Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities
No, they don’t.<p>This is a classic example of listening to what people say vs observing what they do. And it’s a good lesson in product development. Ask your users “do you want X?” And the answer is inevitably “yes”. Ask them “do you want A or B?” And you’ll start to get a better approximation of user behavior. Better yet is observing actual behavior.<p>In this case Americans have chosen the suburbs in droves.<p>Americans want walkable areas in close proximity to the exact kind of house they live in now with all that entails: large single family house on a large lot with their 2+ cars.<p>People would don’t love in the US may not realize just how large the lots are most Americans live on. In Australian cities a quarter acre block was once the dream. More typical now is half that.<p>You will find areas in Atlanta where the lot size is one or even two acres.<p>It’s only the older typically East Coast cities that have anything remotely approaching the density you might see in Europe.