Can we fix the suburbs?

The suburbs are boring, single use, car oriented, low density, and segregated. How can we solve these problems and turn them from a liability to an asset. Or is it not possible at all?

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Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos and Hannah Woolsey
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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[barryrobbins]

One of the issues is that the roads in many suburbs don’t have layouts conducive to increasing mixed-use zoning. The roads are not even good for their intended use. They are basically obstructive to prevent through traffic.

[denizwesley]

One of the single most effective features I see in Euro suburbs (and cities) are culs-de-sac that don’t end. They only end for cars. There generally are walking paths that’ll connect individual culs-de-sac to each other and then connect to feeder and/or arterial roads. This feature ensures walkability/bikability and would probably go a long way in American suburbs, as the cul-de-sac will otherwise ensure that most of everything is outside of walking distance

[Alex-cwrz]

I think the victorian suburbs is what I consider is the sort of the peak design for what a suburb should be, great public transport links, a central street with local shops, a large park, and town houses with beautiful design, street patterns that aim for density, but can also be well designed with cresents etc

[AA_cowgomoo]

Lived in Korea for a year. Love having corner stores in walking distance. Also makes daily exercise much more fun and interesting. Probably trivializing the situation but if a city allows every corner lot to be multi usage lot, it would be a start.

[ac]

The US and the USSR, truly 2 sides of the same coin in housing yet in 2 opposite directions. Subsidized, standardized housing with artificial layouts is what both have in common.

[elizabethdavis]

Please consider traveling to a streetcar suburb and make a similar video and talk how how they were designed and layout

[Trenz]

As a west coast suburb nomad it's always hilarious to watch your videos and hear about the cities I've lived in. It's refreshing when a few of them often come up as good examples lol

[lexa_power]

As someone who can’t drive due to disability, and would love to live in a “nice area” but am forced to live in the city because I have to be near public transit, because the suburbs don’t have busses or public transit or usually even Uber drivers nearby, thanks for seeing and hearing the disabled community in this video ♿️🧏🏼‍♀️👩🏼‍🦯🦮🙏🏻☺️ Wish more able bodied people had compassion like you!

[rexx]

Last year I stayed in suburban area of Montreal. It was much more dense than a typical suburb with most residential buildings being two-story quad-plexes. Even in this area which was a distance from the center of Montreal, I could walk to corner stores, larger supermarkets, restaurants and the metro was less than a 10 minute walk away. The area was clean, leafy, quiet, safe, near parks and all those things people stereotypical associate with suburbia. But it was much more pedestrian friendly. There is a way to do suburbs better. While a car may still be handy, you could totally be car-lite in a neighborhood like that. I like having a car, I just hate needing a car to do *everything*. For most Americans if their car breaks down and needs to be in the shop for a week they have to rent another car to be able to live life normally. That's crazy to me. In Montreal, if my car was being repaired for a week I wouldn't even be inconvenienced much.

[MikeHarris]

Yes, HOA can stop trees from growing. My neighborhood, trees can only be so big, after, you have to pay to remove and plant a new one....

[MarioFanGamer]

Since I'm from Europe, modern suburbs gives me quite some uncanny feelings. The biggest one are the standardised houses which are so unnatural, it is incredible.

[AmmarRaadAly]

Yo Dave!, an architecture student from Egypt here
I have been watching your content for the past year
by now am obsessed with your content!!!

[rylandplassmann]

I have an idea: connect cut-de-sac to cut-de-sac with bike paths or concrete walkways. It would still achieve its goal of preventing rat-running. The problem now is convincing some homeowners to sell parts of their yards to make these paths.

[Urbanhandyman]

Realistically it makes sense to emphasize new neighborhoods be built at higher density with moderate amounts of in-filling in currently existing single-family neighborhoods. Since homes are individually owned the rate of change in single-family neighborhoods will be sporadic at best. It can't be planned and implemented very well. I agree with the video that increasing density on major arterial roadways is key to chipping away at suburban sprawl. Many suburbs have long and wide streets that act like junior freeways and are anti-pedestrian in nature. I would focus my efforts on that part of the suburbs. It will result in the biggest pay-off.

[ThecrazyJH]

Imagine if each suburb had even their own convenience store and park, most new ones don’t

[SpikeyTech]

I used to think I hated living in cities and that I only had 2 choices: either live in a place that's far away and quiet, or in a place that's convenient but loud. Turns out I just hate suburbia.

[mikeydude]

Honestly I don't care if a place looks "cookie-cutter" if it's got the other stuff and doesn't cost way too much. If your biggest problem with your affordable, transit-accessible apartment or house is that it looks "bland", I'd say you're doing pretty well.

[Merle]

It's sad when, as human beings, we have to do the stupidest possible thing, to realize it was dumb.

[jacktattersall]

Last week, the city of Toronto (in Ontario, Canada) enacted four-unit multiplezes city-wide, not counting already legalized garden/laneway suites (theoretically allowing five units on what was a single residential property before). The province of Ontario has basically banned single-family zoning, ordering municipalities to change zoning codes to allow at least triplexes. To the chagrin of suburban councillors, Toronto went above and beyond the provincial mandate.

[Julyst]

Yes, You can. Toronto has been doing an ok job at it.