It's paradox to me that the US cares so much about values like Freedom and Liberty, but without a car and paying for gas you are defacto imprisoned.

“American dream” is nightmare for the Europeans 😱

What always looks to odd me (as a Swede) seeing American suburbs, are these big, empty lawns without any fences or hedges. It looks so deserted, it's doesn't look like actual homes, I don't see personality, color, life. Here the houses in the suburbs would have different colors, sizes and design, there would be a hedge or a picked fence around the property, and a lot of people people would have some fruit trees, some berry bushes, and rows of flowers, something that brings life to the place. 🏡🌼🌳🌹🌲 There would also be some outdoor seating area, what's the word...deck? There would be like bikes, trampolines, swingsets, sandboxes, playhouses, treehouses and so on, since most people living there have kids.

In the USA everything is centered around the cars. In Europe cars are at least slowed down by narrow and curving roads, even in new developments. So the children can walk or bike to the schools. And many new suburbs are dead ends so you can not drive through. It is a completely different approach.

I think we dont really have suburbs if were going by the USA version. We don't build areas with only houses because we dont have the usa zoning laws. The concept of not having a supermarket, chineese, kebab or indian place within a 5 minute walk is wild to me.

I could live happily in my 20 000 inhabitants German subburb without ever needing a car or even leaving it. Why? It has got everything you need for a comfortable life like dozens of doctors, dentists,specialists, pharmacies, shops,a school with over 1 000 students, sports grounds,churches, a library, suprmarkets,butchers,bakeries and public transport. In summer there are concerts - I watched TOTO ( remember Africa?) and there's a farmer's market every Friday and a Christmas market in December. I only need to go to the actual city for the theater or clothes or the cinema etc. And the best thing is that it is surrounded by a forrest and there is a river and a stream and it is QUIET !

European concept is that everything is more mixed vertically. Cheap mass buildings are next to luxury villas. Shops are in same building as flats (shop pays rent for house and at night people guarding shop). USA is more flat horizontal design, each purpose has its own part of city (rich, poor, shopping, industrial, ..).

to me as a German it's kinda weird how much Americans care about status and "you're poor" being an insult.

The most disturbing thing for me as German/european is that you dont have shops in your suburbs. This is so absurd for me. I lived in several larger geman cities and it was never a problem to find an apartment to have the next grocery in a distance of max 5 minute walk. Right now my next grocery is one block away - about 80 meters. I have a bakery 150 meters away - there is also some "fast" food restaurants like Italian pizzeria and Turkish "döner". They have good food and lots of tasty vegetarian stuff. Besides my grocery right next to my apartment there are FOUR further groceries all about 10-15 minute walk. Two are within a small "centre" where several further shops are directly together. Some are restaurants or Italian ice restaurants (really popular here). The bus stop is directly next to my house and the regional "S-Bahn" is 15 minutes walk or three bus stops away. Bus is coming 4 times per hour. I live now in a smaller town (40.000 people) next to a larger city (700.000 people) and with the S-Bahn I can be in the centre of the larger city within 20 minutes. The company I work for is available by one bus line that stops directly at. my house - 8 stations equal 13 minutes away and I am in my office. I definitely dont need a car - not at all. And btw - I dont have children but there are in many cities small parks with playgrounds for children. The apartment I lived til last year had a wonderful park where many parents and children were all the time. It was just a nice meeting place. Cause we have a lot immigrants I saw all kinds of folks there - arabs, east asian, african and of course also european looking people. Many are germans - some are not. This is really how I like my neighbourhood.

Walking is a basic human need. Our bodies were designed to scout the plains. The very act of walking is good for your physiology and mental health.

A cool thing in Germany is also, we mixed up sozial groups. It was really astablisht after the war. Nowadays it's going back, sadly. But it helpt a lot in growing together as a community.

When I was a child, I spent more than half of my free time outdoors. In the area there were several natural gathering places for the kids, where they often went to meet friends or make new ones. We played "Indians and whites", "thieves and policemen", hide and seek, played in the sandbox or swung. Walked or took our bikes to the kiosk and bought some candy or went into the forest and climbed trees. All this seems to be difficult or impossible for American children. How do they spend their free time?

Your suburbs look like something from black mirror, or a nightmare. Within a 10 minute walk from my house we have, the children's school, plus 2 others. 3 small shops, 3 supermarkets, 1 shopping centre, about 5 or 6 takeaways, a swimming pool, a park a doctors a dentist a cathedral, football pitches, a sports hall, a bowling green, a bowling alley, 2 different cinemas. I only bought my first car when I was 35 or 36

In many European countries, local forests are seen as semi-communal spaces, in addition to parks and playgrounds, which also reduces the amount of huge private lawns that are unused 90% of the time.

I live in London, England and in a "suburb". It is a nice area and a great place to live with all sorts of people from all walks of life living together. . We have three types of public transport in easy reach, shops, doctors, hospital, opticians, churches, synagogues etc. You don't need to drive to get around. I am convinced that only mad people drive here or because they have to. The suburbs here are often more exciting than the middle of the city.

The other difference between American and European suburbs is that in European suburbs, you know and are friendly with those who live around you. You meet each other walking or cycling or taking public transport. Americans are insular, not gregarious. They have big homes in large plots of land, you go everywhere in your car, not speaking to anyone who lives in your street.

As a Brit/European, the German suburbs look very much like ours. Newer suburbs are not always as good in terms of mixed buildings/shops/etc as the older ones, but you won't (thankfully) see anything like the US model. Here we have large parks and woodland in the suburbs, and millions of trees along streets. Good buses, trams, trains, traffic calming measures, speed bumps, 20mph zones especially near schools etc. I live in a city and am about 3.5miles from the centre. I have a woodland over the road with a stream, large garden, lots of mature trees all around and can see hills and farmland if I look south and it's not a posh area by any means. I never see anything like this in a US cityscape. Where are the parks, woodland, topography, winding roads, wildlife, rivers, streams, allotments, canals, trams, railways, buses, anything attractive...they are just missing completely.

US suburbs are dormitories, European suburbs are neighbourhoods. When looking for a suburban house, I looked for facilities like bus or train services, schools, shops, and a decent pub. I don't mind if there's some social housing, or if my neighbours aren't all white British. US seem to prefer homogenous ghettos.

It's even difficult to refer to the term "suburb", because it's so different. Here those places are just independent towns, which have grown together with a larger city - and these towns also have grown to a city-like density, which automatically (!) leads to infrastructure.

Most old or palatial houses and smaller in Germany were flattened in World War Two and were completely rebuilt, giving ample possibilities for excellent work following great design!

A lot - though by far not all - European suburbs started out as their own little villages who eventually were swallowed up by the cities - meaning they have a small town center of their own. These suburbs often also have their own sense of community as a "town within the town". More, you couldn't make them totally car-centered if you wanted to, because the layout of at least the oldest part of the suburb predates cars and was never meant to accomodate them. Any solution will always have to be a compromise.

I live near, and once lived in, one of the world's oldest planned suburbs in the World (Hampstead Garden Suburb, London). It is about the opposite to a US suburb. Most European suburbs share some or all of these: 1. Planned between 2 major roads with shops and restaurants all the way along them and with an underground train station at two corners. There are lots of bus stops and it was planned so no-one is more than a 5 minute walk from essential shops or 10 mins from access to pretty much anything. 2. Planned on the structure of a village with a centre hosting central resources such as churches, school, library, community centre etc. 3. There are parks with a few minute walk of anyone, with a park following a stream cutting through the centre of the suburb. 4. Roads within the suburb are intentionally narrow and winding to stop people driving too fast. 5. It was designed to have a mix of homes with detached houses, short terraces of small and medium houses and small (3 story) blocks of flats mixed together to produce a mixed community. Even large houses are narrow and close together, with the house close to the road (but may have a long back garden), this gives a 'village' feel and makes roads shorter are easier to walk. The real problem is that it has become a victim of its own success. and is so popular that even a 2 bedroom flat can cost half a million pounds.

In Australia, the word "suburb" literally just means neighbourhood. Anywhere in a city that has a name on a map, even if it has 100+ storey skyscrapers (for example Southbank in Melbourne) or even no houses at all, is still a suburb. So the use of the word itself is very different. The middle suburbs of Melbourne I grew up in, and the inner suburbs where we're now raising our son, are alot more like the European suburbs. Walkable, mixed density, lots of public transport generally being built along train lines or tram routes, no uniformity at all. My small street has about 4 detached houses, 10 terrace/row houses, 10 blocks of flats (with 8-9 flats in each), a little park, and a larger apartment building above an Aldi supermarket at the end. The next street over has a large public housing tower, right opposite very expensive Victorian-era houses. So it's very socio-economically diverse. But unfortunately a lot of our newer outer suburbs look more like the US ones (except with better PT, most still having a train station). I don't know why we copy the bad US example instead of continuing to build more like the great older suburbs.

You got that right, suburbs in Europe are often actually just small cities. When the cities grew over centuries, they kind of intermingled and grew together. Some cities were incorporated into others, while others were still far enough away to stay their own city, while basically touching other cities already. In Zurich for example, the city border seems kind of random. You could just drive down the road along the lakeside and without the sign telling you, you wouldn't notice that you just left the city of Zurich and entered a suburb. Houses still look similar, you're still very much in an urban environment.

I think the problem with America is that it's so big and the expansion of a city almost always happens in the void. When a city expands in Europe, it always comes across a small town, which is then incorporated as a suburb. Therefore, European suburbs always look much nicer than what urban planners created in America.

My home, Venice FL, was designed more like Europe in the 1920’s. It went bankrupt in the 30’ and did not recover until 60’s. Then it exploded with America style superb. At the turn of the century “New Urbanism” came into vogue. It is basically the European model. Groups in Venice helped bring back the original plan. We made it very bike friendly. Golf carts are very popular. I look at is EV’s where they are needed. It actually gets a lot of people who are against EV’s to buy one; please don’t tell them. Please come and visit, we also have some fantastic beaches. You can see a working model of an Americanized European suburb.

IMHO, the point is not to make driving as slow as walking, the point is to develop the (infra-)structure of the city in a way to make driving optional. When I visit a city that is making driving actively hard, I do my best to leave as quickly as I can. In a city that is giving me options, I'll happily doodle around with a bike, an e-scooter, or public transportation. (I'm looking at you, Freiburg! If you live there and have everything you need, great. Visiting? Not so much...) Six months ago, I tried travelling by train to a training. If you travel to the training and then just back, it's probably great. If you extend your trip and need something other than business attire and/or leave the destination city center, good luck! Next trip will be by car again.

I live in a village in the Netherlands next to a big city, you could call it a suburb since most people here work in that city. Nearest supermarket is 2 minutes walking distance, snackbar (fast food) 3 minutes, a real restaurant 4 minutes walking, a garage 3 minutes the other way, hair dresser only 4 door on. The only thing missing for me is a hardware and electronics store, that would take a 5 minute drive by car in the city. Luckily most only shops have next day delivery if you order before 10pm so that's not a problem. We do not have zoning here, you can ask for a commercial license in the middle of a residential area and it is usually granted because it is very convenient for the people living there. Thanks for the video!

Interesting. In Australia there is a lot of talk about creating 20 minute cities / neighbourhoods - 20 mins the time to walk to school, work, park, shops …

I lived in a suburb of Stuttgart for a year. The local park was literally beside my apartment building- I would wake up to seeing squirrels and wild parrots outside my bedroom window. My partner's daughter had a 5 minute walk to her school, and supermarkets were a 10 to 15 minute walk. Doctors office close by also, restaurants and take aways, library...everything within walking or a short bike ride distance from home. The streets were tree lined as in the video and well kept. The local tram was just outside the park so getting into town was fast and easy. The only thing I didn't like was the air quality was not the best sometimes because the area is so industrialised. I will move back to Germany to where my partner is now, but much further out from that city to a small town where the air is much cleaner. There are still all the amenities, services, shops, public transport available within walking distance. Germany has done a fantastic job in planning their cities and towns to be less car dependent than the US and more accessible to everyone....even though they love cars there too.

I know in the netherlands if they make plans to build a new neigbourghood they always take into account schools and a grocery store on a walking distance

The channel he mentioned - Not Just Bikes, is top quality. A Canadian living in Amsterdam does deep dives into how other places are far better than what he was used to in N. American countries. Well worth dipping into.

What I like about the american suburbs are the large green spaces and the many trees, it's like living in a park.

The entire concept of suburbs is alien to me. We don't have a lot of these type of living environments in the Netherlands. Transport to nearby cities and other municipalities is in general good by bicycle, car and public transport, and most facilities are close by anyway. The financial part of the US suburbs will kill them eventually, but it could take a long time.

Funfact from South Africa: After the Soccer world championship in Cape Town, they suddenly had a bus system. OHH we will suffer, cried the taxi drivers, all the people will take the bus. Today, the rich people from the suburbs take the bus, so to have time to read the Financial Times, keep their expensive cars safe at home. Tho poor people mostly still take the shared taxis, because it is cheaper for sharing with 5 to 10 others. Our tour guide told us this story and he lives there. You, be safe. Elmar from Germany

Hy there from Leipzig ❤❤ Never owned a car in my 34 years of life. I go everywhere by bus, train, tram or bike. There are 5 different groceriestores in walking distance to my flat plus two parks and a forest. Not two cities are the same, every district here and every town in Germany has its unique style. thats why I often do trips by train to explore the old town centers of places like Erfurt, Weimar or Dresden. Oh and we have lots of Wildlife in our cities too. I just saw a beaver the other day at the river.

I'm living in the suburbs of Berlin and Frankfurt am Main almost my whole life. I was born near Berlin, then moved to Rheinland-Pfalz and Hessen for 10 years and then came back to Brandenburg/Berlin 13 years ago. I never want to live in a big city, but always in the suburbs, cause you've all the goods like the S-Bahn, cinemas, theaters and all other events and bigger shopping spots reachable in 30 or 45 min, but without the bad things like constant traffic noise, places packed with too much people, trash etc. around my place to live. When I look out of my window, there is the historic city wall of my hometown and behind that is a meadow for horses and sheep's. So, I can go to a festival and enjoy being around people and having fun and then I go home and enjoy peace and quiet in the garden or enjoy a day at a nearby lake. Best of both worlds 😎

Just watch the "Not Just Bikes" video he recommended. Less political, but so true

Hi Joel, we live in a village in northern Germany and I like that the houses haven`t been dismantled so much, but you still have your garden and space so that its not too cramped. There is a good relationship in our neighborhood and people help each other.

That was great! Thanks for raising awareness.

I live in a post war, northern English suburb. Four different bus routes within 5 mins. walk. I can walk to the town center in half an hour, a main line rail station on those bus routes or walk in 25 mins. My local park is 50m away. Four supermarkets within 10 mins. walk. 8 take ways as well. So am I envious of the USA? Guess.

The video shows pictures of a suburb in Leipzig in Germany which is the third largest city in East Germany I think (after Berlin and Dresden). Bigger towns and cities often expand by "absorbing" neighbouring villages and towns. That brings the advantage that there's some well established infrastructure there already. New suburbs and quarters are built by filling gaps between communities. Completely new suburbs built from scratch can have similar problems though - at least in Germany. Only quite large expansions will receive a kind of community centre with shops and offices. However, you'll never find area being so generously left "unused"(ie. used just for a lawn, a few brushes and trees only). Even streets and roads need to be more narrow here. Europe, and particularly Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries are densely populated - ground is just too expensive for that usually. Yet despite being more economic with using space urban development isn't without flaws and risks here too. Too much area is being used for single family homes. We're still building roads wherever we can in many regions, particularly in South Germany. Large shopping centres in peripherial areas and online shopping with quick delivery are putting more and more pressure on smaller shops downtown.

In Midages the standard europe home contained a house for multi generations, a garden for crops, an animal shelter, a pasture, a workshop, a storage. So the home could sustain itself. During the Industrialisation some things moved out, leaving a single house. But the people kept the tradition. So today most single houses contains some sort of garden, often a workshop to repair household items, and storage space, partial used as parking lots. We collect rain water to pour the plants, often use solar energy in combination with energy storage systems, and some are collecting bio waste on a compost. We plant tree for fruits in our garden and harvest vegetables in our glasshouse. Its basicly a diverse ecosystem for small animals.

There is no 'European Dream' - we're awake.

Great suggestions in the end! If you want changes, you have to rally and fight for them!

I really enjoy your thoughtful, inquiring videos as you open your eyes to other places and ways of doing things. One thing I would like to know about though is that in the suburbs you have all that land, but it is not used. I'm sure someone from the UK would be planting and growing vegetables, having a few chooks on that land, not to mention flower beds and shrubs. My local estate had an ethos when new of the fronts being open plan grass, as in the US, but over the years hedges walls and fences have been erected to enclose their precious spaces, and keep them clear from dog's mess, or other incursions from strangers.

Living in a suburb but in a very densely populated area in NRW and I love the fact that it's somewhat idyllic here and I can go to the farmer to buy vegetables by bicycle if I wish but also go to big cities by tram or train within 15-30 minutes (depending on the city). And still we have a variety of supermarkets, restaurants and everything you need in daily life that I can just walk to from my home within 10 minutes.

As a Swede myself, the American and European suburbs definitely are different to one another, however, one perk that the American suburbs has is that their houses is much bigger, and can have more things stockpiled in the garage etc. One more thing, if I had the money, I would definitely buy a property, and build a 2-story American Home (With Basement) with a 2-door garage as well.

You know, I live downtown. By US standards it would BE a town, here it’s a big city. The kids from downstairs come up here freely, on their own, as does one of their cats. It’s like that :) Whereas there was that notjustbikes vid about a guy in Canada getting sued over letting his kids go to school on their own, using the bus, for being an irresponsible parent. Yeah, he got reported for it. Dystopian 1984 to us, good citizenship over there. George Orwell wasn’t done yet. A suburb where kids can’t or aren’t even allowed to play in the street is hell on earth.

Yep! The maker of the video is rather outspoken in his opinion! Correct, but quite black-white.... Sometimes you need a cold shower to wake up. In general, European suburbs are more walkable, divers, compact, which leaves open space outside the city.

It is an interesting point that the suburbs only reinforces the "woman stays at home and is dependant" concept. I live in one of quiet residential areas from the 30ties, 90% detached houses with gardens(each very different), 3 schools, 2 student hostels, 3 min bus and tram stop and a small supermarket, 2 cafes, 2 pubs, 1 restaurant, 5 min a swimming pool and nice hill with playgrounds for kids and an observatory on the top of the hill. I sometimes wish there were more shops and stuff, but hey, the city centre is 10 min by tram and 20-30 min walk. Compared to the US, I have it pretty good.

I live in a suburb 7.5 miles from Manchester city centre. It's a ten minute walk to a big supermarket and other shops, doctors surgeries, cafes etc. Buses are every ten minutes into the city centre.

the city i work ( not living )....you have suburbs there, you get everything in them...no need to leave it! here, the kids learn to ride a bike, to drive it for a long life.. in the USA you learn to drive a bike, so your parents can say you can do it, too!

In Norway, for a long time, neighborhoods with single-family homes were built outside the city centers, but many of these were built with rental options in the basement, so you got all kinds of people in the same neighborhood. Provision was also made for play areas, access to nature and grocery stores, schools and nurseries in large neighborhoods that were more than walking distance from the town centres. These neighborhoods may resemble American suburbs, but there was always a driving zone with a speed limit of 30 km/h and a bus connection. The plots are much smaller than in American neighbourhoods, so contact with the neighbors occurs naturally. Because of the low speed limit, children can play in the streets. In recent years, it has become more common to build low rise apartment buildings in these neighbourhoods. This can happen because construction companies buy up homes with larger properties in the same neighbourhoods. Often these are properties from old farms that sold land to the neighborhoods when they were built. In that way, the neighborhoods are densified. In the new low-rise blocks, provision is made for commercial activities in addition to housing, so bakeries, cafes, restaurants, pharmacies and the like can be established close to where people live. There will be more potential bus passengers, but at the same time the possibility is maintained for people to own and use cars from the neighbourhoods. The apartment buildings are usually built with parking facilities in the basement. The way Norwegian neighborhoods are developing can be transferred to American suburbs, but there must be someone pushing for the changes, as mentioned in the film. Because the properties in American neighborhoods are often large, apartment buildings can be built on the lot of one or two houses, especially if you lower the speed limit in the area around the building, so children can play in the streets.

In Australia the suburb I live in is surrounded by National Park/bushland and includes a little shopping centre and additional shops near the train station. Most of the suburbs seem to have their own shopping centres, doctors, dentists etc. We can drive, take a train or bus to the bigger Shopping Centre that is convenient for all the surrounding suburbs where you can get just about everything. The CBD (Central Business District) is where you go to the theatres for shows etc or to find that specialist shop. The US suburbs we see seem to be so empty of vegetation/trees which over here are encouraged as it contributes to the wildlife and air quality.

I think Oulu in Finland has the best idea this far: in case bicycle way and street or road must intersect, it's *always* the car that gets "yield to everything" sign. Bicycles and pedestrians will always get priority. This is the underlying difference to the USA. In the states, cars have always the priority over everything else.

I had no idea. Good video 👍

I live in a seaside town Southern England & LOVE small town life. I've not long moved to a large new building estate on the outskirts & amenities will come in time, however the beach is a 25 min walk away with plenty of coffee shops, restaurants, deli's etc with two gorgeous parks en route, & a bus every 15 mins if you need to go to the town centre. If I'd walk around a usa suburb for 25 mins I'd probably get two houses down

I immediately recognized the city of Leipzig (the area where I live) in the references he used. While he's mostly correct, there are still some suburban areas that have fallen off the map and are hard to get to or away from. Public transport isn't as dense everywhere and other conveniences like safe bicycle routes are also not always available. Also if you are into a specific sport you may still find yourself driving across town if a local sports club isn't offering training or doesn't have the necessary facilities and equipment.

It's such a difference. Here in the Netherlands even in the planned suburbs which emerged from the 1920s onward there was and is always a place for a local shopping street or center, there are schools, there are children's playgrounds. Houses are closer together, but what is the advantage of the large yards in the US when people don't actually use them and only have a lawn? And houses in Europe are mostly better sound insulated and fire resistant from the outside so these aren't concerns about building houses as 2 family houses, terraced houses or medium rise buildings. Also it doesn't make sense why the streets in American suburbs are so wide, even when cars are parked on both sides there is enough space to speed trough with two full size trucks, creating danger and noise. In European suburbs the streets are often just wide enough to allow two cars to pass each other just and when cars are parked at the roadside you often have to stop in a gap between the parked cars to allow an oncoming car to pass, this forces drivers to keep their speed down and creates a safer and quieter environment to live in. The access roads leading to the suburbs are often planned in a way so that no trough traffic goes trough the neighbourhoods.

I have realised that everywhere I have lived (12 different places) from my childhood to now in my seventies I have lived within easy walking distance of a shop where I can get essentials. I have lived in very nice places as well, not all in the UK, but Australia too. I now live in a village in the Cotswolds, not one of the Chocolate Box ones, but still delightful, and mine is one of the few which has a shop and schools, a dentist, a garage, a Chinese Takeaway, a hairdressers, a doctor's surgery and a pub where you can eat out in. They have all been under risk in the last years, due to Covid, Lockdown or low birth rate, but a new estate was built which was fought against but the plus side was it enabled all these facilities to survive. Other villages are more like dormitories for the wealthier people. People are railing against the idea being mooted of 15 minute cities but in a way that is what I live in. I'm not a prisoner, I can go elsewhere and often do, but I don't have to nip out for miles to get a pint of milk.

I live in an average german village, with 3.700 inhabitants. We have got a pharmacy, doctors, 3 dedicated bakeries, a butcher, a greengrocers shop (also selling fresh baked goods and some fresh sausage/meat), a flower/gardening shop and a small discounter, as well as 2 restaurants and a Döner bar. We have got 2 kindergarten and 1 primary school for our village (and host the middle school for the local community of 6 villages/11.000 inh. altogether). For recreation there is an open air pool in summer, the dual purpose sports hall of the middle school and little bit outside 2 open air soccer fields. We have got 1 train station, the next (2) towns are 15 minutes by local train in each direction, the next village is about 3-4 minutes by train or car, or 7 minutes by bike. At the next village there is 2 more (bigger) discounters, a supermarket, dedicated drug store, more doctors etc. if you need more, you will head for the town(s). The train is supposed to run every 30 min in each direction, at peak hours with an additional train, but sadly the schedule has a lot of hiccups. With the new „Germany ticket“ you can ride all (short distance) public transport in Germany for only 49 € ($ 52,50) / month.

Hey MoreJps, the suburb Leipzig that is mentioned in this video is my hometown. And I would say it's more of a city than a suburb, but we definitely have many suburbs around the city. It's pretty cool to have mostly a walk of a maximum of 10 minutes to a train station. But I personally prefer the bike cause the city is well constructured for it and it's still getting improvements. And as most cities in Germany it's really pedestrian friendly, that's why I can easily walk to my friends and enjoy walking with them in a park. So these are my experiences as a German living in Leipzig. I really like your videos, even these not about Germany, cause it's cool to gain more knowledge with you about the world :)

Well, in the U.S., when moving, attention is paid to how good the security is, and how the highways are accessible. In Europe, in most cases, attention is paid to what the infrastructure is like. Are shops, doctors, schools nearby, are leisure facilities nearby or quickly accessible, how is the transport connection, etc. At most, you move to an area where, like in the USA, there is nothing at all if your workplace is nearby, or the house is dirt cheap or you have inherited it. And that in one place there is really nothing at all, it means that it is a tiny village. I live in a suburb of 3000 people, here there are doctors, a fire brigade, sports clubs, shopping, a primary school and two kindergartens. To reach the secondary schools, the older children travel a quarter of an hour by public school bus, or by regular bus. Everything is either within walking distance, or by public transport.

You have to look at not just bikes, it has also about suburbs in the Netherlands

Thanks again for sharing

The large distances between houses in the USA, also causes a more expensive grid for utilities.

I live in Denmark and we mostly ride a bicycle in city's and suburbs or use public transportation. Cars are very expensive because there is extra taxes when you buy one and public transport is easy to get to but also rather expensive (in my opinion), many combines it so you bike to busstop or train stations and leaves your bike there. Many trains also have the possibility to let you take the bike with you for an extra fee We have bike roads in every town and city so it is normal to see a parent with a child about 7 years old is out in the city traffic leaning them how to get around so they can go to school by them self. Also all other bicycle is being patient and take extra care when they observe or pass in these situations. BUT if you are an adult and go on the bicycle road and don't paid attention to a bicycles, you will possible be getting some strong looks or worse from the ones that ride a bike Road raging is not just for cars...

Great reaction in a good video. Thx. Greetings from northern Germany ♥️🇩🇪

"Type Ashton" made a very goog video on US building/construction laws and regulations of subburb developments

I'm living in a suburb of Bern, Switzerland (Europe) and it's just like we saw in this video. You can go everywhere with public transport, the next stop is 2 or 3 minutes away from your home. Only if you want to transport some heavy stuff you need a car. If I need a car I can hire one very cheap. This is basically the case in every city in Switzerland (> 2000 people). A tram / cable car is only available in towns over 100'000 people, though.

"Adam something" is a great youtuber. His videos are always very well made, with well thought-through arguments.

4:47 you may be laughing at "mommy and daddy taxi service" but let me tell you, growing up in austria? i'm veeeery familiar with the sentence "take the bus, i'm not your taxi service". i'd hear that from my parents all the time whenever they didn't feel like giving me and/or my sibling a ride. other terms that are in use include "mama-taxi" and "papa-taxi" (i've definitely said sentences along the lines of "i'm not taking the tram today, i get to use the dad-taxi instead" or "i really gotta go now, the mom-taxi is waiting for me" → that second sentence is vital because you don't keep your parents waiting when they are so kind to pick you up by car so you don't have to go home via public transport)

In a lot of Danish suburbs the neighbourhoods are also connected by walking and biking paths that makes a seperate network from the streets, so children can often bike or walk to school, sports and their friends without getting on or near a road.

True. When I was about 10, I went to several hobbies, the public library etc. alone on the bus. No need vor "Elterntaxi".

Our suburb resembles more US suburb, but with the difference that bike and pedestrian access is totally different, and they are also designed for public transport. The houses are WAY smaller, about 2/3rd to half US house, the yards are smaller too, so they are fairly dense in terms of population, pun both not and intended. Here in Finland, forest is the main difference, you got small batches of forest absolutely everywhere. I was lucky that i had some 4km of forest in my backyard when growing up. Now that is 2km, the city grows all the time but the way things are built leaves a lot of forest between neighborhoods and inside them. That is very important for attracting people to move to suburbs, it has to have a ton of trees and some forest within stone throws distance away. Third of Finnish cities are green areas, forests and parks. The stupidest thing is that most of Finnish suburbs were built using the government loan, and that had visual requirements, each neighborhood had a visual "code" of sorts that made for ex not possible to have 6 red houses with exactly the same layout. It also limits choices but what it does is that it makes them diverse. So.. authoritarian government rules leads to grey blocks? Look at new US suburbs.. same houses, over and over again. There is WAY more variance in 80s Finnish suburb built during the most strict building codes in its history than there is in 2024 US suburb. Way more.. You got all different color houses, you got white brick, red brick, board siding, plaster, dark roof, light roof, tiles, sheet, 2 story, away from the road, right beside the road, L shape.. The variance that the very ordered system created did work and those suburbs are the best. Where as free market capitalism made US suburbs the most monotonous burbs in the world, apart from maybe Qatar... that has its suburbs modeled after US suburbs but by an incompetent government looking for easy solutions instead of your know.. STUDYING the topic and asking experts about it. Newer suburbs are more and more car dependent... and single family zoning is the predominant zoning method for suburbs... Guess has the conservative right wingers been in the halls of power for multiple decades now, along with centrist conservatives...

I think the key word here is : zoning laws. The problem when space is not at a premium and distance is less relevant when everybody drives is that there are relatively few stakeholders and the decision-making becomes naturally top-down. You are cutting off nobody from driving to a bit of nature, don't have to worry about public transport and building more services right away, it would be a hassle and a waste of money and time. But it won't lead to well-planned cities that facilitate walking.

looking forward to the not just bikes video!

Leipzig is one of the most beautiful citys in east germany!!!

zoning system doesn t allow more mixed area in subburbs where there are little services that limit car use.

You guys just need code changes so shops can be selectively built closer and among homes , big is not always better is it?

There are downsides to suburbs on both continents so I suppose it’s about what you wish to prioritise; the freedom/need to be able to drive anywhere you wish or the freedom to be able to choose a different range of transport options even though each of those options have different limitations. Living in a relatively small, overcrowded island geographically forces you to compromise on where you can live and the kinds of buildings and social/commercial activities that may be happening right on your doorstep.

Speaking of - to live on a big foot. In our country, a person inhabits an area of ​​around 45 square meters on average. In the USA the average is 75 square meters/person. Your country's area is approximately 225x larger than ours. So i think the available space is also a reason why you tend to build wider. We tend to build higher, with several residential units in one building and closer together. And so it would cost too much to ensure trains or buses/trams everywhere... As already mentioned in the video you showed... Too far apart from each other. But I'll still come visit the USA in the next few years 😁😉

i think there are many oversimplifications here. the look of an european suburd depends on how old that part of the city is. in most european cities the prices of the houses in the downtown are rising constantly, so there is a tendency for younger people to buy houses outside of the center. this results in big housing projects in the backyards of large cities, but becuase this happens in a very large scale and very quickly, most of these newly built suburbs lack many basic ameneties (ie. doctor, kindergarten, local restaurants, shops etc.). in many cases the roads to these suburbs from the city center are narrow, the public transportation is not yet available everywhere and most of the people work far from their home, so they choose to commute by car, so there is not an urgent need for developing pedestrian-friendly shops and local entertainment, because the car is an easy choice for everyone. the parents of my wife live in such a suburb, and there only last year opened a shop which is open in weekends (and this suburb is 40 years old). an other big problem is the corruption. because there is a demand for these houses local politicians can make a big money if they "have a good relationship" towards building entrepreneurs. these kind of projects don't bother the already local people, not until the roads get crowded and the water services begin to falter, but this happens when the houses are already built, the politician enjoys their pension and no one can be held responsible.

ill be honest, ive watched alot of America vs europe, and the more i watch the less i want to see America, well there are some places.. also the other day in the radio i heard that danish travel companies advice danish people to not travel to America because with the gun law and amount of mass shooting and murders its been places on same list as countries at war 😆 crazy

I think a smart Park&Ride system might be a solution to the US problem. One or more centralized stations (depending on the size of the suburb) with huge parking lots or an underground car park. So you can drive the last miles comfortably in your car (or bike) and for the ride into town, you can take the train. Or the better way, open the suburbs for small businesses, bring groceries, bakeries and other important goods into the suburbs and prevent traffic. Car size is a different matter, do you really need an F350/Humvee/Escalade or Suburban if you live in a suburb?

Got stopped by the police in Anaheim for walking round the burbs with my two small children after our evening meal. My baby daughter was in a pram and the walk helped her fall asleep. Someone called the police as walking in the USA is considered suspect activity. And you wonder why obesity is normal. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

In Balkan countries, cities were build to be surounded with the agricultural villages around it. Those villages provide food for that city by selling their produce and home made products every week in farmers markets. That type of urban planing was decided in 1800 hundreds and everyone who wanted to relocate and start up a farm and agriculture were given free land. Sadly these days villages are getting empty and younger generations are moving to the cities.

13:41 so I live in what we call a village in the Netherlands. You would probably call it a suburb because it’s not a city but for me it feels more like a small town although it is near a city. Downsides are that city conveniences are not as close or easily obtained but comparing to what I see from the states it’s actually not that bad. I would complain about public transport but then again we get a bus into the city 8 times an hour and more during rush hour. Everything is bikeable and food shops and small convenience shops are a 3 minute walk from my place. I don’t have as much space as a place in the suburbs in the US seems to have but I honestly wouldn’t know what to do with that much space. I think that’s also to do with what you grow up with and get accustomed to. I totally recommend the video by not just bikes, they make seriously great content (even if it’s a bit Dutchie centered :p).

Note that AdamSomething doesn't talk down trash on american suburbs, he only highlights the very differences between american and european. Worth checking his channel out.

Hello there. This guy uses my hometown of Leipzig for his video. So I know the area he's talking about. And I wouldn't call it a suburb. It may be an outlying part of town but very much part of it with houses mostly built pre war. There are other parts farther from the city center that showcase the typical post war east german housing blocks. I'd call this a suburb but based purely on distance from city center. Everything else is pretty much the same. And finally we also do have some more american style suburbs aka single family homes with little public transit nearby. Some people prefer that for sone reason...

Also think about the cost of maintaining all the road surface per head of population

New towns built after 2ww in the Uk were not planned too well but that can probably be put down to an urgent need for housing ,today in this country especially the need is to build up and good planning and architects who can forget about their signature and try for beauty and longevity for example plans should be that the ground and first floor square footage should be the footprint of a buiding plus (one ,two etc bedrooms then this will be the bottom house of a row of however many floors this must come ,or something very similar because to keep building single houses and bungalows bumps the price of houses out of the reach of the lower paid ,these can also be used as family houses three and even four generations , it would help solve the housing crisis bring families together help the couples who wish to start families and slow the age gap that threatens many aspects of our way of life ,the predominantely way that houses are built seems to me is wrong ,large detached buildings with extensive gardens to maximise profit at the expense of space ,but the government will build the way it always has to justify the actual number primarily to prove it can be done ,madness

First time I see someone reacting to something I never thought about and took for granted. (German suburbs) By the way you analyse the video, the way you speak and react to parts of the video I feel like we could have been good friends if I were an American or you German.

AdamSomething is great, I love all of his videos!

What happens to people if they live in one of these sprawling suburbs and have to stop driving for whatever reason, it's not like they can rely on a neighbour if they've never even met them? I have noticed in the UK that builders are building housing estates on the outskirts of cities, nice fancy houses but they don't have the infastructure in place to make them liveable without a car. I like to live in the middle of things, I have cafe's, restaurants, takeaways, hairdressers, barbers, surgeries, supermarkets,local shops, clothes shops, pubs, gym, swimming pool and a large park all within a 1 mile radius of my house, all walkable. The city centre is only a 40 minute walk and there's buses if I'm feeling lazy. I'd hate to have to get in a car just to get a fresh baked loaf of bread!

in Italy until the 1980s, at least, the principle of decentralization existed, prohibiting the opening of new sales points too close to others with the same economic reason, thus encouraging traders to disperse throughout the city rather than all gathering in the city center . Now we are becoming Americanized, facilitating large-scale distribution and suffocating small and medium-sized traders. All the neighborhoods of my city had at least one theatre, a couple of single-hall cinemas, and various entertainment, sports and cultural venues; everything within walking distance. Now there are supermarkets in theaters and cinemas are multi-screen cinemas. Thus the money does not remain in the economic fabric of the city, circulating and creating social wealth, but goes to the few super-entrepreneurs who own the chain stores, who perhaps live in the Cayman Islands, and the city will never see a cent of the investment made by its citizens

2:34 Here on the map, Leipzig is shown, specifically the districts of Alt West and Lindenau, which cannot be called suburbs. These are indeed urban areas, though not central. So, it's not quite an accurate illustration. As suburbs, one could consider the districts of Markkleeberg, Markranstädt, Rackwitz, Taucha, Großpösna, Schkeuditz, Krostitz, Böhlen, Borsdorf and Naunhof.

Adam Something is one of the best channels on this platform. You should 100% check out more of his content!

Hello Joel. As usual, UK is sort of in-between.