Check out the Hovsco Hovcart here: www.hovsco.com/products/hovsco%E2%84%A2-hovcart-20-step-thru-electric-fat-bike?ref=URBANIST Thanks again for watching, hopefully you got some good info on Philly out of this!
My uncle has been car free nearly his entire life and he's in his 50s now. Lives in a suburb in central Jersey and takes his bike then a bus to work in AC. Now that he's older he started working closer to home, though. Groceries, recreation, dr. appointments, everything by bike or bus. And that's in a suburb. It's not impossible.
But not all suburbs are the same. The Netherlands also has suburbs but everything is still a few minutes away with a bike. I guess that your uncle got lucky with the suburb. Probably Newark (most bike-friendly suburb according to google).
The recreation argument is one I hear all the time. I live in western WA and the weekend warriors are a huge demographic. There's a handful of forested parks in Seattle but many cities just don't have them, and a lot of folks want to be up in the mountains, or they fish, run whitewater, mountainbike, whatever. I would love for land management agencies to experiment more with bus service to popular trailheads which would help with overcrowding. I hiked one of the most popular hikes in the state, Lake Ingalls, on a Saturday and I had to park 2 miles from the actual trailhead itself because there were so many cars along the side of the road. I worked for the Forest Service and they know its unsustainable but no one had a good answer to the problem. Partially because USFS is horrifically underfunded; no resources. I'd love to see a video about the relationship between public transit and caring for our public lands, since cars can leave such a huge impact on them.
This is my main use for my car. I can access some trails closer to the city riding my mountain bike from my front door, but most trails are too far for me to ride to and driving to them is by far the most convenient way to get there.
In Northern California, Caltrans has been considering extending the Capitol Corridor trains into the mountains. To Reno and Tahoe. That would mean trains from the South Bay and East Bay areas to recreation in the mountains.
2:56 As a bus driver, I've noticed recently that every time I've ever passed a bike, I would always get stuck at a red light and they'd catch up with _and_ pass me by the time the light changes, so I stopped doing this. I quickly realized it's not worth the effort. The passengers get mad at me when I don't pass them though.
Imagine having to compete with a bike for road space... almost like they should give bikes their own lanes so they 'stop holding up traffic'. Ha. Let's see what the car people got in response now!
@VikVaughnMISC Ah yes the double standard of "im allowed to be an aggressive idiot as much as i want but as soon as someone wants to suggest something even remotely positive they have to be as uptight as possible". A classic.
Car-free in Toronto. I must admit, I'm fortunate to live in a 15 minute neighborhood, right across the street from a subway station, and my cycle commute of 15km each way is fun and safe year-round. Drove cars for 25 years and I've now been car-free for 25 years; far prefer the latter!
As someone who was born with vision too low to be able to drive or even ride a bicycle in a traffic heavy area my entire life has been built around finding places in the US that are fully accessible car free and it can be super annoying. Almost every city that is accessible via walking and public transit has a much higher cost of living than car centric cities, and anything that isn’t on the east coast is so sprawling that the second you leave downtown you have to deal with walking the lengths of absurdly big parking lots for every single block. I’ve settled on Denver for now but Philly and Chicago are probably the dream cities for being accessible and somewhat affordable.
This is the biggest reason IMO that we need to build for car-free. A lot of people CAN'T drive - people with low or no vision or conditions like narcolepsy, kids who are too young to drive, people who can't afford cars, elderly people whose faculties are declining - car-centric development kicks SO many people to the curb. We need ADA compliance at the municipal level.
@@cogspace the funny thing is in a lot of ways America is ahead of other places in terms of accessibility due to ADA. Accessible buildings are a lot more common because of it (also newer buildings, easier to retrofit for accessibility) BUT actually getting to those buildings is a nightmare
@@cogspace This! I know a lot of people who simply can't drive for health or personal reasons. I have a friend who was in a gnarly car accident and has PTSD. We need to make walking the default choice. If you want to drive everywhere, well, fine. But it should cost you extra! We shouldn't subsidize driving soooooo incredibly more than other modes!
Amen lol, my eyes are shit too, but I can get away with biking since my distance vision only really sucks for reading. As a rural kid unable to drive I was basically living the COVID lifestyle before it was cool and in a car centric city I had way, way more options but I've realized how screwy it is still. I've been doing this for ages, its definitely possible but as-is our bus systems are all designed for punishment, not transit. The lack of bike lanes and the mandating of traffic cycling is insanity as well. When I realized shit doesn't have to be this bad I got lowkey angry lol.
I have long observed the "I have to be in front" mentality when in a car, too. When I catch up to them at the next 3 red lights, it makes my day a little brighter.
Sometimes they slow down in front of me even without any traffic or red light, that's just how they drive, which is good. But why cut me off in the first place?
As someone born and raised in Philly I would say another caveat is neighborhood and income. If you live in, and can afford live in, a middle to upper income neighborhood in center city Philly or a center-city-adjacent neighborhood, you can go free. The EL is there, The Subway is there. Lots of things are walkable. I did it for years. But if you live in a working class or poor part of town, like where I grew up, such as: West, Southwest, “Down da Bottom” , North Philly, The Northeast, The Badlands, Olney, North West Philly, maybe Kenningston, maybe Fishtown, Allegheny, etc, etc etc - then you’d definitely need a car to get around, and get to and from work. Appreciate the content, and your take here - just think that it needs to be acknowledged that living car free in a big city, in the US, is a privilege that depends on income and neighborhood; which is in no way your fault. And I suppose that falls into your “US Cities aren’t Perfect” caveat. But, I do think that it should be acknowledged, at some point, that theres a class issue around car free convenience; at least in the US. I was born and raised in Southwest Philly and, again, lived downtown for years and didn't need a car - but I paid for it with higher rents of downtown Philly.
More and more accessable walkable areas are essential - there's a demand factor that helps drive up the price. They are often desirable places to live. And the people who would benefit the most from cutting car expenses often can't choose to.
I live in San Diego and there are no low income units being built where the transit is. I work in construction and right now I'm working on a 174 unit plex down in Otay Ranch, but it's not within walking distance of anything whatsoever. And of course once your income level rises beyond the initial "low income" requirements- that is, once you begin to succeed in life, you can't live there anymore.
I can't speak for Philadelphia, but where I live, Keizer Oregon (and Salem) it's easy enough to live car free and be poor like I am. It's not that the buses are "good" it's that the bus system is "good enough" which is all we need. The place is still absolutely overflowing with cars, the parking lots are gargantuan, crossing a stroad everyday makes me fear for my life, there are no good destinations, and the sidewalks just disappear sometimes, but I can get around fine.
For sure. My city has a few great walkable neighborhoods, but they’re all very expensive. The most affordable options are either historically underfunded neighborhoods and/or renting a house out in the suburbs, which are usually both very car dependent. I’m sure this sounds backwards to folks outside of the US and Canada, but there are rarely affordable walkable options available here. The demand for those places is high, which I think says something about how reluctant many of us are to need cars.
Even in modest neighborhoods in most midsized and larger cities in the US if you strategically chose your location to be near a trail, a grocery store, the library, and the one express line bus that takes you close to work you can multimodal with the bus and a bike if you are able bodied. While you can save some money with used cars and doing maintenance yourself, you're still looking at around $1.5k a year in costs alone if you drive. If you don't drive (or stick to one car / moped) you can pay a higher rent / mortgage and transit fees.
Car-free from Boston with a family of 5! It’s enjoyable even in the winter. I do weekly grocery trips with my 4 year old on the cargo bike with a trailer. Every time I spark a conversation with a curious onlooker and they’re shocked to learn that I live car free
In NYC, people of ages commonly use these vertical carts with wheels which fit easily on transit to get lots of groceries in one trip easier, especially seniors
When I lived there, the shopping carts in supermarkets even had hooks to hang your folding cart from as you shopped. Nobody I know from car-centric parts of the US (where I went to uni and where I live now) knows what I’m talking about when I try to describe them. I miss being able to easily get around without a car. I bike as much as I can but my neighborhood is very hostile to it, though there are some scattered and disconnected trails, and my commute routes were very dangerous, being two-lane suburban roads with many drivers exceeding the posted 35mph limits.
@@chow-chihuang4903 When I lived in California, the only time I ever saw those vertical carts was in Downtown Los Angeles. So yeah suburbanites won't know what they are
your videos inspired me (21 y/o) to move to my nearest city, Philadelphia. I got rid of my car and got damn its been soooo good for me. Thank you for your videos :)
Even in the few places in North America you can comfortably live car-free, most of the people who live there still have cars, and I think a big part of that is because as soon as you go literally anywhere else, the car becomes necessary. I live in Downtown Vancouver and living car-free is super easy. . .until a friend who lives down in the suburbs wants me to come over and it takes 4 bus transfers to get there. We still have a long way to go. . .
I live in Philly and rarely use my car on a day to day basis but it's really handy when visiting my parents' place or the Jersey Shore or other locales with poor transit.
In many places in Europe that are perfectly viable as car-free areas people also have cars. The trick is not to necessarily prevent people from owning autos. The point is to build enough of the correct infrastructure that people don't want to drive everywhere. I would bike everywhere if we had useable bike lanes. But all we have are the crappy share-lanes and I refuse to bike in our insane traffic! It's just too fricking crazy out there. So I walk to transit and Uber/Lyft for everything that's more than 1-1.5 miles away from a rail station. (Our busses are usually atrocious.)
Why don't you just use a car sharing service like zipcar for the few times you actually do that? Maybe it doesn't make financial sense.. I haven't actually looked into it too much. Just a thought.
@@TohaBgood2 This is very true! I grew up in a car-free neighborhood (which was great for my childhood), and although we had most of what we needed within a 15 min walk, my dad still owned a car for the commute to work. Ironically enough, he worked as a bus driver... Induced demand definitely applies to any transportation mode; be it cars, walking, transit, etc. Build the right infrastructure and people _will_ use it!
I haven't had a car my entire adult life. I live in Tempe, Arizona. People are always shocked when they learn this and will always ask me "Do you Uber everywhere?" They can't conceive that I might possibly take a bus or ride a bike
@@MrCleonwarrior Arizona summers are great bike weather! I can bike and walk year round here. Summers here are definitely better than winters in the Midwest/East Coast.
@rockym9981 I don’t know how anyone can cycle here in the summer. I’m just across the Loop 101 in Mesa. Early last summer I experienced serious heat exhaustion riding a regular bicycle on the Riverview path near the Tempe Town Lake and wasn’t sure I could make it back home. After that episode I purchased an ebike thinking that at least I’d have a throttle to get home in an emergency. But anymore when it’s much above 100 degrees riding or even walking is just out of the question for me, which means pretty much June through September I’m going to use the car.
This is serendipitous timing. Yesterday, I decided to see what would happen if I tried to get to and from my old door-to-door sales job in Huntsville, AL without a car. Long story short, I had to walk 90 minutes to and from the nearest stop, 20 minutes longer if I wanted a route with more sidewalks and less tall grass to wade through. The buses ran only hourly on most lines, so I'd get to the office for a standup meeting over 40 minutes early, struggling to find something to fill all that time, or else be significantly late. The travel times were longer than by car, but if not for everything else, they might've been worth the convenience of not driving and having to pay only $1 per ride. I spend at least that much in gas money alone, at least for longer trips. I was lucky enough that one of the areas where I used to knock doors was further down that same bus line. However, depending on exactly which doors I was visiting within that area, I'd have to walk up to 45 minutes to get there. I'd also have to stop early because the buses only run until 9 pm, meaning that they'd take me back to the central transfer station, but then I'd be stranded. You can probably see why I just stayed home whenever my car was having problems. Mind you, I live in a mixed-use development that attracts people from all over the city and has consistent developments between it and the city center. This place would be perfect for a bus stop, even with the pedestrian-hostile environment in which it exists. I don't blame anyone for owning a car here, and I feel for the few who simply cannot afford or legally drive a car as well as the many more impoverished residents who have to weigh themselves down financially by buying one. I wouldn't say that Huntsville has good bones, but we can do better, even with subtle but wide-reaching changes.
@Max Ramos Funnily enough, I went to college in Lexington, KY, which is far from an urbanist paradise but did a lot of things better. The bus line that I used to get from campus to a job in the suburbs ran every 20 minutes. That was still annoying because I would usually not have time to catch the 3:17 bus, but the 3:37 bus was about 5 minutes too late for me to be on time. Compared to Huntsville, though, that's an effective transit system. All I needed was lenience from my employer, really.
i love these videos of you showing what it's like to live car-free. as someone who is stuck living in car centric suburbs these videos are the only barrier between me and insanity
Living car free in America, the $10000+ spent on car ownership would all have to be poured into increased rent/mortgage payments to live in a place where you can live without a car instead of on other things
I absolutely love this video style. I'd love to see more of it. As someone who lives near Philadelphia and has experienced some of what the city has to offer, I would love to see more videos like this. I'm hoping this feedback is encouraging for a future of this video type on your channel. It really helps to give someone an idea of how they can live in an urban development without the need of a car.
I also live car-free in Philly, having moved from California where I had to drive everywhere in heavy traffic. Philly is no NYC or Amsterdam but I don’t plan to get a car ever again if I can avoid it! I’m doubtful the new mayor will help bike infrastructure but at least the PPA is (supposedly) cracking down on people parking in the bike lanes, which is constant.
Been living car-free in Los Angeles for the past 12 years. It's been hard but it's definitely getting better. Slowly, and in patches, but it is getting better. We have the most rapidly expanding Metro network in the country.
2:56 Alan, i drive in CC regularly, but not when i can avoid it. I am guilty of this, but its not for speed. I trust you braking your bike more than me braking my car…yes, even if i give you space in the rear. You hitting my rear bumper is better for my car than my car hitting you due to my error. If my mentality of passing is wrong and actually more dangerous for bikers, please let me know. Love your videos regardless and support more bike/transit investment.
This is good to know that I can live in Philly car free! This coming school year I will start school at UPenn majoring in Urban Studies, eventually to become an urban designer/planner. I chose to apply to Penn because it’s a great school in one of most urbanist cities in America. Hope I’ll run into you walking down the street one day in Center City!
As a carless Houstonian, I felt that the "I work from home" caveat was really important. (I do not work from home.) On the weekends, I'm probably 90% bike, 10% light rail, and it's really wonderful. During the week, however, it's about 80% bus and 20% bike, including a very short but very awful stretch by my work. I never want to own a car again, because the costs are so insane, but it would definitely cut my commuting time down by about 70%.
Stories like that are why I'm so grateful Atlanta has heavy rail even if I have a very love-hate relationship with MARTA. Getting to my office car free? Piece of cake with a bike and the train and its more consistent (and even a bit faster) than trying to drive in. Cities the size and density of a Houston or Dallas REALLY need to get funds from the highways redirected to at least a couple of heavy rail lines. Its a game changer.
We just had a conversation in Troy, NY about the future of small cities at the FOCUS lab. There are a surprising amount of people (myself included) in the Albany-Troy-Schenectady tri-city area in New York that are freely able to live car free. I was thinking, though, that my experience car free is very different from yours, given that we have nothing aside from regional rail in terms of trains, but CDTA (Capital District Transportation Authority) is among the best small-city and regional bus services I've seen anywhere... including living in Europe. I think it would be nice to give a commentary on the reality that it is also able to live a free, fulfilling car-free (or, at least, VERY easily car-light) life in cities like Buffalo, NY or again, the Albany-Troy-Schenectady area, or any of the smaller (
There used to be a lot of tram networks in the area that took people all across the region. All were sadly removed from service; just before major highways like 87, 787, 890, and of course, the Thruway were constructed. I have recently dreamed of what it would take to bring some of these networks back, but unless much of the NYS DOT budget was diverted from road maintenance and construction to these long-run capital projects, I think it would remain just a dream. Interesting history; one of the portals for the Schenectady Railroad was briefly revealed during the reconstruction of Glenridge Road in Rexford. That line went from Schenectady over the Mohawk River, all the way to Saratoga Springs via Alpus, Ballston Lake, and Ballston Spa. The route mainly followed the current CSX/Amtrak ROW except for Ballston Spa, where it made a very interesting S curve through the village to negotiate the valley made by Kayaderosserass Creek and Gordon creek. The irony of all the railroad infrastructure buried in the sands of time in the city that used to "Light and Haul" the world is not lost on me.
My first experience in carfree living was in Glenside. Uber wasn't a thing quite yet so I got around using SEPTA. Kinda weird seeing my old regional line in one of your videos. Cheers dude, love your content.
8:02 This shot right here made me say "oh my god it's gorgeous", out loud. I am privileged to live a car free lifestyle, outside the US, and I know beautiful human centric infrastructure when I see it.
1:04 Thats smart of Philly to put stop signs on the left side of the road. In Portland, we have parked cars and plants blocking stop signs in our narrow backstreets because, and aince PBOT wont use stop lines or left side stop signs, people accidentally run them
As a car-free Twin Cities resident, this video resonates well. Ebikes supplant the need for cars for much of the year, regular biking, walking and taking public transit helps a lot in the winters. Abundant bike trails and infrastructure matters, and an improving system that is fixing the car dependency of even the suburbs really matters. Even in areas with little to no bike infrastructure, there's still bike racks all over.
the cuyahoga valley national park runs a scenic railroad throughout the park that you can get on in downtown akron. They're trying to extend it into downtown cleveland terminal tower too which would be incredible but for now it cuts off like 10 miles south of cleveland in independance
Great video! I live car free in a medium sized southern city and I love it! The city is affordable enough that I can afford to live right in the city center. My office is merely a 10 minute walk away in the central office district. There's a mediocre BRT line and a fairly extensive but network that I use for errands and leisure activities. Also: the city is small enough that if I miss the bus, I can easily bike or scooter (or even walk) to my destination. I feel truly blessed!
Just one more lane bro! Your problem with the river trail in Philly reminds me of pre-pandemic days when I had to commute to Silicon Valley. The company's office had a nice trail nearby, but I found it couldn't be used for cycling during lunch. Many groups of tech workers (several companies are nearby) have a lunch ritual where they go out with a half dozen of their BFFs and take a slow stroll on the trail. While they do this, ALL members of the group walk side-by-side, taking up the entire trail. During their blissful stroll, these bros don't pay any attention to the possibility that a bicycle might also be on the trail. I tried ringing a bell, didn't work. I could yell, but that's not my style. I had to give up lunch-time cycling at that place. I'm thankful I no longer have to go there.
@@spatialfeelingsNeither one. I see there's a plague of this kind of activity! I'm talking about the San Tomas Aquino Creek trail between Scott Blvd and Tasman. The 101 underpass is the worst, with no lighting, no guard rail and not much extra space for tech bro strolls :D
Oh believe me, I know about grocery shopping on a bike, but mine's a little more freighty than this one. I own a Yuba Spicy Curry with the wide rack, side bags, and 2 sets of side boards - one for the wide rack and one for the sides at the bottom. Weight rated to 440 and has a Bosch mid drive motor on it. I've pulled home 2 weeks worth of shopping on it, as well as heavy cat food and litter, heavy pool chemicals, and a propane tank. It has 10 speed gearing and a 20" rear to help with the weight push off. I love it.
I rode my bike to work yesterday, only painted lines most of the way; in some places there are NO bike lanes. Had a car zoom past me going over 60mph, just inches from me. It's dangerous not driving a car and I hate that fact.
I am a 50+ year old person who has never owned a car. I almost got one about 15 or so years ago when I was living in texas, but decided to pay down my debt instead. There are some frustrations with public transit, but generally it's been great. This pace of life enables me to understand my environment in much greater detail.
This is the kind of videos that most people like to see if they were filmed in Japan but may found boring if filmed elsewhere. But you can have this kind of life in a lot of places... I loved it.
I guess so, a lot of people have a fascination for Japan, I guess rightfully so. They have a lot of great cities and towns. But so does a lot of other countries. Glad to see more people mentioning Philly though. If I lived in the US then Philly would probably be my choice
I have ever thought a video about living a normal day-to-day life without a car, but it would be so normal for my country that it would be ridiculous. Nice city, nice walk along the river. Thanks for your videos. (beautiful trains)
I've lived car free in Boston, San Francisco, and NYC for 45 years. There was three years in Connecticut when I needed a car. Connecticut was horrible, boring strip marks, no sidewalks, cookie cutter suburban homes. I could never live in an environment like that again. You're right about 30th street. After Grand Central Terminal in NYC, it's a solid second place. DC Union Station is third. Then the rest are all lumped together.
Philly is the best. I’m born and raised here my entire life, I’ve traveled and lived elsewhere during the military but I couldn’t ever leave here again. I’m trying to convince my wife to live more car free
I'm not lucky enough to live somewhere I can be 100% car-free, but I've still been able to be 90% with an e-bike. For me, it changed the game. I can get to work without breaking a sweat, go everywhere in town, and thanks to an intra-city path, even make it to the next town over purely on bike, about a 40-mile round trip. So much more enjoyable than driving, and having the electric assist means I can just keep going and going without getting sweaty and tired. If you've never tried an e-bike, I strongly recommend it. Did I mention zero gas, no oil changes, no license and registration fees, and almost zero maintenance? In the last 2000 miles, I had to spend $20 on a coupe pairs of brake pads, and that's it. Easy to install them myself. Maybe about $4.50 of recharges in that many miles.
I have found living car-free to be fantastic and a major money saver (I've compared expenses to friends who own cars, when I lived in SF and was paying $1300 a month in rent, my expenses of rent + transit usage were lower than my friend, also in the Bay Area, paying less in rent + car related expenses on a paid off car, excluding depreciation, with a lower cost rental) Its an interesting conversation when I go outside my social bubbles because at least some co-workers have always been surprised by it (plus the fact I've never owned a TV or sofa lol). I also find a huge thing for many people who drive everywhere is they're not dressed for the weather, which makes any time more than walking from your parking space to the store/office/whatever miserable if its not a moderate temperature and find this majorly overlooked for many people, I think you can have a much better experience if you have the right jacket/other gear for the weather when taking transit!
DC resident here! The nation's capital is a great place to live car-free and I've really enjoyed my time here over the past few years getting around by either walking or using the awesome Washington Metro. I tend to use a vertical cart for groceries since my closest grocery store is within walking distance but using a cargo bike for groceries sounds really cool, I might look into that after watching this. I purposefully promised myself that I would never live in an area that requires a car because I hate, HATE driving. It stresses me out to no end and I much prefer walking/using public transit. I appreciated the video a lot because it's interesting seeing how other people live car-free in other cities :).
"You can't go grocery shopping without a car" is a catch-22. Because if you live close enough to food stores to walk, you can go multiple times per week and only need to buy as much as you can carry.
Or if the supermarket is up to 3 miles away, you can use your bike too. I live very close to my supermarket, only 550 yards away. But I rather cycle then walk, so by bike acts like my personal trolley. Work smarter, not harder.
Incidentally I live car-free in Albuquerque and bike everywhere, been doing it for 3 years now. Really isn't on anyone's list of usual suspects for bike-friendly places to live, but it has an incredible amount of infrastructure. It is kind of sprawled out and hilly, but an e-bike can fix that. You don't have to move to a big expensive city in order to live a car-free lifestyle. You can do it while living in one of the cheapest cities in the country.
I've also been living car-free in Albuquerque for multiple years. I moved here from the Chicago suburbs and at first I was impressed by the bike infrastructure, but then realized it's still mostly painted white lines, and my appreciation for the bike infrastructure was mostly relative to having never seen bike infrastructure in my life. I love living car-free in Albuquerque and can definitely say I think it's pretty practical. Though I wouldn't go so far as to describe the infrastructure as "incredible". I love the channel trail network, which is a great multi-use pathway network that actually takes me to useful places (including a local bike shop that I frequent). But my ride to work takes me through a combination of door zones and painted bike gutters along Central. It's definitely a mixed bag.
8:30 myself living at uni in Oxford completely proves your point. I don't drive at all, so i'm 100% reliant on public transport, and at least every 15-20 days I always go shopping. And that shows you don't need a car to go shopping for food etc.!
Yes, please more Philly phootage! I worked at 30th Street from 2004 until I left for Texas in 2018. I'll be granting you some of that sweet, sweet watch time just going back and rewatching the Philly views.
It’s a shame that bikes such as the Hovcart are so expensive; when I lived in Japan an e-bike was about half the price and could haul just as much, more if you got basket extensions and the like for the rear. I wish I could’ve taken that bike with me when I had to leave.
theres also pretty affordable bags you can put on the back of your bike that have considerable capacity (dont need anything special, you can hook two of them into a typical bikes rack)
this cargobike looks more like the type of motorbikes you see in pictures from overcrowded streets in southeast asia than what I'm used to being called a cargobike lmao
To be fair, Drivers Who MUST Get Ahead of Bikes sometimes are just concerned about hitting them or having to constantly negotiate them and other traffic. When I drove I always tried to give cyclists plenty of space, and sometimes road design and other cars made that difficult. Hmm, maybe I'll pay Philadelphia a visit for a few days to indulge in my own waking tour.
BS. If you are truly concerned about hitting a bicyclist, then all you have to do to avoid that is slow down. The fact that you are in a car does NOT give you priority access to the road over a bicyclist.
@@gcvrsa How did you manage to get such a wrong interpretation out of what I wrote? What I said was that I try to keep some distance *FOR THEIR SAFETY.* Did you think I meant that I gun it and sideswipe every bicylist I see? That's just stupid.
When I went to DC in 2021, I used the GetAround app to rent a car from someone in DC who used his car only when he needed things in the suburbs. Most of the time the car is in the neighborhood for others to use for day trips while the owner makes money lending it to others. I went thrifting in the DC suburbs and parked the car back in the neighborhood where I picked it up. Then, I met up with friends taking the bus to CityCenter DC from H Street.
@@97nelsn Sometimes, if I needed something large to move, I rent a car too. In short, there are a good amount of people who are car-lite not only in DC but some DC suburbs as well.
I'd consider Indego bikeshare in Philly as an alternative for a car free lifestyle, but their pricing structure leaves a lot to be desired (especially since they raised prices a few times in the past couple of years). I also wish they had bike stations in the chestnut hill/mount airy area.
I love Philly, we lived there for a long time! It is walkable and somewhat bikeable. However, living in Washington DC is a whole new level of urbanism!!!
I also like to ride my bike to the gym. The best part is I get my cardio and most of my warmup out of the way during the commute. The worst part is that I live uphill from my gym and I only own an acoustic bike, so it makes the ride home difficult after leg day when my quads are already jelly from squats and leg extensions
Living low car in NYC, the car gets used every 2-3 weeks and is totally not necessary. I take Metro-North up the Hudson Valley for outdoor stuff, grocery shop with the subway/bus, use citibike. It's just normal life here.
8:26 You _can_ go shopping without a car, but it's a lot more limiting. Even if you have storage on your bike to avoid limits of weight and volume, it still doesn't help with only being able to make ONE STOP. Stores don't like it when you walk in with open bags of stuff from other stores because their security has to watch you extra closely to make sure nothing falls into the open bag. So you have to either do all of your shopping from one place, which might not have the best price/sale on everything you need to get, or you have to make multiple trips, which in North America, is impractical since the grocery-store is probably too far away to bike to multiple times in one day. (When I have to make multiple stops while on bike, I try to order them so I can get the smallest/fewest times first, or I'll get stuff that the subsequent store(s) can't possibly think came from their store, eg tomatoes from grocery store first, then shoes from Walmart, then nails form the hardware store… assuming that doesn't make the ride impractical).
Some people I know who go grocery shopping by car actually do drive long distances just to get deals on different products, or because the product they're looking for was out of stock. I wonder if Europan cities generally have enough stores per square mile to where that's not a problem
I always do my groceries by bike and I always just take stuff I bought somewhere else with me. You can just keep the receipt if you are afraid of people asking questions.
I did enjoy this one. I went to school at Penn, so spent four long, cold winters in West Phily. Run by mayor Firebomb Frank Rizzo in the day, Phily was nothing like the beautiful places you highlight in this video. That river was called the "Sure-Kill" because it was so polluted it hadn't had fish in it for decades. On the bright side, Fairmont Park was a wonderful respite from the crime and filth that was the rest of the city, and Pat's or Jim's would never disappoint. I'm really glad to see Philadelphia has improved so much today!
A small clarification: Drivers want to be in front of bikes mostly because they don't want any chance of hitting you. Same reason we don't like to be beside semis- just with an inverted danger vector. Your speed is somewhat of a secondary concern. Sincerely, a driver.
I live car free in a city in NW Europe. It's very doable, but I have to admit that I miss a car to go to a quiet spot or find nature. Basically, tehre hardly isn't any open space, let alone nature left in a wide area aroud me. The small areas that are left are always super crowded, so the experience there isn't great. I really really miss nature and it drives me insane that I can't get to it. In the US at least there is much more open space, so I assume that you can get there if you take a bike from the city or drives the suburban trains as far as you can. Philadelphia looks very good by the way. I wish you would show it more often. It's a very unkwon city, but that seeems totally undeserved. It could be my kind of place if I would hypothetically live in the US.
Are there any short term car rentals in your city? I know some places have a service that lets you rent cars by the hour. Would maybe let you still live carfree + experience nature?
Most American cities are way to massive to bike out of, and have a literally useless suburban rail network. It's something we need to seriously work on
@@frafraplanner9277 That's only because of Suburban sprawl. A good example is Indianapolis, A sprawl of 8000 squared miles yet 2.1m people live in it. There are countless European, Asian and even American cities that have 2-10 times the population of Indianapolis while being considerably smaller in size.
This morning my toddler and I went to a local gardening shop because I needed some supplies. We took the subway and saw a nice playground between the walk from the station to the store. Then we saw the local fire station had an open house and across the street was a cafe where we stopped for lunch. So we got to stop and do all these little activities that were unplanned but fit in our schedule because it was on the way. All without a car, and the medium density made everything walkable in a matter of minutes. With a car, I'd have only been able to get the first errand done - we would have to fight along a stroad, get parking, go to a big box (because no one goes to locally owned shops if they're driving), and no way would we stop to go to a park or even stumble across the open house or cafe on the way home. We got back on the subway and made it home in time for afternoon nap I own a car and we drive some places too that are out of reach of transit or walking, but it's very nice to not have to be forced to drive everywhere. I find non-driving trips are much more convenient - and that's with a CHILD. You don't need to surrender yourself to a car when you have kids
Check out the Hovsco Hovcart here:
www.hovsco.com/products/hovsco%E2%84%A2-hovcart-20-step-thru-electric-fat-bike?ref=URBANIST
Thanks again for watching, hopefully you got some good info on Philly out of this!
I want a cargo bike. So thanks for this!
What about Winter, buddy Alan?
The Hovsco Hovcart looks very nice to be honest. But I won't check out the link since I don't know if it ships to my location.
as far as cargo bikes go,, you cannot carry anything in that.
they make you use a stupid App to even be allowed to use the motor properly... pass.
I hate shovelware as much as I hate cars.
My uncle has been car free nearly his entire life and he's in his 50s now. Lives in a suburb in central Jersey and takes his bike then a bus to work in AC. Now that he's older he started working closer to home, though. Groceries, recreation, dr. appointments, everything by bike or bus. And that's in a suburb. It's not impossible.
But not all suburbs are the same. The Netherlands also has suburbs but everything is still a few minutes away with a bike.
I guess that your uncle got lucky with the suburb. Probably Newark (most bike-friendly suburb according to google).
Exception, not the rule here.
@jshowa o Reality.
@@Turnil321 Newark is not a suburb bruh
@@VegitoBlue202 sorry, I meant the Newark suburbs.
The recreation argument is one I hear all the time. I live in western WA and the weekend warriors are a huge demographic. There's a handful of forested parks in Seattle but many cities just don't have them, and a lot of folks want to be up in the mountains, or they fish, run whitewater, mountainbike, whatever. I would love for land management agencies to experiment more with bus service to popular trailheads which would help with overcrowding. I hiked one of the most popular hikes in the state, Lake Ingalls, on a Saturday and I had to park 2 miles from the actual trailhead itself because there were so many cars along the side of the road. I worked for the Forest Service and they know its unsustainable but no one had a good answer to the problem. Partially because USFS is horrifically underfunded; no resources. I'd love to see a video about the relationship between public transit and caring for our public lands, since cars can leave such a huge impact on them.
This is my main use for my car. I can access some trails closer to the city riding my mountain bike from my front door, but most trails are too far for me to ride to and driving to them is by far the most convenient way to get there.
I lived in Seattle and I used to ride the Gillman-Burke trail to work. I think that was it's name.
I rent a car for hiking trails not in Issaquah or served by the Trail Direct Bus
In Northern California, Caltrans has been considering extending the Capitol Corridor trains into the mountains. To Reno and Tahoe. That would mean trains from the South Bay and East Bay areas to recreation in the mountains.
Amtrak runs a train to glacier park irrc
2:56 As a bus driver, I've noticed recently that every time I've ever passed a bike, I would always get stuck at a red light and they'd catch up with _and_ pass me by the time the light changes, so I stopped doing this. I quickly realized it's not worth the effort.
The passengers get mad at me when I don't pass them though.
Almost like you're a professional or something.
Imagine having to compete with a bike for road space... almost like they should give bikes their own lanes so they 'stop holding up traffic'. Ha. Let's see what the car people got in response now!
I personally don't like having a bus behind me, because that feels like I am holding up a lot of people.
@VikVaughnMISC Ah yes the double standard of "im allowed to be an aggressive idiot as much as i want but as soon as someone wants to suggest something even remotely positive they have to be as uptight as possible". A classic.
Car-free in Toronto. I must admit, I'm fortunate to live in a 15 minute neighborhood, right across the street from a subway station, and my cycle commute of 15km each way is fun and safe year-round. Drove cars for 25 years and I've now been car-free for 25 years; far prefer the latter!
What neighbourhood you live in? Curious as I’m from Toronto too, trying to get a grasp of good 15 min places in the GTA
@@grishnikov48 Bloor West Village
That 15 minute socialist dream city.
Keep that ish in Canada eh.
Sorry, European here, what exactly is a 15 minute neighbourhood?
@@emiliosagichnicht7521 a neighborhood that has essential businesses within walking distance, as well as transit connections to other neighborhoods.
As someone who was born with vision too low to be able to drive or even ride a bicycle in a traffic heavy area my entire life has been built around finding places in the US that are fully accessible car free and it can be super annoying. Almost every city that is accessible via walking and public transit has a much higher cost of living than car centric cities, and anything that isn’t on the east coast is so sprawling that the second you leave downtown you have to deal with walking the lengths of absurdly big parking lots for every single block. I’ve settled on Denver for now but Philly and Chicago are probably the dream cities for being accessible and somewhat affordable.
This is the biggest reason IMO that we need to build for car-free. A lot of people CAN'T drive - people with low or no vision or conditions like narcolepsy, kids who are too young to drive, people who can't afford cars, elderly people whose faculties are declining - car-centric development kicks SO many people to the curb. We need ADA compliance at the municipal level.
@@cogspace the funny thing is in a lot of ways America is ahead of other places in terms of accessibility due to ADA. Accessible buildings are a lot more common because of it (also newer buildings, easier to retrofit for accessibility) BUT actually getting to those buildings is a nightmare
@@cogspace This! I know a lot of people who simply can't drive for health or personal reasons. I have a friend who was in a gnarly car accident and has PTSD.
We need to make walking the default choice. If you want to drive everywhere, well, fine. But it should cost you extra! We shouldn't subsidize driving soooooo incredibly more than other modes!
Amen lol, my eyes are shit too, but I can get away with biking since my distance vision only really sucks for reading. As a rural kid unable to drive I was basically living the COVID lifestyle before it was cool and in a car centric city I had way, way more options but I've realized how screwy it is still.
I've been doing this for ages, its definitely possible but as-is our bus systems are all designed for punishment, not transit. The lack of bike lanes and the mandating of traffic cycling is insanity as well. When I realized shit doesn't have to be this bad I got lowkey angry lol.
If you want walkable, but small college towns, Pullman Washington and Moscow Idaho are very cheap, like
I have long observed the "I have to be in front" mentality when in a car, too. When I catch up to them at the next 3 red lights, it makes my day a little brighter.
Happens to me all the time in a Prius. I think truck drivers, especially, just cant handle a Prius passing them.
I usually tailgate them a mile later when they eventually end up behind someone else. I love the feeling.
You've been that person too.
Admit it.
Or are you the "screamer" in bumper to bumper traffic?
@@WhatAboutZoidberg Dude, you're still in a Prius though.
Sometimes they slow down in front of me even without any traffic or red light, that's just how they drive, which is good. But why cut me off in the first place?
As someone born and raised in Philly I would say another caveat is neighborhood and income. If you live in, and can afford live in, a middle to upper income neighborhood in center city Philly or a center-city-adjacent neighborhood, you can go free. The EL is there, The Subway is there. Lots of things are walkable. I did it for years. But if you live in a working class or poor part of town, like where I grew up, such as: West, Southwest, “Down da Bottom” , North Philly, The Northeast, The Badlands, Olney, North West Philly, maybe Kenningston, maybe Fishtown, Allegheny, etc, etc etc - then you’d definitely need a car to get around, and get to and from work.
Appreciate the content, and your take here - just think that it needs to be acknowledged that living car free in a big city, in the US, is a privilege that depends on income and neighborhood; which is in no way your fault. And I suppose that falls into your “US Cities aren’t Perfect” caveat.
But, I do think that it should be acknowledged, at some point, that theres a class issue around car free convenience; at least in the US. I was born and raised in Southwest Philly and, again, lived downtown for years and didn't need a car - but I paid for it with higher rents of downtown Philly.
More and more accessable walkable areas are essential - there's a demand factor that helps drive up the price. They are often desirable places to live. And the people who would benefit the most from cutting car expenses often can't choose to.
I live in San Diego and there are no low income units being built where the transit is. I work in construction and right now I'm working on a 174 unit plex down in Otay Ranch, but it's not within walking distance of anything whatsoever. And of course once your income level rises beyond the initial "low income" requirements- that is, once you begin to succeed in life, you can't live there anymore.
I can't speak for Philadelphia, but where I live, Keizer Oregon (and Salem) it's easy enough to live car free and be poor like I am. It's not that the buses are "good" it's that the bus system is "good enough" which is all we need. The place is still absolutely overflowing with cars, the parking lots are gargantuan, crossing a stroad everyday makes me fear for my life, there are no good destinations, and the sidewalks just disappear sometimes, but I can get around fine.
For sure. My city has a few great walkable neighborhoods, but they’re all very expensive. The most affordable options are either historically underfunded neighborhoods and/or renting a house out in the suburbs, which are usually both very car dependent.
I’m sure this sounds backwards to folks outside of the US and Canada, but there are rarely affordable walkable options available here. The demand for those places is high, which I think says something about how reluctant many of us are to need cars.
Even in modest neighborhoods in most midsized and larger cities in the US if you strategically chose your location to be near a trail, a grocery store, the library, and the one express line bus that takes you close to work you can multimodal with the bus and a bike if you are able bodied. While you can save some money with used cars and doing maintenance yourself, you're still looking at around $1.5k a year in costs alone if you drive. If you don't drive (or stick to one car / moped) you can pay a higher rent / mortgage and transit fees.
Car-free from Boston with a family of 5! It’s enjoyable even in the winter. I do weekly grocery trips with my 4 year old on the cargo bike with a trailer. Every time I spark a conversation with a curious onlooker and they’re shocked to learn that I live car free
Have you ever done the bike-a-thon? It's in Jamaica Plain every year
@@sebdapleb1523 no, but I'll look it up! sounds fun
I love how Alan only takes sponsors that are related to urbanism. Always staying on brand lol
In NYC, people of ages commonly use these vertical carts with wheels which fit easily on transit to get lots of groceries in one trip easier, especially seniors
When I lived there, the shopping carts in supermarkets even had hooks to hang your folding cart from as you shopped.
Nobody I know from car-centric parts of the US (where I went to uni and where I live now) knows what I’m talking about when I try to describe them. I miss being able to easily get around without a car. I bike as much as I can but my neighborhood is very hostile to it, though there are some scattered and disconnected trails, and my commute routes were very dangerous, being two-lane suburban roads with many drivers exceeding the posted 35mph limits.
in my community the side walk is filled w shopping carts they should use what your describing
my older sibling is car free as well, and uses one of these also
@@chow-chihuang4903 When I lived in California, the only time I ever saw those vertical carts was in Downtown Los Angeles. So yeah suburbanites won't know what they are
I saw old poor people using them in the Orlando suburb buses too. They looked very handy for large grocery hauls.
your videos inspired me (21 y/o) to move to my nearest city, Philadelphia. I got rid of my car and got damn its been soooo good for me. Thank you for your videos :)
i was literally at that exact spot of the parkway today, and everyday for that matter.
i also literally ran from the parkway, down the SRT and through the Wiss all this morning. I love Philly.
I love that you called the train diaroma club “a club” like you were going out to drink and dance, the cut to the train dioramas sent me
Even in the few places in North America you can comfortably live car-free, most of the people who live there still have cars, and I think a big part of that is because as soon as you go literally anywhere else, the car becomes necessary.
I live in Downtown Vancouver and living car-free is super easy. . .until a friend who lives down in the suburbs wants me to come over and it takes 4 bus transfers to get there. We still have a long way to go. . .
I live in Philly and rarely use my car on a day to day basis but it's really handy when visiting my parents' place or the Jersey Shore or other locales with poor transit.
In many places in Europe that are perfectly viable as car-free areas people also have cars. The trick is not to necessarily prevent people from owning autos. The point is to build enough of the correct infrastructure that people don't want to drive everywhere.
I would bike everywhere if we had useable bike lanes. But all we have are the crappy share-lanes and I refuse to bike in our insane traffic! It's just too fricking crazy out there. So I walk to transit and Uber/Lyft for everything that's more than 1-1.5 miles away from a rail station. (Our busses are usually atrocious.)
Why don't you just use a car sharing service like zipcar for the few times you actually do that? Maybe it doesn't make financial sense.. I haven't actually looked into it too much. Just a thought.
@@TohaBgood2 This is very true! I grew up in a car-free neighborhood (which was great for my childhood), and although we had most of what we needed within a 15 min walk, my dad still owned a car for the commute to work. Ironically enough, he worked as a bus driver...
Induced demand definitely applies to any transportation mode; be it cars, walking, transit, etc. Build the right infrastructure and people _will_ use it!
This is where ride-sharing or even taxis can come in handy without breaking the budget, instead of owning a car for this occasional trip
I haven't had a car my entire adult life. I live in Tempe, Arizona. People are always shocked when they learn this and will always ask me "Do you Uber everywhere?" They can't conceive that I might possibly take a bus or ride a bike
How do you manage during the summer ? Mostly bus?
@@MrCleonwarrior Arizona summers are great bike weather! I can bike and walk year round here. Summers here are definitely better than winters in the Midwest/East Coast.
@@rockym9981 good point about winters in the Midwest/East coast
@rockym9981 I don’t know how anyone can cycle here in the summer. I’m just across the Loop 101 in Mesa. Early last summer I experienced serious heat exhaustion riding a regular bicycle on the Riverview path near the Tempe Town Lake and wasn’t sure I could make it back home. After that episode I purchased an ebike thinking that at least I’d have a throttle to get home in an emergency. But anymore when it’s much above 100 degrees riding or even walking is just out of the question for me, which means pretty much June through September I’m going to use the car.
This is serendipitous timing. Yesterday, I decided to see what would happen if I tried to get to and from my old door-to-door sales job in Huntsville, AL without a car.
Long story short, I had to walk 90 minutes to and from the nearest stop, 20 minutes longer if I wanted a route with more sidewalks and less tall grass to wade through. The buses ran only hourly on most lines, so I'd get to the office for a standup meeting over 40 minutes early, struggling to find something to fill all that time, or else be significantly late. The travel times were longer than by car, but if not for everything else, they might've been worth the convenience of not driving and having to pay only $1 per ride. I spend at least that much in gas money alone, at least for longer trips.
I was lucky enough that one of the areas where I used to knock doors was further down that same bus line. However, depending on exactly which doors I was visiting within that area, I'd have to walk up to 45 minutes to get there. I'd also have to stop early because the buses only run until 9 pm, meaning that they'd take me back to the central transfer station, but then I'd be stranded. You can probably see why I just stayed home whenever my car was having problems.
Mind you, I live in a mixed-use development that attracts people from all over the city and has consistent developments between it and the city center. This place would be perfect for a bus stop, even with the pedestrian-hostile environment in which it exists. I don't blame anyone for owning a car here, and I feel for the few who simply cannot afford or legally drive a car as well as the many more impoverished residents who have to weigh themselves down financially by buying one. I wouldn't say that Huntsville has good bones, but we can do better, even with subtle but wide-reaching changes.
Yap same when I had to go to meetings in college, show up super early better than slightly late.
@Max Ramos Funnily enough, I went to college in Lexington, KY, which is far from an urbanist paradise but did a lot of things better. The bus line that I used to get from campus to a job in the suburbs ran every 20 minutes. That was still annoying because I would usually not have time to catch the 3:17 bus, but the 3:37 bus was about 5 minutes too late for me to be on time. Compared to Huntsville, though, that's an effective transit system. All I needed was lenience from my employer, really.
i love these videos of you showing what it's like to live car-free. as someone who is stuck living in car centric suburbs these videos are the only barrier between me and insanity
“One more lane” but for walking and biking is okay, it’ll be more popular and inspire a shift in attitude!
Living car free in America, the $10000+ spent on car ownership would all have to be poured into increased rent/mortgage payments to live in a place where you can live without a car instead of on other things
luckily Philly rents are pretty low compared to other east coast cities, but yes many other cities do not have this luxury
I absolutely love this video style. I'd love to see more of it. As someone who lives near Philadelphia and has experienced some of what the city has to offer, I would love to see more videos like this. I'm hoping this feedback is encouraging for a future of this video type on your channel. It really helps to give someone an idea of how they can live in an urban development without the need of a car.
I also live car-free in Philly, having moved from California where I had to drive everywhere in heavy traffic. Philly is no NYC or Amsterdam but I don’t plan to get a car ever again if I can avoid it! I’m doubtful the new mayor will help bike infrastructure but at least the PPA is (supposedly) cracking down on people parking in the bike lanes, which is constant.
It would be fantastic to have more of this sort of thing, in order to show people what is possible in American Cities. Please make more!
Philly is such a wonderful city for car-free life.
Been living car-free in Los Angeles for the past 12 years. It's been hard but it's definitely getting better. Slowly, and in patches, but it is getting better. We have the most rapidly expanding Metro network in the country.
That's amazing I would never imagine someone being car free in LA. Please be careful LA drivers are crazy
2:56 Alan, i drive in CC regularly, but not when i can avoid it. I am guilty of this, but its not for speed. I trust you braking your bike more than me braking my car…yes, even if i give you space in the rear. You hitting my rear bumper is better for my car than my car hitting you due to my error.
If my mentality of passing is wrong and actually more dangerous for bikers, please let me know.
Love your videos regardless and support more bike/transit investment.
I also won't want the cyclist to be stressed that theres a car behind them that they're "slowing down"
This is good to know that I can live in Philly car free! This coming school year I will start school at UPenn majoring in Urban Studies, eventually to become an urban designer/planner. I chose to apply to Penn because it’s a great school in one of most urbanist cities in America. Hope I’ll run into you walking down the street one day in Center City!
I’m a New Yorker and I really enjoy going to Philly. It’s the closest place I’ve been that really makes me feel at home
I really enjoyed this video Alan, and I think a lot of other want to see more of this type of content as well!!
As a carless Houstonian, I felt that the "I work from home" caveat was really important. (I do not work from home.)
On the weekends, I'm probably 90% bike, 10% light rail, and it's really wonderful.
During the week, however, it's about 80% bus and 20% bike, including a very short but very awful stretch by my work.
I never want to own a car again, because the costs are so insane, but it would definitely cut my commuting time down by about 70%.
Stories like that are why I'm so grateful Atlanta has heavy rail even if I have a very love-hate relationship with MARTA. Getting to my office car free? Piece of cake with a bike and the train and its more consistent (and even a bit faster) than trying to drive in. Cities the size and density of a Houston or Dallas REALLY need to get funds from the highways redirected to at least a couple of heavy rail lines. Its a game changer.
We just had a conversation in Troy, NY about the future of small cities at the FOCUS lab. There are a surprising amount of people (myself included) in the Albany-Troy-Schenectady tri-city area in New York that are freely able to live car free. I was thinking, though, that my experience car free is very different from yours, given that we have nothing aside from regional rail in terms of trains, but CDTA (Capital District Transportation Authority) is among the best small-city and regional bus services I've seen anywhere... including living in Europe. I think it would be nice to give a commentary on the reality that it is also able to live a free, fulfilling car-free (or, at least, VERY easily car-light) life in cities like Buffalo, NY or again, the Albany-Troy-Schenectady area, or any of the smaller (
There used to be a lot of tram networks in the area that took people all across the region. All were sadly removed from service; just before major highways like 87, 787, 890, and of course, the Thruway were constructed.
I have recently dreamed of what it would take to bring some of these networks back, but unless much of the NYS DOT budget was diverted from road maintenance and construction to these long-run capital projects, I think it would remain just a dream.
Interesting history; one of the portals for the Schenectady Railroad was briefly revealed during the reconstruction of Glenridge Road in Rexford. That line went from Schenectady over the Mohawk River, all the way to Saratoga Springs via Alpus, Ballston Lake, and Ballston Spa. The route mainly followed the current CSX/Amtrak ROW except for Ballston Spa, where it made a very interesting S curve through the village to negotiate the valley made by Kayaderosserass Creek and Gordon creek.
The irony of all the railroad infrastructure buried in the sands of time in the city that used to "Light and Haul" the world is not lost on me.
????
Add Syracuse to that list! Hopefully with the I-81 Viaduct Project it will get better and become more of a car free city 🤗
My first experience in carfree living was in Glenside. Uber wasn't a thing quite yet so I got around using SEPTA. Kinda weird seeing my old regional line in one of your videos. Cheers dude, love your content.
8:02 This shot right here made me say "oh my god it's gorgeous", out loud.
I am privileged to live a car free lifestyle, outside the US, and I know beautiful human centric infrastructure when I see it.
1:04 Thats smart of Philly to put stop signs on the left side of the road.
In Portland, we have parked cars and plants blocking stop signs in our narrow backstreets because, and aince PBOT wont use stop lines or left side stop signs, people accidentally run them
As a car-free Twin Cities resident, this video resonates well. Ebikes supplant the need for cars for much of the year, regular biking, walking and taking public transit helps a lot in the winters. Abundant bike trails and infrastructure matters, and an improving system that is fixing the car dependency of even the suburbs really matters. Even in areas with little to no bike infrastructure, there's still bike racks all over.
the cuyahoga valley national park runs a scenic railroad throughout the park that you can get on in downtown akron. They're trying to extend it into downtown cleveland terminal tower too which would be incredible but for now it cuts off like 10 miles south of cleveland in independance
I live in Cleveland. Hello.
Great video! I live car free in a medium sized southern city and I love it! The city is affordable enough that I can afford to live right in the city center. My office is merely a 10 minute walk away in the central office district. There's a mediocre BRT line and a fairly extensive but network that I use for errands and leisure activities. Also: the city is small enough that if I miss the bus, I can easily bike or scooter (or even walk) to my destination. I feel truly blessed!
This was a quite the enjoyable watch, that park/bike path looks great. Always had a dream to live in Gettysburg......
Just one more lane bro! Your problem with the river trail in Philly reminds me of pre-pandemic days when I had to commute to Silicon Valley. The company's office had a nice trail nearby, but I found it couldn't be used for cycling during lunch. Many groups of tech workers (several companies are nearby) have a lunch ritual where they go out with a half dozen of their BFFs and take a slow stroll on the trail. While they do this, ALL members of the group walk side-by-side, taking up the entire trail. During their blissful stroll, these bros don't pay any attention to the possibility that a bicycle might also be on the trail. I tried ringing a bell, didn't work. I could yell, but that's not my style. I had to give up lunch-time cycling at that place. I'm thankful I no longer have to go there.
Shoreline or Stevens Creek? Lol
@@spatialfeelingsNeither one. I see there's a plague of this kind of activity! I'm talking about the San Tomas Aquino Creek trail between Scott Blvd and Tasman. The 101 underpass is the worst, with no lighting, no guard rail and not much extra space for tech bro strolls :D
Oh believe me, I know about grocery shopping on a bike, but mine's a little more freighty than this one. I own a Yuba Spicy Curry with the wide rack, side bags, and 2 sets of side boards - one for the wide rack and one for the sides at the bottom. Weight rated to 440 and has a Bosch mid drive motor on it. I've pulled home 2 weeks worth of shopping on it, as well as heavy cat food and litter, heavy pool chemicals, and a propane tank. It has 10 speed gearing and a 20" rear to help with the weight push off. I love it.
FYI I use a kids bike trailer to get huge hauls of groceries (in Philadelphia).
That trail was beautiful, the bridge overhead was such a cool, almost high fantasy type setting
I can confirm, I got rid of my car and rode an ebike everywhere for over 13 months now. With 1500 miles now, ebikes just print money.
It is so cool to see that you don't need a car to live in the US 😁Appreciate your support with HovCart!
I rode my bike to work yesterday, only painted lines most of the way; in some places there are NO bike lanes.
Had a car zoom past me going over 60mph, just inches from me.
It's dangerous not driving a car and I hate that fact.
At 60 mph or 100km/h getting hit frona. Car at that speed is instantly lethal.
I am a 50+ year old person who has never owned a car. I almost got one about 15 or so years ago when I was living in texas, but decided to pay down my debt instead. There are some frustrations with public transit, but generally it's been great. This pace of life enables me to understand my environment in much greater detail.
This is the kind of videos that most people like to see if they were filmed in Japan but may found boring if filmed elsewhere. But you can have this kind of life in a lot of places... I loved it.
I guess so, a lot of people have a fascination for Japan, I guess rightfully so. They have a lot of great cities and towns. But so does a lot of other countries. Glad to see more people mentioning Philly though. If I lived in the US then Philly would probably be my choice
"what kind of club did you think we were going to?"
me in the corner secretly hoping for a late night boxcar rave
I have ever thought a video about living a normal day-to-day life without a car, but it would be so normal for my country that it would be ridiculous.
Nice city, nice walk along the river. Thanks for your videos. (beautiful trains)
As a new person to Philly I love this so much!
I've lived car free in Boston, San Francisco, and NYC for 45 years. There was three years in Connecticut when I needed a car. Connecticut was horrible, boring strip marks, no sidewalks, cookie cutter suburban homes. I could never live in an environment like that again.
You're right about 30th street. After Grand Central Terminal in NYC, it's a solid second place. DC Union Station is third. Then the rest are all lumped together.
Wow, Philly looks lovely. Totally not what I expected.
I really enjoyed this video! You might try making more of these.
Great video. I love that you are not shy about subtly promoting model railroading at the same time!
This was a cool video! As someone considering a move to Philadelphia in the future, it would be fun to see more content like this
Philly is the best. I’m born and raised here my entire life, I’ve traveled and lived elsewhere during the military but I couldn’t ever leave here again. I’m trying to convince my wife to live more car free
Philadelphia looks awesome. Love all of the the green space, public transit and super easy access to all of the trails.
My Irish grandmother lived her whole life in northeast Philly. Never owned a car, never learned to drive.
Lier
3:15 it is simply easier and less stress to drive in front. Simply by the fact, that nothing is ahead of you that can suddenly stop. It's just safer
Or you can simply leave some space so you can stop. You always need to be able to suddenly stop when driving your car.
I'm not lucky enough to live somewhere I can be 100% car-free, but I've still been able to be 90% with an e-bike. For me, it changed the game. I can get to work without breaking a sweat, go everywhere in town, and thanks to an intra-city path, even make it to the next town over purely on bike, about a 40-mile round trip. So much more enjoyable than driving, and having the electric assist means I can just keep going and going without getting sweaty and tired. If you've never tried an e-bike, I strongly recommend it. Did I mention zero gas, no oil changes, no license and registration fees, and almost zero maintenance? In the last 2000 miles, I had to spend $20 on a coupe pairs of brake pads, and that's it. Easy to install them myself. Maybe about $4.50 of recharges in that many miles.
I would absolytely love to see mroe videos like this one, keep up the good work
I have found living car-free to be fantastic and a major money saver (I've compared expenses to friends who own cars, when I lived in SF and was paying $1300 a month in rent, my expenses of rent + transit usage were lower than my friend, also in the Bay Area, paying less in rent + car related expenses on a paid off car, excluding depreciation, with a lower cost rental)
Its an interesting conversation when I go outside my social bubbles because at least some co-workers have always been surprised by it (plus the fact I've never owned a TV or sofa lol).
I also find a huge thing for many people who drive everywhere is they're not dressed for the weather, which makes any time more than walking from your parking space to the store/office/whatever miserable if its not a moderate temperature and find this majorly overlooked for many people, I think you can have a much better experience if you have the right jacket/other gear for the weather when taking transit!
DC resident here! The nation's capital is a great place to live car-free and I've really enjoyed my time here over the past few years getting around by either walking or using the awesome Washington Metro. I tend to use a vertical cart for groceries since my closest grocery store is within walking distance but using a cargo bike for groceries sounds really cool, I might look into that after watching this. I purposefully promised myself that I would never live in an area that requires a car because I hate, HATE driving. It stresses me out to no end and I much prefer walking/using public transit. I appreciated the video a lot because it's interesting seeing how other people live car-free in other cities :).
"You can't go grocery shopping without a car" is a catch-22. Because if you live close enough to food stores to walk, you can go multiple times per week and only need to buy as much as you can carry.
Or if the supermarket is up to 3 miles away, you can use your bike too. I live very close to my supermarket, only 550 yards away. But I rather cycle then walk, so by bike acts like my personal trolley. Work smarter, not harder.
@@mardiffv.8775 Food shopping isn't "work" for me.
@@joeturner9692 Good to hear that food shopping is a piece of cake.
@@mardiffv.8775 It really is. The highlight of my week.
@@joeturner9692 Woooow, thank you.
As a fellow Philly resident, this video was incredible
Damn, that's a good looking train station
That 2 door articulated bus looks so goofy. Anyways keep up the work man, I love your content!
Incidentally I live car-free in Albuquerque and bike everywhere, been doing it for 3 years now. Really isn't on anyone's list of usual suspects for bike-friendly places to live, but it has an incredible amount of infrastructure. It is kind of sprawled out and hilly, but an e-bike can fix that.
You don't have to move to a big expensive city in order to live a car-free lifestyle. You can do it while living in one of the cheapest cities in the country.
I've also been living car-free in Albuquerque for multiple years. I moved here from the Chicago suburbs and at first I was impressed by the bike infrastructure, but then realized it's still mostly painted white lines, and my appreciation for the bike infrastructure was mostly relative to having never seen bike infrastructure in my life. I love living car-free in Albuquerque and can definitely say I think it's pretty practical. Though I wouldn't go so far as to describe the infrastructure as "incredible".
I love the channel trail network, which is a great multi-use pathway network that actually takes me to useful places (including a local bike shop that I frequent). But my ride to work takes me through a combination of door zones and painted bike gutters along Central. It's definitely a mixed bag.
8:30 myself living at uni in Oxford completely proves your point. I don't drive at all, so i'm 100% reliant on public transport, and at least every 15-20 days I always go shopping. And that shows you don't need a car to go shopping for food etc.!
Philadelphia be tempting!
Yes, please more Philly phootage!
I worked at 30th Street from 2004 until I left for Texas in 2018. I'll be granting you some of that sweet, sweet watch time just going back and rewatching the Philly views.
It’s a shame that bikes such as the Hovcart are so expensive; when I lived in Japan an e-bike was about half the price and could haul just as much, more if you got basket extensions and the like for the rear. I wish I could’ve taken that bike with me when I had to leave.
theres also pretty affordable bags you can put on the back of your bike that have considerable capacity (dont need anything special, you can hook two of them into a typical bikes rack)
It's 2k, which is not cheap, but the 60k maintenance on a car runs about the same price.
It may be that expensive, but it's a one time cost for the most part. Keeping a bike maintained is fairly cheap once you look into it, unlike a car
@@danmorris8714 It's also a bit easier to steal bikes than it is to steal cars so I mostly use the bike share.
@Calvin Yahn if everyone has a bike, there should be no need to steal. Bike shares and rentals are good too
this is perfect! I've been looking into places to move in the US and Philly is now on my list! Also I love the Vulfpeck in every video
You were determined to catch that car admit it xD
As someone who lives outside Philly it’s nice seeing that the city is still better than the suburbs. Dang you working in person!
This was a really cool sorta video. I really like your other content but more stuff like this would be a lovely addition to the usual
Love most of this. There is the weird bit in the middle where you advocate for cars to creep behind you as you bike, but otherwise all great points
this cargobike looks more like the type of motorbikes you see in pictures from overcrowded streets in southeast asia than what I'm used to being called a cargobike lmao
yeah in southeast asia, e-bikes aren't popular because they cost about the same as those mopeds anyway 😓
Yes - more Philly content! Keep it coming!
To be fair, Drivers Who MUST Get Ahead of Bikes sometimes are just concerned about hitting them or having to constantly negotiate them and other traffic. When I drove I always tried to give cyclists plenty of space, and sometimes road design and other cars made that difficult.
Hmm, maybe I'll pay Philadelphia a visit for a few days to indulge in my own waking tour.
BS. If you are truly concerned about hitting a bicyclist, then all you have to do to avoid that is slow down. The fact that you are in a car does NOT give you priority access to the road over a bicyclist.
@@gcvrsa How did you manage to get such a wrong interpretation out of what I wrote? What I said was that I try to keep some distance *FOR THEIR SAFETY.* Did you think I meant that I gun it and sideswipe every bicylist I see? That's just stupid.
I was listening to this while doing something else and had to rewind to find out about the club!
If you go to DC, it's surprising to live either car-free or car-lite for a lot of people.
When I went to DC in 2021, I used the GetAround app to rent a car from someone in DC who used his car only when he needed things in the suburbs. Most of the time the car is in the neighborhood for others to use for day trips while the owner makes money lending it to others. I went thrifting in the DC suburbs and parked the car back in the neighborhood where I picked it up. Then, I met up with friends taking the bus to CityCenter DC from H Street.
@@97nelsn Sometimes, if I needed something large to move, I rent a car too. In short, there are a good amount of people who are car-lite not only in DC but some DC suburbs as well.
Would definitely love more Philly content! It’s a city I’m mulling moving to and it’d be great to learn more about how to live their car free
I'd consider Indego bikeshare in Philly as an alternative for a car free lifestyle, but their pricing structure leaves a lot to be desired (especially since they raised prices a few times in the past couple of years). I also wish they had bike stations in the chestnut hill/mount airy area.
Your better off owning your own e bicycle with replaceable batteries
I love Philly, we lived there for a long time! It is walkable and somewhat bikeable. However, living in Washington DC is a whole new level of urbanism!!!
_Cries in Metro Detroit_
I also like to ride my bike to the gym. The best part is I get my cardio and most of my warmup out of the way during the commute. The worst part is that I live uphill from my gym and I only own an acoustic bike, so it makes the ride home difficult after leg day when my quads are already jelly from squats and leg extensions
I'd happily watch more videos of a day in the life car-free
Subscribed! I love your content and thank you so much !!
This was a fun departure from your regular beat, but still well aligned with it. I enjoyed it!
just live next to a university somewhere-those areas tend to be pretty walkable
Living low car in NYC, the car gets used every 2-3 weeks and is totally not necessary. I take Metro-North up the Hudson Valley for outdoor stuff, grocery shop with the subway/bus, use citibike. It's just normal life here.
8:26 You _can_ go shopping without a car, but it's a lot more limiting. Even if you have storage on your bike to avoid limits of weight and volume, it still doesn't help with only being able to make ONE STOP.
Stores don't like it when you walk in with open bags of stuff from other stores because their security has to watch you extra closely to make sure nothing falls into the open bag. So you have to either do all of your shopping from one place, which might not have the best price/sale on everything you need to get, or you have to make multiple trips, which in North America, is impractical since the grocery-store is probably too far away to bike to multiple times in one day.
(When I have to make multiple stops while on bike, I try to order them so I can get the smallest/fewest times first, or I'll get stuff that the subsequent store(s) can't possibly think came from their store, eg tomatoes from grocery store first, then shoes from Walmart, then nails form the hardware store… assuming that doesn't make the ride impractical).
Some people I know who go grocery shopping by car actually do drive long distances just to get deals on different products, or because the product they're looking for was out of stock. I wonder if Europan cities generally have enough stores per square mile to where that's not a problem
I always do my groceries by bike and I always just take stuff I bought somewhere else with me. You can just keep the receipt if you are afraid of people asking questions.
I did enjoy this one. I went to school at Penn, so spent four long, cold winters in West Phily. Run by mayor Firebomb Frank Rizzo in the day, Phily was nothing like the beautiful places you highlight in this video. That river was called the "Sure-Kill" because it was so polluted it hadn't had fish in it for decades. On the bright side, Fairmont Park was a wonderful respite from the crime and filth that was the rest of the city, and Pat's or Jim's would never disappoint. I'm really glad to see Philadelphia has improved so much today!
I'm lucky enough to live in one of those towns that being car-free is possible. Thank you Palm Springs, CA
Great video! This puts Philadelphia high up on the list for my next trip to the US.
What bridge is that at 8:00? That thing looks huge
That's the Henry Avenue Bridge, aka the big stone arch bridge over the Wissahickon Valley
I like the Philly-based content - it's always been on my list of possible places to live (car-free here too)
A small clarification: Drivers want to be in front of bikes mostly because they don't want any chance of hitting you. Same reason we don't like to be beside semis- just with an inverted danger vector. Your speed is somewhat of a secondary concern. Sincerely, a driver.
Yeah his take on why people do it is definitely biased.
I love this type of content
I live car free in a city in NW Europe. It's very doable, but I have to admit that I miss a car to go to a quiet spot or find nature. Basically, tehre hardly isn't any open space, let alone nature left in a wide area aroud me. The small areas that are left are always super crowded, so the experience there isn't great. I really really miss nature and it drives me insane that I can't get to it.
In the US at least there is much more open space, so I assume that you can get there if you take a bike from the city or drives the suburban trains as far as you can.
Philadelphia looks very good by the way. I wish you would show it more often. It's a very unkwon city, but that seeems totally undeserved. It could be my kind of place if I would hypothetically live in the US.
Are there any short term car rentals in your city? I know some places have a service that lets you rent cars by the hour. Would maybe let you still live carfree + experience nature?
Most American cities are way to massive to bike out of, and have a literally useless suburban rail network. It's something we need to seriously work on
@@frafraplanner9277 That's only because of Suburban sprawl. A good example is Indianapolis, A sprawl of 8000 squared miles yet 2.1m people live in it.
There are countless European, Asian and even American cities that have 2-10 times the population of Indianapolis while being considerably smaller in size.
@@tcniatcniatcnia Car rent by the hour is something I've never heard about. You can rent a car though and I do that a few times per year.
@@frafraplanner9277 How far would it on average be from the city to open space/countryside?
This morning my toddler and I went to a local gardening shop because I needed some supplies. We took the subway and saw a nice playground between the walk from the station to the store. Then we saw the local fire station had an open house and across the street was a cafe where we stopped for lunch. So we got to stop and do all these little activities that were unplanned but fit in our schedule because it was on the way. All without a car, and the medium density made everything walkable in a matter of minutes. With a car, I'd have only been able to get the first errand done - we would have to fight along a stroad, get parking, go to a big box (because no one goes to locally owned shops if they're driving), and no way would we stop to go to a park or even stumble across the open house or cafe on the way home. We got back on the subway and made it home in time for afternoon nap
I own a car and we drive some places too that are out of reach of transit or walking, but it's very nice to not have to be forced to drive everywhere. I find non-driving trips are much more convenient - and that's with a CHILD. You don't need to surrender yourself to a car when you have kids