Let’s make suburbs into cities: New urbanism, car culture and the future of community

[NYC_SKP]

1. I see improvements happening, but these are the exception to the rule.

The car culture and big box stores are still the main driver to development, it seems.

People are still resisting walkable neighborhoods where one doesn't need to have a car for every single purchase or service.

They clearly resist public transportation, too, and high speed rail.

Yet traffic grows worse every year.

In high school years, my town had five or six dedicated and independently owned bike shops.

One by one they disappeared, to be replaced by a three, all at the other end of the city in the newer suburbs.

Where I see the improvements is in the most expensive cities, like Sunnyvale, where multi-use development is occurring: residential floors above a commercial street level.

There's less need for cars, except that most of the residents still drive to work and often one or two cities over. I'm not sure if they care about the mixed-use model or not, or support public transportation.