Charles Marohn from Strong Towns has a new book about his experiences building stroads as a traffic engineer in the US, and why he became an advocate for eliminating them: www.confessions.engineer/ You can order the book, or get more information about it on the site linked above, or if you'd like to read more about stroads on the Strong Towns website, check out this link, or the links in the video description: www.strongtowns.org/journal/tag/STROADS And if you'd like to support this channel, sign up to Nebula and get access to my videos as well as over 150 other educational creators: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Can you recommend be something more on bus lanes or BRT and streets. As that is a development here in Copenhagen in Denmark. They remove parking and trees in streets to put in bus lanes. I do not know if it is a good idea. It feels wrong, perhaps because I have not been on a bus for a year due to covid19.
"this is why the roads in the US are the least save of any developed country." I gotta disagree, the US no longer qualifies as developed/first world country
About 15yrs ago, one of our local politicians said the quiet part out loud. He said that some areas near businesses were made intentionally inefficient, with short traffic lights and lots of them, in order to increase revenue from the area. Basically, since the whole town is a large grid work of "stroads," they wanted to discourage travel to other stores outside of their district and have drivers sit long enough to impulse buy fast food. Shady bastards.
That's b.s. though! I just get stressed out and mad and want to get away as fast as I can! I'm tired of government deciding what they think are best for US! They do NOT have our best interests at heart. THEY are the ones creating all of the problems that we're having! The public should be WAY more involved in the planning of their 'projects' and anything else that impacts our lives, especially anything that includes our health, bodies and what goes into them!
Yep - Austin just passed a 2 billion dollar bond which included a lot of purported "improvements" to traffic in certain areas which included a lot of new partial medians which were supposedly for safety. One guy looked deeply into it, found that the city council members owned stakes in a lot of business which were rivals with businesses that were being partially blocked off by the new medians, making it harder to get to those by car, while their own businesses were unaffected - this guy publicized his findings and ran for city council himself. Naturally he finished last and the bond passed.
I was in Texas for work, and there was a steakhouse 5 minutes walk from my hotel. I didn't have a car, so decided to walk - then discovered it was on (what I now know as) a Stroad. Walking along some undulating, grassy embankment with no sidewalk and cars shooting past me at 50+ was pretty unnerving, especially after a beer on the way back. I felt like a hitchhiker. You're actively being dissuaded from walking which just seems utterly ridiculous.
I had a similar experience 3 years ago in Erlanger, KY. My parents and I went together because my mom had a business meeting there, and when she was gone to work, my dad and I were left without a car. So, naturally, we chose to get out of our hotel room and walk around to some places. My goodness. I also felt like a hitchhiker and found the whole experience extremely unsettling. No sidewalks, no crosswalks, nothing. We went to a Dick's Sporting Goods across the road and afterwards walked to a Mexican restaurant adjacent to the hotel we were staying at to eat dinner but it was terrifying regardless of how "close" these establishments were. Cars were going way too fast and trying to plan out the best time to run across the road was like playing Russian Roulette. And the experience of walking back to our hotel in the dark from that Mexican restaurant was probably the most unsafe I've felt in a while...and I was with my dad! It felt like everyone who drove by was looking at us like we were crazy for walking instead of driving.
In my town we had a teen die a few years ago because the bus home from work only dropped off on the opposite side of a stroad like this that he needed to cross. It was evening and that road had no cross walks and he was hit. People were sad about it for a bit but then nothing was ever done to improve the situation.
@@noah3369 it was literally the busiest road in my town at the busiest time of day shut the fuck up about things you know nothing about. he literally died who the fuck are you to be so disrespectful. He had no other way home. That road had to be crossed for him to get home.
@@gregpenismith1248 I don't hate cars (or responsible drivers). I just hate the fact that drivers are the only ones taken into consideration when these areas are designed. It's ridiculous.
"Cities in the US and Canada are covered in terrible non-places." Man, you nailed it. Every time I drive through an area like that (and they all look the same, don't they?) I just feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere, despite all the businesses around.
The thing is, there really aren't that many businesses around. The only way to get there is by car so huge parking lots are needed-->Nobody can walk anywhere because walking would require walking past huge parking lots. Thus it causes a runaway car-centric design.
Definitely relatable. I keep seeing them and thinking they're handy if you need a bunch of things and you're planning your drive for them, but they're utilitarian and ugly, like an industrial area. As for parking, I don't get why buildings aren't built right over top of parking instead of using double the land like they do now. Especially for a mall which could potentially be multi-story anyway. Shelter and even heat the area below, no weathering, more convenient for shoppers etc. Our core mall is 4 stories with a large indoor garden and some underground parking, sees less retail action than most of the other, flat, conventional mall setups with multi-acre parking. Can't tell me the latter can't afford to set up similarly.
@@Qui-9 They are built like that in suburban areas because land is cheaper than the construction costs associated by adding underground parking. They may be able to afford it but ROI is more important to them.
The U.S. and Canada are two of the biggest countries in the world, but so much land is wasted on highways, parking lots, and random wastelands. I saw a documentary years ago saying that the automobile industry conspired to have businesses located in the middle of nowhere, so that people would be dependent on cars.
North American urban areas are incredibly hostile to foot traffic. Not long ago I had some car issues. I left my vehicle with the mechanic for a couple hours and went walking along one of these stroads to go find a place to eat. Not wanting to eat indoors because of the pandemic, I took my food to go. I wandered around the plaza, looking for a place to sit. There were endless parking lots, stores, and superstores everywhere. No benches. No picnic tables. Not even a patch of grass to sit on, except right next to the stroad where cars were flying by. I walked for 10 minutes and spotted nothing, until...salvation: an emergency exit staircase behind a Mark's Warehouse. I sat upon my uncomfortable, non-slip steel throne and ate my burger, staring at the pavement laneway on one side of me and a giant, blank stone wall on the other. My fries had gone cold.
I think it's more due to there actually being nothing to do that doesn't cost a lot of money. I don't care about shopping or going out to eat. I want to actually do something.
@@tyren818 I kind of agree because I immigrated to the US from Saint Petersburg, Russia and in St. Pete we have basically the equivalent of northern Venice - a huge city of 7 million people and streets with roads being divided… we have a nickname in Russia for the little streets which connect to homes and plazas from the roads, we call them “karman” (карман) or “pocket” because it’s almost like going off the road into a pocket to park or access the pedestrian areas. However, not all places are like this and we do have a few stroads here and there but they are quite rare and few in between… the only places where we have the issue of roads and pedestrians not mixing well is in the more historic parts of the city where the old city planning called for long wide streets which then became paved from one side to the other and planned out for use by cars and public transport because everyone would call for more lanes to be built due to rush-hour traffic. So the center of the city has both roads and streets and in some places they kind of coexist while in other places it would probably be a bit better if the government was to place green islands in the middle of the road with widened sidewalks… for example, if you want to see what I am speaking about, look on Google at Nevski Avenue in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Either way, on the topic of “things to do” in a city, when I go to Saint Petersburg I feel like there is always something to do because as a pedestrian I can go on a beautiful romantic or sunny walk with my friends, family, wife, etc… and it just feels like even if you don’t have something specific to do, you can always just go to the center of the city and enjoy yourself in the public space that is there… sit around on benches in street zones, go to parks connected by streets, enjoy walking along streets with canals in between the left and right flow of traffic with bridges in between, can go to all sorts of possible places even if they are just stores for kitchen appliances or something stupid, it still feels like there is always something to experience when going out as a pedestrian, you feel like you’re IN the city and you’re a part of it somehow. While in America, I get the constant feeling that I am in some absolutely god awful wasteland of strip malls and parking lots with a bunch of high speed traffic in between where you can’t walk anywhere because it’s far apart due to the grass, parking lots, crappy air, traffic, and stroads going through everywhere…. Sometimes I see a “city” on the map and wonder if it is just a huge waste land of strip malls, plazas, and wide residential areas connected by stroads… makes me feel like that is not even a “city” or even a “town”…. It’s just some sort of nightmare place built to milk the local resident’s consumerism. It’s terrible, I really dislike it. While in the USA, I currently live in Sarasota, Florida, which is also quite guilty of having tons of these stroads but at least we have a true city environment in the center where a person can actually enjoy being without going from a car in a parking lot to the store and from the store to the car in the parking lot. Even then, the city part is so small that it gives like one day of walking around to see everything there is to see, with the actual size of Sarasota being gigantic in comparison because everything else is just neighborhoods and tons of stroads in between…. For an example, you can Google an image of “Bee Ridge Rd” in Sarasota (or “Fruitvile Rd” or “Clark Rd”. For a great example of a good road in Sarasota, Google “University Parkway”. For a great street you can Google “Main St” in Sarasota. That’s just my experience with and 2 cents on the topic. Hope it’s insightful)))
I'm currently in Dalmatia. Basically one 500km long coatal stroad. But luckily many nice places along the way to dive and look. If it wasn't for the never ending pitoresque coastal sceneries, this would be just one one of the longest damn stroads you discribed.
Between stroads, lack of public transit, and most US cities refusing to zone new developments as mixed-use commercial/residential, it's really no surprise our country has so little sense of community. When it takes 20-40 minutes to get literally anywhere in town, there's so much less incentive to shop with locally owned business, or to get to know the folks in your neighborhood, or even just to access whatever few parks/libraries/museums that are around. Our cities are designed to separate and isolate their residents, and I think that plays no small part in the mediocre mental wellness of our country.
There's a good deal of new developments in my area that are blending residential and commercial. The unfortunate part is that these residential areas are also hundreds of apartment buildings, soooo
I don't think our country really has worse mental wellness than others, or that cities are designed to 'separate and isolate their residents' - that's pushing the line of thinking a bit too hard IMO.
@@theSato I don’t think they’re intentionally designed to separate, but rather implicitly, as part of the cultural value of Americans. What is America? A vast, open plot of land available for the taking. It doesn’t matter if that’s true or not, the *idea* of America is that. So much so that the Nazis planned to compete with America with their own Manifest Destiny, Generalplan Oost. Anyway, if America as an idea is spacious, and space means being alone, then cities are in a predicament; they haven’t the space to provide the spaciousness Americans believe they deserve, but they also are home to the majority of Americans. Hence, artificial space via separation and artificial distance via inefficient traffic ways.
I spent 8 years in Tokyo where I could walk everywhere and public transit was amazing. At some point I felt like I missed driving a little because I hadn’t had a chance to drive for so long. I came back to the U.S. to drive our stroads everyday and remembered why I hated driving before and couldn’t believe I had forgotten why.
They also have less living space for people and a high population density, whereas in the US, there is plenty of land and population density is very low.
@@arbjful Yes, Japan is quite cramped. But nobody forces the US at gunpoint (not even in the US!!) to build stroads, seas of parikng lots and singel family home deserts.
@@arbjful "Plenty of land and low population density" - and no way to move around unless you get in your car, get stuck in traffic, spew pollutants into the atmosphere, regularly expose yourself to genuine threats to your life and limb, make tons of noise, and generally steal space and safety away from anyone that isn't in a steel box like you. FREEDOM.
@@steemlenn8797 Sorry, not trying to be pedantic. But it’s really just Tokyo and major cities. As Japan, the rural populations are either tourist destinations, or old people playing pachinko. Tokyo is amazing if you’ve lived in a coastal N. American city, since many are broken up by rivers or built on deltas. Tokyo… you can just walk in basically a straight line for 2 hours and still be in busy Tokyo.
I never knew "stroads" was a thing or even that streets and roads were different but as someone who grew up driving in the US I have always hated our roads and now I finally know why. excellent vid.
Watching this, I've realized that nearly all of the 'roads' or 'streets' near my house are actually 'stroads.' Between lights is around half a mile of driveways and 4-lane intersections across the city running for miles. The only alleviation comes from a few actual roads and the street crescents opening onto said stroad. (Thank you for the correction omnitravis) Across my intimate family, we've had at least 2 car-on-pedestrian crashes (with us the pedestrians) and more close calls than I can count...
@@KayronTheFifth that's because the pedestrians like to walk in the road, when they have a perfectly good sidewalk to use. Or they cross the street, in the middle of the road, and don't use the crosswalk, or they walk in front of moving cars.
@@Normal1855 this is kind of insensitive to say to someone that has been in car on pedestrian accidents. It isn’t an issue with drivers or pedestrians, it is an issue with our infrastructure, blaming the other party won’t remedy this
I drive for a living in the US, and you nailed the Stroads. We (Truck drivers) hate them. Most of the New England States are Stroads, which causes our ability to move to drop by between 30 and 40%. Also, as a driver, making a decent living requires the ability to avoid Stroads whenever possible. This means that often it's more efficient to go many miles out of the way because the local roads will just suck time from you. NOTE: This is still not efficient, it's just the best choice of available options.
@vibratingstring in the greater Boston area i think of the bulk of route 1. You have high speed road with street type entrances to every business built along it. Also think of most of route 114 that runs through Peabody MA all the way to to Lawrence
As a Brit in San Diego, the only link from my hotel to the town center was a stroad. There was no public transport. It was only a couple of miles so I decided to walk. There was a sidewalk of sorts, but it had bushes and clumps of grass growing up through the paving! I realised how unusual it was to walk there when a squad-car pulled up and asked me what I was doing. It was 11:00 am on a work-day, and I'm white, middle-aged and reasonably respectable. I'd been assured by the hotel that it was a safe part of town. Apparently the very act of walking on a stroad is regarded as suspicious by the local cops. They heard my British accent and said "Oh - that explains it" before driving off... I've travelled all over Europe and never had an experience like this. It's a form of hell the US have created for themselves...
It's very unfortunate and MANY, MANY large American cities are like that. I recently moved from a big city (Jacksonville, Florida) to a much smaller town/city (Fort Collins, Colorado) and the difference is night and day. There are bike lanes and bike trails EVERYWHERE here in Fort Collins and no one looks at you odd if you decide to walk down a sidewalk, either at day or night.
Stories like this make me super grateful for the urban planning and public transport/walkability options we have. I don't think anyone will question anyone walking anywhere apart from when it's an obvious out-of-city highway where it is unsafe for non-drivers to be anyway.
I was at a stroad today and needed to go to the bathroom. The pharmacy I was visiting didn’t have a bathroom for customers, but I noticed a supermarket across the street and decided to walk over. When I approached the stroad *I quickly realized there was no crosswalk in sight and there was no way I could safely cross 4-5 lanes of traffic*. So instead I got into my car and drove across the street and parked over there just to pee at the supermarket 😂.
Just go in any parking lot, assuming there are visual block of some sort. If they really wanted you to not go in the parking lot they would have made it easy to use the bathroom.
This reminded me of a conversation I had about thirty years ago with a city councilor whom I supported and his wife. I had pointed out how horribly anti-pedestrian much of the new development was with huge parking lots, no sidewalks and so on, and was encouraging more human-scale developments, especially since the economy of the state in which I live is largely tourist-based, and because I am not a driver. It was like talking to a pile of bricks. Ironically, on another occasion they both raved about a trip to Europe where they clearly enjoyed going around city streets.
People rarely make the connection. I've always loved pictures of small Japanese towns and one day I realized it's because most of them do not allow street level parking. We have to go back, where we're going, we won't need roads.
I live by a harbor, and they finally seem to have gotten this. Right now a large part of the space adjacent to the water is (aside from a narrow walkway) parking for cars. Which is stupid since you're giving parked cars the best view of the waterfront. Even the main hotel gives you a spectacular view of... the parking lot in front of the water. I think the original idea was to give boaters easy access between their car and boat. But probably 90%-95% of visitors to the harbor are tourists, not boat owners. The redesign plan for the harbor moves the parking lots away from the water, adjacent to the main access road. The walkway will be widened, with shops and green space for relaxing / picnicking occupying the adjacent space. The parking lots will no longer have the best waterfront view at the harbor.
Washingtonian here. You're f&$#ed if you're on foot anywhere in my state. Most of it is farmland and built off old military roads. Or you have Seattle and its surrounding area hahahah dont even get me started. If you're coming to Washington, youd better bring a bike!
Sounds like conversations that I have had with MOTOR - obsessed Detroiters.They go along with the powers to be whom push a " No Mass Transit In My Back Yard !" [ NMTMBY] mentality.Its really sad.
You're missing the influence of big oil and the automobile industry. Until you remove their political power it will NEVER change. We could have civil engineers and architects design beautiful cities/towns with low upkeep and high productivity. But they get pushed out by people who want to sell more cars and more gas. The sellers end up controlling the market, so the sellers get to pay people for what they want done. They'll pave paradise and put up a parking lot if you let them.
The biggest problem where I live is that anytime something bad happens as a result of this horrible system, the "solution" makes the problem worse. For example, when I was in middle school, if you lived within a 2 mile radius of the school, you weren't allowed to ride the school bus and either had to walk or have your parents drop you off and pick you up. Lots of students walked, traffic near the school was horrible. One year there was a student who got hit by a car while walking to school. The county decided they needed to fix the problem. So they DECREASED the number of school buses for each school, and INCREASED the radius from 2 miles to 4 miles. So more students had to walk, more cars were on the road, and less buses to get the students to school safely. At least two more students got hit walking to or from school after that change. Another example is that whenever they see a problem with the transportation system, their solution is to increase the number of lanes on a stroad. So in my town there is ALWAYS road construction and ALWAYS horrible traffic. They really think they're being progressive when trying to fix a problem. But in reality they're just regressive and make every single problem worse and create new problems that they need to try and "fix."
A year or two ago I (a person from US) went to Spain and Portugal. I'm someone who drives everywhere (including work until COVID + WFH), but each day abroad I was excited to hop on public transport and visit a new place in the city I was in. I felt so unrestricted. Like I could literally step outside a hostel and go wherever I wanted despite not renting a car. I couldn't place what exactly it is that made walking so pleasant and free feeling until I started watching your videos. Thanks for articulating what drove this general sense of freedom I felt.
That's right! I live in an European city and love the freedom of going anywhere by foot. We still have a car which we use to go skiing or sea vacation , because it's hard to reach the sea by train. But all the rest we reach by foot or public transport : work, schools , restaurants and cafes, theater and opera, activities and shopping. It's real freedom. I used to live in the USA and hated the car dependence.
@@crocus5632 Same. I own a car purely for my last job being outside of town. Now i got a new job i can walk to and it's only for my lazy ass that i haven't yet sold my car despite me driving maybe twice a month. I love that car, but i just don't need it and it only costs money.
Absolutely. People who never experienced this think that having a car gives you freedom. They can't be more wrong. Having a car only allows you to navigate through a public space designed to be traveled by car, but you constantly have to worry about parking, gas, having your car stolen... The freedom of being able to go anywhere without having to worry about all of this is so liberating. I wish I could live without a car like I did when I lived in Spain, but here in Brazil a private car is almost mandatory unless you're poor.
@@michaelrudolph7003 You clearly never experienced living in a place that is built for people, and not for motorized metal boxes. Having a car gives you freedom until everyone owns one, and then you can't go anywhere without facing heavy traffic, and then you have to find a parking space, and you have to worry about gas, and maintenance, and not parking in a dangerous place... You only realize how inconveninent it is to worry about all of this when you start living in a place where you can go anywhere at anytime without worrying about taking a 2-ton metal vehicle with you.
Growing up in poverty and living in Houston, I know these places very well. My parents couldn’t afford a car so I found myself taking multiple buses are walking by myself since like 10 years old. It was definitely a soulless experience.
@@kakadorez11 I think even some homeless crackhead has more living space in his trailer in US than middle class citizen in Netherlands. that's why things are spaced far apart in US
@@deltaxcd What an idiotic statement. You are literally comparing people that live in cars and unimproved trailer/vans with people in comfortable apartments and townhouses. Lets be clear, the dutch middle class are much happier in their nice apartments, townhouses and semidetached houses than the exurb dwelling middle class of america in a massive 6 bedroom bedroom house with 3 bathrooms and pool. Their commutes are smaller and more enjoyable, they have nice places locally to enjoy themselves without driving, and if they are too young or old to drive aren't locked inside their house.
@@lindsaycole8409 This is wrong logic in principle because if we take that happy duch middle class specimen who is living in his shoebox he woud still desire bigger house in suburbs if only that was possible, he just can't afford it. (by the way how happy those people were in times of quarantine when nobody was allowed to leave their shoebox at all and all those nice places were closed?) And living in a car is comparable to living in a tiny apartment which you are renting. Since in that situation you most likely spend most of the time at work and somewhere else your apartment is only useful for sleeping. Then why bother at all? Just live in your car right next to your work and save on rent and commuting. House is not just a place to sleep, it is your castle/fortress and your base where you are preparing to survive rainy day and build your power. Your house eventually may become your office or your workshop where you run your business too.
@@deltaxcd take alook at the average size of a suberban house, its pretty big, thats fine but do you need all the big lawn? Barely anyone uses such big lawns and land, and due to those big lawns the space between work and home is exponentially lengthened making a person without a car fucked, if you used your land better, lets say an average suberban house, you can save more money on cutting the size of the lot, and if every house does that along with better planning other forms of commute is viable, having bigger living space isnt really that good if you cant use it, lawns were a way of showing wealth, but why do every american need one? (Im talking about the suberbs, so much land watsed on lawns barely used)
For you as the creator, this production (18-ish minutes) may have taken a lot of time and effort. However, for us, the audience, it was completely satisfying: - The factual content was complete: you summarised, showed, and explained the problem with the Stroad concept in the USA and Canada. Next, you presented a solution with a good and viable (Dutch) concept. - The production's artistic quality was on the same high level as your videos in general (VFX, SFX, some sarcasm, some humor, high-quality editing in general). You set a high standard...
@@NotJustBikes I am continually impressed with the quality of your writing. It is always concise, articulate, impactful and humorous. You're doing a lot of heavy lifting with videos like this, as this becomes an excellent resource for trying to influence local attitudes in North America among the public and policymakers.
@@NotJustBikes Your next video could take a year to come out and I would be just as excited and thankful. - Canuck Zoomer who has to walk 15 minutes down a stroad every time he gets groceries *shudder*
I didn’t know this was a thing, only that I hated this “feature” of living in the US. Japan has plenty of its own problems, but I appreciate that it is much friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. Fascinating to finally understand this. Thank you!
I kind of had an opposite experience, likely because the area I was in simply didn’t build sidewalks. This meant more cautious drivers, but cycling or walking was pretty nerve-wracking until you got to an area with more businesses.
@@bobbirdsong6825: I think you’re just describing what I experienced initially as well: anxiety based on experience which doesn’t apply in a new environment. For example, coming from the US, it freaked me out that Japanese drivers will often pull right up to your legs while you’re crossing, even when you have the signal at a crosswalk. In the US, that usually means an impatient driver is about to roll right over you if you don’t get out of the way; in Japan, it’s just normal, and drivers almost without exception will yield to a pedestrian or cyclist, even when jaywalking. Now that I’m mostly used to that, I feel a bit less anxious. 😂
Not going to lie I had the literal opposite feeling with living Europe for work. I grew up in suburban and rural areas. So all the "cute " "friendly" streets in these videos are actually anxiety inducing. I felt claustrophobic for years over there. Like I could never see the sky or get out of the city. No where did I feel like I was actually in wilderness or could just see the horizon on all sides. Weird feeling but hey I grew up in the plains so I guess it makes some sense.
I work on a stroad. You'd think you'd get used to just how uncomfortable and depressing and dangerous these areas are but it still hits me every couple days with just how horrible and inhospitable it is. It's like a constant drain on the psyche, this video made me want to cry a little bit.
This is exactly how I feel. I never knew why I was always feeling rushed, and uncomfortable & depressed. I think it's because these stroads are so consistently ugly and unrelentingly busy
@@Ares_gaming_117 Yeah I've never realized how much I hated stroads until I watched this, and now I know why I've always wanted to leave my town and never come back.
@@aabb55777 many people can't afford to leave. Moving is expensive. And its ok to criticize your own country, wanting something to improve. You want to advocate for better things for your country. I would argue thats being patriotic.
Honestly strodes may not seem like that big of a deal, but think about it. Imagine being a kid, about 9 or 10 years old. In the past a kid your age would have been trusted to go outside on their own, be responsible and come back home in time without much worry. There were less roads and traffic, and more rural areas perfect for children to play in. But now there are too many roads, too much traffic. Your parents don’t trust you to go outside on your own. The only places worth going to require driving out, and both your parents have to work now, so a day out is rare. So you spend most of your time inside. The only friends you have are those from school - so school is the only time you see them. So you spend a lot of time at home, alone. It becomes lonely. You spend more time on the internet and playing video games, too much, and it stunts social development. Now you’re 11 or 12 and staying at home so much has actively made you not want to go outside, even though you may be allowed more freedom now. Anywhere worthwhile still requires driving out and you don’t have a car, only a bike. There are no youth groups, or parks, the government has slashed the funds for them. You become depressed more and more. You give up on hobbies. You take to drugs that your friends give you because the affect is instant. You’re not bored anymore. It’s magical. When you’re older you start drinking as well. There’s still no place to go outside without getting caught because everywhere is monitored and being in one place for a long time counts as loitering, and a group of teenagers is immediately read off as a dangerous gang. One day one of your parents will come home and they’ll start talking about how kids today never go outside. They will never understand this was the world they built. A world that actively discouraged children playing outside. You just roll your eyes and go out to drink with your friends behind a shady warehouse, hoping you won’t get stabbed.
I grew up in Kansas City suburbs on the Kansas side in the 60s and had what they now call a "free range" childhood -- it was a lot of fun. But this was before everyone started fencing their yards and all the creeks were covered over .... for the safety of the kids. We would walk thru other peoples yards to go over to the next street, to get to friends house etc. Played in the creeks all the time and even found crawdads. Of course as I got older I heard of kids who were killed playing in creeks by a storm caused flashflood (weather changes very quickly in this part of the country) And there were still a lot of undeveloped land around where we would make bicycle racetracks, forts, etc. All the neighborhood kids would get together at night to play kick the can at night. It was actually pretty idyllic. But I would not want to be a kid in the modern subdivisions, unless we were amongst the first and had access to all that undeveloped land. But that being said, I totally support his criticism and ideas. I've time stamped and Id'd some of the KC places he mentions above or in earlier videos.
@@firstnamelastname1120 the point is that travleing to it, and also being there and see this, isnt nice. firstly, we shouldnt be forced into a car and then onto a really unsafe road, then having a small fun place but being able to see the distruction that cars have caused.
@@firstnamelastname1120 the thing is that these place have barely any commerce for window shopping .So unless you are born inn this district people wont go inside those commerce since it so unpractical and innerving ! every building look alike here in canada it like empty town but with highways everywhere and nothing to do .I live ibn 3 biggest city and it a boring Gray shithole compared to Asian/European countries that have street food and independent business everywhere with 24 h services ! Plus here in canada most food is process and not fresh and you want a food stand it will almost take 5- to 10 years to be approve which is way too slow for a process and stun the economy here !
@@firstnamelastname1120 Are you kidding? Kids love window shopping, browsing games, buying candy, what have you. They also like to be able to reach their friends. The sprawling nature of US city design means good luck getting to your friends without crossing a dozen angry people's lawns (if they don't have fences to block the way) if you live in a winding suburb--if you're lucky--and if you aren't lucky, your neighborhood road itself will be a stroad with no sidewalks, so forget even walking to the neighbors or the local playground to play.
Can not believe someone finally made a word for it. I have always thought to myself how I hated these areas with them being so ugly and all, and how I've had to grip the wheel with both hands because I feel so unsafe driving through them. I've told other people how much they suck but now I have a way to describe it.
A highway is not fronted by housing or shops. it's for cars that are entering or not stopping, transiting the area. It should be possible for cars to get into neighborhoods, but they're not mingled with pedestrian and bike traffic and don't go fast. Not a speed limit, but they simply can't.
@@joelcrb2011 I believe the word your desperately struggling to find is "portmanteau." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau "Stroad" is a portmanteau of "street" and "road" and while it may not be in the dictionary, it certainly falls under the rules and guidelines of the English language.
@@adamgh0 I'm not struggling or even desperate to find whatever you think I'm trying to find. I'm stating a fact and apparently some individuals are uncomfortable with that.
Unfortunately. His definition of a road is more like a highway. Therefore striway would be more appropriate. When I think of "road", I think of open areas of back country where you actually could easily ride a bicycle for hours without fear of getting smashed.
That’s because US and Canada are large countries, and that means huge distances and lots of wasteland. Small towns tend to be flat (very few if any skyscraper) and covered with stroads. Also they’re capitalists, so people are encouraged to buy a car. The result is ugly urban plans and or structures.
@@perezfecto Yeah the only reason people would want a car is vague social pressure from their economic system and definitely not because cars are useful technology.
@@bernlin2000 and they have no foot traffic due to stroads, which means everyone uses cars, which means car demand increases, meaning more parking needed, more throughput needed, and stroads intensify, meaning they literally choke out any path to improvement
@@pearz420 lord we can see your a product of the American education system that ranks 27th in the modern world huh? No critical thinking in sight does that brain even work? People get cars because they are force to, due to horrible urban planning in America, also the predatory automotive industry lobby and kill the railway industry and now cars are the dominant way of transportation.. you have no freedom when your corporate overlords decides everything for you, but hey guns right thats the freedom you get, as you get poorer and poorer each decade??
I studied in Groningen, and at times grumbled at the complete lack of accessibility by car. It is (intentionally) impossible to drive through the city center from one end to the other. Getting anywhere by car is slow, arduous and when you get there, parking is difficult, expensive and at times, impossible. It was only when I got older and drove around other towns (and drove around the USA a bit) that I realized why Groningen is designed the way it is, and how incredibly well that works. My dorm was on the other side of town from the central train station, yet I could stroll across this 200k+ inhabitant city in no more than twenty, thirty minutes. And I could stay safely on sidewalks the entire way.
In Tampere, Finland there's a nice large underground parking space (or parking cave more like) right under the city. It's relatively easy to access, at least compared to actually driving and parking in the city center. Then inside there is many elevators to different parts of the city center wherever you need to go. So it is possible to get to town by car, easily find parking space, yet still keep the city center free from excessive amount of cars. Of course we have to remember that Tampere and Finnish cities in general are very small compared to other cities in the world, so whether this would work everywhere I'm not sure. But it works here and I think is quite nice solution.
This also should illustrate how insane the “share the road” sentiment is 🚲 When really, roads are really only reliably safe for moving cars, where the street is more of a shared environment
And that's why I will NOT ride my bike in the street EVER if there's a sidewalk! I'd rather suffer the repercussions of mowing down a pedestrian on my bike than BE mowed down by a 2.5-ton vehicle in the bike lane.
@@suddendallas ...been nearly clipped numerous times by fast riding adult cyclists from behind with no warning even on neighbourhood streets with little to traffic. The city where I live doesn't just have lanes but designated bike ways as well and ordinances about riding on the sidewalk which sadly are not enforced (even though the police have a large bike patrol contingent). A fast moving bike can still seriously injure a pedestrian as well as the rider. Imagine the pain when someone backs out of a driveway while you are speeding down the sidewalk and the driver has no idea you as coming until it's to late, or at an intersection and someone makes a right turn. I used to ride a bike on the streets including well travelled ones since I was 10, long before there was any sense of "bike consciousness", special lanes, or paths. Used to ride my bike to work in downtown when in high school. Always followed the rules of the road (still do) and am still here to talk about it.
@@bcshelby4926 And cities are more suited to handle bike traffic then a sprawling connection of miles-long stroads with no sidewalks. It also depends entirely on where you live; in South Florida you're gambling because you put blind faith into the WACKY ZANY Florida people drivers.
A main drag in my city was converted from a stroad to a street with lots of roundabouts instead of traffic signals. Not only is it far less stressful to drive down and safer for pedestrians, the flow of traffic is better even though there's one less driving lane in both directions. Your travel time is much faster by not sitting through lots of red lights. I was skeptical until I traveled through it completed. Such a wonderful difference. The best example of a stroad in the city is one I always avoid unless I have no choice.
@@tripsupstairs Hillsborough St, Raleigh NC. From a little west of NC State into downtown. The difference is huge. I'll be driving down it 5 days a week this summer and it will take me 5 minutes less both directions, but more importantly I won't be screaming lots of 4 letter words as I do so.
the city near me has lights timed so at 32 mph you can drive while only stopping once through the whole city. of course many dumbasses think they can get there faster by going 45.
I’m a European and a few years ago I visited Houston in Texas with my friend. We arrived in the evening and went to our motel, which was in the city but on quite a big road, like one of those featured in the video. On the other side of the road we could see a restaurant. It was probably about 50yds away. It was quite late and we were hungry, so we decided to go the restaurant. We set off on foot walking along the road thinking at some point soon we would find a place to cross. We walked for about half a mile but there was no way to cross. And looking into the distance we could see it wasn’t going to be possible without a very long walk. So we went back to the motel, got into the car and drove to the restaurant. How ridiculous is that?
I’ve been there too there are many times I want to walk to the supermarket (40mins away) but the amount of stroads and other junk just make me get in the car
I've felt for a long time that American cities are very anti-social. Stroads are one of the reasons that make American places feel so desolate, uninviting, remote.
Are you not American? because American cities don't actually have stroads, developing areas have stroads because they serve as a centralized utilitarian center for a dispersed population that can't support a full city. You're not meant to walk around or "Watch the world go by" there. If you're European you probably don't even truly grasp the concept of what I mean by "dispersed," our country is extremely large with populations spread far and wide - on a scale utterly unlike most other countries.
I would say that some stroads are uninviting (like many of the ones in the video), but others are just fine. I grew up with stroads everywhere, and the ones near my house now are actually very beautiful and very inviting. Streets, on the other hand, stress me out when driving because I don't have as much space between myself and other objects/people, plus people who are walking around often aren't following a traffic pattern like cars are required to (though I'll agree that many drivers don't, and they give the rest of us a bad name). I don't typically see stroads in downtown areas--they're more in suburban areas, or in connector areas close to a main highway, at least where I am. They can take heavy traffic loads, which works in my favor, but I'm aware that that doesn't work for everyone.
@@RamikinHorde Fellow American here--very true. My state, in particular, is one of the largest states and we have a lot of suburban sprawl. I actually like that, even though I can see why others prefer mixed use.
Car dependency is so severe in the U.S. that most businesses don't have bicycle racks outside. Even if you wanted to persevere and bike to places, there's nowhere to safely park your bike.
Do what I do. Remove all detachable objects take the front wheel inside with you and lock the back wheel to the frame so it doesn't roll and use the excess to lock it to a nearby street sign.
People who bike to my store bring the bike inside to not have it stolen. ...although if you have a car, the chance that gets stolen or damaged in the parking lot is way higher than it should be. So many parked cars here get totaled randomly, and whoever caused it gets out as fast as they can. So while you have to deal with the costs and not having a car, they get out scott free.
What an absolute shame. As someone who lives in a country where I can leave my house unlocked, my car unlocked, windows down and bike outside, I can’t possibly imagine how horrible that would be.
I remember walking from Palo Alto to Menlo Park on a visit to Stanford and I couldn't believe they'd actually planted big trees in the middle of the sidewalk next to the stroad. Ridiculous design.
I think it's okay to have an entirely car-centric society with absolutely no walkability, but I think they should make up their minds, or separate them completely like Las Vegas does.
terrible game idea: City Skylines but you have work with an existing American city with all the bureaucracy and politics that get in the way. You have to fix the city planning by a certain date or loose the game.
It's not a problem. This author is comparing apples and oranges when he makes a simpletons thesis. He does not compare population density or zoning areas. If he did, it would demolish his thesis as he would find the same thing even in teeny tiny countriesin Europe
This explains why it’s so stressful not having a car in America. Walking in areas like this is so depressing and dangerous! I used to walk stroads for miles everyday to get back and forth from work or school. Unfortunately when the whole country is built for car dependence you get reckless drivers, elderly drivers with no business driving, anxious drivers, bad drivers which = more accidents. It honestly sucks because some people just have no business driving.
This video is TLDR: Europe's towns & cities designed for walking, Murica & Canada's designed for cars. This is a function of the available space and mindset of each country. Canada and the U.S. were much, much more recently settled, with many areas in rural America/Canada literally not being fully settled until a few decades ago. Amsterdam has about 800 years of city/town planning in place...
@@gasstationpeanuts1814 there's considerably more to it than that? I guess you missed the part where fast roads can be made FASTER by removing driveways? It's just common sense to have express roads and surface streets rather than a hybrid of the two that does both poorly. Nobody likes stop and go traffic, nobody likes cars blowing through their neighborhoods, nobody likes sitting at traffic lights - and people do die as a result of these design choices because we keep doing things the way we've been doing them regardless of the financial cost and cost of life and QUALITY of life. I live in the US in a VERY walkable/bikeable city - it's not actually all that hard or complicated to implement and ends up saving money in pretty short order, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why so many people are adamantly against it or why we keep making the same bad design choices over and over on such a huge scale
A large portion of the North American population lives outside of cities. I have never had a job that was less than a 45 minute drive from my house. If there were roads around cities it would be fine. But the cities grow around the roads, so it is what it is.
Hello Lulu -- I used to live in Japan and it's impressive to see the rail system transporting the elderly, handicapped, blind, retarted, poor, and underaged. It's ironic that the most individualistic mode of transportation (the auto) is the least democratic.
I believe "stroads" are a product of big box stores because they attract lots of cars so roads are widened to handle the increase in traffic. The other problem, big box stores need big parking lots , which increases the distance between stores. This type of development is not conducive to a human walkable scale.
I've been to a few Walmarts that still exist in inner city that still existed next to a normal street.. They just need to build up instead of out. I still blame poor zoning and planning. Big box stores just took the easiest way allowed
As a Canadian, this video nearly brings me to tears. Never have I experienced disappointment and envy at the same time and to this degree before. The nice little streets you show at the beginning literally look like vacation destinations to me: they are so calm and welcoming. I can't believe people go do their errands and go to work there. I have been dealing with an extra layer of awful quietly draped over my entire life... It breaks my heart.
Well fella, i am sorry, but the US / CAN way is pure capitalist shit build on dept and doesnt even work, we know it. No idea why you dont. There is much more things to it than just roads, combined we just say that america have no culture.
@@krishnan-resurrection714 Britain has a lot of problems for sure. But in relation to the points raised in the video, Britain isn't so car-centric and the public transport is ok. What do you think is worse about Britain?
@@ceddynash5610 Im not refferring to rural south england ..im sure there is great cycling infastructure in places ....try North east england ..there are notorious stretches of "cycle lane" that suddenly disappear ...you find yourself on a very busy motorway cross section with traffic crossing lanes to turn left ...-talk about up the creek with no paddle ...its known as "crossing the rubicon" or russian roulette .. a total piss-take ..half-hearted cycle infastructure which is more dangerous than sharing the road lanes .. cyclists are hated for their very existence up here ... the politicians probably started up on a scheme then decided to pocket the rest of the money ....you know how it goes ..
What sucks is being a NYC gal and when I'm in Westchester or long island people assume you are poor or a vagrant because you are walking. I love to walk (I have a driver's license but it's too expensive to have a car in NYC), it's great exercise and you get to explore. Unfortunately people think I'm a skell, in trouble with the law (DUI) or poor. Stroads are dehumanizing
I spent a month in Europe studying abroad in college and came back absolutely disgusted with what the US has done with its infrastructure. We visited Amsterdam too! These videos are amazing, and I thoroughly appreciate them!!!
yep, bicycle tourist here in U.S.. Wife and I biked along the Rhine from Switzerland to Netherlands along the river path. I stopped bicycle touring here, too dangerous, drivers too aggressive.
I've visited the US and Canada several times, and you've pinpointed very accurately why travelling through populated areas in those countries felt like such a soulless experience, even as a wide-eyed tourist wanting to experience another country. Everything seems to be actively geared to NOT being able to get around without a car, and, as someone who doesn't drive myself, this felt very restrictive and exclusionary to me - much more so than I've ever felt back at home in the UK. I can't imagine how I'd even function on a daily basis as a non-driver if I lived in the US; even the simple things I take for granted here, like being able to walk into the town centre to do my shopping, go to the gym, eat in a restaurant, socialise... I guess that would be near enough impossible in the US.
Driving is a part of life here in the United States. I personally do not mind this, but if someone doesn't know how do drive I can see why that would suck.
If you want to avoid that soulless, modern suburban infrastructure, it has to be coastal beach city/town (your best bet), a decently developed rural town or historic city, or a very heavy urban city like NYC or chicago. But each of them come with problems of their own.
You wouldn't be a non-driver if you lived in the United States. Majority of people get their license. Public transit is terrible and you won't be able to have a functioning job without a car. And they make it easy to get your license because they know that our lives are dependent on our ability to drive.
Mhm, you either specifically find a place with enough stores within walking distance, or you buy a car. The only other option is living with people who own a car. If you feel uncomfortable driving then its generally accepted you should just toughen up and do it.
I never knew there was a name for this awful design. I never even really thought about it. I just accepted that my morning commute was going to be terrible due to no good transit system in my city and awful drivers. I never thought about it being poor urban planning too.
Awful drivers are still a thing....don't let those detestable characters get off the hook by blaming poor planning for terrible behavior. The same folks who suck at everything else usually suck behind the wheel....
@@DSGNflorian Americans despite their plea are not special. The drivers there are about as good and bad as everywhere else. The difference between nations is the infrastructure much more than the people.
*If it doesn't have a name, it doesn't exist.* *_Until it is given a proper name, people ignore it, because they have no term to refer to it by._* If you want a problem to be taken seriously, find a good name for it, ideally one which doesn't require explaining. *For example:* "right to repair", "hostile architecture", "anti-consumer behaviour", "planned obsolence" (but I'd call it something else, to reflect the damage it does to the economy and the consumers), "walkable neighbourhoods/towns/cities", "car-dependent neighbourhoods/towns/cities", "updraft tower/chimney/pipe/tunnel", etc.
That's why it's been allowed to manifest. I know at some point I've complained about having 30 km/h streets, but this video helps make us question this failed model of development.
I wonder why the "stroad" was such a seemingly natural evolution of American transportation. Ive never been able to accept the sprawling, desert-like, and frankly hostile stroad as the superior layout, but its hard to imagine an alternative. Even walking from one store to another is an absolute ordeal, and most will opt to pull out of store one, wait to get into traffic, zoom out and immediatly brake, to slowly ease into the next lot that was hundreds of feet away. Its a thoroughly depressing layout too, with the space being so blatantly unused that the only indication of habitation by humans is the presence of cars. Rarely you can catch a handful of people in the transit from car to shoppe. Hopefully the culture of retail space foreclosure forces more efficient use of the space.
Suburbs. People don’t want to go to the often trashy and dangerous downtowns or urban areas. As shopping centers are built for suburban residents, “stroads” are necessary. No one is going to haul three weeks of groceries for a whole family on foot. If you don’t like the scenery, move somewhere else. I don’t know why we even have sidewalks. People on foot don’t seem to know how to use them anyway.
@@0scJohnson0 modern day suburbs are typically a net loss for most American cities, so thankfully this sort of infrastructure should be removed within our lifetimes
@@0scJohnson0 American suburbs exist because of school de-segregation and the block-busting of white urban neighborhoods in the 50s. White people didn't want to create suburbia, they did it to flee crime, crashing property values, and unsafe schools for their kids.
In my experience, the engineering community would love to provide "the best solution" and leave out "for the budget available." Unfortunately, capital projects undergo "value engineering."
After being raised in London I remember a family trip to the US in the late 80s. We stayed overnight in a stroad-side motel in Tucson (don't ask) and in the morning wanted to head over a few blocks to a diner for breakfast. We decided to walk. We quickly discovered the lack of sidewalk, and just trudged along the grass verge. A state patrol car pulled up and asked us what we were doing. "Walking to the diner". He strongly suggested not to, and asked us to go back and get our car for our own safety and convenience. I still remember how bizarre this seemed to me. Sure - London has some soul-crushing trading estate areas with stroads aplenty, but not on this scale, and they always have a sidewalk.
America is cripplingly dependent upon foreign oil to the point that they built their entire country to reflect that fact. The obsession with cars as the focal point of cities is the reason so many of them are decaying in urban sprawl (Detroit, for example)
I’m a Londoner too, and was visiting a friend in the US one time. We’d driven somewhere and decided to stop at a restaurant for food; we parked up, checked the menu, didn’t like what we saw, and decided to go to the restaurant immediately across the stroad instead. That’s where our paths diverged: I instinctively started walking towards the other restaurant, she instinctively started walking towards her car, and for good reason in fact - the restaurant may have been only 30m away and immediately across the road, but it would have been a nightmare to cross on foot. We literally crossed the road in a car - only time in my life I’ve ever done so.
@@architaanand3136, This is true for central London and inner London due to the fact that there the streets were built prior to suburbanisation and the rise of the car but as you head further out into greater London strouds and retail parks become much more a thing. Plus, there are several A roads (quasi motorways) that cut through the city rather than around it so traffic can access central London. There aren't too many of these and it isn't really a huge issue unless you happen to live near them.
While there is Stroads in the UK there is a few major differences than North American ones. •Paths on UK stroads are often wide enough to allow it to be used by cyclists • The speed limit will often only be 30/40 MPH instead of the national speed limit • Traffic lights are only used at pedestrian crossings, with the vast majority of junctions being roundabouts which are much better at both being safe and allow a constant flow of traffic. • Instead lots of individual stores using their own junction, UK retail parks share a car park that serves the whole unit which means a single roundabout can serve several shops, gyms, cinemas, and restaurants.
As a disabled pedestrian who regularly uses a wheelchair, the pain of stroads is real. Some places I just cannot go-and the apathy of drivers who nearly kill me sucks
I'm sorry to hear what you've been through. You should seriously consider moving in better city or even abroad, as cases of people getting killed because of stroads are not rare. I live in Paris, and public transport here are so common I don't even need a car, I can go shop nearby on foot and go take the train or the bus the for long trips. I heard Germany, Spain and Italy are Great too. Netherlands are very bike focused but is also a good choice. Take care of yourself.
@@damienlemongolien5303 not to be rude but at least in my experience some of my disabled family and friends hardly have enough money to even consider the idea of buying a car that their wheelchair could be put into, much less trying to move.
It is not an environment for people, much less those with accessibility considerations. I'm sorry you have to deal with our city planning. I'd like to move to other more-walkable countries, but as a U.S. citizen my stay would be limited to 90 days or what-have-you. I wish I could escape this city layout ...
"Places you need to go, but places you don't want to go" Holy shit...that is so accurate. The Midwest is absolutely plagued by stroads and exactly as you described.
Yes but the opposite can be said about Europe (and I live here) that you are surrounded by all this crap which you do not use which you need to navigate to get to where you are going. "Streets" look nice in pictures or as tourist destinations but entirely impractical when just want to go to the store. Why I always end up going to out of town big box stores where I can actually park avoiding claustrophibic town centres as much as possible unless it is for things like nightlife or restaurants.
Don't even get me started on the hell that is Duluth, Minnesota. I absolutely hate how ugly bridge highway systems look. They're a bandaid fix for a larger problem.
@@TomDingleby If you are buying something big, like a TV or washing machine sure, but how often do you need to do that? For everything else a bike ride or walk to the next store is easier, quicker and cheaper than driving by car.
Finally i understand why so many areas in north america look so unappealing to me! Also some of the aerial shots you showed really put into perspective how gigantic US parking lots are! The whole thing just feels like asphalt hell :'D
I'm finally beginning to understand why so many areas give me the willies... I thought it was "traffic" I hated, but it seems more like I hate stroads because of their horrible hybridization of streets and roads. I just couldn't quantify it before.
I hate fucking hate streets more than stroads. It's so stressing. Ugly streets with trash everywhere. And where people don't give a fuck how they cross the street. I guess everyone hates something.
same here. Now that I think about it i've always had a funny feeling around stroads. I just now realized that the sheer loneliness of stroads is what irks me. They are everywhere but when you look around you only see more metal and concrete. There are no people in sight outside of a building or vehicle
@@bassyey For the most part yes, the only places I see completely absent of stroads are too rural to have ever needed them. Now that I think of it, nearly every run down town I've been to have had lots of stroads, especially on the outskirts
Finally ohio is starting to adopt these roads. My small town just approved a 1.5m$ plan to totally re do the roads, removing one lane from each side to add sidewalks and a proper bike lane for the small businesses. The construction is annoying but after 6 months is actually starting to shape up and I love how they're doing it
Jeez, every time I mention just how ugly the streets are people think I'm pompous/opinionated. I'm telling you, they are objectively ugly. Once you've seen how truly ugly it is, you cant unsee it.
i hate driving, especially since my city’s traffic is garbage and dumb, but i just wanted to get on a bike to go see my friends. it’s too dangerous: bad drivers, no bike lanes. not to mention the high crime rate. streets are ugly, and i just wanted trees.
I grew up in the UK with roads and highways, I now live in America and have lived in a few big cities. You hit the nail on the head with the issues in major cities, the social impacts are also interesting. When I first moved to US I was without a car in Las Vegas and you feel like a prisoner on your block, going to a store across the stroad you would have to walk a mile down, cross then walk a mile back up.
I just wanna say thanks, I play alot of Cities Skylines and kept getting traffic jams and couldn't figure out why. I provided buses, metro, monorail, raised bike lane, and even blimp travel and was still having issues. This video helped put it into perspective, the stroads were making things difficult. Now, traffic is great so thank you
@@firebolt100 I suggest looking up Cities Skylines. It focuses on city building, construction and management simulation. Traffic in Cities Skylines is pretty negligible when you're starting out your town. But once it becomes a bustling city, traffic hampers everything.
It was all fun and games until I saw my actual town, an actual "stroad" that I haven driven down hundreds of times, and an exact spot that I know the exact location of. Video kinda hit different after that.
I live in the US, and I feel like such an outsider when I’m the only one walking to the store to buy groceries. Some of my stroads have this stupid thing where the sidewalk at a block ends, then continues again the following block, like wtf?! I think I would love to live in Europe because it fits with my lifestyle.
Hi! Your comment brings up an interesting point, maybe: walking for a grocery run is fairly uncommon behavior for us in the US, and maybe on some level, one subconscious part of the stroad phenomenon is an assumption that people won't be exercising much by walking, or will be buying groceries for whole families at a time rather than just one person. As a practical matter, singles are more likely to walk for groceries than married folks would simply because the groceries have to be carried on the return trip, so a pedestrian can't buy two weeks' worth of food on one trip, for example (unless he lives on bouillon or something :) ). It seems clear that this was probably not a major consideration for the stroad designers, but it might be a minor explanatory factor regarding why stroads are changed or eliminated only slowly, if at all, later on. The mechanics of grocery shopping would probably be an interesting topic in general, since we all probably shop for those more often than any other category of goods except maybe fuel.
@@pgsells Of course you wouldn't walk to buy 2 weeks of groceries in one trip. But, when living in a European city that is walkable, you wouldn't have to! A grocery store would often be a short walk away from your house, or you would buy food for dinner on your way home from work and take a tram or bus. Growing up my father would often go to the corner store or bakery to buy things for breakfast while he was walking the dog. Now living in the US because for a lot of people going to the store is such a hassle with driving and parking and also the store is huge not just a small shop, you spend a lot of time and energy on one trip so you would rather limit the number of trips you have to do and load up your car. It's a whole different way of life.
Sometimes I feel that having many smaller stores selling just like the fewer large stores would be better, just like what a small town has. I grew up in a town which grew 10× its size, and smaller familiar stores I could always jog to centrally started moving to farther edges as large ones, closer to the highway etc. I don't understand it, less accessible unless you drive. Making fewer, larger clusters of amenities defeats the purpose of the sidewalks, paths, and the reason people moved there prior. Why not build a city like it's a group of small towns, on purpose instead of by accident, and then connect them by roads and walk-bridges?
As an American who’s never traveled outside of North America who *also* happens to be midwestern, stroad cities are quite literally the only kind of cities I’m familiar with and it’s literally awful, man. I never really got very good at learning how to ride a bike either because I have never had a reason to bike anywhere with how my city isn’t cyclist friendly in the slightest. Every time I see how European cities are built I just can’t help but have the urge to move there someday lol, oh to live in a nice European town where I can walk everywhere and not be afraid of getting hit by a car or sweat like a pig because I just walked for an hour and a half through parking lots in the middle of summer to just go downtown to window shop
You are still under the American mythology that you could just move to Europe if you wanted to. Well, if you are a billionaire, that's true. Otherwise, you will not be given residency status.
I've been walking my youngest daughter home from school and we've been talking about how dangerous and uninviting the bridge is to walk across and even my 9 year old said whoever designed it should walk across it to see how crappy it is. She also said just hearing the loud cars over and over again made her mad and I agreed. There's only so much stress a human can take and I can see why nobody wants to walk or ride bikes anymore. Just watching footage from non American traffic relieves my angsty tension.
I recall when I was in middle school, between 11-14 years old. My dad, from a different time and often assumed by strangers to be my grandpa, asked me why I didn't bike around town. He understood my reply. "I don't want to die."
Im from the Netherlands. When i was between 5 and 6 years old. I walked all the way to kindergarten on my own without parents. Every day. I had to walk like 1 kilometer or so, trough all kinds of streets. 5 different streets. Max speed of places where you needed to cross the roads as a small kid was 30km/u for cars. And we had a special tunnel under de "road" where cars drive 50km/u that went to other parts of streets with houses. Specially made for that kindergarten so kids could walk to school safely.
The "roads" you were talking about - my brain always kind of just called them highways, and the "streets" to me were just bustling areas. I always thought these 2 were special things you only occasionally see rather than the supposed norm. Crazy how desensitized you can become because of how terrible the road systems are
@@kourii In the city where I live. Every road looks like a highway. Some roads will be expanded from 8 to 10 lanes. There are no designated bike lanes. Many cars are driving over the speed limit.
If anything, a stroad is a highway with simply poorly separated sidewalks/bikelanes, or maybe a road with too many lanes and too high a speed limit, and also, poorly separated sidewalks/bikelanes.
It really saddens me to realize that basically everything in my country that we take for granted was probably something someone intentionally designed poorly (or lobbied to have it designed poorly) to create a big fat market and make a quick buck with complete disregard for any actual human beings having to live with it.
True. Automotive though is very likely a soon to be failing industry in many countries and hopefully the toxic lobbyism from it will also be reduced and more modern cities and communities can be build. If it can be lobbied for, it can also be lobbied against. A bit sad though, that a few industries basically mess up a whole lot of businesses and politicians are unwilling to see it.
The US became a car culture society when the oil companies started having a say in American politics. Before the auto industry, it was the railroads and those companies ran shit, and before that, the shipping industry. Point I'm making is in this country, it's always about money first.
Not exactly. There is some truth to that in already developed cities, where local politics and interests can really fuck up urban planning. But most of these stroads evolved out of a road serving as a thoroughfare. Then, individuals start patchwork development, so turns lanes, traffic control, parking lots, driveways, etc get added over time, with incremental changes that specifically serve the people in the area. Because there are no walkers, no walking infrastructure is built, and therefore there are no walkers. Then new developments must serve the people who actually live there, who live 5 or 10 miles away, resulting in new areas needing to be stroads to actually get anybody there. Stroads happen because, initially, there is no real design going into a large among of people living there (because nobody lives there). At some point, though, we transition to being dense enough, but city level anti car policy is shut down in local elections. The other problem is that when a city is more walkable in the US, the living costs are usually much more expensive. Urban car sprawl allows people to live far enough from prime real estate to get a decent sized home, but close enough by car to visit more interesting areas. Hard problem to solve tbh.
Completely the opposite. It is because small towns expanded rapidly with poor planning, zoning, and little effort to go through the trouble of fixing it. Like most things in the world that are terrible, it isn't a conspiracy, it's incompetence.
It’s honestly really upsetting how common stroads are, I literally got hit by a car on a stroad walking home FROM SCHOOL!!! It’s baffling that we have stroads so close to schools
Yep. After living abroad for years, I returned to Canada, and was up in the suburbs. I simply walked from my workplace up to a shopping centre, yet almost got hit by a car because it was a stroad and the people up their are so clueless to pedestrians. The whole concept of people walking across the road is foreign to them. I was simply crossing the road with a fully green "go" sign for pedestrians, and some idiot whips around the corner without a thought that a person might actually be there.
@@johnhunter7244 How about you keep idiotic comments to yourself when you don't know why or how I got hit by a car. FYI I was hit in a pedestrian lane and legal papers say no, it was not my fault.
@@alukuhito Thats exactly what happened to me! Worst part is that i even checked to make sure they weren't turning and guess what they weren't but when i walked a few steps on the road they decided to turn without checking for a pedestrian and BOOM! Rolled over the car and had my face land on the asphalt.
@@scruffyjams2910 how about I never said it was your fault but that doesn't mean you couldn't have prevented it. Also in America at least we would have to change the whole housing and building structure in order to get rid of stroads. They will always exist in suburban areas.
As a Japanese I'd like to point out that the real Japanese "Futon" is something that you would hide away in a closet or the sort during the day. Not some strange sofa-bed with an exotic name for marketing. I didn't even know that the "Futon" you mentioned existed in the US/Canada... XD
@@matthursh3414 That's quite different, in that the Murphy bed is a full mattress that's hidden away in some purpose-built compartment or something when not in use. You can literally roll up a Japanese futon and put it in the closet, since it's pretty much a quilted sleeping pad meant for use on the floor.
I was thinking about getting a japanese futon (with tatami underneath) instead of a bed for my university room. Is it comfortable enough for everyday use?
@@simonedebeauvoir8552 Personally, I'd pick a mattress for convenience. But if you get a quality futon and routinely maintain it, they're good if a bit firm. Shekibuton mattresses "need to be routinely aired out, flipped over and rotated. We recommend placing a coconut coir pad or Tatami mat underneath the mattress while in use, not directly on the floor, to create ideal airflow and prevent mildew and mold." Since it'd be a primary bed, definitely consider other things like a duvet/quilt cover and even a dryer if you can't hang it in daylight.
Another problem for stroads comes up in places where it snows a lot. Many of the sidewalks become impassable. There is no barrier or space between the curb and the sidewalk, so the sidewalk gets buried under snow plowed from two whole lanes. These sidewalks frequently don't get cleared either, because the plowed snow is hard and dense, and many stretches of sidewalk don't have a good place to put the snow. Probably the most egregious case in my area is a narrow sidewalk with a busy stroad on one side and a large retaining wall on the other.
I had to deal with this a couple winters ago in a west coast city after a heavy snowfall. Walking along a 5-lane stroad, with sidewalks and large retaining walls on either side boxing it in for nearly half a mile. For a pedestrian, the only option was *UP*. I was literally forced into walking up on top of uneven banks of plowed snow, my footlevel higher than the roofs of most cars only a few feet to the side of me. Talk about dangerous!
I think it Helps here in Canada, at least where I live. gets to -40 with over a foot of snow for 3/4 of the year. dont really see anyone walking or biking for 9months. Also saves time/money not having to be cleaning sidewalks and bikelanes just for nobody to use them. Also extreme weather Erodes the road. would cost more to repair the road and the sidewalks and the bikelane if it wasn't for the stroad. Not saying all roads should be stroads, but they aren't as bad as they make them seem
@@angelaburress8586 Not all American streets, and even less of their strodes. Believe me, I live near some and I don't drive. Walking in winter can be near impossible.
In my area (chicago suburbs) people just walk on the stroad (like kids walking to school) when sidewalks aren’t plowed. It scares me that a single distracted driver can end the life of thease people.
My city turned most of our stroads into roads and then constructed bus routes to each major street/road. They also expanded the existing sidewalks system to allow bike and pedestrian traffic and then built a giant bike ring around the entire city with more bike paths into the center or external of the city by following the existing ditch/drainage systems. It’s still faster to drive, but at least it’s possible to go anywhere near completely separate from vehicles on your bike.
This explains so much about why I find life in Canadian suburban cities so miserable, even when I try to live the way I did in Hamburg, trying to walk to do things instead of driving.
@@OutLivex even the downtowns in Canada/US aren't the same. One thing Europe does well is medium density cities (obviously for historical reasons). It shouldn't be a choice of living in a noisy high-rise business district or low density suburbia. And the downtowns in Canada/US are still heavily car centric. Most European cities don't have high skylines. They're still human scale buildings.
@@shaungordon9737 Yes, it seems that, unless you live in a major city's downtown area, or in a small town with a preserved central area, you are pretty much doomed to a car.
@@shaungordon9737 come to Montréal, we’ve done a few areas right...but we have highways everywhere and badly designed ones to boot. It’s a bizarre mishmash but pleasant in some areas.
@@shaungordon9737 hence "similar". The thing is, we will never be the same as Euro or Asian city infrastructure. North America mindset of bigger is better will never change. That's why suburbs are so popular.
@@fatufatu I talked to the bird. Turns out there was a candy wrapper between the rails that looked like potential food. The bird was just trying if it could get to it before the train but turned away when it couldn't - it also has no children but is thinking of starting a family this summer. The bird is fine.
It's so annoying living in the United States when you don't like to drive and nothing is designed with the intent of walking through town. "Oh, you need to get something from the grocery store? It's a 30 minute walk, half the stroads don't have sidewalks, and the bike line is on a 40mph road".
ya even american liberals are perplexed when you don't want to drive somewhere, I think that attitude is even more common on the west coast where public transit was hamstrung so a lot of people have never used public transit, nevermind come to rely on it.
Indeed, it's not appetizing to walk on stroads. Even though there is a sidewalk, I feel unsafe walking on them. I feel so small and vulnerable. I'm also not riding my bike on a strode either.
They are built with the purpose of discouraging pedestrian traffic, making it inconvenient for the homeless to loiter and creating opportunities for accidents. Cities and suburban areas love them for this. And it's nearly impossible to fight the development of these.
I live in Southern California and basically every road is a stroad. Visiting Tokyo made me realize how much better walkable places are. Definitely felt a lot more connected to the people around me despite not speaking the same language.
I am also from Southern California. It really is nuts how many otherwise beautiful areas are completely inhospitable because of the stroads everywhere.
Yeah well california is a dilapidated failed state. You experienced what being in an actually developed country is like, not a third world country masquerading around as a fake merely because it tell's you it is and you're delusional enough to believe it.
I guess thats one more reason why there are so many weebs among Americans than among Europeans? When they see cities and roads built the right way they more often see Japanese examples than European, which are usually better than Japanese, but Japanese are still a lot better than American. Plus maybe because Japanese cities look more American because after WW2 Japanese were relying on the American experience in dealing with automobilization and in architecture, infrastructure and on American money to build it ;)
I love Tokyo too. Besides that the city was planned far before cars existed, and because its layout was to force citizens to become a defensive labyrinth to be sacrificed for the emperor in case of attack (Edo mimicked typical castle design), it is mainly because Japan is one of the most culturally homogenous and xenophobic places in the world, so their sense of order and decision making is pronounced over cities that welcome cultural diversity, where people's different priorities and lifestyles from all around the world must be compromised and taken into account. So its all relative. Not many cities have great layouts and speedy civic planning that also welcome true cultural diversity. This is not a political or intellectual issue btw, its simply logic - how do you honor the lifestyles of many of the world's cultures in a single zone while planning the way we each want to live? This is the crux of the Millennial civic utopia - how do you be inclusive to all cultures knowing they will think and behave different from you? Forcing them to conform will rob them of their culture, which manifests as guilt, and so forth.
I’m 70 and I know I won’t see it in my lifetime. But I do hope you and my own kids will see it happen. My worry is because the car has come to so completely dominate the American landscape there won’t be anyone who can imagine anything else. In most of the suburbs I’ve lived or worked in you are suspect if you walk. We really do live to support the machines.
"Like an outdoor room". This is why 'cute and charming' places are exactly that. Everything is smaller and friendlier, more approachable. Vs the gigantic BEST BUY sign you see all over America.
@@adammiller8133 Capitalism monopolizes. It's the same problem here, for example of our supermarkets basically/bulk only Albert Heijn and Jumbo are left, multinationals owned by the rich. But the little shops remain to a degree as we shop where we live, but capitalism puts pressures on the same things. If only companies wouldn't put profit before literally everything else, but for that you'd need worker co-ops, democratic corporations. In the US capitalism has run uncontrolled/opposed by socialism for too long obviously, or rather, socialism was demonized. No healthy political climate, just the rich, democrat and republican, keeping themselves in office.
@@KleineJoop for companies to put values over profits, consumers must put values before cost. I do believe that the younger generations “get it” but it’s going to be a long, hard trek with constant pressure to reverse. Just an example: my local gun store is a great place - single owner operator who really takes care of his clients. He doesn’t have much in stock and will gladly order in whatever you want. Because he does less volume, he pays more to distributors which means I pay more at the counter. Me supporting this guy means literally paying for it in both money and time verse heading over to Cabelas or Bass Pro. Values have to reign supreme on both sides.
@@KleineJoop Why would I want to give the government more responsibility over my life when I know it is corrupt, incompetent, and inefficient? Why do we need to give welfare to businesses that are inefficient?
@@SpencerLemay How can you in one breath chastise a corrupt government and simultaneously regurgitate the party line? Maybe Ma and Pa could afford to run their shop if Walmart wasn't sucking off the president in order to undercut them.
I live in Denver, CO and found a job only 2 miles from home, so in trying to live a healthier life style I decided to bike to work as much as possible. The problem is that the last half mile of my commute is on a "stroad", and even when I opted out on using the bike lane to use the side walk instead (because cars drive 50 mph), the amount of times I've almost been hit from vehicles shooting out of side streets was just too much. What wasn't mentioned in the video is the trash and debris generated from "stroads". This is what ultimately led me to stop biking as I hit some metal debris, blew a tire, and did a superman over my handlebars. I'm back to driving to work :(
You drive two miles? You could ride your bike the first 1-1/2 miles and walk it through the dangerous 1/2 mile at the end of the trip. Even if you walked the entire trip, that's about 45 minutes of exercise each way instead of sitting on your behind, burning gasoline. The price of fuel these days should be incentive enough.
These videos are certainly eye-opening. I live in the Colorado mountains and now I realize why I don't think I will ever move to live somewhere else. It's super expensive here and it's gotten a little crowded, but what keeps me here (besides the magnificence of the mountains) is the fact that most of Colorado's mountain towns are very bike-able and walkable. There are bike paths everywhere out here! You can bike almost anywhere in the spring, summer, and autumn. And the town of Vail is designed just like a European city. When we do need to drive, especially in winter, we have roundabouts and a very minimal amount of stoplights, which have really improved traffic flow out here. As a stark contrast, I visited Oklahoma over the summer (where my grandmother lives), which is one of the most car-dependent states in the US. I knew something was wrong with that place but didn't fully know it until discovering your videos. Oklahoma's towns and cities consist of as many stroads, stop-lights, and stop signs as possible. These kinds of places do feel very desolate and depressing. It makes sense why loneliness and depression are such big problems in the US. Suburban city design actually isolates people. It seems like that's its main purpose. I think it's part of the reason why the US is so divided and atomized these days.
I'm from Iraq and it's so car-centerd here and I've always thought this is what it is and it's always been that way and we should accept it.. Man I was wrong and I'm into this infrastructure designing mindset. Keep it going 👍🏻
@@josephchandler8418 I fear that the one thing that will suffocate the call for decreased urban sprawl is the unwillingness to live smaller. As discussed in a previous video, the Dutch set-up is made possible by smaller housing (we call them, literally translated: rowhouses or two-under-one-roof), mixed with appartement complexes. I doubt many would be willing to scratch their macvilla for an inner-city house with perhaps a small garden.
@@gerbrandlub Small housing is definitely not a necessary component. In fact, most American residential streets function precisely as streets, exclusively for local traffic. Sure the physical design is too speed-friendly and there are too few pedestrian/bicycle shortcuts but the general principle is already in use. The main difference is that this type of thinking also needs to be applied to commercial areas rather than scattering them alongside arterial roads.
Many years ago I worked for a few weeks on a project in Houston at M.D.Anderson hospital. I was staying at a motel/hotel not far from Astroworld. (Remember that?) So I decided to walk there and check it out. There was no way for a pedestrian to enter.
The most annoying thing about stroads in my eyes is that they are often times parts of major roads or highways that force lots of non-local traffic to flow directly through cities and towns. This introduces huge amounts of through traffic that really has no business on the stroad, causing huge amounts of unnecessary congestion for both local and non-local traffic. Additionally, through traffic is generally very unwilling to slow down to city speeds and will go out of their way to make it through traffic and signals as quickly as possible, which is clearly not a safe thing to do. I for one hate that if I need to go on, say, a 4 hour long drive from one town to another it often involves slowing to city speeds, going through a multitude of traffic signals, and dealing with congestion in areas that I have absolutely no intention of stopping in after what seems like every 10 minutes of highway driving. Of course rather than fixing our ridiculous road system we have a police force that often times seems to be waiting to punish and profit from our unwillingness to waste our time moving absolutely nowhere. It's truly an awful system.
...here in Portland OR there are busy thoroughfares with only one lane of traffic in each way. One of these cuts through a residential neighbourhood and another through a mixed residential and small business district before turning into a multi lane stroads in the outer east suburbs.
In Germany we have built "Umgehungsstraßen" for most of the town, at least the ones with heavy traffic. It's simply a small highway or road that redirects non-local traffic around the town. Less noise pollution, less traffic jam. This is a thing in all European countries I visited so far. You don't have it everywhere, but such roads are still build where heavy traffic is going through towns. Larger towns usually have a highway ring all around just to keep non-local traffic flowing around the cities. It's just more efficient.
@@SarsTheSecond It's still work in progress here. Next to where I life there is a small village on a connection road from two highways, one is the A3, a mayor one. They are trying to get a highway tunnel to connect these two highways for decades. They have plenty of cars and trucks on their two lane main road everyday.
I like your documentary style. Reminds me of documentaries of the 80s and 90s. Calm, factual, informative and above all without any shitty annoying music in the background.
This hits home since my city has some of the strodiest of strodes, I even wondered if the thumbnail was taken in my city. My old school was legitimately less than half a mile from my house, yet I could never get to there except by car. I don't know the solution to this, but please for the love of God plan cities better.
I always laugh to myself when I hear someone say they want to move to “insert city here.” I played in a touring band for over a decade and one thing I learned is that almost every city in the US is exactly the same. Big roads, big parking lots.
When I was a Dutch tourist in the US, I though I didn't understand their traffic system. Now I finally understand: the system is called "mismanagement".
Man, go to Russia or Ukraine. We have another problem: huge 25-30 level condo-towers for all the money in the world. And for 600-1000 apartments you can have 40 parking spots. And all those idiots who buy such property later ask where can they park their cars! So they park them everywhere: on sidewalks, on green zones, in others yards etc. F**king disease. We don't have enough tow-vehicles. It's in people's mind.
@@konstantinhoncharenko719 people only buy apartments there cause that is the only stuff they can afford. But I agree people should use more public transport, rather than cars, even such new microdistricts usually have a metro station and several bus stops. Also, judging by my experience people who go on car from remote parts of cities are more often late to work, than those who use metro, cause metro doesn't have traffic jams.
Funny, I am Dutch and remember my visit to Los Angeles. As a typical Dutch habit I went to the stores by foot because it wasn't too far from the Airbnb. The first part was fine until I met the 'stroad' and the parking lot around the shops.. I am glad that I am also quite used to busy traffic (because that is often the case in The Netherlands) so I managed to get across safely but indeed.. that's when I really remembered that the USA is a car centered society. Shame because it would be great to use a bicycle in your country!
You can use a bicycle in New York, and I'm figuring in the more compacted, dense northeast cities. If you're anywhere in the West or Midwest you're going to have to drive to do anything!
The US is HUGE though, there are vast areas where you can use bikes. Particularly the Northeast, or you can go scenic country bicycling and travel for days if you desired.
@@artemiscool67 What he means is using a bicycle as a general means of daily transportation (read; an alternative to cars). You can't really do that anywhere except in very specific parts of certain cities. But to especially a Dutch person, that means nothing. It would be the same as saying "yea sure, you can take your car if you want" when living in a car-free city that has outside-city parking.
@@Real_MisterSir Didn't see the notifications until now. I'm in the NYC area and its the most car-free you'll get in the US as far as big cities. You can 100% use bicycles there as a means of transportation as well as Jersey City. Hoboken and New Brunswick also come to mind. Edit: I now get the Dutch reference
Oh god, LA is probably the worst city for sprawl. I'm from Seattle, and LA is just a horrible city and it was what made me finally understand why people hate suburban sprawl so much. LA is the epitome of the concrete jungle.
_"but fatal crashes actually increased [during the pandemic]"_ Huh, that's odd. Oh wait, that's because fewer cars means higher speed, isn't i... _"the only reason these stroads aren't killing more people is that they're usually jammed up"_ ... yah. Damn, that's depressing -_-
@@NotJustBikes I also just noticed the green strip at 7:55. Is that a _bike lane_ between fast-moving traffic? Are they actively trying to kill people?!? O_o
Actually, maybe I shouldn't judge too harshly there. Eindhoven has something like this too: de Geldropseweg near the Mei Ling restaurant. If you come from the (south-)east, straight-going bike-traffic is sandwiched between two car-lanes. Sure, it's just one lane on either side and the speedlimit is 50 km/h, but it still feels uncomfortable every time I cross there. Or _felt_ uncomfortable, because they fixed it last year. Streetview has a nice before and after for the spot. Thank you, city planners!
Anecdotal but I was still driving my commute for about a two months into the pandemic last year, typical American arterial roads and highways. It genuinely got more dangerous, I had like a notable number of close calls during those two months. I wasn't sure whether to blame it on everyone's general anxiety over the pandemic or the extra space to speed and weave.
If you are ever in Tennessee and want a crystal clear example of the difference, visit Gatlinburg then drive ten minutes north to Pigeon Forge. It shows the contrast and is why we always stay in Gatlinburg and have never gone to Pigeon Forge.
Y'know, I always felt like there was nowhere to go or hang out with my friends as a kid, and I was never sure why. Now I know. We were trapped in Strode Hell. Driving anywhere worth being took a while too.
I’m living stroad hell with my little kids. They can’t even walk to the park thats 1/4 mile from our house as it’s a stroad without sidewalks and it’s dangerous. We have had at least two bicyclists and one motorcyclist killed trying to cross it. It’s just horrible. So I end up driving them which just irritates me.
Yup. Conventional American wisdom says you should move out to the suburbs to raise a family but it's just not true. I grew up living in a dense city highrise and it allowed so much independence compared to the suburbs. As a kid I could hop on a bike and ride myself to school, parks, museums, movie theaters, hundreds of shops and restaurants. In the suburbs kids are trapped inside their subdivision and completely dependent on their parents to drive them anywhere.
@@focom4546 I’m in the country! I MUST drive my kids because of the damn stroad! We moved from the city to here and we just hate it. Nothing is convenient and we have to drive everywhere. Zero sidewalks and stroad hell.
@@focom4546 Oddly, I grew up in a suburb, and it wasn't quite that bad. There were a number of shops and the old town library available from my division by bike or foot, and my mom would regularly send me on my bike to pick up an ingredient or two from the grocery store for dinner. Admittedly, it was absolutely a shopping centre, and to get to the other two on that side of town you had to cross a stroad or even a real 5-lane state highway (my middle and high schools were across that highway as well, but there was a traffic light with crosswalk, at least), but while things are still annoyingly far apart in the suburbs, a bike can still give kids a solid taste of freedom.
When we went to Disney World we stayed in Kissimmee, and we made some mistakes based on our way of living in the Netherlands. We walked to the Wallmart we passed on the way in, completely miss guessing the distance based on the time it took to drive and the size of everything next to the road. Took about an hour to get there if I remember correctly. There were sidewalks for most of the way though. And then we took the bus, and we found out that it was indeed mostly used by people with lower income. There was no timetable and at the reception of the place we stayed they looked at us as if we were crazy, and there was a car rental across the street so it was the strangest request we could make. It is so strange not to travel like you are used to, and to take the car literally everywhere. Especially living in a small town where you walk everywhere, cycle to work and take public transit.
Stayed in Kissimmee as well. The joke about having to get into the car in order to be able to reach the business on the other side of the street is real...
I went to Las Vegas. My friend arrived at the airport a day later, so I decided to walk there to pick him up and then drive back in the rental car we had booked. Our motel was next to the fence surrounding the airport, but boy, getting to it was an adventure. There were clearly tracks of other people who did it, but also clearly not designed by any planner.
I was also in Orlando, Florida for a music festival. For lunch, I decided to walk to a restaurant that seemed nearby, but the walk ended up being nearly 2 miles there. Getting there was a workout on its own and the journey took 30 minutes. So many people are afraid to take the bus since it's extremely inconvenient, leaving the poor and sketchy people taking it. Without all the theme parks and amusement parks, Orlando would be an ugly, sprawled out hellhole.
I have been living in europe for the past 5 years. I complete relate to this sentence. "It is so strange not to travel like you are used to, and to take the car literally everywhere." Except for me it's the opposite: It is so strange not to travel like you are used to, and to NOT take the car literally everywhere.
One of my first impressions of Orlando was driving a rental car to the hotel we had booked, at night. Highways through forest almost all the way, even though the GPS assured us we were almost in the middle of the metropolitan area. We were going down a six-lane road (which probably would have been a stroad if not for the fact that the lots on either side were undeveloped) with an 88 km/h speed limit when the GPS told us to turn left. Not "left at the next intersection", but left as in "take that little turning lane and turn 90 degrees across three lanes of oncoming traffic to get to the hotel". It felt like madness, but apparently that was how the traffic engineers had planned it. Needless to say, once we had learned how to take an alternate route, we avoided using that crossroad entirely for the rest of the vacation.
This reminds me of my first year coming to Canada, it is just IMPOSSIBLE to get anywhere without a car. It is too dusty, noisy and unsafe to walk or bike, public transport is almost nonexisting. It is funny that most Canadians drive 20 minutes everyday to a gym to work out while most of the world just walk a lot.
I'm lucky to live in a Canadian city with a great network of paths, but they aren't used as much as they could be. I think people have been conditioned to drive, and don't even consider the paths.
I had the exact same experience coming to Canada from Austria. I've been driving for 11 years before arriving here and stroads have to be the most ugly and anxiety inducing experience I've ever had on the street. Both as a driver and pedestrian....and nobody could pay me enough to join that kind of traffic with a bicycle!
@@saintcityriot1I guess that's part of why everyone here seems to like Québec city. It's just so different from most Canadian cities, walkable and with lots of boutique and art shops along the streets.
I remember in high school before having a car, my friends and I would try walking to Pizza Hut and there were no sidewalks to use.. we just hiked the grass ditches and all the passing cars looked at us like we were trespassing…
I did the same but to the convenience store by my school for coffee in the morning. The school plot was huge in the back but no sidewalks so I was walking through the ditch to get to the store
Hah, my first experience outside a major city in the US as a Dutch person! We had a motel in a commercial area with restaurants and stores, but you couldn't even walk from 1 store to the next. People were honking at us for walking through the grass ditches :D
A 16 year old girl with a month old license pulled out of her neighborhood in front of me without stopping. The stroad's speed limit was 45 mph. Thankfully nobody was killed or injured, but both cars were completely wrecked.
This is my biggest personal issue with driving: too many idiots can gain access to a two ton death machine. Last time I checked, auto accidents are the #1 cause in the U.S. of non-health related death.
@@nashvontookus7451 I'm feeling mixed about having called her that because while I'm 17 and I've never made any glaring mistakes like that, and I think you must prioritize defense caution above everything-you're right, she's young and there are little chances for mistakes, and not everyone learns the same.
@@TheNinja94a You're 17, you have a lot of time and plenty of chances to make a mistake on the road. Especially driving to a new place with unfamiliar road planning. Or to a large city where pedestrians run into traffic.
This is why I’m trying to move to Europe, I have a visual disorder that prevents me from being able to drive, and living in a car centric world is a huge fuck you to me, I could be travelling comfortably by train and actually travelling, but I’m stuck in bum fuck nowhere full of stroads ;~;
He was probably saying for sake of understanding/being on the same page.. I too am from the US and I've seen streets here that should be called road (or even highway) and roads that should be called streets.. I've seen 1 lane streets with highway speed limits.. etc. The names are not so strict here as people often name based on what sounds good to them instead of by classification.. Each city/county will have its own naming system too which helps add to the confusion. For example all roadways on one side of phoenix metro end with street and on the other side end with avenue regardless of size/lanes/speed/etc.. Also US through the eyes of Europeans might not make sense because their basis of what is truth/fact/important/logical will not always align with ours which makes some of these things that don't matter into heated debates.. call it what you want street/road/stroad/highway/awful it probably assumes that they weren't intentionally bad... but they might suck on purpose.. the goal of stroads is likely to discourage walking.. suburban development is meant to dehumanize so this video is likely proof that the design is working as intended (unfortunately). Not defending stroads or this type of development but holding two very different things side by side and using only one viewpoint as basis of truth is a bit silly.. it takes things too far out of context when that context is very important.. nobody in the US would ever compare say Overland Park, KS with say New York City or Amsterdam... because the goal of Overland Park is to likely be VERY spread out on purpose.. the closest thing you will find remotely near Overland Park is the core of Kansas City (in Missouri).. But that is a whole different discussion... [END OF RANT]
Email your mayor and tell them to invest in local bike infrastructure. If we message them they will know what their constituents want. I messaged mine on Facebook and he actually messaged me back Update: I told my Mayor a Sidewall was terrible and 2 weeks later they replaced it. I told him thanks and i will send him more photos where the sidewalk is bad for Cyclists. You can do the same, if enough people say something they have to address the issue
Hey! Like the channel says, it's not just bikes. And I think this is an important point for politics. One Modern Term is "Superblocks", to create a modern urban environment that focuses on the health and well beeing of the people. So its not just bikelanes; its traffic seperation, quality space for pedestrians, trees & greens, etc.
![The Wrong Way to Set Speed Limits [ST06]](/img/n.gif)
Charles Marohn from Strong Towns has a new book about his experiences building stroads as a traffic engineer in the US, and why he became an advocate for eliminating them:
www.confessions.engineer/
You can order the book, or get more information about it on the site linked above, or if you'd like to read more about stroads on the Strong Towns website, check out this link, or the links in the video description:
www.strongtowns.org/journal/tag/STROADS
And if you'd like to support this channel, sign up to Nebula and get access to my videos as well as over 150 other educational creators: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Suggestion: request your public library buy a copy. When it's out, you can recommend city council and planning board members read it. (;-)
Thanks for introducing me to this kind of urban infrastructure! Never thought it would be this interesting.
Can you recommend be something more on bus lanes or BRT and streets. As that is a development here in Copenhagen in Denmark.
They remove parking and trees in streets to put in bus lanes. I do not know if it is a good idea. It feels wrong, perhaps because I have not been on a bus for a year due to covid19.
"this is why the roads in the US are the least save of any developed country."
I gotta disagree, the US no longer qualifies as developed/first world country
@@ietsbram The US has been in a state of arrested development ever since the auto industry destroyed public transit infrastructure
About 15yrs ago, one of our local politicians said the quiet part out loud. He said that some areas near businesses were made intentionally inefficient, with short traffic lights and lots of them, in order to increase revenue from the area. Basically, since the whole town is a large grid work of "stroads," they wanted to discourage travel to other stores outside of their district and have drivers sit long enough to impulse buy fast food. Shady bastards.
That's b.s. though! I just get stressed out and mad and want to get away as fast as I can! I'm tired of government deciding what they think are best for US! They do NOT have our best interests at heart. THEY are the ones creating all of the problems that we're having! The public should be WAY more involved in the planning of their 'projects' and anything else that impacts our lives, especially anything that includes our health, bodies and what goes into them!
Selfish ass well
Yep - Austin just passed a 2 billion dollar bond which included a lot of purported "improvements" to traffic in certain areas which included a lot of new partial medians which were supposedly for safety. One guy looked deeply into it, found that the city council members owned stakes in a lot of business which were rivals with businesses that were being partially blocked off by the new medians, making it harder to get to those by car, while their own businesses were unaffected - this guy publicized his findings and ran for city council himself. Naturally he finished last and the bond passed.
@@Statalyzer,
Well, ain’t that some 💩?!
capitalism ruined a whole country
and the citizens aren't even realizing it
The bench is for the people to rest and recover from the shock of nearly getting run over.
Thanks for the heart
Nice
@@nielskorpel8860 It is just an invention of an European
And to get ready for the next 10 miles to the convenience store
LMAO spot on mate
I was in Texas for work, and there was a steakhouse 5 minutes walk from my hotel. I didn't have a car, so decided to walk - then discovered it was on (what I now know as) a Stroad. Walking along some undulating, grassy embankment with no sidewalk and cars shooting past me at 50+ was pretty unnerving, especially after a beer on the way back. I felt like a hitchhiker. You're actively being dissuaded from walking which just seems utterly ridiculous.
We need more adventure in life
I had a similar experience 3 years ago in Erlanger, KY. My parents and I went together because my mom had a business meeting there, and when she was gone to work, my dad and I were left without a car. So, naturally, we chose to get out of our hotel room and walk around to some places. My goodness. I also felt like a hitchhiker and found the whole experience extremely unsettling. No sidewalks, no crosswalks, nothing. We went to a Dick's Sporting Goods across the road and afterwards walked to a Mexican restaurant adjacent to the hotel we were staying at to eat dinner but it was terrifying regardless of how "close" these establishments were. Cars were going way too fast and trying to plan out the best time to run across the road was like playing Russian Roulette. And the experience of walking back to our hotel in the dark from that Mexican restaurant was probably the most unsafe I've felt in a while...and I was with my dad! It felt like everyone who drove by was looking at us like we were crazy for walking instead of driving.
...Uber...
Part of the reason why people down there are so fat. Nobody walks, and in Texas it's usually too hot outside to do so anyway.
Not enough safe spaces..
In my town we had a teen die a few years ago because the bus home from work only dropped off on the opposite side of a stroad like this that he needed to cross. It was evening and that road had no cross walks and he was hit. People were sad about it for a bit but then nothing was ever done to improve the situation.
That last sentence is the American experience in a nutshell.
It's a lot cheaper to bury 10 or 12 a year than to fix it. Pardon just real.
@@noah3369 it was literally the busiest road in my town at the busiest time of day shut the fuck up about things you know nothing about. he literally died who the fuck are you to be so disrespectful. He had no other way home. That road had to be crossed for him to get home.
@@noah3369 How do you know? Were you there? Did you see the traffic? Do you know this case she/he's talking about? Maybe he did wait.
@@gregpenismith1248 I don't hate cars (or responsible drivers). I just hate the fact that drivers are the only ones taken into consideration when these areas are designed. It's ridiculous.
"Cities in the US and Canada are covered in terrible non-places." Man, you nailed it. Every time I drive through an area like that (and they all look the same, don't they?) I just feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere, despite all the businesses around.
The thing is, there really aren't that many businesses around. The only way to get there is by car so huge parking lots are needed-->Nobody can walk anywhere because walking would require walking past huge parking lots. Thus it causes a runaway car-centric design.
Definitely relatable. I keep seeing them and thinking they're handy if you need a bunch of things and you're planning your drive for them, but they're utilitarian and ugly, like an industrial area.
As for parking, I don't get why buildings aren't built right over top of parking instead of using double the land like they do now. Especially for a mall which could potentially be multi-story anyway. Shelter and even heat the area below, no weathering, more convenient for shoppers etc.
Our core mall is 4 stories with a large indoor garden and some underground parking, sees less retail action than most of the other, flat, conventional mall setups with multi-acre parking. Can't tell me the latter can't afford to set up similarly.
@@Qui-9 They are built like that in suburban areas because land is cheaper than the construction costs associated by adding underground parking. They may be able to afford it but ROI is more important to them.
As a U.S. Consum...err...citizen, I love 'our' Generican system because it's the best. Why? Because 'mericuah!' !!
The U.S. and Canada are two of the biggest countries in the world, but so much land is wasted on highways, parking lots, and random wastelands. I saw a documentary years ago saying that the automobile industry conspired to have businesses located in the middle of nowhere, so that people would be dependent on cars.
North American urban areas are incredibly hostile to foot traffic. Not long ago I had some car issues. I left my vehicle with the mechanic for a couple hours and went walking along one of these stroads to go find a place to eat. Not wanting to eat indoors because of the pandemic, I took my food to go. I wandered around the plaza, looking for a place to sit. There were endless parking lots, stores, and superstores everywhere. No benches. No picnic tables. Not even a patch of grass to sit on, except right next to the stroad where cars were flying by. I walked for 10 minutes and spotted nothing, until...salvation: an emergency exit staircase behind a Mark's Warehouse. I sat upon my uncomfortable, non-slip steel throne and ate my burger, staring at the pavement laneway on one side of me and a giant, blank stone wall on the other. My fries had gone cold.
romantic
We've all been there... so true, so sad...
you should write a book man
This is precisely the traveler by foot experience of car-centric infrastructure.
@@gerald1495 For real! They should. Nice commemt :)
This is the reason why most north american residents say "there's nothing to do in my city. My city is so boring."
I think it's more due to there actually being nothing to do that doesn't cost a lot of money. I don't care about shopping or going out to eat. I want to actually do something.
@@notablediscomfort exactly but north america is filled with non-places.
@@tyren818 I kind of agree because I immigrated to the US from Saint Petersburg, Russia and in St. Pete we have basically the equivalent of northern Venice - a huge city of 7 million people and streets with roads being divided… we have a nickname in Russia for the little streets which connect to homes and plazas from the roads, we call them “karman” (карман) or “pocket” because it’s almost like going off the road into a pocket to park or access the pedestrian areas. However, not all places are like this and we do have a few stroads here and there but they are quite rare and few in between… the only places where we have the issue of roads and pedestrians not mixing well is in the more historic parts of the city where the old city planning called for long wide streets which then became paved from one side to the other and planned out for use by cars and public transport because everyone would call for more lanes to be built due to rush-hour traffic. So the center of the city has both roads and streets and in some places they kind of coexist while in other places it would probably be a bit better if the government was to place green islands in the middle of the road with widened sidewalks… for example, if you want to see what I am speaking about, look on Google at Nevski Avenue in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Either way, on the topic of “things to do” in a city, when I go to Saint Petersburg I feel like there is always something to do because as a pedestrian I can go on a beautiful romantic or sunny walk with my friends, family, wife, etc… and it just feels like even if you don’t have something specific to do, you can always just go to the center of the city and enjoy yourself in the public space that is there… sit around on benches in street zones, go to parks connected by streets, enjoy walking along streets with canals in between the left and right flow of traffic with bridges in between, can go to all sorts of possible places even if they are just stores for kitchen appliances or something stupid, it still feels like there is always something to experience when going out as a pedestrian, you feel like you’re IN the city and you’re a part of it somehow.
While in America, I get the constant feeling that I am in some absolutely god awful wasteland of strip malls and parking lots with a bunch of high speed traffic in between where you can’t walk anywhere because it’s far apart due to the grass, parking lots, crappy air, traffic, and stroads going through everywhere…. Sometimes I see a “city” on the map and wonder if it is just a huge waste land of strip malls, plazas, and wide residential areas connected by stroads… makes me feel like that is not even a “city” or even a “town”…. It’s just some sort of nightmare place built to milk the local resident’s consumerism. It’s terrible, I really dislike it.
While in the USA, I currently live in Sarasota, Florida, which is also quite guilty of having tons of these stroads but at least we have a true city environment in the center where a person can actually enjoy being without going from a car in a parking lot to the store and from the store to the car in the parking lot. Even then, the city part is so small that it gives like one day of walking around to see everything there is to see, with the actual size of Sarasota being gigantic in comparison because everything else is just neighborhoods and tons of stroads in between…. For an example, you can Google an image of “Bee Ridge Rd” in Sarasota (or “Fruitvile Rd” or “Clark Rd”. For a great example of a good road in Sarasota, Google “University Parkway”. For a great street you can Google “Main St” in Sarasota.
That’s just my experience with and 2 cents on the topic. Hope it’s insightful)))
I'm currently in Dalmatia. Basically one 500km long coatal stroad. But luckily many nice places along the way to dive and look. If it wasn't for the never ending pitoresque coastal sceneries, this would be just one one of the longest damn stroads you discribed.
@@zachvanwolf2123 haha, true.l
Between stroads, lack of public transit, and most US cities refusing to zone new developments as mixed-use commercial/residential, it's really no surprise our country has so little sense of community. When it takes 20-40 minutes to get literally anywhere in town, there's so much less incentive to shop with locally owned business, or to get to know the folks in your neighborhood, or even just to access whatever few parks/libraries/museums that are around. Our cities are designed to separate and isolate their residents, and I think that plays no small part in the mediocre mental wellness of our country.
There's a good deal of new developments in my area that are blending residential and commercial.
The unfortunate part is that these residential areas are also hundreds of apartment buildings, soooo
I don't think our country really has worse mental wellness than others, or that cities are designed to 'separate and isolate their residents' - that's pushing the line of thinking a bit too hard IMO.
@@theSato I don’t think they’re intentionally designed to separate, but rather implicitly, as part of the cultural value of Americans. What is America? A vast, open plot of land available for the taking. It doesn’t matter if that’s true or not, the *idea* of America is that. So much so that the Nazis planned to compete with America with their own Manifest Destiny, Generalplan Oost. Anyway, if America as an idea is spacious, and space means being alone, then cities are in a predicament; they haven’t the space to provide the spaciousness Americans believe they deserve, but they also are home to the majority of Americans. Hence, artificial space via separation and artificial distance via inefficient traffic ways.
That's a big reason I don't like city's, the country is more community orientated.
Canada is even worse. Toronto and vicinity is almost nothing but stroads.
I spent 8 years in Tokyo where I could walk everywhere and public transit was amazing. At some point I felt like I missed driving a little because I hadn’t had a chance to drive for so long. I came back to the U.S. to drive our stroads everyday and remembered why I hated driving before and couldn’t believe I had forgotten why.
They also have less living space for people and a high population density, whereas in the US, there is plenty of land and population density is very low.
@@arbjful Yes, Japan is quite cramped. But nobody forces the US at gunpoint (not even in the US!!) to build stroads, seas of parikng lots and singel family home deserts.
@@arbjful "Plenty of land and low population density" - and no way to move around unless you get in your car, get stuck in traffic, spew pollutants into the atmosphere, regularly expose yourself to genuine threats to your life and limb, make tons of noise, and generally steal space and safety away from anyone that isn't in a steel box like you. FREEDOM.
@@steemlenn8797 Sorry, not trying to be pedantic. But it’s really just Tokyo and major cities. As Japan, the rural populations are either tourist destinations, or old people playing pachinko.
Tokyo is amazing if you’ve lived in a coastal N. American city, since many are broken up by rivers or built on deltas. Tokyo… you can just walk in basically a straight line for 2 hours and still be in busy Tokyo.
You wouldnt believe how many times i hear that and to this day, nearly have forgotten Again.
This video identified something I've hated my whole life and never had a name for. Wild
@@MiguelAviles175 It pretty much is.
@@MiguelAviles175 it isn't. Many stroads out here in Jakarta, Indonesia. Really hard getting anywhere on foot.
@@MiguelAviles175 We have it in Brisbane, Australia too
I had exactly the same thought. 100%,
I felt exactly the same as you. Stroad is a wonderfully abhorrent name for a despicable thing. I hated stroads long before I knew what to call them.
I never knew "stroads" was a thing or even that streets and roads were different but as someone who grew up driving in the US I have always hated our roads and now I finally know why. excellent vid.
Same!!!
really wish usa would make it more like Netherlands
Watching this, I've realized that nearly all of the 'roads' or 'streets' near my house are actually 'stroads.' Between lights is around half a mile of driveways and 4-lane intersections across the city running for miles. The only alleviation comes from a few actual roads and the street crescents opening onto said stroad. (Thank you for the correction omnitravis)
Across my intimate family, we've had at least 2 car-on-pedestrian crashes (with us the pedestrians) and more close calls than I can count...
@@KayronTheFifth that's because the pedestrians like to walk in the road, when they have a perfectly good sidewalk to use. Or they cross the street, in the middle of the road, and don't use the crosswalk, or they walk in front of moving cars.
@@Normal1855 this is kind of insensitive to say to someone that has been in car on pedestrian accidents. It isn’t an issue with drivers or pedestrians, it is an issue with our infrastructure, blaming the other party won’t remedy this
I drive for a living in the US, and you nailed the Stroads. We (Truck drivers) hate them. Most of the New England States are Stroads, which causes our ability to move to drop by between 30 and 40%. Also, as a driver, making a decent living requires the ability to avoid Stroads whenever possible. This means that often it's more efficient to go many miles out of the way because the local roads will just suck time from you. NOTE: This is still not efficient, it's just the best choice of available options.
thanks for commenting; well worth to note your experiences
@vibratingstring in the greater Boston area i think of the bulk of route 1. You have high speed road with street type entrances to every business built along it. Also think of most of route 114 that runs through Peabody MA all the way to to Lawrence
As a Brit in San Diego, the only link from my hotel to the town center was a stroad. There was no public transport. It was only a couple of miles so I decided to walk. There was a sidewalk of sorts, but it had bushes and clumps of grass growing up through the paving! I realised how unusual it was to walk there when a squad-car pulled up and asked me what I was doing. It was 11:00 am on a work-day, and I'm white, middle-aged and reasonably respectable. I'd been assured by the hotel that it was a safe part of town.
Apparently the very act of walking on a stroad is regarded as suspicious by the local cops. They heard my British accent and said "Oh - that explains it" before driving off...
I've travelled all over Europe and never had an experience like this. It's a form of hell the US have created for themselves...
Exactly! I can't walk anywhere without feeling like a "suspicious character"
As California resident, I don’t doubt this for a second 😢
It's very unfortunate and MANY, MANY large American cities are like that. I recently moved from a big city (Jacksonville, Florida) to a much smaller town/city (Fort Collins, Colorado) and the difference is night and day. There are bike lanes and bike trails EVERYWHERE here in Fort Collins and no one looks at you odd if you decide to walk down a sidewalk, either at day or night.
Stories like this make me super grateful for the urban planning and public transport/walkability options we have. I don't think anyone will question anyone walking anywhere apart from when it's an obvious out-of-city highway where it is unsafe for non-drivers to be anyway.
Yeah but we don't have to pay a TV loicense or get arrested for Tweets so it all balances out.
I was at a stroad today and needed to go to the bathroom. The pharmacy I was visiting didn’t have a bathroom for customers, but I noticed a supermarket across the street and decided to walk over. When I approached the stroad *I quickly realized there was no crosswalk in sight and there was no way I could safely cross 4-5 lanes of traffic*. So instead I got into my car and drove across the street and parked over there just to pee at the supermarket 😂.
Just go in any parking lot, assuming there are visual block of some sort. If they really wanted you to not go in the parking lot they would have made it easy to use the bathroom.
This reminded me of a conversation I had about thirty years ago with a city councilor whom I supported and his wife. I had pointed out how horribly anti-pedestrian much of the new development was with huge parking lots, no sidewalks and so on, and was encouraging more human-scale developments, especially since the economy of the state in which I live is largely tourist-based, and because I am not a driver. It was like talking to a pile of bricks. Ironically, on another occasion they both raved about a trip to Europe where they clearly enjoyed going around city streets.
People rarely make the connection. I've always loved pictures of small Japanese towns and one day I realized it's because most of them do not allow street level parking. We have to go back, where we're going, we won't need roads.
I live by a harbor, and they finally seem to have gotten this. Right now a large part of the space adjacent to the water is (aside from a narrow walkway) parking for cars. Which is stupid since you're giving parked cars the best view of the waterfront. Even the main hotel gives you a spectacular view of... the parking lot in front of the water. I think the original idea was to give boaters easy access between their car and boat. But probably 90%-95% of visitors to the harbor are tourists, not boat owners. The redesign plan for the harbor moves the parking lots away from the water, adjacent to the main access road. The walkway will be widened, with shops and green space for relaxing / picnicking occupying the adjacent space. The parking lots will no longer have the best waterfront view at the harbor.
Washingtonian here. You're f&$#ed if you're on foot anywhere in my state. Most of it is farmland and built off old military roads. Or you have Seattle and its surrounding area hahahah dont even get me started. If you're coming to Washington, youd better bring a bike!
Sounds like conversations that I have had with MOTOR - obsessed Detroiters.They go along with the powers to be whom push a " No Mass Transit In My Back Yard !" [ NMTMBY] mentality.Its really sad.
You're missing the influence of big oil and the automobile industry. Until you remove their political power it will NEVER change. We could have civil engineers and architects design beautiful cities/towns with low upkeep and high productivity. But they get pushed out by people who want to sell more cars and more gas. The sellers end up controlling the market, so the sellers get to pay people for what they want done.
They'll pave paradise and put up a parking lot if you let them.
The biggest problem where I live is that anytime something bad happens as a result of this horrible system, the "solution" makes the problem worse. For example, when I was in middle school, if you lived within a 2 mile radius of the school, you weren't allowed to ride the school bus and either had to walk or have your parents drop you off and pick you up. Lots of students walked, traffic near the school was horrible. One year there was a student who got hit by a car while walking to school. The county decided they needed to fix the problem. So they DECREASED the number of school buses for each school, and INCREASED the radius from 2 miles to 4 miles. So more students had to walk, more cars were on the road, and less buses to get the students to school safely. At least two more students got hit walking to or from school after that change.
Another example is that whenever they see a problem with the transportation system, their solution is to increase the number of lanes on a stroad. So in my town there is ALWAYS road construction and ALWAYS horrible traffic. They really think they're being progressive when trying to fix a problem. But in reality they're just regressive and make every single problem worse and create new problems that they need to try and "fix."
A year or two ago I (a person from US) went to Spain and Portugal. I'm someone who drives everywhere (including work until COVID + WFH), but each day abroad I was excited to hop on public transport and visit a new place in the city I was in. I felt so unrestricted. Like I could literally step outside a hostel and go wherever I wanted despite not renting a car. I couldn't place what exactly it is that made walking so pleasant and free feeling until I started watching your videos. Thanks for articulating what drove this general sense of freedom I felt.
thats city walkability! and also good city density, so you dont have to go 5miles just for groceries or go to the theaters
That's right! I live in an European city and love the freedom of going anywhere by foot. We still have a car which we use to go skiing or sea vacation , because it's hard to reach the sea by train. But all the rest we reach by foot or public transport : work, schools , restaurants and cafes, theater and opera, activities and shopping. It's real freedom. I used to live in the USA and hated the car dependence.
@@crocus5632 Same. I own a car purely for my last job being outside of town. Now i got a new job i can walk to and it's only for my lazy ass that i haven't yet sold my car despite me driving maybe twice a month. I love that car, but i just don't need it and it only costs money.
Absolutely. People who never experienced this think that having a car gives you freedom. They can't be more wrong. Having a car only allows you to navigate through a public space designed to be traveled by car, but you constantly have to worry about parking, gas, having your car stolen... The freedom of being able to go anywhere without having to worry about all of this is so liberating. I wish I could live without a car like I did when I lived in Spain, but here in Brazil a private car is almost mandatory unless you're poor.
@@michaelrudolph7003 You clearly never experienced living in a place that is built for people, and not for motorized metal boxes. Having a car gives you freedom until everyone owns one, and then you can't go anywhere without facing heavy traffic, and then you have to find a parking space, and you have to worry about gas, and maintenance, and not parking in a dangerous place... You only realize how inconveninent it is to worry about all of this when you start living in a place where you can go anywhere at anytime without worrying about taking a 2-ton metal vehicle with you.
Growing up in poverty and living in Houston, I know these places very well. My parents couldn’t afford a car so I found myself taking multiple buses are walking by myself since like 10 years old. It was definitely a soulless experience.
@@kakadorez11 I think even some homeless crackhead has more living space in his trailer in US than middle class citizen in Netherlands. that's why things are spaced far apart in US
@@deltaxcd more space is not always better though, the whole point of this video
@@deltaxcd What an idiotic statement. You are literally comparing people that live in cars and unimproved trailer/vans with people in comfortable apartments and townhouses. Lets be clear, the dutch middle class are much happier in their nice apartments, townhouses and semidetached houses than the exurb dwelling middle class of america in a massive 6 bedroom bedroom house with 3 bathrooms and pool. Their commutes are smaller and more enjoyable, they have nice places locally to enjoy themselves without driving, and if they are too young or old to drive aren't locked inside their house.
@@lindsaycole8409 This is wrong logic in principle because if we take that happy duch middle class specimen who is living in his shoebox he woud still desire bigger house in suburbs if only that was possible, he just can't afford it. (by the way how happy those people were in times of quarantine when nobody was allowed to leave their shoebox at all and all those nice places were closed?)
And living in a car is comparable to living in a tiny apartment which you are renting. Since in that situation you most likely spend most of the time at work and somewhere else your apartment is only useful for sleeping. Then why bother at all? Just live in your car right next to your work and save on rent and commuting.
House is not just a place to sleep, it is your castle/fortress and your base where you are preparing to survive rainy day and build your power. Your house eventually may become your office or your workshop where you run your business too.
@@deltaxcd take alook at the average size of a suberban house, its pretty big, thats fine but do you need all the big lawn? Barely anyone uses such big lawns and land, and due to those big lawns the space between work and home is exponentially lengthened making a person without a car fucked, if you used your land better, lets say an average suberban house, you can save more money on cutting the size of the lot, and if every house does that along with better planning other forms of commute is viable, having bigger living space isnt really that good if you cant use it, lawns were a way of showing wealth, but why do every american need one? (Im talking about the suberbs, so much land watsed on lawns barely used)
For you as the creator, this production (18-ish minutes) may have taken a lot of time and effort. However, for us, the audience, it was completely satisfying:
- The factual content was complete: you summarised, showed, and explained the problem with the Stroad concept in the USA and Canada. Next, you presented a solution with a good and viable (Dutch) concept.
- The production's artistic quality was on the same high level as your videos in general (VFX, SFX, some sarcasm, some humor, high-quality editing in general).
You set a high standard...
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I guess this makes it OK that it was a week late coming out? 😂
@@NotJustBikes we got a video 2x as long as an average NJB video in 1.5x the time, to me that's a pretty good deal .
@@NotJustBikes I am continually impressed with the quality of your writing. It is always concise, articulate, impactful and humorous. You're doing a lot of heavy lifting with videos like this, as this becomes an excellent resource for trying to influence local attitudes in North America among the public and policymakers.
@@NotJustBikes The production quality of your videos is very high. It is a joy to watch them. You pay a lot of attention to details.
@@NotJustBikes Your next video could take a year to come out and I would be just as excited and thankful. - Canuck Zoomer who has to walk 15 minutes down a stroad every time he gets groceries *shudder*
I didn’t know this was a thing, only that I hated this “feature” of living in the US. Japan has plenty of its own problems, but I appreciate that it is much friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. Fascinating to finally understand this. Thank you!
Yes, it's a feeling of the street that you don't think about. But when presented like this, you just get A-HA moment.
I kind of had an opposite experience, likely because the area I was in simply didn’t build sidewalks. This meant more cautious drivers, but cycling or walking was pretty nerve-wracking until you got to an area with more businesses.
@@bobbirdsong6825: I think you’re just describing what I experienced initially as well: anxiety based on experience which doesn’t apply in a new environment. For example, coming from the US, it freaked me out that Japanese drivers will often pull right up to your legs while you’re crossing, even when you have the signal at a crosswalk. In the US, that usually means an impatient driver is about to roll right over you if you don’t get out of the way; in Japan, it’s just normal, and drivers almost without exception will yield to a pedestrian or cyclist, even when jaywalking. Now that I’m mostly used to that, I feel a bit less anxious. 😂
Not going to lie I had the literal opposite feeling with living Europe for work. I grew up in suburban and rural areas. So all the "cute " "friendly" streets in these videos are actually anxiety inducing. I felt claustrophobic for years over there. Like I could never see the sky or get out of the city. No where did I feel like I was actually in wilderness or could just see the horizon on all sides. Weird feeling but hey I grew up in the plains so I guess it makes some sense.
I work on a stroad. You'd think you'd get used to just how uncomfortable and depressing and dangerous these areas are but it still hits me every couple days with just how horrible and inhospitable it is. It's like a constant drain on the psyche, this video made me want to cry a little bit.
This is exactly how I feel. I never knew why I was always feeling rushed, and uncomfortable & depressed. I think it's because these stroads are so consistently ugly and unrelentingly busy
@@Ares_gaming_117 Yeah I've never realized how much I hated stroads until I watched this, and now I know why I've always wanted to leave my town and never come back.
@@aabb55777 many people can't afford to leave. Moving is expensive. And its ok to criticize your own country, wanting something to improve. You want to advocate for better things for your country. I would argue thats being patriotic.
@@aabb55777 If no one complains, how is anyone going to know what to fix?
@@aabb55777 nice non-answer
Honestly strodes may not seem like that big of a deal, but think about it.
Imagine being a kid, about 9 or 10 years old. In the past a kid your age would have been trusted to go outside on their own, be responsible and come back home in time without much worry. There were less roads and traffic, and more rural areas perfect for children to play in. But now there are too many roads, too much traffic. Your parents don’t trust you to go outside on your own. The only places worth going to require driving out, and both your parents have to work now, so a day out is rare. So you spend most of your time inside. The only friends you have are those from school - so school is the only time you see them. So you spend a lot of time at home, alone. It becomes lonely. You spend more time on the internet and playing video games, too much, and it stunts social development.
Now you’re 11 or 12 and staying at home so much has actively made you not want to go outside, even though you may be allowed more freedom now. Anywhere worthwhile still requires driving out and you don’t have a car, only a bike. There are no youth groups, or parks, the government has slashed the funds for them. You become depressed more and more. You give up on hobbies. You take to drugs that your friends give you because the affect is instant. You’re not bored anymore. It’s magical. When you’re older you start drinking as well. There’s still no place to go outside without getting caught because everywhere is monitored and being in one place for a long time counts as loitering, and a group of teenagers is immediately read off as a dangerous gang.
One day one of your parents will come home and they’ll start talking about how kids today never go outside. They will never understand this was the world they built. A world that actively discouraged children playing outside. You just roll your eyes and go out to drink with your friends behind a shady warehouse, hoping you won’t get stabbed.
That's exactly what this video (why we won't raise our kids in suburbia) is about: ua-cam.com/video/ul_xzyCDT98/v-deo.html
Damm bro
Play video games lmao
I grew up in Kansas City suburbs on the Kansas side in the 60s and had what they now call a "free range" childhood -- it was a lot of fun. But this was before everyone started fencing their yards and all the creeks were covered over .... for the safety of the kids. We would walk thru other peoples yards to go over to the next street, to get to friends house etc. Played in the creeks all the time and even found crawdads. Of course as I got older I heard of kids who were killed playing in creeks by a storm caused flashflood (weather changes very quickly in this part of the country) And there were still a lot of undeveloped land around where we would make bicycle racetracks, forts, etc. All the neighborhood kids would get together at night to play kick the can at night. It was actually pretty idyllic. But I would not want to be a kid in the modern subdivisions, unless we were amongst the first and had access to all that undeveloped land. But that being said, I totally support his criticism and ideas. I've time stamped and Id'd some of the KC places he mentions above or in earlier videos.
Luckily there are places in Europe that don't adopt immigration and car culture.
"Why don't kids these days go outside anymore?"
The outside they have created:
also them:
This road needs one more lane, even with the current 10000000000000 lanes on it.
These are commercial areas. Not places for kids to play.
@@firstnamelastname1120 the point is that travleing to it, and also being there and see this, isnt nice. firstly, we shouldnt be forced into a car and then onto a really unsafe road, then having a small fun place but being able to see the distruction that cars have caused.
@@firstnamelastname1120 the thing is that these place have barely any commerce for window shopping .So unless you are born inn this district people wont go inside those commerce since it so unpractical and innerving ! every building look alike here in canada it like empty town but with highways everywhere and nothing to do .I live ibn 3 biggest city and it a boring Gray shithole compared to Asian/European countries that have street food and independent business everywhere with 24 h services ! Plus here in canada most food is process and not fresh and you want a food stand it will almost take 5- to 10 years to be approve which is way too slow for a process and stun the economy here !
@@firstnamelastname1120 Are you kidding? Kids love window shopping, browsing games, buying candy, what have you. They also like to be able to reach their friends. The sprawling nature of US city design means good luck getting to your friends without crossing a dozen angry people's lawns (if they don't have fences to block the way) if you live in a winding suburb--if you're lucky--and if you aren't lucky, your neighborhood road itself will be a stroad with no sidewalks, so forget even walking to the neighbors or the local playground to play.
Can not believe someone finally made a word for it. I have always thought to myself how I hated these areas with them being so ugly and all, and how I've had to grip the wheel with both hands because I feel so unsafe driving through them. I've told other people how much they suck but now I have a way to describe it.
It's called a highway! A "stroad" is just someone not having basic knowledge and understanding of the English language.
A highway is not fronted by housing or shops. it's for cars that are entering or not stopping, transiting the area.
It should be possible for cars to get into neighborhoods, but they're not mingled with pedestrian and bike traffic and don't go fast. Not a speed limit, but they simply can't.
@@joelcrb2011 I believe the word your desperately struggling to find is "portmanteau."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau
"Stroad" is a portmanteau of "street" and "road" and while it may not be in the dictionary, it certainly falls under the rules and guidelines of the English language.
@@adamgh0 I'm not struggling or even desperate to find whatever you think I'm trying to find. I'm stating a fact and apparently some individuals are uncomfortable with that.
Unfortunately. His definition of a road is more like a highway. Therefore striway would be more appropriate. When I think of "road", I think of open areas of back country where you actually could easily ride a bicycle for hours without fear of getting smashed.
I was always wondering, why US cities feel so "empty". It's just not inviting
That’s because US and Canada are large countries, and that means huge distances and lots of wasteland. Small towns tend to be flat (very few if any skyscraper) and covered with stroads. Also they’re capitalists, so people are encouraged to buy a car. The result is ugly urban plans and or structures.
Mostly car-centric I would say. Lots of business districts have little to no foot traffic, besides people walking in parking lots.
@@perezfecto Yeah the only reason people would want a car is vague social pressure from their economic system and definitely not because cars are useful technology.
@@bernlin2000 and they have no foot traffic due to stroads, which means everyone uses cars, which means car demand increases, meaning more parking needed, more throughput needed, and stroads intensify, meaning they literally choke out any path to improvement
@@pearz420 lord we can see your a product of the American education system that ranks 27th in the modern world huh? No critical thinking in sight does that brain even work? People get cars because they are force to, due to horrible urban planning in America, also the predatory automotive industry lobby and kill the railway industry and now cars are the dominant way of transportation.. you have no freedom when your corporate overlords decides everything for you, but hey guns right thats the freedom you get, as you get poorer and poorer each decade??
I studied in Groningen, and at times grumbled at the complete lack of accessibility by car. It is (intentionally) impossible to drive through the city center from one end to the other. Getting anywhere by car is slow, arduous and when you get there, parking is difficult, expensive and at times, impossible.
It was only when I got older and drove around other towns (and drove around the USA a bit) that I realized why Groningen is designed the way it is, and how incredibly well that works. My dorm was on the other side of town from the central train station, yet I could stroll across this 200k+ inhabitant city in no more than twenty, thirty minutes. And I could stay safely on sidewalks the entire way.
Groningen is one of the best cities to live in the whole world in my opinion.
And iu
And i
In Tampere, Finland there's a nice large underground parking space (or parking cave more like) right under the city. It's relatively easy to access, at least compared to actually driving and parking in the city center. Then inside there is many elevators to different parts of the city center wherever you need to go. So it is possible to get to town by car, easily find parking space, yet still keep the city center free from excessive amount of cars. Of course we have to remember that Tampere and Finnish cities in general are very small compared to other cities in the world, so whether this would work everywhere I'm not sure. But it works here and I think is quite nice solution.
@@singleturbosupra7951 There's also an underground parking space in Oulu.
This also should illustrate how insane the “share the road” sentiment is 🚲 When really, roads are really only reliably safe for moving cars, where the street is more of a shared environment
And that's why I will NOT ride my bike in the street EVER if there's a sidewalk! I'd rather suffer the repercussions of mowing down a pedestrian on my bike than BE mowed down by a 2.5-ton vehicle in the bike lane.
@@suddendallas , you mean a 16 wheel cargo truck. lol
@@NickRoman 🤣🤣
@@suddendallas ...been nearly clipped numerous times by fast riding adult cyclists from behind with no warning even on neighbourhood streets with little to traffic. The city where I live doesn't just have lanes but designated bike ways as well and ordinances about riding on the sidewalk which sadly are not enforced (even though the police have a large bike patrol contingent). A fast moving bike can still seriously injure a pedestrian as well as the rider. Imagine the pain when someone backs out of a driveway while you are speeding down the sidewalk and the driver has no idea you as coming until it's to late, or at an intersection and someone makes a right turn.
I used to ride a bike on the streets including well travelled ones since I was 10, long before there was any sense of "bike consciousness", special lanes, or paths. Used to ride my bike to work in downtown when in high school. Always followed the rules of the road (still do) and am still here to talk about it.
@@bcshelby4926 And cities are more suited to handle bike traffic then a sprawling connection of miles-long stroads with no sidewalks. It also depends entirely on where you live; in South Florida you're gambling because you put blind faith into the WACKY ZANY Florida people drivers.
As an American who’s lived in Ireland 5 years, your explanations have been eye opening. I now understand much of what Europe is trying to do. Thanks!
@Foresaken Moderate there are greenaway for cycling in places like mayo and kerry, and they're making more
A main drag in my city was converted from a stroad to a street with lots of roundabouts instead of traffic signals. Not only is it far less stressful to drive down and safer for pedestrians, the flow of traffic is better even though there's one less driving lane in both directions. Your travel time is much faster by not sitting through lots of red lights. I was skeptical until I traveled through it completed. Such a wonderful difference. The best example of a stroad in the city is one I always avoid unless I have no choice.
@@tripsupstairs Hillsborough St, Raleigh NC. From a little west of NC State into downtown. The difference is huge. I'll be driving down it 5 days a week this summer and it will take me 5 minutes less both directions, but more importantly I won't be screaming lots of 4 letter words as I do so.
the city near me has lights timed so at 32 mph you can drive while only stopping once through the whole city. of course many dumbasses think they can get there faster by going 45.
I LOVE roundabouts, they really do speed up traffic. Problem is people in America won't know how to use them and crash.
I hate roundabouts, nobody ever knows how to navigate them and it ends up creating more accidents!
@@DancingDevil89 lol, Europe disagrees.
this is fascinating! helps explain why I don’t feel safe or motivated to walk or bike in most suburban areas. Damn you, stroads!!
Hi Tiffany great to see you here ❤.
@@riruahm2960 Horny dude ⬆
Or you're just lazy 😘
or just get up? literally just excuses lol.
Lucky for you, you live in New York City. I felt so much better walking when I visited the city than my hometown
I’m a European and a few years ago I visited Houston in Texas with my friend.
We arrived in the evening and went to our motel, which was in the city but on quite a big road, like one of those featured in the video.
On the other side of the road we could see a restaurant. It was probably about 50yds away.
It was quite late and we were hungry, so we decided to go the restaurant.
We set off on foot walking along the road thinking at some point soon we would find a place to cross.
We walked for about half a mile but there was no way to cross. And looking into the distance we could see it wasn’t going to be possible without a very long walk.
So we went back to the motel, got into the car and drove to the restaurant.
How ridiculous is that?
I’ve been there too there are many times I want to walk to the supermarket (40mins away) but the amount of stroads and other junk just make me get in the car
Just turn around at the next overpass and drive there 🤦♂️ problem solved or wait for the next restaurant on your side of the highway
@@sexyworm1000 I think the problem was that they had to drive at all. the fact they couldn't just walk somewhere to get food so close by
That sounds terrible
@@sexyworm1000 thats just stupid road design
I've felt for a long time that American cities are very anti-social. Stroads are one of the reasons that make American places feel so desolate, uninviting, remote.
major american cities have no room for stroads. its the suburban areas that are covered in them
Are you not American? because American cities don't actually have stroads, developing areas have stroads because they serve as a centralized utilitarian center for a dispersed population that can't support a full city. You're not meant to walk around or "Watch the world go by" there. If you're European you probably don't even truly grasp the concept of what I mean by "dispersed," our country is extremely large with populations spread far and wide - on a scale utterly unlike most other countries.
I would say that some stroads are uninviting (like many of the ones in the video), but others are just fine. I grew up with stroads everywhere, and the ones near my house now are actually very beautiful and very inviting. Streets, on the other hand, stress me out when driving because I don't have as much space between myself and other objects/people, plus people who are walking around often aren't following a traffic pattern like cars are required to (though I'll agree that many drivers don't, and they give the rest of us a bad name). I don't typically see stroads in downtown areas--they're more in suburban areas, or in connector areas close to a main highway, at least where I am. They can take heavy traffic loads, which works in my favor, but I'm aware that that doesn't work for everyone.
@@RamikinHorde Fellow American here--very true. My state, in particular, is one of the largest states and we have a lot of suburban sprawl. I actually like that, even though I can see why others prefer mixed use.
Car dependency is so severe in the U.S. that most businesses don't have bicycle racks outside. Even if you wanted to persevere and bike to places, there's nowhere to safely park your bike.
Do what I do. Remove all detachable objects take the front wheel inside with you and lock the back wheel to the frame so it doesn't roll and use the excess to lock it to a nearby street sign.
@@thenthson damn it sucks that it takes 4 steps to make sure nobody will take it
@@Kevintendo and even then some mf gonna try to pick ur lock or cut ur cable
People who bike to my store bring the bike inside to not have it stolen.
...although if you have a car, the chance that gets stolen or damaged in the parking lot is way higher than it should be.
So many parked cars here get totaled randomly, and whoever caused it gets out as fast as they can. So while you have to deal with the costs and not having a car, they get out scott free.
What an absolute shame. As someone who lives in a country where I can leave my house unlocked, my car unlocked, windows down and bike outside, I can’t possibly imagine how horrible that would be.
It’s like stroads are trying to make pedestrians feel ashamed of not having a car.
they can keep their fart boxes
I wouldn't say ashamed more afraid tbh
I wouldn't be surprised if that was intentional
I remember walking from Palo Alto to Menlo Park on a visit to Stanford and I couldn't believe they'd actually planted big trees in the middle of the sidewalk next to the stroad. Ridiculous design.
I think it's okay to have an entirely car-centric society with absolutely no walkability, but I think they should make up their minds, or separate them completely like Las Vegas does.
terrible game idea: City Skylines but you have work with an existing American city with all the bureaucracy and politics that get in the way. You have to fix the city planning by a certain date or loose the game.
More like “impossible game idea” lol
Can't you just kill the lobbyists and pursue your own agenda?
@@GlareanLiebertine you need CIA for this
@@homemaus194 bad plan. The CIA is in on it. Try again.
/j
Actual U.S infrastructure game would be cursed
What bothers me about this is most cities have no plan to fix this, but to further increase the problems by expanding the roads.
It's not a problem. This author is comparing apples and oranges when he makes a simpletons thesis. He does not compare population density or zoning areas. If he did, it would demolish his thesis as he would find the same thing even in teeny tiny countriesin Europe
This explains why it’s so stressful not having a car in America. Walking in areas like this is so depressing and dangerous! I used to walk stroads for miles everyday to get back and forth from work or school. Unfortunately when the whole country is built for car dependence you get reckless drivers, elderly drivers with no business driving, anxious drivers, bad drivers which = more accidents. It honestly sucks because some people just have no business driving.
You should see how it is in Milwaukee it's not even strodes it's just reckless drivers everywhere.
This video is TLDR: Europe's towns & cities designed for walking, Murica & Canada's designed for cars. This is a function of the available space and mindset of each country. Canada and the U.S. were much, much more recently settled, with many areas in rural America/Canada literally not being fully settled until a few decades ago. Amsterdam has about 800 years of city/town planning in place...
@@gasstationpeanuts1814 there's considerably more to it than that? I guess you missed the part where fast roads can be made FASTER by removing driveways? It's just common sense to have express roads and surface streets rather than a hybrid of the two that does both poorly. Nobody likes stop and go traffic, nobody likes cars blowing through their neighborhoods, nobody likes sitting at traffic lights - and people do die as a result of these design choices because we keep doing things the way we've been doing them regardless of the financial cost and cost of life and QUALITY of life. I live in the US in a VERY walkable/bikeable city - it's not actually all that hard or complicated to implement and ends up saving money in pretty short order, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why so many people are adamantly against it or why we keep making the same bad design choices over and over on such a huge scale
A large portion of the North American population lives outside of cities. I have never had a job that was less than a 45 minute drive from my house. If there were roads around cities it would be fine. But the cities grow around the roads, so it is what it is.
Hello Lulu -- I used to live in Japan and it's impressive to see the rail system transporting the elderly, handicapped, blind, retarted, poor, and underaged. It's ironic that the most individualistic mode of transportation (the auto) is the least democratic.
I believe "stroads" are a product of big box stores because they attract lots of cars so roads are widened to handle the increase in traffic. The other problem, big box stores need big parking lots , which increases the distance between stores. This type of development is not conducive to a human walkable scale.
@@bigboat8329 I own a car bigbloat!
And the irony is that the big box stores have become a lot less relevant now that more people shop online.
@@marywatkins9438 yes, and now they contribute to blight.
@@marywatkins9438 its still relevant if u got a brain
I've been to a few Walmarts that still exist in inner city that still existed next to a normal street.. They just need to build up instead of out. I still blame poor zoning and planning. Big box stores just took the easiest way allowed
As a Canadian, this video nearly brings me to tears. Never have I experienced disappointment and envy at the same time and to this degree before. The nice little streets you show at the beginning literally look like vacation destinations to me: they are so calm and welcoming. I can't believe people go do their errands and go to work there. I have been dealing with an extra layer of awful quietly draped over my entire life... It breaks my heart.
dude stop this pointless nihilism, aint gonna change anything with tthat attitude
Well fella, i am sorry, but the US / CAN way is pure capitalist shit build on dept and doesnt even work, we know it. No idea why you dont. There is much more things to it than just roads, combined we just say that america have no culture.
dont feel too despondent ....it could be worse ...-Like Britain type of worse ! .. This place is the cesspit from Hell itself! .......
@@krishnan-resurrection714 Britain has a lot of problems for sure. But in relation to the points raised in the video, Britain isn't so car-centric and the public transport is ok. What do you think is worse about Britain?
@@ceddynash5610 Im not refferring to rural south england ..im sure there is great cycling infastructure in places ....try North east england ..there are notorious stretches of "cycle lane" that suddenly disappear ...you find yourself on a very busy motorway cross section with traffic crossing lanes to turn left ...-talk about up the creek with no paddle ...its known as "crossing the rubicon" or russian roulette .. a total piss-take ..half-hearted cycle infastructure which is more dangerous than sharing the road lanes .. cyclists are hated for their very existence up here ... the politicians probably started up on a scheme then decided to pocket the rest of the money ....you know how it goes ..
What sucks is being a NYC gal and when I'm in Westchester or long island people assume you are poor or a vagrant because you are walking. I love to walk (I have a driver's license but it's too expensive to have a car in NYC), it's great exercise and you get to explore. Unfortunately people think I'm a skell, in trouble with the law (DUI) or poor. Stroads are dehumanizing
I spent a month in Europe studying abroad in college and came back absolutely disgusted with what the US has done with its infrastructure. We visited Amsterdam too! These videos are amazing, and I thoroughly appreciate them!!!
yep, bicycle tourist here in U.S.. Wife and I biked along the Rhine from Switzerland to Netherlands along the river path. I stopped bicycle touring here, too dangerous, drivers too aggressive.
The infrastructure is 30 years at least beyond it's useful life.
Because the US has more blacks than Europe does.
@@goodgoyim1335 But thanks to the USA in the middle east, we will get lots of those from there. Thanks USA!
Yeah Europe does suck
I've visited the US and Canada several times, and you've pinpointed very accurately why travelling through populated areas in those countries felt like such a soulless experience, even as a wide-eyed tourist wanting to experience another country. Everything seems to be actively geared to NOT being able to get around without a car, and, as someone who doesn't drive myself, this felt very restrictive and exclusionary to me - much more so than I've ever felt back at home in the UK. I can't imagine how I'd even function on a daily basis as a non-driver if I lived in the US; even the simple things I take for granted here, like being able to walk into the town centre to do my shopping, go to the gym, eat in a restaurant, socialise... I guess that would be near enough impossible in the US.
Driving is a part of life here in the United States. I personally do not mind this, but if someone doesn't know how do drive I can see why that would suck.
If you want to avoid that soulless, modern suburban infrastructure, it has to be coastal beach city/town (your best bet), a decently developed rural town or historic city, or a very heavy urban city like NYC or chicago. But each of them come with problems of their own.
You really can't not drive here. I don't know how people do anything if they don't drive unless you live in New York or Chicago. Maybe San Francisco.
You wouldn't be a non-driver if you lived in the United States. Majority of people get their license. Public transit is terrible and you won't be able to have a functioning job without a car.
And they make it easy to get your license because they know that our lives are dependent on our ability to drive.
Mhm, you either specifically find a place with enough stores within walking distance, or you buy a car. The only other option is living with people who own a car. If you feel uncomfortable driving then its generally accepted you should just toughen up and do it.
I never knew there was a name for this awful design. I never even really thought about it. I just accepted that my morning commute was going to be terrible due to no good transit system in my city and awful drivers. I never thought about it being poor urban planning too.
Awful drivers are still a thing....don't let those detestable characters get off the hook by blaming poor planning for terrible behavior. The same folks who suck at everything else usually suck behind the wheel....
@@DSGNflorian Americans despite their plea are not special. The drivers there are about as good and bad as everywhere else. The difference between nations is the infrastructure much more than the people.
*If it doesn't have a name, it doesn't exist.* *_Until it is given a proper name, people ignore it, because they have no term to refer to it by._* If you want a problem to be taken seriously, find a good name for it, ideally one which doesn't require explaining. *For example:* "right to repair", "hostile architecture", "anti-consumer behaviour", "planned obsolence" (but I'd call it something else, to reflect the damage it does to the economy and the consumers), "walkable neighbourhoods/towns/cities", "car-dependent neighbourhoods/towns/cities", "updraft tower/chimney/pipe/tunnel", etc.
That's why it's been allowed to manifest. I know at some point I've complained about having 30 km/h streets, but this video helps make us question this failed model of development.
I wonder why the "stroad" was such a seemingly natural evolution of American transportation. Ive never been able to accept the sprawling, desert-like, and frankly hostile stroad as the superior layout, but its hard to imagine an alternative. Even walking from one store to another is an absolute ordeal, and most will opt to pull out of store one, wait to get into traffic, zoom out and immediatly brake, to slowly ease into the next lot that was hundreds of feet away. Its a thoroughly depressing layout too, with the space being so blatantly unused that the only indication of habitation by humans is the presence of cars. Rarely you can catch a handful of people in the transit from car to shoppe. Hopefully the culture of retail space foreclosure forces more efficient use of the space.
Suburbs. People don’t want to go to the often trashy and dangerous downtowns or urban areas. As shopping centers are built for suburban residents, “stroads” are necessary. No one is going to haul three weeks of groceries for a whole family on foot. If you don’t like the scenery, move somewhere else.
I don’t know why we even have sidewalks. People on foot don’t seem to know how to use them anyway.
@@0scJohnson0 horrible take. I'll take the Roundabout happy streets of Carmel, IN over the Stroads of Terre Haute any day.
@@0scJohnson0 modern day suburbs are typically a net loss for most American cities, so thankfully this sort of infrastructure should be removed within our lifetimes
@@0scJohnson0 American suburbs exist because of school de-segregation and the block-busting of white urban neighborhoods in the 50s. White people didn't want to create suburbia, they did it to flee crime, crashing property values, and unsafe schools for their kids.
In my experience, the engineering community would love to provide "the best solution" and leave out "for the budget available." Unfortunately, capital projects undergo "value engineering."
After being raised in London I remember a family trip to the US in the late 80s. We stayed overnight in a stroad-side motel in Tucson (don't ask) and in the morning wanted to head over a few blocks to a diner for breakfast. We decided to walk. We quickly discovered the lack of sidewalk, and just trudged along the grass verge. A state patrol car pulled up and asked us what we were doing. "Walking to the diner". He strongly suggested not to, and asked us to go back and get our car for our own safety and convenience. I still remember how bizarre this seemed to me. Sure - London has some soul-crushing trading estate areas with stroads aplenty, but not on this scale, and they always have a sidewalk.
I found London to be pedestrian-friendly. I could walk to the college from my hostel (6-7km) without any fuss.
America is cripplingly dependent upon foreign oil to the point that they built their entire country to reflect that fact. The obsession with cars as the focal point of cities is the reason so many of them are decaying in urban sprawl (Detroit, for example)
I’m a Londoner too, and was visiting a friend in the US one time. We’d driven somewhere and decided to stop at a restaurant for food; we parked up, checked the menu, didn’t like what we saw, and decided to go to the restaurant immediately across the stroad instead. That’s where our paths diverged: I instinctively started walking towards the other restaurant, she instinctively started walking towards her car, and for good reason in fact - the restaurant may have been only 30m away and immediately across the road, but it would have been a nightmare to cross on foot. We literally crossed the road in a car - only time in my life I’ve ever done so.
@@architaanand3136, This is true for central London and inner London due to the fact that there the streets were built prior to suburbanisation and the rise of the car but as you head further out into greater London strouds and retail parks become much more a thing. Plus, there are several A roads (quasi motorways) that cut through the city rather than around it so traffic can access central London. There aren't too many of these and it isn't really a huge issue unless you happen to live near them.
While there is Stroads in the UK there is a few major differences than North American ones.
•Paths on UK stroads are often wide enough to allow it to be used by cyclists
• The speed limit will often only be 30/40 MPH instead of the national speed limit
• Traffic lights are only used at pedestrian crossings, with the vast majority of junctions being roundabouts which are much better at both being safe and allow a constant flow of traffic.
• Instead lots of individual stores using their own junction, UK retail parks share a car park that serves the whole unit which means a single roundabout can serve several shops, gyms, cinemas, and restaurants.
As a disabled pedestrian who regularly uses a wheelchair, the pain of stroads is real. Some places I just cannot go-and the apathy of drivers who nearly kill me sucks
That sucks :(
We need to demand change!!
I'm sorry to hear what you've been through. You should seriously consider moving in better city or even abroad, as cases of people getting killed because of stroads are not rare. I live in Paris, and public transport here are so common I don't even need a car, I can go shop nearby on foot and go take the train or the bus the for long trips. I heard Germany, Spain and Italy are Great too. Netherlands are very bike focused but is also a good choice. Take care of yourself.
@@damienlemongolien5303 not to be rude but at least in my experience some of my disabled family and friends hardly have enough money to even consider the idea of buying a car that their wheelchair could be put into, much less trying to move.
It is not an environment for people, much less those with accessibility considerations. I'm sorry you have to deal with our city planning. I'd like to move to other more-walkable countries, but as a U.S. citizen my stay would be limited to 90 days or what-have-you. I wish I could escape this city layout ...
@@a1c3c3u Interesting solution
"Places you need to go, but places you don't want to go"
Holy shit...that is so accurate. The Midwest is absolutely plagued by stroads and exactly as you described.
Oh yes. St. Louis suburbs first comes to mind. Anywhere in Kansas too…
this is the problem with chain stores big parking lots, witch don't help the mom&pop stores anymore.
Yes but the opposite can be said about Europe (and I live here) that you are surrounded by all this crap which you do not use which you need to navigate to get to where you are going. "Streets" look nice in pictures or as tourist destinations but entirely impractical when just want to go to the store. Why I always end up going to out of town big box stores where I can actually park avoiding claustrophibic town centres as much as possible unless it is for things like nightlife or restaurants.
Don't even get me started on the hell that is Duluth, Minnesota. I absolutely hate how ugly bridge highway systems look. They're a bandaid fix for a larger problem.
@@TomDingleby
If you are buying something big, like a TV or washing machine sure, but how often do you need to do that? For everything else a bike ride or walk to the next store is easier, quicker and cheaper than driving by car.
Finally i understand why so many areas in north america look so unappealing to me!
Also some of the aerial shots you showed really put into perspective how gigantic US parking lots are! The whole thing just feels like asphalt hell :'D
Worst part is, despite their monstrous size, those parking lots fill up regularly. A million parking spots and nowhere to park.
@@alxjones yep!! With all that free parking I still find myself paying to park somewhere.
Basically one of the reasons i hate florida
Yeah...me thinks you already didn't like NA to begin with...no prob dude.
It's much better in North Korea, wide roads and few cars. It's a wonderful life.
I'm finally beginning to understand why so many areas give me the willies... I thought it was "traffic" I hated, but it seems more like I hate stroads because of their horrible hybridization of streets and roads. I just couldn't quantify it before.
I hate fucking hate streets more than stroads. It's so stressing. Ugly streets with trash everywhere. And where people don't give a fuck how they cross the street. I guess everyone hates something.
same here. Now that I think about it i've always had a funny feeling around stroads. I just now realized that the sheer loneliness of stroads is what irks me. They are everywhere but when you look around you only see more metal and concrete. There are no people in sight outside of a building or vehicle
Is this everyday life in US? No people outside? I'm guessing this video is cherry picked. I'm not from the US obviously, so I'm curious.
@@bassyey For the most part yes, the only places I see completely absent of stroads are too rural to have ever needed them. Now that I think of it, nearly every run down town I've been to have had lots of stroads, especially on the outskirts
@@bassyey yep. On these roads the only people walking around around are those too poor to afford a car
Finally ohio is starting to adopt these roads. My small town just approved a 1.5m$ plan to totally re do the roads, removing one lane from each side to add sidewalks and a proper bike lane for the small businesses. The construction is annoying but after 6 months is actually starting to shape up and I love how they're doing it
lets hope more states adopt this
that sounds great, i wish my city in canada would attempt to do the same...
What town in Ohio is this? I'm in Ohio and it'd be cool to check out
oh it would be wonderful if they did this for Virginia,
What town in Ohio is that? I would love to know.
Jeez, every time I mention just how ugly the streets are people think I'm pompous/opinionated. I'm telling you, they are objectively ugly. Once you've seen how truly ugly it is, you cant unsee it.
Yep. Miles of nothing but wires, cars, asphalt, and signs.
Maybe they have never seen a beautiful street.
i hate driving, especially since my city’s traffic is garbage and dumb, but i just wanted to get on a bike to go see my friends. it’s too dangerous: bad drivers, no bike lanes. not to mention the high crime rate.
streets are ugly, and i just wanted trees.
I have always seen it but it has its own type of perverse beauty to it.
Yes! I have always despised stroads. I'm glad to have a new word to describe it. And as the video pointed out, it's an ugly word for an ugly thing.
I grew up in the UK with roads and highways, I now live in America and have lived in a few big cities. You hit the nail on the head with the issues in major cities, the social impacts are also interesting. When I first moved to US I was without a car in Las Vegas and you feel like a prisoner on your block, going to a store across the stroad you would have to walk a mile down, cross then walk a mile back up.
I just wanna say thanks, I play alot of Cities Skylines and kept getting traffic jams and couldn't figure out why. I provided buses, metro, monorail, raised bike lane, and even blimp travel and was still having issues. This video helped put it into perspective, the stroads were making things difficult. Now, traffic is great so thank you
your people are catching the commuter blimp to go to work? wild
@@jessicest Try helicopters.
Lol whaaaat? This video helped you with a game?! Were you actually able to make the city more efficient with Netherland style infrastructure?
@@firebolt100 I suggest looking up Cities Skylines. It focuses on city building, construction and management simulation.
Traffic in Cities Skylines is pretty negligible when you're starting out your town. But once it becomes a bustling city, traffic hampers everything.
blimey, a video about city design helps in city skylines
It was all fun and games until I saw my actual town, an actual "stroad" that I haven driven down hundreds of times, and an exact spot that I know the exact location of. Video kinda hit different after that.
I live in the US, and I feel like such an outsider when I’m the only one walking to the store to buy groceries. Some of my stroads have this stupid thing where the sidewalk at a block ends, then continues again the following block, like wtf?! I think I would love to live in Europe because it fits with my lifestyle.
Hi! Your comment brings up an interesting point, maybe: walking for a grocery run is fairly uncommon behavior for us in the US, and maybe on some level, one subconscious part of the stroad phenomenon is an assumption that people won't be exercising much by walking, or will be buying groceries for whole families at a time rather than just one person.
As a practical matter, singles are more likely to walk for groceries than married folks would simply because the groceries have to be carried on the return trip, so a pedestrian can't buy two weeks' worth of food on one trip, for example (unless he lives on bouillon or something :) ).
It seems clear that this was probably not a major consideration for the stroad designers, but it might be a minor explanatory factor regarding why stroads are changed or eliminated only slowly, if at all, later on.
The mechanics of grocery shopping would probably be an interesting topic in general, since we all probably shop for those more often than any other category of goods except maybe fuel.
@@pgsells Of course you wouldn't walk to buy 2 weeks of groceries in one trip. But, when living in a European city that is walkable, you wouldn't have to! A grocery store would often be a short walk away from your house, or you would buy food for dinner on your way home from work and take a tram or bus. Growing up my father would often go to the corner store or bakery to buy things for breakfast while he was walking the dog. Now living in the US because for a lot of people going to the store is such a hassle with driving and parking and also the store is huge not just a small shop, you spend a lot of time and energy on one trip so you would rather limit the number of trips you have to do and load up your car. It's a whole different way of life.
Sometimes I feel that having many smaller stores selling just like the fewer large stores would be better, just like what a small town has. I grew up in a town which grew 10× its size, and smaller familiar stores I could always jog to centrally started moving to farther edges as large ones, closer to the highway etc. I don't understand it, less accessible unless you drive. Making fewer, larger clusters of amenities defeats the purpose of the sidewalks, paths, and the reason people moved there prior. Why not build a city like it's a group of small towns, on purpose instead of by accident, and then connect them by roads and walk-bridges?
You are Welcome to move here. We're waiting for you.
It fits with everyone's lifestyle. Even the yokels and antisocials would feel at home in villages.
As an American who’s never traveled outside of North America who *also* happens to be midwestern, stroad cities are quite literally the only kind of cities I’m familiar with and it’s literally awful, man. I never really got very good at learning how to ride a bike either because I have never had a reason to bike anywhere with how my city isn’t cyclist friendly in the slightest. Every time I see how European cities are built I just can’t help but have the urge to move there someday lol, oh to live in a nice European town where I can walk everywhere and not be afraid of getting hit by a car or sweat like a pig because I just walked for an hour and a half through parking lots in the middle of summer to just go downtown to window shop
Same here. It makes me want to move to Copenhagen or something
homeboy never learned how to ride a bike lol
@@FoxyDrew go fail at being a streamer somewhere else LOL
@@Ts_Sunshine 💀
You are still under the American mythology that you could just move to Europe if you wanted to. Well, if you are a billionaire, that's true. Otherwise, you will not be given residency status.
I've been walking my youngest daughter home from school and we've been talking about how dangerous and uninviting the bridge is to walk across and even my 9 year old said whoever designed it should walk across it to see how crappy it is. She also said just hearing the loud cars over and over again made her mad and I agreed. There's only so much stress a human can take and I can see why nobody wants to walk or ride bikes anymore. Just watching footage from non American traffic relieves my angsty tension.
I recall when I was in middle school, between 11-14 years old.
My dad, from a different time and often assumed by strangers to be my grandpa, asked me why I didn't bike around town.
He understood my reply. "I don't want to die."
Im from the Netherlands. When i was between 5 and 6 years old. I walked all the way to kindergarten on my own without parents. Every day. I had to walk like 1 kilometer or so, trough all kinds of streets. 5 different streets. Max speed of places where you needed to cross the roads as a small kid was 30km/u for cars. And we had a special tunnel under de "road" where cars drive 50km/u that went to other parts of streets with houses. Specially made for that kindergarten so kids could walk to school safely.
The "roads" you were talking about - my brain always kind of just called them highways, and the "streets" to me were just bustling areas. I always thought these 2 were special things you only occasionally see rather than the supposed norm. Crazy how desensitized you can become because of how terrible the road systems are
Yeah, highway or freeway.
Highways are a specific kind of 'road', but not all non-streets are highways, of course
@@TurboSpeedWiFi as Strong Towns describes it the futon of infrastructure.
@@kourii In the city where I live. Every road looks like a highway. Some roads will be expanded from 8 to 10 lanes. There are no designated bike lanes. Many cars are driving over the speed limit.
If anything, a stroad is a highway with simply poorly separated sidewalks/bikelanes, or maybe a road with too many lanes and too high a speed limit, and also, poorly separated sidewalks/bikelanes.
It really saddens me to realize that basically everything in my country that we take for granted was probably something someone intentionally designed poorly (or lobbied to have it designed poorly) to create a big fat market and make a quick buck with complete disregard for any actual human beings having to live with it.
True. Automotive though is very likely a soon to be failing industry in many countries and hopefully the toxic lobbyism from it will also be reduced and more modern cities and communities can be build. If it can be lobbied for, it can also be lobbied against. A bit sad though, that a few industries basically mess up a whole lot of businesses and politicians are unwilling to see it.
The US became a car culture society when the oil companies started having a say in American politics. Before the auto industry, it was the railroads and those companies ran shit, and before that, the shipping industry. Point I'm making is in this country, it's always about money first.
When one can take a bigger piece of the pie by decreasing the size of the whole pie, they will.
Not exactly. There is some truth to that in already developed cities, where local politics and interests can really fuck up urban planning. But most of these stroads evolved out of a road serving as a thoroughfare. Then, individuals start patchwork development, so turns lanes, traffic control, parking lots, driveways, etc get added over time, with incremental changes that specifically serve the people in the area. Because there are no walkers, no walking infrastructure is built, and therefore there are no walkers. Then new developments must serve the people who actually live there, who live 5 or 10 miles away, resulting in new areas needing to be stroads to actually get anybody there.
Stroads happen because, initially, there is no real design going into a large among of people living there (because nobody lives there). At some point, though, we transition to being dense enough, but city level anti car policy is shut down in local elections.
The other problem is that when a city is more walkable in the US, the living costs are usually much more expensive. Urban car sprawl allows people to live far enough from prime real estate to get a decent sized home, but close enough by car to visit more interesting areas.
Hard problem to solve tbh.
Completely the opposite. It is because small towns expanded rapidly with poor planning, zoning, and little effort to go through the trouble of fixing it.
Like most things in the world that are terrible, it isn't a conspiracy, it's incompetence.
It’s honestly really upsetting how common stroads are, I literally got hit by a car on a stroad walking home FROM SCHOOL!!! It’s baffling that we have stroads so close to schools
Yep. After living abroad for years, I returned to Canada, and was up in the suburbs. I simply walked from my workplace up to a shopping centre, yet almost got hit by a car because it was a stroad and the people up their are so clueless to pedestrians. The whole concept of people walking across the road is foreign to them. I was simply crossing the road with a fully green "go" sign for pedestrians, and some idiot whips around the corner without a thought that a person might actually be there.
how about you assume that no one is paying attention and pay attention yourself when you are in a position to be hit?
@@johnhunter7244 How about you keep idiotic comments to yourself when you don't know why or how I got hit by a car. FYI I was hit in a pedestrian lane and legal papers say no, it was not my fault.
@@alukuhito Thats exactly what happened to me! Worst part is that i even checked to make sure they weren't turning and guess what they weren't but when i walked a few steps on the road they decided to turn without checking for a pedestrian and BOOM! Rolled over the car and had my face land on the asphalt.
@@scruffyjams2910 how about I never said it was your fault but that doesn't mean you couldn't have prevented it. Also in America at least we would have to change the whole housing and building structure in order to get rid of stroads. They will always exist in suburban areas.
1:51 dutch streets are so walkable that even birds prefer to walk.
Haha you don't even know how often I got a pigeon between my spokes
I remember seeing a pigeon taking public transport in Paris !
@@nomoreprivacyanymore was the pigeon reading like a pigeon sized newspaper while on the subway.
@@nomoreprivacyanymore we do but they have to read human sized newspaper 😭😭😭
Ahahhahah
As a Japanese I'd like to point out that the real Japanese "Futon" is something that you would hide away in a closet or the sort during the day. Not some strange sofa-bed with an exotic name for marketing. I didn't even know that the "Futon" you mentioned existed in the US/Canada... XD
Yes! The real Japanese futon is very very comfortable and convenient
I think we call those murphy beds in america
@@matthursh3414 That's quite different, in that the Murphy bed is a full mattress that's hidden away in some purpose-built compartment or something when not in use. You can literally roll up a Japanese futon and put it in the closet, since it's pretty much a quilted sleeping pad meant for use on the floor.
I was thinking about getting a japanese futon (with tatami underneath) instead of a bed for my university room. Is it comfortable enough for everyday use?
@@simonedebeauvoir8552 Personally, I'd pick a mattress for convenience. But if you get a quality futon and routinely maintain it, they're good if a bit firm.
Shekibuton mattresses "need to be routinely aired out, flipped over and rotated. We recommend placing a coconut coir pad or Tatami mat underneath the mattress while in use, not directly on the floor, to create ideal airflow and prevent mildew and mold."
Since it'd be a primary bed, definitely consider other things like a duvet/quilt cover and even a dryer if you can't hang it in daylight.
Another problem for stroads comes up in places where it snows a lot. Many of the sidewalks become impassable. There is no barrier or space between the curb and the sidewalk, so the sidewalk gets buried under snow plowed from two whole lanes. These sidewalks frequently don't get cleared either, because the plowed snow is hard and dense, and many stretches of sidewalk don't have a good place to put the snow.
Probably the most egregious case in my area is a narrow sidewalk with a busy stroad on one side and a large retaining wall on the other.
@@angelaburress8586 There's not nearly enough room in the gutters for all that snow.
I had to deal with this a couple winters ago in a west coast city after a heavy snowfall. Walking along a 5-lane stroad, with sidewalks and large retaining walls on either side boxing it in for nearly half a mile. For a pedestrian, the only option was *UP*. I was literally forced into walking up on top of uneven banks of plowed snow, my footlevel higher than the roofs of most cars only a few feet to the side of me. Talk about dangerous!
I think it Helps here in Canada, at least where I live. gets to -40 with over a foot of snow for 3/4 of the year. dont really see anyone walking or biking for 9months. Also saves time/money not having to be cleaning sidewalks and bikelanes just for nobody to use them. Also extreme weather Erodes the road. would cost more to repair the road and the sidewalks and the bikelane if it wasn't for the stroad. Not saying all roads should be stroads, but they aren't as bad as they make them seem
@@angelaburress8586 Not all American streets, and even less of their strodes. Believe me, I live near some and I don't drive. Walking in winter can be near impossible.
In my area (chicago suburbs) people just walk on the stroad (like kids walking to school) when sidewalks aren’t plowed. It scares me that a single distracted driver can end the life of thease people.
My city turned most of our stroads into roads and then constructed bus routes to each major street/road. They also expanded the existing sidewalks system to allow bike and pedestrian traffic and then built a giant bike ring around the entire city with more bike paths into the center or external of the city by following the existing ditch/drainage systems. It’s still faster to drive, but at least it’s possible to go anywhere near completely separate from vehicles on your bike.
This explains so much about why I find life in Canadian suburban cities so miserable, even when I try to live the way I did in Hamburg, trying to walk to do things instead of driving.
You'd just have to move into the downtown core of the city to get a similar feeling.
@@OutLivex even the downtowns in Canada/US aren't the same. One thing Europe does well is medium density cities (obviously for historical reasons). It shouldn't be a choice of living in a noisy high-rise business district or low density suburbia. And the downtowns in Canada/US are still heavily car centric. Most European cities don't have high skylines. They're still human scale buildings.
@@shaungordon9737 Yes, it seems that, unless you live in a major city's downtown area, or in a small town with a preserved central area, you are pretty much doomed to a car.
@@shaungordon9737 come to Montréal, we’ve done a few areas right...but we have highways everywhere and badly designed ones to boot. It’s a bizarre mishmash but pleasant in some areas.
@@shaungordon9737 hence "similar". The thing is, we will never be the same as Euro or Asian city infrastructure. North America mindset of bigger is better will never change. That's why suburbs are so popular.
that bird at 1:50 almost ended itself but then remembered its children at home
Someone should talk to that bird 😔
@@fatufatu I talked to the bird. Turns out there was a candy wrapper between the rails that looked like potential food. The bird was just trying if it could get to it before the train but turned away when it couldn't - it also has no children but is thinking of starting a family this summer. The bird is fine.
lmao
Pigeons forge for food like nonchalant daredevils in the most dangerous situations.
💀
It's so annoying living in the United States when you don't like to drive and nothing is designed with the intent of walking through town. "Oh, you need to get something from the grocery store? It's a 30 minute walk, half the stroads don't have sidewalks, and the bike line is on a 40mph road".
And then you get mocked and insulted for not wanting to drive.
This country is toxic as hell
Yeah, I've done a lot of walking along American stroads in my life. That's how I got interested in all of this in the first place.
ya even american liberals are perplexed when you don't want to drive somewhere, I think that attitude is even more common on the west coast where public transit was hamstrung so a lot of people have never used public transit, nevermind come to rely on it.
Indeed, it's not appetizing to walk on stroads. Even though there is a sidewalk, I feel unsafe walking on them. I feel so small and vulnerable. I'm also not riding my bike on a strode either.
wut?
Have you never heard of New York City?
(not that anyone can afford to live there, but it does exist ... I think)
They are built with the purpose of discouraging pedestrian traffic, making it inconvenient for the homeless to loiter and creating opportunities for accidents. Cities and suburban areas love them for this. And it's nearly impossible to fight the development of these.
I live in Southern California and basically every road is a stroad. Visiting Tokyo made me realize how much better walkable places are. Definitely felt a lot more connected to the people around me despite not speaking the same language.
I am also from Southern California. It really is nuts how many otherwise beautiful areas are completely inhospitable because of the stroads everywhere.
Yeah well california is a dilapidated failed state. You experienced what being in an actually developed country is like, not a third world country masquerading around as a fake merely because it tell's you it is and you're delusional enough to believe it.
@@KandiKlover bro our roads are just shit calm down
I guess thats one more reason why there are so many weebs among Americans than among Europeans? When they see cities and roads built the right way they more often see Japanese examples than European, which are usually better than Japanese, but Japanese are still a lot better than American. Plus maybe because Japanese cities look more American because after WW2 Japanese were relying on the American experience in dealing with automobilization and in architecture, infrastructure and on American money to build it ;)
I love Tokyo too. Besides that the city was planned far before cars existed, and because its layout was to force citizens to become a defensive labyrinth to be sacrificed for the emperor in case of attack (Edo mimicked typical castle design), it is mainly because Japan is one of the most culturally homogenous and xenophobic places in the world, so their sense of order and decision making is pronounced over cities that welcome cultural diversity, where people's different priorities and lifestyles from all around the world must be compromised and taken into account. So its all relative. Not many cities have great layouts and speedy civic planning that also welcome true cultural diversity. This is not a political or intellectual issue btw, its simply logic - how do you honor the lifestyles of many of the world's cultures in a single zone while planning the way we each want to live? This is the crux of the Millennial civic utopia - how do you be inclusive to all cultures knowing they will think and behave different from you? Forcing them to conform will rob them of their culture, which manifests as guilt, and so forth.
"A stroad is the futon of transportation." My guy, that was genius.
Yes! I typed this statement also, it was so good I wanted to fix it in my memory.
Chuck Marohn, the founder of Strong Towns is the one who first thought of it.
It was this joke that earned the like for me 😂😂
I thought futons were good tho
@@diitrii a high quality futon is actually awesome. I got one when I moved across the country and almost didn’t want to go back to sleeping in a bed!
I'm almost 40 and I hope to see a return to human-scale development in the US sometime within my lifetime.
@@ZRodTW I think this has to do more with building infrastructure people actually need
i would love to see an actual plan of whatever implemented in my country, even if its stroads, not just build it cuz you greased the right elbows
US is a falling empire and once the dollar collapses then it's all going to get worse from there.
I’m 70 and I know I won’t see it in my lifetime. But I do hope you and my own kids will see it happen. My worry is because the car has come to so completely dominate the American landscape there won’t be anyone who can imagine anything else. In most of the suburbs I’ve lived or worked in you are suspect if you walk. We really do live to support the machines.
You mean like American software development and the coronavirus vaccine?
"the stroad is the futon of transportation." Lmao nailed it
"Like an outdoor room".
This is why 'cute and charming' places are exactly that. Everything is smaller and friendlier, more approachable. Vs the gigantic BEST BUY sign you see all over America.
Even Best Buy is going out of business nowadays. All that’s left are Walmarts and Costcos.
@@adammiller8133 Capitalism monopolizes. It's the same problem here, for example of our supermarkets basically/bulk only Albert Heijn and Jumbo are left, multinationals owned by the rich. But the little shops remain to a degree as we shop where we live, but capitalism puts pressures on the same things. If only companies wouldn't put profit before literally everything else, but for that you'd need worker co-ops, democratic corporations. In the US capitalism has run uncontrolled/opposed by socialism for too long obviously, or rather, socialism was demonized. No healthy political climate, just the rich, democrat and republican, keeping themselves in office.
@@KleineJoop for companies to put values over profits, consumers must put values before cost. I do believe that the younger generations “get it” but it’s going to be a long, hard trek with constant pressure to reverse.
Just an example: my local gun store is a great place - single owner operator who really takes care of his clients. He doesn’t have much in stock and will gladly order in whatever you want. Because he does less volume, he pays more to distributors which means I pay more at the counter. Me supporting this guy means literally paying for it in both money and time verse heading over to Cabelas or Bass Pro. Values have to reign supreme on both sides.
@@KleineJoop Why would I want to give the government more responsibility over my life when I know it is corrupt, incompetent, and inefficient? Why do we need to give welfare to businesses that are inefficient?
@@SpencerLemay How can you in one breath chastise a corrupt government and simultaneously regurgitate the party line? Maybe Ma and Pa could afford to run their shop if Walmart wasn't sucking off the president in order to undercut them.
I live in Denver, CO and found a job only 2 miles from home, so in trying to live a healthier life style I decided to bike to work as much as possible. The problem is that the last half mile of my commute is on a "stroad", and even when I opted out on using the bike lane to use the side walk instead (because cars drive 50 mph), the amount of times I've almost been hit from vehicles shooting out of side streets was just too much. What wasn't mentioned in the video is the trash and debris generated from "stroads". This is what ultimately led me to stop biking as I hit some metal debris, blew a tire, and did a superman over my handlebars. I'm back to driving to work :(
Id imagine having to take a car to go just two miles doesn't help any.
@@blakksheep736 yeah its all just a nice little loop like that
I live in Denver too. Shit sucks. Light rail is super inefficient and clunky if you don't live right next to a stop.
You drive two miles? You could ride your bike the first 1-1/2 miles and walk it through the dangerous 1/2 mile at the end of the trip. Even if you walked the entire trip, that's about 45 minutes of exercise each way instead of sitting on your behind, burning gasoline. The price of fuel these days should be incentive enough.
need to tax bicycles and license them appropriately to pay for extra bike infrastructure.
The existential horror from seeing the unending sea of asphalt that are monstrous parking lots. *The Horror!*
Especially with a performance clutch... I've had times where I've had to pull over (if even possible) to rest my left leg.
These videos are certainly eye-opening. I live in the Colorado mountains and now I realize why I don't think I will ever move to live somewhere else. It's super expensive here and it's gotten a little crowded, but what keeps me here (besides the magnificence of the mountains) is the fact that most of Colorado's mountain towns are very bike-able and walkable. There are bike paths everywhere out here! You can bike almost anywhere in the spring, summer, and autumn. And the town of Vail is designed just like a European city. When we do need to drive, especially in winter, we have roundabouts and a very minimal amount of stoplights, which have really improved traffic flow out here.
As a stark contrast, I visited Oklahoma over the summer (where my grandmother lives), which is one of the most car-dependent states in the US. I knew something was wrong with that place but didn't fully know it until discovering your videos. Oklahoma's towns and cities consist of as many stroads, stop-lights, and stop signs as possible. These kinds of places do feel very desolate and depressing. It makes sense why loneliness and depression are such big problems in the US. Suburban city design actually isolates people. It seems like that's its main purpose. I think it's part of the reason why the US is so divided and atomized these days.
I'm from Iraq and it's so car-centerd here and I've always thought this is what it is and it's always been that way and we should accept it.. Man I was wrong and I'm into this infrastructure designing mindset.
Keep it going 👍🏻
عبالي بس اني
Same here in Macedonia
@@blagoevski336 mecodonian muta hehe
@@konodioda1268 Real
As a Houstonian, I'd like to thank you for reminding me why every trip (regardless of mode of transportation) feels like torture
As a fellow Houstonian, I second your message and hope Houston can rethink the ever-worsening expansion of sprawl, traffic, highways, and suburbs
@@josephchandler8418 I fear that the one thing that will suffocate the call for decreased urban sprawl is the unwillingness to live smaller. As discussed in a previous video, the Dutch set-up is made possible by smaller housing (we call them, literally translated: rowhouses or two-under-one-roof), mixed with appartement complexes. I doubt many would be willing to scratch their macvilla for an inner-city house with perhaps a small garden.
As another fellow Houstonian, I left Houston and don't miss feeling like I live out of my car and being depressed by the lack of life that place has.
@@gerbrandlub Small housing is definitely not a necessary component. In fact, most American residential streets function precisely as streets, exclusively for local traffic. Sure the physical design is too speed-friendly and there are too few pedestrian/bicycle shortcuts but the general principle is already in use. The main difference is that this type of thinking also needs to be applied to commercial areas rather than scattering them alongside arterial roads.
Many years ago I worked for a few weeks on a project in Houston at M.D.Anderson hospital. I was staying at a motel/hotel not far from Astroworld. (Remember that?) So I decided to walk there and check it out. There was no way for a pedestrian to enter.
The most annoying thing about stroads in my eyes is that they are often times parts of major roads or highways that force lots of non-local traffic to flow directly through cities and towns. This introduces huge amounts of through traffic that really has no business on the stroad, causing huge amounts of unnecessary congestion for both local and non-local traffic. Additionally, through traffic is generally very unwilling to slow down to city speeds and will go out of their way to make it through traffic and signals as quickly as possible, which is clearly not a safe thing to do. I for one hate that if I need to go on, say, a 4 hour long drive from one town to another it often involves slowing to city speeds, going through a multitude of traffic signals, and dealing with congestion in areas that I have absolutely no intention of stopping in after what seems like every 10 minutes of highway driving. Of course rather than fixing our ridiculous road system we have a police force that often times seems to be waiting to punish and profit from our unwillingness to waste our time moving absolutely nowhere. It's truly an awful system.
...here in Portland OR there are busy thoroughfares with only one lane of traffic in each way. One of these cuts through a residential neighbourhood and another through a mixed residential and small business district before turning into a multi lane stroads in the outer east suburbs.
Many streets in Bangkok have turned to be stroads. Roads have turned to be more like motorways.
In Germany we have built "Umgehungsstraßen" for most of the town, at least the ones with heavy traffic. It's simply a small highway or road that redirects non-local traffic around the town. Less noise pollution, less traffic jam. This is a thing in all European countries I visited so far. You don't have it everywhere, but such roads are still build where heavy traffic is going through towns. Larger towns usually have a highway ring all around just to keep non-local traffic flowing around the cities. It's just more efficient.
@@AndreasZeitzFehse we are waiting for that for 50 years. If you ever visited Omiš or Makaraka in Croatia you know what I am talking about!
@@SarsTheSecond It's still work in progress here. Next to where I life there is a small village on a connection road from two highways, one is the A3, a mayor one. They are trying to get a highway tunnel to connect these two highways for decades. They have plenty of cars and trucks on their two lane main road everyday.
I like your documentary style. Reminds me of documentaries of the 80s and 90s. Calm, factual, informative and above all without any shitty annoying music in the background.
This hits home since my city has some of the strodiest of strodes, I even wondered if the thumbnail was taken in my city. My old school was legitimately less than half a mile from my house, yet I could never get to there except by car. I don't know the solution to this, but please for the love of God plan cities better.
Pathetic. My school was half a mile away and i had zero issues getting there by foot
For me it was a 4-5 minute drive and a 2 and a half hour walk
@@gbyt034 try crossing a 4 lane road with cars going well over the speed limit
@@gbyt034 this response is somehow very obnoxious given the context of the video lmao
@@gbyt034 Are you sure that's a stroad you're crossing?
I always laugh to myself when I hear someone say they want to move to “insert city here.” I played in a touring band for over a decade and one thing I learned is that almost every city in the US is exactly the same. Big roads, big parking lots.
just price is the only difference, it's so terrible
noisy and polluted
Best comment on YT
Cookie-cutter strip malls as far as the eye can see...depressing stuff to be sure.
What about nyc? Isnt it more euro feel like?
When I was a Dutch tourist in the US, I though I didn't understand their traffic system. Now I finally understand: the system is called "mismanagement".
Heheheh so true.
It is also called "we had an idea in 1950 and never evaluated or updated it".
@@rogerwilco2 "We invented cars and standardization at the same time, and now they are both locked to each other in a spiral we can't get out of"
Man, go to Russia or Ukraine. We have another problem: huge 25-30 level condo-towers for all the money in the world. And for 600-1000 apartments you can have 40 parking spots.
And all those idiots who buy such property later ask where can they park their cars! So they park them everywhere: on sidewalks, on green zones, in others yards etc.
F**king disease. We don't have enough tow-vehicles. It's in people's mind.
@@konstantinhoncharenko719 people only buy apartments there cause that is the only stuff they can afford. But I agree people should use more public transport, rather than cars, even such new microdistricts usually have a metro station and several bus stops. Also, judging by my experience people who go on car from remote parts of cities are more often late to work, than those who use metro, cause metro doesn't have traffic jams.
Ouch! Lol.
Instead of traffic lights, my state is installing circles. It requires everyone to slow down. Accident have decreased dramatically.
Funny, I am Dutch and remember my visit to Los Angeles. As a typical Dutch habit I went to the stores by foot because it wasn't too far from the Airbnb. The first part was fine until I met the 'stroad' and the parking lot around the shops.. I am glad that I am also quite used to busy traffic (because that is often the case in The Netherlands) so I managed to get across safely but indeed.. that's when I really remembered that the USA is a car centered society. Shame because it would be great to use a bicycle in your country!
You can use a bicycle in New York, and I'm figuring in the more compacted, dense northeast cities. If you're anywhere in the West or Midwest you're going to have to drive to do anything!
The US is HUGE though, there are vast areas where you can use bikes. Particularly the Northeast, or you can go scenic country bicycling and travel for days if you desired.
@@artemiscool67 What he means is using a bicycle as a general means of daily transportation (read; an alternative to cars). You can't really do that anywhere except in very specific parts of certain cities. But to especially a Dutch person, that means nothing. It would be the same as saying "yea sure, you can take your car if you want" when living in a car-free city that has outside-city parking.
@@Real_MisterSir Didn't see the notifications until now. I'm in the NYC area and its the most car-free you'll get in the US as far as big cities. You can 100% use bicycles there as a means of transportation as well as Jersey City. Hoboken and New Brunswick also come to mind.
Edit: I now get the Dutch reference
Oh god, LA is probably the worst city for sprawl. I'm from Seattle, and LA is just a horrible city and it was what made me finally understand why people hate suburban sprawl so much. LA is the epitome of the concrete jungle.
_"but fatal crashes actually increased [during the pandemic]"_
Huh, that's odd. Oh wait, that's because fewer cars means higher speed, isn't i...
_"the only reason these stroads aren't killing more people is that they're usually jammed up"_
... yah. Damn, that's depressing -_-
Yup. It shows that the stroads are fundamentally unsafe, and rely heavily on traffic and police enforcement.
@@NotJustBikes I also just noticed the green strip at 7:55. Is that a _bike lane_ between fast-moving traffic? Are they actively trying to kill people?!? O_o
@@cearnicus No, but actually yes.
Actually, maybe I shouldn't judge too harshly there. Eindhoven has something like this too: de Geldropseweg near the Mei Ling restaurant. If you come from the (south-)east, straight-going bike-traffic is sandwiched between two car-lanes. Sure, it's just one lane on either side and the speedlimit is 50 km/h, but it still feels uncomfortable every time I cross there.
Or _felt_ uncomfortable, because they fixed it last year. Streetview has a nice before and after for the spot. Thank you, city planners!
Anecdotal but I was still driving my commute for about a two months into the pandemic last year, typical American arterial roads and highways. It genuinely got more dangerous, I had like a notable number of close calls during those two months. I wasn't sure whether to blame it on everyone's general anxiety over the pandemic or the extra space to speed and weave.
I hate how much of that B-roll footage is uncannily familiar, when I grew up nowhere near any of the places shown
RIGHT?? idk how we're ok with living like this. Everything is cookie cutter copy-pasted, its all so soulless and unwelcoming
Canada looks exactly like Texas when it's all ugly parking lots
If you are ever in Tennessee and want a crystal clear example of the difference, visit Gatlinburg then drive ten minutes north to Pigeon Forge. It shows the contrast and is why we always stay in Gatlinburg and have never gone to Pigeon Forge.
Pigeon Forge sounds like the name of a government operation
Perfect example
🤔
Y'know, I always felt like there was nowhere to go or hang out with my friends as a kid, and I was never sure why. Now I know. We were trapped in Strode Hell. Driving anywhere worth being took a while too.
I’m living stroad hell with my little kids. They can’t even walk to the park thats 1/4 mile from our house as it’s a stroad without sidewalks and it’s dangerous. We have had at least two bicyclists and one motorcyclist killed trying to cross it. It’s just horrible. So I end up driving them which just irritates me.
I've been having that thought lately, but only cause I'm in central AR I don't see this as a big problem in south LA but then again it's LA
Yup. Conventional American wisdom says you should move out to the suburbs to raise a family but it's just not true. I grew up living in a dense city highrise and it allowed so much independence compared to the suburbs. As a kid I could hop on a bike and ride myself to school, parks, museums, movie theaters, hundreds of shops and restaurants. In the suburbs kids are trapped inside their subdivision and completely dependent on their parents to drive them anywhere.
@@focom4546 I’m in the country! I MUST drive my kids because of the damn stroad! We moved from the city to here and we just hate it. Nothing is convenient and we have to drive everywhere. Zero sidewalks and stroad hell.
@@focom4546 Oddly, I grew up in a suburb, and it wasn't quite that bad. There were a number of shops and the old town library available from my division by bike or foot, and my mom would regularly send me on my bike to pick up an ingredient or two from the grocery store for dinner. Admittedly, it was absolutely a shopping centre, and to get to the other two on that side of town you had to cross a stroad or even a real 5-lane state highway (my middle and high schools were across that highway as well, but there was a traffic light with crosswalk, at least), but while things are still annoyingly far apart in the suburbs, a bike can still give kids a solid taste of freedom.
“The stroad to hell is paved with good intentions” is an underrated twist on a classic quote.
It's not, and whoever said this is literally a sociopath.
@@gokushkameha-ha-ha9344 Wha... why? 🤨
@@gokushkameha-ha-ha9344 i dont trust hippie broly
When we went to Disney World we stayed in Kissimmee, and we made some mistakes based on our way of living in the Netherlands. We walked to the Wallmart we passed on the way in, completely miss guessing the distance based on the time it took to drive and the size of everything next to the road. Took about an hour to get there if I remember correctly. There were sidewalks for most of the way though.
And then we took the bus, and we found out that it was indeed mostly used by people with lower income. There was no timetable and at the reception of the place we stayed they looked at us as if we were crazy, and there was a car rental across the street so it was the strangest request we could make.
It is so strange not to travel like you are used to, and to take the car literally everywhere. Especially living in a small town where you walk everywhere, cycle to work and take public transit.
Stayed in Kissimmee as well. The joke about having to get into the car in order to be able to reach the business on the other side of the street is real...
I went to Las Vegas.
My friend arrived at the airport a day later, so I decided to walk there to pick him up and then drive back in the rental car we had booked.
Our motel was next to the fence surrounding the airport, but boy, getting to it was an adventure. There were clearly tracks of other people who did it, but also clearly not designed by any planner.
I was also in Orlando, Florida for a music festival. For lunch, I decided to walk to a restaurant that seemed nearby, but the walk ended up being nearly 2 miles there. Getting there was a workout on its own and the journey took 30 minutes. So many people are afraid to take the bus since it's extremely inconvenient, leaving the poor and sketchy people taking it. Without all the theme parks and amusement parks, Orlando would be an ugly, sprawled out hellhole.
I have been living in europe for the past 5 years. I complete relate to this sentence. "It is so strange not to travel like you are used to, and to take the car literally everywhere." Except for me it's the opposite: It is so strange not to travel like you are used to, and to NOT take the car literally everywhere.
One of my first impressions of Orlando was driving a rental car to the hotel we had booked, at night. Highways through forest almost all the way, even though the GPS assured us we were almost in the middle of the metropolitan area. We were going down a six-lane road (which probably would have been a stroad if not for the fact that the lots on either side were undeveloped) with an 88 km/h speed limit when the GPS told us to turn left. Not "left at the next intersection", but left as in "take that little turning lane and turn 90 degrees across three lanes of oncoming traffic to get to the hotel". It felt like madness, but apparently that was how the traffic engineers had planned it. Needless to say, once we had learned how to take an alternate route, we avoided using that crossroad entirely for the rest of the vacation.
Wow. This video just explained to me (1) why I hate driving, and (2) why I can't avoid it. This is fascinating!
This reminds me of my first year coming to Canada, it is just IMPOSSIBLE to get anywhere without a car. It is too dusty, noisy and unsafe to walk or bike, public transport is almost nonexisting. It is funny that most Canadians drive 20 minutes everyday to a gym to work out while most of the world just walk a lot.
Makes me appreachiate life in an european city.
I'm lucky to live in a Canadian city with a great network of paths, but they aren't used as much as they could be. I think people have been conditioned to drive, and don't even consider the paths.
I had the exact same experience coming to Canada from Austria.
I've been driving for 11 years before arriving here and stroads have to be the most ugly and anxiety inducing experience I've ever had on the street.
Both as a driver and pedestrian....and nobody could pay me enough to join that kind of traffic with a bicycle!
@@saintcityriot1I guess that's part of why everyone here seems to like Québec city. It's just so different from most Canadian cities, walkable and with lots of boutique and art shops along the streets.
@@TheLumberjack1987 Plus Austilian cities have better public transportation. Melbourne is very easy to get around without a car compared to Toronto.
I remember in high school before having a car, my friends and I would try walking to Pizza Hut and there were no sidewalks to use.. we just hiked the grass ditches and all the passing cars looked at us like we were trespassing…
Yeah people still do that
True its so annoying you cant walk 15 minutes to a restaurant because there's no walking path
I did the same but to the convenience store by my school for coffee in the morning. The school plot was huge in the back but no sidewalks so I was walking through the ditch to get to the store
Hah, my first experience outside a major city in the US as a Dutch person! We had a motel in a commercial area with restaurants and stores, but you couldn't even walk from 1 store to the next. People were honking at us for walking through the grass ditches :D
murica! so smart! #1!
A 16 year old girl with a month old license pulled out of her neighborhood in front of me without stopping. The stroad's speed limit was 45 mph. Thankfully nobody was killed or injured, but both cars were completely wrecked.
This is my biggest personal issue with driving: too many idiots can gain access to a two ton death machine. Last time I checked, auto accidents are the #1 cause in the U.S. of non-health related death.
@@TheNinja94a Agreed
@@TheNinja94a
I wouldn't call the girl an idiot. She was a very new driver. The problem is, when you drive a car, you only get to make one mistake.
@@nashvontookus7451 I'm feeling mixed about having called her that because while I'm 17 and I've never made any glaring mistakes like that, and I think you must prioritize defense caution above everything-you're right, she's young and there are little chances for mistakes, and not everyone learns the same.
@@TheNinja94a
You're 17, you have a lot of time and plenty of chances to make a mistake on the road. Especially driving to a new place with unfamiliar road planning. Or to a large city where pedestrians run into traffic.
This is why I’m trying to move to Europe, I have a visual disorder that prevents me from being able to drive, and living in a car centric world is a huge fuck you to me, I could be travelling comfortably by train and actually travelling, but I’m stuck in bum fuck nowhere full of stroads ;~;
Growing up and living in the U.S. all my life I never understood a difference between a street and a road. I thought they were just synonyms.
I think all streets are roads, but not all roads are streets. A highway is a road but not a street.
same, this is the first time I realized they are all different lol
He was probably saying for sake of understanding/being on the same page.. I too am from the US and I've seen streets here that should be called road (or even highway) and roads that should be called streets.. I've seen 1 lane streets with highway speed limits.. etc. The names are not so strict here as people often name based on what sounds good to them instead of by classification.. Each city/county will have its own naming system too which helps add to the confusion. For example all roadways on one side of phoenix metro end with street and on the other side end with avenue regardless of size/lanes/speed/etc.. Also US through the eyes of Europeans might not make sense because their basis of what is truth/fact/important/logical will not always align with ours which makes some of these things that don't matter into heated debates.. call it what you want street/road/stroad/highway/awful it probably assumes that they weren't intentionally bad... but they might suck on purpose.. the goal of stroads is likely to discourage walking.. suburban development is meant to dehumanize so this video is likely proof that the design is working as intended (unfortunately). Not defending stroads or this type of development but holding two very different things side by side and using only one viewpoint as basis of truth is a bit silly.. it takes things too far out of context when that context is very important.. nobody in the US would ever compare say Overland Park, KS with say New York City or Amsterdam... because the goal of Overland Park is to likely be VERY spread out on purpose.. the closest thing you will find remotely near Overland Park is the core of Kansas City (in Missouri).. But that is a whole different discussion... [END OF RANT]
They are not different. This is propaganda.
Roads…….are dirt. Located out in the country (mostly farming areas). All else are streets.
“They are putting American cities on the stroad to financial ruin”
might be my favorite quote ever
Email your mayor and tell them to invest in local bike infrastructure. If we message them they will know what their constituents want. I messaged mine on Facebook and he actually messaged me back
Update: I told my Mayor a Sidewall was terrible and 2 weeks later they replaced it. I told him thanks and i will send him more photos where the sidewalk is bad for Cyclists. You can do the same, if enough people say something they have to address the issue
That is so cool 😎 I hope they listen!
What was his message? We don't have the money to do that?
What was the answer c'mon don't blue ball us...
Hey! Like the channel says, it's not just bikes. And I think this is an important point for politics. One Modern Term is "Superblocks", to create a modern urban environment that focuses on the health and well beeing of the people. So its not just bikelanes; its traffic seperation, quality space for pedestrians, trees & greens, etc.
omg its jarid gaming! i see ur comment on gold shaw farm videos! cool i guess we watch the same stuff