Відео

Absolutely! I haven't ridden a bike in the Netherlands in 15 years but it was one of the most pleasant experiences in my life.

Yeah their budget in general is less than half that of Seattle, but one of these days I have to dig into it. That would be interesting for sure. In terms of weather, out one of my windows it's raining and the other is blue sky, if that gives an idea. 😂😉

I'll tell you, I've been pretty devastated and afraid for even longer than the last month or so. I personally have a very complicated relationship with my country and there are a lot who likely feel similar. Americans have been sold a bill of goods. The idea that we must operate with two parties full of people seeking power, seeking to enrich themselves. We're given the choice between neoliberals and fascists. Both who lie and try to divide. There's no real left wing in America and that, in my opinion, is the problem. There's no balance and the window keeps moving rightward. However, I live life following two mantras: Without hope, the "Us''s" of the world give up and power concedes nothing without a demand. When the fascists come out, we have to call them out. We can't stop being hopeful and helping others feel hopeful. If that happens, the people who peddle their hate win. So all this to say, I have faith in people and that most people are good, and given them an actual choice, if we can give them the services or things that they need for their family to thrive, then hope will win. I know it's idealistic, but I want to inspire others to do just that.

@@devinsilvernail I can simply say Amen.

Oof that's tough. That's definitely a talking point cooked up and used in a coordinated fashion around the US, Canada, and other similar places. It's hard to push back and even if there's good examples of that narrative not being true, it's still hard. In those instances, starting small may be a good tactic. Suburban Bothell, WA is a good example. Still very car-dominated but they pedestrianized their main street downtown and have a direct bike rail-trail to Seattle. From what I can tell, Carmel, IN may be another great place to look for inspiration. Hopefully you can find others to rally with too. It makes the fight much more bearable.

C'est mon avis mais je ne suis pas d'accord. Une culture, une expression d’eux-mêmes, c’est une façon de représenter la diversité. Moi, je suis Américain, mais j’adore la France. Pourtant, je porte des vêtements différents des vôtres. Je mange une nourriture différente. C’est exactement cela. Être voilée ou appartenir à une culture différente de la vôtre, ce n’est pas équivalent à être d’extrême droite ou à agir avec haine. Nous sommes tous humains, avec des espoirs, des amours et le droit de représenter et de montrer notre amour pour notre communauté.

Être musulman intégriste, en France, ne veut pas dire d’être d’une autre ‘culture’. La grande majorité des Françaises voilées sont françaises, nées en France, de parents Français et appartenant pleinement à la communauté française. Ce n’est pas la question. Seulement porter un voile c’est être un porte-étendard d’un choix idéologique. Et pourquoi pas ? Mais alors pourquoi ne représenter que cette idéologie-là et pas les autres ? Toutes les autres personnes ‘diverses’ représentées ici sont neutres idéologiquement. Alors, pourquoi ne pas représenter la diversité des idéologies qui composent notre communauté française ? De plus, ce que vous sous-entendez en associant ‘haine’ et ‘extrême-droite’ n’est pas très ouvert. C’est un jugement de valeur pas très inclusif de votre part, et ce n’est pas respectueux des opinions de chacun. Personne ne se considère comme haineux et ne se reconnaît comme intrinsèquement mauvais, au contraire, même quand on est antisémite ou homophobe. D’ailleurs être antisémite ou homophobe est souvent l’apanage aussi bien de l’extrême-droite que de l’Islam radical. Donc pourquoi bannir l’un et accueillir l’autre ? Je m’étonne de ce manque de cohérence.

@@bernardlevrier8977 L'extrême-droite c'est la haine comme RHaine ... la haine des étrangers, des autres religions et des travailleurs parce l'extrême-droite c'est avant tout la droite (bourgeoise capitaliste) extrême ... 🤗

Thank you for your thoughtful message. We definitely need to consider the mobility of all people when planning for all people. That includes folks who must rely on their (or a) car. I've spent so much of my life thinking about how to get around without one, I do admittedly forget to talk about them. A cool thing that is happening in several of the newly planned or built neighborhoods is the ability for people to have a car if they need one. Either via car share or in underground garages that serve residents of the surrounding 4 square blocks or so. Thanks for sharing about your wife and keeping that idea grounded in the greater discussion. Also, I'll say that I'm so happy and proud of the work that I did in Seattle and, to a lesser extent, in San Francisco. I may not have personally pushed the needle super far in my opinion, but I was part of a movement that is still building. That's what gives me hope on the local level for America. But, I must admit, that burnout is a very real thing and it was one of the contributing factors for our move to Europe. That hope does exist within me though and I want to spread it. There are so many everyday people who are finding their advocacy and I want to encourage them to follow it. If not for themselves, but for the next generation. That's kind of what I hope I can still do for people in the US, even if I don't live there anymore. Thanks again for your comment and your perspective.

Well no doubt Nantes will have parking permit licences for disabled people. Your wife can't walk far ? mobility scooters are great for people with mobility issues. You can drive with them in supermarkets, park it in front of a shop to walk into it and use it similarly as a bike ... And in a city like Nantes with pedestrian safe streets and numerous bike paths, one should feel safe with it. However in the US with its car park of light trucks and SUVs , it might feel unsafe to drive thru a street. .. For what I see , not in Nantes ..

@@devinsilvernail thank you for taking the trouble to write such a considered response to my ‘rant’. I have to confess I originally found your channel in a moment of frustration about my own transport situation. Not having independent access to a car myself. You have in been a great inspiration to me. I just need to find the energy to turn it into action. You’re right even if we can’t push the needle as far as we want we can still try to get the little bits of improvements we can. I live in the uk which in respect to equality in mobility is probably better than a lot of the US but not as good as a lot of mainland Europe. I fear though we are heading in the US direction.

She can take her car somewhere else. Non-disabled people have needs too and they are also important needs.

Hey thanks! I absolutely love the free transport on weekends! I'm very happy to live in Nantes for a lot of reasons. In terms of minimum speeds, yes they do exist in varying degrees. A lot of times it's very vague like "you can't drive slower than the flow of traffic." However, for individual drivers implicit in speed limits is the urge to use the limit as a base speed (often going over). It's sad and pretty common for people to go 50-70 km/h in 32km/h zones. American drivers are dangerous and at least in my state, we were unable to lower speed limits below 20mph. As far as Twitter. I need to update that. Thanks for letting me know. I'm on Bluesky now. @devinsilvernail. Thanks again!

Hey kudos and congratulations! Living in Europe fits our lifestyle and I hope it fits yours too. Your town does remind me of South Seattle. Dangerous streets, lacking sidewalks, mostly single family. It's formerly redlined and has never seen much municipal investment. Through organizing, we won several miles of new sidewalks, safety treatments near schools, and concrete protection for several bike lanes. It can be done. Definitely not easy though. Enjoy Europe!

Compared to United States, freaking Belarus is accessible.

@yaush_ Have you been to the USA? Honestly curious, I thought the same going from general USA to FR, we were able to finally get around without a car. It was true freedom

dopey MAGA point of view, hating all countries except the WONDERFUL USA. How massively tedious and predictable.

Yes, they do. Minimum speeds laws are generally determined based on the maximum speed allowed on a roadway. In WA State, for example, the minimum speed allowed anywhere is 20mph (˜32km/h). For individuals, see this example from the Revised Code of Washington: app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.425 For municipalities, see this example: app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.415. Sure, if traffic is crawling, no one is getting a ticket, but if traffic is flowing (which normally happens on a residential street), people are going 20mph (or realistically more) and going less than the limit could result in an infraction. Beyond that, as you'll see, the State sets the minimum speed limit to 20mph. Seattle, for example, has chosen to use that limit on all residential streets. The City is not allowed to set a limit lower than 20, even on streets with high pedestrian or bicycle traffic. Any municipal law would be superseded by State law and, thus, unenforceable. Trust me, I tried to craft a law setting 15mph as the maximum speed on certain roads. I hope this provides some clarity.

@ you clearly have misunderstanding of the law. There is no minimum speed which people are required to go. The there can simply not be a maximum speed on any public road of less than 20mph. Which by the way is about 30kmh. Anybody can still drive any speed they’d like on any residential road as long as it is *below* 20 mph.

@yaush_ 20mph = 32km/h. I literally used to create laws for a living and had a team of city attorneys giving advice and their interpretation of the law, so I dunno. Am I gonna trust them or some random UA-cam commenter? 🤷‍♂️ Love your tenacity though. 😘

Just for fun, here's a more explicit minimum speed law from California: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=22400.#:~:text=(a)%20No%20person%20shall%20drive,or%20in%20compliance%20with%20law.

Hey sorry to hear about your crash. I know how that feels. It really really sucks. In the US, I had 3 different people hit me with their cars from behind in supposed bike lanes. I had another hit me on purpose in a grocery store parking lot when I was a teenager, working to bring in shopping carts at the store. I also was t-boned by a man driving an SUV who didn't stop at a stop sign while I was biking home from work on the only available street - no bike lanes, 70km/h speed limit. Getting hit by cars sucks. I'm sorry that happened. In terms of the overall bike network in Nantes, it's not perfect. I said that. Are there frustrating parts and room for improvement? Definitely. Is it 100% safe? As long as cars exist, no. Is it 100x better than anything in North America? Absolutely. This is coming from the perspective of someone who learned to bike in a place where we had to mix with traffic almost always, where no matter how far to the side of the road or even if we were going the speed limit, someone would purposefully try to hit you to "teach you a lesson." Where a man destroyed my body and fought the $125 ticket (civil penalty, nothing else), and had I not showed up to court when I couldn't walk, he would have won that fight. Where, because of my disability, I was basically just expected to risk my life, spend about 1-3 hours extra per day waiting, walking between, and missing buses, or just waste away at home. The many kilometers of separated, elevated, and protected bike lanes here have taken my tangible daily stress down a lot. The fact that bike lanes exist at all or that there's more than one bus. Hell, that sidewalks exist. That's made my life a lot better and I can, for the first time, wake up every day and not wonder if today is the day where a driver ends my life, either deliberately or by not paying attention. I hope you feel better. No one deserves to be assaulted by a person driving a car. Wishing you well and a good recovery.

@@devinsilvernail i'm aware it can't be perfect, and my accident would have happened with the previous design too, but the failure of this major redesign makes me doubt your video's main point about citizens' feedback: - car users are not happy (they have less parking spots, and have to exit their cars directly into traffic. Mainly bike traffic, but still) - bike and e-scooter users aren't happy (no improvement to the dangerous infrastructure, + new risk of dooring) - pedestrians aren't happy (sidewalks still tiny and cluttered, but now with ruts and mud everywhere. Also i speculate the new parking configuration encourages people to park in front of garage doors, with the front of their cars across the sidewalk) - cars now park in nearby residential streets instead. Where parking laws are less enforced and sidewalks are even narrower and more cluttered... - it was supposed to help with flood risk mitigation as well, but with dead leaves the elevation of the mud is higher than the road and the parking spots, so nothing is flowing in there. They know about "pavés drainants" for parking spots, they simply didn't want to use them here for some reason - it was supposed to help with biodiversity, but as soon as 1 driver parks like a idiot and runs over the mud, it becomes ruts with dead weeds for the next 3 months this is really far from the quality of what Paris is doing! if there was a pilot with feedback, did they even listen to the feedback? The only people benefiting from this redesign is the municipal team who made electoral promises about removing concrete. The expensive new promenade around Commerce was criticized for being "too mineral" (there were indeed more trees before) so they're trying really hard to change their image on this topic, at the expense of cycling and accessibility. Another example of the huge potential they're wasting for the sake of greenery is the park project you mention earlier in the video (Gloriette/Petite Hollande). Nantes applied for studies and national funding regarding the creation of an RER system, and the train tunnel runs in a trench right here near Médiathèque (behind the public toilets): it would the cheapest and easiest spot to build an RER station, at an ideal distance from the main train station, near a perfect interchange with the tram... but no: instead, let's put the new road as close as possible to the trench, and add bushes and trees everywhere, according to a plan with absolutely zero future-proofing whatsoever In my opinion, a lot of what the métropole is doing should be considered "greenwashing": our feedback is marginally taken into account if and only if it doesn't interfere with their communication strategy. The advice in your conclusion should apply to Nantes too

Hey, thanks for your follow up. I hadn't known about the RER possibility. That would absolutely have been a great investment. I appreciate your observations on parking, sidewalks, pedestrian experience as well. As for the need for more, I absolutely agree with you. I think Nantes, and everywhere should do more. I'm glad that there a folks like you out there pushing too. Like I said before, this is all just so much better than what we had back in the US. Sure, Seattle has a ton of trees (I love that with my entire being), but it also has 4000km of roads (roads for cars are largest piece of public land), where 25% are missing sidewalks, 3% is dedicated to (mostly paint) bike lanes, and the City's greenwashing is investing in EV charging stations or forcibly removing unhoused people from parks for some reason. Meanwhile, there's zero constituent dialogue. There's endless meetings, but it's really to wear people down so ultimately the mayor can continue making sure his rich friends get richer. For Nantais(es) and for longtime or lifetime residents, I can understand your frustrations. However, America is so so so far behind that people feel completely beaten down. Nantes *is* inspiring to an American eye and I hope that people do see this video and feel inspired to fight for what they rightfully deserve. Nantes isn't perfect, but it isn't bad either (and I still believe it's great, but we can have different opinions), which is why it is an absolutely perfect example for what American can and should aim for, if that makes sense. My favorite thing about France is that there's always people speaking truth to the power in government to make shit happen and make things better. Solidarity exists here and does make things better. Thanks for pointing out where you see shortcomings in Nantes.

Indeed, it's a really wonderful city. The safest i ever lived in and we're lucky to be able to live here 😍

I have lived and worked in many places, and Nantes is definitely not a nightmare, even during rush hour. Like any increasingly desirable city, it attracts a growing number of people. If your urban policy is car-centric expansion on the outskirts, then people who live in the suburbs become increasingly reliant on motor vehicles. And they will therefore find it difficult to travel by car to the centre, which is instead working to reclaim space for people. Go into the city on the weekend, and it is heaving. All those people who get there using public transport are surely finding it is attractive.

It still is. About safety, you're just repeating what the right wing opposition try and make people think.

It’s become much much better as of late

It's Yumoto right where the train to Hakone from Tokyo drops off.

We'd spent a lot of time visiting Nantes over the past few years. We have family all over France, and visited a lot of different cities. None ever felt like home. Nantes just feels different. Similar enough to where I grew up, but people are nicer here. I have a vision impairment and it is also easy for me to get around by bike or walking, which is a bonus. .There's also a lot of big city amenities but with a small-town community feel.