> Selfishly, I really want the USA to bring city centers back to livable levels by banning most cars and redesigning them for humans. Otherwise I'm absolutely going to end up moving to Europe eventually -- likely the Netherlands
There isn't a single US city which meets your criteria?
Nope. And I've tried. US cities are so dominated by cars that other modes of transportation are an afterthought.
If you've ever tried to bike on an icy bike lane (when the car surface was cleared days ago), been honked at by aggressive drivers on residential streets for daring to walk or bike, been yelled at by a driver parked in a bike lane, or been stressed out by a street corner that becomes completely blind to traffic due to a huge parked car... that's what I'm talking about.
I'm not the grandparent, but I've looked a lot and I don't think there is a single city. New York is the only place you can reasonably live car free without feeling like you're handicapping yourself to make a statement, but it's also very specific type of city that comes with a lot of other baggage (e.g. expensive, overly dense and urban, arguably not where you want to raise kids, etc).
There are plenty of cities where you can live parts of this life, for example when you're young. But when it's time for a family there's basically nowhere in the US you can avoid the house-and-two-cars typical American lifestyle (except New York City with lots of money).
Cities in the US with strong public transit have only ended up building moving toilets for the homeless. There are a number of bigger issues that come first before billions more in public funding goes into larger wheeled toilets.
There isn't a single US city which meets your criteria?
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