A lot of you pointed out that a 30-40 minute walk sounds like a lot for 950 meters (and yes, hi, American here who rarely uses meters, you caught me.) This is an overestimation, but keep in mind this wasn’t an ideal walking environment, with cars pulling in and out of driveways all along US-19. It would be closer to a 15-20 minute walk in an ideal environment, which is still a prohibitive demand of pedestrians trying to cross the street. -Laura
I don't know if the people you interviewed where somewhat cherry-picked. But it seems those that use sidewalks may not walk at the same speed an average person would.
@@mike17032 do you think only 10 people are walking the road by choice bc the road is good to walk? Do you understand that the way we build our roads and towns sets the method of transportation people can use?
As a British person that has just come back from their first visit to the US (Florida to be exact) my family and I were SHOCKED at how badly designed pedestrian crossings were. Having to cross 4-8 lanes, no accessibility for blind or deaf people when to cross, drivers being able to turn right at all times, the speed limits and a severe lack of crossing points. God help you if you are unable to move quickly during your allotted crossing time, terrifying!
may i ask why you visited? i love living here 🙂 but i truly don’t get why others spend so much time and money to visit the USA anymore 👀 i hope we stay a travel destination though 😞❤
I'm surprised they didn't mention right turn on red in the video! It's permitted almost nationwide, and incredibly dangerous for pedestrians when they have the walk signal, but cars are still permitted to turn.
@@DrTomoe-em7rs no offense, but Brexit, high cost of living, poor universal health services, invisible racial discrimination (probably more blatant than US) and back-breaking taxes? Glad you are living there but it is no better than living in US
People whose way of life has been supported and subsidized forever resist change because they think one change will lead to a million changes and their free ride collapsing. That is why people like that tend to speak in extreme hyperbole to shoot down the idea (I.e., whenever increasing bike counts is mentioned, someone mentions that they're a plumber and can't carry pipes and tools and computers, ladders, etc., on a bicycle, so bike lanes are bad).
@@Ethanaponte1998 You’re not creating more traffic. A lot of people are currently driving because there are no viable alternatives. If all of those people could walk/bike/take public transit, there would be less traffic on the roads, freeing it up for commercial uses or those who don’t have the luxury to walk or bike safely. The best country in the world for drivers are the Netherlands, who also happen to have (some of) the best walking and cycling infra and public transit (both locally and nationally)
As a former Floridian, basically all roads in Florida are like that. Urban sprawl car-culture death traps. And the rule of Florida is that the speed limit is actually like 10-20 mph above the posted limit.
But really it would be easy to enforce the speed limit. The margin of error for a radar gun is within 1-2mph, so being ticketed for 10+ mph over the speed limit can't be refuted. Essentially, part of the safety problem could be solved with better (or more) law enforcement.
@@randomoneforstuff3696 Speed limits are an ineffective way to regulate traffic safety. Drivers' behavior is mostly based on the conditions of the road, and most people will simply go as fast as they feel comfortable. On a wide open, continuous stretch of road, that's going to be very fast. It's been proven that the most effective approach is making physical changes like narrowing the road, adding surrounding greenery like trees, and including speed bumps at high risk areas like crosswalks. You mix and match these tools to tweak the desired driver behavior.
@@javi7636 exactly. Traffic enforcement should be the last line of defense in traffic safety. Safe infrastructure and a built environment that prioritizes people and safety over speed and volume should always come first.
@@javi7636 I disagree. China has shown that extreme enforcement of speed limits (with severe punishment) leads to fewer pedestrian deaths. Though, I cannot condone all of China's methods or verify their statistics. But, of course, other mitigation tools can be just as, if not more, effective as law enforcement. I personally am a big advocate of roundabouts.
I live in Newport Richey and even as a driver I avoid this road because of how it encourages reckless driving. I can’t imagine having to walk across this road multiple times a day
One thing that bothers me is how often someone has to be killed by dangerous infrastructure to spur action - it's clear to see when these pieces of infrastructure are dangerous for people on foot, but often planning officials ignore it until it becomes fatal. A life should not need to be sacrificed to make our streets safer.
that’s not just a US thing either. there are roads where people get hurt or killed in the UK and they are often on a list to get updated to make them safer ‘at some point’ and it’s not till that death happens that they suddenly get to the top of that list :/
@@onemorechris i think it's the same everywhere, as soon as it costs money or has a risk of being unpopular, they preer waiting for a fatality to have a justification for redesigning... I mean this is even human nature to procrastinate until you realize it's too late. I live in France, the administration and politics (but not only them) often work the same way.
@@noefillon1749 yea. weird human behaviour. It must be frustrating to have the right answer as an expert in this situation and know that your idea will sit collecting dust until someone is really seriously hurt before anyone will do anything about it.
Just two days ago, I was starting to cross the street at an intersection with a pedestrian signal on "walk" and two cars in a row turned right by crossing in front of me in the crosswalk. I have had numerous close calls with cars turning left when I had a walk signal in my favor. This is in a suburb of Portland, OR, known for being less car-centered than many other places.
On the other hand in my country I've seen pedestrians continue to saunter across the road even as the 'walk' signal is ending, holding up not only turning cars but also public buses
One thing not mentioned was the length of the crosswalk signals. I have a pretty fast walk, friends are often asking me to slow down. I can barely make it across the four lane roads in our city in the 10 seconds most of the cross walks are set for. That means the average person probably is still in the street when the light changes; not to mention someone who might be slower such as someone with a cane, walker, or wheelchair, who is forced to be taking the buses.
The redundancy time built into crossing roads in Europe can feel absurd sometimes, but it's better. Sometimes the green man will turn red,as you start crossing but you still get enough time to cross also +5 extra seconds just in case you're in a wheelchair. So it could be 15 seconds from the man turning red, til the cars at the stop light get the green so they can move on.
I used to live close to a 6lane boulevard in Montreal, Canada. You had the green man for like 15-20s (maybe more) then it changed to the yellow/orange hand for ~15s signaling that you might not have time to cross. Any less than that and people with disability can't cross the intersection in time. My grandpa was fully blind and walked very slowly with his cane. If we were to cross a large intersection we had to be there as the light turned green for us or we had to wait until the next green.
Vox should do more international comparisons in these kinds of videos - e.g. how much friendlier the roads abroad are for pedestrians, how jaywalking isn't a thing in the rest of the world, etc. EDIT: I just got recommended the channel "Not Just Bikes", which covers these comparisons and urban planning more generally. The few videos of his I've checked out so far have been really helpful and informative. In particular, look for the one on "stroads" - the street/road hybrid monstrosities like the one in this video - that only seem to exist in North America.
2 года назад+46
Jaywalking is a thing in countries that copied the U.S. logic of jaywalking such as Germany.
They usually do this they had made a grrat comparison about schools in the US and Finland for example
2 года назад+7
@@paxundpeace9970 Yeah but these are kinda over the top. Systems outside of the US face the same nay sayers like you have. It's a bit like if you got to Canada and see something the U.S. had earlier.We in Europe have people that copy the tactic of right wing U.S. politicians just in their own flavour.
Another factor is right turn on red light. In theory, it shouldn't be much of a problem because drivers are required to yield. In practice, many drivers tend to forget that (or if they do, only watches out for vehicles and not other road users).
Not only are you required to yield, you are required to stop completely, and give way to all other traffic. You have last priority when you want to turn right on red. Right-on-red needs to be treated as a full stop, first and foremost. The purpose of right-on-red is to avoid the need for drivers to needlessly wait for a red light to clear, when their intended movement has no conflicting traffic.
@@dbclass4075 In my country, even with such a signal, vehicles that want to turn may only be able to do so from one lane that also allows vehicles to go straight, & the vehicles that want to turn may be held up by another in front that's going straight instead
I live in Toronto. More streets have stopped allowing these turns, something Montreal Island has never (or at least not within my memory) allowed. Yes, it is inconvenient at times, especially on congested one lane roads, but as someone who is also a pedestrian I have seen so many close calls and more than one actual collision.
There is another massive issue with all this sprawling development: it is unbelievably expensive. The average surface parking lot costs thousands of dollars per parking spot to build . These arterial roads cost millions. Imagine how much good could be done if this was spent on literally anything else...
Check out the work Strong Towns has done identifying the Growth Ponzi Scheme which explains the current state of car centric suburbanization. Not Just Bikes also did a “Strong Towns” themed video series that has a really good summary of how the Suburban Growth Ponzi Scheme works.
The whole sprawling culture is extremely wasteful and expensive. It requires tons of infrastructure - roads, bridges, water, electricity, etc. to support sparsely populated areas, these endless expenses can drive cities to bankruptcy. Owning a single family home is expensive compared to an apartment, and owning a car can reach up to 1/3 of poor people’s income.
Yep. People constantly complain about their "taxpayer dollars going to useless bike lanes and sidewalks", but they don't realize how much money they're spending over their lifetime to own a car (it's in the hundreds of thousands), and how many of their taxpayer dollars are going to road maintenance for damage, etc caused by vehicles driving over them all the time. They should be angry about that.
Like many, I've fallen down the "urbanist rabbit hole" lately and I can't stop seeing problems everywhere in my own city. So that's why my town has had so many bike/ped deaths! No wonder I feel uncomfortable walking on stroads! There are many things I just accepted as "normal" before that I'm now questioning. It's both good and bad lol
Yes. Welcome to the rabbit hole! Invite a friend to the urbanism rabbit hole! The beautiful thing is unlike a lot of other policy spaces, you can get a ton done at a local level for urbanism. You don't even need to convince the whole country, just a few neighbors!
There's this portion of a residential road I take to get home that I used to HATE. It's got small bike lanes on the sides (didn't ever hate that part), but it also has these stretches of curb that make you slow down as you have to go around them. It's like that through the whole road. Then there's this really small roundabout that killed me... A few years later and I've come to appreciate the design after falling down the urbanism rabit hole as it encourages slower driving and gives walkers and bikers a place to travel on the road.
Pedestrian bridges are not the answer. They will just be bypassed by people not wanting to walk up the stairs or ramps. This is still an old way of thinking about pedestrian design.
It's also ridiculous that someone could think that it's a sustainable/scalable solution. Even if they were perfect for pedestrians, saying ped bridges are the solution to these problems is like saying that vehicle overpasses are the solution to every dangerous intersection or high-risk conflict point. It just isn't feasible, financially or otherwise.
I mean, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing, and I doubt people in power will go for lowering the number of lanes and yknow, actually making a long term solution
Depends on how it is implemented - it is not necessarily bad as long as it is easily accessable for handicapped etc. A pedestrian tunnel is probably better
I’ve lived here my entire life 20 years. exactly where there filming and I lost one of my best friends at the traffic light about a year ago very dangerous intersection. That memorial is my friend Logan very sad brings a tear to my eye thank you vox for making this documentary
I imagine that the reporter just found people on the street to interview on the day. It speaks volumes that she was able to find three people who have harrowing stories about how dangerous the roadway is. The one woman almost cried speaking out of fear! The young man's friend literally DIED there? Wow.
Just so you know, the guy at 4:11 is talking about Logan Blakley who died in his car by a reckless driver going 85mph. The guy in the video who is speaking for Logan, Damion McCloskey, doesn't actually know who Logan he is. No one who was close to Logan knows who that guy is, whoever vox hired for that part is a liar and I think it's important people know this
Reducing speed limits... Seriously? The problem is the road *looks* like a highway. You have get rid of lanes if you want people to go slower. And pedestrian bridges? Come on. They take forever to get across, you have to go out of your way, good luck if you're in a wheelchair, penalizing pedestrians for the benefit of the people in the cars. Cities are made up of people. People live in homes, people go shopping, people go to work, people pay taxes. Not cars. Yet we continue ot build cities designed for cars first.
Ya, well, people live in homes but how do they go shopping? In a car. To work? In a car. To run errands? In a car. It's just how it is. And yes, more walking around and public transportation would be great but people love their cars too much in America. Plus, unless you live in a big city, things tend to be pretty far apart. Like all these pedestrian friendly things sound wonderful, except no one is going to use them, and places in America that will, have significantly better public transportation and pedestrian friendly infrastructure than what is shown in the video. Still nowhere near as good as in Europe but at least it's a start.
us-19 in clearwater basically is a highway. they elevated that section, put on and off ramps and called it a day lol. I wish it wasnt like this but the commuters here don't wanna reduce lanes because it inconveniences them
@@ape8404 Your argument has largely been debunked. There are towns in Europe with the same or smaller population than many NA cities and yet their public transport is multitudes better. The US and Canada are simply not aware that you can do things differently. The car isn't the be all end all.
@@ape8404 you just described the problem. Many American cities were originally built for people. But following WW2 they were bulldozed to pave massive roads and highways. Cities that were built after WW2 were built for cars first and foremost. Plenty of European cities with populations of less than 100,000 have amazing trams, trains and busses. Because they never carved up their cities for cars. It's extremely difficult to have any human friendly places once you go all in on cars. I used to be nuts about my car until it started leaving me stranded and I couldn't afford a new car or to fix mine. It was shocking that I literally couldn't imagine how to survive without a car when that is normal in most places on earth. It's not even an option in the US. A car is basically required to be a functional member of society here. That's the issue.
Small error at 4:30: 950m is a 15 to 20 minutes walk, not the 30 to 40 minutes mentionned in the video. I guess metric distances confused the writers. It's still an outrageous distance.
Say you want to get to somewhere inbetween the 2 crossings on the otherside.. you have to walk the distance to the crossing and back again. That could end up being a lot more than the 950m so it could potentially add an extra 30 or so minutes to the journey
@@ChrisJones00918 Worst case scenario you're at the mid-point between the two crossings and want to reach a point just on the other side of the road. The total distance is 950m plus the width of the road (30 meters or so). Trust me, I'm a pedestrian !
Revelatory movement; *Strong Towns.* This topic is also extremely well covered by a channel called NotJustBikes, who talks at length about infrastructure design comparisons between car-centric vs welcoming to everyone else. Pedestrian bridges are not a solution, it's another slap on the wrist for wanting to walk. The US urban road system need a major overhaul. Until then, our system values the presence of machines over people.
Ask yourself this if you're in doubt- Is your affinity for the ease of driving worth the human cost in life of those who can't afford your way of life?
I watched Strong Towns and Not Just Bikes and their explanation about Stroads, athough I sense a shady reason why the US continues to build sprawling developments and car centric design. Because the US cities after 1950s were destroyed for the car, the one who were impacted were Children, Disabled, Hispanic, Black, Asian, non-White and poor people. This is what I believed that the reason the US continues to be like this, to sustain Racism and Inequality for poor people.
@@TheLastScoot Because it forces the pedestrian to climb up and down. Disability cannot use the Pedestrian Bridges because it has no elevators and elevators are expensive to build and maintain in the open area. Pedestrian Bridges also permit cars to travel at high speeds, making it dangerous to people outside of car. In Jakarta, the pedestrian bridges were made like ramps to give disability access, however it was lengthy walk to the BRT station and it's often misused by motorcycles.
The man, Damion McCloskey, at 4:11 is a liar. The memorial behind him is for Logan Blakely who died in a car crash by a reckless driver going 85mph at a red light. No one knows who this guy is speaking for Logan, and if anyone should have been asked for this interview it should've been someone who actually knew him. This is extremely disrespectful to Logan and his life, and those who knew Logan. Vox should take this section of the video out. Extremely disrespectful and wrong.
Hi Starr Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I apologize for miscategorizing the accident and for any offense to Logan’s friends and family. We did not intend to misrepresent the accident and fully recognize that we should have exercised more diligence to verify the interviewee’s claim. I’m working on a correction to the video that will no longer include the misrepresentation and interview at 4:11. - Laura
@@Vox That explains why people were making these references in the comments that made no sense. Weird that someone would want to insert themselves into someone else's story.
My Dutch friend once said to me “Americans love to harp about their years in university because it’s the only time in their lives they lived in a walkable community”
Hoi! Can totally confirm that's a Dutch thing to say. I keep wondering how Americans keep living like that. Fell into the 'urbanist rabbit hole' myself and though "Wait a minute. Y'all don't have to cycle/walk to school!?!?!? Your parents bring you every day!!!!! That would be a luxery for me! My parents would never do that for me." (as a Dutch person, your parents will only bring if it rains and usually not even then 'You're not made of sugar' they'll say sending you on your way to cycle 10 km)
The Dutch like to talk about how their country is so pedestrian friendly. Sure, but their ENTIRE country is 75% the size of San Bernardino County outside Los Angeles.
@@RH-cv1rg That's not the point. Europe has highways to carry cars long distances too. It's just that the European city's are more compact and discourage cars so that people walk or cycle. Our cities are large to accommodate car culture. The United States needs to change their future city designs to be more green and more pedestrian friendly over car friendly.
Another factor to the probability of killing pedestrian, since energy is factor of speed and mass, is also the growing weight of cars. You can also had the design of these big cars (suvs and trucks) with high front bumpers which make accidents worse. Improve streets design, reduce size of cars, save lives and save the planet !
I live in the middle of a city here in England and hardly ever have to wait for the "green man" - walking when it's not your turn is common and walk pretty much everywhere within a 2-3 mile radius, we're far from the most pedestrian friendly city around but seeing US-19 is frightening. It's mental how the US was built
People in the US urbanist communities often say that the country wasn't built this way it was REBUILT this way. Before the popularization and widespread adaptation of cars, US cities were a lot like European cities. Dense cities with many pedestrians and multiple forms of public transit like trams, trains, and interurbans. However, when cars started gaining popularity and pedestrian deaths rose people were discouraged from walking, trams were torn out, and minority and low income communities were bulldozed to make way for highways to connect the sprawling suburbs with the city center.
Please continue making videos like these, this is one of those things that desperately need to change and the only way it will happen is if it remains in public consciousness. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
What a great video, these are issues we're trying to tackle in our own community here in Rochester, neighborhood streets are becoming their own highways leading to traffic fatalities. Reducing the speed limit is great, but it really boils down to the street design that makes drivers become more aware of their surroundings and their speed. Would love to see more videos like this Vox!
If you look back at history, a lot of towns in the U.S were initially designed for trains because, in the teens and 20's, people thought that was the future of transportation. A lot of roads had train or trolly tracks running right down the middle of them. But it was all mostly gone by the end of the 30's, into the mid 40's, once they realized that people were going to drive cars. Think of all that infrastructure they built and then tore down within only 20-30 years. And today look how long it takes to get anything done.
I think an under appreciated aspect of increasing pedestrian fatalities is the also increasing size of vehicles. Large SUV’s have a different “hit box” than sedans that hit people in the legs and then roll into the hood.
Important note indeed, went to an auto show and my shoulders were barely popping over the hood of a Cadillac Escalade (and I'm 5'10"/178cm).. That thing should almost require a truck licence and I'm half-joklng here...
@@Davmm96 the new generation of full size SUV's is outrageous. The grill would hit most pedestrians directly in the head during a collision. And if colliding with a sedan car from the side that grill would come straight through the window and into the passenger compartment. Bypassing all the safety structures in the car's body. I can't believe those vehicles are legal.
This is also a result of the environment, how car centric it is. People who buy SUV get them because they are a lot safer for themselves if there is a crash, which the car centric cities make much more likely. Also since you have to drive to the store and everywhere else, due to everything being more spread out, you need a bigger trunk.
There is also the ongoing effort to soundproof cars as much as possible, even sometimes including active noise cancellation. No need to hear all those pesky pedestrians screaming while you run them over. Cars are much safer these days but ONLY for people *inside* the car.
Also bigger and worse blind spots, which are also a problem with the needlessly big trucks (i.e. the ones with huge/high cabs and barely any bed space for hauling materials) that're becoming distressingly popular.
I really hope that the US follows through with more pedestrian friendly cities/developments. The benefits are staggering I like a cool car as much as the next guy but this country’s dependence on vehicles has become a problem.
It's been a problem for 60 years. It's being recognized as a problem now that building/maintaining car-centric infrastructure is literally bankrupting cities.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
I grew up in Pinellas county and US-19 is a notoriously scary street/road... The only positive of learning how to drive on such dangerous stroads is becoming defensive and aware of all the danger. Any time I get the chance to drive on a simple 2-lane road, it's a breath of fresh air, literally.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
Not sure if any one else noticed but I gotta applaud the video editor taking the effort to add a blur effect over diagram on the windshield as the car passes through at 3:09 mark
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
It's a sad existence. NYC and SF are great for public transit and cycling options but nowhere near the Netherlands. Unfortunately the cost of living is ridiculous compared to the stroad filled cities all over the US. Still, I'm happy to ditch my car and pay higher taxes to have amazing transit/dining/shopping options within walking distance near my residence.
Go for it! Also try video games like Cities Skylines and other modern city building games, they're fun puzzles for people who enjoy city planning and this kind of problem solving
Is the ultimate problem city planners, or interest groups who don’t want cities to become more walkable because that would hurt the bottom line of car companies etc ?
This topic actually touches my biggest worry when I was studying in the US as a student without car. I felt so fragile to cross the road and worried about homeless yelling at me.
The rise in pedestrian deaths mentioned at 0:36 is as much a result of the increase in high hood height trucks and SUVs as it is a result of car-centric design. The higher hood height means drivers have less visibility of pedestrians in front of them and when a pedestrian is struck they are more likely to be run over than run under. Design of modern trucks and SUVs is a much a problem as design of roadways.
This is true. A neighbor in our development in central California recently ran over her own child, killing her. Driving a massively oversized SUV. Killed her own child in her own driveway, literally nobody is to blame but the woman herself. She has to live with that guilt for the rest of her life. But if she didn't have the massive SUV she simply wouldn't have fit in with all the other wives in the neighborhood, and can't have that.
@@helpfulcommenter Oh my God that's horrible. But how do we convince American people that regulation in the name of public safety doesn't mean communism?
That's not a solution, only bring more troubles with even higher risks of accidents. speed bump is arguably the worst invention for the roads & will certainly damage vehicles to high degree.
@@crozraven What are you talking about? Speedbumps before every low-speed intersection and pedestrian crossing are long proven solutions in Dutch road design. Where are all those damaged Dutch vehicles you speak of?
@@crozraven Candian RUclipsr Not Just Bikes has a recent video titled "Crossing the Street Shouldn't Be Deadly (but it is)". At 20:35 he showed the Dutch speed bumps and humps before intersections and raised pedestrian crossings acting as huge speed humps themself Have a look and see what other countries are doing to save people's life
The "most dangerous street" looks just like every other street in suburban America. "Let's desgin a place for families to live, but when they go outside for a walk it feels like they're walking on the Nascar Daytona 500, ready to be struck by the nonstop traffic brigade any moment". Why don't they design cities for pedestrians anymore? So weird.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
@@razzle_dazzle Well they specifically mention streets, common places for low traffic volumes, and roads/highways, fast segregated infrastructure intended for moving high volumes of traffic without disruptions, as the 2 bits. Stroads, like US 19 try to combine both with its designs, many driveways and crossings of this insanely wide road, while also not segregating it away from businesses and pedestrians, creating an environment that's not just worse and unsafe for pedestrians, but for drivers too!
In urban planning circles, we say that it takes 20 years to undo bad planning... and that is only if the political class is cooperative. And BTW, those arterial roads are often referred to as Stroads, they try to be both a street that gives access to businesses and a road that rapidly moves you from point A to point B. But they sadly fail at both of these goals.
Is stroads a regional thing, or just urban planning jargon? This is my first time hearing the term, and I'm wondering if it's because I don't know enough about urban planning, or because I live in New England.
@@kneesturnedvelvet3725 it’s purely an urbanism term, they’re strictly speaking classified as streets even though they’re clearly also built to handle through-traffic
45MPH aka 70KMH strode inside a city is alien to me who lived most of my life in Montreal. Highways in Montreal are for the most part 70KMH (tho people drive 100 given there's no/little traffic), boulevard are restricted to 50 (30MPH). You'll only see 70KMH on roads in the furthest suburb.
@@kneesturnedvelvet3725 stroads is specifically a "strong towns" thing. I'm an urbanist, and I am not a fan of Strong Towns, but I like some of their messaging, and stroads is one of the things I like. Its not a technical term, and it gets the message across to the non-experts.
I'm angered to hear that the mayor wants to put pedestrian overpasses along the route. Those are the most expensive and least effective solutions for pedestrian safety and often introduce different dangers to pedestrians.
I love how you show detailed insights in why a used concept is bad and also show solutions to how it could be turned for the better for all people to use it safely. ❤
The road they showed is constantly interrupted by driveways where they have to wait for cars to pass, so in that context it would definitely take longer than it should.
I’m a professional traffic operations engineer and I recently worked on a lane repurposing study in a small Florida town which I will not name. A lane repurposing study is what Florida DOT calls a corridor study to examine the roadway’s existing and future uses and make recommendations on how the roadway ought to be vs. how it is currently configured. On this recent study our corridor had above statewide average fatality rates (and that’s high because Florida is about as deadly as roads get) and 3 lanes in each direction. Our traffic models showed the roadway was operating at 19% of capacity during peak hour traffic and 2 of the 3 lanes were not needed for operations. We conservatively recommended reducing from 3 to 2 lanes (instead of 3 to 1) in each direction and providing streetscape improvements such as on street parking (good for businesses), bike lanes (proven to reduce crash rates for all roadway users), auxiliary turn lanes at driveways, and wider sidewalks with landscaping in some areas. The engineers and planners thought the recommendations made sense as they would not cause traffic congestion but would help make this small town’s downtown more walkable and pleasant and would create a sense of place-all good things for local residents and businesses. Unfortunately, due to local politics, the people who showed up to public meetings liked the 3 high speed lanes through their downtown. The population that showed up to meetings was mostly retired baby boomers who oppose any and all change, good or bad. So while it’s sad to see areas with high fatality rates, please don’t blame engineers or planners. In the end, if YOU the citizens don’t participate in your local government, then nothing will be done.
Interesting perspective. I'd like to add more to this. The people who have the time out of their day to show up to municipal public meetings are the retired boomers, and the privaledged wealthy people (who are wayyy likely to be white in most places). The YOU who needs to be represented often can't show up to public engagement efforts. It should be the job of local politicians to represent these people, but as goes with most things, the poor don't get spoken for. So yes, planners aren't to blame. The solution is not "hey, go to meetings!". The solution is change that's bigger than that. On the community level, doing door to door or on the street surveys. Creating an environment of people who actively try to find out what the less fortunate want and need. And still, bigger than that, reduce the barriers to public engagement by improving poor people's financial situations. Institute a higher minimum wage, or union protections, or UBI. Anything. As with most things, you miss a lot when you only think about individuals.
Excellent video that perfectly captures the state of pedestrian safety in the US. Will definitely be sharing this, keep up this kind of content we love it!
Right? I’d say “I’m afraid of a crippling collision”. But just like with how far “jaywalk” has osmosed into daily language, now it’s “bumping into somebody” 🤦♀️
Good video that points out an aggravating problem. One mistake though, at 4:34 , 950 meters does not take 30-40 minutes to walk. That's a 10 minute walk, 15 max.
lookup how interstates split up minority neighborhoods which eventually destroyed them. It's a contributing factor to the poverty in a lot of minority neighborhoods. white neighborhoods weren't divided at anywhere near the rate that minority ones were. systemic racism is still very active in the united states today.
The sad thing is that I've seen roads worse than the US-19. The stretch of US-19 shown in the video still has sidewalks and is a few feet away from the road; the sidewalks are also in good condition. Some roads in the US have sidewalks literally RIGHT next to the road; no grass, no bushes, no trees in between, sidewalks RIGHT next to asphalt road with cars going 50MPH. Some roads don't even have sidewalks at all; people just walk on the grass or through parking lots. It's also sad that walkable communities are being developed, but primarily in wealthier neighborhoods too. That means that wealthy people who can afford to drive cars, expensive ones at that, get access to walkable neighborhoods, while disadvantaged people who are the actual ones in need of walkable infrastructure are neglected by their local governments. It's sad, really.
Urbanists have been screaming this message from the rooftops for years. It makes me happy to see this being featured by major news outlets since it means more people will see it. Not mentioned in this video are dozens of other issues brought about by car-centric design. Things such as the environmental and financial impacts as well as racial/socioeconomic inequality.
Car-centric design in the US was largely a result of racist fears and resentments, which spurred the "white flight" to the suburbs and anti-transit political decisions in those suburbs. Taking lanes away from private car traffic, as urbanists propose, isn't going to make those attitudes go away.
@@Zalis116 no is arguing that it would, so idk what your point is. Our over-reliance on cars puts a massive financial strain on our economy, which disproportionately impacts the impoverished. Urbanism is not about "removing lanes". It's about diversifying transportation options while simultaneously making our cities more livable.
@@LimitedWard "no is arguing that it would [change underlying attitudes], so idk what your point is" So would you admit that urbanist street reconstructions are just intended to punish motorists with more congestion and delays and not actually change anything? If that's the stance urbanists want to take, they're entitled to do so, but they shouldn't turn around and deny the existence of a war on cars. "Urbanism is not about 'removing lanes'." Yet one of the chief complaints about "stroads" is that there're too many car traffic lanes, and virtually every "how can we improve this awful stroad?" graphic includes a reduced number of car traffic lanes. Again, urbanists are free to advocate these changes; I just ask that they not dump rocks on our heads and tell us it's hailing.
@@Zalis116 Urbanism in some cases, can result to just removing lanes. I admit that. Removing lanes and constricting motorists changes lots, with slower speeds through a driver’s instinct, better pedestrian environments, and just more space for human-scale cities. Actually showing how these new, safer environments could work may show opponents what they’re arguing against.
Being a pedestrian or riding a bike in Florida is extremely dangerous. It's a densely populated state with poor planning and underfunded infrastructure.
As a Cyclist, drivers are in the Wrong. Drivers joke and seek out to hurt Cyclist. They do it on purpose, they dont stop at stop signs. They run Red Lights when making right hand turns. Drivers are never checkibg for pedestrians when crossing a sidewalk. Most drivers dont know its the LAW you have to STOP when passing over a Crosswalk even if there is no Stop sign. When leaving your neighborhood STOP before the sidewalk!
Straods... Straods are horrible. NotJustBikes channel talks all about this. If you've never heard of stroads before, this is a good place to start learning about walkability and bad road design in the US.
The problem is that you are trying to make an 8-lane highway into a mixed use road. That is almost always a recipe for disaster. If cars are going 50mph, then you shouldn't have driveways and pullouts lining the whole stretch. For some reason, the distinction between limited-access roads (highways with no pedestrians or businesses) and regular roads (single to double lane roads with low speeds, accessible to vehicles and pedestrians) has broken down. If you want a highway, then build a highway. If you want a road, then build a road. Don't combine the two into an unholy mess where some guy leaving Walmart has to cross traffic going at 60mph.
It's good that vox is covering this with its mostly american audience who have never thought about how North American cities are hostile to anyone outside of cars and consider things like stroads and very wide streets the norm.
Can definitely recommend Road Guy Rob and Not Just Bikes channels. Both looking at transport from 2 different perspectives but both hating these roads and looking at ways that transport can be safer and better for everyone
remove lanes, add speed bumps, add public transport, but knowing that this is the US this will never happen. Adding signs won't decease speed, speed bump does.
Heh, I saw Seven Corners, VA made the list of cities with one of the most dangerous roads. That’s because the main intersection in Seven Corners is literally 7 corners/7 busy streets converging into 1 intersection.
US urban design is so incredibly egregious. Literally designed to make not traveling in a huge metal box as inconvenient as possible to maximize the profit of automotive manufacturers.
This is a little close to home. Drivers keep almost running me over when I have the light and then yelling at me for being in the crosswalk. The US needs to refocus its infrastructure on the needs of humans, not cars.
I would really encourage anyone who liked this or found this interesting to check out the RUclips channel NotJustBikes. Some additional points on this video that NJB deep dives into over many videos: 1) This type of road design and the infrastructure they encourage is not financially sustainable for the towns that maintain them. 2) This type of road design is not environmentally sustainable. 3) This type of road design is actually worse for car drivers as well, due to raised risk of crashes and fatalities, as well as the fact that road design that encourages more use of cars means more traffic. 4) This type of city design is not pleasing to be in. US arterial roads are essentially vast liminal spaces that no one wants to be in. The most financially viable spaces in every city in the world are mixed-use walkable spaces (which many places in the US/Canada have outlawed due to obscure and outdated zoning laws). I could go on and on, but these are just some major ones off the top of my head. No matter what angle you look at it, this design doesn't make sense - Not for pedestrians, for the cyclers, for the municipalities, or for the drivers.
USA is not pedestrian friendly or even walking. I remember coming to USA and being shocked that I couldn't walk to anywhere. In India it's could walk miles to get groceries and even to mall and public transportation was available at drop of hat and even private transporting of I wanted. Lomg story short, American consumption and consumerism is sooooo toxic and unhealthy. Within 3 months of landing, I was not walking at all, eating junk as it was available so quickly and you don't have to go into restaurant. And hence I gained weight of 20-25 pounds and became insulin resistance. While in India it's was walking miles back and forth to get groceries. And simple joy of walking couldn't be enjoyed in suburbs if cities in USA. People specially go to parks for it. And for that you need to drive to the park! What??? I got posted in London for job for 5 months and guess what I lost a weight, I was walking and eating good food. Then on when I returned to India, I felt free, my joints weren't hurting by sitting all day in home or in car. I was eating seasonal non gmo food and I WOULD NEVER TAKE WALKING FORGRANTED. America is obese super morbid obese and you don't know you are going on same path when you get there. This consumerism isn't helping. Fix cities. Suburban cities are worse, no playground, no parks no walking pedestrian on both sides either.
I've personally been on a kick-scooter to the place in Dallas depicted at 0:16. It is an absolute nightmare to traverse that area, even just to cross Riverfront Street. It's even more ridiculous that the city choose to set up a park and sidewalk to cross the Trinity River, since it's pretty clear that no one that fears for its safety would even dare to traverse that area on foot. It's also located right next to various highway exchanges, where a large number of homeless find shelter.
I grew up in New Port Richey and would avoid driving down US-19 as much as possible. Everyone there knows how bad the traffic is on that road. Drivers won't even stop for school buses sometimes.
this makes me think of a ridiculous Prager U video which emphasizes that "freedom to drive whatever car you want however you want" is an american right. They defend fossil fuel usage as a personal freedom. They use this logic to make the argument that democrats are attacking your "personal freedom" to drive what you want to drive. It just goes to show how pervasive and ridiculous car culture is in the US.
Reducing the speed limit will do nothing but increase ticket numbers (and thus revenue), encourage over patrolling, and with that comes more police-related violence. It's better for literally everyone if the government takes literally any other step. Of course, any effort to change the road is pointless without addressing city planning that prioritizes cars over people.
come to Indonesia. you will never be safe to walk. they will use the sidewalk when the road is congested and often they also sell on the sidewalk. So, if you are a pedestrian in Indonesia, you have to pass by the side of the main road.
Mind blowing, although I'm from the Netherlands, which has the best traffic design in the world. But really makes you appreciate the decisions that our government made to combat this
speed limits don't really exist in America, I've found that ALL of them drive 5-10-15mph faster than allowed. Everywhere and always. Absolutely terrifying
I wonder how much the push towards SUVs and trucks has played into rising pedestrian deaths. Getting hit below the hip vs the stomach, chest and potentially head.
It doesn't matter how big or how small the size of *private vehicles* are. We should disincentivize obsessive car centric designs. Remove the roads, send in the train, build the city to incentivize people living in cities to commute to the city. But some segments of your society would rather run over a grandma than to reduce their car use.
I lived just south of here, we used to drive on US-19 all the time. When I got my license, 19 was the one road I was not allowed to drive on. The problem with delaying green lights was that people would figure out that light had delayed green lights and just run right through the red figuring they had time, or even start to inch out into the intersection, which as you can imagine made it even more dangerous. If you delay the green light, you should at least add a photo enforcement camera so people are less likely to run the reds.
When I visited Wichita, KS, last year, I was flabbergasted at how horrible/nonexistent pedestrian infrastructure is. There were intersections with literally no facilities for pedestrians, only traffic lights for cars, and segments without sidewalks. You can immediately tell that pretty much everyone drives everywhere, and pedestrians simply aren’t a consideration. With that said, I live in a rural area in a developing country, and our pedestrian/cycling infrastructure is depressing… despite the fact that a large percentage of people walk or cycle.
i felt the same visiting parts of arizona, i’m from california which isn’t the most walkable outside of san francisco, but at least we have pedestrian/cycling infrastructure
![The Wrong Way to Set Speed Limits [ST06]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bglWCuCMSWc/mqdefault.jpg)
A lot of you pointed out that a 30-40 minute walk sounds like a lot for 950 meters (and yes, hi, American here who rarely uses meters, you caught me.)
This is an overestimation, but keep in mind this wasn’t an ideal walking environment, with cars pulling in and out of driveways all along US-19. It would be closer to a 15-20 minute walk in an ideal environment, which is still a prohibitive demand of pedestrians trying to cross the street.
-Laura
Not to forget, you also have to walk back the 950 meters on the other side.
I don't know if the people you interviewed where somewhat cherry-picked. But it seems those that use sidewalks may not walk at the same speed an average person would.
my dad is disabled and that number would be accurate for the time it takes him to traverse that distance
Quick question, why didn't you translate the 45mph to kmh? Thanks
She did, when comparing 15mph and 45mph - there was an equivalent in kph below
As a european this looks so depressing to me. The roads are unnecessarily wide, there are non existing sidewalks and non existing bicycle lanes.
Walking in a US city (In my case TEXAS) felt like walking in a ghost town
The roads are wide for a reason
@@seanthe100 yes, the lack of infrastructure thr USA has.
@@seanthe100 Yes, for the wrong reason.
The road is like the size of a highway
Love to see good urbanism getting more attention these days
Absolutely, there are many city planning channels popping off on RUclips which is great
@@dkaloger5720 I think he's referring to the fact that more "mainstream" media like Vox are also picking it up now.
It leads to moronic choices that vastly inconvenience the many many more cars that use the road to favor the 10 people that want to walk it.
I'm always wondering if RUclips just recommends me more of these videos or if there is an actual uptick of urban-related content
@@mike17032 do you think only 10 people are walking the road by choice bc the road is good to walk? Do you understand that the way we build our roads and towns sets the method of transportation people can use?
As a British person that has just come back from their first visit to the US (Florida to be exact) my family and I were SHOCKED at how badly designed pedestrian crossings were. Having to cross 4-8 lanes, no accessibility for blind or deaf people when to cross, drivers being able to turn right at all times, the speed limits and a severe lack of crossing points. God help you if you are unable to move quickly during your allotted crossing time, terrifying!
may i ask why you visited? i love living here 🙂 but i truly don’t get why others spend so much time and money to visit the USA anymore 👀
i hope we stay a travel destination though 😞❤
I'm surprised they didn't mention right turn on red in the video! It's permitted almost nationwide, and incredibly dangerous for pedestrians when they have the walk signal, but cars are still permitted to turn.
@@ConnorisseurYT japan isn't car or pedestrian friendly either! 💀🤣
@@DrTomoe-em7rs no offense, but Brexit, high cost of living, poor universal health services, invisible racial discrimination (probably more blatant than US) and back-breaking taxes? Glad you are living there but it is no better than living in US
Come one, that way better than London 😅😅
The impact of Not Just Bikes on this part of the RUclips community is amazing. Bro causing changes in these big channels' content
Bro moved out to the Netherlands because he gave up trying 😂
What's most depressing to me is how many people get angry when incremental changes are made to try to improve things like this.
I am one of those people.
@@Ethanaponte1998 why are you against something that can save lives?
People whose way of life has been supported and subsidized forever resist change because they think one change will lead to a million changes and their free ride collapsing. That is why people like that tend to speak in extreme hyperbole to shoot down the idea (I.e., whenever increasing bike counts is mentioned, someone mentions that they're a plumber and can't carry pipes and tools and computers, ladders, etc., on a bicycle, so bike lanes are bad).
@@mxly_5095 I’m all for saving lives. But creating more traffic is not the way to go. Maybe cross over paths and roundabouts.
@@Ethanaponte1998 You’re not creating more traffic. A lot of people are currently driving because there are no viable alternatives. If all of those people could walk/bike/take public transit, there would be less traffic on the roads, freeing it up for commercial uses or those who don’t have the luxury to walk or bike safely. The best country in the world for drivers are the Netherlands, who also happen to have (some of) the best walking and cycling infra and public transit (both locally and nationally)
As a former Floridian, basically all roads in Florida are like that. Urban sprawl car-culture death traps. And the rule of Florida is that the speed limit is actually like 10-20 mph above the posted limit.
But really it would be easy to enforce the speed limit. The margin of error for a radar gun is within 1-2mph, so being ticketed for 10+ mph over the speed limit can't be refuted. Essentially, part of the safety problem could be solved with better (or more) law enforcement.
@@randomoneforstuff3696 Speed limits are an ineffective way to regulate traffic safety. Drivers' behavior is mostly based on the conditions of the road, and most people will simply go as fast as they feel comfortable. On a wide open, continuous stretch of road, that's going to be very fast. It's been proven that the most effective approach is making physical changes like narrowing the road, adding surrounding greenery like trees, and including speed bumps at high risk areas like crosswalks. You mix and match these tools to tweak the desired driver behavior.
Sounds like California too. Especially with the speed limit rule.
@@javi7636 exactly. Traffic enforcement should be the last line of defense in traffic safety. Safe infrastructure and a built environment that prioritizes people and safety over speed and volume should always come first.
@@javi7636 I disagree. China has shown that extreme enforcement of speed limits (with severe punishment) leads to fewer pedestrian deaths. Though, I cannot condone all of China's methods or verify their statistics. But, of course, other mitigation tools can be just as, if not more, effective as law enforcement. I personally am a big advocate of roundabouts.
I live in Newport Richey and even as a driver I avoid this road because of how it encourages reckless driving. I can’t imagine having to walk across this road multiple times a day
It literally looks like a freeway shoved in the middle of a town with tons of crossroads. No wonder it's extremely dangerous by design.
I absolutely hate the way people drive so reckless on 19 and I am in Pinellas County.
@@crash_test_dummy_1 can't really blame em, it's design encourages speeding and competitive driving
Yeah I’ve got a ton of fam in npr and Hudson and I hate going on 19 whenever I’m in town at all
grew up using this road, I remember it used to be the deadliest road in the US for cars too when it had less lanes
One thing that bothers me is how often someone has to be killed by dangerous infrastructure to spur action - it's clear to see when these pieces of infrastructure are dangerous for people on foot, but often planning officials ignore it until it becomes fatal. A life should not need to be sacrificed to make our streets safer.
Oh amen, say it. No one ever talks about the details.
that’s not just a US thing either. there are roads where people get hurt or killed in the UK and they are often on a list to get updated to make them safer ‘at some point’ and it’s not till that death happens that they suddenly get to the top of that list :/
@@onemorechris i think it's the same everywhere, as soon as it costs money or has a risk of being unpopular, they preer waiting for a fatality to have a justification for redesigning... I mean this is even human nature to procrastinate until you realize it's too late. I live in France, the administration and politics (but not only them) often work the same way.
@@noefillon1749 yea. weird human behaviour. It must be frustrating to have the right answer as an expert in this situation and know that your idea will sit collecting dust until someone is really seriously hurt before anyone will do anything about it.
@Zaydan Naufal i don’t disagree, but i’m not sure city planners and council officials are the best people to fight cancer
Just two days ago, I was starting to cross the street at an intersection with a pedestrian signal on "walk" and two cars in a row turned right by crossing in front of me in the crosswalk. I have had numerous close calls with cars turning left when I had a walk signal in my favor. This is in a suburb of Portland, OR, known for being less car-centered than many other places.
Keep your head on a swivel out there
Sorry, I didn't see you behind my a-pillar
Most of those suburbs are still largely car centric. Only Portland inner neighborhoods (west of 205) are walkable and safer with the narrow streets.
On the other hand in my country I've seen pedestrians continue to saunter across the road even as the 'walk' signal is ending, holding up not only turning cars but also public buses
One thing not mentioned was the length of the crosswalk signals. I have a pretty fast walk, friends are often asking me to slow down. I can barely make it across the four lane roads in our city in the 10 seconds most of the cross walks are set for. That means the average person probably is still in the street when the light changes; not to mention someone who might be slower such as someone with a cane, walker, or wheelchair, who is forced to be taking the buses.
The redundancy time built into crossing roads in Europe can feel absurd sometimes, but it's better. Sometimes the green man will turn red,as you start crossing but you still get enough time to cross also +5 extra seconds just in case you're in a wheelchair. So it could be 15 seconds from the man turning red, til the cars at the stop light get the green so they can move on.
a lot of americans have a habit of running across crosswalks for this very reason. 20 seconds to cross 5 lanes of traffic is not enough.
@@CRneu and of course if you trip someone in a tall SUV might not see you. It’s such a shame that they don’t just give you 30 seconds or something.
I used to live close to a 6lane boulevard in Montreal, Canada. You had the green man for like 15-20s (maybe more) then it changed to the yellow/orange hand for ~15s signaling that you might not have time to cross. Any less than that and people with disability can't cross the intersection in time.
My grandpa was fully blind and walked very slowly with his cane. If we were to cross a large intersection we had to be there as the light turned green for us or we had to wait until the next green.
10 seconds??? You practically have to sprint across! 🤦
Vox should do more international comparisons in these kinds of videos - e.g. how much friendlier the roads abroad are for pedestrians, how jaywalking isn't a thing in the rest of the world, etc.
EDIT: I just got recommended the channel "Not Just Bikes", which covers these comparisons and urban planning more generally. The few videos of his I've checked out so far have been really helpful and informative. In particular, look for the one on "stroads" - the street/road hybrid monstrosities like the one in this video - that only seem to exist in North America.
Jaywalking is a thing in countries that copied the U.S. logic of jaywalking such as Germany.
No jaywalking isn't, but dangerous car centric roads exist everywhere worldwide, thanks auto industry lobbyist.
@@bishop51807 The term might not be the same but people are still threated like jaywalkers in countries that adopted these styles.
They usually do this they had made a grrat comparison about schools in the US and Finland for example
@@paxundpeace9970 Yeah but these are kinda over the top. Systems outside of the US face the same nay sayers like you have.
It's a bit like if you got to Canada and see something the U.S. had earlier.We in Europe have people that copy the tactic of right wing U.S. politicians just in their own flavour.
Vox should also do a piece about the average height and weight of cars and their change over time
yes, that is a huge factor in the number of deaths.
And comparing them to European and Asian counterparts.
Meanwhile there're roads in my country with unladen vehicle weight limits as low as 1.5t (3306lb), which I think many cars would exceed today
Monster pickups being driven by people who aren't actually using them for work or leisure but because it makes their owners feel invincible.
@@stevencooke6451 It's mainly the huge SUV's built on truck platforms that are being driven by Starbucks sipping soccer moms while texting.
Another factor is right turn on red light. In theory, it shouldn't be much of a problem because drivers are required to yield. In practice, many drivers tend to forget that (or if they do, only watches out for vehicles and not other road users).
Not only are you required to yield, you are required to stop completely, and give way to all other traffic. You have last priority when you want to turn right on red. Right-on-red needs to be treated as a full stop, first and foremost.
The purpose of right-on-red is to avoid the need for drivers to needlessly wait for a red light to clear, when their intended movement has no conflicting traffic.
@@carultch Partial solution to that is a traffic light for right-turn, in which its cycle is different from left-turn and straight traffic lights.
@@dbclass4075 In my country, even with such a signal, vehicles that want to turn may only be able to do so from one lane that also allows vehicles to go straight, & the vehicles that want to turn may be held up by another in front that's going straight instead
I live in Toronto. More streets have stopped allowing these turns, something Montreal Island has never (or at least not within my memory) allowed. Yes, it is inconvenient at times, especially on congested one lane roads, but as someone who is also a pedestrian I have seen so many close calls and more than one actual collision.
There is another massive issue with all this sprawling development: it is unbelievably expensive. The average surface parking lot costs thousands of dollars per parking spot to build . These arterial roads cost millions. Imagine how much good could be done if this was spent on literally anything else...
Check out the work Strong Towns has done identifying the Growth Ponzi Scheme which explains the current state of car centric suburbanization. Not Just Bikes also did a “Strong Towns” themed video series that has a really good summary of how the Suburban Growth Ponzi Scheme works.
The whole sprawling culture is extremely wasteful and expensive. It requires tons of infrastructure - roads, bridges, water, electricity, etc. to support sparsely populated areas, these endless expenses can drive cities to bankruptcy. Owning a single family home is expensive compared to an apartment, and owning a car can reach up to 1/3 of poor people’s income.
Yep. People constantly complain about their "taxpayer dollars going to useless bike lanes and sidewalks", but they don't realize how much money they're spending over their lifetime to own a car (it's in the hundreds of thousands), and how many of their taxpayer dollars are going to road maintenance for damage, etc caused by vehicles driving over them all the time. They should be angry about that.
@@kaylathompson862 spamming can get you banned from Google.
@@Benoit-Pierre I could care less🤷♀️
Like many, I've fallen down the "urbanist rabbit hole" lately and I can't stop seeing problems everywhere in my own city. So that's why my town has had so many bike/ped deaths! No wonder I feel uncomfortable walking on stroads! There are many things I just accepted as "normal" before that I'm now questioning. It's both good and bad lol
Yes. Welcome to the rabbit hole! Invite a friend to the urbanism rabbit hole! The beautiful thing is unlike a lot of other policy spaces, you can get a ton done at a local level for urbanism. You don't even need to convince the whole country, just a few neighbors!
It blew my mind that US suburbs sometimes don't even have sidewalks.
There's this portion of a residential road I take to get home that I used to HATE. It's got small bike lanes on the sides (didn't ever hate that part), but it also has these stretches of curb that make you slow down as you have to go around them. It's like that through the whole road. Then there's this really small roundabout that killed me...
A few years later and I've come to appreciate the design after falling down the urbanism rabit hole as it encourages slower driving and gives walkers and bikers a place to travel on the road.
There would be fewer pedestrian deaths if those people had driven. Cars save lives. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
@@moroteseoinage brain completely replaced with general motors marketing team
Pedestrian bridges are not the answer. They will just be bypassed by people not wanting to walk up the stairs or ramps. This is still an old way of thinking about pedestrian design.
yep. and if you’re walking, you still have to walk to the bridge and then from the bridge.
Pedestrian bridges are made for cars. It's a car infrastructure.
It's also ridiculous that someone could think that it's a sustainable/scalable solution. Even if they were perfect for pedestrians, saying ped bridges are the solution to these problems is like saying that vehicle overpasses are the solution to every dangerous intersection or high-risk conflict point. It just isn't feasible, financially or otherwise.
I mean, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing, and I doubt people in power will go for lowering the number of lanes and yknow, actually making a long term solution
Depends on how it is implemented - it is not necessarily bad as long as it is easily accessable for handicapped etc. A pedestrian tunnel is probably better
I’ve lived here my entire life 20 years. exactly where there filming and I lost one of my best friends at the traffic light about a year ago very dangerous intersection.
That memorial is my friend Logan very sad brings a tear to my eye thank you vox for making this documentary
That’s so sad😢
Fly high 🙏🕊️
I imagine that the reporter just found people on the street to interview on the day. It speaks volumes that she was able to find three people who have harrowing stories about how dangerous the roadway is. The one woman almost cried speaking out of fear! The young man's friend literally DIED there? Wow.
Just so you know, the guy at 4:11 is talking about Logan Blakley who died in his car by a reckless driver going 85mph. The guy in the video who is speaking for Logan, Damion McCloskey, doesn't actually know who Logan he is. No one who was close to Logan knows who that guy is, whoever vox hired for that part is a liar and I think it's important people know this
@@starryoshizumi9508 Vox seems to have removed that section
Reducing speed limits... Seriously? The problem is the road *looks* like a highway. You have get rid of lanes if you want people to go slower. And pedestrian bridges? Come on. They take forever to get across, you have to go out of your way, good luck if you're in a wheelchair, penalizing pedestrians for the benefit of the people in the cars. Cities are made up of people. People live in homes, people go shopping, people go to work, people pay taxes. Not cars. Yet we continue ot build cities designed for cars first.
Ya, well, people live in homes but how do they go shopping? In a car. To work? In a car. To run errands? In a car. It's just how it is. And yes, more walking around and public transportation would be great but people love their cars too much in America. Plus, unless you live in a big city, things tend to be pretty far apart. Like all these pedestrian friendly things sound wonderful, except no one is going to use them, and places in America that will, have significantly better public transportation and pedestrian friendly infrastructure than what is shown in the video. Still nowhere near as good as in Europe but at least it's a start.
And widening the roads haven't make traffic run smoother, it just allows for more traffic. See it in my city, Jacksonville, Florida, all the time.
us-19 in clearwater basically is a highway. they elevated that section, put on and off ramps and called it a day lol. I wish it wasnt like this but the commuters here don't wanna reduce lanes because it inconveniences them
@@ape8404 Your argument has largely been debunked. There are towns in Europe with the same or smaller population than many NA cities and yet their public transport is multitudes better. The US and Canada are simply not aware that you can do things differently. The car isn't the be all end all.
@@ape8404 you just described the problem. Many American cities were originally built for people. But following WW2 they were bulldozed to pave massive roads and highways. Cities that were built after WW2 were built for cars first and foremost. Plenty of European cities with populations of less than 100,000 have amazing trams, trains and busses. Because they never carved up their cities for cars. It's extremely difficult to have any human friendly places once you go all in on cars. I used to be nuts about my car until it started leaving me stranded and I couldn't afford a new car or to fix mine. It was shocking that I literally couldn't imagine how to survive without a car when that is normal in most places on earth. It's not even an option in the US. A car is basically required to be a functional member of society here. That's the issue.
Small error at 4:30: 950m is a 15 to 20 minutes walk, not the 30 to 40 minutes mentionned in the video. I guess metric distances confused the writers. It's still an outrageous distance.
Say you want to get to somewhere inbetween the 2 crossings on the otherside.. you have to walk the distance to the crossing and back again. That could end up being a lot more than the 950m so it could potentially add an extra 30 or so minutes to the journey
@@ChrisJones00918 Worst case scenario you're at the mid-point between the two crossings and want to reach a point just on the other side of the road. The total distance is 950m plus the width of the road (30 meters or so). Trust me, I'm a pedestrian !
12 min at 5km/hr which is a normal slow walking speed
You take 15 minutes to walk 950 m?? That shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes.
Yeah, if it takes 30 minutes, you're walking 1.9km/h which seems VERY slow. Average walking speed is about 5km/h.
Revelatory movement; *Strong Towns.* This topic is also extremely well covered by a channel called NotJustBikes, who talks at length about infrastructure design comparisons between car-centric vs welcoming to everyone else. Pedestrian bridges are not a solution, it's another slap on the wrist for wanting to walk. The US urban road system need a major overhaul. Until then, our system values the presence of machines over people.
Ask yourself this if you're in doubt-
Is your affinity for the ease of driving worth the human cost in life of those who can't afford your way of life?
Stroads
I watched Strong Towns and Not Just Bikes and their explanation about Stroads, athough I sense a shady reason why the US continues to build sprawling developments and car centric design. Because the US cities after 1950s were destroyed for the car, the one who were impacted were Children, Disabled, Hispanic, Black, Asian, non-White and poor people. This is what I believed that the reason the US continues to be like this, to sustain Racism and Inequality for poor people.
I don't know much about this topic, why aren't pedestrian bridges a solution?
@@TheLastScoot Because it forces the pedestrian to climb up and down. Disability cannot use the Pedestrian Bridges because it has no elevators and elevators are expensive to build and maintain in the open area. Pedestrian Bridges also permit cars to travel at high speeds, making it dangerous to people outside of car. In Jakarta, the pedestrian bridges were made like ramps to give disability access, however it was lengthy walk to the BRT station and it's often misused by motorcycles.
The man, Damion McCloskey, at 4:11 is a liar. The memorial behind him is for Logan Blakely who died in a car crash by a reckless driver going 85mph at a red light. No one knows who this guy is speaking for Logan, and if anyone should have been asked for this interview it should've been someone who actually knew him. This is extremely disrespectful to Logan and his life, and those who knew Logan. Vox should take this section of the video out. Extremely disrespectful and wrong.
Hi Starr Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I apologize for miscategorizing the accident and for any offense to Logan’s friends and family. We did not intend to misrepresent the accident and fully recognize that we should have exercised more diligence to verify the interviewee’s claim. I’m working on a correction to the video that will no longer include the misrepresentation and interview at 4:11. - Laura
@@Vox Thank you very much
@@Vox That explains why people were making these references in the comments that made no sense. Weird that someone would want to insert themselves into someone else's story.
My Dutch friend once said to me “Americans love to harp about their years in university because it’s the only time in their lives they lived in a walkable community”
this is hilarious and true. I grew up near a US University campus and never needed a car. The entire town was a 10 minute bike ride.
Hoi!
Can totally confirm that's a Dutch thing to say.
I keep wondering how Americans keep living like that. Fell into the 'urbanist rabbit hole' myself and though "Wait a minute. Y'all don't have to cycle/walk to school!?!?!? Your parents bring you every day!!!!! That would be a luxery for me! My parents would never do that for me." (as a Dutch person, your parents will only bring if it rains and usually not even then 'You're not made of sugar' they'll say sending you on your way to cycle 10 km)
@@TikoVerhelst lol, it’s kinda nice sometimes, but honestly I wish I grew up in a more cycle friendly area, it has so many benefits
The Dutch like to talk about how their country is so pedestrian friendly. Sure, but their ENTIRE country is 75% the size of San Bernardino County outside Los Angeles.
@@RH-cv1rg That's not the point. Europe has highways to carry cars long distances too. It's just that the European city's are more compact and discourage cars so that people walk or cycle. Our cities are large to accommodate car culture. The United States needs to change their future city designs to be more green and more pedestrian friendly over car friendly.
Another factor to the probability of killing pedestrian, since energy is factor of speed and mass, is also the growing weight of cars. You can also had the design of these big cars (suvs and trucks) with high front bumpers which make accidents worse. Improve streets design, reduce size of cars, save lives and save the planet !
of course it’s in florida
Lol
LOL
Florida man obviously had built it
I live in Florida and said the same. I actually thought of several deadly roads when saw the video, they’re usually near the beach too :(
If "florida" is in your joke pocket u need to broaden your horizons...
I live in the middle of a city here in England and hardly ever have to wait for the "green man" - walking when it's not your turn is common and walk pretty much everywhere within a 2-3 mile radius, we're far from the most pedestrian friendly city around but seeing US-19 is frightening. It's mental how the US was built
Just wish cycling was a more accepted, safe and common means of transportation over here
@@racecardriverrr4201 why cant afford a car? lol
@@GeorgeParros161 unless you live in 🇳🇪
@@GeorgeParros161 stay mad 🤣
People in the US urbanist communities often say that the country wasn't built this way it was REBUILT this way. Before the popularization and widespread adaptation of cars, US cities were a lot like European cities. Dense cities with many pedestrians and multiple forms of public transit like trams, trains, and interurbans. However, when cars started gaining popularity and pedestrian deaths rose people were discouraged from walking, trams were torn out, and minority and low income communities were bulldozed to make way for highways to connect the sprawling suburbs with the city center.
Please continue making videos like these, this is one of those things that desperately need to change and the only way it will happen is if it remains in public consciousness. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Please spread this message in the comments! -
‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for)
-Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
NOt just bikes. youtube.
What a great video, these are issues we're trying to tackle in our own community here in Rochester, neighborhood streets are becoming their own highways leading to traffic fatalities. Reducing the speed limit is great, but it really boils down to the street design that makes drivers become more aware of their surroundings and their speed. Would love to see more videos like this Vox!
If you look back at history, a lot of towns in the U.S were initially designed for trains because, in the teens and 20's, people thought that was the future of transportation. A lot of roads had train or trolly tracks running right down the middle of them. But it was all mostly gone by the end of the 30's, into the mid 40's, once they realized that people were going to drive cars. Think of all that infrastructure they built and then tore down within only 20-30 years. And today look how long it takes to get anything done.
I think an under appreciated aspect of increasing pedestrian fatalities is the also increasing size of vehicles. Large SUV’s have a different “hit box” than sedans that hit people in the legs and then roll into the hood.
Important note indeed, went to an auto show and my shoulders were barely popping over the hood of a Cadillac Escalade (and I'm 5'10"/178cm).. That thing should almost require a truck licence and I'm half-joklng here...
@@Davmm96 the new generation of full size SUV's is outrageous.
The grill would hit most pedestrians directly in the head during a collision.
And if colliding with a sedan car from the side that grill would come straight through the window and into the passenger compartment. Bypassing all the safety structures in the car's body.
I can't believe those vehicles are legal.
This is also a result of the environment, how car centric it is. People who buy SUV get them because they are a lot safer for themselves if there is a crash, which the car centric cities make much more likely.
Also since you have to drive to the store and everywhere else, due to everything being more spread out, you need a bigger trunk.
There is also the ongoing effort to soundproof cars as much as possible, even sometimes including active noise cancellation. No need to hear all those pesky pedestrians screaming while you run them over. Cars are much safer these days but ONLY for people *inside* the car.
Also bigger and worse blind spots, which are also a problem with the needlessly big trucks (i.e. the ones with huge/high cabs and barely any bed space for hauling materials) that're becoming distressingly popular.
I really hope that the US follows through with more pedestrian friendly cities/developments. The benefits are staggering I like a cool car as much as the next guy but this country’s dependence on vehicles has become a problem.
It's been a problem for 60 years. It's being recognized as a problem now that building/maintaining car-centric infrastructure is literally bankrupting cities.
@@westasleep yup, but thankfully cities are starting to change stuff
Why does it have to be 1 or the other? Some cities are better for cars (houston), some are better for walking (nyc)
@@randomname4411 the netherlands is good for all modes of transport
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
I grew up in Pinellas county and US-19 is a notoriously scary street/road... The only positive of learning how to drive on such dangerous stroads is becoming defensive and aware of all the danger. Any time I get the chance to drive on a simple 2-lane road, it's a breath of fresh air, literally.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
Not sure if any one else noticed but I gotta applaud the video editor taking the effort to add a blur effect over diagram on the windshield as the car passes through at 3:09 mark
As a regular pedestrian and public transport user in Dallas, Texas, I can relate to all of these issues.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
These stats are terrifying 😢 I’m glad they’re looking into this
I'm so glad I don't live in the US and I can walk or cycle everywhere.
It's a sad existence. NYC and SF are great for public transit and cycling options but nowhere near the Netherlands. Unfortunately the cost of living is ridiculous compared to the stroad filled cities all over the US. Still, I'm happy to ditch my car and pay higher taxes to have amazing transit/dining/shopping options within walking distance near my residence.
I'm so glad you don't live in the US either
@@seanthe100 coping
with everything going on in the US i dont wanna live here anymore either 😭
@@ianlulu if more people leave the inflation will definitely go down, please be my guest
These videos make me want to be a city
planner, I find the topic interesting.
Do it!!
@@warw Not that easy, you have to deal with U.S politicians who are in the pocket of lobbyists from the auto industry and big oil.
Go for it! Also try video games like Cities Skylines and other modern city building games, they're fun puzzles for people who enjoy city planning and this kind of problem solving
Is the ultimate problem city planners, or interest groups who don’t want cities to become more walkable because that would hurt the bottom line of car companies etc ?
don't become one in the U.S its illegal to build anything but developmenta like this
This topic actually touches my biggest worry when I was studying in the US as a student without car. I felt so fragile to cross the road and worried about homeless yelling at me.
No, the homeless won't yell at you but the people driving in their car will.
I’ve had much worse experiences with people in cars than homeless people doing this type of stuff
This video is insanely good-the editing, the explanations-everything is top notch. Well done Vox!
The rise in pedestrian deaths mentioned at 0:36 is as much a result of the increase in high hood height trucks and SUVs as it is a result of car-centric design. The higher hood height means drivers have less visibility of pedestrians in front of them and when a pedestrian is struck they are more likely to be run over than run under. Design of modern trucks and SUVs is a much a problem as design of roadways.
Source? Or are you just guessing?
if you get hit by either sudan or an SUV going 45mph you are still going to have a high chance of dying lol
This is true. A neighbor in our development in central California recently ran over her own child, killing her. Driving a massively oversized SUV. Killed her own child in her own driveway, literally nobody is to blame but the woman herself. She has to live with that guilt for the rest of her life. But if she didn't have the massive SUV she simply wouldn't have fit in with all the other wives in the neighborhood, and can't have that.
@@helpfulcommenter Oh my God that's horrible. But how do we convince American people that regulation in the name of public safety doesn't mean communism?
@@Cam16751 yeah, but there’s a difference between just going on the window and being run over.
I live in Palm Harbor; just south of new Port Richey, thank you for highlighting this dangerous and seriously messed up roadway.
Speedbumps right before intersections and pedestrian crossings!
That's not a solution, only bring more troubles with even higher risks of accidents. speed bump is arguably the worst invention for the roads & will certainly damage vehicles to high degree.
@@crozraven What are you talking about? Speedbumps before every low-speed intersection and pedestrian crossing are long proven solutions in Dutch road design. Where are all those damaged Dutch vehicles you speak of?
@@crozraven the safest crossing in my city has a speedbump, it forces drivers to slow down to protect people
@@crozraven Candian RUclipsr Not Just Bikes has a recent video titled "Crossing the Street Shouldn't Be Deadly (but it is)". At 20:35 he showed the Dutch speed bumps and humps before intersections and raised pedestrian crossings acting as huge speed humps themself
Have a look and see what other countries are doing to save people's life
@@crozraven Driver complains about safety features because he cant just add 5 seconds to his travel time
Thank you for covering this. We need more awareness of the conditions that cause pedestrian fatalities.
The "most dangerous street" looks just like every other street in suburban America. "Let's desgin a place for families to live, but when they go outside for a walk it feels like they're walking on the Nascar Daytona 500, ready to be struck by the nonstop traffic brigade any moment". Why don't they design cities for pedestrians anymore? So weird.
I know. They build it like it’s an interstate highway, even though it’s at grade.
I actually just came back from that city this past weekend and was thinking the whole time how dangerous it looked for pedestrians.
Please spread this message in the comments! - ‼️‼️ THE MAN AT 4:03 DID NOT KNOW LOGAN (the man who the memorial was for) -Whoever made this video lied for content, and Logan’s friends/family are hurt by this. I’m not sure if Vox hired someone to lie about the manner of Logan’s death and about his life, but it’s not right. Please take the video down or cut that part out. HE DID NOT KNOW LOGAN! So incredibly disrespectful!!!
Someone made a very good video on RUclips about how in Europe you have two distinct roads while in America you have an amalgamation of both.
Might be NotJustBikes' video on stroads (a "street-road"). This made me think of that video too.
Distinct roads for what?
@@razzle_dazzle Well they specifically mention streets, common places for low traffic volumes, and roads/highways, fast segregated infrastructure intended for moving high volumes of traffic without disruptions, as the 2 bits. Stroads, like US 19 try to combine both with its designs, many driveways and crossings of this insanely wide road, while also not segregating it away from businesses and pedestrians, creating an environment that's not just worse and unsafe for pedestrians, but for drivers too!
@@drdewott9154 Yeah, I didn't see the reply above mine. I'm watching that video now... it's pretty informative!
@@marischal3 Yes, that's him! Thanks for reminding me 👍
In urban planning circles, we say that it takes 20 years to undo bad planning... and that is only if the political class is cooperative.
And BTW, those arterial roads are often referred to as Stroads, they try to be both a street that gives access to businesses and a road that rapidly moves you from point A to point B. But they sadly fail at both of these goals.
Is stroads a regional thing, or just urban planning jargon? This is my first time hearing the term, and I'm wondering if it's because I don't know enough about urban planning, or because I live in New England.
@@kneesturnedvelvet3725 it’s purely an urbanism term, they’re strictly speaking classified as streets even though they’re clearly also built to handle through-traffic
45MPH aka 70KMH strode inside a city is alien to me who lived most of my life in Montreal. Highways in Montreal are for the most part 70KMH (tho people drive 100 given there's no/little traffic), boulevard are restricted to 50 (30MPH).
You'll only see 70KMH on roads in the furthest suburb.
@@kneesturnedvelvet3725 stroads is specifically a "strong towns" thing. I'm an urbanist, and I am not a fan of Strong Towns, but I like some of their messaging, and stroads is one of the things I like. Its not a technical term, and it gets the message across to the non-experts.
I'm angered to hear that the mayor wants to put pedestrian overpasses along the route. Those are the most expensive and least effective solutions for pedestrian safety and often introduce different dangers to pedestrians.
I love how you show detailed insights in why a used concept is bad and also show solutions to how it could be turned for the better for all people to use it safely. ❤
950 metres is a 30-40 minute walk? 🤔
Yeah I thought the same... 15 minutes tops.
Yeah clearly it's a problem of an American not knowing metric. Come on, vice!
The road they showed is constantly interrupted by driveways where they have to wait for cars to pass, so in that context it would definitely take longer than it should.
For those of you who don’t know metric, east way to remember is 1000m (or 1km) takes around 10 minutes at a brisk walk (6km/h)
i guess if you are a granny then
Love to see Charles Marohn’s “stroad” concept going mainstream!!!
Um, all of them?
Any place that is not amsterdam
I’m a professional traffic operations engineer and I recently worked on a lane repurposing study in a small Florida town which I will not name. A lane repurposing study is what Florida DOT calls a corridor study to examine the roadway’s existing and future uses and make recommendations on how the roadway ought to be vs. how it is currently configured.
On this recent study our corridor had above statewide average fatality rates (and that’s high because Florida is about as deadly as roads get) and 3 lanes in each direction. Our traffic models showed the roadway was operating at 19% of capacity during peak hour traffic and 2 of the 3 lanes were not needed for operations. We conservatively recommended reducing from 3 to 2 lanes (instead of 3 to 1) in each direction and providing streetscape improvements such as on street parking (good for businesses), bike lanes (proven to reduce crash rates for all roadway users), auxiliary turn lanes at driveways, and wider sidewalks with landscaping in some areas.
The engineers and planners thought the recommendations made sense as they would not cause traffic congestion but would help make this small town’s downtown more walkable and pleasant and would create a sense of place-all good things for local residents and businesses.
Unfortunately, due to local politics, the people who showed up to public meetings liked the 3 high speed lanes through their downtown. The population that showed up to meetings was mostly retired baby boomers who oppose any and all change, good or bad.
So while it’s sad to see areas with high fatality rates, please don’t blame engineers or planners. In the end, if YOU the citizens don’t participate in your local government, then nothing will be done.
Interesting perspective. I'd like to add more to this.
The people who have the time out of their day to show up to municipal public meetings are the retired boomers, and the privaledged wealthy people (who are wayyy likely to be white in most places). The YOU who needs to be represented often can't show up to public engagement efforts. It should be the job of local politicians to represent these people, but as goes with most things, the poor don't get spoken for.
So yes, planners aren't to blame. The solution is not "hey, go to meetings!". The solution is change that's bigger than that. On the community level, doing door to door or on the street surveys. Creating an environment of people who actively try to find out what the less fortunate want and need. And still, bigger than that, reduce the barriers to public engagement by improving poor people's financial situations. Institute a higher minimum wage, or union protections, or UBI. Anything.
As with most things, you miss a lot when you only think about individuals.
Excellent video that perfectly captures the state of pedestrian safety in the US. Will definitely be sharing this, keep up this kind of content we love it!
"Bumped." They're afraid of getting "bumped." Even our language has been trained to be driver-centric.
Right? I’d say “I’m afraid of a crippling collision”. But just like with how far “jaywalk” has osmosed into daily language, now it’s “bumping into somebody” 🤦♀️
Good video that points out an aggravating problem. One mistake though, at 4:34 , 950 meters does not take 30-40 minutes to walk. That's a 10 minute walk, 15 max.
It probably takes that long to walk that distance, and back, and cross the street.
I bet there are plenty of similarly dangerous roads that pedestrians simply don't dare to walk.
lookup how interstates split up minority neighborhoods which eventually destroyed them. It's a contributing factor to the poverty in a lot of minority neighborhoods. white neighborhoods weren't divided at anywhere near the rate that minority ones were.
systemic racism is still very active in the united states today.
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO FINALLY A BIG RUclips CHANNEL TALKS ABOUT THIS
The sad thing is that I've seen roads worse than the US-19. The stretch of US-19 shown in the video still has sidewalks and is a few feet away from the road; the sidewalks are also in good condition. Some roads in the US have sidewalks literally RIGHT next to the road; no grass, no bushes, no trees in between, sidewalks RIGHT next to asphalt road with cars going 50MPH. Some roads don't even have sidewalks at all; people just walk on the grass or through parking lots.
It's also sad that walkable communities are being developed, but primarily in wealthier neighborhoods too. That means that wealthy people who can afford to drive cars, expensive ones at that, get access to walkable neighborhoods, while disadvantaged people who are the actual ones in need of walkable infrastructure are neglected by their local governments. It's sad, really.
“Not quite a street, not quite a highway” why won’t you call a stroad a stroad?
It’s pretty remarkable achievement, making an entire video on people killed on stroads, without using the word stroad.
That's not a road, that's a STROAD!
Thanks.
Urbanists have been screaming this message from the rooftops for years. It makes me happy to see this being featured by major news outlets since it means more people will see it.
Not mentioned in this video are dozens of other issues brought about by car-centric design. Things such as the environmental and financial impacts as well as racial/socioeconomic inequality.
Car-centric design in the US was largely a result of racist fears and resentments, which spurred the "white flight" to the suburbs and anti-transit political decisions in those suburbs. Taking lanes away from private car traffic, as urbanists propose, isn't going to make those attitudes go away.
@@Zalis116 no is arguing that it would, so idk what your point is. Our over-reliance on cars puts a massive financial strain on our economy, which disproportionately impacts the impoverished. Urbanism is not about "removing lanes". It's about diversifying transportation options while simultaneously making our cities more livable.
@@LimitedWard "no is arguing that it would [change underlying attitudes], so idk what your point is"
So would you admit that urbanist street reconstructions are just intended to punish motorists with more congestion and delays and not actually change anything? If that's the stance urbanists want to take, they're entitled to do so, but they shouldn't turn around and deny the existence of a war on cars.
"Urbanism is not about 'removing lanes'." Yet one of the chief complaints about "stroads" is that there're too many car traffic lanes, and virtually every "how can we improve this awful stroad?" graphic includes a reduced number of car traffic lanes. Again, urbanists are free to advocate these changes; I just ask that they not dump rocks on our heads and tell us it's hailing.
@@Zalis116 Urbanism in some cases, can result to just removing lanes. I admit that. Removing lanes and constricting motorists changes lots, with slower speeds through a driver’s instinct, better pedestrian environments, and just more space for human-scale cities. Actually showing how these new, safer environments could work may show opponents what they’re arguing against.
Being a pedestrian or riding a bike in Florida is extremely dangerous. It's a densely populated state with poor planning and underfunded infrastructure.
As a Cyclist, drivers are in the Wrong. Drivers joke and seek out to hurt Cyclist. They do it on purpose, they dont stop at stop signs. They run Red Lights when making right hand turns. Drivers are never checkibg for pedestrians when crossing a sidewalk.
Most drivers dont know its the LAW you have to STOP when passing over a Crosswalk even if there is no Stop sign. When leaving your neighborhood STOP before the sidewalk!
Turning right on red is legal in a lot of states I think but I still hate cars with a passion too
@@1336u I think that’s OP’s point! It’s so commonly allowed that a lot of people do it everywhere.
Straods...
Straods are horrible. NotJustBikes channel talks all about this. If you've never heard of stroads before, this is a good place to start learning about walkability and bad road design in the US.
ssstraaaaaoooodzzz
I don't even thing highway 19 counts as a stroad. Maybe a righway. Or modern highroad.
7:16 I grew up here I had no idea there was such a beautiful view behind the big box stores. All I ever saw was the sprawling concrete hellscape
The problem is that you are trying to make an 8-lane highway into a mixed use road.
That is almost always a recipe for disaster. If cars are going 50mph, then you shouldn't have driveways and pullouts lining the whole stretch.
For some reason, the distinction between limited-access roads (highways with no pedestrians or businesses) and regular roads (single to double lane roads with low speeds, accessible to vehicles and pedestrians) has broken down.
If you want a highway, then build a highway. If you want a road, then build a road. Don't combine the two into an unholy mess where some guy leaving Walmart has to cross traffic going at 60mph.
At this point, after everything I've seen, it seems human life is worthless in the US except for oneself.
It's literally a stroad, just watch Not Just Bikes for a much more indepth view and more videos
It's good that vox is covering this with its mostly american audience who have never thought about how North American cities are hostile to anyone outside of cars and consider things like stroads and very wide streets the norm.
Also not mentioned is how economically deficient car centric designs are. "Not Just Bikes" has some great work on this subject
If you found this interesting, please check out the channel 'not just bikes'
This was an incredible video. Thank you
Yep, also the channel "City Beautiful"... and there's probably a few other good ones about urban planning that we're forgetting.
@@razzle_dazzle if you haven't seen Eco Gecko, they're worth a watch!
City Nerd is a good channel too. A bit lower budget than some others but the creator's acerbic humor and planning expertise is great to watch.
I’d also throw in RM Transit, it’s more transit oriented but it is urbanist friendly.
adam something and alan fisher also
Compliments to the b-roll and delivery. Very good camera work!
"Not quite a street, not quite a road."
I know this one! A stroad!
(Credit: Not just Bikes)
Strong Towns
Can definitely recommend Road Guy Rob and Not Just Bikes channels. Both looking at transport from 2 different perspectives but both hating these roads and looking at ways that transport can be safer and better for everyone
remove lanes, add speed bumps, add public transport, but knowing that this is the US this will never happen.
Adding signs won't decease speed, speed bump does.
Heh, I saw Seven Corners, VA made the list of cities with one of the most dangerous roads. That’s because the main intersection in Seven Corners is literally 7 corners/7 busy streets converging into 1 intersection.
US urban design is so incredibly egregious. Literally designed to make not traveling in a huge metal box as inconvenient as possible to maximize the profit of automotive manufacturers.
Despite making up only 13% of the road network, more than 50% of pedestrian fatalities occured in arterial roads
based
This is a little close to home. Drivers keep almost running me over when I have the light and then yelling at me for being in the crosswalk. The US needs to refocus its infrastructure on the needs of humans, not cars.
I would really encourage anyone who liked this or found this interesting to check out the RUclips channel NotJustBikes. Some additional points on this video that NJB deep dives into over many videos:
1) This type of road design and the infrastructure they encourage is not financially sustainable for the towns that maintain them.
2) This type of road design is not environmentally sustainable.
3) This type of road design is actually worse for car drivers as well, due to raised risk of crashes and fatalities, as well as the fact that road design that encourages more use of cars means more traffic.
4) This type of city design is not pleasing to be in. US arterial roads are essentially vast liminal spaces that no one wants to be in. The most financially viable spaces in every city in the world are mixed-use walkable spaces (which many places in the US/Canada have outlawed due to obscure and outdated zoning laws).
I could go on and on, but these are just some major ones off the top of my head. No matter what angle you look at it, this design doesn't make sense - Not for pedestrians, for the cyclers, for the municipalities, or for the drivers.
USA is not pedestrian friendly or even walking.
I remember coming to USA and being shocked that I couldn't walk to anywhere.
In India it's could walk miles to get groceries and even to mall and public transportation was available at drop of hat and even private transporting of I wanted.
Lomg story short, American consumption and consumerism is sooooo toxic and unhealthy.
Within 3 months of landing, I was not walking at all, eating junk as it was available so quickly and you don't have to go into restaurant.
And hence I gained weight of 20-25 pounds and became insulin resistance.
While in India it's was walking miles back and forth to get groceries.
And simple joy of walking couldn't be enjoyed in suburbs if cities in USA.
People specially go to parks for it. And for that you need to drive to the park! What???
I got posted in London for job for 5 months and guess what I lost a weight, I was walking and eating good food.
Then on when I returned to India, I felt free, my joints weren't hurting by sitting all day in home or in car.
I was eating seasonal non gmo food and I WOULD NEVER TAKE WALKING FORGRANTED.
America is obese super morbid obese and you don't know you are going on same path when you get there.
This consumerism isn't helping.
Fix cities.
Suburban cities are worse, no playground, no parks no walking pedestrian on both sides either.
What a wonderful video!!!
Commuted on the Florida gulf coast for 2 years. Highway 19 was what I had it mind before clicking on this. It makes so much sense
I've personally been on a kick-scooter to the place in Dallas depicted at 0:16. It is an absolute nightmare to traverse that area, even just to cross Riverfront Street. It's even more ridiculous that the city choose to set up a park and sidewalk to cross the Trinity River, since it's pretty clear that no one that fears for its safety would even dare to traverse that area on foot. It's also located right next to various highway exchanges, where a large number of homeless find shelter.
I grew up in New Port Richey and would avoid driving down US-19 as much as possible. Everyone there knows how bad the traffic is on that road. Drivers won't even stop for school buses sometimes.
this makes me think of a ridiculous Prager U video which emphasizes that "freedom to drive whatever car you want however you want" is an american right. They defend fossil fuel usage as a personal freedom. They use this logic to make the argument that democrats are attacking your "personal freedom" to drive what you want to drive.
It just goes to show how pervasive and ridiculous car culture is in the US.
Reducing the speed limit will do nothing but increase ticket numbers (and thus revenue), encourage over patrolling, and with that comes more police-related violence. It's better for literally everyone if the government takes literally any other step.
Of course, any effort to change the road is pointless without addressing city planning that prioritizes cars over people.
Excellent reporting as absolutely always Vox. Thank you!
Eight lanes is a number only seen in huge highways here in Spain... Every day I'm more surprised of how car-centric the US is.
come to Indonesia. you will never be safe to walk. they will use the sidewalk when the road is congested and often they also sell on the sidewalk.
So, if you are a pedestrian in Indonesia, you have to pass by the side of the main road.
Mind blowing, although I'm from the Netherlands, which has the best traffic design in the world. But really makes you appreciate the decisions that our government made to combat this
speed limits don't really exist in America, I've found that ALL of them drive 5-10-15mph faster than allowed. Everywhere and always. Absolutely terrifying
That is what happens when you have a road design that suggests 90 km/h (~55 MPH).
Your estimate is low. When congestion and forced stops are not a factor, driving speeds are more like 10-25 MPH over the so-called speed limit.
Just want to say that it's good that you put the link to the actual research paper as a reference.
This kind of car centric design is one reason I'd never consider living in North America.
The expert should have just used the D word:
"Jaywalking" was invented to *DISCRIMINATE against pedestrians.*
Great video, smart urbanism is our future
I wonder how much the push towards SUVs and trucks has played into rising pedestrian deaths. Getting hit below the hip vs the stomach, chest and potentially head.
It doesn't matter how big or how small the size of *private vehicles* are. We should disincentivize obsessive car centric designs.
Remove the roads, send in the train, build the city to incentivize people living in cities to commute to the city. But some segments of your society would rather run over a grandma than to reduce their car use.
Great video. Thank you for bringing awareness to this problem.
I lived just south of here, we used to drive on US-19 all the time. When I got my license, 19 was the one road I was not allowed to drive on. The problem with delaying green lights was that people would figure out that light had delayed green lights and just run right through the red figuring they had time, or even start to inch out into the intersection, which as you can imagine made it even more dangerous. If you delay the green light, you should at least add a photo enforcement camera so people are less likely to run the reds.
When I visited Wichita, KS, last year, I was flabbergasted at how horrible/nonexistent pedestrian infrastructure is. There were intersections with literally no facilities for pedestrians, only traffic lights for cars, and segments without sidewalks. You can immediately tell that pretty much everyone drives everywhere, and pedestrians simply aren’t a consideration.
With that said, I live in a rural area in a developing country, and our pedestrian/cycling infrastructure is depressing… despite the fact that a large percentage of people walk or cycle.
i felt the same visiting parts of arizona, i’m from california which isn’t the most walkable outside of san francisco, but at least we have pedestrian/cycling infrastructure