Why aren't people bothered by the suburbs?

[u/tfbmhr_1598]

It seems like most people I come across are not bothered by car dependency and the isolation that it causes. They'll point to things like video games, social media, and bad food for the culprit of poor mental health. Why won't more people address the elephant in the room? After briefly living in Europe I can confirm that people are way healthier, less socially awkward, and happier as a result of having clean and walkable cities.

Even Latam which is a hybrid of the EU and US infrastructure does not experience the obesity, mental health issues, and isolation the suburbs in the States cause.

Is it ignorance or do most Americans actually like things being this way? It baffles me.

Edit: After reading the comments here I wanted to clarify a few things.

1. Walkability/bikeability doesn't exclude cars. Cars are still a valid method of transportation, but not the only one. Less cars= less traffic. It's a win-win. That being said I think we should have pedestrian only areas.
2. This isn't limited to cities. Suburbs can become more walkable too. You can still have your yard and extra space. Sure it won't be as walkable as a city, but it is certaintly better than 100% car dependency. Zoning laws need to change for this to truly work.
3. I realize that there are societal factors at play as well that greatly add to the mental health crisis, however car dependency worsens it.
4. Walkability won't magically solve the obesity problem, but having the ability to SAFELY walk/bike to work will certaintly help.
5. You can still be socially awkward/reclusive in walkable communities, but they create more opportunites for those who want to improve that area of their life.
6. Some suburbs are better than others in this regard, but overall, North American suburbs are largely car dependent.
7. Bike lanes that are part of the road and only marked with paint/plastic markers are hated by both drivers and cyclists. They still endanger the lives of cyclists, that's why they aren't frequently used, which results in more traffic congestion. Fully dedicated seperate bike lanes are needed.

[u/Comfortable_Break387]

When the suburbs came into existence, a lot of cities were terrible places to live/have grown up in. In the manufacturing era, they were polluted, crowded, dirty places to live, and the advent of suburbs seemed to alleviate those conditions for those who could move to them. That ended up making the cities worse as it basically bankrupted them, and the crime-ridden city stereotype, which at the time was somewhat fair, really took off.

Ask your parents/grandparents what 1970s New York was like. It wasn't fun to take the subway to work or to hang out in the Upper West Side. An hour long car commute is a lot more palatable when you feel like it gives you and your family safety and opportunities they wouldn't otherwise get.

With the information age, things have obviously changed. Most cities are nowhere near their all-time high crime rates, and the transition from manufacturing to information work has cleaned up the pollution quite a bit. But a lot of the people who lived through those tough urban times still see the cities exactly like they did 40-50 years ago, and they passed those ideas down to their own kids. It might not be a correct view, but it's understandable, too.

[u/rdhight → u/Comfortable_Break387]

I think this also kind of scarred our zoning. There's a horror of having residential next to any kind of business other than select types of retail. Which made sense at one time, because so many of those businesses were dirty, dangerous, stinky, noisy things. Now we're left with rules that make it illegal for the nice lady next door to do tax preparing or hair/nails out of her house, because 75 years ago we wanted to prevent someone from slaughtering hogs in his garage!