Depends where you are. Larger northern/coastal cities are often almost European, but elsewhere.. Subjectively speaking, I noticed two main issues:
1) Practical: cities/towns are often extremely spread out/car oriented, often with no footpaths connecting different areas forcing you to walk in the road, and occasionally you'll find that there is no way to travel between two points other than highway/interstates (which does have a hard motorized vehicle dependency).
2) Social: Especially further south, people not travelling by car are often 'viewed with suspicion' (vagrants, murderers, bogeymen).
I'm from the South and I have no idea what you're talking about. Those are just people who don't have a car, which is common in the poorer rural areas of the South.
1) Practical: cities/towns are often extremely spread out/car oriented, often with no footpaths connecting different areas forcing you to walk in the road, and occasionally you'll find that there is no way to travel between two points other than highway/interstates (which does have a hard motorized vehicle dependency).
2) Social: Especially further south, people not travelling by car are often 'viewed with suspicion' (vagrants, murderers, bogeymen).