American here and that is completely, 100 percent true.
Almost every piece of infrastructure built in the US in the past century is built around cars. Every American is expected to learn how to drive a car at age 16, as soon as legally possible. Except in very large cities like NYC, it is considered “strange” or “a significant inconvenience” to not own a car.
For the vast majority of the country (both by land area and population) a car is required for commuting to work and almost anywhere else.
This culture also very much transferred to Mexico where we have the same issues. All infrastructure built in the past 50 years is built for cars. Horrible colonies (suburbs, if you wish) with 100s of 4 meter wide houses are chunked next to each other with no way to realistically get in or out without a car.
Where I live right now in Mexico I gotta drive about half a mile down a mountain to get to a small “convenience” store for a huge national store chain that only sells trash food, and if I want to get anywhere else I literally MUST drive for some 5 miles because there are no roads for pedestrians or bikes. The modern Mexican urban design is godawful and is hurting the country.
I live half-half in Canada too and there I live in the most expensive neighborhood of the most expensive city, not because it’s cool and trendy, but because they have the basic design of having stores around the corner. It’s still a car hell scape there but at least it’s a walkable hellscape where I can walk to the bakery etc…
American here and that is completely, 100 percent true.
Almost every piece of infrastructure built in the US in the past century is built around cars. Every American is expected to learn how to drive a car at age 16, as soon as legally possible. Except in very large cities like NYC, it is considered “strange” or “a significant inconvenience” to not own a car. For the vast majority of the country (both by land area and population) a car is required for commuting to work and almost anywhere else.
This culture also very much transferred to Mexico where we have the same issues. All infrastructure built in the past 50 years is built for cars. Horrible colonies (suburbs, if you wish) with 100s of 4 meter wide houses are chunked next to each other with no way to realistically get in or out without a car.
Where I live right now in Mexico I gotta drive about half a mile down a mountain to get to a small “convenience” store for a huge national store chain that only sells trash food, and if I want to get anywhere else I literally MUST drive for some 5 miles because there are no roads for pedestrians or bikes. The modern Mexican urban design is godawful and is hurting the country.
I live half-half in Canada too and there I live in the most expensive neighborhood of the most expensive city, not because it’s cool and trendy, but because they have the basic design of having stores around the corner. It’s still a car hell scape there but at least it’s a walkable hellscape where I can walk to the bakery etc…