Streets are dangerous because of cars zipping around. Cars contribute to air pollution quality (until electrified) and noise quality.

So, you ban cars from streets and allow only pedestrians and cyclists. Next, you allow local amenities to pop up so you don't feel the need to get a car out.

The suburban pattern of development as it currently exists isn't the only way to facilitate the quality of life you're looking for.

When are US cities going to ban cars? My guess is 0-2 in the next century.

You can't ban cars before you have the infrastructure and commercial resources to replace what cars were used for.

Even electrified, tires shed loads of nasty particulates.

And at higher speeds make a good chunk of the noise, too.

Nearly all studies regarding suburban vs. urban streets have shown that suburban streets have significantly higher rates of child deaths and injuries than urban streets.

Probably because kids dont play outside on urban streets at all, it'd be an instant death sentence

Nah some people do. I saw a lady who was letting her infant crawl across an urban road. She gave me the death glare because her child decided to crawl out from underneath a parked vehicle right in front of me and I was only able to avoid it at the last minute because I wasn't expecting crawling babies to pop out from underneath a parked car.

Just absolutely untrue. Cars on my street drive at 20 because of all the speed bumps. Even if a kid got hit it wouldn't be a death sentence. And guess what, they don't, they just move out of the way when a car comes.

Out of curiosity (I do not know the answer), is there a study on the percentage of time that children spend playing outside in urban vs suburban vs rural areas?

I guarantee you children in (european) urban areas go out more because there are more children and places to play with.

In suburban hell what are you supposed to play with? And with whom? The only other two kids on the street?

There are constantly kids in my area out and about, playing or on their way to play. I'm not sure what kind of wasteland you thing the suburbs is, but lots of children are within walking distance of each other.

> Like cleaner air, safer streets, less traffic and a better place to raise a child and/or dog with backyards and privacy.

So, like in European cities.

I don't have to try that hard with google maps to find places in Europe that look just like suburbs of the US.

And I grew up in Germany all my life and live in the US now. Maybe "places like suburbs in the US" do exist, though I doubt they are as restricted as the suburbs I'm seeing here, and that you can recognize their nature from a quick Google Maps glance.

But in any case, it does not change the fact that I grew up in a big city, with, as listed above, "cleaner air, safer streets, less traffic, a better place to raise a child and/or dog with backyards and privacy", and that that was common all around me. Children, me included, played on the streets. It's literally called a "Spielstraße", and they are very common. We just walked over to school, too, maybe took the bus for a few stations.

I've been living in the US for close than a decade now, and it's markedly different. I don't blame the US, I just hate zoning with a passion. I so miss living in a nice area in the city and being able to walk over to a small supermarket, a café, a barber, within the same area. Just live my life, without having to hop into my car and make it a journey for every tiny thing. It's so isolating here.

These news give me hope.

> I've been living in the US for close than a decade now, and it's markedly different.

For what it's worth, the US is huge. I've lived in a number of places around this country, and I can't generalize much of anything between them. This is probably why I love suburbia and you hate it. My neighborhood is awesome and sounds just like you describe your ideal neighborhood to be. It's also suburban by any definition.

Sometimes I wonder if people just assume that all of the US has Midwest-style tract housing that sprawls for miles, or if we're all like California, etc. It's so variable, and the generalizations unhelpful (but hilarious).

Right, so I guess your city does not have the zoning laws that I'm lamenting here? I even specifically wrote "I don't blame the US, I just hate zoning laws with a passion".

> I so miss living in a nice area in the city and being able to walk over to a small supermarket, a café, a barber, within the same area.

So what’s stopping you? Move to the downtown area of any decently-sized city. You make it sound as if such areas don’t exist at all in the US.

Did you read the rest? There are significant differences between the typical downtown area of a US city, and what I was describing. In my experience, downtown is not exactly where children get to play on quiet streets.

But it is true that I don't know every larger city. So if there is a city where the zoning laws I'm lamenting do not apply, great, let's have that in California as well, please.

Post a couple photos of what you’re describing and I’ll show you some similar areas in the US then.