[arroz]

You don’t need parking if you live in a city with nice transit

Low density means you are unlikely to live a walkable distance from a friend, so suburbia sucks for that too

Honestly the only thing you said that is true is the big yard, everything else is worse in suburbia than cities

Maybe not American cities, but most suck anyway

[jjav]

> You don’t need parking if you live in a city with nice transit

As long as you only ever want to see people who also live in the same transit route.

I have some friends that moved to an apartment in San Francisco, it is nearly impossible to visit them since there is no parking anywhere nearby.

> Low density means you are unlikely to live a walkable distance from a friend, so suburbia sucks for that too

This morning my elementary school age kid walked to a friends house in a different neighborhood (10 min walk). As I'm typing this, one of his school friends just walked over from his house (3 min walk) to play. Being able to walk (particularly the kids) to friends is one of the prime reasons people like the suburbs.

> Honestly the only thing you said that is true is the big yard

And the road biking, mountain biking, playgrounds, sport fields and so on.

> everything else is worse in suburbia than cities

Clearly a matter of activity preferences, so it is not an objective truth to say one or the other is worse. Dense cities are great for bars, clubs, museums, that kind of thing. Suburbs are great for outdoor activities, sports, hobbies that needs space (e.g. woodworking, try that in an apartment), walking to friends, forests, etc.

[arroz]

Man I’m sorry nothing you said is impressive in most developed countries cities

No transit doesn’t need to be in the same route, there are bus terminals and metro line connections

[jjav]

> Man I’m sorry nothing you said is impressive in most developed countries cities

I didn't say anything with the intent to be impressive. I'm describing differences between dense urban and suburban pros & cons. Neither is objectively better, they are different.

> No transit doesn’t need to be in the same route, there are bus terminals and metro line connections

Sure. So now you need to spend a lot of time traveling in the wrong direction just to get to a central terminal and then take another bus to the intended direction. It's all tradeoffs.

[arroz]

It’s not the wrong direction…

You are not describing differences between urban & suburban

Maybe you are for America specifically but most of what you described is normal in urban areas of Japan or Germany for instance

[jjav]

> It’s not the wrong direction…

You can't make that statement without looking at a specific case where someone is, where they want to go and how the transit lines run. It often is the wrong direction, which consumes time.

I was staying by Columbia in Manhattan recently and wanted to go to the upper east side (straight east). Subway doesn't go that way. Need to take one south to 42st, then east to grand central then north to my destination. Easy example of having to go away from the destination. That one is not so bad as the NYC subway is pretty quick.

Close to home if I want to visit a shopping area two miles west, I need to take a bus 6 miles south to a central terminal and then another 7 miles north. Adds about two hours to the trip. Easier to bike there.

That's always going to be the nature of mass transit because it can't possibly be point to point for everyone.

> You are not describing differences between urban & suburban

I don't know what to make of this statement, since I'm specifically describing the different pros & cons of urban vs. suburban.

[diob]

Nah, you're right. My friends all live in the same "suburbia" as me. 50 minute drive one way. We still just hang out online, cause no one wants to spend their life on the highway. Wish we lived in a place with real transit / density.

Heck, even in Tokyo, you can hop on a bus to go do outdoors stuff easy.

[jjav]

> My friends all live in the same "suburbia" as me. 50 minute drive one way.

Please post the name of the suburb and city, I really want to look at it on google maps. I can't begin to imagine a housing development that takes 50 minutes to drive from one end to the other (assuming you both live at opposite edges).

> on the highway

Highway? Ok so you live in different towns probably, not the same suburb.