Suburban typologies

[King of Kensington]

A basic sketch of the suburban form in North America, obviously with some generalizations:

Northeast Corridor (i.e. NYC, Boston, Philadelphia)

Railroad suburbs and industrial satellite cities, towns retain distinctive character, some early postwar mid to low density suburbs,no edge cities or post-1980 suburbs, very low density estate country, looser boundary between suburban/exurban/rural

Midwestern (i.e. Chicago, Detroit)

Mostly postwar mid to low density suburbs but some old railroad/streetcar suburbs and more edge cities

Southeast (i.e. Atlanta)

Little pre-war, largely post-1980, low density and super-sprawly, largely unincorporated

West/Texas/Florida

Little pre-war and largely post-1980, higher density "cookie cutter" suburbs, mix of very large cities and unincorporated, "harder" boundary between suburban/exurban/rural

Canadian

Like the Western typology but with more apartments and transit and no unincorporated communities

[mileslunn]

Northeast Corridor also has some nearby densely populated ones like Newark and Jersey City but they are more urban than suburban in character.  West particularly in California has lots which could be argued as different cities but yet where one metro area ends and another begins is hard to tell.  Be it San Jose vs. San Francisco, Los Angeles vs. Riverside & San Bernardino.  Northeast metropolis get some but usually clearly delineated.  New York City and Philadelphia are probably two where deciding where one ends and other begins is a challenge and could even argue places like Mercer County are their own metro areas (Trenton) in own right.  Los Angeles and San Diego despite being city most of the way does have around a 10 mile gap that clearly separates the two.