> But the reason we find them convenient is that, at least in most of the US, cities are built for cars. A subtly better way to frame this is to say that Ameri

> But the reason we find them convenient is that, at least in most of the US, cities are built for cars. A subtly better way to frame this is to say that American cities were destroyed for cars. Streetcar tracks were ripped up. Roads were widened at the expense of sidewalk. Neighborhoods were demolished and replaced with parking lots, freeways, and car dealerships. Many municipalities stopped maintaining their core inner cities and bet the house on big-box stores on the outskirts. It cost hundreds of billions of dollars collectively to subsidize the car in the U.S., which had the side effect of cannibalizing passenger rail and metropolitan transit, as well as building places that are prohibitively dangerous to cycle or walk in. One illuminating exercise is to find photos of Houston from the 1920s and compare them to the 1970s. You would think that someone had carpet-bombed the city.