Finally, this is what urbanist channels need to be talking about. It's not all about cities with tens of thousands or millions of residents. Walkability and transit in sub-10,000 resident towns is literally the lynchpin for a wider (inter)national transportation network.
One of my favorite things is taking the Amtrak and experiencing these small towns from their intended entrance points. Small towns can play an important role in the country overall, but when most people approach intercity travel by airplane or freeway, these towns are too often bypassed and forgotten.
@@eryngo.urbanism Just like your Amtrak, my country's VIA Rail is kinda terrible, but provides a good foundation for something better. The worst part about VIA is that they weigh-in and make passengers go through customs for domestic trips, so most people fly since it's the same hassle anyway and flying is both cheaper and faster in Canada. VIA Rail could literally be made capable of competing with air travel (albeit only in a few places) at the stroke of a pen, but we don't do it for some reason. There's also a major chokepoint in Canada's internal road and rail network in northern Ontario where if one bridge freezes over or gets sabotaged, it cripples the entire country.
If you have an interstate running through your town, the first question to ask is whether the town wants travellers to stop there - for commercial purposes. If so, give travellers a reason to stop. If not, either send the road below ground or build an above-ground tunnel or fake building around it. Cities build fake buildings with a pretty fascade for all sorts of reasons - noise mitigation included. Of course that would cut the town in half. In NYC they are planning to cover FDR and turn the "roof" into a park (or have they done that already?) - instant town square and / or park. In Singapore the roof of the Marina Barrage is a green roof used by residents for all sorts of activities. I think noise barriers are pretty cost effective now-a-days. One thing the town could have added to the alleyway park is a free library. Also, I've seen a few tactical urbanism project videos using paint - adds colour & interest (such as murals) - for roads, intersections, public plazas etc. In Europe where urban heatwaves are a major concern adding colourful street shading looks beautiful.
Love the fee library idea, and the main issue with tunneling the highway is budget. I'm fairly certain that the big dig in Boston, for example, was the most expensive highway project ever built per mile. Most small towns do not have that kind of budget, despite what Cities Skylines might have you believe ;)
Currently live in a town much like this, only quickly suburbanizing in all directions. It's easy for me to sigh at the car dependency every time I have to drive to work or school. But then I remember we do have a cute main street that, just a couple weeks ago, closed to cars for a concert of a small local band. It definitely helps that our main street is not a truck route.
Help encourage your neighbors to focus on these more walkable areas! All of these towns have so much potential for the right kind of growth and development, and all it takes to get the ball rolling is someone with a vision!
Now you need to visit Hominy! I've not been over there in a couple of years, but I think there is a lot of potential there, and the community seems to be adding events for everyone to share. Besides, Kaitie needs to see Cha' Tullis's gallery! Great job!
Commenting to gin up the old algo "engagement" meter. Your content is always thoroughly relatable and informative. There is a similar mural and alleyway project going on in the small city I work in, and I am hoping for some of the knock-on effects you discuss in your conclusion.
Wonderful video! Bentonville shown at 3:10 is building a lot of medium density housing in downtown and plans on redesigning some streets in the central square to be pedestrian only!
You really don't need transit at all to achieve walkability. Small island communities, and many communities up in the arctic are very walkable, but they don't really connect to anything else nearby because they are often the only town around. All you need are mixed use, and well connected street networks, and you can achieve walkability in which residents can walk to their daily needs, and not need a car. For bigger services they may need some form of plane or car to get to a Hospital. But for the most part building a walkable place is mind numbingly simple.
It depends on the town. Some of them have cute walkable downtowns typically built 100 years ago or more. Others are like Duchesne, Utah, everything there is spread out and even the downtown is very car-dependent. Duchesne is an oil town that grew mostly in the mid to late 20th century. When someone says small town I typically picture a place like Duchesne. I’ve driven through places like that on a trip, maybe to stop for gas or fast food. They’re not appealing places to walk around in. That’s why when I see the cute downtowns I always get amazed! Sometimes they’re a bit tucked away. Hopefully we’ll see a return to that style in our lifetimes as more people are realizing how depressing the places we’ve been building are.
I just looked at Vinita on Google Maps and I think people should be questioning whether traffic really needs to pass through the main street here. There's a parallel freeway at the outskirts of town with interchanges on both sides of town, so pretty much anywhere a truck is going other than to Vinita, it can use the freeway instead of this main street.
Vinita could also benefit from being less significantly bisected by the freight rail system, which pains me to write as a lover of passenger rail. It partitions the community rather poorly.
Thought this was going to be an uplifting video. Then you showed the results and it was just suuuuper depressing. I literally thought "You're kidding, right?". How can this poor excuse of an ally be the result of one of the "larger sized grands"?
Keep in mind that this is one of the larger-sized grants for "quick-action projects," things that can be pulled off in just a few days with just a few unskilled community volunteers. Like we said in the video, the project brought the community together, and it continues to provide a space for community gatherings. And while it might not seem like much, it's still a tangiable improvement, which can serve to show the town how much more is possible.
Highly recommend checking out small towns nearby, it can be a fun time ❤️
Finally, this is what urbanist channels need to be talking about. It's not all about cities with tens of thousands or millions of residents. Walkability and transit in sub-10,000 resident towns is literally the lynchpin for a wider (inter)national transportation network.
One of my favorite things is taking the Amtrak and experiencing these small towns from their intended entrance points. Small towns can play an important role in the country overall, but when most people approach intercity travel by airplane or freeway, these towns are too often bypassed and forgotten.
@@eryngo.urbanism Just like your Amtrak, my country's VIA Rail is kinda terrible, but provides a good foundation for something better. The worst part about VIA is that they weigh-in and make passengers go through customs for domestic trips, so most people fly since it's the same hassle anyway and flying is both cheaper and faster in Canada.
VIA Rail could literally be made capable of competing with air travel (albeit only in a few places) at the stroke of a pen, but we don't do it for some reason.
There's also a major chokepoint in Canada's internal road and rail network in northern Ontario where if one bridge freezes over or gets sabotaged, it cripples the entire country.
I'm the Rural Urbanist... and I approve this message! 😊
If you have an interstate running through your town, the first question to ask is whether the town wants travellers to stop there - for commercial purposes. If so, give travellers a reason to stop. If not, either send the road below ground or build an above-ground tunnel or fake building around it. Cities build fake buildings with a pretty fascade for all sorts of reasons - noise mitigation included. Of course that would cut the town in half. In NYC they are planning to cover FDR and turn the "roof" into a park (or have they done that already?) - instant town square and / or park. In Singapore the roof of the Marina Barrage is a green roof used by residents for all sorts of activities.
I think noise barriers are pretty cost effective now-a-days.
One thing the town could have added to the alleyway park is a free library.
Also, I've seen a few tactical urbanism project videos using paint - adds colour & interest (such as murals) - for roads, intersections, public plazas etc. In Europe where urban heatwaves are a major concern adding colourful street shading looks beautiful.
Love the fee library idea, and the main issue with tunneling the highway is budget. I'm fairly certain that the big dig in Boston, for example, was the most expensive highway project ever built per mile. Most small towns do not have that kind of budget, despite what Cities Skylines might have you believe ;)
Currently live in a town much like this, only quickly suburbanizing in all directions. It's easy for me to sigh at the car dependency every time I have to drive to work or school. But then I remember we do have a cute main street that, just a couple weeks ago, closed to cars for a concert of a small local band. It definitely helps that our main street is not a truck route.
Help encourage your neighbors to focus on these more walkable areas! All of these towns have so much potential for the right kind of growth and development, and all it takes to get the ball rolling is someone with a vision!
That alleyway could use some bushes/shrubs.
Totally agree
Now you need to visit Hominy! I've not been over there in a couple of years, but I think there is a lot of potential there, and the community seems to be adding events for everyone to share. Besides, Kaitie needs to see Cha' Tullis's gallery! Great job!
Commenting to gin up the old algo "engagement" meter. Your content is always thoroughly relatable and informative. There is a similar mural and alleyway project going on in the small city I work in, and I am hoping for some of the knock-on effects you discuss in your conclusion.
Glad you enjoyed! At the very least, it's hard to do anything that makes an alleyway less pleasant. Hopefully it goes well!
Recognize 3:07 as the Bentonville Arkansas town square!
I've always said Vinita was the L.A. of Oklahoma
LA - Flagstaff - Santa Fe - Amarillo - Vinita - St. Louis - Chicago
Wonderful video! Bentonville shown at 3:10 is building a lot of medium density housing in downtown and plans on redesigning some streets in the central square to be pedestrian only!
Bentonville is honestly supper nice, would love to see them develop a rail connection to Rogers/Springdale/Fayetteville
100% at the very least i can bike on greenways to the other cities@@eryngo.urbanism
I did this one time in Sparta, NC and my family went to a small diner and literally everyone knew each other. It was amazing!
You really don't need transit at all to achieve walkability. Small island communities, and many communities up in the arctic are very walkable, but they don't really connect to anything else nearby because they are often the only town around. All you need are mixed use, and well connected street networks, and you can achieve walkability in which residents can walk to their daily needs, and not need a car. For bigger services they may need some form of plane or car to get to a Hospital. But for the most part building a walkable place is mind numbingly simple.
It depends on the town. Some of them have cute walkable downtowns typically built 100 years ago or more. Others are like Duchesne, Utah, everything there is spread out and even the downtown is very car-dependent. Duchesne is an oil town that grew mostly in the mid to late 20th century.
When someone says small town I typically picture a place like Duchesne. I’ve driven through places like that on a trip, maybe to stop for gas or fast food. They’re not appealing places to walk around in. That’s why when I see the cute downtowns I always get amazed! Sometimes they’re a bit tucked away.
Hopefully we’ll see a return to that style in our lifetimes as more people are realizing how depressing the places we’ve been building are.
You can tell this video took a while given the attire 😂 definitely not wearing that in the heat of Oklahoma summer
I just looked at Vinita on Google Maps and I think people should be questioning whether traffic really needs to pass through the main street here. There's a parallel freeway at the outskirts of town with interchanges on both sides of town, so pretty much anywhere a truck is going other than to Vinita, it can use the freeway instead of this main street.
I love this channel, please keep up the good work!
Glad you enjoy! More coming soon!
Vinita could also benefit from being less significantly bisected by the freight rail system, which pains me to write as a lover of passenger rail. It partitions the community rather poorly.
UA-cam doesn’t show me your videos anymore, I didn’t know there were two more…
Make sure you hit the notification bell! There's more coming soon!
what did you major in?
Architecture!
Thought this was going to be an uplifting video. Then you showed the results and it was just suuuuper depressing. I literally thought "You're kidding, right?". How can this poor excuse of an ally be the result of one of the "larger sized grands"?
Keep in mind that this is one of the larger-sized grants for "quick-action projects," things that can be pulled off in just a few days with just a few unskilled community volunteers. Like we said in the video, the project brought the community together, and it continues to provide a space for community gatherings. And while it might not seem like much, it's still a tangiable improvement, which can serve to show the town how much more is possible.
So many towns in the US look the exact same - boring and lame. Maybe in the future, the younger generations can fix them.