[hapless]

"Human scale" commerce failed. Supermarkets obliterated tiny, expensive grocers everywhere that real estate prices afforded their existence. Inner cities are now "food deserts" because running a limited-selection, high-price grocery isn't practical.

It didn't have to be that way, but that's how it turned out. Low prices and wide selection are more important to the average consumer than "human scale."

[Typhon]

That's how it turned out in America, where people had individual cars starting in the 1910s and where oil is still cheaper than in Europe.

[angdis]

It wasn't until the 1960's through 1970's, the car-ownership prompted massive shifts from cities to suburbs.

Many baby boomers and those who preceded them (the "Ward Cleever" generation), can still remember the concept of having a main street. Even suburbs back then had central business districts and these are now known as "streetcar suburbs" or "inner-ring suburbs".

This way-of-life where everything so spread out so much that it necessitates driving for every little trip is a relatively new phenomena.