Originally Posted by Mobile 155

I couldn't say for sure and my guess would be no better than any other guess. It seems as if to many the high cost of housing for anything close to a turn key, plus the desire to live where the action is, pushed the budget to the top. The complications to owning and operating a car would only lower the amount of home or living area they were interested in. The only exception to the trends that I could see were ones that had families that were more interested in ocean access, mountain views and had older children that would enjoy such things. Still they represent the minority. I think the other thing is the attempt to maintain a expat standard of living in countries that may not pay the same size salaries for the jobs the families are used to doing. The nice part is the program normally goes back to see how the family or couple are adapting. The most successful moves seem to be corporate transfers and then location is the number one consideration and they will push the housing budget to get closer to work so driving simply isn't important. But as I said that is a wild guess.

Originally Posted by cooker

It does tend to suggest (to me, at least) that there might be more of a latent demand for old-world-style car-free city living in North America than we realize, that isn't being met because our cities don't accommodate it. Obviously this only applies to a portion of the population, but perhaps a larger chunk than we think. The fact that so many ex-pat North Americans can so easily transition into the Barcelona or Amsterdam way of life, means that we might see more of it here, if we build for it.

Originally Posted by cooker

Do you think the producers select for that, or is it a trend that is a lot more popular in foreign cities than in domestic ones?

Originally Posted by Mobile 155

I am pretty sure our laws would preclude Barcelona style building. Super narrow streets that a fire truck would never get down will never pass muster with safety concerns here.

Originally Posted by jon c.

I don't think it's a trend as much as a reality of life. Larger foreign cities tend to have better mass transit and using mass transit is therefore more of a cultural norm. In the US, people in NYC want to be near mass transit. But outside of some areas of a few other large cities, most places in the US don't have the same level of transit options and are set up for automobiles.

Originally Posted by cooker

But why? Especially if Americans relocating abroad are happy to adapt to that European lifestyle? Why don't they bring those ideas home?

Originally Posted by cooker

But why? Especially if Americans relocating abroad are happy to adapt to that European lifestyle? Why don't they bring those ideas home?

Originally Posted by Mobile 155

If you would like another guess. Here you have to sell the idea to the voter. The plans have to get past the government and it is not something 9 out of 10 people are interested in. We tend to build for the majority and fund accordenly. It isn't a build and they will come proposition.

It has been long held practice to tear down and upgrade buildings like they have in Barcelona. No way will you see modern American cities with doorways that walk out onto the street. We might as individuals find that charming but building codes and road standards will not permit it. My guess anyway.

Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike

For the same reason that Europeans and other foreigners relocating to "America" adapt to the "American" lifestyle and don't bring those ideas home.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule, just as there some people who can't seem to adjust at all no matter where they live and prefer to live in a dreamworld of their own making that is more to their liking.

Originally Posted by cooker

You're an exception to the rule, in that you cycle more and drive less than the majority of folks in your community. Do you think that was at all inspired, or at least reinforced, by all the time you spent living in Europe, or perhaps by immigrant parents if you had them, because that is more the norm over there compared to here?

Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike

BTW, bicycling for routine transportation purposes to include shopping or commuting is the exception to the rule everywhere in the U.S. and almost everywhere else in first world countries. Especially doing so if not forced to by economic circumstances.

Originally Posted by McBTC

Interestingly, "Wealthier people in the U.S. are far more likely to own a bicycle than their less well-off brethren (71% and 38%, respectively)." You would think a lot of folks in India would commute by bike but it's only about a percent. <5% of Indians even own a bike...

(e.g., see:Car, bike or motorcycle? Depends on where you live | Pew Research Center )

Originally Posted by cooker

Those wealthy Americans mostly think or them as toys, as you do, rather than useful.

Originally Posted by McBTC

<5% of Indians even own a bike...(e.g., see:Car, bike or motorcycle? Depends on where you live | Pew Research Center )

Originally Posted by cooker

Really??!

Originally Posted by cooker

And only 6% of Indian households have a car. Presumably they are getting to work somehow - how do you suppose they do it ?

Originally Posted by wolfchild

Like this...

Originally Posted by cooker

Your personal lifestyle may well be sustainable, and of course you are free to live it, but for many rural residents it's an illusion that country living is somehow greener than city living. They occupy more space, drive more, need more energy for home heating and other uses, it takes more energy to deliver mail and parcels to them, their malls and mall parking lots take up more space, and in those and many other ways, they strain nature in general far more than if the same number of people lived in a fairly compact neighbourhood; and most of them eat food produced some distance away by somebody else, just like city people.

Originally Posted by StarBiker

Some of what you described is rural, and some isn't. Where I live a lot of people live close together, and I do not live in the city.
Much of the food can be obtained from local growers in the Burbs, as well as the City.
Rural to me is remote. There ain't gonna be mall parking lots.
Do you know anybody that lives off of the grid?

Originally Posted by cooker

Aha, they do have bikes! Looks like they're way ahead of Oslo in terms of car-free transportation. Obviously it needs to be upgraded, but given how crowded the country is, I hope they learn the lessons the Dutch and Danish and Chinese and so on are learning, and focus their modernization efforts on mass transit, cycling and walking.

Originally Posted by cooker

Aha, they do have bikes! Looks like they're way ahead of Oslo in terms of car-free transportation. Obviously it needs to be upgraded, but given how crowded the country is, I hope they learn the lessons the Dutch and Danish and Chinese and so on are learning, and focus their modernization efforts on mass transit, cycling and walking.