Urban planning is a choice.
When you think of a "neighborhood," what do you picture? Block after block of houses? A variety of homes and businesses all within walking distance? A community of people in close proximity who see and interact with one another regularly?
Neighborhoods can look very different, and the rise of suburbs in the past century changed the way neighborhoods have traditionally functioned. Sprawling housing developments often lack the "walkability" factor that serves as a hallmark of urban life. But a comparison of two side-by-side suburban neighborhoods shows that design is not a given, but a choice.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
A video from Streetcraft Shorts shows two neighborhoods in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, that offer drastically different ways of living. One of them is built for people and community, the other built for privacy and cars. To showcase the differences, the video goes through the process of getting a pizza in each neighborhood.
The first neighborhood contains continuous tree-lined sidewalks and nary a driveway or garage in sight. Vehicle access to the homes is from alleyways behind the homes, so the streets don't feel like they are geared toward cars. The lack of driveways cutting into the sidewalks also makes it safer for kids to walk or ride bikes down the sidewalk. Many of the front porches open up to green space as well, with intertwining paths people can walk on as shortcuts through the neighborhood.
Paths through green spaces make walking more inviting.Photo credit: Canva
Perhaps most importantly, this neighborhood includes businesses. This is possible because the variety of home types—single-family, townhomes, and duplexes—creates enough population density to allow businesses to have a walkable customer base. The pizza place is right there in the neighborhood, so people can walk to it (though there's also parking behind the building, so they can drive if they prefer). Businesses are right there on the street, just like the homes, which creates a more cohesive sense of place compared to having a strip mall on the edge of a gigantic parking lot.
Want to walk down to your local pizza place? Photo credit: Canva
The other neighborhood is different. This one is all single-family homes with driveways and garages at the front of the houses. There are no businesses in this neighborhood, so you have to go to a pizza place a few blocks away. The distance isn't terrible, but there's no infrastructure in place to make it walkable. In fact, there are streets between the neighborhood and the pizza place that have no sidewalks and signs indicating you're not even supposed to walk.
To get to the pizza place, residents have no choice but to drive on a large suburban road and cross four lanes of traffic. The pizza place faces a parking lot—not exactly a community-based location to eat outdoors. The community appears to be built for cars, not for people.
Some suburbs seem like they were solely designed for cars.Photo credit: Canva
Many people compared the first neighborhood to what's commonplace in Europe and other older places:
"In Europe, pretty much every neighborhood has a little coffee shop, a hair salon, some little stores, mini market.. it's easy to go out and grab something you need, by foot. Almost everything we need is available in walking distance, so it helps us being healthier and we breathe a little fresh air while we walk.. we only use the car for longer distances or big shopping."
"The Northeast (maybe the East Coast in general) is sort of a different beast to the rest of the country because a lot of it was built in an earlier time when walking was the primary mode of transportation. Or at least that's what I think. Out West where I grew up, the second neighborhood you see in the short is much more typical, with suburban neighborhoods centered around cars and no nearby businesses until you get to a commercial zone."
Not having driveways in front of homes makes sidewalks safer and more user-friendly.Photo credit: Canva
Zoning rules and regulations are partially why modern suburban neighborhoods are what they are, and automobile companies are partially to blame for those regulations. For decades, car makers have pushed car-dependent lifestyles and influenced city planning, which has altered what we view as normal.
While many feel that the first neighborhood is more desirable, not everyone agrees. Some people prefer not to interact with their neighbors, want their own backyard over communal green spaces, and wish to enjoy the greater sense of privacy that the second neighborhood affords. Whether that's a product of getting used to those kinds of developments or a genuine desire for less community, walkability is a legitimate question and everyone has their own preferences.
Either way, the contrast illustrates that urban planning is a choice. Neighborhood design must be intentional, and as this video shows, it's not actually all that difficult to create the kind of quaint, walkable, community-centered neighborhood so many people desire, even in the suburbs.
black and white short coated medium sized dog lying on green grass during daytime Photo by 
Man shares a joyful moment with his dog in a sunny field.
A baby goat on a yoga student. Photo courtesy of Lainey Morse
Lainey with her goat Fabio. Photo courtesy of Lainey Morse
Courtesy of Jeff Harry
via City of Calgary
Annie Reneau
Marita GrowingThunder (third from left) and supporters of her 80-mile walk through the Flathead Indian Reservation. Photo via 
Photo via 
Images via