[kleiba]

I suppose you're talking about one certain life style where this kind of pattern fits well. I used to follow this exact description for many years when I was younger and did in fact live right in the center of a small city. It worked great for me. I remember one weekend where I suddenly craved a boiled egg and so just had to walk 5 minutes from my door to a farmer's market to buy a single egg which I carried home holding it in my hand. (The guy selling the eggs gave me a surprised look, but hey, I was single back then, one egg was enough...)

But later in life, with three little children, I just simply couldn't imagine a trip to the grocery store every day. Having moved out to the suburbs, public transport or walking wasn't an option any more, and I was already doing enough driving around what with the kids going to school and all kinds of afternoon activities.

I would have actually loved the more car-centric design of North American cities where at least the driving is made easy. No squeezing through small alleys, tiny parking lots (if any) and 3+ stops to get all the things you need for the week.

The reason the North American car centric design works (too) is that it optimizes for convenience rather than environmental concerns (and it's not like European cities optimized for the latter either, they were simply built in pre-car times). Even if the driving distances are further, that doesn't necessarily mean that the overall shopping trip is much longer in practice. And even in cases where it is, I just find it much less stressful to drive in North America. Of course, your mileage may vary.

When I lived in the city center many years ago, there was one larger grocery store about 5 minutes away from me on foot and a couple of smaller stores specialized in one thing or another in the same area. And while that was very convenient for me, it also meant that there was constant traffic in front of my house from people driving to these stores. There wasn't much zoning rules, apparently, the stores where all just mixed in among the residental houses.

[lozenge]

I'm in London and there are larger stores with parking lots. That's how my parents shopped when they had multiple kids at home. The difference is that they aren't the only option. The car centric design pushes every journey, every person and every need into a car. Convenient if you meet the requirements (age, wealth, ability) and massively inconvenient if you don't.

[beaeglebeach]

This describes to a T my experience. The insane hassle of packing up a temperamental 1 or 2 year old, who will probably spend half the time screeching while everyone gives you nasty glares, and their bag of goodies to go anywhere really kills the desire to do anything but a megabulk run in a bulky McAmerican car every couple weeks.

[AlexandrB]

The thing is that 1 or 2 year olds don't stay that age forever and shouldn't dictate the design of a city.

[kleiba]

Which, luckily, no-one is suggesting here.

(By the way: there's always new 1 or 2 year olds coming in, too...)

[J_Shelby_J]

American zoning laws have made anything else illegal to build, so yeah, you are kinda suggesting we should design our country for a specific way of life.

[lotsofpulp]

The missing ingredient (compared to previous times) is numerous close friends/family who can help take care of the babies and toddlers.

[kleiba]

Yes, that's one of the problems when all "communities" exist only online today.