Majority of Americans live in Suburban or Urban environments?

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

We know that about 80% of Americans live in metropolitan areas but i am wondering if most of us live in a urban or suburban environment?

Urban: Dense and walkable, mostly is large cities, the streets are mostly a grid pattern, may be the older parts of small towns, many suburbs could also qualify.

examples -
Saint Paul
Minneapolis
Robbinsdale (example of a urban suburb)

Suburban: Spread out and car dependent, mostly on the outskirts of the metro area, street grid looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

examples -
Naperville IL
Naperville

I am moving from a suburban environment (Virginia Beach) to an urban one (Norfolk)

[abqpsychlist]

I've heard Albuquerque described as "a giant suburb to a city that doesn't exist" and there are a ton of other cities that fit that description also.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by abqpsychlist

I've heard Albuquerque described as "a giant suburb to a city that doesn't exist" and there are a ton of other cities that fit that description also.

Maybe in the Southwest, in the rest of the country the pattern seems like dense cities, with semi-dense inner suburbs and than sprawl suburbs.

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by LongIslandPerson

It's reeeeeeeeeeallllly hard to draw the line between an "urban suburb" and "suburb" based on your criteria.

Where I live here on Long Island, you can go up the street and see an area identical to your 'urban suburb example' and then it could turn into your 'Naperville, IL example' and then turn back to the 'urban suburb example', all within a 2 mile radius.

Aside from that, within the limits of the hamlet/township/village/whatever you want to call that suburb, there are variations in density. Naperville also has areas like this (well actually, that looks like a school, so you might not want to count that, but it does have some areas with that "urban suburb" feel).

[Clint.]

Originally Posted by LongIslandPerson

It's reeeeeeeeeeallllly hard to draw the line between an "urban suburb" and "suburb" based on your criteria.

I agree. I live within the city limits of Pittsburgh, and about 3.5 miles from the Downtown business district, but wouldn't describe my immediate neighborhood as especially dense. Other parts of the city have rowhouses smashed together for miles. Even some suburbs have large scale apartment complexes with high density that would complicate trying to make a clean distinction.

Maybe calculating a population density benchmark and assigning some value as the threshold of "urban vs. suburban vs. rural" and deviation from the median or something would be the way to go?