American vs. European Suburbs | American Reacts

Thank you so much for watching!! This one really hit home...

Original video and credit to:
American vs. European Suburbs (and why US suburbs suck)

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#reaction #funny #american #education #europe

[Mr.Gottfried]

People calling the police on the neighbour's children playing outside is just insane. How can driving your bicycle to the park be illegal. How can walking be seen as suspicious behaviour? This is so unbelievably mind blowing to my European mindset.

[MarcelHeldt]

I live in Germany. Inside a radius of 300 meters from where I live there are 2 bakeries, 2 pharmacies, 1 grocery store, 2 restaurants, 2 fast food shops, 1 ice cream shop, 1 butcher shop, 3 flower shops, 1 clothing store, 1 barber shop, several doctors, 1 retirement home and 1 Amazon locker. But it's still very quiet and by bike I can get out of town and into the woods in all directions within 5 minutes. I love it.

[Dqtube]

The concept of the zoning is why all the old SIMcity-style games are so unnatural to me. I didn't understand it as a kid because the surrounding world is so different. In some countries/cities, it is even required that access to basic services is taken into account in a new development project. So you can't build a place with hundreds of houses without a kindergarten, grocery store, etc..

[jensschroder]

A suburb must be planned as if it were a village in its own right. Then it's a good suburb.
That means it needs a town center, a small shopping center and a community center.
A school, a kindergarten etc..

[danielcarroll]

I grew up in the US and have worked in Germany, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia as well as the US. I have never owned a car. In Karlsruhe I took the tram. In Saudi Arabia I lived on the campus of a very large hospital with shopping two blocks away. In Indonesia I was in an exalted position. :) I was provided a driver from the local taxi company to get to the project site. Of course from my hotel I had access to everything walking. And now in retirement I live in Berkeley, California, a real five minute city. Five minutes by foot to two food stores, ten restaurants, three coffee houses, etc. A bus at the corner every 12 minutes that goes to the subway and beyond. And the subway goes to three train stations and two International Airports. This is because I live in a former streetcar (tram) suburb. Just lucky I guess.

[SweDaneDragon]

As a european, I love my car. It gets me where I can't get by public transport. But where public transport is more suitable for where I'm going my car stays at home.

[tofton]

I live in what you can call "countryside Belgium" and yet, 15 minutes top to find several restorants, shops... in every directions!

[Linda-hslk]

I live in a smaller village in the east of the Netherlands. A little more than 4000 people. Would be called tiny in the US. Still, when I go outside I can walk to the supermarket. Walk to the butcher, baker, bookstore, several restaurants, doctor, dentist, physical therapist, gym, hair salon, shoe stores, outdoor store, etc etc etc. We have it all and all within a walking distance.

[lucamaiorani]

I am Italian, and I grew up on the suburb of a small port city of 23, 000 inhabitants. I didn't live near the center, but I walked to school and walked to everything, even the athletic field.

And then obviously the neighborhood of a small city like mine also has its shops, its squares, its meeting points, its bars.

In large cities the neighborhoods are real towns.

[peterparker]

Even in Europe you can be extremely dependent on a car when you live outside a metropolitan public transport region or in the countryside at all. And an increasing number of smaller villages and towns lose their local grocery stores, pharmacies and even pubs and restaurants because they're no longer viable to operate.

[thepurplesmurf]

Americans: Children go outside on their own? illegal. Add a room to your own house? illegal. Build public transportation? nope. Build stores in a residential area? illegal ... and so on and on
Also Americans: Wohoo, Freedom! We are the freest people on earth, 'Murica 'Murica 'Murica!
🤣

[morbvsclz]

Mixed Zoning is so benefitial, I don't understand anyone being against it... Having residential houses close to a Bakery, a Butcher, a small grocery store, maybe with Postal services included. Kindergarten and school within your suburb. The ideal suburb is one that you never have to leave to cover your everyday needs, because everything is within a mile radius.

A suburb should be a village / small town with everything that entails, that just happens to be close to a big city... And of course connected to that city via public transport.

[tawa]

Fantastic reaction, I'm in Europe myself and didn't know about many of the issues you face in the US that you and the guy in the video mentioned. It was really interesting to hear about the differences.

[johncrwarner]

I think the video by "Not Just Bikes"
called "The Best Country in the World for Drivers":


because the road planning initiatives in the Netherlands

are about road safety first but had the side effect of
more bikes and better infrastructure.

[fixieboy]

Un Miami we have great urbanism for the rich and tourist, but the rest of us get dump in the suburbs. However; I have to mention that not too far out west we do have decent old style suburbs that are not gated communities, that are not too big, that look more like traditional neighborhoods with stores nearby and nearby a mayor streets with commerce and restaurants.

[riccardocoletta]

Italy. I've got a car, but I usually take it only once a month, on saturday evening, when I go out with friends and we take it in turns, so I take it once every 4 weeks
I take it in some special occasion, like when we go to the water park with family and things like this... Let's say that on average I use the car from 3 to 6 times a month

[thorbenbohrer]

Who exactly wants to be dependent?
Noone i know.

[yorkaturr]

As a European I think it's impossible to eat a proper dinner without wine or beer. You can't drive while under influence, so I don't see how restaurants only reachable by car can work.

[manub.]

For some people, living in the countryside and working in the city is unfavorable. Public transport to the nearest train station sometimes only runs every hour or only 3 times a day. Therefore, most train stations also have free or inexpensive Park & Ride spaces for cars. Anyone who lives outside of a big city often has difficulty finding parking spaces in the big city and is therefore better off taking the train in terms of time.
Sometimes you have local public transport, but you can only get to where you want to go on the weekend with 2-3 changes :) Example:-> during the week a bus leaves my place every 20 minutes and also stops about 15 minutes away from a hospital. On the weekend, however, you have to take the train to the big city and then change to another bus line or even another train line. Greetings from DE.

[jeffafa]

The dedicated building zones are what messes up things most in the US, probably. If you only build one type of building in an area (like business in one spot and housing in another), you force people to travel further. That's what makes everything be so far apart, that you are forced to use a car. And because you need a car, you need a car-centric infrastructure.

Change starts by how you look at neighborhoods...