@@RipCityBassWorks I think there is some progress in some places although it's slow. Things like parking minimums and the absolutely insane zoning codes are being removed here and there so it's not impossible but still far from likely.
@@NeverGonnaGiveYouUp71 luckily for you it seems to be a trend. The places that do so see better economic activity as well as better community markers, and there's nothing like more money to be made to help stuff like this become more frequent.
As a former child immigrating from a developing country, adults always manage to find a place to park, either near the building where they live or in another block. I don't know where this self entitlement comes from once you land here. 😅
those people from first-world countries are so worried... no, with about crime and kidnapping, as if they live in Nigeria or Congo, while those who actually live there have no such worries at all
I feel like building a world for play, both child and adult focused intermixed, would inherently make a more joyful and connected life experience. I recently got into mountain biking as a 37 yo dude, and saw some town where they had sidewalks, but also mountain bike trails right next to the sidewalks for kids to use on their way to and from school. I'm so jelly. And I 100% want that to be a thing for kids everywhere.
A society which requires cars for transportation makes those who can't drive cars (children, the elderly, those who can't afford a car, those with a disability) second-class citizens.
Yes, 1/3 of U.S. the population doesn’t have a drivers license. Accessibility is important. Some viewers might be interested in reading, “When Driving Is Not An Option: Steering Away From Car Dependency” by Anna Letitia Zivarts.
@ The United States funds and develops cities as if people that don’t drive are lesser than people that do drive. That pathology doesn’t exist in many other places in world.
The elderly still drive where I live. They're actually the most aggressive people when it comes to public transportation and cyclists. A few weeks ago I had an old man follow me down the street yelling at me about getting off the road with my bicycle. Today I had an old woman speed up to me and lay on her horn. When I didn't get off the road for her, she passed dangerously close. The elderly are probably the most dangerous people on the road, and they don't really have much left to lose.
just because you can't drive doesn't mean you can't use a car. you just become a passenger. and you're not a "second class citizen" you're just not a "driver" of a car. Are you also a second class citizen because you don't own your own airplane when you go on vacation?
even with their weird language stuff they're doing in montreal.quebec... that feels more tolerable than what Ford is doing weird car-centric stuff in Toronto/Ontario. They call themselves "progressive" conservative, but there's nothing "progressive" on what they're doing. All he's doing is just clinging to old things and way, instead of pushing us forward and learning from the mistakes of the past.
@@quackywhackityphillyb.3005Same here. I can't move now as my older son is in high school and am concerned about forcing him to move. Hee has already moved quite a few times. I am encouraged by the direction that Montreal is moving towards and hope they can keep this up irrespective of the political party in charge.
This is the kind of thing that can be the seed to a flourishing community. I love seeing it spread across the city. The rest of us in Canada could learn a thing or two.
We had places like that to play when I was a kid. (I'm 60 years old.) Those places had names like "vacant lot with random junk" and "construction site." I'm not making fun of what they accomplished here. Good for them. There should be more parks like that. I'm just pointing out that when we were free range kids and allowed to be adventurous, we found fun like that park all over the place.
I hope we reduce the size of vehicles, the vehicle-miles-traveled, the speeds drivers drive at, and the culture that excuses drivers no matter how much harm they cause so we can return to a society like the one you described with free-range kids.
Free range kids are more independent than helicopter parent kids, and that shows when they grow up. I grew up in an area with lots of greenery and spaces between buildings and streets. I wasn't limited to what was safe or boxed in, but what I wanted to do. I like to believe I was well-privileged in my childhood, even without much money.
They redid the street in front of our house a year ago. During the weekends the street was closed and had like 5 excavators in it, with piles of gravel, pipes and other things. AAA all the kids in the neighborhood came out to play on them. It was great. After the street was finished, car speeds slowed (it was a pedestrian rebuild) and there are 10x as many people walking. However, the debris the kids were playing on is all gone.
I love that it adds more green space to a heavy urbanized area and gives kids a safer place to be and to explore. Drivers will find a way around; they won't like it at first, but they'll get used to it (just as they do with higher gas prices every week).
Wow… this is incredible. I wish the roads around the field outside my school (which people often hung-out on in good weather) had something like this. They just had roads for cars in all sides of the box. It even cut-off the historic market cross so you couldn’t use it without crossing road on either side. I’m a slow walker (which turned out to be due to a disability, I now use a wheelchair), and in my school years many adults (who’d paused in their cars for me to cross) actually very slowly pushed their bumper against my legs when I crossed “too slow” (often)! Which was super scary as an 11 year old! Especially as I’d had my ankle run-over in a mishap at the age of 7, and it brought back those memories. I love how they’ve made the hills good places to sit as well as to play. This is so much better than a plastic slide, especially as teenagers in my town would try to climb on the roofs by slippery outer support poles and the lack of maintenance was often abused to hide alcohol… I also can’t help but be reminded of the ways kids played with mixed materials in the UK in the decade immediately after WW2, when there were plenty of rubble piles of all materials available. They much preferred climbing mounds of gravel and jumping off to the other side, over a slide. This methodology provides some needed green space, with grasses and shrubs, while also allowing for those kinds of play much more safely. I love that the hazard warning poles were so numerous, they became a hazard unto themselves!
Yeah, children love areas meant for exploring over guided playing methods. Like, at my school yard back in grade school I (and some friends) often spent time making a base in the middle of a thorny bush thicket. Not exactly an intended playing area.
@ haha, in my first school we had a few bushes (some thorny) that we’d hide behind and “have a base in” too! Unfortunately one teacher saw us hiding there past the end of lunchtime, and had it trimmed so we couldn’t hide anymore 😅
Motorists are a cursed people. They would bump a child with their vehicles for walking too slowly? Why don't they just get out the vehicle and ask you why you walk so slow?
Great video! Could you do an update video regarding Doug Ford's Bill 212? He just amended the bill that protects himself from lawsuits from the bike lane rip up, so now he knows what he's going to do will cause more injuries. And the bill passed as of Nov 25
That would be a waste of a video. We need a video on how to navigate the political system to defeat the bill. I think that Toronto, the regional district, & Canada will have to take on the challenge.
The bewildering part of the bill, is that it impacts *all* municipalities in Ontario - from Kenora, to Timmins, to Ottawa, to Windsor and even Sturgeon falls. Interestingly, the same premier takes certain streets to get to work in Toronto (ie: Bloor street) and does not like getting stuck in truck traffic.
@@solangecossette1374Either he doesn't tealizing that making cyclists use their cars again would make th7ngs worse -- or he has another goal?? The bill has about 27 pages, one of which is about bike lanes...
@@04smallmj See @JohnFraser’s comment above for the relevant context: it’s always “scofflaw 𝙘𝙮𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨”, wouldnchaknow, who constantly toss traffic laws out the window (or so they say).
She brings up a very strong point that there needs to be places for older kids. So much of play infrastructure, if it gets built, targets small children, and leaves nowhere for big kids to be kids. They end up having to play amongst the small children, and there are safety issues with that sometimes.
This is fantastic. I'm really impressed by Stephanie, and I'm sure the many many people behind her with the vision and creativity to make this happen. You can really see the potential here for urban spaces to go from alienating (at least for anyone not in a car) to joyful and full of potential. I wonder about the culture in Montreal that makes projects like this able to get off the ground.
When I was visiting Sydney NSW (Australia), I went for a walk and came across a little park (actually in the City of Woollahra because Aussie cities are extremely tiny). The park was beside a steep hill up from the neighboring homes. So they put a climbing net over the hill so kids could climb it and otherwise be silly in addition to a slide and steps down the hill. I liked how they had other stuff than just your basic slide and swing we're use to in Canada.
@@OhTheUrbanity That's what I was thinking of when I saw your video. I wonder why we don't follow Aussie (and Kiwi) urbanism more in Canada. We have almost identical political and legal and cultural systems. P.S. Funny thing you might not realize: in his video on Bixi, it is revealed that Paige's brother is a New Zealand Police constable.
Playborhood by Mike Lanza makes a great point like this. We need to make going outside more appealing to kids. The outdoors has to compete with cell phones social media and video games. A municipality has a responsibility for creating fun outdoor spaces where its parks, trails, skate parks, pump tracks or what have you.
Great video . Great urbanism . There is a recent study ( 2024) from Taiwan about the era of myopia . Children need to play outside around 2 hours per day in the sun to avoid myopia . Parents, go play outside with your children , stop watching screens .
This is awesome!!! I definitely agree, let's build our cities to center joy and support children over cars ❤ Our transportation should enhance life not supplant it.
This looks like its bringing the best part of growing up in a suburban neighbourhood to the city - the undeveloped lot on the edge of the neighbourhood with dirt piles and scrap construction materials 😄. Though ours was a bit bigger, and the kids built a dirt track for BMX and mountain bikes 😎
Shows how much the times have changed. When I was a kid we rode our bikes to the park, other friends' houses and school. Most homes had only one TV, no cable, internet or gadgets.
@@ianhomerpura8937 Or do it outside of politics, so you can actually get stuff done. Unless you think stuff like "apply for a permit" counts as politics, in which case you're just describing "living".
The best park with spaces for kids I have ever visited was Pease Park in Austin. It was art, nature, cool climable natural playgrounds, a little creek, water play fountains... It's an amazing place, wish more cities would build places like that.
Didn't know about this project even though i live in montreal. Great stuff! I often see kids use alleys to play but things like this are a great addition instead of just a concrete lane between buildings
Thanks for watching until the end? lol I always do this channel is one of my favorites. Im staring out the front windows of my house looking at this 3 lane road and dreaming of traffic calming and a park. "I wonder how I could get this started?"
School playgrounds will often have fences, especially if they're near a busy road, but aside from that you wouldn't typically expect a fence around a school here, yeah.
I haven't been inside a school in a while, but I'm pretty sure it's about as "fortified" down here south of the US/Canada border as it is up there. Chain link fences to keep the kids from running into traffic are about as far as it goes. You hear about places adding security doors and metal detectors, paying a lot of money on training and cameras and so on, but it varies a lot region to region and school to school. They haven't radically re-engineered the school buildings around my hometown or around where I currently live.
I rode through this one day and was really surprised to see something that looked wild. It is very ingenious and adds a lot of appeal to the neighbourhood. And one thing to consider is that it is located right beside a huge park, so it makes sense. However, many of these wonderful projects would be considered wasteful nuisances by Doug Ford and his minister of Transportation. It is important that Torontonians see this project, given what is currently being contemplated about removing bike lanes in Toronto, and giving the provincial government authority over municipalities to manage their bike infrastructure. A project like this could be easily killed in Ontario, by people who don't even live in the area.
thinking outside the box. disrupting the pattern that creates dehumanization in urban life. what could be more life affirming than creating little oasis in an otherwise sterile urban environment?
I love the updates and general good stuff Montreal is doing. I sometimes feel the spots closed to cars look a little temporary (as they're still just on asphalt) so I'm very interested to see how they will look in the future if these human spaces get overhauled to be more permanent and obviously not-for-cars Edit: this is much more about the secondary, B-roll examples in the video. The main topic of the video was perfect and what I meant by 'permanent', ie it is no longer asphalt and has dirt, grass, and other materials showing it is something that is here to stay.
Great video. Here in LA, I feel bad for parents pushing their baby strollers on sidewalks next to four or six lane traffic. And parents walking with their kids, and kids limited to skateboarding in their apartment alleys and driveways. It's cruel, undignified, bad for their health, and is creating a climate catastrophe those very children will face. Bring on the people friendly streets!
This is awesome! Playgrounds quickly deteriorate and more often than not become hangouts for teenagers which scares off younger kids. As someone who grew up in the countryside I think it's great to give city kids naturalistic places to play and explore that aren't just a big patch of grass like most parks are (I'm not saying parks are bad)
During the pandemic I used to troll cars by biking around in a circle to prevent cars from going on our street which was supposed to be a walking only at the time 😅. My street didn't have sidewalks for all the road and I hated when adults were worried about more traffic and lack of parking while I just wanted to have a sidewalk.
Thank you for this video! Hats off to Ms Watt and whoever joined her to work on this. It's been a long time since I was a kid, but I can totally see how a kid would be drawn to these places to explore, play, and daydream and whatever. Love it.
When I was a property manager I saw a study regarding the effect of vegetation on crime. Not sure how much Montreal resembles London Ontario. Crime was a big problem in London. More so, transient populations of people who often use needles and find places obscured from sight. The study indicated that keeping trees pruned so there are no low hanging branches and removing low lying shrubs increases line of sight and reduces criminal activity. The area with the mounds seems to discount those studies and lessons in design. The layout obstructs line of sight and would make it very difficult to supervise children at play. Birch is not a long lasting wood and will rot within a year or so. The overall concept is good though and the other areas seem well designed. Perhaps consider replacing the mounds with a single climbing area to one side so it leaves a clear line of sight. The last thing you want to do is create ambush points along a path where an unsuspecting victim can encounter a predator hiding in the bushes. Even if it is a rare occurrence. The design still influences the probability. Safety should be the first priority.
5 днів тому
In the meantime I visited the north eastern part of Calgary and see a new housing estate being built (aka housing compound or dormitory district) being built, but it is so car dependent you'd have thought the city planners were still stuck in th 1950s, but a worse version of it. It was so depressing. It didn't even feel like a human outside of the car was ever seriously considered, for fear of offending cars. This video reminds us what is important in building cities. It is not just about human oriented cities and communities, but ones that take into account the children too.
I love this idea! Sounds like a fun place to have. If you have a chance, I would also like to see a review of the cycling infrastructure being built in the suburbs of Ontario. I know that Peel region, Durham Region and even Kingston have been going all out with multi-use paths and even crossrides at intersections, which has historically been a weak spot in suburban bike infrastructure. My hometown, Brampton, has also been doing a few road diets but the bike lanes unfortunately aren't well protected or connected to places, making them underutilized. I personally have mixed feelings about the implementation of the crossrides as well.
When I visited montreal last year it was apparent how much more they care about the city being a great place for pedestrians and kids. They want it to seem fun I think. The rest of ontario could use the same attitude.
Do you mean you also noticed the car just drive through the stop? I assure you this is the standard motorist behaviour in Montréal. Hence the need for traffic calming.
I wish we didn't have to coddle certain "adults" and call their off the wall concerns valid. Anyone who can sit there calmly and listen to all the lunatics with their whatabouts without losing it is a saint.
Trés belle. Dans ma ville de Toronto nous besoins ce type de consideration pour les enfants, et pour un jolie vie de la rue, malheureusement, le change c'est difficile, et a la fois en reverse.
Paris underweant massive changes under Annie Hidalgo. Montréal underwent significant changes under Valérie Plante. The big question in whether her successor will continue on this path or will return to pleasing the car lobby. Ontario shows that progress already made can be regressed. So one wonders if acquired human infrastructure in Montréal will be preserved with more coming, of just maintain what was done so far, but nothing new, or regress like in Ontario. What your video didn't cover is whether outside of the small designated play area, traffic was reduced on the still open streets to make them more liveable without through-traffic on or whether traffic worsened.
Hope that Montreal keeps moving forward. You are right, Ontario is showing what an apathetic leadership can do to years of advancement. I think Montreal is different as these types of changes have been happening for decades.
My sister's husband loves Disney. They must have been to the Magic Kingdom in FL over 30 times. He loves the structure and it's all laid out and well thought out and planned. He's not a "creative" personality. I surf and hike. I bought a families villa in Bulgaria where by second wife is from. I go there and I must use Bulgarian or I can't communicate. I have to fly three flights and pass immigration and use a different currency too. Plus I just realize I am NOT IN KANSAS, Dorothy. That's what I like. Not being in a structured and planned and perfect little world that all I have to do is Pay and the only risk is NOT having any growth in character or learning from the experience. Risk is not danger. There is exposing your children to danger. And there's learning from experiences. I would expose my kids to danger, but I would be there in danger with them. So if we jumped in the pool during a Thunderstorm, we all could have been electrocuted. If we three rode our bikes single file by the edge of a busy street, we all could have been hit by a careless driver. But they can deal with stuff. They can recognize danger and think and avoid or minimize the risk. You can't protect your children from life. Life is a kind of trial by fire. It does not have to be a Forest Fire, but it still has the chance of burning your hand. So, then children understand that if they have been exposed to the danger. Just telling them No don't cross the street or ride the bike or climb the hill or learn to shoot a rifle is NOT the same and actually taking them across busy streets, or riding or climbing on dirt trails or to the Okeechobee Shooting Sports outdoor range.
I have something like that around my neighborhood, a small street was closed to be replaced with what looks like a hockey cosom field, enclosed by wooden borders similar to an outdoors skating rink. There's a school yard and a church with a park next to it, with another building owned by the school across the narrow street. The park was fully upgraded last summer.
Too bad these types of spaces have to be created as a retrofit because of the decentralized nature of microblock neighborhoods with small lots on public streets. Towers in the park provide more coherent designs, with dedicated play areas, pickup/unloading areas etc from day one. Retrofitted superblocks are always at risk of having the intersections reconnected.
This is incredible. I can already think of a few places where my city could try this. I'm not really a fan of urban car infrastructure anyway. I wonder where the local cat stays during the winter
Omg this gave me a huge smile. I’m getting into serious advocacy, thinking about what I can do to get us not only building TOD but COD (Child Oriented Development lol)
This sounds like a lovely neighborhood to live in. I don't have children myself, but I would love to live in a child-friendly area like this. We can afford to prioritize the cars a little lower without society collapsing.
It's nice, except that if you're an adult without kids people give you the stink-eye if you spend too much time in parks that have playgrounds. They pretty much become kid-and-parent-only zones.
I lived right next to l'ile aux volcans for years and always thought it was pretty cool but never saw that many kids play there. It's in a bit of an awkward spot and also right next to a big park with multiple playgrounds. So cool idea, but imo not the best location.
Where I live the city closed off a small section of road between a school and a park. They put in a street hockey rink. And it was destroyed. 😔 Foam was all ripped out of the padding that was around the posts, the nets have been broken and the paint is all faded. I love this idea so much but it only works if people respect the space and the municipality actually maintains it.
This is lovely, kids really don't get space anymore, and it makes me sad. My walks through my former neighborhood and the odd silence was what got me into Urbanism. Where were the kids? It can't be just games and internet. That existed when I was a kid.
Here in the US, engineers and local politicians are terrified to close roads. They typically won't ever move a curb either, at least not to make a road smaller or slower. Oh, they'll widen them for sure. But typically they assume that at some point the road will need more capacity so they leave curbs in place even when adding active transportation infrastructure. Usually they will also make any given road as wide as possible until they hit a property line. This country is a lost cause, and not just the former Confederate states. The whole place is a failure. Maybe Canada will want to annex us in a few years. It would be a huge improvement.
My town put up "no parking" signs along one side of pretty much every residential street. I don't know where all the cars went that lined the other side of the streets, but they're not there anymore and life has continued as normal. It's much ado about nothing. The town bus is free now, too. Bicycle infrastructure is almost nonexistent, would love to see some proper lanes on the main roads here, especially since I just got a Dutch style bike. 😏
Projects like this give me hope for Canada. Of course, in Ontario there is a lot less of this, but maybe we’ll learn from such projects so close to home.
The question is actually really simple: Do you want to see a car-filled street, or a street where children can play to their heart's content? Or how about the choice between a 3-lane road going both sides vs a 2-lane road going both sides with a bike path replacing the third lane, when that particular road is only being used intensively during peak hours by people driving 1-2 miles? Every neighborhood needs its own solution, but you don't look at this from a street level. You look at this in the bigger picture of entire neighborhoods to really understand where cars need to be and where they don't.
Before Tablets and UA-cam, there were plenty of things to grab children's attention. UA-cam I would say needs to be managed. I find out a lot from UA-cam which I action like a 24 Hour Bus Trip From London (UK).
Adults also have plenty of disadvantages in a city designed almost entirely for cars not just children. I think living in Amsterdam gives more privileges for adults than living in Houston for example. I kinda disagree with this video.
You're right, living in a city (or town) that gives people the freedom to choose how to go from A to B makes life better for everyone. - Old people can walk around or cycle to stay mobile and active, this makes them more happy and healthier. - Adults don't have to own a car and have the burden of all the car related costs. So no matter your income you're still able to get around - People with a disability can independently go to their destinations. - children can safely go to friends, school, their football club etc, Without having to rely on an adult to drive them. This teaches kids to be independent and learns thrm to rely on their own thinking. And those are just 1 advantage for every category, there are loads more.
So you're saying people go outside when the outside isn't designed to kill them immediately?
I wonder if boomers would ever allow this in the US?
@@RipCityBassWorks Probably not--it might make it take 45 seconds longer to get to Wal*Mart.
@@RipCityBassWorks
Boomers will complain about kids making noise….
@@RipCityBassWorks I think there is some progress in some places although it's slow. Things like parking minimums and the absolutely insane zoning codes are being removed here and there so it's not impossible but still far from likely.
@@RipCityBassWorksabsolutely not. They played behind the broken glass factory and never complained.
As a former child I endorse this change !
This looks a lot like fun. Hopefully I can be a child when i grow up.
I'm 14 (It's my birthday today) and I hope more cities change before I become an adult.
@@NeverGonnaGiveYouUp71 luckily for you it seems to be a trend. The places that do so see better economic activity as well as better community markers, and there's nothing like more money to be made to help stuff like this become more frequent.
As a former child, I would like a candy bar
As a former child immigrating from a developing country, adults always manage to find a place to park, either near the building where they live or in another block. I don't know where this self entitlement comes from once you land here. 😅
If anyone freaks out about the made-up risk of crime and kidnapping, just show them the "eyes on the street" part of this video.
those people from first-world countries are so worried... no, with about crime and kidnapping, as if they live in Nigeria or Congo, while those who actually live there have no such worries at all
Yes! Defensible space! See Oscar Newman en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensible_space_theory
Eyes in the street, Jane Jacobs has just thumbed-up this one.
it's also Montreal, quite a safe city overall.
this "crime and kidnapping of children" fear does not exist outside the USA. At least I've not encountered it.
I think they just need to add some swing benches and then the adults will be just on board as the kids haha
Truly - add a coffee shop to the corner and you've got yourself a small community hub
I feel like building a world for play, both child and adult focused intermixed, would inherently make a more joyful and connected life experience.
I recently got into mountain biking as a 37 yo dude, and saw some town where they had sidewalks, but also mountain bike trails right next to the sidewalks for kids to use on their way to and from school.
I'm so jelly. And I 100% want that to be a thing for kids everywhere.
Bentonville, they even have the main flow-trail to the school glow in the dark!
I *adore* the overgrown wildness of that park. Would have been obsessed with that as a kid
A society which requires cars for transportation makes those who can't drive cars (children, the elderly, those who can't afford a car, those with a disability) second-class citizens.
Yes, 1/3 of U.S. the population doesn’t have a drivers license. Accessibility is important. Some viewers might be interested in reading, “When Driving Is Not An Option: Steering Away From Car Dependency” by Anna Letitia Zivarts.
Passengers are second class. Those who have to walk, or ride what public transport exists, are third class.
@ The United States funds and develops cities as if people that don’t drive are lesser than people that do drive. That pathology doesn’t exist in many other places in world.
The elderly still drive where I live. They're actually the most aggressive people when it comes to public transportation and cyclists. A few weeks ago I had an old man follow me down the street yelling at me about getting off the road with my bicycle. Today I had an old woman speed up to me and lay on her horn. When I didn't get off the road for her, she passed dangerously close. The elderly are probably the most dangerous people on the road, and they don't really have much left to lose.
just because you can't drive doesn't mean you can't use a car. you just become a passenger. and you're not a "second class citizen" you're just not a "driver" of a car. Are you also a second class citizen because you don't own your own airplane when you go on vacation?
Thanks Doug Ford, you're making Toronto potentially unlivable again. Time to consider a move to Montreal.
even with their weird language stuff they're doing in montreal.quebec... that feels more tolerable than what Ford is doing weird car-centric stuff in Toronto/Ontario. They call themselves "progressive" conservative, but there's nothing "progressive" on what they're doing. All he's doing is just clinging to old things and way, instead of pushing us forward and learning from the mistakes of the past.
Same with me as a hamiltonian, thats why im learning french right now
@@quackywhackityphillyb.3005Same here. I can't move now as my older son is in high school and am concerned about forcing him to move. Hee has already moved quite a few times. I am encouraged by the direction that Montreal is moving towards and hope they can keep this up irrespective of the political party in charge.
It's not weird, it's preserving french amongst a ocean of 400 millions anglo-speakers@@zeighy
Make sure you vote him out instead of moving to Montreal
This is the kind of thing that can be the seed to a flourishing community.
I love seeing it spread across the city. The rest of us in Canada could learn a thing or two.
Absolutely Nic. I watch your videos too man and that podcast you do with Ethan and the other dude.
We had places like that to play when I was a kid. (I'm 60 years old.) Those places had names like "vacant lot with random junk" and "construction site." I'm not making fun of what they accomplished here. Good for them. There should be more parks like that. I'm just pointing out that when we were free range kids and allowed to be adventurous, we found fun like that park all over the place.
I hope we reduce the size of vehicles, the vehicle-miles-traveled, the speeds drivers drive at, and the culture that excuses drivers no matter how much harm they cause so we can return to a society like the one you described with free-range kids.
Free range kids are more independent than helicopter parent kids, and that shows when they grow up. I grew up in an area with lots of greenery and spaces between buildings and streets. I wasn't limited to what was safe or boxed in, but what I wanted to do. I like to believe I was well-privileged in my childhood, even without much money.
Ever since the tough-on-crime hysteria of the 1980s and 90s (probably even earlier), it seems as if we've suddenly criminalised exploring such places.
They redid the street in front of our house a year ago. During the weekends the street was closed and had like 5 excavators in it, with piles of gravel, pipes and other things.
AAA all the kids in the neighborhood came out to play on them. It was great.
After the street was finished, car speeds slowed (it was a pedestrian rebuild) and there are 10x as many people walking. However, the debris the kids were playing on is all gone.
I built so many push go carts in my day from random construction material sites...
I love that it adds more green space to a heavy urbanized area and gives kids a safer place to be and to explore. Drivers will find a way around; they won't like it at first, but they'll get used to it (just as they do with higher gas prices every week).
Wow… this is incredible. I wish the roads around the field outside my school (which people often hung-out on in good weather) had something like this. They just had roads for cars in all sides of the box. It even cut-off the historic market cross so you couldn’t use it without crossing road on either side.
I’m a slow walker (which turned out to be due to a disability, I now use a wheelchair), and in my school years many adults (who’d paused in their cars for me to cross) actually very slowly pushed their bumper against my legs when I crossed “too slow” (often)! Which was super scary as an 11 year old! Especially as I’d had my ankle run-over in a mishap at the age of 7, and it brought back those memories.
I love how they’ve made the hills good places to sit as well as to play. This is so much better than a plastic slide, especially as teenagers in my town would try to climb on the roofs by slippery outer support poles and the lack of maintenance was often abused to hide alcohol…
I also can’t help but be reminded of the ways kids played with mixed materials in the UK in the decade immediately after WW2, when there were plenty of rubble piles of all materials available. They much preferred climbing mounds of gravel and jumping off to the other side, over a slide. This methodology provides some needed green space, with grasses and shrubs, while also allowing for those kinds of play much more safely.
I love that the hazard warning poles were so numerous, they became a hazard unto themselves!
Yeah, children love areas meant for exploring over guided playing methods. Like, at my school yard back in grade school I (and some friends) often spent time making a base in the middle of a thorny bush thicket. Not exactly an intended playing area.
@ haha, in my first school we had a few bushes (some thorny) that we’d hide behind and “have a base in” too! Unfortunately one teacher saw us hiding there past the end of lunchtime, and had it trimmed so we couldn’t hide anymore 😅
Motorists are a cursed people. They would bump a child with their vehicles for walking too slowly? Why don't they just get out the vehicle and ask you why you walk so slow?
It’s cat approved so I’m sold
@spiguy meowmeowmeowmeow
@@innocentnemesis3519 Keep your cats inside. They kill between 100 and 350 million birds every year.
@@innocentnemesis3519 Please keep your cats inside. This exotic species causes between 100 and 350 million bird fatalities every year in Canada alone.
@@spiguy Calling cats and exotic species doesn't make your point more impactful. You are correct though.
People like you are a virus
Great video! Could you do an update video regarding Doug Ford's Bill 212? He just amended the bill that protects himself from lawsuits from the bike lane rip up, so now he knows what he's going to do will cause more injuries. And the bill passed as of Nov 25
This is an essential topic for Ontarians and Canadian as a whole
That would be a waste of a video. We need a video on how to navigate the political system to defeat the bill. I think that Toronto, the regional district, & Canada will have to take on the challenge.
The bewildering part of the bill, is that it impacts *all* municipalities in Ontario - from Kenora, to Timmins, to Ottawa, to Windsor and even Sturgeon falls.
Interestingly, the same premier takes certain streets to get to work in Toronto (ie: Bloor street) and does not like getting stuck in truck traffic.
@@solangecossette1374Either he doesn't tealizing that making cyclists use their cars again would make th7ngs worse -- or he has another goal??
The bill has about 27 pages, one of which is about bike lanes...
Ah, car not respecting their 🛑, as usual, just before the end of the video…
If you sit there and watch the stop sign, it's constant.
It's beyond exhausting, especially given the rhetoric they use against cyclists
Shouldn't be surprising considering that stop signs are severely overused in North America.
@@04smallmj See @JohnFraser’s comment above for the relevant context: it’s always “scofflaw 𝙘𝙮𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨”, wouldnchaknow, who constantly toss traffic laws out the window (or so they say).
Of course, a lot of drivers bribed their DMVs into getting a license.
She brings up a very strong point that there needs to be places for older kids. So much of play infrastructure, if it gets built, targets small children, and leaves nowhere for big kids to be kids. They end up having to play amongst the small children, and there are safety issues with that sometimes.
This is fantastic. I'm really impressed by Stephanie, and I'm sure the many many people behind her with the vision and creativity to make this happen. You can really see the potential here for urban spaces to go from alienating (at least for anyone not in a car) to joyful and full of potential. I wonder about the culture in Montreal that makes projects like this able to get off the ground.
When I was visiting Sydney NSW (Australia), I went for a walk and came across a little park (actually in the City of Woollahra because Aussie cities are extremely tiny). The park was beside a steep hill up from the neighboring homes. So they put a climbing net over the hill so kids could climb it and otherwise be silly in addition to a slide and steps down the hill. I liked how they had other stuff than just your basic slide and swing we're use to in Canada.
Paige Saunders has a good video on this: ua-cam.com/video/Eq1k81o1tGc/v-deo.html
@@OhTheUrbanity That's what I was thinking of when I saw your video. I wonder why we don't follow Aussie (and Kiwi) urbanism more in Canada. We have almost identical political and legal and cultural systems.
P.S. Funny thing you might not realize: in his video on Bixi, it is revealed that Paige's brother is a New Zealand Police constable.
Playborhood by Mike Lanza makes a great point like this. We need to make going outside more appealing to kids. The outdoors has to compete with cell phones social media and video games. A municipality has a responsibility for creating fun outdoor spaces where its parks, trails, skate parks, pump tracks or what have you.
Great video . Great urbanism . There is a recent study ( 2024) from Taiwan about the era of myopia . Children need to play outside around 2 hours per day in the sun to avoid myopia . Parents, go play outside with your children , stop watching screens .
This is awesome!!! I definitely agree, let's build our cities to center joy and support children over cars ❤ Our transportation should enhance life not supplant it.
The park may be fun for a couple of hours, but these projects need to be all over Montreal in order to give children independence
This looks like its bringing the best part of growing up in a suburban neighbourhood to the city - the undeveloped lot on the edge of the neighbourhood with dirt piles and scrap construction materials 😄.
Though ours was a bit bigger, and the kids built a dirt track for BMX and mountain bikes 😎
Shows how much the times have changed. When I was a kid we rode our bikes to the park, other friends' houses and school. Most homes had only one TV, no cable, internet or gadgets.
If you tried doing that now your parents will get CPS called on them
@@ironboy3245 Even if your own parents aren't flying helicopters, your neighbours are.
I blame the tough-on-crime hysteria of the 1980s and 90s.
Good thing this isn't Ontario, or Doug Ford would be personally driving a bulldozer to reopen these corridors for car traffic.
my political ideology is whatever that leads to this
That kind of ideology is not represented by any North American political party, you better consider leaving the country
@@armandoventura9043 you're all free to establish your own political party then
@@ianhomerpura8937 Or do it outside of politics, so you can actually get stuff done. Unless you think stuff like "apply for a permit" counts as politics, in which case you're just describing "living".
So urbanism? Same with me lol.
@RipCityBassWorks It takes a little more than that.
This is great to see. I've been so depressed by societal priorities since the lockdown days, when schools were closed but bars were open.
The best park with spaces for kids I have ever visited was Pease Park in Austin. It was art, nature, cool climable natural playgrounds, a little creek, water play fountains... It's an amazing place, wish more cities would build places like that.
Didn't know about this project even though i live in montreal. Great stuff! I often see kids use alleys to play but things like this are a great addition instead of just a concrete lane between buildings
Thanks for watching until the end? lol I always do this channel is one of my favorites. Im staring out the front windows of my house looking at this 3 lane road and dreaming of traffic calming and a park. "I wonder how I could get this started?"
Those school buildings are not surrounded by fences and look like fortresses😮 Must not be in the US
School playgrounds will often have fences, especially if they're near a busy road, but aside from that you wouldn't typically expect a fence around a school here, yeah.
I haven't been inside a school in a while, but I'm pretty sure it's about as "fortified" down here south of the US/Canada border as it is up there. Chain link fences to keep the kids from running into traffic are about as far as it goes. You hear about places adding security doors and metal detectors, paying a lot of money on training and cameras and so on, but it varies a lot region to region and school to school. They haven't radically re-engineered the school buildings around my hometown or around where I currently live.
I rode through this one day and was really surprised to see something that looked wild. It is very ingenious and adds a lot of appeal to the neighbourhood. And one thing to consider is that it is located right beside a huge park, so it makes sense. However, many of these wonderful projects would be considered wasteful nuisances by Doug Ford and his minister of Transportation. It is important that Torontonians see this project, given what is currently being contemplated about removing bike lanes in Toronto, and giving the provincial government authority over municipalities to manage their bike infrastructure. A project like this could be easily killed in Ontario, by people who don't even live in the area.
thinking outside the box. disrupting the pattern that creates dehumanization in urban life. what could be more life affirming than creating little oasis in an otherwise sterile urban environment?
What a cool place to play pretend. It really looks like a magic island.
I love the updates and general good stuff Montreal is doing. I sometimes feel the spots closed to cars look a little temporary (as they're still just on asphalt) so I'm very interested to see how they will look in the future if these human spaces get overhauled to be more permanent and obviously not-for-cars
Edit: this is much more about the secondary, B-roll examples in the video. The main topic of the video was perfect and what I meant by 'permanent', ie it is no longer asphalt and has dirt, grass, and other materials showing it is something that is here to stay.
Excellent use of nonessential road spaces. Kudos.
One thing I love about the French is their commitment and dedication to their children and communities.
Great video. Here in LA, I feel bad for parents pushing their baby strollers on sidewalks next to four or six lane traffic. And parents walking with their kids, and kids limited to skateboarding in their apartment alleys and driveways. It's cruel, undignified, bad for their health, and is creating a climate catastrophe those very children will face. Bring on the people friendly streets!
I blame the evil John Phillips of 790 KABC.
Well done Montreal!
Even as an adult, these tables make going out with friends great! Atmosphere is better outside, nobody is pressed for time
This is awesome! Playgrounds quickly deteriorate and more often than not become hangouts for teenagers which scares off younger kids. As someone who grew up in the countryside I think it's great to give city kids naturalistic places to play and explore that aren't just a big patch of grass like most parks are (I'm not saying parks are bad)
I welcome them! Even if I am childfree, I will feel more comfortable with that change. Overdependent on car is hell a annoying!!!
Montreal, yet again, is doing some of the most impressive tactical urbanism projects in North America. Amazing
During the pandemic I used to troll cars by biking around in a circle to prevent cars from going on our street which was supposed to be a walking only at the time 😅. My street didn't have sidewalks for all the road and I hated when adults were worried about more traffic and lack of parking while I just wanted to have a sidewalk.
based
Thank you for this video! Hats off to Ms Watt and whoever joined her to work on this. It's been a long time since I was a kid, but I can totally see how a kid would be drawn to these places to explore, play, and daydream and whatever. Love it.
When I was a property manager I saw a study regarding the effect of vegetation on crime. Not sure how much Montreal resembles London Ontario. Crime was a big problem in London. More so, transient populations of people who often use needles and find places obscured from sight. The study indicated that keeping trees pruned so there are no low hanging branches and removing low lying shrubs increases line of sight and reduces criminal activity.
The area with the mounds seems to discount those studies and lessons in design. The layout obstructs line of sight and would make it very difficult to supervise children at play. Birch is not a long lasting wood and will rot within a year or so. The overall concept is good though and the other areas seem well designed. Perhaps consider replacing the mounds with a single climbing area to one side so it leaves a clear line of sight.
The last thing you want to do is create ambush points along a path where an unsuspecting victim can encounter a predator hiding in the bushes. Even if it is a rare occurrence. The design still influences the probability. Safety should be the first priority.
In the meantime I visited the north eastern part of Calgary and see a new housing estate being built (aka housing compound or dormitory district) being built, but it is so car dependent you'd have thought the city planners were still stuck in th 1950s, but a worse version of it. It was so depressing. It didn't even feel like a human outside of the car was ever seriously considered, for fear of offending cars.
This video reminds us what is important in building cities. It is not just about human oriented cities and communities, but ones that take into account the children too.
I love this idea! Sounds like a fun place to have.
If you have a chance, I would also like to see a review of the cycling infrastructure being built in the suburbs of Ontario. I know that Peel region, Durham Region and even Kingston have been going all out with multi-use paths and even crossrides at intersections, which has historically been a weak spot in suburban bike infrastructure. My hometown, Brampton, has also been doing a few road diets but the bike lanes unfortunately aren't well protected or connected to places, making them underutilized. I personally have mixed feelings about the implementation of the crossrides as well.
When I visited montreal last year it was apparent how much more they care about the city being a great place for pedestrians and kids. They want it to seem fun I think. The rest of ontario could use the same attitude.
we are too busy banning new and ripping out bike lanes in Ontario. our cities are just places for suburbanites to dry through.
Oh my, it's crazy to think that as a species we prefer lush and green over grey and lifeless. Also, @8:42 what is wrong with people?
Do you mean you also noticed the car just drive through the stop? I assure you this is the standard motorist behaviour in Montréal. Hence the need for traffic calming.
I wish we didn't have to coddle certain "adults" and call their off the wall concerns valid. Anyone who can sit there calmly and listen to all the lunatics with their whatabouts without losing it is a saint.
Trés belle. Dans ma ville de Toronto nous besoins ce type de consideration pour les enfants, et pour un jolie vie de la rue, malheureusement, le change c'est difficile, et a la fois en reverse.
Malheureusement l'opposition aux vélos est forte à Toronto...
Toronto is a city built for cars, pollution, traffic , poor urbanism.
Paris underweant massive changes under Annie Hidalgo. Montréal underwent significant changes under Valérie Plante. The big question in whether her successor will continue on this path or will return to pleasing the car lobby. Ontario shows that progress already made can be regressed. So one wonders if acquired human infrastructure in Montréal will be preserved with more coming, of just maintain what was done so far, but nothing new, or regress like in Ontario.
What your video didn't cover is whether outside of the small designated play area, traffic was reduced on the still open streets to make them more liveable without through-traffic on or whether traffic worsened.
Hope that Montreal keeps moving forward. You are right, Ontario is showing what an apathetic leadership can do to years of advancement. I think Montreal is different as these types of changes have been happening for decades.
There is a large park right beside it.
My sister's husband loves Disney. They must have been to the Magic Kingdom in FL over 30 times.
He loves the structure and it's all laid out and well thought out and planned. He's not a "creative" personality.
I surf and hike. I bought a families villa in Bulgaria where by second wife is from. I go there and I must use Bulgarian or I can't communicate. I have to fly three flights and pass immigration and use a different currency too. Plus I just realize I am NOT IN KANSAS, Dorothy. That's what I like.
Not being in a structured and planned and perfect little world that all I have to do is Pay and the only risk is NOT having any growth in character or learning from the experience.
Risk is not danger. There is exposing your children to danger. And there's learning from experiences. I would expose my kids to danger, but I would be there in danger with them. So if we jumped in the pool during a Thunderstorm, we all could have been electrocuted. If we three rode our bikes single file by the edge of a busy street, we all could have been hit by a careless driver.
But they can deal with stuff. They can recognize danger and think and avoid or minimize the risk.
You can't protect your children from life. Life is a kind of trial by fire. It does not have to be a Forest Fire, but it still has the chance of burning your hand. So, then children understand that if they have been exposed to the danger. Just telling them No don't cross the street or ride the bike or climb the hill or learn to shoot a rifle is NOT the same and actually taking them across busy streets, or riding or climbing on dirt trails or to the Okeechobee Shooting Sports outdoor range.
I have something like that around my neighborhood, a small street was closed to be replaced with what looks like a hockey cosom field, enclosed by wooden borders similar to an outdoors skating rink. There's a school yard and a church with a park next to it, with another building owned by the school across the narrow street. The park was fully upgraded last summer.
Too bad these types of spaces have to be created as a retrofit because of the decentralized nature of microblock neighborhoods with small lots on public streets.
Towers in the park provide more coherent designs, with dedicated play areas, pickup/unloading areas etc from day one.
Retrofitted superblocks are always at risk of having the intersections reconnected.
This is incredible. I can already think of a few places where my city could try this. I'm not really a fan of urban car infrastructure anyway. I wonder where the local cat stays during the winter
Omg this gave me a huge smile. I’m getting into serious advocacy, thinking about what I can do to get us not only building TOD but COD (Child Oriented Development lol)
Great work, we need more of this!
As a guy that drives a big diesel truck - I approve of this idea.
I love it. Shows that humans are indeed capable of building something beautiful
This sounds like a lovely neighborhood to live in.
I don't have children myself, but I would love to live in a child-friendly area like this.
We can afford to prioritize the cars a little lower without society collapsing.
It's nice, except that if you're an adult without kids people give you the stink-eye if you spend too much time in parks that have playgrounds. They pretty much become kid-and-parent-only zones.
I lived right next to l'ile aux volcans for years and always thought it was pretty cool but never saw that many kids play there. It's in a bit of an awkward spot and also right next to a big park with multiple playgrounds. So cool idea, but imo not the best location.
We need more of this!
It’s baffling that this was even considered a “risk” and “scary”
Where I live the city closed off a small section of road between a school and a park. They put in a street hockey rink. And it was destroyed. 😔 Foam was all ripped out of the padding that was around the posts, the nets have been broken and the paint is all faded. I love this idea so much but it only works if people respect the space and the municipality actually maintains it.
This is lovely, kids really don't get space anymore, and it makes me sad.
My walks through my former neighborhood and the odd silence was what got me into Urbanism. Where were the kids? It can't be just games and internet. That existed when I was a kid.
3:02 Interesting! I have always heard this concept referred to as the "catchment area" as opposed to the "travelshed"
The roads shown in the video are still very wide.
Great stuff as always guys!
Really good video.
As a grown ass adult, lemme say: that place looks FUN!
Hm, how long will it be before they start on bigger changes, like tearing up the tarmac?
Looks great. Enough space, some green, encourages active play.
This is wonderful! Make more spaces like this.
Here in the US, engineers and local politicians are terrified to close roads. They typically won't ever move a curb either, at least not to make a road smaller or slower. Oh, they'll widen them for sure. But typically they assume that at some point the road will need more capacity so they leave curbs in place even when adding active transportation infrastructure. Usually they will also make any given road as wide as possible until they hit a property line. This country is a lost cause, and not just the former Confederate states. The whole place is a failure. Maybe Canada will want to annex us in a few years. It would be a huge improvement.
My town put up "no parking" signs along one side of pretty much every residential street. I don't know where all the cars went that lined the other side of the streets, but they're not there anymore and life has continued as normal. It's much ado about nothing. The town bus is free now, too. Bicycle infrastructure is almost nonexistent, would love to see some proper lanes on the main roads here, especially since I just got a Dutch style bike. 😏
Really cool and interesting. Thanks for the video :)
Projects like this give me hope for Canada. Of course, in Ontario there is a lot less of this, but maybe we’ll learn from such projects so close to home.
Wonderful and inspirational story and examples! I want to go there!
"Snow is an important play material and here there is an abundance of it"
Yeah my first immediate thought was "yeah... For now..."
This is amazing!
And if the kids are happy, the parents will be happy...
The question is actually really simple: Do you want to see a car-filled street, or a street where children can play to their heart's content? Or how about the choice between a 3-lane road going both sides vs a 2-lane road going both sides with a bike path replacing the third lane, when that particular road is only being used intensively during peak hours by people driving 1-2 miles?
Every neighborhood needs its own solution, but you don't look at this from a street level. You look at this in the bigger picture of entire neighborhoods to really understand where cars need to be and where they don't.
amo este canal
Co-sign from a former child and current parkour athlete 😅
Before Tablets and UA-cam, there were plenty of things to grab children's attention. UA-cam I would say needs to be managed. I find out a lot from UA-cam which I action like a 24 Hour Bus Trip From London (UK).
love this, keep it up!
That is awesome. More space for the living, less space for the machine. Slowly but Shirley.
Great change !
does Vancouver have any neighbourhoods like this? Montreal is highly underrated city in NA..
Cities are places for people to live in not just drive through.
I mean seriously, why is that road at 7:25 even there? Who needs it? Why did anyone ever think it would be a good idea to build it?!
This is SUCH a great thing!
Adults also have plenty of disadvantages in a city designed almost entirely for cars not just children. I think living in Amsterdam gives more privileges for adults than living in Houston for example. I kinda disagree with this video.
You're right, living in a city (or town) that gives people the freedom to choose how to go from A to B makes life better for everyone.
- Old people can walk around or cycle to stay mobile and active, this makes them more happy and healthier.
- Adults don't have to own a car and have the burden of all the car related costs. So no matter your income you're still able to get around
- People with a disability can independently go to their destinations.
- children can safely go to friends, school, their football club etc,
Without having to rely on an adult to drive them.
This teaches kids to be independent and learns thrm to rely on their own thinking.
And those are just 1 advantage for every category, there are loads more.
Damn, I'm hearing all the urbanist and child development terms
Montreal dont end Toronto like that
Not the tree of heaven 😡
Government making public infrastructure based on joy....thats a whole new level of sales job but lets goooooo
School streets.. Lots of those in France because of their bike centric mayor.
Don't you mean Paris? Or president?
@crowmob-yo6ry no idea.. I'm not French 🍻