Recently experienced UN-walkable city for the first time

I'm from small town Scandinavia and have always lived in walkable cities where cars are typically restricted or not allowed in the city center, and the towns are just naturally made to be walkable.

Now, past few years I've been travelling a lot to Canada and the US, and I never realized the extent of the issue until being in bigger cities on this side of the pond.

I just feel so... Trapped. Without a car, I'm not going to get anywhere. All infrastructure is build around traversing by car, and it feels so isolating. I can't meet new people while in my car. Everything just feels like a trip from A to B, without any meandering or adventure. It's like everyday life is stripped of all opportunities to interact with the world.

I severely underestimated the psychological impact of this. I just feel zero desire to go out, because it'll inevitably mean having to jump into a car and drive to a specific place. It feels like going out requires a specific destination, rather than the trip itself being the point of it.

The size of things, too, affect it. If I were to take a stroll in the nearest city where it *is* walkable, I could walk for half an hour in any direction and end up on a nearly identical block of concrete and it's like I haven't really gotten anywhere. Or at least it *feels* like it.

I can't imagine what it's like for people who live here, but to my mind as an outsider I feel like I'd struggle making friends or feeling like I belong. The world here is something you just travel *through*, but you don't interact with