I will not mention the south in this conversation as my interaction of any place south of Leicester is limited to just central London.

my girlfriend lives in Preston and I visit her a decent amount. Although I do not go to terraced areas very often, as she lives in a more expensive area, I used to live in one myself and see them decently often in my hometown of Leicester, however with the limited interactions I have with simmilar ones in Preston, they seem very different.

As a fact, Preston has a higher average wage then Leicester does, by about 1 grand or so on average. cost of living in Leicester is also higher, so it cannot be that, but I have noticed that cars and overall car culture are much more common in Leicester compared to Preston. I wonder why, as both areas have very similar incomes, and the one in Leicester is actually much closer to the centre than the one in Preston ( I'm talking about Newfoundpool in Leicester and st Matthews, not to be confused with the one in Leicester) so what could this be?

I also noticed that roads in Leicester are much, much wider than they are in Preston, even as you go further out from the centre. I suspect this could be related to the areas older industries more, as newfoundpool/fosse does have many small, old Victorian ( mostly abandoned) factories around and about, so maybe delivers of supplies was easier with wider streets

I also noticed that alley in Leicester are limited to only a few, small jitties behind houses, but ones in Preston are wider, and could very easily fit a car, or even a truck.

how come this is a thing? a longer, detailed explanation would be really good, I love reading about history.

thank you very much