I remember when the city had a real limit, you could leave it. Now the suburbs seem endless. Towns 300km away, were once distinct towns, now just part of one large metropolis - pretending that they are still distinct. If you want to know the real size of a metro, map out the delivery areas for furniture stores and restaurant suppliers.
It's been progressively so throughout the entire 20th century. George Orwell wrote about the suburbanisation of rural life in his "Coming Up for Air" [1] back in the 1930s. Highly recommended.
