Always that one street

[u/AtomicSub69]

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[u/StarChaser_Tyger]

What the catnip is a stroad?

That is, if it's the one I'm thinking of, a road in the middle of nowhere. It's basically an oversized truck stop. So yeah, everything is going to be kind of crammed together to keep it as close to the highway as possible. It's the modern equivalent of an inn with a stable. It provides a place to rest and necessary services.

[u/Vegetable-Light-Tran → u/StarChaser_Tyger]

What the catnip is a stroad?

It's a word that one guy made up for his book about urban planning, and it just kinda spread.

Like a lot of non-technical but academia-adjacent terminology, it just got picked up by randos on the internet and lost all meaning.

It basically means "road I don't like."

Case in point, I've seen people try to claim Japan has no "stroads" and Tokyo is a car free utopia - in fact, I have "stroads" on every side of my office in Minato Ward. The entirety if rural Japan is "stroads."

Saw a pic the other day on fuckcars of, like, a 4-lane road going under a highway overpass with a crosswalk - and they were like, "uS rOaDs aRe hELL," I guess because they didn't like walking under a highway? And it's just like - that's literally just a normal day in Tokyo? That's walkable? Shut the fuck up and walk across the fucking street?

The word is completely meaningless, it's a shibboleth they use to signal you're "in the know." What do they know? Nothing, really, but they're very angry about it.

[u/StarChaser_Tyger → u/Vegetable-Light-Tran]

" What do they know? Nothing, really, but they're very angry about it."

The internet, and especially reddit, in a nutshell,. :P Thanks for the explanation.

[u/AtomicSub69 → u/StarChaser_Tyger]

https://youtu.be/lG6jj9OCHzc?si=IU5ykAVYJdXV-wFu

[u/StarChaser_Tyger → u/AtomicSub69]

Dude's an idiot. That's not a town that's been decimated by Teh Evulz of Kapitalism. It exists solely to service travelers. People who have been driving for hours are not going to want to walk a lot.

[u/JonC534 → u/StarChaser_Tyger]

The hilarity of someone like the youtuber trying to say the above picture is an example of evil capitalism while they want everyone to live in a dense open air shopping mall

If anything the above picture is actually a good example of an area that remains relatively untouched by the excesses of capitalism. Its rural all around it there in Breezewood PA

[u/Any-Seaworthiness186 → u/StarChaser_Tyger]

NJB and Strong Towns have better video’s on stroads. They’re fine just off the highway, but many American cities have them all over despite being dangerous and especially unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists.

Would like to add that I’m not a major fan of NJB. They sometimes make good points but tend to demonize the USA too much and complain more than provide solutions.

[u/Lichruler]

Aaaah, they always use this ONE picture from Breezewood, Pa to talk about how America is an urban hell.

And then they have an aneurism when they see what it’s really like.

[u/707thTB → u/Lichruler]

Not just a random snapshot either. It took days of scouting, a scissors lift and a special lens. https://www.spotlightpa.org/newsletters/palocal/sep-23-one-photo-launched-million-breezewood-memes/

[u/Faolan26 → u/Lichruler]

It's almost as if highway stops require infrastructure.

[u/ho0iubjh99]

I believe that Europeans will bitch about everything that is slightly different in America. I feel like this guy has never been to a third world country where the roads barely exist.

[u/mustachechap → u/ho0iubjh99]

Are there not also streets that look like this in Canada, Australia, or Japan?

[u/Vegetable-Light-Tran → u/mustachechap]

or Japan?

There are, and the funny thing is that people still walk along them because they frequently have no choice. Houses are also often built literally feet off roads like this because of "mixed use zoning." 

The entire "stroad" thing is literally just made up and has no real meaning. Japan in particular is often fetishized by these people, but it's literally just fantasy and delusion. A lot of Japan's "walkability" comes from people being forced to walk on "stroads," shutting the fuck up, and dealing with it. And shutting the fuck up is literally a Constitutionally guaranteed right in the US. 

The only real point these people have is that US surface highways (i.e., not the actual interstate, like, the state highway going through town) like the one in the video do often lack sidewalks. In Japan, the highways have sidewalks, e.g., you can walk the 55 from Kochi City all the way to Muroto, or the 122 out of Tokyo into fucking nowhere because who the fuck wants to walk to fucking Saitama?

The only real reason you don't have that in the US is because it's honestly just kind if stupid and shitty. I spent years having to walk across the 55 to buy groceries - my sons were forced to cross it every day to get to school.

It kinda just sucks, so I'm not sure why these people are so desperate for a sidewalk there. "I want my kids to be forced to cross a 4-lane highway every day to get to school, just like Japan!" Just...why the fuck would you want that?

[u/liberty-prime77 → u/mustachechap]

Any country with a highway system has streets that look like this.

[u/Bubbly-Ad-1427]

oh no!!! one specific place with a bunch of businesses!!! america is DOOMED!!!

[u/LowlyAa0]

I need to find where this one street is so I can take a pilgrimage to where this photo was taken

[u/Agreeable_Leopard_24 → u/LowlyAa0]

Breezewood PA. Keep in mind I think this picture is like 20 years old

[u/LowlyAa0 → u/Agreeable_Leopard_24]

Thank you very much. Either way I simply must see it

[u/liberty-prime77 → u/LowlyAa0]

It's just a standard highway rest stop small town surrounded by farms and forests

[u/_Take-It-Easy_ → u/LowlyAa0]

It’s a rest stop off the PA turnpike

That’s literally its sole existence. For people to have somewhere to stop on a long drive. It’s gas stations, fast food, restaurants, and hotels

[u/tacobellbandit]

There was some thread where some European person was asking “why parking lots are so big in US??” And literally links a google maps photo of a restaurant and rest stop outside of Morgantown WV. Maybe there’s a big car lot because people presumably drive to a rest stop along the highway?

[u/Kevroeques]

“This is a stroad [reddit word I just learned and is now my most fervent quasi-sociopolitical focal point and religious view]”

[u/DDemetriG]

This isn't a Stroad. This is an Interstate Oasis, which by-design is meant to service Interstate Traffic alone. Real Stroads, meanwhile, are an issue across the US... but by presenting this image as a Stroad (which they only do because of the sheer amount of recognizable American Companies in the Image) is dishonest and distracts from true conversations about Urban Design and it's impact on the Economic and Social Well-being of a City.

[u/Rad_Victoriam → u/DDemetriG]

This is the most accurate comment in this entire post.

[u/Playstoomanygames9 → u/Rad_Victoriam]

Thus, it is at the bottom.

[u/Next_Rock_7732]

I like the picture and urban stuff but I can see why it’s kinda off putting tbh.

[u/BurgersGamers]

It’s an interstate junction and rest stop. It’s not meant to be walkable.

[u/707thTB]

I actually have some very happy memories of this very part of Breezewood.

[u/kent416]

Why does everyone think Breezewood looks like this? It’s just that one road