[Retric]

DC in the US is a solid counter example as low density city older than the car. Density is based on a huge range of factors with for example geography playing a significant role. Another huge factor is they type of industry. Garment factory's for example have historically had very high density's where Iron Works are much lower density.

[rhino369]

DC is a pretty good counter example. As you say the type of work matters, and DC has never an industrial town. It was also a planned city. It was intended to not be dense from the start. Something like 40% of DC is federal government land.

DC also is doing a decent job at using mass transit to re-densify areas. The orange line corridor is making suburbs become dense. That is pretty unique in America.

[antisthenes]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...

For a city that was "intended to not be dense from the start", it sure is up there as far as density and would be #16 on the list if it counted as a part of a state.

DC is incredibly dense by American standards and is actually one of the very few places in the US that you can get by without a car (which is, of course, priced into exorbitant rents and property prices)

I guess what I meant to say is that the grandparent comment is blatantly false. DC _is_ a high density city and is much more like a European city in that it combines decent public transport and medium-rise developments.

[Retric]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris

  DC has 158.1 km2 with 681,170 people or 4,308 people per km ^2.

  Paris has 105.4 km2 with 2,265,886 people or 250,065 people per km2

In other words DC has less than 2% of Paris's population density. Note, Paris is a turist destination so many shot's look like DC, but this is the real city: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/15/17/278DF7CF0000057...

[LordKano]

DC would have a much greater population density if developers were permitted to build upwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_of_Buildings_Act_of_191...