> Maybe having just one euro/asian-style dense city with bike lanes in the US wouldn't be such a bad thing to try out?

What do you call Manhattan? It would count among the ~10 most dense cities proper in the world.

The US only has Manhattan because it's grandfathered in from the 60s. It's not a free market for density.

- 30% of it is historical district that is basically frozen.

- Wastes surface space with 300k curbside parking.

- 75% of streetscape goes to cars, apparently bike+bus is <1%.

- Still has the same silly zoning issues that plague other cities.

I could go on but I don't want this to explode into more of my YIMBY hobby horse.

The momentum in NYC has made strides lately which is cool to see. But I'd like a US city to experiment with something less car-/nimby-brained. Until then, it's more sensible to live abroad, which feels ridiculous in a country as big as the US.

Manhattan is a fragile and hellish dystopia with fading relevance.