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Americans on average do not want denser housing. It's not part of their culture, they don't see the point, they want a backyard, and they don't mind having to d

Americans on average do not want denser housing. It's not part of their culture, they don't see the point, they want a backyard, and they don't mind having to drive all the time. I'm pretty sure that even the people benefitting for the wealth cities produce would prefer not to live there, and I think the development of rich people's houses along the CT coast attest to that, they try to balance the wealth of the city and low density housing.

annoyingnoob 7y ago
I think you are right that a lot of Americans do not want dense housing. One thing we are missing, especially on the west coast, is good public transportation. Its not that I don't mind driving as much as that I don't have a choice. I'd love to take a train/subway to work or to the next town over or to the big city nearby - but those trains do not exist.
- cma 7y ago
  Are there buses?
  - annoyingnoob 7y ago
    In town, yes. Between towns, maybe/sort of/infrequently. I can drive to work in 15 minutes. The bus takes over an hour including 30 minutes of walking. There are no bike lanes between home and work, its possible to bike it but really not safe - I'd guess the bike would take about 40 minutes.
    - cma 7y ago
      I'd imagine if a larger percentage of people took the bus, there could be much more frequent buses and dramatically less traffic on the roads making for faster busses.
  - oefrha 7y ago
    I used to live in Palo Alto. There’s VTA (bus) and Caltrain. Stops are few and far between so getting to and from the stops are in and of itself a problem. Buses tend to arrive every 15 minutes (or longer) I believe? Pretty infrequent. And outside peak hours there’s usually like one Caltrain an hour, so missing one really sucks. I had a colleague who had to travel frequently between Stanford and Berkeley (slightly unusual); it’s a sub-hour drive, but easily takes ~3 hours or more via public transit. P.S. At least the Valley is fairly bike-friendly by U.S. standard.
    - taurath 7y ago
      Yup - and everything is 2 stories or less. Nothing gets built, not because of demand, but because zoning laws. There’s no reason other than the city of Palo Alto won’t allow tall buildings to be built - the less that is built the more wealth homeowners and real estate investors get.
      - bestnameever 7y ago
        > the less that is built the more wealth homeowners and real estate investors get. that's not the motivation of many people who don't want tall buildings. Many of them don't want them because they don't like living near them.
- nraynaud 7y ago
  I just moved back to France after living 2 years in Phoenix. You can't rely on public transportation, I don't want to wait for a freaking bus to go get milk. I want density enough that there will be a shop I can walk to. public transportation, is good for important planed travel like going to work, but not for small stuff like going to the pharmacy or the gym or going from shop to shop to find the couch of your dreams.
  - annoyingnoob 7y ago
    Where I live I can walk or bike to shops easy enough but getting across town is something else entirely.
- fiblye 7y ago
  Without dense housing, trains are just unfeasible. It'd take an absolutely massive network to spiderweb out into the vast suburbs of most cities and the costs would be beyond belief.

annoyingnoob 7y ago

I think you are right that a lot of Americans do not want dense housing. One thing we are missing, especially on the west coast, is good public transportation. Its not that I don't mind driving as much as that I don't have a choice. I'd love to take a train/subway to work or to the next town over or to the big city nearby - but those trains do not exist.

cma 7y ago
Are there buses?
- annoyingnoob 7y ago
  In town, yes. Between towns, maybe/sort of/infrequently. I can drive to work in 15 minutes. The bus takes over an hour including 30 minutes of walking. There are no bike lanes between home and work, its possible to bike it but really not safe - I'd guess the bike would take about 40 minutes.
  - cma 7y ago
    I'd imagine if a larger percentage of people took the bus, there could be much more frequent buses and dramatically less traffic on the roads making for faster busses.
- oefrha 7y ago
  I used to live in Palo Alto. There’s VTA (bus) and Caltrain. Stops are few and far between so getting to and from the stops are in and of itself a problem. Buses tend to arrive every 15 minutes (or longer) I believe? Pretty infrequent. And outside peak hours there’s usually like one Caltrain an hour, so missing one really sucks. I had a colleague who had to travel frequently between Stanford and Berkeley (slightly unusual); it’s a sub-hour drive, but easily takes ~3 hours or more via public transit. P.S. At least the Valley is fairly bike-friendly by U.S. standard.
  - taurath 7y ago
    Yup - and everything is 2 stories or less. Nothing gets built, not because of demand, but because zoning laws. There’s no reason other than the city of Palo Alto won’t allow tall buildings to be built - the less that is built the more wealth homeowners and real estate investors get.
    - bestnameever 7y ago
      > the less that is built the more wealth homeowners and real estate investors get. that's not the motivation of many people who don't want tall buildings. Many of them don't want them because they don't like living near them.
nraynaud 7y ago
I just moved back to France after living 2 years in Phoenix. You can't rely on public transportation, I don't want to wait for a freaking bus to go get milk. I want density enough that there will be a shop I can walk to. public transportation, is good for important planed travel like going to work, but not for small stuff like going to the pharmacy or the gym or going from shop to shop to find the couch of your dreams.
- annoyingnoob 7y ago
  Where I live I can walk or bike to shops easy enough but getting across town is something else entirely.
fiblye 7y ago
Without dense housing, trains are just unfeasible. It'd take an absolutely massive network to spiderweb out into the vast suburbs of most cities and the costs would be beyond belief.