Why European Cities are The Best

Researchers and city planners alike refer to European cities as some of the best in the world. There are various factors as to why cities across Europe regularly rank as some of the best in the world to live and thrive in. We'll take an urbanist lens into what these factors are.

The average street in Amsterdam. Notice how there are no cars, instead there is a lovely atmosphere and easy access to shops. Google © 2026

Street design is one of the most impactful aspects of a city. A poorly designed street is a poorly designed city, and vice versa. There is an important point of comparison made between the streets of Amsterdam and the stroads of North America and Asia.

A stroad is a type of road that acts as a mix of a road (heavy, high-speed through traffic) and a street (light, low-speed traffic with destinations only). The main issue is that stroads are terrible at both. The term was coined by the urbanist organisation Strong Towns and is used to refer to the kinds of roads seen in North America.

Stroads tend to be extremely wide with multiple lanes for car traffic and frequent intersections for acessing businesses and homes. This may sound good on paper, but in practice is inefficient and dangerous. Traffic lights are extremely common on stroads, and in conjunction with high speed limits, get ignored by drivers regularly and accidents are frequent.

Street design in European cities on the other hand is far more sophisticated, partly owing to the history of our cities. Streets are narrow and many cities have adopted one-way systems or pedestrianised their streets to allow for a more comfortable and safe environment for pedestrian traffic. On the other hand, roads are used on main arterials and outside of city centres to ensure that busy and pollutant traffic remains firmly aware from as many people as possible.

Additionally, cars are not the priority user on European streets, instead the priority is given to pedestrians and cyclists, with cars seen as a "guest". Meaning lower speed limits and only local traffic using streets. This is a core design principle of the famous Dutch streets.

A stroad in Los Angeles. These types of roads are extremely wide and dangerous for anyone outside of a car. © Ken Laud

Another crucial aspect of European cities is the vast transport networks you can find. Everyone knows London's Tube or Berlin's U-Bahn, these systems are far-reaching and extremely dense, allowing for the vast majority of people, residents and tourists alike, to travel into cities without a car. This is great for many reasons, it reduces car traffic going into the city which reduces congestion, and importantly it means the air quality in European cities is high.

North America used to have a vast transport network, "Streetcar Suburbs" spread during the early 19th century, with trams connecting these towns to nearby city centres. This effect is regularly seen today, build new transport connections and entire communities will spring up around them. However, American car manufacturers, such as General Motors, bought these companies up and closed the tram lines in the 50s, replacing them with the automobile.

Streetcar suburbs are still regularly considered some of the best neighbourhoods that North America has to offer, despite the lack of an actual streetcar.

North American cities struggle immensely with the pressures of congestion, as people are forced to drive from the suburbs straight into the city centre for work, only some cities have a limited subway network. New York by far remains the best in this regard, its subway system is a core part of its identity.

Meanwhile, many European cities have much less congestion thanks to the presence of useful public transport, largely metro and trams.

A London Underground train at Baker Street, the first Underground station. The Tube is a core part of London's identity today and is an excellent example of public transport in cities. © mattbuck

Finally, another important factor is the importance of density.

European cities are extremely dense, multi-story buildings make up the vast majority of real estate in cities across Europe. City blocks are usually made up of mixed-used developments (residences / offices on the top and commercial space on the bottom), this allows for a much more useful and economically stimulant use of real estate while ensuring a high standard of living for local residences. Car parks are typically placed outside of the city with Park & Ride facilities, or are placed in underground car parks beneath city streets. Skyscrapers are a rare sight in European cities, typically due to local laws restricting building heights, but generally because they simply are not needed due to the density of cities in Europe.

Meanwhile, in North America, you find that city centres are the opposite of dense. While, yes, there are many skyscrapers that dominate downtowns, the vast majority of the real estate is reserved for surface car parks. This is owing to the fact that people have to drive from the suburbs into the city centre for work or leisure. This means that real estate in North American cities are underutilised, don't perform well economically, and mean skyscrapers are required to make up for lost space.

The story doesn't improve the further out you go either, American suburbs are extremely large and vast swathes of strip malls, a consequence of stroads, are made up entirely of asphalt car parks rather than actual shops themselves. This leads to poor economic output per square kilometer, whilst more money has to be spent maintaining the seas of concrete and asphalt that exist. This is why North American cities regularly go bankrupt, they cannot afford to maintain this car-centric infrastructure.

An average strip mall in North America, taken from Sacramento, California. © Google

These aren't the only reasons as to why European cities are superior compared to their North American counterparts, but these reasons outline the fundamental reasons as to why they are. North American cities are slowly realising the errors of their ways, and some are slowly beginning to right their wrongs and learn from European design principles to improve their cityscapes, though this is a process that will take many decades and a lot of political will, something that is harder to find with many politicians these days.