This doesn’t work as much on most of the west coast but any city which was big a century ago probably has nice railway suburbs which are walkable because they were built before the one person, one car assumption became the foundation of American urban design.
I think areas like that will see an uptick in interest from people who weren’t keen on an hour+ daily commute into a major city but are far more willing to consider it if you’re talking a few times a month.
Before we bought we looked around in a few cities and were really struck by the quality of life difference it makes when you drive occasionally but not by necessity. Even the younger residents in newer, pricier suburbs tend to pack on weight and health problems unless they’re absolutely rigorous about going to the gym and have the schedule to support it. The white-flight suburbs built in the decades after Brown v. Board are often actively hostile to a healthy lifestyle (no sidewalks, winding roads, transit happens in other zip codes).
Don't get me started on the folly of single-path, non-grid road planning. It's literally encoding the assumption "There will never be more than X people living here" into the city fabric.
And then in 10 years people wonder why traffic is so bad...
Exactly - and there’s a wicked cascade effect where people get angry that their commute which is “supposed” to take 20 minutes (i.e. 30) now takes 50, and feel that they’re allowed to speed and run stop signs to make up the difference. I stopped using Waze/Google Maps because the estimates are always wildly low and Waze tends to route you through roads which were never designed to be safe at the limit.
I think areas like that will see an uptick in interest from people who weren’t keen on an hour+ daily commute into a major city but are far more willing to consider it if you’re talking a few times a month.
Before we bought we looked around in a few cities and were really struck by the quality of life difference it makes when you drive occasionally but not by necessity. Even the younger residents in newer, pricier suburbs tend to pack on weight and health problems unless they’re absolutely rigorous about going to the gym and have the schedule to support it. The white-flight suburbs built in the decades after Brown v. Board are often actively hostile to a healthy lifestyle (no sidewalks, winding roads, transit happens in other zip codes).