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I once read, “Americans are so nostalgic for their university days because it’s the only time in their lives they’ll live in a dense, walkable neighbourhood.”

I have no idea who first said it, but there’s a Reddit subthread on the topic here. It’s funny. And it may also be absolutely true.

According to the National Association of Realtors (USA), Americans prefer to live in walkable neighbourhoods. But the reality is, few do. Cities like L.A., Dallas, Atlanta and others are mazes of car-centric freeways. Manhattan is walkable, of course, but it’s an outlier in America.

And for suburban and rural America, well, walking is something those silly Europeans do.

And this isn’t dumping on Americans (even though as a Canadian that’s very en vogue). Canada is not much better. There’s walkability in some dense sections of our main cities—but most of us live in areas where a car is mandatory. Urban edges. The suburbs. Rural areas.

And we pretend to love it. But do we?

Beyond the nostalgia joke, which not everyone can relate to, think also about how we choose to spend our vacation time. Canadians and Americans alike LOVE all-inclusive resorts. Places where you never even have to leave the resort grounds—all of your necessities and entertainment are a short walk away.

Cruise ships are also popular—fully-encompassed floating destinations, where one simply parks the car at the terminal and spends the rest of their time recharging… spurred by the ease of dense walkability.

Or… um… Disneyland?

European vacations are similar—whether it’s a river cruise, or staying in central Paris or Rome.

In fact, outside of a vacation that’s specifically a road trip—again, primarily a North American invention—I’ve never heard anyone say about their time off, “It was great—we drove everywhere. Tons of time in the car!”

Yeah. We love density so much we’ll literally pay thousands of dollars for the brief privilege.

Which brings us back from vacations to romanticizing college life. A life where you likely don’t even own a car. You live in a plaza. Your social circle is a walk away; as is class (work), the pub, sports. And public transportation is seen as essential, not a stigma.

When you’re later commuting 45 minutes each way in bumper-to-bumper traffic and paying more than $20,000 per year in pretax dollars for the privilege—well, it’s easy to see how college life could be so romanticized.

I have news for you. This densification dream is a reality for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In fact, it’s just their norm.

But here in North America, densification and walkability is just something we enjoy for a couple weeks a year, or for a short time once in our lives… if we’re lucky enough for even that.