> The thumb of the people elected, time and time again, for several decades.

I feel like you haven't bothered to read or understand what I've written.

There are innumerable books on the topic, which go into depth about exactly who the people were, and the reasons they wanted to build highways, including the explicit racism.

If the people want racism, and vote in racists to enforce racism - which these highways did - then I am not going to pretend that what they wanted is something that I want, nor something that should be continued to be supported.

> I have not used that term once in this thread.

I apologize. I didn't see that you took up the exchange after
baggy_trough made that comment. Your two viewpoints were very similar.

> So what, the the police just come up with zoning rules on their own?

No. You asked what forces people to make that choice. Zoning laws, enforced by the police, prevent people from having the full range of choice. People choose from the options that exist.

> Richardson, TX? Plano, TX?

I looked around Richardson using Google Street View. It does not look like a place where it is easy to live comfortably without a car. It looks like standard R1 residential with most businesses on stroads meant primarily for cars.

Let's take 414 Salem Dr, which is for-sale, according to Zillo, and near the geographic center of the city. There is an elementary school in walking distance, and a grocery store a mile away on W. Campbell.

If after dinner you realize you need milk for the next morning, only the most dedicated of walkers will do the 40 minutes round-trip walk to pick them up vs. driving.

How do you visit the library? My local library has events for parents with newborns, and for young children. The nearest library to that address is the Richardson Public Library. It estimates 52 minutes walk time, or 47 minutes by bus (of which 35 minutes are walking). How many parents are going to do that walk instead of drive?

If on Saturday your 12-year-old wants to meet up with friends at the library "to work on a school project" (but really just to hang out), do you let the kid walk nearly an hour to the Richardson Public Library, along Campbell road and under I-75? There is no bus service for Saturdays.

This is a car-dependent neighborhood.

The fact that you think otherwise mostly shows you don't know what's missing.

> who would prefer to live in denser urban areas

Again, you are missing the point. There are people who want to live in denser suburban areas.

I pointed you to a video comparing two suburban areas, one in the US and one in Germany.

The fact that you think the only alternatives are single-family suburbs or dense urban is because that's the only two choices in most of the US.

>> of course not!

No. I mean that when I bought a house in a suburb even I wasn't all "wake up every day thinking "man I really hate living here, welp, guess I'll do nothing about it!"". Since I wasn't that way, why should I think others are? Your strawman position seems put out just to be silly, not meaningful.

> they enjoy living in the suburbs!

And how much should they be subsidized for their expensive choice which sucks tax dollars from poorer neighborhoods?