meaning here in the U.S. too, but I think most people think of the sprawling new city suburbs when they use the term. When I lived in New York, I lived in a small suburb, but we had a cute little downtown and regional rail access to New York City. We rarely drove there. But most U.S. suburbs are not like that. They're like my parents' suburb in Virginia: where you can't really even leave the cul-de-sac on foot because you quickly hit a major road with no sidewalks.
Re:Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans by MisterBastahrd on Sunday February 07, 2016 @07:16PM (#11055709)
Kids who go to schools in the suburbs tend to be a hell of a lot more integrated than their urban counterparts.