Looking further ahead, some urban planners are imagining how suburbs might evolve. Alan Berger, codirector of the Center for Advanced Urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that if efforts to retrofit suburbs and reduce car dependency pay off, the paved area (in the form of roads and parking lots) in future suburbs could be

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Creating pedestrian plazas like the one in Times Square is prevalent in many European and Asian cities like Amsterdam and Tokyo. They prioritize public transportation and cycling infrastructure while U.S. cities often favor cars.

And all of this increased dependency on the car. Before 1920, most American city dwellers had commuted to work on foot or by public transport. But during the 1950s commuting by car became the norm and has been ever since: today eight in ten Americans drive to work, usually alone. Zoning rules contributed to car dependency in the new suburbs by stri

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