As someone from a more densely packed country, I’m always amazed by how much open space there is in the U.S. — long stretches of highway, massive front yards, even entire neighborhoods that feel “spread out.”
Does it feel freeing? Lonely? Normal? Do you ever wish things were more walkable or connected? Or is the space part of what makes it feel like “home”?
Genuinely curious how it feels to grow up or live in that kind of scale.
Comments
Pure freedom. An entire continent that’s all ours.
Depends on who you are. I love our open spaces between cities, our amazing natural areas, and our wide open spaces. But for me personally, suburbs or rural areas are not for me. If anything, I want an even denser city that’s more walkable, bikeable, and with better public transit. I have a few places I like in walking distance, but I still drive almost everywhere. I love my neighborhood coffee shop, ice cream shop, aviary and park, and bars. Unfortunately the local baseball team moved stadiums, so I can’t walk there anymore which is a big bummer for me
I’ve always lived here. It’s been ok. How does it feel where you live?
It is nice but also inconvenient at times. Everything is so far apart that traveling becomes a hassle. It can also be very expensive.
The vastness of it is beautiful but after 12 hours of “beauty” I’m ready to run off the road.
It’s good. I feel very suffocated when there’s too many people in a small area. I need room to breathe!
It feels awesome.
I recently moved next to a forest preserve near some farms and it’s FANTASTIC.
I grew up like that, now live in a big city which I prefer for walkability and easier access to services and work. But I understand the appeal. It’s very peaceful, quiet, and you tend to know your neighbors a lot better than you do in a city.
It would be nice if things were within a more walkable distance but that being said, jumping in a car and driving is so normalized it’s just “how it is.”
I also hate neighborhoods where houses are stacked right on top of each other with about 5ft-8ft between them.
Love it. Love seeing empty forest or field. Openness is great compared to packed cities
It does feel freeing and lonely in a good way. I think it’s very normal. I don’t like with things are densely packed. The space, the freedom, that’s home
Love it! What is there not to love?
I don’t think about it as all, since this is the way it should be. Anybody that thinks the world is overpopulated has never been to west Texas.
“Far” is a relative term. Four hours each way is day-trip range for me.
It’s really nice. I’m sure it’s just about what I’m used to but I find densely packed places unpleasant. Occasionally worth visiting for the stuff they pack into a small space but I wouldn’t want to live there.
Walkability is not a priority for me. The weather sucks too much of the year for me to voluntarily commute without my air conditioned box and I’m priced out of the spots that are nice year round. I’m cool with it being a “when I want to” not an “I have to every day”
It’s awesome.
I love it! There was some discussion this week about the Milky Way and how many many humans will never see it and someone posted a light pollution map
I was shocked because I can easily see it on a clear night from my front yard, and I happen to be on the edge of a bright spot in the map. But it’s only a 30-min drive to complete lack of light pollution
I lived in Tokyo for a year and the crowds were stifling. One of my host families had a 4th story flat rooftop and that was my only spot of peace in the entire city
I live in an apartment building.
I wouldn’t change it, but it can sometimes be frustrating knowing that it’s a days’ worth of driving to go a meaningfully long distance in this country. Sometimes envious of Europeans who can do a day’s worth of driving and cross 4 different international borders and be in a place that feels totally culturally different.
On the other hand, we’re one of the few countries that have genuine, serious wilderness, and that’s something to be cherished.
It’s not empty, it’s just not packed. It makes me breathe better to be in an open, outdoor space.
During Covid, not having a neighbor within a half mile was a relief. I had room to be me and not have to worry about running into crowds.
Having space is peaceful.
When youre plopped in the middle of a landscape where the horizon and the sky go in forever it is very freeing and beautiful. But yes I really wish we had more walkable cities that were connected with trains. Cars are quite impractical for travelling in between cities
I live in one of these places. It’s 20 miles in between me and town with nothing in between but national forest, lakes, rivers, etc.
It feels peaceful.
Freeing. We very intentionally moved into one of those spread out neighborhoods. I am not a city person.
Windows down on an open country road after you’ve just escaped the traffic in caught the city’s gravitational pull, going 70 and blasting American Girl.
Its pretty but can be inconvenient if you live there
Normal. I’d go nuts in a densely packed place.
We love it.
I love having space. It’s almost a mile to the next house from where I live. I could have a full Metallica concert and my neighbors likely wouldn’t hear it.
Personally, I love it.
It’s amazing. Most of us love the nature.
It’s trippy to think that the reason that there’s a settlement roughly every 30 minutes of driving is because that was a day’s horse ride back in the day.
It feels normal but some prefer dense cities and we have that as well
Normal and sometimes freeing
It has positive aspects. The negative is that some of us have to travel far for specialized services. I happen to live over 2.5 hours from a large city. On the good news, you can drive without stopping for a long time if you feel like it.
If you don’t like the space you can move to a city so we kinda got something for everyone
Whenever my sons and I want to kick or throw a ball around we can go right out the door and use our own fenced-in space. It’s awesome.
I’m a different feeling from living somewhere with lots of trees and woods to explore from the wide open plains of the Midwest. I enjoy visiting cities where everything is close and you can walk everywhere but I love being able to drive for days and not having to stop at borders.
After living in NZ for 3 months I realize I spend more time driving then I do at my job sites 🥴
It’s nice, because it means my neighbors are over there instead of right there.
Not everyone lives like that. I live in a high rise with more than 400 residents.
Different for everyone. Go downtown to a lot of cities, see cities like NYC, San Francisco, Boston etc, they’re very similar to Europe. People that love cities similar to you often live there.
Then there’s a lot of people that love being in the middle of nowhere. I grew up like that and don’t miss, but everyone’s got their preferences.
I now live in the suburbs and love it. Can have a yard, house and still walk to places and have all kinds of stores within a couple of miles
I love it. Grew up in the country on 80 acres (about 33 hectares)
One of my dreams is to have a cabin in the middle of nowhere from I can’t see another building or human.
I have never thought about it since I live in a very densely populated state. I only saw the wide open spaces when I traveled out west to Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. It was nice but I wouldn’t want it live there. I’d rather live in New York City
I love it. It’s so peaceful and beautiful.
If I win the lottery I’m moving to the middle of that nothing specifically to get away from people
People are over rated
I live on 2 acres and my nearest neighbors are still to fucking close.
But that’s as much because they are horrible people as just the proximity.
But another acre between our houses wouldn’t hurt, of that I’m sure.
My first job out of college, I lived in Europe.
At first I had a good honeymoon with my new country.
And then I realized there was next to nowhere with truly open, free nature where I could walk and be completely alone.
My wide open spaces are more important to me than I previously realized.
People who want to live in the city do. People who want to live in rural areas with no one around do.
Honestly? It’s pretty nice. I do wish my neighborhood was more spread out than it is, though.
I honestly don’t need that huge empty space. But I had the crowded congestion of Major cities like New York, Seoul or Tokyo.
So I love that in the US I get options
You want that dense city life? You got NY, LA etc
You want empty and open country?
Bro we get like 20 WHOLE STATES JUST FOR THAT
And anywhere in between
So I like the small to medium city life.
Populated enough that’s there’s a lot to do, has everything I need.
But small enough that it’s not grossly over crowded and I can have a 2 story house with a backyard.
Thing is if you want someplace populated you can find it, but if you want to be alone we do that pretty well here.
Living in the woods might be the greatest thing in all of humanity. Nothing more freeing than that. Spent a whole summer learning how to climb trees good and swing like a monkey. Why? Because I could and it’s really REALLY fun. Won’t get that anywhere else but private property deep in the woods.
Not everywhere is like that. But it depends on the person. I prefer the city. Many people prefer rural/country areas.