Sub-rural 

not suburban, but not rural either.

“where do you live?”
“In the sub-rural part of town”

Sub-rural by ‎ Carl September 3, 2022

Sub-Rural

Suburban/Rural hybrid towns that boomed in the 21st Century but are never depicted in media. Sometimes referred to as the Exurbs. Movies pretend these places don’t exist because filming here would depress the director.
A type of town that looks rural from a plane but looks suburban-inspired up close, like a suburb that gave up half-way.

The final boss of car-dependent city planning.

Nothing is walkable or connected. Everything is near everything, yet unreachable without a car.

Too many fields, overgrown ditches, empty lots, & dying buildings to be suburban — but too many gas stations, big intersections, chain stores, & commercial strips to be rural.

The Final Boss of car-dependent sprawl where you get the traffic of a major city without the jobs, walkability, basic amenities, nightlife, or human interaction. You have plenty of neighbors but you'll never meet them.

A great place to live if you hate people & love driving in heavy traffic. A worse place to live than Norilsk if you wish to date or have a social life.

Dude I live in Sub-Rural Texas, we don't have nightlife here.

In the wake of urban decay, many well-off city folks are headed out to new sub-rural developments.

The movies still think we all live in Time Square, most of us live in Sub-Rural sprawl these days. Imagine if they actually filmed their movies in a Sub-Rural town.

In my Sub-Rural town, everything you want to buy is a drive to another town. All we have here is gasoline, soda, & tire shops.

Sub-Rural by Evan Joestar November 13, 2025

subrural 

The residential area on the outskirts of suburbia.

A thick dawn mist ensnares a subrural New Jersey ranch home and stretches across the several acres it occupies.

subrural by David R. Gahary September 5, 2005