Why Car-Dependent Suburbs Suck: Explained with Cities:Skylines

Cities Skylines, Urbanism, and an attack on car-dependent suburbia all in one video.

I did an experiment to see if dense, well designed cities do would do better than one which is purposefully designed to be sprawling and car-centric.

[dl]

I grew up in Houston where my life seemed to revolve around my car. A few years ago I moved to Singapore and now I happily live car-free. Commuting to work by bus takes 30 minutes, half of which is walking. Now I don't want to leave.

[Jackdo]

Keep in mind, for anyone reading this comment, that Cities Skylines itself is a rather car dependant game. If a car dependant city fails in a car-dependant game... that's truly saying something.

[catholicfemininity]

As someone who grew up in the suburbs, it really kills your adventure spirit and makes you a homebody. If I wanted to live in a place with a lot of nature, it wouldnt' be a suburb. Suburbs are just a massive unwalkable concrete bedroom community.

[ammabthedigitallynomadic]

When the world almost ended in 2020, I was living in NYC for a decade. And I managed and bartended in bars and restaurants so I lost all my jobs . I remember thinking I wanted to leave NYC, and then I thought of what cities could I possibly live without driving …Eventually I just ended up leaving the United States completely. And I already knew this, but every place I lived ( with the exception of Ghana) had significantly more conveniently walkable cities . Almost everywhere is so much more liberating to live without a car.

[jessicalizarraga]

This is 100% true. I moved to Phoenix Az in 2018 and couldn't believe that you needed a car for EVERYTHING. Literally, if you don't have a car is hard to find a good job. You are tied to car payments, insurance, gas and car maintenance. Why isn't this optional? We should have the freedom to choose on wheter we want to own a car or not.

[davidperry]

My ideal city would have bicycle paths, buses, trams, and trains implemented to perfection, car free shopping plazas, poly culture landscaping, and the ability to enjoy slow living.

[nickburke]

Awesome Video! These are the real issues we need to be talking about in this country. The quality of life and levels of happiness reflect heavily on our environment. Really everything in our lives are affected by where we live duh!

[armandoserna]

Totally agree, 100%. Hope your channel blows up to get the attention it deserves. Awesome videos. Keep up the good work. It won't go unnoticed.

[grahamturner]

I wonder what the comparison would be like if you used the Realistic Population mod, and it’s interesting to see the same parallels with the unrealistic base game population numbers.

[MrGlugz]

All this is on top of the fact that Cities Skylines is completely rigged in favor of car-centric philosophy (which is not a bad thing because as a game it needs to be fun). There are way fewer cars being simulated, they disappear into thin air, requirements for parking are almost non-existent, road maintenance does not scale linearly with car use and is also greatly reduced, and more. The game doesn't do those things like in real life because this kind of design is a recipe for bankruptcy, which is what realistically happens with car centric planning: they are all of them financially insolvent and exist by having better planned city centers heavily subsidizing them.

It's easy for people to say they prefer this kind of lifestyle and neighborhoods, when it's other people footing the bill for their crumbling infrastructure.

[mukainoda]

Tennessee Williams once said that America only has 3 cities " New York, San Francisco and New Orleans .that is it

[Random.ChanneI]

4:19 what is this place? It looks like hell but what town on earth is this?

[elisfsharri]

Can you do a video where you try to improve the car dependant city?

[alangag]

the best video i had ever seen about this topic! great

[oganessongang]

I think it's a common misconception that the American planners are "bad at planning". In reality, they seem to be doing exactly what they intend: ensuring car dependency. They need to be replaced with planners who value walkability and multimodal transport.

[oap]

Do some of these program/games have options to choose already built real cities and allow you to make changes? It would be great to take my home town, Tucson for example, and experiment with infrastructure changes.

[post-leftluddite]

Keep up the good work, I hate car dependency

[noahnelson]

Dope video bro. Seen you on tt and hit your link tree to come over here. Im with you! Any chance we get vids on the best planned cities?

[Blazeit-rjeb]

Damn, this is great, you’re like donoteat01, but you actually make videos!

[winstonday]

I too am a casual hater of soulless car dependent cities such as Phoenix