Why American Suburbs are so Creepy (liminal spaces)

Have you ever wondered why suburban neighborhoods and empty parking lots feel creepy and uncomfortable? Why does America look the same everywhere? Images of suburbs are often used as Liminal spaces which are in-between or transitional space between two places. They're designed exclusively for cars and not for people. As a result, everything becomes a thoroughfare rather than a destination. Everywhere becomes a place to drive through and not a place to drive to.

➜ Follow Me:

➜ References & Further Reading:
Liminal Spaces:

Incremental Growth:

Homeowner Associations (HOA's):

Sense of Place:

Copy-and-Paste Towns:

Ontario losing farmland:

Japanese Parking Policy:

➜ Timestamps:
0:00 Suburban horror
1:07 Suburbs are liminal spaces
2:55 Why suburbs look weird
4:43 Everywhere looks the same
6:03 Natural city development
7:39 These are policy choices
8:57 Sponsor - NordVPN

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- flurf
#liminalspace #urbandesign #urbanplanning

[doomtomb]

It’s also the lack of trees in all of the images you depicted

[kailahmann]

Many of these places make me question "is it legal to walk there?".

[kclark]

I was delivering food pretty late at around midnight in the outskirts of my city. Passing by seemingly endless amount of houses, all with no lights on, and not a single soul walking or driving. Truly felt like I was utterly alone almost in some sort of twilight zone.

[theragnarok]

I came to America in March 2020. Didn’t have a driving license when I arrived, so had to walk through empty highways to my first job site for like 4.5 hours on my first day. Lockdown + no sidewalks + empty giant highways + ugly stroads. No bus or metro before 8 AM. I didn’t get my debit card until two weeks later. Didn’t have no friends who could help with taxi. It was the moment I realized this country is not designed for people. It’s designed to feed capitalism.

[KuleGuy]

Agreed. I ride my bike to school everyday and it feels so boring tbh. It feels like a desolate wasteland, and also because I'm the ONLY ONE riding a bike. It definitely feels like I'm in a zombie movie or smth.

It truly sucks, in no civilized society would you have to drive to a grocery store and not walk there. It seems that the country has been more about making money than putting health first.

"Kids, be thankful for your freedom, now get in the car"
(I stole this comment)

[mjg]

I grew up in Los Angeles. My parents who are now both over 75 years old said to me that they used to ride streetcars all over Los Angeles, AS CHILDREN, in the early 1950s in the middle of central L.A., but they disappeared... seemingly all at once. I asked my mom, "well, what happened?" She said they were replaced with buses and more highways were built (destroying many vibrant neighborhoods in the process). I later come to find out that the General Motors company had a nationwide conspiracy to get more people into cars and to buy their vehicles, so they bought up streetcar systems all over the U.S. and replaced them with big, gas-guzzling buses. When the buses proved inefficient in your daily life, you needed to buy a car. The car became de-facto "required" as a means of convenience, plus it was aspirational to own one (along with a suburban home, the car was a sign of "making it and part of achieving the American Dream", riding the bus or taking public transit in many towns was then viewed as socially "undesirable" and "inconvenient" -- and in many cases even derelict). Of course, car ownership shot up. However, the U.S. government FINED General Motors and ruled what they did as a conspiracy. But by then it was already too late. Also General Motors was one of the main lobbies behind the Highway Act which built more and more roads throughout America for its vehicles and to drive sales, under the guise of "convenience, " "efficiency" and "modernization". Thanks, General Motors. Oh yeah, the U.S. gov't also bailed out this company not too long ago.

[drakondra]

I'm from Eastern Europe. American traffic lights and road signs are terrifying for me

[poshko]

It's modern suburbs that look this way. The ones from the 1950s - 1980s really emphasized wide, spacious lots and self expression in development; they really took that charm of the country, convenience of the city concept to heart. It seem like from the 90s onward the emphasis was on construction efficiency (uniformity) and cramming as many "units" into the available acreage as possible.

[ToastedFox]

its wild when i see rows of homes and they dont even have sidewalks. like, those neighborhoods arent even designed for people.

[Alias_Anybody]

Fact is, if the street is barely wider than two cars, you actually a) need to know how to drive, b) drive slowly and c) be undistracted. Three things many US-citizens seem to be allergic against.

Edit: Because some people in the replies think I'm endorsing that, no, it's obviously pathetic.

[luxianolee]

I will never ever wish I had grown up anywhere else except New York. I truly love my city and how diverse, beautiful, modern and yet so classic it feels at times. Theres cars, sure. But theres also people every corner. Small businesses and stores that are different every neighborhood. And you can actually walk... basically everywhere. Thank god.

[buioso]

I'm glad in Italy we never adopted this model for the suburbs of big cities.
I mean, we have zones made only of single houses, but not this vast and monotone.

[ElusiveDino]

Having grown up in the USA, this video precisely describes how I felt about these places. Its like these places are not places at all like Not Just Bikes says. Being stuck at home feels like being stuck on a remote island surrounded by an inhospitable concrete wasteland. The only practical way to get around is to get in that metal box on wheels. Oh, and you must ask mommy and daddy to take you pretty much anywhere, but to where if everything is just copy-paste chain stores and restaurants.

[booboss]

Fun fact: even though American suburbs are so sprawl they are actually in total taking less space then parking lots in America - which BTW is another alarming statistics. In total there are 8 parking spaces for each car registered in America. In Europe on avarage there's 0.8 parking space for each car registered.

[_-]

as someone living in asia (taiwan) i envy you guys so so so much to have a dedicated living area, low traffic flow outside residential houses, and wide walkable streets. come to taiwan and live, and you will cherish the suburbs in the US again

[baseguitar]

I find it peaceful, 10x better than living in the ghetto.

[juugerjuuger]

Holy shit… this explains why people from the suburbs always act like they’re fearful/vulnerable. Like a mouse in the middle of an open field where there is nowhere to run or hide to

[weloveprincessdi]

i live in a small Texas town, and there are legit NO SIDEWALKS. if you walk anywhere, ppl will look at you from their cars and be like “why are they walking to because it’s so denormalized here. i used to live in the bay area, where walking anywhere was completely normal because there were actual sidewalks, smaller roads, and smaller parking lots. it’s actually wild how society functions in some places.

[frisconianlove]

What's creepy about the suburbs is that they are places designed for raising children, yet not places of actual community. Most suburbs have an antisocial antiseptic vibe.

In most suburbs there is a culture that people must leave their hometown upon graduating high school or a few years after. But what this creates is a bunch of adults with no sense of community, culture, civic duty or responsibility or desire to give back and fosters contempt for the less fortunate.

That is why privileged people who grow up in the suburbs feel no guilt gentrifiying established poor communities often of color in big cities because they lack the empathy and understanding that poor people have lived in these communities for generations and do not simply move out the second they turn 18 and acquire high paying jobs in far away cities through family or wealthy friend group connections and continue to live an upper middle class lifestyle their whole lives uninterrupted. Gentrifiers look at their new poor neighbors in big cities in the same contemptible fashion they look at their old classmates who never left their suburban hometowns.

[V-ICR]

I find crowded places to be worrying. Empty places makes me feel safer.