Just for some context, Miami-Dade County saw 359 road fatalities in 2023, a full *eight times more* than the 45 in the City of Toronto - despite Toronto having a higher population (3 million versus 2.7 million). www.flhsmv.gov/traffic-crash-reports/crash-dashboard/ www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/road-safety/vision-zero/vision-zero-dashboard/fatalities-vision-zero/
Slightly unrelated to this video, but did you see the CBC headline about how "The City of Victoria has again declared itself as the cycling capital of Canada, almost 25 years after it first received the same proclamation from the Queen and attorney general"? Would love to hear your thoughts and whether the data backs up their (crazy sounding to me) claim...
@@andymacatack It's not crazy but there are different ways to judge it. If you look at the top bike commuting neighbourhoods in Canada, they're mostly in Montreal. But if you look at the city or metro area with the highest overall bike commuting rate, Victoria wins (and by a pretty large margin). Cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver have their numbers brought down by their vast suburbs.
Don't forget, regarding vehicle requirements and pedestrian fatalities, #Florida does not require front vehicle ID labels (metal plates, #licenseplatewrap, etc.) on most classes of vehicles like in #Québec unlike 2-labels provinces, states, and territories like #Ontario, #California (where #licenseplatewrap is legal by #CADMV), #USVirginIslands, and more, and many countries worldwide where at least most classes of vehicles, each vehicle must have a front and rear plate. No front labels makes holding bad drivers without appearing as a security or police officer in even subtle ways a challenge. Wish front vehicle ID labels (though not limited to metal plates like with legacy regulations) are required in every province, state, and territory so holding bad drivers accountable can be easier as a regular citizen even if not everyone has access and skills to use the same technology governments and police forces uses. Yes, this includes people (e.g. seniors, foreigners, etc.) with no usable smartphones for various reasons (e.g. dead battery, none in possession, etc.).
As long as you have shade and water, walking and biking reasonable distances are no issue in warm climates, and in fact are exactly what tourists want. That being said, transit is more appealing for long distances when it's really hot.
I live in Florida, during much of the year it would be impossible for me to walk or bike to work, I would arrive sopping wet with sweat. The humidity is off the charts.
Totally agree and I'm from Miami. The issue is not the climate, it's the infrastructure. Concrete can be several degrees cooler if it's in shade and surrounded by green-space.
@@GeorgeP-uj8xc yeah the urban heat island effect in sunny cities like miami or los angeles is crazy, especially when lots of the trees are palm trees. their shade isnt enough to cool the areas below them. you need water AND shade to prevent heat stroke
@@davidwelty9763 Taking it easy, biking should be better than walking due to the wind-in-the-hair effect. I know not all of Florida is flat, but it's flatter than where I live and I only have issues with humidity while climbing. I know of people who commute in Queensland Australia (equivalent humidity). This is also why some employers have installed shower facilities.
the key thing there is shade and vegetation, u can bring water, u can't make shade and vegetation appear when theres none, and just shade alone won't do much, u need vegetation to keep it from getting super hot
At 6:07 that is a new signal lights installation. I don't understand why but in the U.S. it's common to see the lights installed, then covered in black plastic, then sit for months before being activated.
It likely varies between states, but here in IL we had to wait several weeks to have the installed system inspected by IDOT or a certified contractor before turning them on. Pretty dumb, tbh.
Visting anywhere else in the greater miami area will change your opinion. despite the large population it's pretty miserable as a pedestrian and for activities to do outside of miami.
I’m a Dade county local and biking in Miami is a hazard ppl don’t respect you. But don’t say there’s no actives to do outside Miami biking wise there’s SOOO MUCH trails JUST for biking & hiking it’s crazy most are out by the Everglades or hugging the suburbs to the west, you can go out there and ride you bike up and down dade county and ride as far down as US-1 by biscayne bay, there’s also some good parks for mountain biking like the Amelia park and Jonathan Dickinson
@@arislopes1924 I think OP was implying that options for pedestrians suck compared to central Miami area. Everglades is great, but maybe not the best example? I'd have to drive 30 minutes west, and if I want to bring others to bike with, buy a bike rack or borrow my dad's pick-up truck. There's other activities that are a closer drive and even some suburban trails exist. But if I don't want to/can't drive, my options are pretty poor :/
@@arislopes1924 There are many biking *activities* outside of Miami proper, but there is little actual biking infrastructure that is for transportation. All of those trails are primarily for leisure, not transportation.
I live in Central Florida, which is just as hot as Miami, but instead of the ocean breeze, we just get high humidity. But, thanks to recently buying an e-bike, commuting by bike is actually pretty reasonable. I arrive at work, and later get home, without sweating nearly as much as I did on the traditional bike. With the e-bike, I don't have to work as hard; plus, riding the e-bike gives me a nice 20mph breeze.
Here in Sweden we have mopeds with a speed limit of 30 km / h around 20 miles /h that are allowed on cycling paths. Often with fossil fuel engine but also now more electric, including those with pedals to increase the range between charging.
To any visitor, Weston (and hundreds of similar gated communities) looks good for the first 10 minutes. Then you realized you are trapped with no sidewalks and nothing close by, after a couple hours you realize all the houses are just 3 models that are different colors, after a day you notice that there is a competition who has the biggest SUV, etc)
@@shivtim I'd still rather walk in Miami. In Atlanta, the evil Kevin Leonpacher hunts down "jaywalkers" to beat unconscious and arrest like he did to a BBC reporter named Fernando Armesto.
Most registration fees and/or personal property taxes on vehicles are ad valorum (based on value), but Texas' annual vehicle registration fees have been based on weight for decades.
Paris’s new parking fees are based on vehicle weight. It’s incorrectly called an SUV tax, but it’s because most vehicles that are affected happen to SUVs.
@@GeoMeridium "it's worth considering whether that tax revenue will be spent" Not really. The point of such a tax isn't to pay for transit. It's to (a) pay for road damage (especially if you make it a 4th power of weight) and (b) to _prevent_ road damage by discouraging people from buying heavier vehicles than they need. With a lot of these kinds of taxes, on negative externalities, you could literally burn the money and still have a useful 'tax' that works by discouraging bad behavior.
As you saw downtown, Metromover and Metrorail has led to so much development! I know people love subways, but having elevated transit like Metrorail or Metromover is just as cool, as shown in Miami! Besides Brightline, Metrorail, and the Metromover, there's also Tri-Rail! The thing with Tri-Rail is that when it was created in the 1980s, it was originally meant to be a temporary solution to highway construction. They were widening the Florida Turnpike and Interstate 95, and so FDOT formed Tri-Rail in the meantime. But when it started operating in 1989, they saw just how much demand for commuter/regional rail and realized "Oh wait, y'all actually like trains? Cool" and so they made it permanent and added more stations, and they even added special bike cars! Tri-Rail was extended to Brightline's MiamiCentral station in January 2024! Interesting Miami facts: Miami was named after the Miami River, derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of Lake Okeechobee and the American Indians who lived around it. Mayaimi means "big water". The Tequesta tribe occupied the Miami area for around 2,000 years before contact with Europeans. A village of hundreds of people, dating to 500 to 600 BCE, was located at the mouth of the Miami River. It is believed that the entire tribe migrated to Cuba by the mid-1700s. Miami is noted as the only major city in the United States founded by a woman. Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower and a wealthy Cleveland native, was the original owner of the land upon which the city was built. Tuttle was the one who convinced railroad tycoon Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to the region. Miami was officially incorporated as a city on July 28, 1896, with a population of just over 300. Incredible growth since then!
I live in the US south where giant trucks are everywhere. Even taking that into consideration, the shot of the giant, lifted F350 fire rescue truck was shocking to me 7:16
I feel it's a good sign when first CityNerd and now you two visit our incredibly complex metro area and see it's many faults but genuine highlights. There's definitely a growing movement for change, but we all know entrenched power is a tough beast to beat.
Miami native here too. I love this city man, I would argue it's the best city. There is definite movement to improve transportation, like the bus way to Cutler bay or bike paths by coconut grove.
@@jakey4003 Its 50/50. More than ppl want to admit. Everyone I know loves Brightline. And they at least love the concept of pedestrian friendliness. It's just never been offered to them. Most ppl don't want to HAVE TO pay for gas. They want it to be optional.
I live in South Florida but up by Palm Beach. Miami is surprisingly walkable (the bar is quite low). To be honest, I take the Brightline high(er) speed rail directly to downtown Miami and do without my car for an entire weekend. I have an ebike which allows me to ride around back in my home city but unfortunately I can’t take it on the brightline. I’m not sure I would be comfortable biking in Miami though 😅
As a person born and raised in South Florida, the #1 issue for me is the sun. It truly makes a mild day feel like a hot day here in South Florida, and I think the Miami metro area needs a lot more shade. I remember visiting Padua in the summer, and one thing which was remarkable to me was how so many streets in the old city are arcaded. Those arcades add shade to the sidewalks which make the heat in the summer there bearable. Miami could learn from other cities which have solved their own heat issues. The temperature in the summer in Miami (and this is no exaggeration) is usually 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and the humidity and sunlight makes it feel like 40/104. By the way, the driving you saw at the school is pretty tame to how it usually is. Head over to Hialeah or Doral, and the driving becomes *very* problematic.
Lol, OK so I'm not crazy - people actually want more shade! This is always a debilitating conversation for me, especially when I talk to NIMBY-er people. Why not have more shade, for the love of god?!? Why are some people so anti-tree and anti-shade? I always try to walk on the shady side of the street in hot weather and so seem to most people. So why not have more shade? Who's it hurting? Argh...
Idk man if you move to Florida, you just have to accept that we have horribly humid summers. More shade is always better. Gainesville Florida is a good tree covered city if you wanted an example.
@@GirtonOramsay It's a tree-covered city, but that doesnt mean it's a great city to walk around. The buses are only great around campus, and the streets are mostly designed for cars, not people. Archer Road has a nice bikepath along it, but it's not covered at all and it's right next to the stroad. 13th Street is much more pleasant, but it's still a car sewer, especially on game days. Older neighborhoods around Midtown and Downtown sometimes don't even have sidewalks, and they definitely don't have shade. The rest of the city is just unwalkable. Trust me, I've tried. That's how I know all of this about Gainesville. Sidenote, you mention the humidity, and I'm reminded of a city with even worse humidity than Miami/Gainesville but has shade, and that's Cartagena in Colombia. In the old city there, the streets were designed to be thin enough so that there is almost always one side of the street that has shade from the buildings. The humidity can be a bit overwhelming (especially during the wet season), but if you dress right and stay in the shade, you'll be fine.
This is true, neighborhoods with a lot of more trees tend be cooler and have a nice breeze to them, places like gables & groove( coconut grove). Notice how it’s always the wealthy neighborhoods that have the most trees while the poor ones are literally slabs of concrete
@@mccoolguy1973 I wasn't a fan of the campus being surrounded by stroads. But there is enough bike paths and sidewalks to get between downtown and campus and surrounding apartment areas. I recall many of the residential neighborhoods north of campus having lots of tree cover on 8th and 16th streets
As a floridian, miami is HELL for pedestrians. You would think downtown would be walkable but no! Many times im walking on the street itself due to no sidewalks. It’s insane. Ocean drive was also better with no cars tbh. But I understand ocean drive historically was a place to show off ur car.
You forget that Miami is a city for the wealthy and “flexers”. They make it half car friendly because people have luxuries like cars to show off on a sunny day or an event.
CityNerd had a good take when it comes to Miami: urbanism for the rich and car dependence for everyone else. Regarding the county-city structure in Florida: chartered counties, which Miam-Dade is, may elect to preempt cities within their borders and often own roads that run through cities. Basically, it works like this: State>County>City. I suspect the issues regarding the road closures in Miami Beach have something to do with the county owning the road. Counties tend to try to work with the cities within their borders and often permit cities to pass their own zoning, codes, and other local laws, but traffic is often seen as a regional issue because roads do not end at city limits. As a long-time South Florida resident, the summers are brutal--and it's not just because of the sun. It rains almost daily during the summer making it hard to dress for any prolonged period outdoors. Otherwise, Florida could be great for biking because it's flat. Unfortunately, the best places for biking are almost exclusively urban cores where the biking infrastructure is adequate at best, and dangerous at worst.
So curious to see an urbanism video about my hometown. It’s almost embarrassing 😅 It’s gotten better but there is so much work to do as you all pointed out.
its also such a huge contrast seeing your on city in a video from a different perspective. It's so vibrant, full of tropical trees and interesting architecture. But when you live and see it on the day to day you become unphased by it
The backstory on the chickens in Miami is because of the Cubans! There are descendants of those bred in Cuba to fight, and those used in Santería for sacrifice which is an Afro-Cuban religion. Fighting between roosters is an extremely popular sport in Cuba. So when Cubans migrated to the US, the roosters came too, and so the sport was popularized in Key West and Miami until it was declared illegal in 1986. Thus, they were released. In Key West, the Cubans there also used pet chickens for food but when Key West was connected by train in 1912, they released them after realizing they didn't need them for food anymore since Key West was now connected to the mainland. Key West was once the cigar capital of the world because of Cubans! An interesting transit fact about the Cuban Spanish you heard in Miami is that our word for bus is guagua, which is also the word for bus in Puerto Rico! As a Cuban leftist in NY (my Cuban side of the family left because of Batista before the revolution), I'm glad you enjoyed the Cuban culture there and I think Miami has honestly solid transit despite the sprawl! I'm glad Brightline exists in Florida! I know it gets criticism for all the car crashes, but you can't entirely blame Brightline's crossings since as you saw while in Miami, Florida drivers are....something else. The more transit options that people have in the US whether it's Brightline, regional rail, or Amtrak, the better! Not to mention all the housing that comes with new stations, and it further helps tourism by connecting the different cruise ports.
All 305 locals know the chickens are there because of the Cuban voodoo aka Santeria a form of Bantu a African religion which requires animal blood sacrifices
Really? I thought it was just normal to see them in tropical places. San Juan, which a pretty dense and sizable urban modern city has chickens everywhere!! :0
@@BizcachiSan Juan is in the Caribbean. A lot of Caribbeans did chicken fights until it became banned. Then they just roam free and wildly. San Juan is a lot like Miami in similar but uniquely different ways.
@@Notpublic4719Ive seen that Vietnam has chickens in their big cities as well. So bc of that I thought it was a normal thing of more developing countries.
Well, that isn't the main reason. Water is a trivial obstacle to construction honestly. Especially in these modern times. We understand quite well how to properly insulate and protect from water ingress. It is a higher cost, but not outrageously so that it would be a deterrent if necessary. However, the main reason is that it is almost entirely unnecessary. In places like New York or Canada, the frost line (the depth where foundations need to past to prevent temprature changes from seasons to lift the structure out of the ground) is deep, several feet deep, so generally, if you are digging that deep anyway purely for construction, it makes more sense to expand the tunnels more and make transit, especially in extremely dense areas like New York. However, in Miami, the frost line is mere inches, so you are almost never digging deep, so it is highly unnecessary and there isn't already a network of tunnels that you can utilize from construction. Furthermore, the ground in Miami is mainly made of limestone, which is very structurally unstable when you start digging, so it is dangerous to make deep tunnels and are more of a hassle than water to design around. Physical character of limestone which consists large cavity prone to sudden failure and become worsen due to misinterpretation of rock quality by engineer and geologists during analysis stage and improper method adopted in construction stage.
@@Ghettofingerwell, the other issue is that in Miami you dig down two feet and hit straight limestone. Though it's possible to dig through it, it's financially prohibitive as it becomes a mining project rather than a digging one.
I grew up in the south Florida suburbs and I can confirm that Miami is the best pedestrian experience Florida has to offer. I no longer live in Florida, and I only ever considered walking/biking as a means of transportation after I left because of how bad the build environment is. I’m glad you had a fun time though! Florida is a great place to visit, but not to live in my opinion lol.
I wish more urbanist channels would do street-level city critiques like this-especially in Sun Belt cities where conditions are worst. Stuff like this is really helpful to local activists trying to convince their city officials how bad their streets are compared to other places
@kfen I live in Dallas, and I've experienced much worse elsewhere. The only serious problem here is the ridiculous amount of 45mph stroads. At least I haven't gotten threatened with violence by car-addicted suburbanites like in the Sacramento area.
Miami is really bad because a lot of the drivers are used to driving in Latin America and just got off the boat. Good luck getting drivers to yield at crosswalks, not even the signs being in Spanish helps!
I loathe the gigantification of trucks and SUVs. They're getting bulky in ways that obstruct views further and make everyone else, including other people in cars, less safe in a crash. Not to mention the outsized road wear they cause (and don't pay for, 4th power rule). Also fun is that the lifted ones with wheels that stick out past the mud guards are illegal in Georgia, but they continue to be driven on public roads in large numbers...
I live in Los Angeles, which gets pretty warm but isn't humid like Flordia. The other day I took a walk somewhere 20 minutes away, and it was 80 degrees that day. It felt really hot and miserable most of the walk, worsened by the noise of the 4 lane stroad next to me. But part of the walk goes next to a park, and I decided to walk through the park even though it would take a bit longer. It felt so much cooler there because there was shade, as there were no trees on the walk up to this point. The greenery and distance from cars also made the area much quieter. I'm sure there are still days that would be too hot too walk (like 100 degree days in the summer) but it feels like the problem of heat has a lot more to do with the lack of care for providing shade for pedestrians
I live in Miami and went to LA in May. LA is cold in comparison. The ocean water was too cold for me. lol But I understood why there were so many people walking around in LA.
i've never encountered the number of people possessed by such sheer rage anywhere else (not even NYC!) as in miami. it's like the angriest, most on edge folks from the NY area all migrated down to miami and are ready to explode at the slightest trigger. a beautiful place nonetheless! and not everyone is a jerk, just most people lol
Yay! Great video you two. I just returned today from a 5 day trip to Seaside, FL where I am pleased to say that I felt like the pedestrian experience was pretty amazing. I’ll have a summary video out soon. Cheers! 😎
Miami is definitly one of the more walkable cities in the U.S outside of the northeast region and its the most walkable city in Florida by far. If you had a hard time walking in Miami than it doesn't get much better in any of the other U.S cities.
With every additional video I only convince myself that my opinions coincide 100% with the opinions of these creators. Amazing, correctly calibrated, and data-backed content. You folks are amazing! Thank you for the work that you do for urbanism on youtube. You're now by far my favorite urbanist/transit channel. If I were to make a personal "criticism" of your videos based on my content preferences - I would love to hear more of your opinions on transit. I feel like you have a lot more things to say there and would love to encourage you not to hold back and put that stuff in your videos! Thanks again!
I love how you reference safety guides that tell you to make eye contact with drivers, and how ridiculous of a safety tip that is when cars have tinted windows. I almost got hit the other day because the driver had tinted windows and their behaviour indicated they saw me but I couldn't tell because of tinted windows.
And many illegally tint the windshield, which is never permitted to be tinted. Front window tinting is also supposed to be less than the rear windows, but pretty much every car with tinted windows violate those two restrictions.
I went to college at the University of Miami and stayed in greater Miami for a year and a half after graduation. Living, working, and having to drive everywhere in suburban Miami-Dade County was my own personal hell. Even back then (1980-1984) the drivers were horrible, worse than Massachusetts drivers who had and have a reputation to be bad drivers. And drivers down there in Miami have only got exponentially worse since.
I used to live in West Kendall and drove to UM every day. If I left early enough, I could make the trip in 45 minutes. If I left just a little too late, it was 90 minutes. At night, I could make the drive in 15 minutes. Miami traffic is truly awful.
The ginormous urban tank SUV tells 2 things about US. First, pedestrian safety campaigns are all about putting the responsibility and onus on the pedestrian doing the right things otherwise "it's their fault". Second, these big freaking SUVs show how people only care about themselves and their safety and no one else: not pedestrians, not kids in strollers, and not smaller cars. In a nutshell, North America is rubbish when it comes to anyone not driving. There are no proper transportation designers or a transportation policy, only rubber stampers for car traffic policies and for building more lanes.
It will be perfect ifnthey'll add the flags. Tjere are quite a few places in the US that atach a cylinder to a pole on both ends of the crosswalk that holds bright orange (probably reflective) flags that you're suppose to hold and wave while crossing the street at a crosswalk, usually with other accessories to getvthe driver's attention like flashing signs ir actual traffic lights (thatvturns red for a bit than start flashing).
Thanks for sharing this! I'm from Fort Lauderdale and would say that South Florida (West Palm Beach to Miami) is EXTREME on both ends. It has some of the most wonderful pockets to be in the whole world, but if you're not in those tiny (typically ultra rich) areas, the environment is horribly against you.
Truly. If you look at S. Florida from Palm Beach County to Miami, it's endless super blocks of the most massive stroads I've ever seen packed from everglades to the ocean lined with giant strip malls with ugly sprawling disconnected suburban neighborhoods within the super blocks. There's zero developable land left and despite the crazy increase in density because of the lack of developable land, traffic is way worse than anywhere else in FL since there's so little to walk to outside of a few select walkable beach towns like Del Ray. Even when there's nice walkable pockets, I find the streets lined with million dollar condos and high end boutiques and overpriced mediocre restaurants completely soulless. 75 percent of the people in these walkable areas are rich elderly northeasterner retirees in pastel golf shirts and late middle aged men with their young nose-jobbed trophy wives, almost no diversity at all of socio economic status or skin color. It's truly suburban hell.
I've heard a lot about Miami in the last year for other reasons (mainly cultural), but not much about the urban landscape, so it's really interesting to see your take on it from this perspective. I have so many thoughts on it: Chickens? What? SUVs: Ugh, so unnecessary. Architecture: YES. It's definitely quite a mixed bag, but I can see the appeal. It would be interesting to see what takeaways you had from it (what other cities could learn from it) and what you'd change if you could. My main thought is: Do more city visits like this (if you can afford it). Hearing your thoughts on Montreal/Canada is great, but it's a big world out there and there's so much more to see and learn from. It would make your channel much more interesting if you travelled away more (but I realise it can be expensive and difficult to do).
As someone from Australia riding a bike to work can become increasingly difficult during summer as it can get pretty hot (30+ Celsius isn’t unusual along with a few days of 40+ in some cities). Melbourne, where I live, averages 26-27 degrees throughout summer and sees on average 21 days a year above 30 degrees, but it has got as a high as 46. Improving shade on bike lands with trees makes a significant difference but using lighter pavement instead of asphalt/tarmac often makes the bike paths reflect a lot of sunlight, making it hard to see. However, sometimes it is just too hot to ride especially in other cities such as Perth and Brisbane where average summer temperatures are 31 and 29 degrees respectively. People have died (including young adults) from organ failure due to overheating while riding in 30+ degree weather.
Thanks guys, this video completely eliminated any desire I had to visit Miami, so I now have literally 0 reason to ever go back to Florida. What a relief!
The amount of crazy people on the road and terrible infrastructure makes it a deadly combination. I’ve seen so many things on the roads down here that make me dizzy and exhausted
I dont understand this people in america that say that heat is a problem, like heat here in Brazil is way worse and we still have pedestrian friendly urbanism in most cities(and we are also poorer).
Consider that the United States is large amd has multiple climates, I would assume the same about Brazil since it is also a large country. I just Googled, Rio de Janeiro is 82° F feels like 91° 85% and Miami is 87° F feels like 93° 56%. Our government at multiple levels and the businesses around us active suppress our desires and attempts at urbanism. This is why these kinds of channels are important, so many people don't even know that there is another way because where in our country would we have seen it?? And as a Miami native who is watching historic neighborhoods being bulldozed to create new "walkable" expensive communities it's hard to imagine what a walkable South Florida will look like and how much of the Black, Brown, Latin, and Caribbean culture they will erase (the displacement of the people as well) to create it for people who don't even live in Florida yet.
You're right, the issue is for walking around the city is you dont get much shade from the sun, a lot of bus stops dont have shade, and the asphalt makes it even more hotter
I am a native Miamian that now lives in Broward what I have noticed about South Florida is that people in cars somehow no longer see pedestrians or bicycles when they are in a car and they want to turn at an intersection. It's like pedestrians and bicycles can't be seen from a car that is turning at an intersection I don't know how many times I've almost gotten hit or run over walking around my bike by a car that wants to turn at an intersection even when I have the light even in the middle of the day with my red hunting jacket on and bright sunlight and I'm crossing they just drive through the intersection. Also, the bike lanes they have made in the busiest streets are suicidal.
Fellow natve Miamian here! I recently purchased a new car and kept feeling like it couldn't see the whole road like I was able to do in my old car. My mom said she feels that way about all cars manufactured after like 2010, they give your the camera because you can't actually see without it. Also, I notice in some areas they give the right of way light for pedestrians and left turning vehicles at the same time which seems counterintuitive to me. I prefer intersections where all the cars stop of 2 - 3 minutes and all the pedestrians cross in all the different directions. I know all these massive SUVs don't help the situation either.
I lived in Miami Beach for 4 years. I can say that the dip in pedestrian traffic in the summer is absolutely due to the dip in tourists. I loved the summers precisely because there were a lot less tourists. All the year-round residents I knew didn't change their routines at all during the summer, because we were all used to it. Then I moved to Phoenix and I found I could exercise outdoors up to 104F (40C) but not above that. Phx gets up to 110f (44C) and much higher (118F or 48C is not unusual) during the summer, so there was a definite limitation for me.
They're on the road but there is no sidewalk on that side of the street. Here's roughly where they were: www.google.com/maps/@25.8097182,-80.127439,3a,75y,14h,78.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVE5mIA5uLFTJivwPUs4lPQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
@@OhTheUrbanity It looked confusing and elevated from the left lanes. They could easily put protected bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the street if they were smart
I spent 4 years at the University of Miami back in the 1970's and I barely recognize the place. It's become so gentrified. In my day it was little rundown but it felt more like a genuine city and the traffic wasn't all that bad. From the looks of your video it seems they've done to Miami, what they've done to New York's Times Square and turned it into a Disneyland version of itself.
Miami is actually a pretty good setup for a US city, definitely better than a lot of other places around the US for sure, including better than a lot of places in Florida itself.
Miami may not be the urbanist utopia we wish it was but I think it’s a great city still. There is still a number of walkable areas u can visit to not go completely insane from existing in Car dependent hell. Obv Miami Beach being the main choice but neighborhoods like wynwood, brickell, little havana, and even some outside of Miami proper like palm beach or ft lauderdale. These were all nice places to explore and they were walkable enough in my experience. There’s also so much construction going on in Miami especially downtown. Idk if ever been somewhere with as much construction happening as Miami. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire area of Miami proper from Brickell to where 195 cuts across the city becomes super dense and urban. That would provide Miami with a decent enough urban core that could continue to spread even more as Im sure the population growth will require. The miami metro simply wont have enough room to continue to sprawl at some point. Maybe im a lil over optimistic but I think Miami is headed in a good direction in an urbanist aspect at least. If ur going to visit, appreciate Miami for what it is, not what you want it to be. If u are just miserable the entire time about the car centric infrastructure and the issues it causes, you will have a miserable experience. If you just realize ur in a unique city with amazing culture, cuisine, and warm sunny weather, you may appreciate it much more. It really felt like America’s interpretation of a Latin American city and I loved it. The rest of florida…. thats a different story lol.
was riding on a road shoulder in florida and almost killed by insane driver speeding behind me, honking and running me off the road. it was a genuine nightmare living there without a car.
The same thing happened to me many times in the San Francisco area, except also with extremely close punishment passes that nearly amputated my left hand.
Having attended college in Miami, it has BY FAR the worst drivers in the US. Unfortunately, I doubt the car-centric road geometrics are going to change there anytime soon since pedestrian and bike-friendliness has become associated with "wokeness." I'm surprised you didn't ride the MetroRail in addition to the Metro Mover to get the experience of the more regionally-oriented elevated metro system. Walking in Miami is also made into an unrewarding experience by the prevalence of modernist buildings that only present blank concrete walls or curtain glass to the street. The lack of adornment on buildings citywide and the poor spatial definition of the street space can really lead to sensory deprivation and mental stress when you're out walking everywhere for hours at a time.
I've visited Miami a few times, and I unfortunately have to disagree with you on the worst drivers bit. I think Sacramento, CA has the worst drivers I've ever seen. Not surprisingly, it's a huge NIMBY haven (even worse than SF) where public transit and walking are heavily associated with criminality. I had some angry drivers threaten to get out and stab me or call the cops on me for photographing squirrels in Sacramento.
As a Brit who lives in the Tampa Bay Area, I can say that the tropical summer's are BRUTAL. The midday heat & sun in July will have you drenched in sweat after 10 mins of walking. But this isn't a good enough excuse for car-centric infrastructure - E-scooters are a great tool for getting around locally because they don't require exercising, and the "wind" you feel from whizzing along at 15-20mph makes the July heat feel surprisingly reasonable.
@@crowmob-yo6ry Unfortunately that's not inaccurate, considering there's not even a passenger rail system here... though I would argue that Jacksonville's is worse
In Miami, the escooters and bikes are popular as you can get on the Metrorail and possibly buses with them and then use them to get around town like ‘last mile’. It’s good sub if you don’t have a reliable car and work in person. Also summers are brutal! And they are made worse without shade, thank you for pointing it out! They need to work on safer sidewalks and adding trees all over the city. Also, the Miami Beach has some NIMBYs that don’t want trains extended to the Beach -‘Stop the Train’ because they think it will bring homeless people and crime to the area 😅 but the County is pushing for trains because buses are getting overcrowded. So the County is not always the problem but thanks for shading light on the some the issues in Miami and Miami Beach. And Love Wynwood too ❤
This is a great video of the tourist perspective of Miami. No shade at all as it's very necessary to understand Miami, but it misses a lot of the Greater metro area, which means it misses the experience of the majority of us who live(d) there. To fill in some of those gaps, check out CityNerd's video about his trip to Miami. A much closer peek into the lived experience of the working class/working poor and honestly even an ever expanding portion of the middle class. These two videos together paint a pretty spot-on picture of the duopolis (coining that) that is Miami/Miami-Dade County.
I used to live in Florida but have since moved. Hostile infrastructure and hostile drivers are the two biggest challenges. However, the weather is in fact an issue in the summer. I lived on the southwest coast, rather than in Miami. The biggest challenge was indeed summer, but not because of the heat. Parts of Florida get over 100 days of thunderstorms a year. We're talking seriously nasty thunderstorms that aren't safe to bike in. They also always tended to be around the time that I would leave work, which often made bike commuting an issue. Were I in somewhere with good transit infrastructure, like where I live now (Washington, DC), then I could have just as easily put my bike on the metro and not had to worry about the thunderstorm. Another major issue, maybe not with Miami, but the rest of Florida is the sprawl. In a 5 mile bike in DC, I can get to pretty much any destination that I would want and that includes world-class amenities that people travel internationally for. In Florida, 5 miles barely gets to a grocery store.
As a native Montrealer, my biggest culture shock when I visited Latin America was how motorists behaved in their cars. Pedestrians became something of an afterthought, and it often seemed like their personalities change when they get into their cars. Many people confirmed that developing countries are more car-centric because cars are a luxury and become symbols of relative wealth. Regular people drove small motorbikes and used handicapped ramps on the highway as parts of the road hahahaha. I lived in one building in a tourist town where I had to cross a huge, 6 lane busy highway without crosswalks or traffic lights. I took my life in my hands every time. I missed the culture of pedestrian respect that I grew up in. Thanks for sharing this enlightening video.
Tel aviv has very hot and muggy summers, yet few residents drive cars as the traffic is awful. E-scooters and e-bikes are by far the most popular methods of transportation in the city.
As someone from Miami, it is vital to understand that the less dense areas are some of the most anti-pedestrian suburbs you'll find, and all the dense areas shown are ruinously expensive. All of the areas that are dense or near the beach exemplify literally the worst of America's housing affordability crisis. And, the nicer areas in South Florida are usually gentrified or undergoing gentrification, Wynwood being a literal case study in gentrification.
Living in Florida I can say that sounds very familiar despite the 3 hour highway speed drive separating me from Miami. I have seen many a close call where pedestrians almost get hit by a right on red driver that never even slowed down for the light. I live within walking distance from a public library and the lack of sidewalks and the 7 lanes I would have to cross means that the only sensible choice is to drive.
Miami has the ocean to the south, east and a wall of wildlife reserves10 miles to the west. I'm a bit optimistic about Miami becoming more urbanist if only because they are running out of room to expand.
Hmm... very interesting. Not the least bit appealing, but certainly interesting. My advice - if you want a beautiful tropical climate, colourful streetscapes, interesting Spanish architecture, a strong sense of place, and are willing to overlook a less than ideal pedestrian environment, go to Colombia. Pricier flight but much cheaper once you arrive and has all the interesting stuff with less of the crappy downsides. The pedestrian environment isn't great but there are just so many pedestrians that there's strength in numbers. Plus the vehicles on average are smaller than even in Canada let alone Florida. And the natural scenery in many of the cities is other worldly. Like Vancouver but tropical.
@@kjh23gk Better urbanism than Colombia? I've never been to Spain but from what I've seen from afar I'll take Colombia. From the couple weeks I spent there, the urbanism is impeccable. The pedestrian issues are mostly sidewalk quality, lack of respect for crosswalks, and too much traffic noise/exhaust on busier streets. But the urbanism is less posh / polished than western Europe for people who care about that.
@@NouvellecosseColombia is definitely more walkable but can be just as bad or worse than Miami in terms of pedestrian safety. No right of way laws and lots of dog poop on the streets of Bogotá. I do miss how convenient it was to walk to shops or a grocery store though.
M-D has some great bike trails: from Coconut Grove down Old Cutler to Cutler Bay and under the South Metrorail from Brickell, the Gables, Dadeland, then the Busway all the way to Florida City. You walked by MDCPublicSchools building? LOL! Mini-mover is free and great views; great when it’s super hot and humid. That “big road” (5:00) is Biscayne Boulevard! Did you stop at Buenas Aires Bakery on Collins and 71st in North Beach? Walking in Miami isn’t that bad; just gotta have that presence. And biking in summer is a challenge because of thunderstorms. You can literally be sunny, turn a corner and it’s raining, not fun/safe in a bike!
Did you know I-95 starts very close to where you were and ends up in New Brunswick Canada? give or take, 962mi (1548 Km) ... giver or take. Thanks for sharing this great video.
The lack of dropped drugs around Little Havana are a nightmare. I (somebody with no mobility issues or hindrances) tripped over getting off of a 6 lane street. Can't imagine what it's like if you needed to get something wheeled across those roads.
I thought the Greater Toronto Area was bad, but I'm now glad I don't live and cycle in Miami and appreciate my city more. There's clearly a completely different mindset, anti-people, and pro-car thinking. One time someone went through a school bus stop sign and was shamed on the news. At 11:50 the car almost plows through the cyclist, I would hate people and hate living there.
I live in Orlando, FL and in the summer months heat isn’t the issue. It’s the random furious rainstorms with strong winds. As long as you have water you’re good. And in the city plenty of the side streets have tree coverage. The arterial roads are a no go zone.
Did you notice in freezing cold Ottawa that the outdoor stations aren't covered and the trains constantly breaks down...Ottawa is the complete opposite. Wide sidewalks and bike lanes every where.,
The dip in September comes from rain. Miami’s the only place with tropical rain. Being from south Florida, I’ve rarely seen rain anywhere else in the country that comes close to the every day rain from June - October. An every day storm can be like a tropical storm at times.
I lived in Florida for most of my life and I don't think you can redeem most of it. Its just to car centric and the government does not care. Miami has better transit however with metro rail and metro mover
In the 1970s and early 80s Miami was known as a high crime area overrun with foreigners, drug smugglers and drug lords. It wasn’t regarded as a place where you wanted to be. Then came the TV show Miami Vice and its image completely turned around after that. It made Miami cool and fashionable again. And from that point on Miami increased in popularity as places like Los Angeles decreased.
florida already had skyscrapers in the 1920s...there's video of WW1 and WW2 celebrations downtown with massive parades. stop trying to rewrite history. you know what place was a dump then and is still a dump now? tallahassee, where your noles and corrupt state politicians do everything possible to make the quality of life worse for the entire state
There’s a reason a lot of the roads “look like highways” in Miami. The County sold them to FDOT years ago, so Miami-Dade only controls the local streets. Everything else is controlled by FDOT. To be clear, the County planners are - for the most part - in favor of safe streets, but the County transportation engineering division (TED) fights it. Mind, any street design in one of the cities has to be signed off by the County. However, the City-County street fight is also two-way. Many times, the cities resist the occasional case where the County planners - or even non-profit advocates - come through with safer street design. Of course, FDOT comes into play on anything that’s an arterial, and that’s frequently a lost cause. But to bring up an even crazier example, that bit of SW 8th Street in Little Havana you cite is FDOT controlled - and they DID have a plan to reduce capacity for ped/bike improvements - but the City commissioner for that area refused it. Go look up commissioner Joe Carollo if you want to see how far the madness hole goes with Miami.
Florida truly became a problem when someone decided it was a vacation destination and second home for the wealthy of New England. It's mostly a "tourist vibe" kind of place. It's a microcosm of the problem with wealthy NIMBYs in the county determining solutions for the poor in the city limits. The culture and infrastructure do not incentivize drivers to pay any attention to pedestrians, cyclists, or buses. It's a nightmare outside a car EVERYWHERE in Florida.
“Miami’s above ground parking garages are goofy” 😂😂. You mean theres another type? Florida has a very shallow water table. It’s very difficult to build below ground in Florida.
I work parking enforcement in Miami-Dade. People here truly believe that they are doing nothing wrong. They will argue with you if you cite or tow their vehicle. We have some of the worst drivers in the state.
I live in Denver, Colorado, and just found this channel. These people are right about the pedestrian problems in our cities. We make it too easy to drive, and our public transit is mostly used by poor people - unlike in European countries. Here in Denver there is almost traffic enforcement. I always say they use the "Vision? Zero!' approach. It's not even an afterthought.
as someone from a hot and humid climate, I think the biggest thing we need is trees and less asphalt, my town has basicly no trees, no grass no anything, just asphalt and cement everywhere, but there are 2 parks in the whole town that are very green, the difference from one side of the street (the side with the buildings) to the other side (the side of the park) is immense, its so much less hot when there are trees around. Artificial shades are not the same as natural tree shade, tree shade is way fresher
As a Miami Beach resident, I can tell you there is a constant push here to increase the availability of mass transit to eliminate the need for so many cars. It feels like a losing battle, and there is resistance to spending the money on the cost of these infrastructure projects unless it involves wider, bigger roads. Miami is a terrible place to walk, and the news carries stories of hit and runs against pedestrians, bikes and scooters on a daily basis. Many people have given up their bikes out of fear. BTW, I'm pretty sure the proliferation of huge SUVs is due to tourists using Uber and Lyft, so as to arrive to their destinations looking like a "celebrity...." I don't know anyone who owns one as their personal vehicle.
Great video, really interesting! A lot of the positive examples looked fairly new, so hopefully the place is on the right track of improving even more in the future :) Don't live in a tropical place, but visited a city in Taiwan. A lot of the buildings there extend over the sidewalk, giving it cover from weather and the sun. Useful for any climate!
I live in Miami Beach. And yes Miami is a car lovers city. Nobody walks in Miami, we all drive, even in Miami Beach. Most of people you see walking are tourists, specially the places you visited, for what I see in the video. Wynwood, is a new neighborhood, it was a rundown warehouse district so it is being revitalized as we speak, edge water is another neighborhood that was just small houses, all those towers didn't exist 10 years ago,so it is being developed as it gets built, little Havana although in the city proper is basically the first suburban area the city developed. Miami Beach has the free trolley, but Miami does too. We also have the freebies which are private cars the city has that take people for free in different areas, so Miami has a lot of free transit options that most cities would like to have. So yes Miami has bad things, granted, but has a lot of things people just dream having, specially the weather. 😉
The Miami Brightline station also has random chickens running around when you walk out of the station. The bike lanes are nice but there are random locations where there are gaps in the bike lane system where the bike lane abruptly ends and you have to jump into a sharrow with speeding cars. Some construction in downtown also has blocked some bike lanes.
@@SummitCoyote mm, every? for every rule there are exceptions, and there's also way more place's in the united states that are way more expensive yet also aren't walk-able and don't have transit. it's intentional multilayered policy decisions for decades that have made these places more scarce here than in other places in the world, and while yes, the rich are always going to hog the nice places, the fact that you have to be super rich here to have what the merely rich in Switzerland have, shows a level of intentionality versus inherency.
@@ethanstump most houses are not owned by people. theres tons of vacant houses owned by massive investment companies and sitting vacant waiting to sell when the market is up. at least within the US, the nice walkable and transit quality areas are all where rich people live.
That's not really true. The miami metrorail passes through some rough neighbourhoods like overtown, brownsville, etc while there's plenty of more affluent or middle class suburban areas that are neglected and require people to drive to the train station. Miami Beach itself is disconnected from the metro as well.
@@davidkasparov8043 can you tell me of a protected bike lane on a low income street? and wider, where in general are the gaps in the protected bike lanes? also, which streets are shutdown for festivities and races? certainly isn't the low income street. and i'm just talking about my city, ogden, not miami. added, which street's have roundabouts versus streetlights? it's not going to be a low income neighberhood with the roundabout. the exceptions prove the rule.
I have lived on the west side (residential) of South Beach near Lincoln Rd. for the past 22 years. It's the only place in Florida where I'd live. Since I've been here, the bike infrastructure has substantially improved and even the pedestrian experience has as well. The Venetian is a great pedestrian and bike connector to Miami where a station of the MetroMover greets you after the crossing. I use this route often to get to downtown and Brickell. That said, the driving here is certainly horrible. Fortunately, I am in one of the few places where a car isn't required for daily life.
I've only been to Florida once. Orlando, not Miami. One of the most miserable places I've ever been. 25 US states & territories and 25+ countries on four continents, and with the possible exception of Alabama, I've never been to a more unpleasant place. Just awful. I was there for a little over a week and was ready to leave on day two. I've heard parts of Miami aren't so bad, but the idea of going back to Florida is...not something I'm planning to do.
I lived an August in Osaka. Dew point could hit 27 C, higher than many actual tropical cities. I hated the heat and humidity, but walk and bike levels continued to be very high. My closest supermarket, an 8 minute walk, wasn't even car accessible -- not only no car parking, but you couldn't drive up to its entrance. Shade there: not really much in street trees, but you're often walking right by a multi-story building, so there's a fair bit of shade that way.
13:06 “OK, we’ll admit that Miami’s above ground parking garages are a little goofy.” Building parking garages *below* sea level and in the soil conditions found there is not really the best idea.
Just for some context, Miami-Dade County saw 359 road fatalities in 2023, a full *eight times more* than the 45 in the City of Toronto - despite Toronto having a higher population (3 million versus 2.7 million).
www.flhsmv.gov/traffic-crash-reports/crash-dashboard/
www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/road-safety/vision-zero/vision-zero-dashboard/fatalities-vision-zero/
Slightly unrelated to this video, but did you see the CBC headline about how "The City of Victoria has again declared itself as the cycling capital of Canada, almost 25 years after it first received the same proclamation from the Queen and attorney general"? Would love to hear your thoughts and whether the data backs up their (crazy sounding to me) claim...
@@andymacatack It's not crazy but there are different ways to judge it. If you look at the top bike commuting neighbourhoods in Canada, they're mostly in Montreal. But if you look at the city or metro area with the highest overall bike commuting rate, Victoria wins (and by a pretty large margin). Cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver have their numbers brought down by their vast suburbs.
Florida drivers are the absolute phuking WORST
Who asked you to compare Canada to South Florida...get back to your winter wonderland before you get run over.
Don't forget, regarding vehicle requirements and pedestrian fatalities, #Florida does not require front vehicle ID labels (metal plates, #licenseplatewrap, etc.) on most classes of vehicles like in #Québec unlike 2-labels provinces, states, and territories like #Ontario, #California (where #licenseplatewrap is legal by #CADMV), #USVirginIslands, and more, and many countries worldwide where at least most classes of vehicles, each vehicle must have a front and rear plate. No front labels makes holding bad drivers without appearing as a security or police officer in even subtle ways a challenge. Wish front vehicle ID labels (though not limited to metal plates like with legacy regulations) are required in every province, state, and territory so holding bad drivers accountable can be easier as a regular citizen even if not everyone has access and skills to use the same technology governments and police forces uses. Yes, this includes people (e.g. seniors, foreigners, etc.) with no usable smartphones for various reasons (e.g. dead battery, none in possession, etc.).
As long as you have shade and water, walking and biking reasonable distances are no issue in warm climates, and in fact are exactly what tourists want. That being said, transit is more appealing for long distances when it's really hot.
I live in Florida, during much of the year it would be impossible for me to walk or bike to work, I would arrive sopping wet with sweat. The humidity is off the charts.
Totally agree and I'm from Miami. The issue is not the climate, it's the infrastructure. Concrete can be several degrees cooler if it's in shade and surrounded by green-space.
@@GeorgeP-uj8xc yeah the urban heat island effect in sunny cities like miami or los angeles is crazy, especially when lots of the trees are palm trees. their shade isnt enough to cool the areas below them. you need water AND shade to prevent heat stroke
@@davidwelty9763 Taking it easy, biking should be better than walking due to the wind-in-the-hair effect. I know not all of Florida is flat, but it's flatter than where I live and I only have issues with humidity while climbing. I know of people who commute in Queensland Australia (equivalent humidity). This is also why some employers have installed shower facilities.
the key thing there is shade and vegetation, u can bring water, u can't make shade and vegetation appear when theres none, and just shade alone won't do much, u need vegetation to keep it from getting super hot
9:04
"He's probably just a construction worker driving between heavy loads"
9:49 "It was probably a cyclist riding dangerously" sarcasm delivery nearly went over my head.
James Bond: You'll kill 60,000 people uselessly.
Auric Goldfinger: Hah. American motorists kill that many every two years.
Note that the figures mentioned by Mr. Goldfinger are from the early 1960s.
“ADRENALINE OFFROAD!!! RAWRRR!!!”
At 6:07 that is a new signal lights installation. I don't understand why but in the U.S. it's common to see the lights installed, then covered in black plastic, then sit for months before being activated.
Government busy work. You finish early and just leave shit until your contract time is almost over
I think it is because they need to be hooked to the network so they can be controlled remotely!! ...but I am not certain.
It likely varies between states, but here in IL we had to wait several weeks to have the installed system inspected by IDOT or a certified contractor before turning them on. Pretty dumb, tbh.
@@Urbanhandyman more like years. I’ve seen the i95 staggered entrance lights just sitting there covered for years in many places in south Florida lol
Visting anywhere else in the greater miami area will change your opinion. despite the large population it's pretty miserable as a pedestrian and for activities to do outside of miami.
Yep. Grew up in Fort Lauderdale. Commute on bike. Yes, I do have a death wish.
I think we got a pretty good sense of it being hostile to pedestrians, but I don't doubt that it's worse in the suburbs
I’m a Dade county local and biking in Miami is a hazard ppl don’t respect you. But don’t say there’s no actives to do outside Miami biking wise there’s SOOO MUCH trails JUST for biking & hiking it’s crazy most are out by the Everglades or hugging the suburbs to the west, you can go out there and ride you bike up and down dade county and ride as far down as US-1 by biscayne bay, there’s also some good parks for mountain biking like the Amelia park and Jonathan Dickinson
@@arislopes1924 I think OP was implying that options for pedestrians suck compared to central Miami area. Everglades is great, but maybe not the best example? I'd have to drive 30 minutes west, and if I want to bring others to bike with, buy a bike rack or borrow my dad's pick-up truck. There's other activities that are a closer drive and even some suburban trails exist. But if I don't want to/can't drive, my options are pretty poor :/
@@arislopes1924 There are many biking *activities* outside of Miami proper, but there is little actual biking infrastructure that is for transportation. All of those trails are primarily for leisure, not transportation.
I live in Central Florida, which is just as hot as Miami, but instead of the ocean breeze, we just get high humidity. But, thanks to recently buying an e-bike, commuting by bike is actually pretty reasonable. I arrive at work, and later get home, without sweating nearly as much as I did on the traditional bike. With the e-bike, I don't have to work as hard; plus, riding the e-bike gives me a nice 20mph breeze.
How is Lakeland specifically in terms of bike infrastructure?
@@SnackMuayhell 💀
It's worth noting that Central Florida is quite a bit cooler in the winter months than SoFlo is, but yes the summers are just as brutal state-wide
Can you get a class 3 there? The juiced bikes like the CrossCurrent are fast and built like tanks.
Here in Sweden we have mopeds with a speed limit of 30 km / h around 20 miles /h that are allowed on cycling paths. Often with fossil fuel engine but also now more electric, including those with pedals to increase the range between charging.
Stayed 3 days in Weston, suburb of Fort Lauderdale, and was trapped in this gated community(no car), felt like the Truman show
To any visitor, Weston (and hundreds of similar gated communities) looks good for the first 10 minutes. Then you realized you are trapped with no sidewalks and nothing close by, after a couple hours you realize all the houses are just 3 models that are different colors, after a day you notice that there is a competition who has the biggest SUV, etc)
90% of the US is like this.
As some1 who grew up in Weston, I can confirm and do not want to live in a suburb ever again.
That Weston for you! 😂
Watching this confined to my bedroom in Weston, can’t go anywhere without a car. It sucks 😢
Come on up to Atlanta if you want to experience that classic southern -hospitality- pedestrian hostility
I blame the evil tyrant Kevin Leonpacher.
Agreed. That’s where I am. It’s bad out here.
Atlanta (the city proper) is way more walkable than Miami. It’s not even close.
@@shivtim I'd still rather walk in Miami. In Atlanta, the evil Kevin Leonpacher hunts down "jaywalkers" to beat unconscious and arrest like he did to a BBC reporter named Fernando Armesto.
Lmaooo nobody in Atlanta knows how to yield for pedestrians, its insane.
We need to seriously talk about taxing cars by weight and volume.
Agreed. Weight especially. The 4th power law multiplied by mileage should be at least 80% of road taxes based on the actual physics of road wear.
We wish, but we all know any attempt to impose such a measure would immediately be met with cries of "MUH FREEDUMB!!" from the Glenn Beck types.
Most registration fees and/or personal property taxes on vehicles are ad valorum (based on value), but Texas' annual vehicle registration fees have been based on weight for decades.
Paris’s new parking fees are based on vehicle weight. It’s incorrectly called an SUV tax, but it’s because most vehicles that are affected happen to SUVs.
@@GeoMeridium "it's worth considering whether that tax revenue will be spent"
Not really. The point of such a tax isn't to pay for transit. It's to (a) pay for road damage (especially if you make it a 4th power of weight) and (b) to _prevent_ road damage by discouraging people from buying heavier vehicles than they need. With a lot of these kinds of taxes, on negative externalities, you could literally burn the money and still have a useful 'tax' that works by discouraging bad behavior.
As you saw downtown, Metromover and Metrorail has led to so much development! I know people love subways, but having elevated transit like Metrorail or Metromover is just as cool, as shown in Miami! Besides Brightline, Metrorail, and the Metromover, there's also Tri-Rail! The thing with Tri-Rail is that when it was created in the 1980s, it was originally meant to be a temporary solution to highway construction. They were widening the Florida Turnpike and Interstate 95, and so FDOT formed Tri-Rail in the meantime. But when it started operating in 1989, they saw just how much demand for commuter/regional rail and realized "Oh wait, y'all actually like trains? Cool" and so they made it permanent and added more stations, and they even added special bike cars! Tri-Rail was extended to Brightline's MiamiCentral station in January 2024!
Interesting Miami facts: Miami was named after the Miami River, derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of Lake Okeechobee and the American Indians who lived around it. Mayaimi means "big water". The Tequesta tribe occupied the Miami area for around 2,000 years before contact with Europeans. A village of hundreds of people, dating to 500 to 600 BCE, was located at the mouth of the Miami River. It is believed that the entire tribe migrated to Cuba by the mid-1700s. Miami is noted as the only major city in the United States founded by a woman. Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower and a wealthy Cleveland native, was the original owner of the land upon which the city was built. Tuttle was the one who convinced railroad tycoon Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to the region. Miami was officially incorporated as a city on July 28, 1896, with a population of just over 300. Incredible growth since then!
I live in the US south where giant trucks are everywhere. Even taking that into consideration, the shot of the giant, lifted F350 fire rescue truck was shocking to me 7:16
What's shocking to me about that monster pickup is that it's right up on the sidewalk, blocking 2 or 3 driveways 😳🤯
The lifted rescue trucks are to help people when the frequent flooding issues happen.
Currently in Honolulu, and it makes me appreciate Montreal more. Miami is cool though, hopefully they'll succeed in improving people's environment.
I feel it's a good sign when first CityNerd and now you two visit our incredibly complex metro area and see it's many faults but genuine highlights. There's definitely a growing movement for change, but we all know entrenched power is a tough beast to beat.
Sorry you live in Florida during these times
Miami native here too. I love this city man, I would argue it's the best city. There is definite movement to improve transportation, like the bus way to Cutler bay or bike paths by coconut grove.
Entrenched power is one thing. Popular opinion is another: No one is forcing Miamians to buy these stupid vehicles. We’ve got a long way to go…
@@jakey4003 Its 50/50. More than ppl want to admit. Everyone I know loves Brightline. And they at least love the concept of pedestrian friendliness. It's just never been offered to them. Most ppl don't want to HAVE TO pay for gas. They want it to be optional.
I live in South Florida but up by Palm Beach. Miami is surprisingly walkable (the bar is quite low). To be honest, I take the Brightline high(er) speed rail directly to downtown Miami and do without my car for an entire weekend. I have an ebike which allows me to ride around back in my home city but unfortunately I can’t take it on the brightline. I’m not sure I would be comfortable biking in Miami though 😅
Paris now wants extra money for parking for overweight vehicles - their definition is above 1.6 tons. For Americans: That's per car, not per wheel…
This is how it should be everywhere.
As a person born and raised in South Florida, the #1 issue for me is the sun. It truly makes a mild day feel like a hot day here in South Florida, and I think the Miami metro area needs a lot more shade. I remember visiting Padua in the summer, and one thing which was remarkable to me was how so many streets in the old city are arcaded. Those arcades add shade to the sidewalks which make the heat in the summer there bearable. Miami could learn from other cities which have solved their own heat issues. The temperature in the summer in Miami (and this is no exaggeration) is usually 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and the humidity and sunlight makes it feel like 40/104.
By the way, the driving you saw at the school is pretty tame to how it usually is. Head over to Hialeah or Doral, and the driving becomes *very* problematic.
Lol, OK so I'm not crazy - people actually want more shade!
This is always a debilitating conversation for me, especially when I talk to NIMBY-er people. Why not have more shade, for the love of god?!? Why are some people so anti-tree and anti-shade? I always try to walk on the shady side of the street in hot weather and so seem to most people. So why not have more shade? Who's it hurting? Argh...
Idk man if you move to Florida, you just have to accept that we have horribly humid summers. More shade is always better. Gainesville Florida is a good tree covered city if you wanted an example.
@@GirtonOramsay It's a tree-covered city, but that doesnt mean it's a great city to walk around. The buses are only great around campus, and the streets are mostly designed for cars, not people. Archer Road has a nice bikepath along it, but it's not covered at all and it's right next to the stroad. 13th Street is much more pleasant, but it's still a car sewer, especially on game days. Older neighborhoods around Midtown and Downtown sometimes don't even have sidewalks, and they definitely don't have shade. The rest of the city is just unwalkable. Trust me, I've tried. That's how I know all of this about Gainesville.
Sidenote, you mention the humidity, and I'm reminded of a city with even worse humidity than Miami/Gainesville but has shade, and that's Cartagena in Colombia. In the old city there, the streets were designed to be thin enough so that there is almost always one side of the street that has shade from the buildings. The humidity can be a bit overwhelming (especially during the wet season), but if you dress right and stay in the shade, you'll be fine.
This is true, neighborhoods with a lot of more trees tend be cooler and have a nice breeze to them, places like gables & groove( coconut grove). Notice how it’s always the wealthy neighborhoods that have the most trees while the poor ones are literally slabs of concrete
@@mccoolguy1973 I wasn't a fan of the campus being surrounded by stroads. But there is enough bike paths and sidewalks to get between downtown and campus and surrounding apartment areas. I recall many of the residential neighborhoods north of campus having lots of tree cover on 8th and 16th streets
As a floridian, miami is HELL for pedestrians. You would think downtown would be walkable but no! Many times im walking on the street itself due to no sidewalks. It’s insane. Ocean drive was also better with no cars tbh. But I understand ocean drive historically was a place to show off ur car.
Exactly. Even Brickell isn't a very good pedestrian experience in many respects.
You forget that Miami is a city for the wealthy and “flexers”. They make it half car friendly because people have luxuries like cars to show off on a sunny day or an event.
@@kidtrunks2568Miami is the hit and run capital of the us 😢 it’s really bad over here.
CityNerd had a good take when it comes to Miami: urbanism for the rich and car dependence for everyone else. Regarding the county-city structure in Florida: chartered counties, which Miam-Dade is, may elect to preempt cities within their borders and often own roads that run through cities. Basically, it works like this: State>County>City. I suspect the issues regarding the road closures in Miami Beach have something to do with the county owning the road. Counties tend to try to work with the cities within their borders and often permit cities to pass their own zoning, codes, and other local laws, but traffic is often seen as a regional issue because roads do not end at city limits.
As a long-time South Florida resident, the summers are brutal--and it's not just because of the sun. It rains almost daily during the summer making it hard to dress for any prolonged period outdoors. Otherwise, Florida could be great for biking because it's flat. Unfortunately, the best places for biking are almost exclusively urban cores where the biking infrastructure is adequate at best, and dangerous at worst.
So curious to see an urbanism video about my hometown. It’s almost embarrassing 😅
It’s gotten better but there is so much work to do as you all pointed out.
its also such a huge contrast seeing your on city in a video from a different perspective. It's so vibrant, full of tropical trees and interesting architecture. But when you live and see it on the day to day you become unphased by it
luckily Florida is full of progressive and forward thinking politicians.
@@dariel312 because most neighborhoods arent like that. Try living in Brownsville
@@FeelItRisingwhere is this florida? i want it now!!
it’s like when the teacher critiques your homework
The backstory on the chickens in Miami is because of the Cubans! There are descendants of those bred in Cuba to fight, and those used in Santería for sacrifice which is an Afro-Cuban religion. Fighting between roosters is an extremely popular sport in Cuba. So when Cubans migrated to the US, the roosters came too, and so the sport was popularized in Key West and Miami until it was declared illegal in 1986. Thus, they were released. In Key West, the Cubans there also used pet chickens for food but when Key West was connected by train in 1912, they released them after realizing they didn't need them for food anymore since Key West was now connected to the mainland. Key West was once the cigar capital of the world because of Cubans!
An interesting transit fact about the Cuban Spanish you heard in Miami is that our word for bus is guagua, which is also the word for bus in Puerto Rico! As a Cuban leftist in NY (my Cuban side of the family left because of Batista before the revolution), I'm glad you enjoyed the Cuban culture there and I think Miami has honestly solid transit despite the sprawl! I'm glad Brightline exists in Florida! I know it gets criticism for all the car crashes, but you can't entirely blame Brightline's crossings since as you saw while in Miami, Florida drivers are....something else. The more transit options that people have in the US whether it's Brightline, regional rail, or Amtrak, the better! Not to mention all the housing that comes with new stations, and it further helps tourism by connecting the different cruise ports.
All 305 locals know the chickens are there because of the Cuban voodoo aka Santeria a form of Bantu a African religion which requires animal blood sacrifices
Really? I thought it was just normal to see them in tropical places. San Juan, which a pretty dense and sizable urban modern city has chickens everywhere!! :0
@@BizcachiSan Juan is in the Caribbean. A lot of Caribbeans did chicken fights until it became banned. Then they just roam free and wildly. San Juan is a lot like Miami in similar but uniquely different ways.
@@Notpublic4719Ive seen that Vietnam has chickens in their big cities as well. So bc of that I thought it was a normal thing of more developing countries.
Dale 😊
You’re so polite calling those drivers “inattentive”.
I liked this comment while driving my car in Miami 😁😁😁
The sarcasm is killing me 😂 9:46
👍😁
Above ground parking -> because there is water everywhere once you start digging in Miami.
Yeah. It looks a little funny but we couldn't hold it against the city, our taller buildings have parking too, it's just underground.
Well, that isn't the main reason. Water is a trivial obstacle to construction honestly. Especially in these modern times. We understand quite well how to properly insulate and protect from water ingress. It is a higher cost, but not outrageously so that it would be a deterrent if necessary. However, the main reason is that it is almost entirely unnecessary. In places like New York or Canada, the frost line (the depth where foundations need to past to prevent temprature changes from seasons to lift the structure out of the ground) is deep, several feet deep, so generally, if you are digging that deep anyway purely for construction, it makes more sense to expand the tunnels more and make transit, especially in extremely dense areas like New York. However, in Miami, the frost line is mere inches, so you are almost never digging deep, so it is highly unnecessary and there isn't already a network of tunnels that you can utilize from construction. Furthermore, the ground in Miami is mainly made of limestone, which is very structurally unstable when you start digging, so it is dangerous to make deep tunnels and are more of a hassle than water to design around. Physical character of limestone which consists large cavity prone to sudden failure and become worsen due to misinterpretation of rock quality by engineer and geologists during analysis stage and improper method adopted in construction stage.
Above ground parking is also a great place to get views and great places for open air night parking lot parties. Is that only a Florida thing?
@@Ghettofingerwell, the other issue is that in Miami you dig down two feet and hit straight limestone. Though it's possible to dig through it, it's financially prohibitive as it becomes a mining project rather than a digging one.
I grew up in the south Florida suburbs and I can confirm that Miami is the best pedestrian experience Florida has to offer. I no longer live in Florida, and I only ever considered walking/biking as a means of transportation after I left because of how bad the build environment is. I’m glad you had a fun time though! Florida is a great place to visit, but not to live in my opinion lol.
Where u move to
I wish more urbanist channels would do street-level city critiques like this-especially in Sun Belt cities where conditions are worst. Stuff like this is really helpful to local activists trying to convince their city officials how bad their streets are compared to other places
"The most pedestrian unfriendly major city..." guessing you've never been to Phoenix. Makes Miami look like an urban paradise.
Yeah lmao Phoenix is worst for peds
Or anywhere in Dallas FW metroplex
@kfen
I live in Dallas, and I've experienced much worse elsewhere. The only serious problem here is the ridiculous amount of 45mph stroads. At least I haven't gotten threatened with violence by car-addicted suburbanites like in the Sacramento area.
Las Vegas is even worse. Phoenix is horrible, but not the worst
Miami is really bad because a lot of the drivers are used to driving in Latin America and just got off the boat. Good luck getting drivers to yield at crosswalks, not even the signs being in Spanish helps!
I loathe the gigantification of trucks and SUVs. They're getting bulky in ways that obstruct views further and make everyone else, including other people in cars, less safe in a crash. Not to mention the outsized road wear they cause (and don't pay for, 4th power rule). Also fun is that the lifted ones with wheels that stick out past the mud guards are illegal in Georgia, but they continue to be driven on public roads in large numbers...
I live in Los Angeles, which gets pretty warm but isn't humid like Flordia. The other day I took a walk somewhere 20 minutes away, and it was 80 degrees that day. It felt really hot and miserable most of the walk, worsened by the noise of the 4 lane stroad next to me. But part of the walk goes next to a park, and I decided to walk through the park even though it would take a bit longer. It felt so much cooler there because there was shade, as there were no trees on the walk up to this point. The greenery and distance from cars also made the area much quieter. I'm sure there are still days that would be too hot too walk (like 100 degree days in the summer) but it feels like the problem of heat has a lot more to do with the lack of care for providing shade for pedestrians
Shade helps a lot; I think trees can also have a direct cooling effect via evapotranspiration.
I live in Miami and went to LA in May. LA is cold in comparison. The ocean water was too cold for me. lol But I understood why there were so many people walking around in LA.
i've never encountered the number of people possessed by such sheer rage anywhere else (not even NYC!) as in miami. it's like the angriest, most on edge folks from the NY area all migrated down to miami and are ready to explode at the slightest trigger.
a beautiful place nonetheless! and not everyone is a jerk, just most people lol
Sacramento, CA is much much worse!!
Yay! Great video you two. I just returned today from a 5 day trip to Seaside, FL where I am pleased to say that I felt like the pedestrian experience was pretty amazing. I’ll have a summary video out soon. Cheers! 😎
Everyone's visiting Florida these days it seems. Looking forward to the video!
Miami is definitly one of the more walkable cities in the U.S outside of the northeast region and its the most walkable city in Florida by far. If you had a hard time walking in Miami than it doesn't get much better in any of the other U.S cities.
With every additional video I only convince myself that my opinions coincide 100% with the opinions of these creators. Amazing, correctly calibrated, and data-backed content.
You folks are amazing! Thank you for the work that you do for urbanism on youtube. You're now by far my favorite urbanist/transit channel.
If I were to make a personal "criticism" of your videos based on my content preferences - I would love to hear more of your opinions on transit. I feel like you have a lot more things to say there and would love to encourage you not to hold back and put that stuff in your videos! Thanks again!
I love how you reference safety guides that tell you to make eye contact with drivers, and how ridiculous of a safety tip that is when cars have tinted windows. I almost got hit the other day because the driver had tinted windows and their behaviour indicated they saw me but I couldn't tell because of tinted windows.
And many illegally tint the windshield, which is never permitted to be tinted. Front window tinting is also supposed to be less than the rear windows, but pretty much every car with tinted windows violate those two restrictions.
I went to college at the University of Miami and stayed in greater Miami for a year and a half after graduation. Living, working, and having to drive everywhere in suburban Miami-Dade County was my own personal hell. Even back then (1980-1984) the drivers were horrible, worse than Massachusetts drivers who had and have a reputation to be bad drivers. And drivers down there in Miami have only got exponentially worse since.
I used to live in West Kendall and drove to UM every day. If I left early enough, I could make the trip in 45 minutes. If I left just a little too late, it was 90 minutes. At night, I could make the drive in 15 minutes. Miami traffic is truly awful.
The ginormous urban tank SUV tells 2 things about US. First, pedestrian safety campaigns are all about putting the responsibility and onus on the pedestrian doing the right things otherwise "it's their fault". Second, these big freaking SUVs show how people only care about themselves and their safety and no one else: not pedestrians, not kids in strollers, and not smaller cars.
In a nutshell, North America is rubbish when it comes to anyone not driving. There are no proper transportation designers or a transportation policy, only rubber stampers for car traffic policies and for building more lanes.
And does not care for climate change with greenhouse gas ( CO2)
Stand your ground state.
"Keep your child safe and uncrushed inside this giant child-crushing machine"
This is very much a Miami thing. The Culture is not one of warm community, unless it's a community of hate and scamming people.
It will be perfect ifnthey'll add the flags.
Tjere are quite a few places in the US that atach a cylinder to a pole on both ends of the crosswalk that holds bright orange (probably reflective) flags that you're suppose to hold and wave while crossing the street at a crosswalk, usually with other accessories to getvthe driver's attention like flashing signs ir actual traffic lights (thatvturns red for a bit than start flashing).
I was almost runover by a car at miracle mile in coral gables. The pedestrian light was set to walk.
Thanks for sharing this! I'm from Fort Lauderdale and would say that South Florida (West Palm Beach to Miami) is EXTREME on both ends. It has some of the most wonderful pockets to be in the whole world, but if you're not in those tiny (typically ultra rich) areas, the environment is horribly against you.
Truly. If you look at S. Florida from Palm Beach County to Miami, it's endless super blocks of the most massive stroads I've ever seen packed from everglades to the ocean lined with giant strip malls with ugly sprawling disconnected suburban neighborhoods within the super blocks. There's zero developable land left and despite the crazy increase in density because of the lack of developable land, traffic is way worse than anywhere else in FL since there's so little to walk to outside of a few select walkable beach towns like Del Ray. Even when there's nice walkable pockets, I find the streets lined with million dollar condos and high end boutiques and overpriced mediocre restaurants completely soulless. 75 percent of the people in these walkable areas are rich elderly northeasterner retirees in pastel golf shirts and late middle aged men with their young nose-jobbed trophy wives, almost no diversity at all of socio economic status or skin color. It's truly suburban hell.
I've heard a lot about Miami in the last year for other reasons (mainly cultural), but not much about the urban landscape, so it's really interesting to see your take on it from this perspective. I have so many thoughts on it: Chickens? What? SUVs: Ugh, so unnecessary. Architecture: YES. It's definitely quite a mixed bag, but I can see the appeal. It would be interesting to see what takeaways you had from it (what other cities could learn from it) and what you'd change if you could. My main thought is: Do more city visits like this (if you can afford it). Hearing your thoughts on Montreal/Canada is great, but it's a big world out there and there's so much more to see and learn from. It would make your channel much more interesting if you travelled away more (but I realise it can be expensive and difficult to do).
As someone from Australia riding a bike to work can become increasingly difficult during summer as it can get pretty hot (30+ Celsius isn’t unusual along with a few days of 40+ in some cities). Melbourne, where I live, averages 26-27 degrees throughout summer and sees on average 21 days a year above 30 degrees, but it has got as a high as 46. Improving shade on bike lands with trees makes a significant difference but using lighter pavement instead of asphalt/tarmac often makes the bike paths reflect a lot of sunlight, making it hard to see. However, sometimes it is just too hot to ride especially in other cities such as Perth and Brisbane where average summer temperatures are 31 and 29 degrees respectively. People have died (including young adults) from organ failure due to overheating while riding in 30+ degree weather.
I really do like the visual aesthetic of Miami.
Thanks guys, this video completely eliminated any desire I had to visit Miami, so I now have literally 0 reason to ever go back to Florida. What a relief!
The amount of crazy people on the road and terrible infrastructure makes it a deadly combination. I’ve seen so many things on the roads down here that make me dizzy and exhausted
All those big black domestic-brand SUVs are basically luxury taxis.
I dont understand this people in america that say that heat is a problem, like heat here in Brazil is way worse and we still have pedestrian friendly urbanism in most cities(and we are also poorer).
In Colombia too, like yes there’s lots of potholes on the roads and broken sidewalks but at least you can walk to the supermarket and other places.
Consider that the United States is large amd has multiple climates, I would assume the same about Brazil since it is also a large country. I just Googled, Rio de Janeiro is 82° F feels like 91° 85% and Miami is 87° F feels like 93° 56%. Our government at multiple levels and the businesses around us active suppress our desires and attempts at urbanism. This is why these kinds of channels are important, so many people don't even know that there is another way because where in our country would we have seen it?? And as a Miami native who is watching historic neighborhoods being bulldozed to create new "walkable" expensive communities it's hard to imagine what a walkable South Florida will look like and how much of the Black, Brown, Latin, and Caribbean culture they will erase (the displacement of the people as well) to create it for people who don't even live in Florida yet.
@@PTPAUL-ry7jc Rio de Janeiro yesterday had 140 degrees fahrenheit of thermal sensation
You're right, the issue is for walking around the city is you dont get much shade from the sun, a lot of bus stops dont have shade, and the asphalt makes it even more hotter
I am a native Miamian that now lives in Broward what I have noticed about South Florida is that people in cars somehow no longer see pedestrians or bicycles when they are in a car and they want to turn at an intersection. It's like pedestrians and bicycles can't be seen from a car that is turning at an intersection I don't know how many times I've almost gotten hit or run over walking around my bike by a car that wants to turn at an intersection even when I have the light even in the middle of the day with my red hunting jacket on and bright sunlight and I'm crossing they just drive through the intersection. Also, the bike lanes they have made in the busiest streets are suicidal.
Fellow natve Miamian here!
I recently purchased a new car and kept feeling like it couldn't see the whole road like I was able to do in my old car. My mom said she feels that way about all cars manufactured after like 2010, they give your the camera because you can't actually see without it. Also, I notice in some areas they give the right of way light for pedestrians and left turning vehicles at the same time which seems counterintuitive to me. I prefer intersections where all the cars stop of 2 - 3 minutes and all the pedestrians cross in all the different directions. I know all these massive SUVs don't help the situation either.
I lived in Miami Beach for 4 years. I can say that the dip in pedestrian traffic in the summer is absolutely due to the dip in tourists. I loved the summers precisely because there were a lot less tourists. All the year-round residents I knew didn't change their routines at all during the summer, because we were all used to it. Then I moved to Phoenix and I found I could exercise outdoors up to 104F (40C) but not above that. Phx gets up to 110f (44C) and much higher (118F or 48C is not unusual) during the summer, so there was a definite limitation for me.
Wait is an SUV driving on a sidewalk at 1:43 or is that some really strange infrastructure?
They're on the road but there is no sidewalk on that side of the street. Here's roughly where they were: www.google.com/maps/@25.8097182,-80.127439,3a,75y,14h,78.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVE5mIA5uLFTJivwPUs4lPQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
@@OhTheUrbanity It looked confusing and elevated from the left lanes. They could easily put protected bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the street if they were smart
I spent 4 years at the University of Miami back in the 1970's and I barely recognize the place. It's become so gentrified. In my day it was little rundown but it felt more like a genuine city and the traffic wasn't all that bad. From the looks of your video it seems they've done to Miami, what they've done to New York's Times Square and turned it into a Disneyland version of itself.
That Truck at 9:06 cracked me up. It has probably never left the pavement.
Lol. But it looks cool
Miami is actually a pretty good setup for a US city, definitely better than a lot of other places around the US for sure, including better than a lot of places in Florida itself.
I went to Miami once, I don’t desire to go there ever again. Insane drivers everywhere, hotter than hell.
Metro rail/MetroMover/TriRail combo is cool if you’re visiting or don’t have a car!
Miami may not be the urbanist utopia we wish it was but I think it’s a great city still. There is still a number of walkable areas u can visit to not go completely insane from existing in Car dependent hell. Obv Miami Beach being the main choice but neighborhoods like wynwood, brickell, little havana, and even some outside of Miami proper like palm beach or ft lauderdale. These were all nice places to explore and they were walkable enough in my experience. There’s also so much construction going on in Miami especially downtown. Idk if ever been somewhere with as much construction happening as Miami. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire area of Miami proper from Brickell to where 195 cuts across the city becomes super dense and urban. That would provide Miami with a decent enough urban core that could continue to spread even more as Im sure the population growth will require. The miami metro simply wont have enough room to continue to sprawl at some point. Maybe im a lil over optimistic but I think Miami is headed in a good direction in an urbanist aspect at least. If ur going to visit, appreciate Miami for what it is, not what you want it to be. If u are just miserable the entire time about the car centric infrastructure and the issues it causes, you will have a miserable experience. If you just realize ur in a unique city with amazing culture, cuisine, and warm sunny weather, you may appreciate it much more. It really felt like America’s interpretation of a Latin American city and I loved it. The rest of florida…. thats a different story lol.
was riding on a road shoulder in florida and almost killed by insane driver speeding behind me, honking and running me off the road. it was a genuine nightmare living there without a car.
The same thing happened to me many times in the San Francisco area, except also with extremely close punishment passes that nearly amputated my left hand.
Having attended college in Miami, it has BY FAR the worst drivers in the US. Unfortunately, I doubt the car-centric road geometrics are going to change there anytime soon since pedestrian and bike-friendliness has become associated with "wokeness." I'm surprised you didn't ride the MetroRail in addition to the Metro Mover to get the experience of the more regionally-oriented elevated metro system. Walking in Miami is also made into an unrewarding experience by the prevalence of modernist buildings that only present blank concrete walls or curtain glass to the street. The lack of adornment on buildings citywide and the poor spatial definition of the street space can really lead to sensory deprivation and mental stress when you're out walking everywhere for hours at a time.
I've visited Miami a few times, and I unfortunately have to disagree with you on the worst drivers bit. I think Sacramento, CA has the worst drivers I've ever seen. Not surprisingly, it's a huge NIMBY haven (even worse than SF) where public transit and walking are heavily associated with criminality. I had some angry drivers threaten to get out and stab me or call the cops on me for photographing squirrels in Sacramento.
As a Brit who lives in the Tampa Bay Area, I can say that the tropical summer's are BRUTAL. The midday heat & sun in July will have you drenched in sweat after 10 mins of walking.
But this isn't a good enough excuse for car-centric infrastructure - E-scooters are a great tool for getting around locally because they don't require exercising, and the "wind" you feel from whizzing along at 15-20mph makes the July heat feel surprisingly reasonable.
I last about 10 seconds before doused in sweat in Taipei
Tampa has the worst public transport I've ever seen. Seriously.
@@crowmob-yo6ry Unfortunately that's not inaccurate, considering there's not even a passenger rail system here... though I would argue that Jacksonville's is worse
@@crowmob-yo6ry Try Orlando, it's much worse.
@@Dipsoid At least Orlando has a Brightline station. ....and the Disneyworld monorails XD
In Miami, the escooters and bikes are popular as you can get on the Metrorail and possibly buses with them and then use them to get around town like ‘last mile’. It’s good sub if you don’t have a reliable car and work in person.
Also summers are brutal! And they are made worse without shade, thank you for pointing it out! They need to work on safer sidewalks and adding trees all over the city.
Also, the Miami Beach has some NIMBYs that don’t want trains extended to the Beach -‘Stop the Train’ because they think it will bring homeless people and crime to the area 😅 but the County is pushing for trains because buses are getting overcrowded. So the County is not always the problem but thanks for shading light on the some the issues in Miami and Miami Beach.
And Love Wynwood too ❤
This is a great video of the tourist perspective of Miami. No shade at all as it's very necessary to understand Miami, but it misses a lot of the Greater metro area, which means it misses the experience of the majority of us who live(d) there. To fill in some of those gaps, check out CityNerd's video about his trip to Miami. A much closer peek into the lived experience of the working class/working poor and honestly even an ever expanding portion of the middle class. These two videos together paint a pretty spot-on picture of the duopolis (coining that) that is Miami/Miami-Dade County.
No worries, we have no problem admitting that we were there for a few days and we didn't get to explore the city as deeply as we would have liked.
I used to live in Florida but have since moved. Hostile infrastructure and hostile drivers are the two biggest challenges. However, the weather is in fact an issue in the summer. I lived on the southwest coast, rather than in Miami. The biggest challenge was indeed summer, but not because of the heat. Parts of Florida get over 100 days of thunderstorms a year. We're talking seriously nasty thunderstorms that aren't safe to bike in. They also always tended to be around the time that I would leave work, which often made bike commuting an issue. Were I in somewhere with good transit infrastructure, like where I live now (Washington, DC), then I could have just as easily put my bike on the metro and not had to worry about the thunderstorm. Another major issue, maybe not with Miami, but the rest of Florida is the sprawl. In a 5 mile bike in DC, I can get to pretty much any destination that I would want and that includes world-class amenities that people travel internationally for. In Florida, 5 miles barely gets to a grocery store.
As a native Montrealer, my biggest culture shock when I visited Latin America was how motorists behaved in their cars. Pedestrians became something of an afterthought, and it often seemed like their personalities change when they get into their cars. Many people confirmed that developing countries are more car-centric because cars are a luxury and become symbols of relative wealth. Regular people drove small motorbikes and used handicapped ramps on the highway as parts of the road hahahaha. I lived in one building in a tourist town where I had to cross a huge, 6 lane busy highway without crosswalks or traffic lights. I took my life in my hands every time. I missed the culture of pedestrian respect that I grew up in. Thanks for sharing this enlightening video.
I guess then you'd really hate to see how people drive in Mexico City XD. At least its subway system is decent.
In Miami there’s a pedestrian scramble crosswalk NE First Avenue and NE Second Street in downtown Miami. It’s nice.
Tel aviv has very hot and muggy summers, yet few residents drive cars as the traffic is awful. E-scooters and e-bikes are by far the most popular methods of transportation in the city.
I live somewhere with similarly extreme summers, and my biggest challenge by far is lack of shade.
As someone from Miami, it is vital to understand that the less dense areas are some of the most anti-pedestrian suburbs you'll find, and all the dense areas shown are ruinously expensive. All of the areas that are dense or near the beach exemplify literally the worst of America's housing affordability crisis. And, the nicer areas in South Florida are usually gentrified or undergoing gentrification, Wynwood being a literal case study in gentrification.
The average rent in these areas is $2500-3000 a month for an apartment that is less than 1,000 square feet. Urbanism is for the rich in Miami
Living in Florida I can say that sounds very familiar despite the 3 hour highway speed drive separating me from Miami. I have seen many a close call where pedestrians almost get hit by a right on red driver that never even slowed down for the light. I live within walking distance from a public library and the lack of sidewalks and the 7 lanes I would have to cross means that the only sensible choice is to drive.
I used to live in Florida. I'm so glad I left.
Where to ?
@@Chilakilos San Diego, eventually.
Miami has the ocean to the south, east and a wall of wildlife reserves10 miles to the west. I'm a bit optimistic about Miami becoming more urbanist if only because they are running out of room to expand.
Thanks for visiting ! Glad you got to see how Miami has changed
Hmm... very interesting. Not the least bit appealing, but certainly interesting.
My advice - if you want a beautiful tropical climate, colourful streetscapes, interesting Spanish architecture, a strong sense of place, and are willing to overlook a less than ideal pedestrian environment, go to Colombia. Pricier flight but much cheaper once you arrive and has all the interesting stuff with less of the crappy downsides. The pedestrian environment isn't great but there are just so many pedestrians that there's strength in numbers. Plus the vehicles on average are smaller than even in Canada let alone Florida. And the natural scenery in many of the cities is other worldly. Like Vancouver but tropical.
Might as well go to Spain. Better urbanism too.
@@kjh23gk Better urbanism than Colombia? I've never been to Spain but from what I've seen from afar I'll take Colombia. From the couple weeks I spent there, the urbanism is impeccable. The pedestrian issues are mostly sidewalk quality, lack of respect for crosswalks, and too much traffic noise/exhaust on busier streets. But the urbanism is less posh / polished than western Europe for people who care about that.
@@NouvellecosseColombia is definitely more walkable but can be just as bad or worse than Miami in terms of pedestrian safety. No right of way laws and lots of dog poop on the streets of Bogotá. I do miss how convenient it was to walk to shops or a grocery store though.
M-D has some great bike trails: from Coconut Grove down Old Cutler to Cutler Bay and under the South Metrorail from Brickell, the Gables, Dadeland, then the Busway all the way to Florida City. You walked by MDCPublicSchools building? LOL! Mini-mover is free and great views; great when it’s super hot and humid. That “big road” (5:00) is Biscayne Boulevard! Did you stop at Buenas Aires Bakery on Collins and 71st in North Beach? Walking in Miami isn’t that bad; just gotta have that presence. And biking in summer is a challenge because of thunderstorms. You can literally be sunny, turn a corner and it’s raining, not fun/safe in a bike!
Did you know I-95 starts very close to where you were and ends up in New Brunswick Canada? give or take, 962mi (1548 Km) ... giver or take. Thanks for sharing this great video.
Fantastic video. I love these city reviews!
The lack of dropped drugs around Little Havana are a nightmare. I (somebody with no mobility issues or hindrances) tripped over getting off of a 6 lane street. Can't imagine what it's like if you needed to get something wheeled across those roads.
I thought the Greater Toronto Area was bad, but I'm now glad I don't live and cycle in Miami and appreciate my city more. There's clearly a completely different mindset, anti-people, and pro-car thinking. One time someone went through a school bus stop sign and was shamed on the news. At 11:50 the car almost plows through the cyclist, I would hate people and hate living there.
Long waits for crossing lights are a thing all over Florida. Just as bad in Orlando too 😭
I live in Orlando, FL and in the summer months heat isn’t the issue. It’s the random furious rainstorms with strong winds.
As long as you have water you’re good. And in the city plenty of the side streets have tree coverage. The arterial roads are a no go zone.
Did you notice in freezing cold Ottawa that the outdoor stations aren't covered and the trains constantly breaks down...Ottawa is the complete opposite. Wide sidewalks and bike lanes every where.,
The dip in September comes from rain. Miami’s the only place with tropical rain. Being from south Florida, I’ve rarely seen rain anywhere else in the country that comes close to the every day rain from June - October. An every day storm can be like a tropical storm at times.
I lived in Florida for most of my life and I don't think you can redeem most of it. Its just to car centric and the government does not care. Miami has better transit however with metro rail and metro mover
In the 1970s and early 80s Miami was known as a high crime area overrun with foreigners, drug smugglers and drug lords. It wasn’t regarded as a place where you wanted to be. Then came the TV show Miami Vice and its image completely turned around after that. It made Miami cool and fashionable again. And from that point on Miami increased in popularity as places like Los Angeles decreased.
florida already had skyscrapers in the 1920s...there's video of WW1 and WW2 celebrations downtown with massive parades.
stop trying to rewrite history. you know what place was a dump then and is still a dump now? tallahassee, where your noles and corrupt state politicians do everything possible to make the quality of life worse for the entire state
There’s a reason a lot of the roads “look like highways” in Miami. The County sold them to FDOT years ago, so Miami-Dade only controls the local streets.
Everything else is controlled by FDOT.
To be clear, the County planners are - for the most part - in favor of safe streets, but the County transportation engineering division (TED) fights it. Mind, any street design in one of the cities has to be signed off by the County.
However, the City-County street fight is also two-way. Many times, the cities resist the occasional case where the County planners - or even non-profit advocates - come through with safer street design.
Of course, FDOT comes into play on anything that’s an arterial, and that’s frequently a lost cause.
But to bring up an even crazier example, that bit of SW 8th Street in Little Havana you cite is FDOT controlled - and they DID have a plan to reduce capacity for ped/bike improvements - but the City commissioner for that area refused it. Go look up commissioner Joe Carollo if you want to see how far the madness hole goes with Miami.
it would be uneconomic to build below ground parking in Miami because of the limestone geology and high water table.
Florida truly became a problem when someone decided it was a vacation destination and second home for the wealthy of New England. It's mostly a "tourist vibe" kind of place. It's a microcosm of the problem with wealthy NIMBYs in the county determining solutions for the poor in the city limits. The culture and infrastructure do not incentivize drivers to pay any attention to pedestrians, cyclists, or buses. It's a nightmare outside a car EVERYWHERE in Florida.
“Miami’s above ground parking garages are goofy” 😂😂. You mean theres another type? Florida has a very shallow water table. It’s very difficult to build below ground in Florida.
I work parking enforcement in Miami-Dade. People here truly believe that they are doing nothing wrong. They will argue with you if you cite or tow their vehicle. We have some of the worst drivers in the state.
I live in Denver, Colorado, and just found this channel. These people are right about the pedestrian problems in our cities. We make it too easy to drive, and our public transit is mostly used by poor people - unlike in European countries. Here in Denver there is almost traffic enforcement. I always say they use the "Vision? Zero!' approach. It's not even an afterthought.
Jason Spelts is pure evil.
as someone from a hot and humid climate, I think the biggest thing we need is trees and less asphalt, my town has basicly no trees, no grass no anything, just asphalt and cement everywhere, but there are 2 parks in the whole town that are very green, the difference from one side of the street (the side with the buildings) to the other side (the side of the park) is immense, its so much less hot when there are trees around. Artificial shades are not the same as natural tree shade, tree shade is way fresher
As a Miami Beach resident, I can tell you there is a constant push here to increase the availability of mass transit to eliminate the need for so many cars. It feels like a losing battle, and there is resistance to spending the money on the cost of these infrastructure projects unless it involves wider, bigger roads.
Miami is a terrible place to walk, and the news carries stories of hit and runs against pedestrians, bikes and scooters on a daily basis. Many people have given up their bikes out of fear.
BTW, I'm pretty sure the proliferation of huge SUVs is due to tourists using Uber and Lyft, so as to arrive to their destinations looking like a "celebrity...." I don't know anyone who owns one as their personal vehicle.
Great video, really interesting! A lot of the positive examples looked fairly new, so hopefully the place is on the right track of improving even more in the future :)
Don't live in a tropical place, but visited a city in Taiwan. A lot of the buildings there extend over the sidewalk, giving it cover from weather and the sun. Useful for any climate!
Amazing video! It makes me almost want to visit Miami except for the car culture
I live in Miami Beach. And yes Miami is a car lovers city. Nobody walks in Miami, we all drive, even in Miami Beach. Most of people you see walking are tourists, specially the places you visited, for what I see in the video. Wynwood, is a new neighborhood, it was a rundown warehouse district so it is being revitalized as we speak, edge water is another neighborhood that was just small houses, all those towers didn't exist 10 years ago,so it is being developed as it gets built, little Havana although in the city proper is basically the first suburban area the city developed. Miami Beach has the free trolley, but Miami does too. We also have the freebies which are private cars the city has that take people for free in different areas, so Miami has a lot of free transit options that most cities would like to have. So yes Miami has bad things, granted, but has a lot of things people just dream having, specially the weather. 😉
The US is 3rd and 1st world country in one 😂 this was a fun video!
Looks pretty cool through the eyes of a tourist.
The Miami Brightline station also has random chickens running around when you walk out of the station.
The bike lanes are nice but there are random locations where there are gaps in the bike lane system where the bike lane abruptly ends and you have to jump into a sharrow with speeding cars. Some construction in downtown also has blocked some bike lanes.
As city nerd out it, Miami is urbanism for the rich, and car dependancy for the poor.
That's literally every walkable area or area with solid public transit. those areas are so expensive that only the super rich can live there.
@@SummitCoyote mm, every? for every rule there are exceptions, and there's also way more place's in the united states that are way more expensive yet also aren't walk-able and don't have transit.
it's intentional multilayered policy decisions for decades that have made these places more scarce here than in other places in the world, and while yes, the rich are always going to hog the nice places, the fact that you have to be super rich here to have what the merely rich in Switzerland have, shows a level of intentionality versus inherency.
@@ethanstump most houses are not owned by people. theres tons of vacant houses owned by massive investment companies and sitting vacant waiting to sell when the market is up.
at least within the US, the nice walkable and transit quality areas are all where rich people live.
That's not really true. The miami metrorail passes through some rough neighbourhoods like overtown, brownsville, etc while there's plenty of more affluent or middle class suburban areas that are neglected and require people to drive to the train station. Miami Beach itself is disconnected from the metro as well.
@@davidkasparov8043 can you tell me of a protected bike lane on a low income street? and wider, where in general are the gaps in the protected bike lanes?
also, which streets are shutdown for festivities and races? certainly isn't the low income street.
and i'm just talking about my city, ogden, not miami.
added, which street's have roundabouts versus streetlights? it's not going to be a low income neighberhood with the roundabout.
the exceptions prove the rule.
I have lived on the west side (residential) of South Beach near Lincoln Rd. for the past 22 years. It's the only place in Florida where I'd live. Since I've been here, the bike infrastructure has substantially improved and even the pedestrian experience has as well. The Venetian is a great pedestrian and bike connector to Miami where a station of the MetroMover greets you after the crossing. I use this route often to get to downtown and Brickell.
That said, the driving here is certainly horrible. Fortunately, I am in one of the few places where a car isn't required for daily life.
I've only been to Florida once. Orlando, not Miami. One of the most miserable places I've ever been. 25 US states & territories and 25+ countries on four continents, and with the possible exception of Alabama, I've never been to a more unpleasant place. Just awful. I was there for a little over a week and was ready to leave on day two.
I've heard parts of Miami aren't so bad, but the idea of going back to Florida is...not something I'm planning to do.
I lived an August in Osaka. Dew point could hit 27 C, higher than many actual tropical cities. I hated the heat and humidity, but walk and bike levels continued to be very high. My closest supermarket, an 8 minute walk, wasn't even car accessible -- not only no car parking, but you couldn't drive up to its entrance.
Shade there: not really much in street trees, but you're often walking right by a multi-story building, so there's a fair bit of shade that way.
I think why palm trees if we have hot weather all year the trees should be poinciana trees or oak trees with a large canopy
13:06 “OK, we’ll admit that Miami’s above ground parking garages are a little goofy.”
Building parking garages *below* sea level and in the soil conditions found there is not really the best idea.
4:19 brightline baby!