In America most everyone can afford a car and most families have many and the roads are generally excellent. People have large homes single family and prefer less density and the country is more than large enough to support this. Most people don't want to live in cramped quarters, on top of each other, and having to take mass transit. Not everyone wants a NYC lifestyle. I can't understand why a small minority of people are so intent on convincing people that living in stacked boxes with a walls separation to whoever, with communal spaces for outdoor space, and mass transit, is a better life.
I think globally nearly everyone would prefer to have a single family home with a private yard and with automobiles for getting around in most cases. I'd agree train access into the big city for a day out is nice. But most "big cities" aren't big enough or dense enough to require them.
You make the wrong conclusion from a correct observation. "Most people prefer X" does not imply that there is enough not-X.
Housing is particularly expensive in dense cities. That's the market's way of saying that Americans want more dense cities than there are currently available.
Housing has always been expensive in cities. But the vast majority of people don’t want to live in them. The proof is how people left the cities after WW2 because technology made suburban living viable.
Of course some people want to live in the city. I did for years and paid good money for a prime address. But like hundreds of millions of people I don’t now because priorities change.
I think I’m far from alone from in preferring car-free urban living if the cost of housing were even close and if the schools were as good (they are in a few places! But the cost of housing…)
I don’t like cars and sprawl. That’s not why I “choose” them.
Exactly, you want space and a community that shares your values. And car ownership makes that possible and you’d rather that than the trade off. This is how most people feel.
I agree with you, but it is an unpopular opinion here. Many commenters either fancy themselves to be city planners or take a "tragedy of the commons" view of infrastructure. The latter is not wrong ... but it doesn't mean we all want to live in stacked boxes.
I think a plurality of people here are single and young and can’t possibly imagine not living in a city with all the social advantages and lifestyle perks being in one has. I did too when I was younger.
But you quickly find there are better options when you want certain things and have options.
Amusingly the unpopularity is almost universally originating from the same young white upper middle class suburb childhood people. Something pathological about rejecting their parents lifestyle rather than anythign to do with urban planning.
Private transit is universally superior to public transit, which is why the take rate of the former to latter correlated with things like income.
I think globally nearly everyone would prefer to have a single family home with a private yard and with automobiles for getting around in most cases. I'd agree train access into the big city for a day out is nice. But most "big cities" aren't big enough or dense enough to require them.