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I just moved to LA last week from London and lucky was able to afford my own automobile my second day here. I can’t seem to help but feel bad for people forced to walk and take the bus outside of the urban parts of LA. The friends i’v made here actually think dense strip malls are urban and vibrant streets with culture and historic architecture.
When I’m driving and stop at a red light, you will literally see only one pedestrian cross a street the size of a highway dodging automobiles make illegal left turns. It’l be 50 cars rushing by at 50 miles an hour vs one pedestrian simply crossing a street. Part of it has to do with entitled drivers but I feel like it’s the way the urban layout has been built/laid out.
Someone once said on City Data that LA has the density without the urbanity, which now makes sense to me. When I took the commuter rail my first day here, I noticed the stations would be in the middle of nowhere (surrounded by industrial warehouses far away from residential density or retail).
Anyways just though i’d share my observations. Do americans fall in love with Europe because of the walk friendly plazas and lack of automobile dominant streets? Just a reminder that I don’t mean to make this an LA thread or US vs Europe thread, please stay on topic on pedestrian experience in big cities like Houston, Phoenix, LA and so on.
Chicago
San Francisco (though you'll get exercise climbing the hills)
Seattle (at least its core and adjacent neighborhoods)
Baltimore
But most of the rest aren't all that walkable once you leave the downtown, save for selected neighborhoods (e.g., Kansas City's Country Club Plaza area), and in some of those cities, you wouldn't want to walk around the downtown because it gives you few good reasons to do so.
I haven't yet reached one of my goals--visiting Europe, but friends who have visited say many of the cities are far more pedestrian-friendly than many U.S. cities.
There are sections in US cities which are walkable but overall I would say that cities in the US have been designed mostly for cars. The only real walkable areas of most cities are the downtown areas; if you go further out then everything tends to be more spread out.
The City of Angels is 500 square miles and 4 million people. It's too big to be walkable. Get a car.
London is at least 600 square miles and close to 9 million people. Yet it is walkable. No need to own a car.
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