I'm not sure if Americans in general are more aware of zoning and planning [speaking as a non-American], but maybe an intuitive conception of a city as a set of functionally separated areas is more prevalent there, because many/most of their cities are shaped by modernist ideals to a much greater degree than many European cities (to an extent that there are essentially _no services_ in many suburbs besides a primary school and a gas station, and city centers, on the other hand, are largely devoted to office buildings).

Your average American is likely to only be familiar with zoning as a thing that exists. You can travel about and notice that some areas have homes, some areas have businesses, and that's about it.

Those who live in rural areas will be a little bit more familiar- it is not impossible to buy some farm land while working with the local municipality governments to re-zone from agrigultural use to residential use, so that you can build a home there.

The notion that commercial can be split into "light" or "heavy" or that industrial can be split from commercial at all probably isn't something the average person has much awareness of, even intuitively.

Interesting, so some awareness of the concept of "zoning" but not particularly fine grained. Thanks for clarifying!