I love walkable cities, but when I dug into the data, I found that they're not really associated with lower levels of social isolation.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
www3.nd.edu
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
www3.nd.edu
What @drvolts says about colleges is of course right, but big-city life doesn't offer as much chance for randomly encountering your friends as you might think. When people are adults with jobs and/or kids, they have to actively seek friends out no matter where they live.
Also, in college you're physically near all your friends, but if you live in NYC or Tokyo it usually requires a trek to get to their house. Commutes by train are more fun than commutes by car (in my opinion!), But they typically take about as long.
The real key to propinquity, whether in a suburb or a city, is a *hangout spot* -- a place you and your friends just drop by and frequent. Think of the bar in Cheers, Jerry's house in Seinfeld, etc.
Making our cities denser and more walkable is great, for many reasons. But it won't put much of a dent in loneliness. For that, we need to get off our damn phones and go hang out at a hangout spot.
And speaking of which, I will now go do exactly that! π₯°
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And speaking of which, I will now go do exactly that! π₯°
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