@@garryferrington811 the oil companies could have been happy with diesel sales to government contractors (specifically bus companies and Amtrak) as well, had public transport remained good past the 1950s and '60s
I'm not sure why pretty much EVERY city in the American sun belt is basically the worst when it comes to traffic management problems. New Orleans being the only "eh, kinda" exception. LA, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa/St. Pete, Miami.... they're all total car pits. Charleston and Savannah are okay in the parts of town no one can afford to live in.
1st world? Wow. You need to get out more. The only places that really have any effective traffic management are _in the first world_ (and those built by the first world). I invite you to come to India and see for yourself just how wonderful we can manage our insanely overcrowded cities. It doesn't work unless you give up. The United States is not the only 1st world country, and only select parts of the country are even "1st world" if that term means anything. Between the every ghettoized city we have vast expanses of pristine wilderness, poverty stricken reservations, drug addled trailer parks, abandoned industrial hubs, and data centers.
@@Chris-fn4dfyes the US is a developed country, it has a very high gdp per capita, that is why it is ironic that we have all this wealth in the country yet our cities- even the rich ones are designed like shit.
@@kevley26 not irony, you are just framing it as though _the nation_ had all that wealth. That simply isn’t true. That wealth is in that hands of people who are not stuck in traffic.
Yeah it is very unequal, but that doesn't change the fact that our cities' and states' budgets (especially LA) are much higher than most cities around the world per capita@@Chris-fn4df
L.A has the capacity to be the most walkable city this side of the Pacific ocean. Instead that city is a monument to the worst traffic and ugliest urban sprawl. A monument to wasted potential.
That's because LA is the pinnacle of "A city of morons with lead poisoning". City people aren't fit to decide whats best for themselves or others, much less transportation or education.
It's crazy that the voters have to tell the city to do the plan they already adopted. When HLA passes, I hope people track the compliance and make sure it's actually done.
Well - probably not adopted by this city council and so not politically attached to it.. it is from 10yrs ago after all. Probably doesn't want to spend the political capital repealing it so they are killing it by failing to deliver
@@Madwonk as a 20yr+ Bay Area resident I can say that we aren't that much better...pockets here and there doing a half decent job but on the whole it's a weak effort IMO
the fact that a city would design, with random planned hazzards (speed bumps) is disgusting. you can easily design a road, WITHOUT speed bumps, that would make almost no sane person go 100 MPH. there are a million and one things to do to get people to driver slower, WITHOUT speed bumps or stupid signs.
Thank you for not listening. It’s not a “skill issue”. Yes, individual idiots must be punished, a must never drive. However, globally, skill is only a small part of the solution. Making drivers slightly better doesn’t solve the underlying problem of streets that are shit to drive on.
@@Fs3i I fully agree that streets should be redesigned, as well as the need to provide viable alternatives to driving. I’m just baffled at how that 17 year old Lambo driver still had their license after their previous offences for long enough to actually kill someone. The issues are not mutually exclusive. I also never mentioned anything about skill being the issue. Thank you for not listening, and jumping to some weird conclusions based off one statement. But seriously, you need to chill out for your own wellbeing mate, the friendly fire isn’t helping anyone, especially yourself
I agree. Once car ownership isn't a necessity for getting around, driving standards can be raised to reduce traffic collisions even further, improving the experience for everyone involved. Driving a 2 ton vehicle should not be approached carelessly.
@@CommissionerManu It's because money rules in the US and when you're rich you have influence. And when you're that rich you don't care if your son kills someone because to be rich means not caring about other humans.
I think it's important to note why city councils drag their feet on implementing pro-pedestrian and pro safety changes nationwide. Car dependency is a feature in America, not a bug. It keeps the wealthy classes and their neighborhoods, streets, businesses, parks, etc. separated from the rest of the city and especially lower class neighborhoods. If you live in a super nice place but don't want to share it with anyone making less than 6 figures, you ensure there is no public transit and the streets are too deadly to dare walk or cycle. Basically adding a paywall in the form of a car and all the expensive costs of gas, insurance, parking, maintenance etc. to access anywhere else in your town outside of your neighborhood.
I definitely see this. Where I live, the wealthiest neighborhoods are transit deserts, and it's intentional. It's not enough for the wealthy to live in nice houses--they must make sure poors can never cross their doorstep. "Limousine liberals." Someone with such a comfortable life can be so hateful.
As a reminder, Amsterdam was a car-centric city and they got tired of kids getting killed by cars and actually did something about it. Let's hope LA with our MUCH better weather can do something about this.
Los Angeles is unfortunately way bigger than Amsterdam in area so I can't really see this happening. It would be do able if people didnt have to spend commuting, on average, over an hour by car to get to work. The city's just so spread out but it would be nice.
@@theundeads1building rail transport allows for faster commutes over longer distance, and relatively cheap changes like reconfiguring streets allows for much better and faster short distance journeys. Both free up transport capacity allowing for greater density. Combating already existing sprawl is a long and difficult challenge but it is doable if the will is there.
LA won't do anything besides further alienate their own people. Texas would get walkable cities faster than LA. I'd bet on it. Californian local govt is incompetant.
It is rather ironic that flat cities with pleasant climates like LA, Honolulu, or basically any city in Florida are always the worst cities to walk or bike in, while the best cities to walk or bike in are places like New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.
@@Strideo1Downtown St Pete is so much better than Orlando (where I live) it’s crazy. DTO had some of the smallest sidewalks, and almost zero bike lanes.
I live in Saint Paul near the border of Minneapolis and I plan to get an e-bike eventually because there actually are a ton of hills in my neighborhood.
That all happened for a reason. A lot of those cities boomed post AC when car oriented development was in full swing. Whereas colder cities developed earlier and were able to be more developed around people.
At a time when people were ripping up their Tram lines to make way for cars, the Melbourne Tram network was saved purposely. When they hosted the olympics, people saw how an increase in population would’ve gridlocked the city had it not been for the extensive, reliable, and numerous trams. Today trams are a part of Melbournes identity, it has 250kms of line making it the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, the entire “town town” area is free to ride at all times. In a single day you can seamlessly shop in Melbourne central, have Pizza in Lygon street, and get coffee in flinders lane before catching a train home. I hope one day every city can be like this!
It’s important to remember that the street changes described in the mobility 2035 plan aren’t just guesses or wishful thinking. The very few which HAVE been implemented have often cut the rate of accidents in the immediate area in half or even better! The problem isn’t that LA doesn’t know what to do about the issues on our streets. The problem is that we already know the solutions, but we’re dragging our feet on the implementation! That’s why HLA is so important.
As Upton Sinclair said : "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Lawmakers in the US are being paid by the car manufacturers and oil industry to *not* change the problem.
14:09 "with a buffer area in case you lose control" LOL. Classically (for north america) the bike lane is on the danger side of the buffer area. No wonder nobody is biking. Great video!
Scandinavian here. Our post-war wealth gains (including the possibility for private car ownership and widespread building of suburbs) probably came around 1-2 decades later than USA; instead of late 40s-early 60s, it came in the early 60s and running into the 70s. At first, that might have been a disadvantage for us. But the lucky thing, hiding inside that, was that the 1973 oil crisis effectively killed off some (or a lot, actually) of the wilder, car-centric plans here. Plans, that would have torn big parts of the old city centres here apart.
@@michlo3393Well, many cities after WWII had the potential of turning into car-dependent hellscapes. Especially areas destroyed during the war were rebuilt with the car in mind. In the Netherlands, cars were broadly adopted later than in much of the US, but from the 1950s onwards cities were adapted to fit more cars. In many cities some canals were turned into roads. My city, Utrecht, has this charming old city centre surrounded by a canal flanked by parks. In the 1960s the canal on one side was turned into a highway, and the rest of the canals were supposed to follow. The medieval squares became parking lots and many buildings were destroyed to allow bigger streets. The culture, the late adoption of cars, the protests against destruction of old neighbourhoods, protests against the many victims of collisions, and the increase in gas costs, the combination of all that made the Netherlands what it is now. Thankfully recently that one side was turned into a canal again.
@michlo3393 Cities in the USA weren't all built in the 60s. Many of them had older, more "European" style city planning. High density, good public transport. It all got bulldozered for cars
I've watched dozens and dozens of videos on youtube about transit and urban planning and design. This video was by far the most emotionally impactful. Thank you for highlighting the real human toll of the way we've chosen to build our cities.
As someone working in EMS in a moderately large city, I constantly run calls of people killed in cars, cyclists and pedestrians killed/maimed at no fault of their own. When I have children, I will not raise them in a place that is actively hostile towards them if they chose not to drive.
Hope everyone watching this will use public transportation where it is available. I see people on reddit who think they need to rent a car when they travel to Europe or Asai. I will never again live where I have to drive a car.
@@mrxman581I would say a large portion of those folks do it out of necessity, not by choice. I do it by choice in San Diego and it works well, but only because I don't use slow local buses. I almost exclusively use the trolley, trains, or Rapid buses to get places and then ebike to wherever I need.
i dont know if its true in this specific case, but the neighbourhoods that got bulldozed for freeways were usually predominantly black and brown neighbourhoods...
@@brothermayihavesomeloops7048no they literally routed around white communities while bulldozing through "undesirable" ones. There's a reason why none of the freeways follow a remotely straight line
Cars are a hell of a drug. It is a long battle to teach the next generation to stop the suffering. The UAW people are good people but the companies they work for are sinners
One of the toughest parts about loving biking in LA is the conflict with recommending it to others - you know they have a high probability to come in contact with a speeding/distracted driver. Can't wait enough for HLA to start a build out toward a network of protected lanes. Hope this blows up for LA voters to see!
Lol cycling in LA would be dumb frankly. Why bother? How is it enjoyable to ride with thousands of speeding cars? Especially considering the type of people that live in LA. If someone hit you, they probably wouldn't even stop lol
@@pauld.b7129 its because people want to change their city to not be riding with thousands of cars instead a safe heaven for children and pedestrians instead of a urban hell
"10 miles apart is a long-distance relationship" hit home, or rather close to it, as it were. my girlfriend lives only like 7 miles away from me, but to see each other, one of us has to take the interstate. to cross 7 miles.
This weekend we had a birthday party in a small German village - the vast majority of the guests arrived without a car (and all the remaining ones had very long trips). One of them was a mom with her 3-year old twins in the cargo bike and the 5-year old on his own bike for 8 (!) miles one way. This is, what good infrastructure can do.
@@kailahmann1823So, in order for me to pull something off like biking to her place, I'd have to cut across two different towns to avoid the interstate. Leaving my hometown and cutting across the city that holds a good majority of the industry in the area will lead me into a neighboring town to hers -- at which point you cross the river to get to her town (which is technically a part of the state north of us? honestly not sure what's going on there) It's bullshit, frankly. In the end, this roundabout trip is (i think) about 15 miles. Oh, also, half of it is highway, so you technically can't bike all the way there, you'd have to drive into the city and bike from there. Assuming your car didn't get towed, broken into, or stolen.
@@SmokeyEditsvote for initiatives pushing more bicycle infrastructure. More bicycles - less cars are needed - less congestion on existing roads thus saving time for those who still need cars (large families / long distance travelers / people with limited mobility)
@@Bork_In_Volcanic Trust me, I would if I could. I live in a red state, so a lot of the time that sort of thing isn't on people's minds here. The state I live in is about 90% political theater, 10% shit getting done. The sidewalk on my road ends about 100 yards after the top of the road. I'd frequently walk it anyway before I got a car, but I almost died on more than one occasion. There's been talk since we moved into this house in 2007 about how they'd finish the sidewalks and stuff, but it's never happened.
The worst part is that BMW's are probably the most annoying vehicles to deal with as a car owner, mechanic, or anyone for that matter. When I was working at a car wash, I quickly came up with an acronym saying that they were, "Broken, Messed Up, Worthless Piece of $#!t" since they were a headache to clean, even compared to the jumbo lifted trucks that clearly never get used for actual work. I haven't even gotten to the part where they're at in the video and I can assume that it's them or G Wagen owners. The worst part is that the G-Wagen isn't even a bad design in theory, but since it's a Benz, it's going to be driven by pricks.
Thank you for doing a modern version of "Scared Straight" when it comes to car accident injuries on the body. These should be PSA's on all media if you ask me!
I really appreciate how you made the effort to make these tragic accidents real and not just a statistic. I wish more people would do that when talking about the subject. I think few Americans can say that they haven’t known someone killed in a vehicle accident. Most of us can say that we’ve known several. It’s really important to tell those stories.
I’m from DC and I wish LA could have a system like we do. We have lots of traffic and our own problems, but our metro is extensive enough and convenient enough that a huge number of people live here without cars at all.
It's highly critical the Measure HLA passes, so we can have an actual solution to all these senseless traffic deaths and injuries. And thank you for talking about this, your perspective is always interesting :)
Also HLA initiative might be a good example for other car-centric cities of USA to follow. Given cultural significance of LA there is very high chance.
not all heroes wear capes... you are playing a very important role in educating the public about better urban planning/design and i can't thank you enough! vote YES for Measure HLA this March!!!
You know what's actually absurd, is that doing any pending improvements when touching a section of street **isn't what they just do by default**!! Why on earth wouldn't you do that while you're there??
City planners are the worst. They look at the distance from building to building and place as many 12' wide, highway style lanes as they can fit and then add a "buffer zone" so that drivers can safely lose control and have somewhere to swerve that won't damage their car. Later when they realize they might need space for a bus stop or a bike lane they choose the part of the road designed for cars to crash into. If you're lucky you might get some plastic flexi sticks for a false sense of security but nothing to protect someone walking or riding or standing on the corner waiting to get into a restaurant. In their minds people don't exist, only cars exist.
not all city planners :) and often the planners are at the mercy of what the city council or state decides and they are responsible for implementing that decision. So getting things like HLA passed helps ensure that good design gets implemented
seeing the "watch your speed - in memory of monique munoz" made me angry and sad. i can not believe that is the only thing the city did, or could do, to address her killing. amazing video!
I’m a transportation planner consultant for LA County Public Works. In my spare time, I’d like to assist you with your videos: research, graphics, videography, writing, narrative. Thank you so much for your work!
This is one of the best urban mobility videos I have ever seen. You don't only talk about car traffic, but you show us the places where real people died. You show us the CT scans of drivers who died even though they wore seat belts. You explain the politics of inaction. And you show a new way to action. The way you deal with the topic is extremely comprehensive and to the point, because you show, you don't just tell. Well done sir!
Well if they didn;t then you would have a mixture of GOOD and BAD designs... The idea is you find a GOOD, safe, efffective design, and use that all over.... Most places around the world are like this in large cities, they have their design and all their streets look the same. I am in singapore, show me a photo of a road here and 99% of the time all i can say is "city core" or "countryside" its the same layout over and over and over again
I gotta say, I'm really glad to have your perspective on this space. I've found myself disappointed that more medical professionals aren't out here ringing the alarm bells on how car centric development kills us and makes us unhealthy. I wish more doctors and doctor associations (like the APA) would focus on harm reduction with auto development. It's incredible how quickly they'll force product recalls where a few children have died using them over the years, but they stay mum on the topic of car deaths (except in the areas of car seats) that kill thousands per year. And it's not like the science isn't known or is beyond them. In fact, the American heart association implores us to walk more, but they never talk about why we don't walk enough. It would be nice if they used their influence to help build more walkable places so we can be healthier.
A few years back I worked just west of the 405 on Olympic but was living east of the 405 near the Grove mall. Going home in rush hour at the end of the day, I found that the 3 blocks west of the 405 could easily take 40 minutes to get past. Eventually I started parking east of the 405 and just walking to my car at the end of the day. Saved me the 40 minutes sitting in traffic.
I fucking hated Olympic when I was living in LA. I lived in Chatsworth, but worked in Santa Monica. I had about 4 hours per day that were not dedicated to sleeping, eating, working, or traffic. I moved to LA to advance my career and build out my resume and work history. Spent seven years there, accomplished my goal, then got a better job back where I grew up as soon as I could.
I invite you to drive Highway 401 through Toronto, Ontario Canada. 16 lanes wide for large portions. It is apparently busier than the busiest LA.highway.
Is this... a STROOOAD?! Great work as always, Nimesh. I love how much you teach about the specifics of LA. I hope your channel inspires more people to make city specific channels!
That it's even possible to drive 100 Mph on a road with on street parking and driveways is insane. We are talking about highway speeds, highways with their clear zones, barriers and physically separated lane directions. Yeah those people were breaking the speed limit, but it should not even be possible to drive 100 Mph on a road with these conditions.
It’s definitely insane. Out in the Phoenix area, the only place where it’s reasonably possible to drive over 100 mph is on State Route 303, which is a fairly empty freeway. And there aren’t any stroads with street parking (except parts of Apache Boulevard in Tempe).
As a Dutchman I’m even shocked by how broad residential streets sometimes are in the US. Like it’s as easy to go 60+mph in a suburb as it’s on a highway. Stroads are also something that’s nearly nonexistent here. Like, make one lane each direction a parallel road so the main road doesn’t have people exiting and entering parking lots. So many changes could be done without spending fortunes, and in the Netherlands many major changes are done when a street needs maintenance anyway. Even here in NL we’re still looking for the best ways to do things, whether things can be standardised etc. Some changes turn out to be expensive failures, some take a while to be successful, and others show significant improvements right away. When I see items on US traffic I always feel like nobody is willing to try anything. “We placed 20 signs with a paragraph of text on each but nothing changed.” Cars go too fast? Build a huge speed bump that launches many cars into space, but still keep it as broad as a highway. But still, it’s something. I’m glad to see an exponential increase in attention to infrastructure and car dependency. I feel like many Americans aren’t accepting the many traffic casualties anymore. That’s how the change came in the Netherlands too. “Stop the child murders” was the slogan during protests in the 1970s, and things went into a higher gear when a ruling politician’s child was killed by a driver. Dutch neighbourhoods in the 1950s and 60s were built with huge roads, supposed to keep the traffic moving. Old neighbourhoods were destroyed, many of the urban canals were turned into roads, ancient squares were turned into parking lots. Cities were gridlocked in traffic jams. Since the 1970s, with public protests (and huge increases in gas prices) urban planning shifted to be more focused on other modes of transportation than just cars.
Would be fun to drive 70mph in a BTR on those roads though. After all, the roads are a battle of who has the biggest death box, and you can't get any heavier and faster than an armored personnel carrier Would it be even more dangerous than the giant pickups everywhere? Yes. However, I say it is just the natural end result of a years long trend
Having recently been forced to move from Glendale to San Bernardino, I'm sorry to say that traffic is almost as bad here and getting worse. American car-dependency is crap, even if it does make incredible amounts of money for the oil companies.
Your MD background provides impactful perspective on the reality of these planning decisions. Thank you for choosing to deliver you message, and keep up the well researched, persuasive discussion! This is the grassroots movement, the very ground shifting beneath the unanimously corrupt city council. They are bribed by the oil and auto lobby, plain and simple. Thank you Nimesh.
Cars must be taxed based on weight, (with a bonus for electric cars). Moving a single person in a 4000 pound tank inflicts high risks to other citizens and pedestrians with both added pollution and added danger.
No tax electric cars by weight too. The original Nissan leaf, with it's 24kWh battery, had enough range for typical commutes. Now current EVs typically have batteries over 100kWh to combat "range anxiety". This makes the cars heavier, more expensive, and more dangerous.
@@jamesphillips2285 I think a couple hundred pound credit is ok, but you are right, compact EVs with ~200 miles of range can easily weight close to what other sedans do. the SUV/pickup scourge is a big part of the weight inflation because their base weight is so much larger that they need double or more of the batteries to get that larger range, and then they want 400+ mile ranges too. We're better off pushing of hybrid trucks for that purpose with like 50 miles of battery range and then compact generators to cover towing and such(which most people don't do anyway) getting people onboard with 90 mile ranges will be harder,
@@Joesolo13 The RAV4 EV, which got stopped by Chevron buying up the NiMH battery patents, had a 20KW generating trailer under development. The combination was apparently more efficient than the gasoline model on the highway
@@jamesphillips2285 yeah, they should be taxed by weight too, but with a bonus (like -500kg in the calculation) because they are safer because they pollute less
Cool to see you approach traffic violence from a public health perspective. Between deaths by collisions, air pollution, and people being sedentary all day, it’s hard to see traffic as anything less than the number one enemy of public health. Looking at the medical effects of living near stroads and highways would be interesting. I know asthma, COPD, and the like become more common. Great video !
@@Korina42The noise is awful. I’m Dutch and think the ambient noise from cars is already too much, but I’ve read that American roads are even louder. I just want to be able to sit in a park without hearing a highway raging in the background, even if it’s miles away. My neighbourhood is quiet, without much traffic, but when I went for a walk recently the highway, which is over a mile away, was roaring. I could hardly hear myself think over the noise. My country is very densely populated, so even outside cities you might not be able to find peace. If it’s not a highway it’s planes flying overhead.
Jesus you really ate on this one. The societal, humanistic and medical perspectives you provided on this one was seriously powerful! I agree with all of your points which again reminds me of how car dependency and car-first culture continually disappoint me
The solution is really obvious: better public transport that is not affected by traffic, protected bike lanes, and traffic calming measures (no stroads).
Yeah, this what I have been saying: THERE ARE TOO MANY CARS. If there are too many cars, people are going to sit in traffic. It's not rocket science, but our politicians aren't interested in changing the status quo.
You're making it sound like China. They literally impose a drive law of certain cars being able to drive in certain areas certain days of the week. In some places you can only drive 1-2 times a week or pay extra to drive another day. They make people plan around that for example you get to drive Tuesdays and Saturdays and all the other days you need to use public transport to get to work or work within walking distance. They are thinking of tolling people like China already in New York. 🤔 With all these sidewalks, nothing prevents you from walking, scootering, skating or biking.
We need to destroy the necessity of cars with clean, convenient, and free public transportation. Eliminate the need of 12 lane highways with fast and efficient railway systems. Not just here, but everywhere in the US…. They’re designing our lives around cars. We can barely go outside anymore. It’s no longer safe for children to walk to school or play outside anymore. Looking outside you see 20 fast food stops separated by rushing traffic. What is even happening anymore? Absolutely insane. I went to the city of savannah. So walkable, beautiful, everyone was biking and going out for strolls. Everything within walking distance. We can’t design cities like this anymore because of cars. I lived in singapore, ultra-modern with fantastic subway systems. I could go on my own as a young girl and never felt like I was in any danger. I just want to look outside and see people instead of cars. I want to feel like there are other people in this world.
Nimesh, thank you for showing us what we can do to try to change LA. I got involved in our local safe streets nonprofit because of you. Keep up the good work.
A lot of channels just re-hash the same ideas and examples over and over, but your videos are original, fresh, and informative. The effort you put in to making these is really great.
Unfortunately, like gun violence, we accept the deaths and serious injuries from car culture as the "price of doing business" here in the U.S. Politicians will say the usual, "things need to change," yet nothing of substance does. We're trapped by our own perceived comfortable life-style and we really don't want to do anything to change it as a nation. The situation will have to become much worse before there's a chance of actually improving anything. Meanwhile the CARnage continues.
@@korcommanderIn countries that have fewer guns, fewer people get shot with guns. If that piece of obvious truth is "blaming the object", then so be it. Doesn't make it wrong, though.
@@korcommander no, _only_ blaming the individual is exactly the issue. if you just say “that person was so bad and should be punished” it’s an excuse to not do anything about the underlying systemic issues. for gun violence the issue is among others too many guns in the hands of too many people, in combination with a culture around guns that makes the issue worse. for car violence the main issue is, as the video explained, poorly designed streets and roads and a lack of viable alternatives to driving
Wow, this is one of your best videos. So emotionally impactful. Perhaps this is what we need to overcome the "cars are freedom" brain-worm that North America is under.
20:04 love the end, you always hear the Argument, but when you build bike lanes, what's with emergency vehicles, they get stuck in traffic, but if you build them wide enough, response times are improved instead of worsened 17:40 The Citizens tell them about their dead friends/relatives etc. and some of them are playing with their phones or talk to each other, that's just disrespectful, behavior like that is disgusting
I'm NGL I cried while watching this, posting this comment from Michigan and we have so many of the same problems, hope HLA passes for y'all. Many blessings!!
I hate cars... going over the xray images was really hard to watch, but really powerful also. I wish people would appreciate how much danger they put themselves in every time they get into a car
It's not cars that do this, it's lazy or undercut engineering that cities do in order to save costs. It's not cars that do this, it's lazy requirements in order to drive a car and easy tests that create problem drivers. Why make several roads and streets when you can just combine them into stroads? Why make complicated and nuanced tests and screenings for each driver if we can just check if they have arms, legs and know how to grab the wheel and maybe parallel park? The reckless driving is a symptom, not the cause, lookup the difference between road traffic death rate in US vs Europe and you'll see a massive difference between the states and european countries. Why? 1) European countries generally have harder and more complex driving tests, you are basically required to do a full loop around a town, with less than 3-4 faults or 1-2 major faults if none at all. 2) Roads in general are smaller and thus driving speeds slow down naturally as drivers subconsiously lower their speed in sub-urban areas. 3) Less lanes per road, at most you'll find 3 lanes on a highway in a central city, this along the fact that hogging the left or middle lane is considered a serious fault and is enforced makes driving much more safer as there's more space for overtakes and less hogging 4) More alternatives to driving such as metro, trains and buses with well interconnected networks that lowers congestion overall
DENORMALIZE CALLING TRAFFIC VIOLENCE AN "ACCIDENT"!!!!! 📢📢📢📢📢 And if you're driving 100 mph on city streets you should get JAIL TIME. ON THE FIRST VIOLATION.
We have computers, tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches for a reason. Technically, they all do the same thing. America was like if you could only ever use a smartphone and not a computer or smartwatch.
You're an LA treasure. All the LA urbanists have been pushing HLA and I'm glad you're part of it. I'm not in LA proper but I hope it passes and is a resounding success so it can be pushed to more cities or county wide. Everyone who finds out I bike to work and stuff either act like I'm Hercules or am gonna die at any moment when that doesn't have to be the case.
✊ strong video. In Germany, we are very conscious of talking about drivers killing or injuring people with their cars rather than cars killing or injuring people, so the focus is on individual misbehaviour rather than God-given casualties of mobility that we just have to accept. But perhaps in a world where driving is often the only option, blaming individuals isn't the best way to convince them that change is needed. Either way, keep up the fight against car dependency.
Those wide straight roads, or stroads, are an invitation for speeding, and dangerous for anyone outside of a car. Those deaths are attributable to city planners.
Yeah, at this point in the us city planning probably is the bigger leverage for safer streets. but framing is important and even if you don't emphasize this right now you can easily adapt your own speech @@HarryPujols
I have never been to LA before, but by god do i wish that they can get this to work because we need SOME kind of precedent set somewhere to break our horrible infrastructure habits in this country. Great video.
I'm glad to see a video on this. I've been here for a little less than a year and the amount of people running red lights, cutting people off, almost hitting cars and people is unbelievable. I don't even drive around here if I don't have to because of the anxiety it gives me. Along with developmental changes we need more traffic enforcement. These people need to be held accountable before they end up killing more people just to save a couple seconds in their day
This was amazing. First time I’ve seen a healthcare professional take a public stance against traffic violence (and use that term). Excellent use of descriptive (and shocking) medical explanations and imagery. I always thought using imagery would be a great tool in raising awareness, much like the anti-smoking and “red asphalt” campaigns of the 80s and 90s. Once again great job and I hope HLA passes.
Implementing alternatives to driving also improves the experience for car drivers themselves. A study by Waze put the Netherlands at number one for best country for car drivers.
As someone in an older town that boomed in the late 1800s it's pretty shocking when I end up in the sunbelt Stroadville ...It's jusr so awful for humanity outside of cars
I live in Scotland, UK, a friend of mine who comes form California cannot get over our roads. Compared to LA, they say our drivers are polite and courteous. Our roads, while being a lot smaller, often have pavement furniture to protect pedestrians. Speed cameras, traffic calming measures (Anything from speed bumps, the road being zig zag, narrowed sections etc.). Good luck with HLA.
Traffic deaths may have surpassed gun deaths, but they wont get nearly as much attention as Big Scary Crime. Just doesnt have the same emotional oomph to it, nor does it sell for the media. Despite the similar numbers, most people are much less likely to fall victim to homicide than to a fatal automobile accident, due to the nature of most homicides. Our society has normalized the dangers of cars and the absurd environments we build around them.
cars are the fastest method of transport for 1 person. but they are the slowest method of transportation for a population. average car speed is 18 mph. literally, you could ban cars and replace them with e-bikes, mobility scooters, remove all red lights, stop signs, and people would move faster than with cars.
I appreciate you humanizing this conversation, I think urbanism media can come off as cold sometimes. This was beautiful storytelling we definitely need. Sending love from likeminded folks in Philly❤
Thanks for this video, on all fronts. When I got my first car (junior year of college in the LA area), it seriously expanded my range of motion since my college wasn't in an area well-served by transit. Then, ~6 months later, I got rear-ended in a multi-car collision. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, but 2 of 4 cars involved were totaled and I lost all the "freedom" I had gained. It was really, really hard to mentally recover, and that wasn't helped by getting in another (non-fatal but very destructive) car accident a few weeks later. LA is NOT SAFE - not for pedestrians, not for bicyclists, and not for cars. Better road design and transit alternatives can make a HUGE difference, if only the city government ACTS. I look forward to seeing HLA pass!
4:13 "For the first time most people died from traffic violence than form gun violence"... So you'll be killed, by a gun or a car. The USA in a nutshell. Great Video!
This is an incredible piece. I've never seen a video from this content creator before, but the first 4 minutes of this were so captivating that I *had* to subscribe. It's actually the best introduction to a video I've ever seen.
Thank you for highlighting the human element of these stories, Nimesh. I don't understand how people can pass these off as unfortunate accidents instead of being infuriated by the policy failures that enabled them.
Ripping out the streetcar system was the dumbest most damaging urban mismanagement blunder in Los Angeles history.
as a Melbournian (the Australian kind) i wholeheartedly agree with this. Trams are some of the most efficient walking distance boosters possible.
It wasn't a blunder, it made the oil companies happy.
@@garryferrington811 the oil companies could have been happy with diesel sales to government contractors (specifically bus companies and Amtrak) as well, had public transport remained good past the 1950s and '60s
@@xymaryai8283 why would you have to append Melbournian? Doesn't everyone know that Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria, Australia?
@@spdfatomicstructure Melbourne, Florida I guess? Not too sure either.
The First World irony of a flat, warm, spacious city with self-inflicted city planning and traffic mismanagement problems.
I'm not sure why pretty much EVERY city in the American sun belt is basically the worst when it comes to traffic management problems. New Orleans being the only "eh, kinda" exception. LA, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa/St. Pete, Miami.... they're all total car pits. Charleston and Savannah are okay in the parts of town no one can afford to live in.
1st world? Wow. You need to get out more. The only places that really have any effective traffic management are _in the first world_ (and those built by the first world). I invite you to come to India and see for yourself just how wonderful we can manage our insanely overcrowded cities. It doesn't work unless you give up.
The United States is not the only 1st world country, and only select parts of the country are even "1st world" if that term means anything. Between the every ghettoized city we have vast expanses of pristine wilderness, poverty stricken reservations, drug addled trailer parks, abandoned industrial hubs, and data centers.
@@Chris-fn4dfyes the US is a developed country, it has a very high gdp per capita, that is why it is ironic that we have all this wealth in the country yet our cities- even the rich ones are designed like shit.
@@kevley26 not irony, you are just framing it as though _the nation_ had all that wealth. That simply isn’t true. That wealth is in that hands of people who are not stuck in traffic.
Yeah it is very unequal, but that doesn't change the fact that our cities' and states' budgets (especially LA) are much higher than most cities around the world per capita@@Chris-fn4df
L.A has the capacity to be the most walkable city this side of the Pacific ocean.
Instead that city is a monument to the worst traffic and ugliest urban sprawl.
A monument to wasted potential.
so true, imagine layering a world class subway/metro, with Netherlands level bike infra in a place were you never need a sweater haha
Gonna be tough to make LA more walkable than Seattle or Portland. But that's no reason not to try.
That's because LA is the pinnacle of "A city of morons with lead poisoning".
City people aren't fit to decide whats best for themselves or others, much less transportation or education.
Despite San Francisco having heavy problems, it's mobility is better than LA
San Diego is right behind LA in all the BAD things.
I like how the rainbow sign talks about "hope for safer, healthier streets". So the government policy for reducing car violence is... hoping?
Gosh, I really hope that works.
Maybe the LA city cultural affairs department was the only one willing to spend on anything related to the crash, still disappointing either way
🙏
"sending my hopes and prayers for the victims"
Works well with thoughts and prayers.
It's crazy that the voters have to tell the city to do the plan they already adopted. When HLA passes, I hope people track the compliance and make sure it's actually done.
Ooo, nice profile pic! Hyperbolic geometry is super cool.
@@katiem.3109 thank you fellow Poincaré enjoyer.
Well - probably not adopted by this city council and so not politically attached to it.. it is from 10yrs ago after all.
Probably doesn't want to spend the political capital repealing it so they are killing it by failing to deliver
Yeah, LA politics be like that. Their state reps aren't much better unfortunately, compared to the bay area which is MUCH more YIMBY
@@Madwonk as a 20yr+ Bay Area resident I can say that we aren't that much better...pockets here and there doing a half decent job but on the whole it's a weak effort IMO
The fact that people are driving 100 mph on a CITY STREET is disgusting
california drivers r something else
@@TheCobCAPCalifornia drivers are actually better than the average American driver, lol.
@@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333 i know but i live in san jose so we just complain about our drivers
the fact that a city would design, with random planned hazzards (speed bumps) is disgusting.
you can easily design a road, WITHOUT speed bumps, that would make almost no sane person go 100 MPH. there are a million and one things to do to get people to driver slower, WITHOUT speed bumps or stupid signs.
Being better than an American driver is setting the bar so low you'd need a shovel to find it. @@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333
those car crash symptoms were absolutely horrifying
Nah. Not symptoms. Not “symptoms.” /
The intro here is unbelievable. Bravo.
Having strong towns leave a positive comment on your video means you've peaked. Can't wait to see more!
The story telling methods employed were well executed.
Driving Licences should be a LOT easier to lose all over the world!
Thank you for not listening.
It’s not a “skill issue”. Yes, individual idiots must be punished, a must never drive.
However, globally, skill is only a small part of the solution. Making drivers slightly better doesn’t solve the underlying problem of streets that are shit to drive on.
@@Fs3i I fully agree that streets should be redesigned, as well as the need to provide viable alternatives to driving. I’m just baffled at how that 17 year old Lambo driver still had their license after their previous offences for long enough to actually kill someone. The issues are not mutually exclusive. I also never mentioned anything about skill being the issue.
Thank you for not listening, and jumping to some weird conclusions based off one statement.
But seriously, you need to chill out for your own wellbeing mate, the friendly fire isn’t helping anyone, especially yourself
I agree. Once car ownership isn't a necessity for getting around, driving standards can be raised to reduce traffic collisions even further, improving the experience for everyone involved. Driving a 2 ton vehicle should not be approached carelessly.
@@Fs3i You're the not listening and talking about something else.
@@CommissionerManu It's because money rules in the US and when you're rich you have influence. And when you're that rich you don't care if your son kills someone because to be rich means not caring about other humans.
I think it's important to note why city councils drag their feet on implementing pro-pedestrian and pro safety changes nationwide. Car dependency is a feature in America, not a bug. It keeps the wealthy classes and their neighborhoods, streets, businesses, parks, etc. separated from the rest of the city and especially lower class neighborhoods. If you live in a super nice place but don't want to share it with anyone making less than 6 figures, you ensure there is no public transit and the streets are too deadly to dare walk or cycle. Basically adding a paywall in the form of a car and all the expensive costs of gas, insurance, parking, maintenance etc. to access anywhere else in your town outside of your neighborhood.
Though they’re not exempt from fatal crash crashes.
I definitely see this. Where I live, the wealthiest neighborhoods are transit deserts, and it's intentional. It's not enough for the wealthy to live in nice houses--they must make sure poors can never cross their doorstep. "Limousine liberals." Someone with such a comfortable life can be so hateful.
@@bigwatermelon4487That is a price they are willing to pay for their nice white neighbourhoods, evidently
As a reminder, Amsterdam was a car-centric city and they got tired of kids getting killed by cars and actually did something about it. Let's hope LA with our MUCH better weather can do something about this.
Los Angeles is unfortunately way bigger than Amsterdam in area so I can't really see this happening. It would be do able if people didnt have to spend commuting, on average, over an hour by car to get to work. The city's just so spread out but it would be nice.
@@theundeads1building rail transport allows for faster commutes over longer distance, and relatively cheap changes like reconfiguring streets allows for much better and faster short distance journeys. Both free up transport capacity allowing for greater density. Combating already existing sprawl is a long and difficult challenge but it is doable if the will is there.
With a population size of what?
LA won't do anything besides further alienate their own people.
Texas would get walkable cities faster than LA. I'd bet on it. Californian local govt is incompetant.
@@algorithmicalychallenged.291 A much larger number of happy people. LA is terrible not because its big. its because of terrible design
The part where you showed the injuries was very, very powerful. That's the kind of stuff that people actually respond to.
It is rather ironic that flat cities with pleasant climates like LA, Honolulu, or basically any city in Florida are always the worst cities to walk or bike in, while the best cities to walk or bike in are places like New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.
St. Pete in Florida is making good progress.
@@Strideo1Downtown St Pete is so much better than Orlando (where I live) it’s crazy. DTO had some of the smallest sidewalks, and almost zero bike lanes.
I live in Saint Paul near the border of Minneapolis and I plan to get an e-bike eventually because there actually are a ton of hills in my neighborhood.
That all happened for a reason. A lot of those cities boomed post AC when car oriented development was in full swing. Whereas colder cities developed earlier and were able to be more developed around people.
Turns out if you make biking convenient, it doesn't matter how rainy or snowy it is, as you'll only be outside for a couple on minutes
Powerful stuff. I voted for HLA this week, let’s hope it passes.
I hope this video helps many more do the same.
nothing will change even if it does pass.
OK negative nancy @mrosskne
Can I assume this is just increased taxes with nothing of value done?
@@ndnrb_yup
At a time when people were ripping up their Tram lines to make way for cars, the Melbourne Tram network was saved purposely. When they hosted the olympics, people saw how an increase in population would’ve gridlocked the city had it not been for the extensive, reliable, and numerous trams. Today trams are a part of Melbournes identity, it has 250kms of line making it the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, the entire “town town” area is free to ride at all times.
In a single day you can seamlessly shop in Melbourne central, have Pizza in Lygon street, and get coffee in flinders lane before catching a train home.
I hope one day every city can be like this!
yeah or you could just not be poor, get a car, and go wherever you want without having to stand next to a bunch of crackhead rapists
for real, melly is the most livable city in the world for a reason
Hi, I'm an urban planner from the East coast. Thank you for humanizing the pedestrian experience of sprawl/stroads. We need this everywhere
It’s important to remember that the street changes described in the mobility 2035 plan aren’t just guesses or wishful thinking. The very few which HAVE been implemented have often cut the rate of accidents in the immediate area in half or even better!
The problem isn’t that LA doesn’t know what to do about the issues on our streets. The problem is that we already know the solutions, but we’re dragging our feet on the implementation! That’s why HLA is so important.
As Upton Sinclair said : "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Lawmakers in the US are being paid by the car manufacturers and oil industry to *not* change the problem.
@@TheSeparhimhurray for ̶b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶s̶ donations and lobbying!!
That's wack I live in LA County (greater la area) but all I saw on my ballot was Measure 1, no HLA!???
14:09 "with a buffer area in case you lose control" LOL. Classically (for north america) the bike lane is on the danger side of the buffer area. No wonder nobody is biking. Great video!
Scandinavian here.
Our post-war wealth gains (including the possibility for private car ownership and widespread building of suburbs) probably came around 1-2 decades later than USA; instead of late 40s-early 60s, it came in the early 60s and running into the 70s.
At first, that might have been a disadvantage for us. But the lucky thing, hiding inside that, was that the 1973 oil crisis effectively killed off some (or a lot, actually) of the wilder, car-centric plans here. Plans, that would have torn big parts of the old city centres here apart.
This is a good point. Another factor in Europe's favor is the centuries of pedestrian-scale development and urbanism already baked into the culture.
@@michlo3393Well, many cities after WWII had the potential of turning into car-dependent hellscapes. Especially areas destroyed during the war were rebuilt with the car in mind. In the Netherlands, cars were broadly adopted later than in much of the US, but from the 1950s onwards cities were adapted to fit more cars. In many cities some canals were turned into roads. My city, Utrecht, has this charming old city centre surrounded by a canal flanked by parks. In the 1960s the canal on one side was turned into a highway, and the rest of the canals were supposed to follow. The medieval squares became parking lots and many buildings were destroyed to allow bigger streets. The culture, the late adoption of cars, the protests against destruction of old neighbourhoods, protests against the many victims of collisions, and the increase in gas costs, the combination of all that made the Netherlands what it is now. Thankfully recently that one side was turned into a canal again.
@michlo3393
Cities in the USA weren't all built in the 60s. Many of them had older, more "European" style city planning. High density, good public transport. It all got bulldozered for cars
I've watched dozens and dozens of videos on youtube about transit and urban planning and design. This video was by far the most emotionally impactful. Thank you for highlighting the real human toll of the way we've chosen to build our cities.
Imagine UA-cam if every content creator was as knowlegible and passionate as Nimesh. Keep up the good work, Doctor.
As someone working in EMS in a moderately large city, I constantly run calls of people killed in cars, cyclists and pedestrians killed/maimed at no fault of their own. When I have children, I will not raise them in a place that is actively hostile towards them if they chose not to drive.
100% facts
Hundreds of thousands of people use public transit in LA everyday to live their lives.
@mrxman581
And millions in NYC
Hope everyone watching this will use public transportation where it is available. I see people on reddit who think they need to rent a car when they travel to Europe or Asai. I will never again live where I have to drive a car.
@@mrxman581I would say a large portion of those folks do it out of necessity, not by choice. I do it by choice in San Diego and it works well, but only because I don't use slow local buses. I almost exclusively use the trolley, trains, or Rapid buses to get places and then ebike to wherever I need.
I almost cried at the part of the video showing entire city blocks bulldozed to make way for the highway.
Deadass me too. Looked absolutely horrible.
i dont know if its true in this specific case, but the neighbourhoods that got bulldozed for freeways were usually predominantly black and brown neighbourhoods...
@@disasterarea9341considering that this land belonged to brown people first, probably.
@@brothermayihavesomeloops7048no they literally routed around white communities while bulldozing through "undesirable" ones. There's a reason why none of the freeways follow a remotely straight line
@@brothermayihavesomeloops7048 There is no land that "belongs" to any human.
"Who needs a car in Los Angeles? We've got the best public transit system in the world!" Seventy-five years ago, this was true.
If things can change so much in 75 years, surely it can be reversed as easily right? ...right?
And yet, public transit has never been better in the last 60 years!
Eh I think this is something people say, but really it's just downtown that had that system. The area that's considered "LA" today is as massive area
LA Metro Rail is great and sometimes on time.
We can overcome the car brain here in Los Angeles. HLA HAS TO PASS, ANGELENOS!!!!
Cars are a hell of a drug. It is a long battle to teach the next generation to stop the suffering. The UAW people are good people but the companies they work for are sinners
Well said, columyeh!
One of the toughest parts about loving biking in LA is the conflict with recommending it to others - you know they have a high probability to come in contact with a speeding/distracted driver.
Can't wait enough for HLA to start a build out toward a network of protected lanes. Hope this blows up for LA voters to see!
Lol cycling in LA would be dumb frankly. Why bother? How is it enjoyable to ride with thousands of speeding cars? Especially considering the type of people that live in LA. If someone hit you, they probably wouldn't even stop lol
@@pauld.b7129 its because people want to change their city to not be riding with thousands of cars instead a safe heaven for children and pedestrians instead of a urban hell
A friend was hospitalized for a year after a cycling accident. Terrible
"10 miles apart is a long-distance relationship" hit home, or rather close to it, as it were. my girlfriend lives only like 7 miles away from me, but to see each other, one of us has to take the interstate. to cross 7 miles.
This weekend we had a birthday party in a small German village - the vast majority of the guests arrived without a car (and all the remaining ones had very long trips). One of them was a mom with her 3-year old twins in the cargo bike and the 5-year old on his own bike for 8 (!) miles one way. This is, what good infrastructure can do.
@@kailahmann1823So, in order for me to pull something off like biking to her place, I'd have to cut across two different towns to avoid the interstate. Leaving my hometown and cutting across the city that holds a good majority of the industry in the area will lead me into a neighboring town to hers -- at which point you cross the river to get to her town (which is technically a part of the state north of us? honestly not sure what's going on there)
It's bullshit, frankly. In the end, this roundabout trip is (i think) about 15 miles. Oh, also, half of it is highway, so you technically can't bike all the way there, you'd have to drive into the city and bike from there. Assuming your car didn't get towed, broken into, or stolen.
@@SmokeyEditsvote for initiatives pushing more bicycle infrastructure. More bicycles - less cars are needed - less congestion on existing roads thus saving time for those who still need cars (large families / long distance travelers / people with limited mobility)
@@Bork_In_Volcanic Trust me, I would if I could. I live in a red state, so a lot of the time that sort of thing isn't on people's minds here. The state I live in is about 90% political theater, 10% shit getting done. The sidewalk on my road ends about 100 yards after the top of the road. I'd frequently walk it anyway before I got a car, but I almost died on more than one occasion. There's been talk since we moved into this house in 2007 about how they'd finish the sidewalks and stuff, but it's never happened.
sensing a pattern with BMWs
And other similar "rich-asshole" vehicles.
The worst part is that BMW's are probably the most annoying vehicles to deal with as a car owner, mechanic, or anyone for that matter. When I was working at a car wash, I quickly came up with an acronym saying that they were, "Broken, Messed Up, Worthless Piece of $#!t" since they were a headache to clean, even compared to the jumbo lifted trucks that clearly never get used for actual work.
I haven't even gotten to the part where they're at in the video and I can assume that it's them or G Wagen owners. The worst part is that the G-Wagen isn't even a bad design in theory, but since it's a Benz, it's going to be driven by pricks.
@EbonySaints Gotta love cleaning that german brake dust
Tesla, BMW, brodozers... Humans, beware! The bane of every stroadway.
same group of people that think cutting up in highways is cool, dead men walking or driving ig
"Bro, what are you doing?" is such a constant refrain when driving in LA that I lost it hearing it again.
what was happening in that clip?
@@mrosskne A car left its lane and was trying to bypass traffic by going down the bike lane lol
Thank you for doing a modern version of "Scared Straight" when it comes to car accident injuries on the body. These should be PSA's on all media if you ask me!
I really appreciate how you made the effort to make these tragic accidents real and not just a statistic. I wish more people would do that when talking about the subject. I think few Americans can say that they haven’t known someone killed in a vehicle accident. Most of us can say that we’ve known several. It’s really important to tell those stories.
I’m from DC and I wish LA could have a system like we do. We have lots of traffic and our own problems, but our metro is extensive enough and convenient enough that a huge number of people live here without cars at all.
This was an incredibly well-done persuasive piece. The showing of victims' memorials and fatal injuries was very moving.
Wishing you the best.
It's highly critical the Measure HLA passes, so we can have an actual solution to all these senseless traffic deaths and injuries. And thank you for talking about this, your perspective is always interesting :)
Also HLA initiative might be a good example for other car-centric cities of USA to follow. Given cultural significance of LA there is very high chance.
not all heroes wear capes... you are playing a very important role in educating the public about better urban planning/design and i can't thank you enough!
vote YES for Measure HLA this March!!!
There was a concerning amount of BMW here.
BMWs are as common as civics here
Body Mangling Whippersnappers?
@@aygwm it’s also common that theyre all assholes, either merge without signaling, speeding, cutting people off, and from this video killing people
You know what's actually absurd, is that doing any pending improvements when touching a section of street **isn't what they just do by default**!! Why on earth wouldn't you do that while you're there??
City planners are the worst. They look at the distance from building to building and place as many 12' wide, highway style lanes as they can fit and then add a "buffer zone" so that drivers can safely lose control and have somewhere to swerve that won't damage their car. Later when they realize they might need space for a bus stop or a bike lane they choose the part of the road designed for cars to crash into. If you're lucky you might get some plastic flexi sticks for a false sense of security but nothing to protect someone walking or riding or standing on the corner waiting to get into a restaurant. In their minds people don't exist, only cars exist.
Get European city planners to the US it might help :)
not all city planners :) and often the planners are at the mercy of what the city council or state decides and they are responsible for implementing that decision. So getting things like HLA passed helps ensure that good design gets implemented
Ironically, it would be safer for everyone to make driving dangerous again. Have highway dividers kill people, use parked cars as a road divider
City planners usually make good recommendations. Cities usually ignore them.
Those nightmares usually come from traffic engineers.
Holy shit, we need more of this content... and, frankly, we all need to run for city council.
seeing the "watch your speed - in memory of monique munoz" made me angry and sad. i can not believe that is the only thing the city did, or could do, to address her killing. amazing video!
I’m a transportation planner consultant for LA County Public Works. In my spare time, I’d like to assist you with your videos: research, graphics, videography, writing, narrative. Thank you so much for your work!
I support a collab; murica needs to support its people!
IT’S OUR BOY FRESH OFF THE PRESSES
Nimesh for city council!
LA could be so amazing with a real public transit system
💯
This is one of the best urban mobility videos I have ever seen. You don't only talk about car traffic, but you show us the places where real people died. You show us the CT scans of drivers who died even though they wore seat belts. You explain the politics of inaction. And you show a new way to action. The way you deal with the topic is extremely comprehensive and to the point, because you show, you don't just tell. Well done sir!
All these streets look the same.
What have they done to this place? Everywhere he visited on the sidewalks looks terrible. 🙁
Well if they didn;t then you would have a mixture of GOOD and BAD designs...
The idea is you find a GOOD, safe, efffective design, and use that all over....
Most places around the world are like this in large cities, they have their design and all their streets look the same.
I am in singapore, show me a photo of a road here and 99% of the time all i can say is "city core" or "countryside" its the same layout over and over and over again
I gotta say, I'm really glad to have your perspective on this space. I've found myself disappointed that more medical professionals aren't out here ringing the alarm bells on how car centric development kills us and makes us unhealthy.
I wish more doctors and doctor associations (like the APA) would focus on harm reduction with auto development. It's incredible how quickly they'll force product recalls where a few children have died using them over the years, but they stay mum on the topic of car deaths (except in the areas of car seats) that kill thousands per year.
And it's not like the science isn't known or is beyond them. In fact, the American heart association implores us to walk more, but they never talk about why we don't walk enough. It would be nice if they used their influence to help build more walkable places so we can be healthier.
A few years back I worked just west of the 405 on Olympic but was living east of the 405 near the Grove mall. Going home in rush hour at the end of the day, I found that the 3 blocks west of the 405 could easily take 40 minutes to get past. Eventually I started parking east of the 405 and just walking to my car at the end of the day. Saved me the 40 minutes sitting in traffic.
I fucking hated Olympic when I was living in LA. I lived in Chatsworth, but worked in Santa Monica. I had about 4 hours per day that were not dedicated to sleeping, eating, working, or traffic. I moved to LA to advance my career and build out my resume and work history. Spent seven years there, accomplished my goal, then got a better job back where I grew up as soon as I could.
Thank you for sharing the realities
of living in Los Angeles. The residents of LA deserve better ❤
Nothing like getting into a traffic jam on the freeway at 1am. Never had I experienced such traffic congestion in my life until I drove around LA.
It's not so much the congestion, it's the VOLUME that plagues LA.
@@michlo3393so it's congestion then.
I invite you to drive Highway 401 through Toronto, Ontario Canada. 16 lanes wide for large portions. It is apparently busier than the busiest LA.highway.
Is this... a STROOOAD?!
Great work as always, Nimesh. I love how much you teach about the specifics of LA. I hope your channel inspires more people to make city specific channels!
That it's even possible to drive 100 Mph on a road with on street parking and driveways is insane. We are talking about highway speeds, highways with their clear zones, barriers and physically separated lane directions. Yeah those people were breaking the speed limit, but it should not even be possible to drive 100 Mph on a road with these conditions.
It’s definitely insane. Out in the Phoenix area, the only place where it’s reasonably possible to drive over 100 mph is on State Route 303, which is a fairly empty freeway. And there aren’t any stroads with street parking (except parts of Apache Boulevard in Tempe).
As a Dutchman I’m even shocked by how broad residential streets sometimes are in the US. Like it’s as easy to go 60+mph in a suburb as it’s on a highway. Stroads are also something that’s nearly nonexistent here. Like, make one lane each direction a parallel road so the main road doesn’t have people exiting and entering parking lots. So many changes could be done without spending fortunes, and in the Netherlands many major changes are done when a street needs maintenance anyway. Even here in NL we’re still looking for the best ways to do things, whether things can be standardised etc. Some changes turn out to be expensive failures, some take a while to be successful, and others show significant improvements right away. When I see items on US traffic I always feel like nobody is willing to try anything. “We placed 20 signs with a paragraph of text on each but nothing changed.” Cars go too fast? Build a huge speed bump that launches many cars into space, but still keep it as broad as a highway. But still, it’s something.
I’m glad to see an exponential increase in attention to infrastructure and car dependency. I feel like many Americans aren’t accepting the many traffic casualties anymore. That’s how the change came in the Netherlands too. “Stop the child murders” was the slogan during protests in the 1970s, and things went into a higher gear when a ruling politician’s child was killed by a driver. Dutch neighbourhoods in the 1950s and 60s were built with huge roads, supposed to keep the traffic moving. Old neighbourhoods were destroyed, many of the urban canals were turned into roads, ancient squares were turned into parking lots. Cities were gridlocked in traffic jams. Since the 1970s, with public protests (and huge increases in gas prices) urban planning shifted to be more focused on other modes of transportation than just cars.
Would be fun to drive 70mph in a BTR on those roads though. After all, the roads are a battle of who has the biggest death box, and you can't get any heavier and faster than an armored personnel carrier
Would it be even more dangerous than the giant pickups everywhere? Yes. However, I say it is just the natural end result of a years long trend
160 km/h.
That is not a legal speed on _any_ public road in the _world,_ other than the German Autobahns and the Nürburgring.
Make speed bumps 😂
Having recently been forced to move from Glendale to San Bernardino, I'm sorry to say that traffic is almost as bad here and getting worse. American car-dependency is crap, even if it does make incredible amounts of money for the oil companies.
Your MD background provides impactful perspective on the reality of these planning decisions. Thank you for choosing to deliver you message, and keep up the well researched, persuasive discussion!
This is the grassroots movement, the very ground shifting beneath the unanimously corrupt city council. They are bribed by the oil and auto lobby, plain and simple. Thank you Nimesh.
Cars must be taxed based on weight, (with a bonus for electric cars). Moving a single person in a 4000 pound tank inflicts high risks to other citizens and pedestrians with both added pollution and added danger.
I’m all for it.
No tax electric cars by weight too.
The original Nissan leaf, with it's 24kWh battery, had enough range for typical commutes. Now current EVs typically have batteries over 100kWh to combat "range anxiety". This makes the cars heavier, more expensive, and more dangerous.
@@jamesphillips2285 I think a couple hundred pound credit is ok, but you are right, compact EVs with ~200 miles of range can easily weight close to what other sedans do. the SUV/pickup scourge is a big part of the weight inflation because their base weight is so much larger that they need double or more of the batteries to get that larger range, and then they want 400+ mile ranges too. We're better off pushing of hybrid trucks for that purpose with like 50 miles of battery range and then compact generators to cover towing and such(which most people don't do anyway)
getting people onboard with 90 mile ranges will be harder,
@@Joesolo13 The RAV4 EV, which got stopped by Chevron buying up the NiMH battery patents, had a 20KW generating trailer under development. The combination was apparently more efficient than the gasoline model on the highway
@@jamesphillips2285 yeah, they should be taxed by weight too, but with a bonus (like -500kg in the calculation) because they are safer because they pollute less
Cool to see you approach traffic violence from a public health perspective. Between deaths by collisions, air pollution, and people being sedentary all day, it’s hard to see traffic as anything less than the number one enemy of public health. Looking at the medical effects of living near stroads and highways would be interesting. I know asthma, COPD, and the like become more common. Great video !
Don't forget the effects of all that constant *noise*.
@@Korina42The noise is awful. I’m Dutch and think the ambient noise from cars is already too much, but I’ve read that American roads are even louder. I just want to be able to sit in a park without hearing a highway raging in the background, even if it’s miles away. My neighbourhood is quiet, without much traffic, but when I went for a walk recently the highway, which is over a mile away, was roaring. I could hardly hear myself think over the noise. My country is very densely populated, so even outside cities you might not be able to find peace. If it’s not a highway it’s planes flying overhead.
Jesus you really ate on this one. The societal, humanistic and medical perspectives you provided on this one was seriously powerful! I agree with all of your points which again reminds me of how car dependency and car-first culture continually disappoint me
The solution is really obvious: better public transport that is not affected by traffic, protected bike lanes, and traffic calming measures (no stroads).
Yeah, this what I have been saying: THERE ARE TOO MANY CARS. If there are too many cars, people are going to sit in traffic. It's not rocket science, but our politicians aren't interested in changing the status quo.
Changing the status quo changes their money.
You're making it sound like China. They literally impose a drive law of certain cars being able to drive in certain areas certain days of the week. In some places you can only drive 1-2 times a week or pay extra to drive another day. They make people plan around that for example you get to drive Tuesdays and Saturdays and all the other days you need to use public transport to get to work or work within walking distance.
They are thinking of tolling people like China already in New York. 🤔
With all these sidewalks, nothing prevents you from walking, scootering, skating or biking.
We need to destroy the necessity of cars with clean, convenient, and free public transportation. Eliminate the need of 12 lane highways with fast and efficient railway systems. Not just here, but everywhere in the US…. They’re designing our lives around cars. We can barely go outside anymore. It’s no longer safe for children to walk to school or play outside anymore. Looking outside you see 20 fast food stops separated by rushing traffic. What is even happening anymore? Absolutely insane. I went to the city of savannah. So walkable, beautiful, everyone was biking and going out for strolls. Everything within walking distance. We can’t design cities like this anymore because of cars. I lived in singapore, ultra-modern with fantastic subway systems. I could go on my own as a young girl and never felt like I was in any danger. I just want to look outside and see people instead of cars. I want to feel like there are other people in this world.
The city of tucson aslo had a mobility plan approved and have yet to implement any of it after 4 years. All these plans feel so performative
in Germany it's murder instead of manslaughter if you drive way too fast or even race on public roads and someone get's killed
Thats Not true. That Was a one time court decison. Usually Not the norm
While I don’t know if this is true, vechicular manslaughter is objectively second degree murder
YES on HLA!!!!
Nimesh, thank you for showing us what we can do to try to change LA. I got involved in our local safe streets nonprofit because of you. Keep up the good work.
A lot of channels just re-hash the same ideas and examples over and over, but your videos are original, fresh, and informative. The effort you put in to making these is really great.
I appreciate that!
LA has so much potential. It's heartening to see you and other folks fighting to realize that potential.
Unfortunately, like gun violence, we accept the deaths and serious injuries from car culture as the "price of doing business" here in the U.S.
Politicians will say the usual, "things need to change," yet nothing of substance does. We're trapped by our own perceived comfortable life-style and we really don't want to do anything to change it as a nation. The situation will have to become much worse before there's a chance of actually improving anything. Meanwhile the CARnage continues.
I know. We tend to blame the object instead of the people.
@@korcommanderIn countries that have fewer guns, fewer people get shot with guns. If that piece of obvious truth is "blaming the object", then so be it. Doesn't make it wrong, though.
@@korcommander Without that object people can't use it to kill others, shocker.
I wish Democrats would advocate against car centric infrastructure as much as they do against gun violence.
@@korcommander no, _only_ blaming the individual is exactly the issue. if you just say “that person was so bad and should be punished” it’s an excuse to not do anything about the underlying systemic issues.
for gun violence the issue is among others too many guns in the hands of too many people, in combination with a culture around guns that makes the issue worse.
for car violence the main issue is, as the video explained, poorly designed streets and roads and a lack of viable alternatives to driving
Thanks for spreading awareness and advocating for the right kind of change.
Wow, this is one of your best videos. So emotionally impactful. Perhaps this is what we need to overcome the "cars are freedom" brain-worm that North America is under.
20:04 love the end, you always hear the Argument, but when you build bike lanes, what's with emergency vehicles, they get stuck in traffic, but if you build them wide enough, response times are improved instead of worsened
17:40 The Citizens tell them about their dead friends/relatives etc. and some of them are playing with their phones or talk to each other, that's just disrespectful, behavior like that is disgusting
I'm NGL I cried while watching this, posting this comment from Michigan and we have so many of the same problems, hope HLA passes for y'all. Many blessings!!
When did Michigan become part of the deep south, y'all?
@@garryferrington811I hear y'all used in the Midwest pretty often
I hate cars... going over the xray images was really hard to watch, but really powerful also. I wish people would appreciate how much danger they put themselves in every time they get into a car
It's not cars that do this, it's lazy or undercut engineering that cities do in order to save costs.
It's not cars that do this, it's lazy requirements in order to drive a car and easy tests that create problem drivers.
Why make several roads and streets when you can just combine them into stroads?
Why make complicated and nuanced tests and screenings for each driver if we can just check if they have arms, legs and know how to grab the wheel and maybe parallel park?
The reckless driving is a symptom, not the cause, lookup the difference between road traffic death rate in US vs Europe and you'll see a massive difference between the states and european countries. Why?
1) European countries generally have harder and more complex driving tests, you are basically required to do a full loop around a town, with less than 3-4 faults or 1-2 major faults if none at all.
2) Roads in general are smaller and thus driving speeds slow down naturally as drivers subconsiously lower their speed in sub-urban areas.
3) Less lanes per road, at most you'll find 3 lanes on a highway in a central city, this along the fact that hogging the left or middle lane is considered a serious fault and is enforced makes driving much more safer as there's more space for overtakes and less hogging
4) More alternatives to driving such as metro, trains and buses with well interconnected networks that lowers congestion overall
Man, as a bike commuter in the LA area, this hit hard. Very good work here demonstrating the human cost of all this madness.
You forgot to mention the horrific crash in Windsor Hills. The nurse from Texas plowed her Mercedes full speed, she didn’t even brake. She killed 7
In Munich we ride to the Surfing spot by subway.
It’s so 😎
You even have no big Automobil company in the City
DENORMALIZE CALLING TRAFFIC VIOLENCE AN "ACCIDENT"!!!!! 📢📢📢📢📢
And if you're driving 100 mph on city streets you should get JAIL TIME. ON THE FIRST VIOLATION.
When I have to discuss it in writing, I say "collision," not "accident."
it's an accident stay mad
We have computers, tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches for a reason. Technically, they all do the same thing. America was like if you could only ever use a smartphone and not a computer or smartwatch.
You're an LA treasure. All the LA urbanists have been pushing HLA and I'm glad you're part of it. I'm not in LA proper but I hope it passes and is a resounding success so it can be pushed to more cities or county wide. Everyone who finds out I bike to work and stuff either act like I'm Hercules or am gonna die at any moment when that doesn't have to be the case.
✊ strong video. In Germany, we are very conscious of talking about drivers killing or injuring people with their cars rather than cars killing or injuring people, so the focus is on individual misbehaviour rather than God-given casualties of mobility that we just have to accept. But perhaps in a world where driving is often the only option, blaming individuals isn't the best way to convince them that change is needed.
Either way, keep up the fight against car dependency.
Those wide straight roads, or stroads, are an invitation for speeding, and dangerous for anyone outside of a car. Those deaths are attributable to city planners.
Yeah, at this point in the us city planning probably is the bigger leverage for safer streets. but framing is important and even if you don't emphasize this right now you can easily adapt your own speech
@@HarryPujols
absolutely incredible video. thank you. as a pasadena resident this resonates greatly
I have never been to LA before, but by god do i wish that they can get this to work because we need SOME kind of precedent set somewhere to break our horrible infrastructure habits in this country. Great video.
I'm glad to see a video on this. I've been here for a little less than a year and the amount of people running red lights, cutting people off, almost hitting cars and people is unbelievable. I don't even drive around here if I don't have to because of the anxiety it gives me. Along with developmental changes we need more traffic enforcement. These people need to be held accountable before they end up killing more people just to save a couple seconds in their day
This was amazing. First time I’ve seen a healthcare professional take a public stance against traffic violence (and use that term). Excellent use of descriptive (and shocking) medical explanations and imagery. I always thought using imagery would be a great tool in raising awareness, much like the anti-smoking and “red asphalt” campaigns of the 80s and 90s. Once again great job and I hope HLA passes.
Great work as always! You're like the Uytae Lee of Los Angeles.
Oh man, what a compliment. Uytae's videos are the best and a big inspiration for me. Thanks!
As one of those angelinos who nearly died from stroad inflicted violence, thank you for this video.
Nimesh, your POV is spot on and 100% appreciated. Thank you.
I've only ever visited LA but I am beyond happy to see that HLA passed. Glad to see such a major city making a widespread *good* decision
Implementing alternatives to driving also improves the experience for car drivers themselves. A study by Waze put the Netherlands at number one for best country for car drivers.
As someone in an older town that boomed in the late 1800s it's pretty shocking when I end up in the sunbelt Stroadville ...It's jusr so awful for humanity outside of cars
I live in Scotland, UK, a friend of mine who comes form California cannot get over our roads. Compared to LA, they say our drivers are polite and courteous. Our roads, while being a lot smaller, often have pavement furniture to protect pedestrians. Speed cameras, traffic calming measures (Anything from speed bumps, the road being zig zag, narrowed sections etc.).
Good luck with HLA.
YES on HLA. I hope more voters see your vid, Nimesh!
Traffic deaths may have surpassed gun deaths, but they wont get nearly as much attention as Big Scary Crime. Just doesnt have the same emotional oomph to it, nor does it sell for the media. Despite the similar numbers, most people are much less likely to fall victim to homicide than to a fatal automobile accident, due to the nature of most homicides. Our society has normalized the dangers of cars and the absurd environments we build around them.
Yes, that's true.
cars are the fastest method of transport for 1 person. but they are the slowest method of transportation for a population. average car speed is 18 mph. literally, you could ban cars and replace them with e-bikes, mobility scooters, remove all red lights, stop signs, and people would move faster than with cars.
I really appreciate your vidoes, Nimesh. Thank you for what you do. I hope these can reach people that are able to make a difference.
I appreciate you humanizing this conversation, I think urbanism media can come off as cold sometimes. This was beautiful storytelling we definitely need. Sending love from likeminded folks in Philly❤
Thanks for this video, on all fronts. When I got my first car (junior year of college in the LA area), it seriously expanded my range of motion since my college wasn't in an area well-served by transit. Then, ~6 months later, I got rear-ended in a multi-car collision. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, but 2 of 4 cars involved were totaled and I lost all the "freedom" I had gained. It was really, really hard to mentally recover, and that wasn't helped by getting in another (non-fatal but very destructive) car accident a few weeks later. LA is NOT SAFE - not for pedestrians, not for bicyclists, and not for cars. Better road design and transit alternatives can make a HUGE difference, if only the city government ACTS. I look forward to seeing HLA pass!
A 17 year old with prior reckless driving incidents and speeding that kills somebody should be getting 20 to 30 ******* years not a slap on the wrist
Minors shouldn't be driving.
And why was he driving a Lamborghini? Sheesh🤦🏻♀️
4:13 "For the first time most people died from traffic violence than form gun violence"... So you'll be killed, by a gun or a car. The USA in a nutshell. Great Video!
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Don’t forget diabetes 😍
This is an incredible piece. I've never seen a video from this content creator before, but the first 4 minutes of this were so captivating that I *had* to subscribe. It's actually the best introduction to a video I've ever seen.
This is the best video I've seen on this topic. Thank you so much for making this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was powerful! Profiling the deaths and injuries really brings the idea of traffic violence home. Keep it up!
Thank you for highlighting the human element of these stories, Nimesh. I don't understand how people can pass these off as unfortunate accidents instead of being infuriated by the policy failures that enabled them.