Can U.S. Cities Build Narrow European Streets? 

Nah hurry up instead them poor students are waiting💀

Any street in Philly. You could spend days roaming around the older neighborhoods in the city and exploring all the old narrow streets. Quince is just one of the better known ones.

Not US, but I loved how the narrow medieval streets in the Albaicín quarter of Granada, Spain wind their way up the hill. So absolutely charming!

Lots of the streets in Tokyo and other Japanese cities are similarly narrow, while still allowing cars. They're so narrow in fact that there's a kind of car designed specifically for the narrow streets called a Kei car.

Riggs Place in DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood looks great in the fall.

@@tuckerbugeaternot from a revenue/acre perspective. American development is such a waste of space and tax dollars.

@@tuckerbugeater Function doesn't equate to quality of life though. I mean, life is not about efficiency, work, it's not a competition or a rat race, life is ultimately about leisure, experiences, enjoyment and fun. It's to be taken slowly and enjoyed. Where I live, shopping isn't a chore for example. We go for a leisurely walk, pass by neighbourhood cafes, grab a coffee, chat with friends, buy a few groceries while we're out, then maybe walk the pram through a park on the way home. That is so much nicer than getting in a car on a 6 lane road, to a large parking lot, filling the trunk, and driving home. What kind of life is that? We only have a limited number of hours on this earth, we should be making the most of all of them and not wasting any on 'chores'. US design forces daily activities to be chores rather than recreation. By the way, I don't live in an apartment, I live in a family house too. But, I only drive about once every two weeks. We are surrounded by beautiful parks and recreation in every direction. We walk only 10 minutes to the beach with our dog and pram. We have a small supermarket a 2 minute walk away, but on our 10 minute walk to a larger supermarket we literally pass about 12 cafes (not a Starbucks in sight) with people sitting out the front enjoying life. After a day walking along the beach on Sunday and art markets on Sunday morning followed by an incredible middle-eastern inspired brunch and great coffee on a pedestrianized street full of outdoor seating, on Sunday night I went out to 4 different bars with a couple of friends, each one had live music, amazing food, creative drinks, we watched a stunning sunset over the bay, walked to and between all of the venues and then walked home to my house which is peaceful, quiet and surrounded by trees and birds singing. Does a "functional" US city set up for driving and parking lots allow for people to enjoy both the serenity of a suburban home AND the ability to have so much leisure within a pleasant walk? It easily could if the zoning simply allowed it. I have been to Salt Lake City before, and it was one of the most lifeless, miserable and boring city centres I've ever been to in my life. You couldn't pay me to live there. The city I live in (which is not in Europe by the way, and is also very car friendly and has a lot of suburbia), however, was named the "World's Most Liveable City" 7 years in a row in the 2010s so it must be doing something right that many US cities like Salt Lake are not.

@@JesusManera Melbourne? Or Montreal?

@@JesusManera That's one of the most pathetic things I have heard. You have no ambition.

No place is complete before it is completely deserted.

And that’s just the first community they have planned. 1,000 people. Next one is 10,000!

correction, they have parking for all their residents, but it’s for bikes so you don’t even notice it

Im living in Arizona currently and have always thought that Phoenix metropolitan area has so much promise to density and have nice transit due to its grid design and wide streets. Won’t have to tear down buildings at all to add bike lanes and transit or wider sidewalks since all you would have to do is shrink the road use for cars.

Every abandoned mall and big box site in North America should be converted to this. The typical Walmart sits within a 34 acre parking lot. You could put two of the Culdesac developments in that one Walmart, with 2000 residential units, and still have a grocery located within.

It's a good start. But very quickly can morph right back into giant private apartment or shopping complexes. If a 10,000 resident pre-planned community is wholly private land you lose all the public domain. It's much more likely to feel like an amusement park or shopping mall than a real organic place. Real places are made piecemeal over time, building by building. When a single property developer makes multiple city blocks in one go, it leaves huge chunks of a city owned and designed by a single entity.

Never mind that it's crazy, the vulgarity is that they're 33% full 95% of the time. Thanks to suburban sprawl, asphalt has replaced much needed green space

Exactly. That's the result of building a SQUATTER nation absent sovereigns oversight and permission.

This is true.

Please up the video quality to 4K60fps :)

That was what I was thinking too with respect to my city. Yeah we have big blocks but as a pedestrian it is relatively easy to find a way to cut through a block rather than walk all the way around the perimeter. Many blocks consist of parking or smaller buildings with maintenance and loading paths between the buildings you can cut through. Or they consist of one massive building with multiple entrances and exits and sometimes retail/coffee shops or a public lobby on the ground floor you can pass through. I don't think we need smaller streets or blocks because we already would just cut through the block.

There are a lot of cars in Rome, but it's still very walkable, at least in the center. Outside the center there's a pretty big lack of sidewalks and pedestrian streets though tbf.

Don’t know how it is in Rome, but to compare 2000+ years old cities, in Paris it’s quite tedious to drive around, the traffic jam is insane and there’s little parking spots. It’s almost the opposite of the US, people largely commute by public transportation because driving is not efficient (also the licence and car are so expensive most Francilians don’t bother). However public transportations has its limits, if point A and/or point B are not well served by the public transportation network then it can take x2, x3, x4… the time than commuting by car and regularly the bus just do not show up. So people end up driving because that’s the only reliable option.

I personally hate Rome. Other, not too ancient cities are definitely easier to actually live and work in (such as Berlin, Paris)

@@JinMeowsoon But Paris has 2.17 million people in an area the size of a US Midwestern township! It could easily be traversed by bike. And the mayor knows this which is why she's making the city more bicycle friendly.

A hellscape vision under the Hammer and Sickle! Peasants on bicycles under elites in private jets! The song 'This is NOT America' comes to mind!

@@Labyrinth6000 Save our asphalt.

@@Labyrinth6000 Trust me, I'm not one of those clowns. I like being an American and I probably wouldn't trade it for anything else, that said, I like European style cities more. If you wanna have your big suburban houses and your wide roads, go ahead. This isn't about taking anyone's freedom away, it's about choice, and right now, it's impossible to have that choice because building walkable cities is illegal almost everywhere.

Especially urbanism like hong kong and singapore. they have those narrow streets just like Europe and no skyscrapers at all.

Incredibly run down and inefficient?

​​​@@Labyrinth6000I love having freedom from choice 🇺🇸

What have they been replaced with?

@@sarahrose9944 I can think of one that’s being turned into a park!

@@sarahrose9944crackheads mostly

In Baltimore people do try to buy them and fix them but they end up getting murdered. Literally

@@krillin876 not even murdered but they finally realize why baltimore isnt worth it. U buy a house looking to fix it up and flip it only to find out there were 6 shootings near the house last month and a shootout happened last week. Baltimore has insane potential but its baltimoreans that hold the city back. Love bmore but damn nobody wanna invest and take a risk on that city, look at all the houses on the market broken down and abandoned for 50-90k those same houses are 600k+ in dc.

There are some cities build on triangles instead of rectangles. For example Szczecin in Poland. 3 turns is 360 degrees. This fucks up with your intuitive sense of space and navigation in so many ways :)

Life long Philadelphian, the city’s got so much charm to it

That area is really cool

Er do what now? Fairmount Park is the largest landscaped urban park in the world!

@@GIRLRAZR Right, but south philly lacks parks that are in the .075 to .2 sq mile range. Versatile parks that can host more than a few functions and offer a real repreive from the urban landscape.

Yea Philly! When I saw the thumbnail, I recognized it right away. I've been living in Philly close to 20 years without a car. My secret is riding a bike, I can get anywhere I want without ever worrying about parking. There's maybe only a handful of days a year I can't ride due to weather, and I can easily take public transportation or ride share. Riding along the Schuykill is my favorite, and parks are plenty. I regularly go to FDR, Girard Park, or Rittenhouse. With the money I've saved from not owning a car, I was able to buy a house. Many Americans make excuses for not wanting to invest in public transportation and bike infrastructure, they really don't know what they're missing.

Same thing with the popularity of Disneyland and that taste of the walkable, pedestrian friendly "American Main Street" experience our country used to know

If you were to add walking streets inside a block, don't make them straight or thru connections, (because straight thru connections are attractive to be made into motorize fast travel from point A to point B).

That psychological need to stick to the edges is called survival instinct/fear. Since childhood we are taught to stay out of the road for our own protection, and to be wary while crossing it because we ultimately can only trust ourselves to look out for our own well-being. This means its very ingrained to stay away from the middle of the road no matter what state its in. (Even on private logging roads with super low traffic volumes i walk along the edge and not down the center) A slightly different factor is that black asphalt gets really hot in sunlight so being on it sucks as a human. (Although this doesn't so much push you to the edge as completely off and into buildings or onto the grass)

Most European cities with narrow streets were built so on purpose for military and defensive reasons to hold back invading enemies and allow resistance to prevent takeover. This is not a consideration in the USA.

@@bcase5328 , I'd say DO make them straight through connections - so that they offer a reasonable route for non-car modes.

Same here! If I could afford it with how popular they probably are 🙃

Same. They aren't NYC expensive but are pricey. I am planning on renting there when I save up the money to move. I think Philly has its issues, but these areas are far from all that and it's mostly gang on gang violence in the ghetto areas that bring the murder rate up. I visited Philadelphia often and felt very safe in Society Hill, Fiitler Square, Old City, and Northern Liberties. I walked everywhere and it was great walking in a pedestrian-friendly city that is very flat and condensed. The train network might not be as great as say NYC, but you feel more like a person instead of an ant with all those skyscrapers NYC has. While it may not have as many things, it's less expensive and polluted. I think it has a ton going for it

Get some money so you can live in the nice parts like me. Philly great love it!! =)

Absolutely. This has been a talking point among urbanists here in the US for years and it makes a lot of sense for our grid systems

Have you ever been to the projects? We have superblocks here but they turn into drug markets.

No, I love to drive, this channel apparently hates our countries system and is bent on trying to convince others to turn into Europe...

Salt Lake City has blocks that are about 200x200m. Barcelona normal blocks are about 100x100m and the super blocks are made up of 9 blocks, so 300x300m. You could easily divide a Salt Lake city block into 4 smaller blocks by adding 2 streets in a cross pattern and achieve something very similar.

Interesting fact, original plan for Eixample (the blocky part of Barcelona) was intended to have pathways, parks and public spaces within each block, but unfortunately they all got entirely built out

Philadelphia?

@@redditstop1653there’s rowhouses al over the Midatlantic. Could be anywhere in East PA, NJ, Delaware or Maryland

@@papaicebreakerii8180 True, even Midwest cities have row houses look at Saint Louis and Pullman district in chicago

​@redditstop1653 The northeast and midwest have most of the rowhouses in the US. The modwest boomed during the industrial revolution, so there are a lot of old cities that were built without cars and parking lots in mind. Most of the midwest cities destroyed their walkable cities to accommodate cars, or the fell into disrepair from white flight. It's so sad to look at cities from the midwest. They had beautiful architecture and they no longer exist

@@DavidLopez-rk6em Yes. Even at the most wealthiest neighborhoods in central St. Louis there are still vacant lots between row house blocks (Many were converted to side yards for existing homes). Only a handful of cities such as Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis still have strong urban cores in the Midwest.

Philly just isn’t meant for cars and I’m a Philadelphian truck driver!

Yep. Basically all of south Philly has narrow interstitial streets like the ones in the video (though sadly with fewer trees). For the last 15 years I've been living on a street that's barely wide enough for 1 car to get by and has no on street parking. I absolutely love it. It's great for families too, since you can let your kids play outside on the street with friends without having to worry about cars.

Totally agree. Baltimore is a beautiful city with an incredible amount of "vacants." However, where there are neighborhood improvements, rising rents becomes an issue

Baltimore has a reputation of having high crime. That needs to be fixed before people want to move there again. A shame because it has an interesting history.

​@@JohnFromAccountingthere's so much construction on the east side, I think people are moving here

@@ssquints8056 There's gotta be a way to improve cities without gentrifying them (and thus, kick out residents who lived there for years, and may have low income)

@@dx-ek4vr there ain’t. You want people to spend millions fixing homes without raising prices? In what world

There is a push to get rid of zoning laws in the U.S.. unfortunately vested interest is fight it to “protect home values.”

amazingly bad

​@@veziculorileindeed, amazingly bad. Amazingly awful even!!

@@veziculorile Agreed.

Glasgow has a grid system to a degree, but way smaller and walkable. Milton Keynes - the post World War II New Town - has 1 km grids with lots of roundabouts, with the city centre districts and various suburbs inside the grids. But has cycle paths crossing it and at least some bus routes.

Ask your friend if she would prefer decent mass transit, or a free designated parking space near her apartment with non-congested roads. The vast majority of Americans choose the latter.

@@JohnPrepuce ... and how's that 'non-congested roads' thing going?

It's been a while since I visited Rome but doesn't the city have a modern underground system? Despite the system people seem to want to drive in a very congested city.

laurencefraser - actually not too bad in most places. Even in the places where it's most congested, people still choose to use automobiles instead of mass transit. New York has the best mass transit in the US and the streets are far from empty. That means that people really want the freedom of the car and more emphasis should be placed on how to make driving more convenient and safe. Many (not all) of those commuters on the subway would choose the car if it was more convenient; instead they are forced into a situation that is not really what they want.

@@JohnPrepuce When a population hits a certain tipping point, you cannot avoid traffic congestion and at that point only better public transit is going to solve the mobility problem. Having non-congested roads in a city of millions of people like Rome or NYC is a fever dream. If you want to drive everywhere and never deal with traffic then move to the countryside. It's also interesting how Americans are so conditioned to be afraid to be around other people and have to be in a car to do everything. Last summer I spent 3 months traveling across Europe. No car. Just a rail pass and using bikes, metro, buses, trains and yes even an occasional Uber here and there when needed. Never felt so free. No worrying about parking, not even knowing or caring what the gas prices are. In some places like Switzerland public transit is so clean you can damn near eat off the floor of their trains. And super efficient too. Experiencing Europe just taught me that there is a whole other way to exist than this car-centric way of life in the US. And then the whole isolation and lack of community that comes American style suburbanization. Nothing compares to walking the narrow alleys of Nice, Milan, Croatia seeing friends and families eating outside on a summer night, on pedestrian only streets. Plazas around water fountains filled with musicians, lovers, people enjoying themselves. That's just something beautiful we don't have in this country because of the way we designed our cities around cars. All because the auto industry lobbied government to build freeways and tear up public transit so that they could profit.

The majority of people who own giant SUVs and pickup trucks have no practical need for them, the proof of that is that families are no bigger than they were 20 years ago but 20 years ago the vehicles were much smaller. Perhaps making it harder to own SUVs and pickup trucks would change people's choices to more sensible vehicles. But then again, the reason the US has such poor planning codes is because of the influence of the auto industry, the same industry brainwashing people into buying those idiotic vehicles, so that's unlikely to happen.

I don't know when you where in Europe last, but today pretty much everyone have a suv

except for europe, japan, bangladesh and very few other coutnries, the rest of the world drive larger vehicles than the one you see in Rome, on overage.

​@@matsv201 That's just wrong, sedans still rule in most of Europe. Crossovers are what's really frowing but those aren't SUV.

@@meneither3834 You are also somewhat wrong though. Saloons and estates are more popular here than they are in North America, sure, but hatchbacks really form the backbone of the collective vehicle fleet of any European country, even as crossovers have become more popular. And let's be honest, a lot of crossovers are based on hatchbacks anyway, and while their styling might make them look a bit like SUVs, their height and ground clearance are often almost identical to those of a typical hatchback.

I'm curious about the average size of firefighting equipment/trucks in Europe? Are they typically as large as American firetrucks or are they also more compact (i.e., could fit in a narrower street)?

@@RichTCS more compact

Why do American fire trucks have to be so big? Can’t they come up with smaller versions?

I'm an architect in the US. The concept here is that the fire truck should be able to pull right up tight against the burning building, with fire coming out the windows. When I was a baby architect I foolishly questioned that and learned quick that the fire marshal is king, and it doesn't matter what the code says, what counts is what he says. I learned to just hold my breath through the fire department review, and hope we got off with just having to add a fire hydrant, or loop some water lines or something.

If they want 2 firetrucks, is it possible to make it 1 lane wide, with enough pedestrian and bike lanes to bulk it up to 2 lanes of width total?

‘Block’ is not a concept in the UK, we think in terms of the streets rather than the parcels of land.

It depends. There does exist cities in Europe that was built in the 1800s. Those often got grid like blocks. For example the town i live in is a perfect example. It was a tiny village before the railroad. Then it expanded to 10 times thensize during the late 19 century, with city blocks very simular to those in the US, here the blocks are 180x100 meters (Well, some have become super blocks and some have been cut up) So downtown there is a smal area with narrow old streets... there are like 3 of the .then around that area there is about give or take 100 blocks, most 180x80 meters. The on the outside of that there is more blocks but in more iregular patterns. And out side of that there is suburbian areas built in the 1860s with commi block still and then outside of that there is villa zoning. What people in the us call suburbs. Built mostly between 1950 and 1990. Those areas are ieegular by design. The villas built after 2000 are mostly built in villages out side of the town.

It probably IS a condo. When they're short on space, a lot of developers look to use "two-over-twos," which is like selling a townhouse twice minus the expense of setting up the condominium regime.

Yes I remember when the Kings moves from Natomas to Downtown at the now Golden 1 arena is when this happened. Sure these things that the video is suggesting work in Downtown areas wanting to boost tourism to the district. All this video is suggesting works in San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, Downtown Napa, Davis, West Sacramento and Sacramento to boost visitors to those districts. However I live halfway from all these places like Fairfield and Vacaville and they would not fly here due to the area being suburban and wildfire risks in these areas.

Oddly enough, horses and wagons were very common in Britain in a similar time period. The wagons just tended to be smaller and require less animals to pull them. The result? Perfectly compatible with most streets and roads of the time (and, of course, there were the trains...)

The 1950s had some very effective propaganda, first selling the car as the definition of freedom and how that justifies car infrastructure to make that a self fulfilling prophecy (because now you actually need a car to go anywhere, hence a car has literally become freedom from the prison of your home). And the suburb was sold as the ultimate compromise between rural and urban life, all the safety, clean air, and space of the countryside with all the amenities and economic opportunities of the city. (The reality is not so much) And so today we may still be capable of great innovation, but too many are either still bought into the past's propaganda or unable/willing to try to fix the mistakes of our grandfather's. Even when we want to change its always expensive and political (politics will have people take a stance they know is wrong just so they can oppose their enemies, i hate politics)

That's because city planning is done in US by local politicians. And their biggest concern is raising tax dollars and more jobs for the poor. Strip malls do that fast. But they are short sighted, because creating beauty will grow the wealth of a town, long term.

@@saratemp790 In my experience , local politicians' top priority is keeping the NIMBYs happy. As the Strong Towns videos (and some on this channel) show, strip malls generate a lot less tax revenue per acre than traditional downtown blocks.

@@blubaughmr Yes but strip malls are faster and easier to build. Building downtown blocks takes years of planning and coordination.

Yes. I'm a child of the 70s and America was still seen as the future then. But now it seems stuck in the past. They spent all that effort to keep out socialism, but have ended up with planning laws that would make Brezhnev blush :)

Was it an orphanage or a whole prison complex?! An orphanage would be one building...

@@josephfisher426 former owner : i would like to plead the Fifth

Ngl, it’s weird that townhomes for rich folks used to be an orphanage back in the day.

Yes I hope CityBeautiful does a video on Northwest Philly soon!

Fellow Philadelphian here. I totally agree with you. Germantown is a perfect example of one urban area of the city of with very tiny streets. They almost mimic Elfreth Alley. Heck, on many of our streets you can only Park on one side or on the sidewalk itself. In some areas of South Philadelphia lay park in the middle of the street. The limited amount of parking causes a lot of headaches though. Especially in the wintertime. Some areas you have to park blocks away or fight for parking spot everyday. Although everyone says they would love to live in areas where they can walk to work that isn't the reality of America. Most of us live in these smaller neighborhoods and work somewhere on the other side Uptown, forcing us to have to drive. And let's face it, SEPTA is not the best always a good alternative when the routes they take are not always through the safest neighborhoods. I love my city. The smaller neighborhoods really give you a sense of community. It's really easy to get to know your neighbors and everyone has they're adopted onto your uncle that runs the corner store. But, as with all major cities in America, some that are even larger in population than some European countries, there is shoes that come with living in one. Overpopulation, is just one of them.

When he said affordable, I thought he was just saying in comparison to most big cities. I live in DC now and those trinity homes would probably be triple the price here if not more. Philly is affordable for east coast and is a reason why it has started becoming attractive to millennials and gen z.

​@@Camie.in.Philly I live in north Philly car-free and can't imagine doing it any other way. I actually think we shoot ourselves in the foot by not leaning harder into being a rare old-school city in the US. We should prioritize transit above cars, including putting a dedicated bus lanes on Germantown Ave. The 23 is more popular than any trolley line but gets delayed like crazy. The more we prioritize Septa and the more people ride it, the better and safer it gets.

@@WilliamRayner3 Ah, okay that makes far more sense on a larger scale, you're right. I think I misunderstood in what context he was talking about it in.

I was in Portugal a few months ago and saw cars making 90 degree turns on streets this width. Crazy.

I know cars are smaller in Europe, but even then, how could almost any of them fit through, apart from microcars and maybe sub-compact cars.

Definitely true in Greece as well. I saw vehicles go down streets so narrow they had only inches to spare on either side.

@@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333 when you know the size of your car it's easy and you do it without sensors. There is no need for a microcar just normal european car

I had that experience in San Juan. It was traumatic.

City Nerd makes me sleep. He's the Bob Ross of urbanism.

Our suburbs are more urban and walkable then sunbelt cities

How bikeable is the city?

@@waywardgeologist2520 extremely? It was built way way way before the car. Now most normal Philadelphians don’t give a flying fuck about the cyclist & would run u over and keep driving but I digress.

​@@phillygrunt2154as a fellow philadelphian I agree lol

​@@waywardgeologist2520we do have lots of bike lanes and they are starting to do protected bike lanes where the cars park on the other side so you between the sidewalk and parked cars

There's also a development in Southwest Atlanta called Murphy's crossing that is designed for car-free living with narrow streets and close proximity to heavy rail

Yep. The dependency of personal vehicles in the US is a large reason why this won't be an easy idea to implement.

I will never use public transport in any capacity, the entire idea is ridiculous. Who wants to be a slave to a timetable and surrounded by disgusting general public. Had enough of that in high school. Never going back

@@chrisr.6638 that’s a pretty absolute statement. I guess you can drive to anywhere north of the Darien Gap, or take a private plane, but the time for driving or the money for the private plane could be a bit much. The schedule and general public thing are relative. I recommend Tokyo, not during rush hour. The general public are remarkably clean and polite, and many trains run frequently enough that schedule is irrelevant. Driving can be really annoying too. You’re still with the general public and now they have thousands of pounds of juggernaut of death under their control. And you can all crawl slowly along without a reliable schedule. In Japan, you can have a long journey with no need to pad the schedule much at all. If it’s all trains, timing is very precise and reliable. With cars, especially in places like LA, not so much.

@@glypnir The Japanese are a high IQ society and known worldwide for behaving well in public. Not the case in europe or the states or anywhere else. Even then, you're dealing with being locked in the trains like a sardine in rush hour. With cars, yes you're dealing with low IQ's surrounding you everywhere, but at least no ones breathing on the back of your neck. Again I get off my driveway and go wherever I want, not being reliant on some public time schedule. I do big groceries for the week, amount I would never be able to carry by myself, no matter how close the store is. I'm in Europe, which is supposedly a leftist wet dream in terms of public transport, but I will never use it. There's a reason cars became popular, leftists are just looking for a new religion, doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. Also anyone above 30 wants to live in a house with a garden. You snap out of the desire of living in flats and crowded places as you age

​@@chrisr.6638 Imagine taking your experience in high school and applying that to other areas of your life. People would rightly call you a fool. Look at other places that do public transit well and recognize that relying on a "timetable" is pretty much non existent. As for your "disgusting general public" comment: You need to get out more and see people less as enemies. Places that cares about good service will keep it clean and pleasant.

Compared to the US though, Richmond is incredibly walkable. You could walk to Swan St, Bridge Rd or Victoria St from pretty much anywhere in the suburb and have a lot available, not to mention the amazing public transport links there with trams on all 3 of those roads, plus Church St, 4 train stations and literally half the city's lines running through Richmond Station!

Heck yeah! I also really really want to have the option to live in a place like this in the US. I'm not sure how yet 😅 My kids joke that we should just start a new car-free city in a cornfield. Maybe that's what it will take 🙃

Where I'm from in Melbourne aus has fairly wide streets (mostly 20m judging from maps) and is highly walkable. I remember hearing the ox-drawn thing as well but can't find any confirmation. Similarly to Philadelphia, we have a ton of laneways and "little" streets that break up larger blocks. There are some places that have their entrances in the little streets (essentially single lane) but they also provide back entrances meaning that pedestrians can walk around on the main streets without double-checking driveways. The streets are almost all one lane either side (idk how to describe this since it's so walkable I haven't learned how to drive) with room for a footpath, street trees, street parking, median strips and/or tram tracks. We definitely still have some stroads but it's so clear that width isn't the sole issue.

Buluwayo like every city in Zimbabwe was built by the British to be car friendly and fast to expand so shouldn't it be closer to American cities?

@@Bolognabeef That's exactly my point. The wide streets use traffic calming measures which make it safer for walking.

Fort Wayne and South bend have been doing some really cool stuff lately in that way!

That would be my solution as well. Or you could have the access road get to your little square, but only from one direction so there's no though traffic but the fire trucks can still bet to where they need to.

I would suggest a access road with moveable barriers as another possibility

My solution would be to leave the boat on wheels at the fire station for starters and get a normal firetruck, found anywhere else in the world, with a with of 2,55 m.

Why give them that satisfaction?

Well at least the tall buildings mean the density's not rock bottom, so public transport is still somewhat viable

True. Europe has millions of citizens living in a manner the average American would find familiar. At least you have options. We really don't.

Mind if I ask what country or an example suburb for reference?

@@Urbanhandyman hmm, I'm from Italy and have been in the US some times in New York, Chigago, Los Angeles and some other places.. In Italy i think we don't have almost anything close to the US suburbs way of living (in both what's good and bad). We do have suburbs and a problem with sprawl especially considering that the pressure of population density on the plains is very high but it's a different kind of sprawl and way of living. For example a problem here is the disorganized development of many manufacturing activities and some residential areas that are very often consuming the cultivated land in a patchwork that is very inefficient and consumes the available space.. I'd say scale is also a huge factor since here most of the people live in cities that to US standards would be very small. Milano, Rome and Napoli are the largest metropolitan areas and together would sum to about half the population of New york.. This means that very often people living in our suburbs have a different kind of life and set of problems.. Most of our suburbs are still at bike distance from the city center (i live near one edge of my city and it takes me less than 20 min to reach the cathedral by bike) but are very often lacking bike infrastructure etc. suburbs are also often very busy and chaotic and can be pretty dense to the contrary of many US suburbs where you have that quiet, peaceful vibe with little houses and large gardens. single family houses are only really common in the countryside. Then, of course, European countries have many differences on this regard.. London suburbs can be somewhat similar to the US ones..

@@enricozetti I agree with you. I'm referring more to density and car dependence than the actual physical architecture with large green lawns in the front. There are many areas of Spain, France and England that are built that way, but with brick, less parking, smaller lots, etc. Overall though it reminds me of older Americans suburbs. That type was built between 1900 and 1940. Ultimately, Europe offers far more variety than in the U.S. no matter the housing type.

Chestnut Hill is very popular with Brit expats because of the similarity in housing stock to the UK!!

Yeah, cobblestones are no good.

Well it's not particularly easy then, what if the homeowner doesn't want to sell you the yard space?

What is the basis for your comment? Newly built narrow streets are commonplace and a feature of many design codes and design guides. They are essential to delivering policy compliant residential density and supported by developers and planners as an efficient use of land. Narrow streets with rights of way favouring pedestrians and cyclists supports active travel over vehicle movement.

Sorry? In London exactly the opposite is the case- new developments are infill of older space and so get progressively more finely divided.

​@@charlesunderwood6334 What's your point? How does that change what I said? Do you think Europe equals London?

@@user-lv6rn9cf8m Not at all; only saying that thesis developments are still happen going in some places