Why Car-Free Streets May Be Here to Stay
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2020
- While increasing automobile traffic has been a growing problem in major U.S. cities, the threat of Covid-19 has revealed what life could look like without car-clogged streets. This dramatic change triggered by pandemic shutdowns may lead to significant and permanent modifications to how we live, work and get around.
#CityLab #Cities #Pandemic
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FYI, making it harder to drive is the entire point. Less people driving means a better city.
Which makes it easier to drive.
@@izdatsumcp you'll just end paying more for it, like a dollar a mile
Which is not particularly true as less used streets would need less maintenance
Also reduces obesity if more ppl have to walk and cycle.
Will reduce the ugliness if there aren't as many road signs and traffic. Maybe decorate the roads too?
Do you think public transport can so easily absorb the additional strain? During the pandemic there was nobody travelling, at all. Now, within 2 years, the situation has returned to pre-pandemic levels as people continue to go about their daily lives. That would require a massive amount of expenditure to fill the gap. Which governments and companies are not prepared for.
If I'm in a car, I'm not looking to window shop. My goal in a car is to go to a planned location fast and without disturbance. Walking however, I find myself looking through windows much more often and enter local shops.
Exactly, when I get in a car it's usually to go from point a to point b, and just because I'm driving by a shopping street doesn't mean I'm actually looking to buy something there.
So I don't think that the argument that removing or diminishing cars driving by a shopping street is inevitably bad for business.
E.g, Bahnhofstrasse and nearby roads in Zürich is a popular shopping area, and there are barely any cars driving there.
Well wtf just don’t go in. As an adult you should have that will power
BigFoot496 he didn’t say it was a bad thing. It’s supporting the small local businesses instead of the big corporation you might go to in the car.
WeRbananas oh ok. I completely misunderstood that 😅
Exactly.
Of course bike ridership went up! As a bicyclist you're now WAY less likely to get killed!
pretty sure 90% of them are trying to get killed
Actually in my area, San Jose California, traffic deaths are significantly higher this year.
and also because you have no other option for travel
in europe, especially the netherlands, biking is safer than traveling with car. But in the USA, i would definitely NOT travel with bike. since there arent any bike lanes seperate from the road.
@@ActivWorld As I understand it biking in Europe is region specific. I have been to Denmark, cycling is wide spread, especially in Copenhagen. On the other hand southern countries like Italy are not doing as well. Mostly it is the climate.
Coming from the UK I was shocked when I first went to the US at how unfriendly it is for pedestrian walkers, everything is so far apart and there aren't sidewalks in so many areas. In Europe, if you live in a city or it's suburbs, you rarely drive, you take a train/bus or walk, city centres specifically are really only for taxis and public transport in terms of vehicles. In the US it's like they live in their car, like those people in Wall-E. They don't even have the infrastructure to ditch their cars if they wanted to.
They have Stockholm Syndrome as well. Even if you try to reduce their dependence, they'll fight against it.
Increasing numbers of Americans actually are living in their cars because they can't afford rent anymore, even if they have work.
The UK isn't much better tbh :(
I still prefer US infrastructure to most European infrastructure; some countries are so compact and claustrophobic and the people are too close together. Any place over UK any day, for the obvious reasons.
@@bmichael1165 This depends on the land available, but the European city centers are 20 years ahead from de US ones.
I love how American TV broadcasters are like “can we really live without cars?” “Wow, this street has become pedestrianized, is that acceptable?”
For a car crazy country, those roads always look 3rd world. Not meaning the ones in the middle of nowhere, the ones around and in cities, in local neighbourhoods. Cracks, cracks, cracks. Lookup a random Dutch highway or driving video> Yours seems like a slightly better version of the Belgian road network.
Yes, people can live without cars - Unfortunately, auto corporations can't live without consumers 💸
YEA, on spot, car companies are hungry for gullible consumers!
In my town, they closed a block of a street. Now, everyone hangs out there, eat at outdoor cafes, & listen to music. The throw craft fairs, & events. One block.
The worst part of working was the commute.
"Was". Obviously you don't commute due to covid. I expect this will continue, for millions of people. That is the big change. Less people in urban environments.
@@periculumesse1525 'Was' because I am now wonderfully retired, not due to Covid.
For me the worst part is the scumbag coworkers.
Yes, commuting and getting up early to do it. Drove me to a very early retirement.
Build a small electric BICYCLE that can travel 40 to 50 miles per hour WITH small cabinet for your files and laptop done no need to wait for bus no need to paddle DIY PROJET EASY
The idea in the Netherlands is that traffic should be intrinsically safe and it is focused on bicycles. I think if the US stops putting cars first but adopt these principles they would not lose this much time on the road, gain health and space.
I love driving. I don't love driving in cities. Much rather be on foot or on a bike to traverse a city. This is coming from someone who lives in a small town. Just feels so much easier to get around a major metro area by foot. I've been to Europe and driving has its value but being able to get around on foot would be great.
Exactly my feelings; In rural areas, there is no replacement for a climate-controlled high-speed flexible transportation method. In cities, however, all that traffic takes away the speed benefit, and since bus stops are so close together there, public transit has flexibility too, alongside the climate control and better efficiency.
This is what people don't seem to understand. I'm a car guy too, I love driving.
Do I like driving on a congested highway? No.
Do I like driving around a city with far too many lanes and traffic cutting in and out of everywhere? No.
In Europe we have the 'kind of' best of both worlds here, it's quite common to see 'Park and Ride' systems setup. Basically a big parking lot on the edge of a city, you drive to there then take a bus/tram/metro from there into the city and walk around on foot. :)
@@VoxelLoop I agree with your thinking. Driving is fine for longer distances in more spread out cities but bigger cities it’s counterintuitive to have a car but instead you should have choices as to how you commute.
Driving in the Oregon mountains and countryside is so beautiful and thereputic it isnt even funny (despite all the wildfire damage we have). I want to get an old toyota celica someday. But, being forced to drive in a city for everyday tasks is not fun at all. I would hate to have to drive 10 minutes to go to the grocery store if i ran out of flour, or to sit in traffic for 40 minutes to commute to work like my sister does.
@@Preetzole Not to mention dealing with idiots who lacks patience nor skill to safely operate a motor vehicle, say not using phone while driving.
Building cities around people, rather than cars... Makes sense. I wonder why we never thought of this? Interesting.
Because 100 years ago the automobile revolutionized transportation and we modeled our cities around it.
Because of oil and car lobbies.
@@prettymuchfitness3674 Well, actually, because they lobbied against public transportation, and the European-style city-planning, in favor of cars.
@@jamieshows1564 That's utter and complete nonsense. As soon as people have the money, they want cars and out of the city. Only the ultra rich have a decent quality of life in the city.
@Cyndi Rothrock The US is 9,833,000 square kilometers in size, Europe is 10,180,000 square kilometers in size, making Europe bigger than the US. The countries are close in size to the eastern states of the US. This has nothing to do with anything though.
The real answer you are looking for, is that the US was developed by the oil industry, which pushed heavily for cars. However, that all is irrelevant, change for the better is always possible.
I think they just need a Dutch road achitect since they are the best at making road, pedestrian/bike friendly.
also need a culture change to be fair
And we won’t get that until trump and his cronies are out of office
What's that? Faxx
@@ronnie4661 You will not get that even if Joe Biden wins.
In los angeles it can take up to 3 hours to travel 15 miles if you use public transportation.
That assumes you are able to catch each of the 3-4 transfers.
If not, then your 3 hour travel time goes up 15-30 with each missed transfer.
Compared to a car which will take about 45-90 minutes and 20-30 minutes by motorcycle.
@@ronnie4661 Trump has nothing to do with a culture that's been around since the 1920s. Keep him in things he actually did
A bike city is the best for the future in my opinion, considering everything - health effects, the space they take up, the environmental effects, energy efficiency, and whatnot.
A walkable city is even better. Cities were around for a very long time and they did fine without bikes and cars.
@@xas22 walkability and bikability are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they go hand in hand to improve human powered mobility.
@@pyrotechnic96 I don't disagree. I was just pointing out that if a city is truly walkable , you really don't need bikes because distances are short and it doesn't make sense to bike. Walking is more enjoyable, cheaper, and less hustle. We could construct bike trails around the city for pleasure and work. Anything that doesn't involve motorized vehicles is welcome.
Ian, you're forgetting about weather. Some places are too hot and humid to bike to work without a shower and change of clothes. Winters can be cold and icy, biking in the rain is difficult. Bikes are big in Europe and the UK because the weather is pretty nice. US and Australia are car-centric for a reason.
@@incognitotorpedo42 I don't know about that - my family is in Ireland, where it seems to rain more days than not. Everyone rides a bike - housewives do their shopping on a bike rain or shine, same with school kids & workers - UNTIL recently. Now, they seem to be trying to be more like Los Angeles than Ireland. Hopefully, they, and others, will learn from our mistakes in the U.S. The life of a car commuter is no life at all - it is just a grind.
The air in my city has been so nice since this lockdown. It really shows that none of us with office jobs need to go to an office. Salt Lake's valley looks so beautiful without all the smog! And, I don't feel like I'm dying on high pollution days.
“She’s been reporting on [the Bay Area] streets for years...”
Year 1: It’s really bad. It’s still.
Year 3: Still really bad
Year 5: Really Really bad still
Thanks for that observation. I have heard from other reporters on San Francisco traffic, basically they all say same thing. It's bad, it's bad. For years this has been talked about. Unfortunately all the government red bureaucractic tape takes baby steps. I wouldn't expect major changes anytime soon.
@Stella H you left at least 4 comments on this video, often advocating for both sides and completely contradicting yourself when talking to another person...
year 10: ??? Everyone owns a mini sized chopper. The air pollution and noise level here is unreal!
the problem with bay area: "must be willing to move here"
@Stella H that's actually the solution to the problem. too many people live outside the city and drive in, if SF rolled back housing restrictions and let people build mid-sized apartments [4-5 floors] you'd see vast improvements.
Transportation costs take a significant chunk out of the average person's income. Remove/reduce these and it'll definitely boost the economy, not to mention the physical and mental health benefits of walking and being around other members of your community.
Have you seen the housing prices in the city?
In Los Angeles a single bedroom apartment cost more than the monthly mortgage of a 2 or 3 bedroom house in the outskirts.
@@linusa2996 that's because of supply and demand and only way to reduce house prices is if population numbers dropped, which isn't going to happen unless they implement some sort of new borns limits. Let me do a quick example of supply and demand. I got a miuntain bike for £220 about 7 months ago (used) and the same bike now (used) goes for at least £350, thats because shops don't sell many bikes anymore as they haven't got any in stock eityer because the manufacturering is closed because of the virus or because the shipping from china/Taiwan/ Cambodia (main bike manufacturer bases) are blocked because of the virus. Till lead to people willing to pay morr for the same thing because there arent many sellibg but there are many buying. Same goes for houses, to be honest that's how the economy works. Currency prices go up and down based on supply and demand too (sellers and buyers)
@@linusa2996 The idea is that transportation and housing costs adds up to total expense. I may be imaging things, but in mainland USA, these costs seemed to be mutually exclusive (one is high, other is low).
Living here, I could see a little more people taking bus/train (before covid happened) but it didn’t change significantly, still way too many cars on the road.
@@gursisingh1940 you can also make the prices cheaper with higher supply. For example by relaxing zoning laws you could put more houses into the same space. Or building small apartment complexes
I would like to see more suburbs connected via cycle lanes. I think that would make a huge difference.
I think its also more important to remove these strict zoning laws and allow for midrise apartments and such to be built rather than more single family houses. Creating dense neighborhoods makes public transit and cycling even more effective and convenient.
the problem is that suburbs are too far away from city centres. So planners should make suburbs more mixed-use, so it can be cyclable/walkable and very convenient.
5:05 She looks furious. She sounds furious. Her hair is furious. Her eyes shoot lasers.
She's a Karen
Oh come on, she seems like a fun crazy aunt.
When I lived in Europe for a few years, many years ago, I began to learn about the benefits of a commitment to great public transportation infrastructure. And the wisdom of dedicating land and resources to allow for areas where people can walk and interact freely.
The ADA, here in America, has done wonders to increase the "livability" factor of our newly constructed communities, and repaired infrastructure, by making sidewalks mandatory, but we still have much catching up to do. And a lot to learn about how to design our communities (and our lives), in order to maximize our quality of life.
Unless cities in the US adapt their zoning policies to be less like SimCity and more flexible, I doubt they're really going to make properly walkable cities or even subdivisions. It's the one thing that always amazed me about the way my relatives in WA and BC live. Everywhere they need to go, is 15 or 20 minutes by car. Like the city was litterally designed to have 4 types of zoning and under no circumstance should they be allowed to mix.
So a new subdivision is planned to have a bunch of houses, big fat road around them, some shops with a road around them, some offices with a road around those, and some more houses with a road around them. Rather than say have a more compact design where there's shops, bars and restaurants on the ground floor, some offices on the first floor, and then condo's on top of them. Because more often than not, city policies don't allow the combination of these different "zones" into a single block.
And the situation perpetuates itself, if you're stuck in a segregated-zoning city, you're going to be driving everywhere because it'll be too far apart to get everything done otherwise. And if you're driving anyways, you might as well move out a bit further away from the smog and noise of the car-ridden city, and so you drive the suburban sprawl even further.
The places that have been so succesful in this video are all part of the "old city" in those cities. There are mixed use buildings, because they predate the car-centric zoning policies. Here in Europe we have that to a much lesser degree. All of the older cities significantly pre-date the invention of the car. Things are within walking distance because in 317CE that was the only way most of the people got anywhere. Most of the roads in my city's centre were first paved by the Romans some 2000 years ago. It's sort of a self-predestrianised area, you couldn't fit a smart car through those streets even if you wanted to.
NYC skirts the ADA because the mass transit is not ADA compliant. It's one of the worst places for the handicapped to try and live. These changes do nothing but make it all the more difficult. Stick that in your quality of life.
We don’t want or need publix transit. Also it is useless for the majority of Americans as most Americans live in the suburbs and commute to downtown so yes some liberal millionaire can afford to live in a downtown penthouse but your average worker commutes 20-40 miles to downtown with their car on the freeway then they have to find parking and get to their office. This makes most peoples lives worse
My quality of life is minimized by the incredible overhead and time sink of even the best public transit in the world. I've done door-to-door comparisons on three continents in a bunch of cities. The rich ALWAYS pick cars for a reason.
@@genli5603 Rich people pick limos not cars.
More roads would mean more cars, it's a vicious cycle that we need to break out of.
It's not more roads. It's more people. Check out population stats.
@@dodgeplow For what? There are still around 40% who don't actually have a car, with already overflowing streets.The capacity on the roads and parking spaces is what is bottlenecking us, unless you want half the city to be empty houses. And the more we provide space for cars, the more cars will be bought, filling the newly provided space, leading us back to the original problem.
@@Dark__Thoughts If the car isn't being driven, it isn't causing traffic...
@@Dark__Thoughts more roads doesn't equal more cars. That doesn't make any sense. If you were apart of the other half that maybe could not afford a car or just doesn't want one would you buy a car because there are more roads?
@@dodgeplow Erm, yeah? What is your point? And even then it's still taking up several square meters of public space.
At the beginning of the pandemic my world was so much nicer being able to cross streets on foot or bike without having to worry about car drivers.
Sad when everyone thinks they're a traffic expert and block great initiatives.
Sad when great initiatives leave the handicapped no access. Drop off zones? Who says I need someone else to drive me? Doesn't that restrict my equal access? Ever try to use a wheelchair in NYC? It's bad , probably the worst in the country since the Mass Transit does not comply with the ADA requirements. But it's made worse by shortsighted nonsense like this.
@@anthonyrosa5006 Disabled people in the US are some of the worst car nuts. Some news for you: buses are also ridable for disabled people. Owning a car as a disabled person is a really privileged situation.
Americans are notorious for never doing research and think they're experts on everything. I'm an American. I see it all the time.
@@anthonyrosa5006 I haven't been to NYC, but as someone who lives in southern Ontario, it would be strange to see a bus that's not wheelchair accessible.
@@anthonyrosa5006 trust me, its much easier for kids and disabled people to get around when they arent in fear of getting smashed by a car
Cities need to focus on preventing more cars from entering the city. I drive to Atlanta at least every 6 months. I would love to park somewhere outside of the city and take public transportation in. I do not see a feasible way for me to do that.
We use such systems in the Netherlands its called p+r or park and ride. You park your car close to the city center and hop on either, metro, tram or bus for the last part. The parking is pretty cheap and the prices for public transport on those places aren't expensive as well.
There is park in ride in atlanta. Yall just dont even take the time to find out, instead just preferring to ignore its existence.
Maybe take a bus to the city? Greyhound busses are a thing.
Park & Rides are pretty popular in Europe. In Nottingham where I live, park and rides exist at all outer train stations main tram stops bus stations.
I do that when entering Vancouver. I park in Surrey, BC and take the Skytrain into Vancouver.
Is is great to see this happen! It always strikes me when you talk to Americans who think the idea of restricting car access to inner cities is crazy, but at the same LOVE European downtowns and wonder “why can’t our cities look like this”.. this is a big reason why!
It’s not just the act of reducing cars, but all the secondary effects as well: small cafes and bars with outdoor seating obviously benefit from foot traffic; reduced traffic noise makes it much more inviting so sit down, meet, just hang out in general; there is additional room for trees, fountains,...
Sounds like you’re talking to Americans who don’t live in cities. When I lived closer to my “downtown” I never considered having a car and wished they were just banned. Much easier to get around via train, walking biking. Now in less condensed parts of my city, a car is very much needed.
I live in Amsterdam. Bike infrastruture is the most important thing in any city.
Beyond a certain size public transportation becomes more important, though no Dutch city has reached that size yet. (Unless you consider the Randstad a single city.) Regardless, anything is better than building the whole city around cars.
People claiming that removing cars from certain streets to increase bus and bike ridership will cause massive gridlocks ignore that the people who now have access to bus and bikes will use those to avoid getting stuck in the gridlock.
Also, we know that making it less convenient to get around by car greatly decreases the number of people who choose to drive in the first place. It's the opposite of induced demand (more lanes/roads leading to more traffic and thus less traffic flow).
They need to do more walking streets and introduce trolley cars in all metropolitan cities. I would love that so much!
So you would love Agenda 21.
walking streets??? never heard of a sidewalk? how far can you walk 10 miles?
@@xcen1 10 miles? 16 kilometers?
@@xcen1 well probably 10 miles bacuse thats how far your going
I like how the pictures of the future are always Holland (Utrecht)
Everyone who watches this video should consider checking out the UA-cam Channels: Bike to Everything, BicycleDutch, Not Just Bikes and Streetfilms. These UA-cam Channels are some of the best with high-quality content that talks about these particular topics. They're fascinating!
In UK the change in the pandemic was staggering, lakes and rivers suddenly were clear and clean, the air was fresh, roads were quiet and I felt much healthier generally.
I have been cycling after giving up my car 12 years ago and I noticed it more than most.
Cars are making us sick, unfortunately things have gone back to what they were again as everyone is just ignoring the travel restrictions and back in their cars again.
Sad.
i dont think they have city builder games in america.
Lore Silver not enough people play them
I grew up playing sim city yo. im in the us
but admitted i dont know anyone else.
Simcity
SimCity series, Cities: Skylines, and Cities XXL come into mind. Skylines is most demanding anything related to transportation.
@@dbclass4075 But it's still car dependent. Reduced parking limits business exchanges. And all goods are still transported by truck. I would be great if they can add oil pipes.
The US is at least 30 years behind for my tastes. I’m already planning to permanently move to The Netherlands, the world leaders for city infrastructure, in my opinion.
Like Urban planners in Europe are such socialist luddites.
The problem with cities in the US, they are built to be car centric.
Yup!
Yup it might not happen as it would be too expensive to restructure everything.
Cyclist: Look at how wild market street is!
Everyone from third world countries: uuuuum... Ok
You mean developing countries; Switzerland and Austria are Third World countries as well.
Third world countries don't exist... Oh wait! There is one.... the USA.
Awesome report. I just found out that there are street closures in my city. Will have to check my local information. My own neighborhood is having a street made over for transit and bicycle only and the street parking largely restricted to locals with tags on their windows. Seeing that the transit here is amazing with an average 7.5 minute wait between buses, I don't even need to rely on a schedule any more but just leave my apartment whenever I feel like it. The freedom of it all!
Tbh, recently I was thinking about moving to Texas from UK. Make money there while saving with my more efficient spending than the locals. People in the UK are also inefficient compared to what I am used to, I can see that in the US they are even more inefficient. They dont even realize how easy their lives are when they can afford to be waste so much resources.
Your salary will likely be higher in the US too if you’re a working professional, at least compared to the U.K.
And less tax too!
@Jason Eel But spend more on health care.
Why would you move to the US? I would much rather move to the UK than the other way around. The way the US is going I don’t see a lot of a future. Just because we have lower taxes doesn’t mean we don’t spend more money in other places. Healthcare is ridiculously expensive and inefficient plus wages are stagnant and you have less rights as an employee. You actually spend more in other areas whether you like it or not.
@C G Yes but you spend more on other things particularly healthcare so when adjusted it’s not that great.
There was two years without any fatal pedestrian accidents in Helsinki. Unfortunately one person died a while back. It's national news when someone gets hit by a car. Usa is such a weird place because they are used to living in a warzone.
I wish I lived in Finland, it sounds so much better than here
@linlinö önilnil Why do you compare whole country's population to population of 1 city?
because Helsinki's population is less than the population in the state of Maine or Montana.
Have you heard any exciting news from Maine or Montana?
Neither do I
Well you can do the numbers. Multiply 0 deaths by 20 to get it into the same population death ratio numbers as LA or NY. Or lets be fair multiply one death by 20. Now Helsinki has 20 deaths per year. Is it still a zillion times smaller safer than an equivalent us city? Yes.
I have heard the population excuse many times, it doesn't work. Even the police shoot 50 times more ppl in the states AFTER multiplying Finland's number by 60 to make it equivalent to the us population..
@@henkkaa88 multiply 0 deaths by 20 is 0. Your arithmetic doesn't even make sense. Population density also play roles, you cant just multiply it without that factor.
the guy are 3:25 doesn't see that those 9 bikes could've been 9 cars which take up a lot more space and would probably slow him down even more. I still agree that bicycles should be separated completely. The Netherlands used to be car infested as well in the 70's, but by transforming all roads in the past 50 years to have separate safe bicycle infrastructure traffic deaths went down from 3500 in 1970 to 600 in 2015
Taking the bus saves 5 minutes.
Reality : taking public transportation makes my commute 2.5 hours each way vs. 35 minutes if I drive.
Buses have to stops, while you can drive to your destination non-stop. Buses in congested areas can only go faster when it has dedicated lanes. Hence, metro is often the backbone of dense cities.
cars and cities do not work together really well
Cars and cities work very well together. What Congress for the New Urbanism actually said was "Freeways and cities don't work together really well" Cars aren't the problem it urban freeways, stroads, and walmarts.
But some stupid/crazy people still say Madrid Central is doing wrong to the city...🤦🏽
Absolutely, people who don't agree with you are stupid and crazy.
Much food for thought. As a permanently mangled pedestrian from the age of 9 in 1963 When I ran in front of a car that was going too fast in a shopping center parking lot, I hate cars! They make great ambulances but allowing every teenager and once upon a time teenage-now-Geezer to drive a car is insane. We should be dancing in the streets not playing dodge -car! My Air-BB Neighborhood now looks like a trailer park parking lot with cars on the lawns!
umm.. there's such a thing as a park is there in your town? So go bike there... And if thee isn't one then blames your city for not building a nearby park. Because for all the problems of NYC, there are lots of parks nearby, like central park where no cars are allowed and people bike there all the time.
It was clear, even as far back as the mid-70's, that downtown San Francisco was no place for cars. Day after day, the same lines of single-occupancy vehicles crowded the streets of the financial and shopping districts for much of the day and evening and, as time wore on, matters only got worse. Yes, limiting private cars on Market street was a giant step forward but even more radical measures are needed. The use of private cars in the entire downtown area must be severely curtailed along with a concomitant enhancement of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
I have lived in downtown Ithaca and Boulder Colorado. The downtowns I believe we’re both designed by the same person. Both of them have pedestrian malls in Ithaca it’s called The Commons, in Boulder, Pearl Street Mall. I really like that model! It keeps smaller towns feeling alive I think.
One thing that I don’t see the video mentioned, is less Farms!!
When you have more land developed into suburbs because
You have cars commuting from the city Center downtown area to the suburbs people keep buying out in the suburbs for cheaper
Houses and it keeps happening and the houses become more expensive and people buy further from the city and the the suburb developer buys the land from farms and then the farmers can of course usually make more money selling their family farm than from farm crops and eventually we don’t have as many local farms to receive local fresh vegetables and then we have vegetables transporting hundreds of miles away!!
Not needing to commute anymore saves me 10 hours a week. Around 500h a year. Thats around 60 full 8h work days I save during a year. No, I don't miss going to the office.
Living in the Netherlands, I delight in the ubiquitous pedestrian zones in city centres. Vibrant, enchanting, and exciting, they are an oasis for the pedestrian. Cafés, restaurants, and shops abound. Walking is a joy! There are no huge, ugly cars that require excessive amounts of space and car parks/structures. Americans should replicate the magic! Walking and bicycling are also healthy, and Americans would slim down.
1# America is not as small as netherlands . 2# you can walk any where you want. we have side walks for walking
@@m1activealesis551 1# But cities are... So I don't see your point. You can use your car to drive between states and big distances inside states and not have them in cities.
2# I'm laughing at what you call "sidewalks" in the USA. What you mean is "you can walk
"Low income people of color in the US are disproportionately victimized by car crashes." I am having trouble wrapping my head around this. At first I thought she meant because low income people driver cheaper and less safe cars, but where do people of color fit into this? How can an event victimize one race disproportionately when using the same equipment?
Does one race drive more dangerously? Does one race not receive first aid after an accident? Is one race more fragile?
I don't see why accessibility options have to be reduced just because roads have been closed off to cars. There are plenty of transport options now that has mandatory regulations to ensure that people in wheelchairs or have any other accessibility issues can still use them in a safe manner. The issue here isn't that they need roads, but that they need better access to these parts using other methods.
40% of cities area is just roads, asphalt, and smog. There's no sense in that. Its just a big parking lot with traffic jams.
I'm born and raised in NYC and was able to spend time in other big cities like Hong Kong and Singapore and found the difference in traffic to be stark. Of course those places have high taxes on vehicles so there are less cars on the road, but in turn they have a more efficient public transit system and I felt that is one of NYC's major weaknesses. MTA is often stalled at the state level so if the city can find ways to help make transit more efficient then why not
My first tech job in 2007 was at 731 Market Street and this ride is so familiar.
They should've followed Amsterdam's lead many years ago.
The same could be said about Venice, but the thing is that both cities kept the road/street layout that was planned long before cars were around.
Most other cities tried to rebuild their medieval-like layouts (or in the case of newer US cities, orthogonal layouts) so that cars could drive there in two/four-way+ lane roads.
But even the best road city planning falls apart when there are just too many people with too many cars in a given space.
Just imagine what it would be like if most people in Tokyo drove a car to work!...
New York was initially called New Amsterdam!
Amterdam is following Kim Young Ill's lead. If you want to be European convert to the Roman Catholic Faith and go to the Traditional pre-vatican II latin masses where your priest will tell you the truth anf not lies like most of the Nuvos Ordo Prists do. If you are athiest you are a de-facto American.
r/fuckcars
It's sort of amazing how much people fight against people centric infrastructure and get proven wrong time and time again. Like most issues, it takes years of fighting to get people to stop fighting against their own interests.
i freaking love this. i hate seeing animals that got ran over due to cars. I know cars will never actually be gone..but if we can reduce it by just a bit, that's an amazing thought to me.
COVID is a blessing for road infrastructure.
Best plan: put the trams and busses togheter, make the two bike lanes beside eachother and get a one way street for cars. The space thats over on the sides is for the sidewalk. For your example you can look at the Coolsingel in Rotterdam!
We do not have the government administration or political willpower to implement any of this, like at all. Maybe in 100 years or something.
When only the rich can afford owning a car, or just fuel up.
Cheap gasoline is a very fleeing thing: fracking wells lose 70% or more production in just the first year of operation; they're not profitable and are going bust and have already ended the needing endless new drilling to replace dead production wells. Couple this right now since February Russia and Saudi Arabia have begun a oil war with each other dumping the market with oil... that won't last long.
I give it a decade and oil and gasoline will be at least $150 to $250 a barrel. Gasoline will be on average of $4 to $6 range across the country.
In two decades gasoline will be $8 to $12 a gallon.
Hopefully, though most of us will not need a car to get to work... but I doubt it will happen in a decade nor in two decades.
We will just be at the lowest point in a collapsed nation state in the US.
We can't wait until 2120 for change to happen.
...but it already is happening in multiple places, and the data seems to favor it for the most part
i dont agree, in fact are moment like this that the rules changes
What are you talking about? The federal government has no say in city planning. City councils do. So if you have a problem with how your city is run, blame the city council. It’s fun to blame everything on trump, this topic is completely irrelevant to who is sitting in the White House.
We really need to move in a non car direction
If I’m driving a car, the last place I want to drive to is a small shop downtown with only street parking. There’s never any spots open for street parking anywhere, so might as well get rid of them altogether.
There's a town in England called Burnley (Lancashire) which has a pedestrian street in the centre (st James Street) lined with shops, cafes, financial institutions etc.
Also, the car park for the shops is underneeath the shops on the north side.
Burnley was the town which lost the least amount of money, in the UK, during the pandemic.
most cities has a pedestrian street in the centre
As I see everybody flexing their city let me tell you about mine, Mexico City, at around 250 hours lost in traffic I can tell you it is bad. As a personal anecdote I had a coworker commute for 3 hours to work, and back for another 3 hours. That's 6 hours of your life daily just commuting, almost a work shift in itself.
Maybe you should seriously consider moving closer to your job!
0:22 i can't believe that this is a small amount of cars when to me it seems like a ton! car volumes really are something different in big US cities holy, it's so weird for me living in a relatively small European city (200k people :D)
Blame the owners of Standard Oil for making cities centered around cars
Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles safely. More protected bike lanes are needed so older adults and children can ride safely to work, school or for fun. Ebikes are bringing many older adults back to cycling. Ebikes make those hills a lot easier. Support bicycles in your community.
This is a great. There is a hidden consequence if this is done in enough cities. Oil companies will probably see reduced revenues, and some have already declared bankruptcy
Honestly SF traffic is not as bad as NYC traffic.
Have you been around the Bay Area?
Leo Watley Boston’s is bad but my town has to be numero uno.. Newport ri is so small and is packed during the summer
San Francisco has some of the worlds most state of the art structures but it is a Third World Country on the streets with deteriorating buildings, homeless people and infrastructure. It’s chaotic.
Rest assured, it's definitely not 3rd world bad. No matter how bad it is.
Your graphs use misleading scales. It's particularly dishonest to flash a graph briefly with a non-zero lower bound on the y-axis (as in the fatality graph).
I disagree, it’s simply a way of condensing the data to a smaller space such that it may fit on the screen
Not really? It can be but not in this case. Decade with a 50% increase of deaths. 4k to over 6k yearly. That's very stastitcally significant.
Traffic is back to normal here in my city. Once more towns and cities reopen and people go back to work you'll see traffic return to normal if not WORSE as people can finally feel "safe" to leave their homes and explore their areas again.
You: The Bay Area
Me, an intellectual: The Bay-re-ah
City centres and residential areas would be incredible without cars. People have become numb, blind, to how outrageously dangerous human driven vehicles are. You see toddlers on a sidewalk or kids on bikes and don't even register that instant death is like one single hiccup away. It's like walking on the edge of a skyscraper with no safety rails.
I wouldn't necessarily call the US car-friendly. Most of our streets and Interstates are in a terrible condition compared to other developed nations like Japan or Germany. And it's not because we're a bigger country, it's because we just don't invest in infrastructure in general.
They're doing it wrong though American suburbs dont have public transport to bring people into the core, how can they close streets and limit cars without that key stone?
@Brian Foster Mercury lasts forever. Arsenic too. The longest lived nuclear waste is not very virulent, the shortest lived will decay away to less dangerous.
The fact that you quote a nice round number of 100,000 years as the danger point *without specifying the type of waste* means that the ignorance is likely yours.
In the Bay Area, [nearly] ALL of the disparate transit systems are designed to funnel people from the burbs to downtown SF. so, getting across town is a non starter at the rush hour which goes from about 5am to around 9 pm.
@@AlanPeery pretty sure everything 'lasts forever' from a human time scale.
They don't think past their ideal solution.
They close a street to cars, this funnels the cars into other streets doubling the congestion.
So most car drivers will avoid the area entirely. No cars means no traffic means no customers for those shops which means no taxes and well so much for the city budget.
@Brian Foster the only thing you're not talking about which is vitally important is that nuclear power plants do have methods to use the waste until its out of energy and they don't have to store it forever.
Pedestrian malls like the ones talked about at 10:27 were always going to fail. Because these were previously just normal streets with shops on it that were simply converted into pedestrian malls they always had uphill fight. You still had to DRIVE to those malls in order to do your shopping, so if you had to get into your car anyways, then why not just go to a bigger/better mall or shopping area instead.
Pedestrian shopping zones need to be well connected with other transportation than just cars. This is one of the reasons why the other normal streets that were converted to banning private vehicles that were talked about earlier in the video do work, because they are connected by buses, add on top of that bicycles, trains, trams and subways and these places can thrive.
Mariahilfer strasse is a great example of turning a road into a pedestrian walkway.
would've been helpful if you guys also linked the studies on the side street traffic
1:03 ayyyy that's where I used to study when there was no corona virus
de uithof, utrecht
Ban all SUVS and pickup trucks from cities! You don't need 4wd on bare pavement!
I reckon the registration costs should be higher for those kinds of vehicles too and the drivers should require to hold a car license plus an SUV license to show they can handle a bigger car. Most SUV drivers where I live cannot drive and never look when they back out.
Someone doesn't live in a place that snows.
Had to ditch my Ford Fiesta for a AWD SUV when I moved to NY. It snowed on a Tuesday and that car was still stuck with spinning wheels on Friday. . .
I hate to sound like an ignorant flat earther, but the notion that we can cause permanent damage to our atmosphere from emmisions is silly, yes we are doing damage, but mostly to our oceans PH, however this will all go away when we slowly as a race phase out of combustion vehicles in the next 100-200 year tops
@@WestAirAviation Fiesta? With winter tyres, it has decent handling. The engine weight on drive wheels helps in traction. In winter, FR (front-engined, rear wheel drive) is the worst performer.
While 4x4 is excellent off-road, it will be useless with inappropriate tyres. Forget parking in many city centers; it won't fit.
Just ban all people from cities, all problems solved.
What they don’t say is when streets are closed for cars, it becomes hell for deliverers who have to carry the products as well as service technicians who have to carry their tools. Businesses end up paying more for the effort, and then it trickles down to consumers to pay more.
They clearly stated that the ban is for private cars
Commercial vehicles are unaffected, though other folks can switch to mass transit.
Oh no, they have to drive around a bit, btw doung that will make traffic go faster so they wint be stuck so you have to pay less
Boy were you wrong quickly... Traffic already back to normal and even worse at times
the worse thing is that they diminished the fleet of buses so much that I never had to take uber so much in my life!!! This is RIDICULOUS!! They only care about PROFITS!!! They don't care about the Environment... they only tell that as an excuse to do these incomprehensible horrors that is their way to make as much profits as possible
In my country the traffick jams come back after few weeks covid-19 recovered.
Covid-19 is not over, it is taking a break where you live. Global numbers have accelerated since mid May, so it is a question of months, before it is back and worse that the first time. Currently 250.000 new diagnosed daily. There will be 50-100 million infected or 1.5% of the world population, at the end of September.
Cars make sense for some things, but they're simply not needed in an urban setting. In 50 years we might look as cars as we look as cigarettes today.
I agree, but businesses will still delivery vehicles especially with ppl ordering groceries and restaurants contracting with delivery companies to deliver orders to customers I just added another pack of hot dogs and hot dog buns to my delivery order for tommorow (06/19/2020)
Back in 1979 Chicago tried the idea of a dedicated transit/pedestrian way when they converted 9 blocks of State Street into State Mall. It flopped miserably. The mall was ripped out in 1996 and State Street had a comeback as a result.
5:30 American folks blocking road to protest against "Car ban". Hats off.
It's easy to talk about reducing vehicles in downtown areas when you're West and South, it's another story when you're North and East and you have to contend with six months of the year with cold temperatures and snow!
I actually think what you brought up is quite interesting up the snow. The US doesn’t have to implement this, but I’ve seen it work. I lived in a country for a while that would snow heavily 9 months out of the year (I’m talking -40°C) and had great public transportation. What they did to clear the roads is they had those industrial huge vehicles that push snow (snowplow), but used it on the snow early every single day before traffic became heavy. Trucks would then come to pick up the accumulated snow. I don’t remember where they put the snow, but that’s how they kept the streets clear.
I also think they put salt or something on the road to keep the ice melted throughout the day.
Lol peep the Netherlands and Denmark. Even Minneapolis. They make it work, people just love their luxurious cars too much and live in suburbs created by white flight and mid-century urban renewal. Change takes time...
In Denmark and the Netherlands, they have (really) cold weathers and it doesn't prevent them from riding their bikes.
Finland existing proves you wrong
9:27 lovely couple 💕💖
This happens when people ditch cars and walk and take a bus or train together..
Just teach the new generation bikes are normal, not something for kids. it worked in the Netherlands.
You show multiple bicycle footage from Utrecht and Amsterdam but does not mention any of these cities. Why??????
Documentary about 1 Street. Meanwhile, the whole country infrastructure has had Grade D internationally, for 20 years, Dams are breaking on a yearly basis, bridges are crumbling day by day, highways in complete disrepair...
Cities don't fund those, CalTrans or DOT does. Also, the cost of re-striping and public hearings aren't as much as the labor, engineering, and materials cost of upgrading bridges, dams, and other infra.
@@Eric-md7lz We spend billions in iraq, but instead government wants us to live in urban favela shitholes like NYC and ditch cars just to pay for their oil wars.
"We dont have the money to maintain suburban car centered infrastructure" says the government that spent 3x their billion dollar budget on a simple highspeed train that was barely built.
The framing of the statistics in this video is appalling. Starting graphs at arbitrary points instead of a zero, as well as showing traffic time increases in absolute numbers, but then bus and cyclist improvements in percentages is not viable for comparison.
A larger problem is basic data interpretation errors. If you block off streets to cars, then fewer people may drive since they can't get where they need to go by driving. In other words, you may have only temporarily forced some people out of cars.
Starting graphs at zero is also arbitrary. The context of the data matter more.
@@LoanwordEggcorn Wouldn't that be permanent since those destinations will NEVER be accesible by car
@@joshschipper1396 I believe the experimental street closures were intended to be temporary, in order to measure the effects, before reopening the streets to regular traffic.
I'm kind of surprised they didn't mention the L train nor any of the other trains that hit 14th Street. 14th is sort of the Southern 42nd.
my friend in la drove on a formerly busy freeway just to see what it's like without traffic
Here in Germany streets were empty during and 1 week after the lockdown. Now, after opening, they are fuller then ever. As nobody wants to use public transport anymore this won't change. Therefore: Nope!
Have lanes for bikes and lanes for vehicles separated like a highway however I'm confused on the ways in which car accidents victimized "people of color"
faux fact added in for sensation, just meant to further divide unity.
That's just to switch attention from the fact that American cities don't curb trafic like in Europe. Because reducing lanes and slaping some paint for bicycle lanes wont completly fix your problem. You also need other curbing methodes like roundabouts or road bumps. that and they are just trying to create a media hit piece using the racism card.
It's based on a connection of historic events in which urban gentrified areas which are largely white and educated in NYC, SF and most other urban areas have become economically successful, and therefore are places where traffic abatement is used. In areas where the US Government denied federally insured mortgages to "colored" people as stated in the 1940s legislation and banks denied loans based on redlining maps, economic opportunity is lower because of less inherited wealth.
In practice, this means that these same groups who were denied the same opportunities as their white counterparts have inherited less stable and economically viable neighborhoods, leading to less investment in modern and safe transportation standards.
Well, they said in the video that poorer neighborhoods have worse streets, comparatively. Isn't it obvious? Few crossings, sidewalks, lacking maintenance etc. As far as I am aware, poverty also increases drug and alcohol use. It's just a really bad scene.
Cities are best enjoyed when walked around or by cycling across!!
Thank the coke brothers for the obstacles to change and progress,
they thwart transit consistently for decades, millions spent on lobby and corruption🇨🇦🙏🏻
I love it!! Many streets in NYC have closed for restaurants to operate and for pedestrians.
I hate cars
It definitely seems we're heading for a non-car-dependent future. And I love that. Bring on the transit and the busses and the bikes and trikes and all that!
Thessaloniki has a population of 2 million and there were over 50 traffic jams between 1990 and 2019
As someone who currently lives in Fresno, they got rid of the only pedestrian pathway downtown with a street and practically killed all businesses. Where i remember tons of people walking up and down to shop now only during events like art hop is when they show up, and the parking they added is negligible. Then again, Fresno isn't exactly known for doing anything right.