By "car-dependent" I mean the style of US urban planning that has dominated since WW2, with huge tracts of single-use zoning, miles and miles wide. Usually dominated by cul-de-sacs with feeder roads. There is nowhere to walk to, distances are far enough that bicycles even become challenging, and it's impossible for transit to serve the road design, because density of housing is too low and the intentional lack of a connected road network makes it too difficult to ever run buses in a meaningful way.
Cul-de-sacs are used to minimize the danger of cars (the largest cause of child death) and keep traffic to a minimum where people live, at the expense of circuitous routes. And they shift car traffic to even more dangerous feeder roads, that have high speeds and few crossings, that serve as extremely dangerous barriers for pedestrians and bikes.
Cul-de-sacs are used to minimize the danger of cars (the largest cause of child death) and keep traffic to a minimum where people live, at the expense of circuitous routes. And they shift car traffic to even more dangerous feeder roads, that have high speeds and few crossings, that serve as extremely dangerous barriers for pedestrians and bikes.