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Not everywhere has a transit district. NYC transit is operated by MTA, which does not operate into the suburbs, with the exception of commuter train service to NYC. In the suburbs, the buses are run by either county or town-run systems. Then, and now, where I grew up is not served, and would have meant an hour(+/-) walk to board a bus to go to, I dunno, a mall or something.
I'll point out the lack of bus service is a feature of mainly outer NYC suburbs, more or less "charity service". The first house I lived in had ok bus service (up and the length of Rte. 110 a few minute walk away, frequency every half hour). In much of Nassau County, there is regular usable bus transit, probably similar in quality to the RTD, judging from the ridership, maybe higher as trains are used for all center city trips and buses only for local trips. I remember visiting a parent's friends house in Nassau County for Easter. They lived on a secondary road and buses were regularly going down the road (on Easter!).
It's just not practical to have decent bus service in the outer NYC suburbs.
Less convenient than what? Is that a deal breaker for where one lives? That it be within walking distance of a world class museum?
No, I never said that.
It makes it harder to get places if you have to rely on rides from others. I'd say it's close to a dealbreaker to be unable to get around anywhere without a car on your own.
Parents would have to be home to provide it. It certainly can no longer be assumed that there's a stay-at-home parent. Lots of people have taken 2nd jobs to stay in their house, as well.
My folks each had one job, but both usually worked Saturdays as well the rest of the week.
People in rural areas are much more likely to spend time with their neighbours than those in urban areas. Residents of suburbs exhibit the lowest level of neighbourliness.
I don't know about that article, though I of course, have used "The Economist" to support my own ideas at times. The article mixes socializing with politics and seems kind of disjointed. Anyway, the premise of nei's post has not been my experience in the suburbs. My experience with "the city" was that there was very little socializing with the neighbors.
That's fine, just don't think those who say otherwise are making this stuff up.
Curious: How many years total did you spend in cities? Were the neighborhoods mostly like the college one in Pitt where you lived?
I don't think I have ever accused anyone of making stuff up, although some have accused me of doing so. I was 4 years in Pgh and two in Denver, plus 7 in Champaign-Urbana, IL which was a small city environment. The neighborhood in Denver and some of the neighborhoods in C-U were residential. Champaign is a college town with lots of people also working for the U of IL living there. The neigbhorhoods in Pittsburgh were college, and in one case, more residential.
I've never been to Detroit, but I'm pretty sure its buses do not extend pass the city line. I know that Columbus, Ohio's buses do not extend that far out (except for one-way Am/Pm commuter service). I recall the same about the Tampa area.
I know Detroit has some service out in the suburbs. I think they were planning some service reductions, and some of them entailed ending service at the city line and having riders transfer to Detroit buses to get to the center city. (I heard the whole situation with transit out there is pretty bad, with tons of buses breaking down and going missing and all that).
Richmond, VA has no bus service beyond the city limits, except for bus express lines that run a handful of times a day during the week for commuters. Rochester, NY and Buffalo both had pretty good service, but the burbs weren't well covered (express routes were used for commuters outside the city limits too). I do know that unless you are living on a main route in the burbs, it could be quite a distance to the closest bus route. In my experience, surburban bus routes stick close to major commercial corridors, but because of low density, you could be two miles+ from the closest stop. The inner ring suburbs are obviously easier, however (depending on the timeframe they were built).
I think the larger cities (e.g. Chicago, NY, Philly, etc.) have better suburban coverage because of congestion amongst the high population, but I'm sure there are other factors.
Less convenient than what? Is that a deal breaker for where one lives? That it be within walking distance of a world class museum?
I'm not sure why all the focus is on "world class museums". More importantly, I think the conversation is geared toward freedom to access a variety of amenities without reliance on the automobile, whether it be parks, friend's houses, stores, arcades, restaurants, or the occasional museum. Some suburbs allow for access through connection to adequate transit or proximity, but many do not.
For some people not having access to these things without an automobile is a deal breaker (it is for my family); for others, they prefer to use the automobile or that's all they know.
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