[blacksmith_tb]

From the paper: "Crashes kill 1.3 million people per year including 700 children per day." I have always thought it's striking that people drive so much in spite of knowing that each time you could easily kill or be killed. Imagine if phones were equally dangerous - who'd carry one in their pocket?

Obviously cars are useful, but we've built our cities to maximize that (and we still spend a lot of time stuck in traffic, even so). That doesn't mean that there aren't more useful possibilities, just that the inertia in the system makes them seem like a dream.

[rayiner]

It’s not just “us” who built cities to maximize car travel. Everyone did it. Walkable european cities are surrounded by car-dependent suburbs.

The problem with your analysis is that your concept of “useful” is based on a set of priorities in your head that’s almost certainly not shared by the people who prefer to live in car-optimized areas. Cars let you travel in private, on your own schedule, without having to interact with other people. You might not value those things. Lots of people do.

[stuaxo]

I'm not convinced that suburbs outside the US are quite as hard to walk in as in the US.

Just about every UK suburb is walkable to train station a supermarket some smaller shops and probably a pub somewhere.

I the US the sidewalk just ends and walking can be quite dangerous in places.