The result is a traffic jam on the main roads. The lack of an easy grid pattern makes walking around a neighborhood more difficult. There are other changes. Suburban planners zoned all commercial buildings into specific areas, far from homes. That's why it's so hard to walk anywhere in suburbia.
People have to get in their cars for virtually every errand.
Meanwhile, the architecture of suburbia is different from old city-style architecture. Many city homes still have front porches facing the street and parking in back of the home. But most suburban homes are designed with the garages facing out and living spaces facing the back yard. Planning codes require suburban lots to be bigger, that homes be set back farther from the streets and that there be more room separating houses. Part of the emphasis at next week's sustainable development conference in Detroit will be on reforming suburban building codes to allow more urban-like planning and architecture.