This was a great video, as usual. One thing that wasn't mentioned about people with disabilities though, was that disabled people who cannot drive, are almost completely forgotten about in the US. Over 40% of physically disabled people cannot get a driver's licence, so in the US, they're completely dependent on other people. But these people *can* take a train, and many of them can ride a bicycle or tricycle too (but only if it's safe). There's this built-in assumption in America that disabled people need cars, and it's used as an excuse not to expand public transit or cycling. But I regularly hear from disabled people who contact me to tell me how much their independent mobility improved when they moved somewhere walkable and with good public transit. And here in the Netherlands I see elderly people cycling (there are even cane holders for bicycles!), people on tricycles and hand cycles, and lots of people in mobility scooters and microcars, all using the bicycle infrastructure. It's a bit shortsighted to suggest that the biggest problem for disabled people in America is a lack of disabled parking. That only covers the people who can drive. There's a whole other group that's just hidden in American society who aren't being serviced at all in a car-dependent environment.
Good point! I actually did a couple videos on my second channel about living with a disability in Japan. One of the interviewees was Canadian (now he's Japanese) and he did indeed find a lot more freedom in Japan, where he could travel by public transit. ruclips.net/video/xycecbwpIzE/видео.html and ruclips.net/video/KKrLQDNuMpI/видео.html
@@anubizz3 If you look on his channel he has a video "Tokyo by bike" where he goes by bike all around Tokyo to the tune of about 70 miles in one long day. You can then judge for yourself how safe/unsafe it is. Since I've been to Japan and spent time in Tokyo I can say from my limited experience that there are LOTS more people walking and riding bikes than your typical city in the US. Even population dense ones like NY that are also very walkable due to the Metro.
The problem is that you're trying to compare a very rural country like the US to European type countries. Generally speaking countries that have vast amounts of space...are less dense and so things tend to spread out more. I'm pretty sure the US and Canada are some of the least walkable countries I've been to with rare exceptions for extremely dense larger cities like NYC or Vancouver. But since my best friends Mother was wheelchair bound I can certainly understand and hope that US and indeed all countries increased the ease for those with disabilities are able to move about freely. That's one case where the US is actually better than Japan as the US has way more accessible doors, ramps, elevators etc. ONCE you get there.
A delightful comparison! I love how you show that despite cars being very much present in people's day-to-day lives in Japan, people are not *forced* to drive, and have lots of great alternatives.
One thing surprise me that non of the Tokyo shot have protected bike-line like most of the urbanist channel advocate, My guess is good public transport is the answer not more bike line.
@@anubizz3 in Tokyo you are allowed to bike on the pavement/sidewalk as long you are being respectful towards pedestrians. so even on major road they hardly need bike lane as they have wide enough sidewalk for multi-use.
@@anubizz3 there are bike lines in urban areas such as hokkaido, in the city, biking on the sidewalk is okay and people have developed a sense to subconsciously move away when there is a bike behind you might be confusing for people who visit japan for the first time
The UPS thing at the end must be a UPS distribution center, and they hire a cop in the morning to direct traffic, or else those trucks making left turns would be super backed up and late before even starting.
Yup, that was my thought as well. And also to be clear, it isn't always just for couriers like that. During the christmas peak times, amazon swells their worker counts in fulfillment centers. As such, they sometimes hire police to direct traffic at certain times to facilitate their workers getting in and out at reasonable times. On normal days outside then, the workers are left to themselves. And now that I mentioned that, I wonder if this is the same fact. The officer seemed to be bundled up a bit along with the fall colors suggesting colder times. Perhaps like amazon, ups is only bringing them on to direct traffic when they are running more delivery vehicles per day such as around christmas.
We have that around Mega-Churches in my area too, on Sundays. Traffic gets so hectic when they let out that the cops direct to limit accidents and to keep the nearby intersections from becoming deadlocked.
The USA commute looks so depressing! I live in Europe and my commute is more similar to the Japanese one, with lots of small shops, cafes, schools and public transit options nearby. So, so grateful for this.
One thing people also frequently failed to point out is that American cities are nearly all the same. The strip malls you see, the bill boards, the type of businesses are all the same from Indiana to Texas, to California. They look the same, the function the same. For a country that is suppose to be innovative and creative, America is a place of depressing sameness. Ohh look, it's Olive Garden. You drove 1000 miles, it's the another Olive Garden as though you never left. Thousands of miles of road, save for the changing natural landscape, America is all the same.
@@gelinrefira That's actually due to the market and people more than anything. From the invention of the chain and franchise, there's a whole psychological phenomenon of people only going to things that are familiar to them and consistent.
I love the quiet backstreets and alleys in Japanese cities. But I could never get used to Japanese society. Then again I live in The Netherlands and our designated buslanes, trains and bikeways offer great alternatives to commuting by car. Train and busstations can be easily reached by bike, and once you're on the train, you can travel to any city center by train. Travelling by train is much more efficient and faster than travelling by car. And if your destination is in the same city, travelling by bike is much more convenient and faster than travelling by car.
@@mokisan Unfortunately, one requirement is that you have a job opportunity. This is why most foreigners living in The Netherlands are expats sent there for their work. Unless you're a refugee from a warzone, the next best option would be to marry a Dutch national.
@@AudieHolland well blimey. Thanks though. I guess i am lucked out. Apparently even if you get selected for a job, your pay should be €35k/year to get a visa in EU. As an non-eu national
I used to live in Poland and I was walking about 3 miles a day just to and from the train. The ride was 32-35 minutes. Sometimes one had to stand all the time. In the States, in the area I live now, I need to make a special effort to walk. Otherwise, it would be just a few steps to my car and then out of the car. Actually, to go for a walk, I need to drive there first...
My sister in the US is in the same situation as you. When she wants to walk she has to drive to the waterfront area because her neighbourhood sucks for walking.
I'm an American and I even find it very jarring that more and more schools are requiring parents to drive their kids to school. I'm only 27 so school wasn't that long ago for me, and for all my school years I had a bus to pick me up. I doubt that's gone away in my district because it is well-funded, which is probably why when I started hearing about this a few years ago my jaw dropped. It makes me want to cry; it's such a prime example of the horrible priorities the US has. I can only imagine what a hindrance that must be for parents with school children, but it's even worse for the kids. More time in/around cars for kids means way more instances for them to get hurt (if a car crashes into a bus the bus is fine). Perhaps even worse though, children in the US are losing any sense of independence. In Japan and Europe, kids can walk or bike to school and other places on their own because it is safe. In the US, we have created an environment so dangerous to human life that we could never let kids go unattended, and this is terrible for their development.
Growing up in a small car-dependent town, the school bus was my only method of transportation to school and back. It was really difficult to visit my friend's houses without transportation.
@jack gawel this isn't the norm anymore. In fact, many new suburbs are designed in a way where kids wouldn't be able to walk to school as it's so far away. My elementary and high school were too far away to walk and were dangerous to bike to. Even my middle school, which was, less than a mile away was dangerous due to lack of sidewalks and street lamps during dark, early mornings.
@@Darkknight5x5 The fact of the matter is most cities and towns in the US and Canada have been bulldozed for the car on top of the rise of suburbia in the 1950s. It happened and sadly we all let it happen.
I'm not a commuter, but I have to go to school. My experience in the UK is pretty similar to the Japanese commute. I take a 19 minute train from my home to the nearby town, there's a Costa and a Ritazza if I need any food or want a quick drink. Then I have a 5 minute walk to the school. It's so much nicer than a 50 minute drive with my parents every day.
I grew up in a village in the east midlands, wish it was so convenient for me but my parents insisted I took the bloody bus to Lincoln to attend a grammar school.
if you go to school you are a commuter, after all you are going to a place many times a week doing the same thing, so that is also commuting, and i 100% agree that the us has done it wrong for the lognest time.
I used to live in Indianapolis (and live only an hour away now) and the contrast with Japan is about as stark as can be. We were shocked to see Indy featured in this video! So, Greg, your ability to surprise is still strong!
I love how we call it an hour away. Bloomington is 50 miles from Indy, but still call it an hour away. I have read that other countries think that is a curious American thing. It's true though. Mileage makes no difference, getting there takes as long as it's gonna take. When my folks lived in St. Louis, I could predict my arrival time within 4 minutes once I got onto the interstate.
I lived in fishers and Noblesville in Hamilton county for years. I remember always having to regret going downtown to the IUPUI hospital near there when I would have doctor's appointments. I wish we had transportation like Japan
It's baffling that people think a place like Indiana with literally unlimited flat land should be built up like Japan where literally only 8% of land is flat and barley habitable
Why are all these commenters so delusional to compare the apple to orange.. it's not even apple to orange. It's apple to table comparison--not even the same realm of item at this point--that is Tokyo to Indianapolis. At least do Tokyo to NYC.
@@godmodeon666 Reminds me of an actual poster Indianapolis put out back in the early 80's that said, "Move over New York, Apple is our middle name." Eye-roll, it made me so embarrassed for my city. I left Indy in the mid 90's. Yeah on the comparison, Tokyo vs New York or Chicago yes.
I love your Urban Planning related videos. It would be so cool to see some collaborations with other UP RUclipsrs, because they tend to focus a lot on Europe for comparisons and not Asia or Japan.
@@LifeWhereImFrom Yeah I would love more Japan and in general Asia related urban planning videos. There has been a big boom of walkable/livable/15min city whatever you want to call it content on youtube. However 99% of the comparisions are with Europe and it makes me sad cause Asian cities also do great for more people friendly cities and they are not "preserving classic characters of city" so I want to have them showcased as well.
But I'm not necessarily a fan of some of the tradeoffs, like the limited amount of space in the average Tokyo living quarters, or the lack of green fields, green lawns, parks, and landscape that one would normally find in a suburban or rural area.
@@mel-nq6re I fully support more green spaces. But the car-centric/suburban lifestyle is much worse for everyone and comes with MUCH worse tradeoffs. What he showed there of Japan is leagues better than the US comparison.
Japan literally only has 8% of the country flat and habitable that's literally the only reason it's built like that out of necessarily. If Japan had space they would never choose to live like sardines
As someone who just got back from Japan 2 weeks ago and is a car/motorcycle enthusiast I never thought I'd miss the trains as much as I do now. I really wish America had better public transit in most cities but the problem is also our biggest benefit and it space. We have lower population density but it also makes it really hard to get anywhere (quickly) without a car.
We may have space but we didn't need to build everything so spaced out. But I blame everything on the automobile industry lobbying our governments and people to cater to their car and road focused society.
I used to live in Chicago. In a single family house in the neighborhoods but within the limits. It was buses that ran 15 minutes and then a transfer to get to the train and then wait for the train and finally get there. No route was more than 25 minutes but combined it could take an hour. No where near enough parking to drive to the station and bypass the bus. Suburbs are much harder for public transit. Limited times of service too. Most kids walk to school in the city. I never got on a yellow bus except for a field trip. I took a regular city fare bus to high school, dropped me off a few blocks away.
@@whereaboutsunknown3822 you are 100% correct. Our abundance of space has been one of our greatest assets but also created what we experience daily. The struggle of getting around in that space.
@@whereaboutsunknown3822 Los Angeles used to have a nice trolley system that the car companies bought out and destroyed to make people buy cars. So there you go.
When we lived in Tacoma/Gig Harbor in Washington state, my commute to work was bare minimum 1 hour and 45 minutes. One day it took 3 hours due to a bad accident on I-5. A lot of people commute from Tacoma to Seattle, and in the mornings it is an absolute nightmare. We now live in Indiana, about an hour north of Indianapolis and about 50 minutes south of Fort Wayne. Where we live, it's mostly rural, and I-69 is almost never busy. I love it. Though, now both my husband and I work from home, so our commute is about 30 seconds. When I have to go to the clinic though, it's a 50 minute drive into the north end of Fort Wayne. I miss the trains in Japan. Both times I visited the trains and buses are much more convenient.
The reason we don't have trains, buses, sidewalks, etc. is basically because of three things: Car Lobby, Oil/Gas Lobby and people not wanting to pay taxes. Car lobby and oil/gas lobby is obvious why they don't want us to build trains, but the objection to taxes is a deep-rooted cultural phenomenon in America. American's just hate paying taxes even though we have the lowest among other relatively rich nations. I have no problem paying extra taxes if that means my city will build bus lanes, trains, other alternative transportation however I only represent 20% of the population whereas the other 80% don't want to see any tax increase. It is very annoying!
@@gytan2221 You couldn't pay me to move to either of those places XD We left Washignton state for a reason...high taxes, heavy crime rates, high cost of living...etc... I hope to never live in a big city like that ever again. While places like Chicago and NYC may have "decent" public transit, Japan still has the US beat on all fronts as far as I'm concerned. I loved the transit system in Japan, but I couldn't live in Tokyo proper either. Its just too busy for me. I preferred the countryside in Kyoto to the big city. When I studied abroad in Kyoto, it was such a slower pace of life, and just felt more home for me. If I had my choice of where I would move to, it would be Kyoto outside the main city. I like my rural life now. No close neighbors, 5.5 acres of peace and quiet.
Gig Harbor is a very nice place, just happened to be in a bad spot if you daily commute was to Seattle. First, that toll crossing the Narrows. Second, 99% of the time, that I-5 in either direction on ramp from Gig Harbor is a congestion nightmare and then this never ending construction. By the time you reach Fife, an hour have passed. Perhaps, taking a ferry was a better option.
@@kimberlydeverell2863 lol you like rural life but you want public transit… aren’t you self conflicted? You do know that a good public transit system requires high density right? Because houses in America are so big (especially with the unnecessarily large lawn and everything is far apart from each other which makes it impossible to have a good transit… it’s much worse in rural areas.
Some businesses allow employees to drive their company vehicles for commute. Most other businesses won't even help you pay for gas, especially for low-wage workers. But I do agree with you on that.
In Seattle at least, larger companies are required to have commute plans, which usually results in employers giving their employees free transit passes.
Portland has an employer tax that goes to the regional transit authority (Trimet.) The idea is that all businesses benefit from public transit, whether it is their workers or customers using the service. It can be frustrating for businesses in areas of the city where car dependent designs is a part of the city code.
Fun and great video as always! As someone into urbanism and doesn’t own a car - mobility can be tricky in most US cities so it’s cool to see more creators talk about and criticize car based infrastructure!
This really makes me miss the semester I spent in Japan. Just the general activities of daily life are so much more pleasant and as someone who doesn't drive the freedom of being able to get anywhere and do anything without a car is amazing.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but one of the reasons the Japanese are some of the healthiest people on earth and have one of the highest life expectancies is because Japanese cities are so walkable, so most Japanese are always on foot. In my experience, if you live somewhere that’s very walkable, you don’t even need to hit the gym often. It’s amazing how walking so much can keep you in shape.
Yes, that's definitely true. So many problems in the US, Canada and Australia stem from suburban sprawl and zoning that makes work further from housing. There's the environmental cost of having to drive, the financial cost needed to own and maintain a car, the time lost to commuting (since you can't do anything but drive during the commute), and the health cost where lower levels of activity lead to obesity amongst adults and children (since they are driven everywhere).
People don't seem to realise that exercising is unnatural. Daily living used to be enough for fitness. Walking, cooking, getting water, growing crops, just life in general kept people healthier than modern living allows.
no, its mainly diet. Japanese are also very sedentary. other than going to work or school, they don't go outside much often (its a very computer-obsessed society).
Also, a car is SO vital in most of the US. High school kids often drive themselves to school once they (or a friend) get a license, & a HS can have dedicated student parking (at my public HS school you had to enter a raffle & pay a fee to have a spot, because there weren’t enough parking spots). My college was considered a “commuter” style college, so everyone drove themselves to campus. We had huge parking garages, & you would need to leave at least 30-60 mins spare time just for “sharking” the lots for an open space. You also had to pay for a semester or 1-yr parking tag (which didn’t guarantee you a spot on the over crowded campus) Car insurance companies here also have an optional coverage level that will include a rental car if you have a car accident, so you can still get around. Otherwise you’d have to bug a coworker, call an Uber, or pay for a rental yourself which could get expensive.
My commute is 15 minutes on foot, and that includes dropping my kids off to the local school. I used to have a long commute and I actively looked for an apartment closer to my work. And my husband has a 5 minute bus ride followed by a 5 minute walk through the pedestrian city centre streets. It's a real luxury and I wouldn't give it up to live in a suburban house, ever. Our local park is a good enough garden for us 😀
@@anubizz3 I literally said I have 2 kids. Less commute means seeing them more, which was one of the main reasons for leaving the suburbs and living in the city.
Lived in Indiana for 4 years and I live in Japan now for the last 6, honestly prefer Japan, for me its more comforting living in Japan because I am an Asian.
Thanks for the nice video Greg. It brought back memories of when I had to commute by bus an average 25 minutes daily while I was in College in the US. Walking would take about 35-40 minutes. I've visited Japan and it seemed more peaceful and secure taking the train or bus and walking around the cities I've been to there. I'd very much like to visit again.
The difference would be negligible. Every Japanese city (and most first world cities around the world) have far surperior design and public transit and Indianapolis or and like depressing America city. Boston, Seattle, NYC, Chicago and SFO are rare exceptions.
I used to live in San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley) and took a bus and light rail to work, it would take 1 hour 15 minutes each way. Then I bought a car and my commute went down to 10 minutes each way, I was fortunate to live near a freeway on-ramp. When I moved to Illinois my commute averaged 45 minutes by car no matter where I worked except when it snowed sometimes my commute would take 3 hours to go the same distance.
US commute varies between each state and each city. Cities like San Francisco are similar to how you commute in Tokyo. Most people take trains or walk to work if they live and work in the city or outside the city in Oakland or Berkley.
I live in Chicago & thankful for our ytrains & buses and bike paths by Lake Michigan. My commute when I go to the office is just a 45-minute bus ride, door-to-door. And my bus stop is literally half a block from my walk-up condo (I could also take the train, which a 7-minute walk to the station plus a 40-minute ride, then a 5-minute walk to the office).
But Chicago is still awful to me… the L train is mostly designed for Suburban-Urban commute so if you wanna go from one suburb to the other, you’re gonna need to drive because you don’t want to go to another suburb thru the downtown, it’s a long journey since there aren’t trains that connect directly from suburb to suburb.
@@gytan2221 You're talking about Metra. Yup, it's a badly planned process. No train that goes from one suburb to another. Heck, it'd be great if there was a straight shot train from Chicago to the Starved Rock hiking trails. Those will bring in tourist money. The L train is the trains for Chicago plus a bit of Skokie and Evanston townships.
@@akirebara Peoria and the towns between there and Chicago are working on restarting passenger rail service which would include a stop at Starved Rock if they succeed. It will take years to begin service but I’m glad it’s in motion
I can’t remember if you have done a video like this yet, but showing the public transportation between Tokyo and a city like Chicago/New York. Overall great video and it just really highlights how much of a pain it is sometimes in the States.
It's always good to see this kind of comparison. I really love the way Japan build a very good walkable city compared to something we got in North America
It's not that unusual compared to urban city centers in the US. Other than the very narrow streets. A more accurate description is "rural vs urban commute".
@@FUnzzies1 The US public transport is pathetic. Its easier for me to get on a train or a bus in the arse end of nowhere in England than it is in the centre of a US city. And US public transport seems to be where the asylums relocated their patients once they closed down
@@FUnzzies1 Honestly don't know the answer to this. Is the start point of the trip in Indy considered rural (roughly 82nd and i-69)? Here's the spot on Google Map goo.gl/maps/nYwMkfP6qGjGJYwE9
I'm going to guess that's just a high-traffic time and the UPS trucks would have difficulty getting out of their lot since there is no traffic light there. The company probably requested an officer to direct traffic in the mornings in order to get the trucks out on their routes in a timely manner. Again, just a guess.
A lot of people pointed out NYC as an exception to "the American city," but it's not the only one. Downtowns of other major cities like San Francisco or Chicago, or even Santa Monica (despite being in LA county) are also dominated by walking/biking/transit. The problem is that so few Americans get to experience a real downtown commute because the suburbs are so much bigger and cheaper
Japanese: Eats healthy due to easily accessible and affordable groceries, travels by foot and train, lives long and has independence for most of their life due to a healthy lifestyle. Americans: Eats fast food, drives everywhere, becomes obese, dies early and is disabled due to their health problems before their early death. Good city design is soooo important!!!!
It's something of a myth that the Japanese eat healthily, lots of everyday Japanese food is pretty unhealthy (WAY more deep fried food than I ever expected). The main difference is portion size - most restaurant servings are a sensible size for a single person; combine that with lots of walking as part of a commute and you get a population that isn't typically overweight. On my visits to the US I couldn't get over how much food comes in a regular serving. Comfortably 2-3 times the amount you'd get in Japan. Eat all that and waddle back to your car, you have a recipe for obesity.
@@linalmeemow I've lived there for two years and of course there's unhealthy food, but like you said they eat less of it, and the majority of their food is actually pretty healthy. Especially their home cooking which is very healthy and I would say is night and day compared to American home cooking.
@@connorhay5823 Lived there for four years myself, and married a Japanese woman so we eat a lot of Japanese food at home. Agreed that home-cooked meals are often pretty healthy, but when I worked in Tokyo most of my colleagues would eat in restaurants / get takeaway food at least a few times a week. I don't have lots of experience of US home cooking as my family over there (I'm from the UK) are not cooks in any shape or form. What surprised me though was how much sugar was added to everything. The sliced bread tasted more like cake when compared to bread in the UK...
Having more buses and designated buslanes would help Indiana residents a lot. In The Netherlands, designated buslanes are often protected by special 'bus locks' that are concrete barriers low enough for a bus to pass over but if someone in a private car tries to enter via such a lock, his or her car would get stuck. If such an unfortunate event occurs, it will mean delays of course but such incidents almost never happen because most motorists have learned (sometimes the hard way) that they just cannot drive on designated buslanes.
UPS Hub on 16th Street Indianapolis. Every morning when the UPS drivers head out, there is a policeman there to direct traffic so all of the UPS trucks can get out easily, without having to install a stop light that would be just a few hundred feet away from another stop light. It's usually around 9am, after most of the rush traffic has left the area.
Being from Europe, I may be in a good position to comment here, as both commutes compared here feel kinda foreing to me. Of course, the japanese commute is healthier in the end, because of the physical activity involed, not taking pollution in dense cities into consideration. But it also feels kinda depressing for me, only seeing dense city all the time and soo many people. What I loved about the US commute is, that the areads you go through are so much more roomy and scenic - the houses are more beautiful, you go through lots of nature, there are wide views, that sorta thing.
The US comparison is so utterly depressing. Since I do live in rural Scandinavia I do rely on my car since public commutes aren’t vast due to small population, but the town I live in is no way near car centric. 30km/h restrictions for cars, wide and raised sidewalks with marked bicycle paths, large speed bumps that would destroy your car if you try to speed and etc makes it very walkable. Sometimes when just going buying something minor I take a detour just because I can and check out the town. Sometimes I meet a friend and chat for short while before continuing to the store. I honestly pity americans for missing out on that and are restricted to their cars and big box stores in strictly commercial areas. A walkable city is a liveable city. It’s been that way for thousands of years, and frankly car centric society is an abnormality.
I do think that comparing Indianapolis to Tokyo is a little unfair, we're talking a city that is not even a million people to a city of at least 13 million. The best example int he US would be comparing how people get to work in NYC and I think you'd see a lot more similarities, with people taking trains, subways, and walking. San Francisco also has a lot of people who get to work via public transit, walking and/or biking, as does Seattle, Boston, and Chicago. It's partially based on when a city developed and how densely it is packed.
nah, the cities in the US that have great walkability and public transit are exceptions. most cities in the US look like the one he shows in the video.
It’s funny that you complain about Indianapolis’s population: Of the five cities you named, three of them (San Francisco, Seattle, Boston) have a population _smaller_ than Indianapolis. And if you’d lived in San Francisco you’d know that anyone living on the west side pretty much needs a car. It can take as long-if not longer-to get to downtown via public transit than from the other side of the bay. Also, strange that you didn’t mention Los Angeles-which has a larger population than Chicago and still about 2/3 as dense-as a major city for comparison.
@@dylanpotato8739 , while many US cities do resemble Indianapolis more, there are also plenty of Japanese cities with poor transit once you are out of the city center. If you take say a city like Sendai and go 20-30 kms from Sendai Station, you will have a lot less public transit than in the Tokyo example and a lot more reliance on a car. I love Japan, I think they still kick the US' butt on public transit, but it seems odd to compare a super densely populated city of 13 million and compare it to a much less populated and much less densely populated city like Indianapolis. I'd love to see a comparison of say 20-30 kms from Sendai Station into Sendai proper to Indianapolis.
saw the video thumbnail and was "yeah....this is going to be fun showing my hometown." half an hour wait for the bus is IF it's even running. also, you don't get buses once you cross the county lines; might be lucky and have a county transit that can get you to an IndyGo stop or you'll have to park at a carpool lot. great video, once again!
Nice video! It is great seeing more and more urbanist content online, especially some from Japan. People should see how Asian countries like Japan are also doing well in caring for their citizens.
Lisa's comment about how kids get to school is a little odd to me. I live in another part of the U.S. and all the kids in my area use the bus to get to school. There's also an elementary school nearby and I see many kids walking in the morning/afternoon. While I live in a city now, I use to live in a more rural area and the school buses were highly used. Driving your kids to school is a sign of a higher income area.
Where I grew up in Canada, almost NOBODY was driven to school. It was a rural area and we waited for the bus without parents from when I was like 4 or 5 years old. It's been a shock moving to a city in Western Canada and almost everyone drives their kids to school because they don't run buses. School zones are an absolute nightmare if you get stuck in one when the school day ends. How do parents even have time for this?
@@KokimoKandle Yeah, I live by a school, huge line of dropoffs down my street in the morning. The attitude of the parent drivers can be scary too, the way they drive they will run over their own kids one day.
Yeah I don’t understand the school is technically responsible for getting students to school. My son has does mix of bus and me driving or walking depending on grade and weather. Some schools closer and some farther from house. And that they put all the preschool kids in one school and put all the 6-8 graders in another and the high school students in yet another. They even divided the high school by grade as there are now two campuses. Even though we are in the suburbs if the local school was not just K-5 but p-8 and the local high school was 9-12 or if they had p-5 and then 6-12 he would never have needed a bus. Other would have needed I suppose a few pockets really not near a building. They really want students to branch out and make new friends every now and then. Driving to school hard for work, although there are before afterschool care hours you can pay for. Still with a 8 hour work day and 2 more hours for commuting and a five -seven hour school day it is a tough schedule. Some students get breakfast at school.
@@suspiciouspooh5988 Indiana does have less taxes than Illinois. Still someone should sue. Too much money goes to admin and not enough to each student. They had a year without needed to take anyone to school. Wait. I am Illinois. You probably had school. What a world and time to be alive to figure out if you want busing or you want to have in person classes for a year in the US of all places? Now some students pay for busing and for some students it is free. My son has an IEP so when I did not take him and he could not walk to school it was free. When I was 8 I would have had to walk along a busy street for school. Gram drove us until we were 11/13. I had been walking the three blocks to school without having to go near the busy street all by myself at age 5 with a 10 year old being the crossing guard but my parents pulled me and a lot of other parents pulled their kids cause the city wanted to bus a bunch of us randomly. My mom didn’t drive she wanted us to go to a school she could get to in walking distance for conferences and programs and besides religious school was the plan after they saved some money and could maintain the tuition for both of us. Very few nuns were teaching like when my parents went to parochial school and the prices just skyrocketed. It was the late 70’s, inflation and high mortgage interest. I loved walking 3 blocks away and coming home for lunch and watching tv before going back. It would have taken forever if I got picked up by car. Once the busy street was involved it was the car with gram and bringing a sandwich for lunch.
I bet it was the start of the morning shift at UPS and because so many drivers are leaving the facility and there’s no stop light at that intersection, a police officer will direct traffic to make sure no one waits too long. I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and there are two schools on my street, so in the morning, there are police directing traffic for safety.
Great video! I like the commentary in the second half. It’s interesting to see how both sides have benefits and drawbacks. Japan is an interesting study because while they make some of the best cars in the world, they haven’t designed their cities to be exclusively used by cars. You can drive if you’d like, but you can also walk safely and take the train to most destinations
Thank you so so much for this. I want more people to know how much transportation in the U.S. sucks. I want Americans to know what’s out there. After living in both Japan and U.S. I can say without a doubt, I much prefer trains, bikes, and walking as opposed to cars. And there’s a plethora of reasons why, but I’ll keep this comment short and end there.
Yes! When I see Japanese commutes, I get so jealous because it must be nice to have zoning laws that weren't put in place by NIMBY types and that favor cars. No one walks because everything is too far.
When was looking for apartments I've tried to reach as short commute time as possible. Ended up with 10-12 minutes from door to door. Overpaying for living in the center but having an extra hour per day is worth it.
That depends on how much space you want (ahem, not need). I'm 20 minutes driving from work and have a 2-bedroom apartment. My co-worker who lives 1 hour driving away from work on a good day, has a single house 4 times bigger than mine for the same cost.
As always your videos are awesome, and it's fun to see the differences between both Japan and USA. I'm from Canada and commute mostly sucks, so it's nice to see the japanese version of it since I want to move there :)
In addition of not having enough disabled parking spots, they are taken up quite frequently by people who are not disabled (especially in California). The response is usually to ignore it because no one will do anything about it.
I live and work in the Metro Detroit area and I'm lucky enough to live only about an 8 minute drive from the small business I work at, but my dad who works with me drives about an hour each way. It sucks up so much of your time, having affordable housing near work saves time and gas. Theoretically I could walk or bike to work but the area is pretty industrial and the drivers definitely do not go anywhere near our 35 mph speed limit!!
You are correct, it’s also pretty depressing as you need to be in a small confined vehicle you need to take control of yourself in order to get around the country
Very cool video. I like the commentary demonstrating how city design can change how people in the cities think about things such as sending children to school. Makes me wonder what sort of contrasts you'd make if you looked at heavier road metropolis such as Houston.
My commute in Japan is much closer to your USA example. Buses only come twice an hour. Lots of big parking lots. Most people drive everywhere. The biggest difference is that there are shops and different house types all together here, and there are more trees and greenery over there.
When I went to Japan I visited Kurashiki which is a much smaller city. There was definitely a lot more people driving there as there was only a few train stations so taking the train is only good if you’re trying to get from the north of the city to the south or vice versa. Much of the city is not near a train station. But still most kids walked or biked to school and the city was pretty walkable. It didn’t have an urban sprawl like most American cities. I would say it was like a middle ground between the two cities shown in this video, leaning a bit more to the Japanese side. Compare that to the city I live in in New Zealand that is about the same size and it’s a big difference. My city here only has one train station which is for expensive scenic trains not for regular trains. And while I still think my city here is more walkable and easier to get around than many American cities (like most kids will walk to and from school), it’s definitely a lot less than kurashiki and has more sprawl. It’s more car dependent.
This is something I like about countries like the UK and Japan. Walking to your destination isn't hard. But in the US, the primary way to travel is by car. There are sidewalks, but... it's not walk friendly.
Please do a video on Kyoto train station I hear it has several grocery stores, a mall, a theater, a hotel, and a dozen ramen shops I have a theory that if train stations in the USA were more like malls they’d have better ridership
That is true. In fact, many big city train stations are large. They'll have grocery stores like you said, barbershops, convenience stores, clothes, etc. its pretty much like a mall underground. And i respectfully disagree with that theory about train stations in the US. people in the US dont take trains because how inconvenient they are and for the more likely to be late. I don't think people would care if their trains were like malls, they mainly care how fast can they get to their destination in comparison to a car.
Haha it's not just Kyoto station that's like this. Most major city train stations in Japan are like that. America will never get there though as much as I would wish it so. In Seattle, it's taken more than 10 years just to connect it to it's neighboring cities and it's nowhere near done yet.
For the train companies in Japan, making effective use of the land in and around their stations is a way of subsidizing the train operations, which don't always make money on their own. Tokyu, for example, built housing all along their tracks, which has become a perpetual money-maker for them.
When I used to live in Manhattan, NYC, my commute to work was a 20 minute walk - those were the best years! Or, a 7 minute bus ride if it was raining hard.
Parking spaces for the disabled still require a large amount of walking,like at a hospital you're walking 300 feet just to the door. In a few cities kids ride yellow school busses, others they had to pay a city bus to take them to school. I went to Indianapolis for a overnight stay, I took a GPS, we kept passing Lucas Oil speedway, it wanted us on the road we passed under, this also happened in a suburb of Kansas City..
Is that the case everywhere about disabled parking? In Ontario, and probably across Canada, disabled parking at hospitals, GO train stations, malls, strip malls is always closest to a main door. It may be only 1 or 2 Accessible spots for smaller shopping areas, but it's there. Couldnt the Accessible Parking signage be relocated?
@Dyana Layng well, here's the answer I was given when I asked why spots closer to the gate were not built for "wheelchair use", not every state in this country requires a wheelchair to get disabled parking privileges.. I've had it for heavily arthritic and now can't walk for x# feet without rest. So yes they can put the stops as far away from the door if they want as long as the remainder of the path is accessible. I see this a lot at convenience stores.
Not sure about the UPS at the end but it reminded me that my high school (in the United States) had so many students driving themselves that we had an SRO guiding street traffic in the afternoon. They basically worked as a stoplight that wasn't needed for the rest of the day or weekends because the street wasn't usually busy.
First, a caveat, I am not an American People probably mentioned it, but I think that the comparison between Tokyo and an American city should be between a mega city, and even than you should take into consideration the difference between. For example L.A. and New York are two different entities when compared to each other.
@@planetary2180 Most American cities definitely look like this, but New York isn't the only exception. Downtowns of other major cities like San Francisco or Chicago, or even Santa Monica (despite being in LA county) are also dominated by walking, biking, and/or transit. The problem is that so few Americans get to experience a real downtown commute because the suburbs are so much cheaper
I desperately need to visit Tokyo once again and just marvel over the amazing infrastructure. Here in Sweden it just gets worse, they widen cities instead of densifying them.
Honestly thinking of taking tons of videos like this along with other information to form a better plan for my city. Most commutes in my county are like the Indiannapolis one. What makes it worse is due to parking requirements, car culture, etc, someone wothout a car is completely economically screwed where I live. I can work, but the problem is our transportation systen is so dependent on cars that someone can be perfectly able to work, but due to a vision problem, be completely looked over due to not owning a car or being able to eveb if they wanted. I've heard people try to use visual disabilities to justify car-centered thinking and planning too often. Seeing a functioning train network and good mixed-use buildings makes me envious of having that where I live. Cars are first where I live, people, especially the disabled, are an afterthought if they are one to begin with.
Total ridership of the NY subway system is about 3.5 million a day. That is equivalent to how many people use Shinjuku station alone in a day. And there are a couple of stations in center Tokyo as large as Shinjuku. There are 720 stations in Metropolitan Tokyo, and about 10 million have an access to Tokyo within an hour by public transportation in addition to the 14 million living in Tokyo.
Rm tansit and not just bikes are my other favorite channels and them commenting on this made it even better. It feels like all power rangers coming together from their universe.
Good video! I feel like you need a video on travel in small towns in the US vs Japan. I drive to the next town over (about 25min) just for work! And my dad has an hour commute!
I live in the US and have never seen cops stopping traffic for a parade of delivery trucks. One thing mentioned about US commutes that I'd disagree with is the idea that you can't easily stop in a convenience store like 7-11 on your way to or from work. Those are all over the place. I do love the way people in Japan don't depend on cars the way they do in the US, unless you happen to live in big city with good public transit like New York or San Francisco.
@@kristinesharp6286 Even though people in Japan have cars, it's not their only mode of transportation. People have more safe transportation options compared to most of the US and Canada.
I lived in Seattle, Los Angeles and Indianapolis for a few years each and while I did drive while I lived in Indianapolis. I liked the drive but my commute was like 10 min in car. In bigger more urban cities I took a bus because it saved me on parking fees and it saved me from finding a parking spot. Commuting in USA can look very different depending on which city/ state you live but I gotta say I love how convenient it looks like in Japan.
I lived in Japan for 7 years and loved the transit system there (will be moving back again). I now live in the NYC area. Most people in the NYC area use public transport, but it is one of the worst transit systems in the developed world in terms of reliability, reach, cleanliness, and time to destination. In spite of billions of dollars in spending each year, the system has not improved substantially over the last 30 years - gross inefficiencies and lack of attention to detail. I am including the NYC subway system, NJ transit, Amtrak, etc.
Thanks to my employer’s very progressive work from home policy, my daily commute to work for the past seven years has been the 50 or so steps from my bed to my work computer.
This is not really a country comparison, but a "X ward just outside the Yamanote Line vs. Indianapolis" comparison. If you lived out in the actual suburbs of Saitama/Chiba/Kanagawa, or even just the west end of Tokyo (Tachikawa and beyond), there is no way that your commute would be that quick and painless. Even now with supposedly more people working remotely, good luck even getting on the Saikyo line, Denentoshi line, or any of the other lines that easily exceed 100% capacity during morning rush hour.
Yeah, obviously depending on your start and end point, you'll end up with wildly different commutes. Ideally I would have used population sizes that are similar and also looked up the average commute time to try and recreate that. I'd like to do another video that does that.
The way kids get to school in Indy is dependent on school district. Most kids in Indy still get to school by bus in a lot of districts. Source: I live in Indy and have kids in school.
Japan: “The cost of the trip is of no concern, since your workplace pays for your commute. This is nothing special, since it’s common practice for employers in Japan to to pay for their workers commutes” U.S.: “We’ll just pretend we didn’t hear that, let’s increase gas price instead”
I started my first job out of school in August and am living in a major US metropolitan area. I'm lucky in that I live relatively close to my workplace (22 mi/36 km, 30 mins if I leave early enough); I have heard how some people in this area have a 1, or even 1.5, hour commute. Despite my commute being relatively short I get so tired on the days that I go in to the office; when I WFH I have a lot more energy at the end of the day. I think that driving really takes a lot out of you, especially if you're doing it every day to and from work. Back in school I lived right next to campus and could walk from my apartment to the classroom in about 30 minutes; it was not nearly as tiring and I was actually in decent (physical) shape.
Same here, I wfh mostly, but when I drive to the office it can take almost 2 hours each way with rush hours traffic. I usually go there once a week, I like the interaction with colleagues (that are not at home or in another country), I also love driving, but at home I have much more energy and get much more done. I used to commute to campus by public transportation in a city and even though it didn't take too much, driving there was much better for me. i just don't like the overcrowded buses and trains
However, the only people in Japan who commute by train, especially those who can live only by train, are a small number of people: living in Tokyo, Osaka, and so on. One in two Japanese commute to work by private car.
I commuted to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from South New Jersey. I used to take a commuter train, which was subsidized by my work. I grabbed the train from the furthest station in NJ so I always had a seat. Commuter ran every 15 min during the earliest time of commuting to every 7 min at the most crowded. If I grabbed the train later than 7am. The cars were packed and were a struggle to exit at my stop in Phila. I would also get sick 2-3X a year. I gave up the train after a couple of years and drove in. Parking, if I got in with early bird, was $8.00 increasing until it was $12/day. But since I frequently went beyond early bird hours (in at 6-9am out by 6pm) rates increased to 23.00/day. This was not subsidized. I paid monthly rate of $225./mo so I could come and go as I want and even overnight if I was traveling for work. The highway to the bridge was always crowded so I took regular roads, residential roads to main roads being stores/residential. Big stores, coffee shops, drive-thrus, bagel shops, delicatessens - easy to stop for breakfast. Easy to stop at supermarket for weekly shopping on way home. Commute by train - 40 min. Commute by car - 45 min. The train was relegated to the days I had maintenance on my car and was an easy walk to the train. The Pennsylvania commute into Philadelphia was terrible. Trains ran every 30 to 40 minutes. Were frequently late or canceled due to snow in winter or wet leaves on tracks in fall. There was very limited parking at the stations. Driving in from the west was so much worse. Though not as bad as the traffic jams into New York City. Philadelphia had limited roads into/out of Phila from the PA suburbs.
tbh I live in philadelphia in the US and here train and bus commuting is common, we also have tap on tap off IC cards.. we also have regional trains that bring commuters in from all over the suburbs. mine was 45min (5min drive to train station 30min by train and a 10min walk to work). and the driving was just bc i had to be at the station by 530am and it's a 20minute walk i normally would take if it wasnt so early). downtown philly is also full or narrow one way streets with bike lanes on one side. i also lived in spain for a bit and madrid has a pretty common metro commuter network, most people dont drive there either
A special thanks to Lisa for sticking with me on this project (we've working on it off and on for a year!) Originally it was comparing a city in USA vs. Japan, but there was too much ground to cover, so I decided to focus on the commute to start off with. Then I had all this intro about why the cities look different and I went on and on. I'd still like to cover other urban design stuff, but tackle it a video at a time vs. trying to make some mega hour-long video! Is there anything specific you'd like to see compared? - Greg
Loved the video. Anything to get more information out there about how car-centric design is TERRIBLE for nearly every aspect of daily life. And how things could be so much better!
What wasn't mentioned is that accessibility is basically not available in the US, when you cannot drive a car because of your disability. All the accessible parking spaces in the world won't help, say a blind person, to get from A to B.
True. A lot of cities and state DOTs have totally neglected ADA Guidelines and have not built sidewalks in many towns and cities across the US, and when they do, they're usually substandard.
Different people need different things. The person in the wheel chair doesn’t need the braille in the elevator but it’s helpful for the person who reads Braille. Not every accommodation is meant for everyone. But let’s face it the automatic doors and ramps help moms and dads with strollers or the person carrying a lot. Even a person who doesn’t need the accessibility can benefit. I think we are all happy the bathroom stalls got big enough to actually use. Least some of them.
@@kristinesharp6286 still, there are certain kinds of infrastructure that can accommodate all kinds of people, like continuous sidewalks. Sadly, many places in the US don't have that, mainly because for state DOTs, cars are king.
"All the accessible parking spaces in the world won't help, say a blind person, to get from A to B." No doubt, but blind people can´t get a drivers licence and thus are not allowed to drive a car on a public road and don´t need a parking place in consequence.
American roads are in for the worst nightmare. If something happens, there seems to be nothing in the immediate vicinity, be it a house where you could get help or people nearby because the paths are all empty. Everything feels so far apart even walking into parking lots is just terrifying. In Japan, on the other hand, everything seems a bit compressed. ideal for walking, everything is in the immediate vicinity or can be reached by public transport. Only at night, personally I've had the experience at night that even Tokyo with so many inhabitants seems dead, especially if you're not directly opposed to tourists, but even they seem dead from about 11:30 p.m. Some streets don't really invite you to cross them in the evening. In the country, I would think twice about going out alone at night in both countries. Since nature still has a lot to offer and yes.. Japan and some places, in America it's probably the empty sidewalks and some creepy people. I'm from Germany myself and I feel pretty safe, even if you should avoid some places, especially at night. But a walk in Walde in the evening or a walk to the next smaller town because you fell asleep again in Zug is not a problem as long as there is a way. Public ones are not as good as in Japan but not as "bad" as in America either. You could say that Germany is the middle way with good and bad things from both countries. This also applies to work
What a contrast! Just remembering when we were living in Dubai. It is so similar with the US. Thanks for showing on how it is in Tokyo. We have some friends who just moved jn there. They say they like it there. We are now so intrigued and wanted to visit at least…
I remember these kinds of topics on your channel made me interested in urban planning topic, how's city work, and stuff. And now I'm currently watching this video side-by-side with my urbanism course's assignment haha. Keep going, LWIF!
I think you can choose more an appropriate city in Japan to compare with Indianapolis. The areas of Tokyo and Indianapolis might be comparable but the “size” of two are completely different. Tokyo metropolitan population and GDP should be more than 10 times bigger. A city like Hiroshima or Sendai has about one million population in the city and 2 millions in the metropolitan area that should be similar to Indianapolis. I guess there they see more persuasive reference and examples while seeing more common in those cities. Whatever, I enjoyed the video;)
Public transport in the U.S. is bad, BUT we also have vastly different zoning. Families in Japan don't get a yard, a big free standing house, a garage, a car, etc. These are amenities most Japanese people in Tokyo don't have, while they are the norm for Americans. I do envy their ability to walk to stores and restaurants, and have fast, reliable and safe public transport, but I'm not sold that the trade-offs are worth it.
Interesting. I can relate way more to the Japanese experience, coming from Europe. All the cities I have lived and worked in have mostly involved commuting using Public Transport. I used to live in zone 3 in London (kinda midpoint, zone 1 being city centre and zone 6 being almost countryside), and my commute took 1 hour door to door by underground train.
In the Chicago suburbs a lot of people come from Japan to work 3 years. Their kids go to a Japan funded school that works with the local school district to make sure everything is okay by our standards too but they are able to not get behind in the school system back home too. It’s not walkable for them. So a very different experience. I think one of the companies is a car company though. Arlington Heights Schaumburg area. Much like Indianapolis.
This was a great video, as usual.
One thing that wasn't mentioned about people with disabilities though, was that disabled people who cannot drive, are almost completely forgotten about in the US. Over 40% of physically disabled people cannot get a driver's licence, so in the US, they're completely dependent on other people. But these people *can* take a train, and many of them can ride a bicycle or tricycle too (but only if it's safe).
There's this built-in assumption in America that disabled people need cars, and it's used as an excuse not to expand public transit or cycling. But I regularly hear from disabled people who contact me to tell me how much their independent mobility improved when they moved somewhere walkable and with good public transit. And here in the Netherlands I see elderly people cycling (there are even cane holders for bicycles!), people on tricycles and hand cycles, and lots of people in mobility scooters and microcars, all using the bicycle infrastructure.
It's a bit shortsighted to suggest that the biggest problem for disabled people in America is a lack of disabled parking. That only covers the people who can drive. There's a whole other group that's just hidden in American society who aren't being serviced at all in a car-dependent environment.
Good point! I actually did a couple videos on my second channel about living with a disability in Japan. One of the interviewees was Canadian (now he's Japanese) and he did indeed find a lot more freedom in Japan, where he could travel by public transit. ruclips.net/video/xycecbwpIzE/видео.html and ruclips.net/video/KKrLQDNuMpI/видео.html
@@LifeWhereImFrom oh wow, that's really interesting! I'll watch those for sure. Thanks!
I dont see any protected bike lines in his video. I assume you will make video of Tokyo lack of bike safety.
@@anubizz3 If you look on his channel he has a video "Tokyo by bike" where he goes by bike all around Tokyo to the tune of about 70 miles in one long day. You can then judge for yourself how safe/unsafe it is.
Since I've been to Japan and spent time in Tokyo I can say from my limited experience that there are LOTS more people walking and riding bikes than your typical city in the US. Even population dense ones like NY that are also very walkable due to the Metro.
The problem is that you're trying to compare a very rural country like the US to European type countries.
Generally speaking countries that have vast amounts of space...are less dense and so things tend to spread out more. I'm pretty sure the US and Canada are some of the least walkable countries I've been to with rare exceptions for extremely dense larger cities like NYC or Vancouver.
But since my best friends Mother was wheelchair bound I can certainly understand and hope that US and indeed all countries increased the ease for those with disabilities are able to move about freely. That's one case where the US is actually better than Japan as the US has way more accessible doors, ramps, elevators etc. ONCE you get there.
A delightful comparison! I love how you show that despite cars being very much present in people's day-to-day lives in Japan, people are not *forced* to drive, and have lots of great alternatives.
One thing surprise me that non of the Tokyo shot have protected bike-line like most of the urbanist channel advocate, My guess is good public transport is the answer not more bike line.
@@anubizz3 good public transport results in less cars, so people who bikes just do it on the side walk or on the road.
@@anubizz3 in Tokyo you are allowed to bike on the pavement/sidewalk as long you are being respectful towards pedestrians.
so even on major road they hardly need bike lane as they have wide enough sidewalk for multi-use.
@@anubizz3 And narrow streets and low speed limits. At 30 km/h it's closer to biking speed.
@@anubizz3 there are bike lines in urban areas such as hokkaido, in the city, biking on the sidewalk is okay and people have developed a sense to subconsciously move away when there is a bike behind you
might be confusing for people who visit japan for the first time
The UPS thing at the end must be a UPS distribution center, and they hire a cop in the morning to direct traffic, or else those trucks making left turns would be super backed up and late before even starting.
Thanks for the explanation. That scene makes sense now.
I was going to say something similar. I’ve seen this before with other companies too.
Yup, that was my thought as well. And also to be clear, it isn't always just for couriers like that. During the christmas peak times, amazon swells their worker counts in fulfillment centers. As such, they sometimes hire police to direct traffic at certain times to facilitate their workers getting in and out at reasonable times. On normal days outside then, the workers are left to themselves.
And now that I mentioned that, I wonder if this is the same fact. The officer seemed to be bundled up a bit along with the fall colors suggesting colder times. Perhaps like amazon, ups is only bringing them on to direct traffic when they are running more delivery vehicles per day such as around christmas.
We have that around Mega-Churches in my area too, on Sundays. Traffic gets so hectic when they let out that the cops direct to limit accidents and to keep the nearby intersections from becoming deadlocked.
@@rocklolita and high schools. There could be thousands of students and hundreds of teachers and staff on buses and in cars and walking.
The USA commute looks so depressing! I live in Europe and my commute is more similar to the Japanese one, with lots of small shops, cafes, schools and public transit options nearby. So, so grateful for this.
The US is even more depressing if you don't have a car. It's disgusting.
@@ShaferHart yeah it’s like a punishment and especially kids don’t go out often and mostly isolated suburban areas
Congratulations !!!
Life is so blissful for you.
Now leave us alone and so that we can make our own progress.
One thing people also frequently failed to point out is that American cities are nearly all the same. The strip malls you see, the bill boards, the type of businesses are all the same from Indiana to Texas, to California.
They look the same, the function the same. For a country that is suppose to be innovative and creative, America is a place of depressing sameness. Ohh look, it's Olive Garden. You drove 1000 miles, it's the another Olive Garden as though you never left. Thousands of miles of road, save for the changing natural landscape, America is all the same.
@@gelinrefira That's actually due to the market and people more than anything. From the invention of the chain and franchise, there's a whole psychological phenomenon of people only going to things that are familiar to them and consistent.
I recently moved to Tokyo, my commute is now only a 20 min walk through quiet backstreets. Its amazing!
I love the quiet backstreets and alleys in Japanese cities.
But I could never get used to Japanese society.
Then again I live in The Netherlands and our designated buslanes, trains and bikeways offer great alternatives to commuting by car.
Train and busstations can be easily reached by bike, and once you're on the train, you can travel to any city center by train.
Travelling by train is much more efficient and faster than travelling by car.
And if your destination is in the same city, travelling by bike is much more convenient and faster than travelling by car.
If you dont mind my asking, do you have any idea on moving to netehrlands? I have been planning to move to there but finding no way.
@@mokisan Unfortunately, one requirement is that you have a job opportunity.
This is why most foreigners living in The Netherlands are expats sent there for their work.
Unless you're a refugee from a warzone, the next best option would be to marry a Dutch national.
@@AudieHolland well blimey.
Thanks though. I guess i am lucked out. Apparently even if you get selected for a job, your pay should be €35k/year to get a visa in EU.
As an non-eu national
@@mokisan Where are you at, Australia?
I used to live in Poland and I was walking about 3 miles a day just to and from the train. The ride was 32-35 minutes. Sometimes one had to stand all the time. In the States, in the area I live now, I need to make a special effort to walk. Otherwise, it would be just a few steps to my car and then out of the car. Actually, to go for a walk, I need to drive there first...
My sister in the US is in the same situation as you. When she wants to walk she has to drive to the waterfront area because her neighbourhood sucks for walking.
I think this is a major flaw in urban design. Every city, town, and village should be designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind.
I'm an American and I even find it very jarring that more and more schools are requiring parents to drive their kids to school. I'm only 27 so school wasn't that long ago for me, and for all my school years I had a bus to pick me up. I doubt that's gone away in my district because it is well-funded, which is probably why when I started hearing about this a few years ago my jaw dropped. It makes me want to cry; it's such a prime example of the horrible priorities the US has. I can only imagine what a hindrance that must be for parents with school children, but it's even worse for the kids. More time in/around cars for kids means way more instances for them to get hurt (if a car crashes into a bus the bus is fine). Perhaps even worse though, children in the US are losing any sense of independence. In Japan and Europe, kids can walk or bike to school and other places on their own because it is safe. In the US, we have created an environment so dangerous to human life that we could never let kids go unattended, and this is terrible for their development.
Growing up in a small car-dependent town, the school bus was my only method of transportation to school and back. It was really difficult to visit my friend's houses without transportation.
@jack gawel this isn't the norm anymore. In fact, many new suburbs are designed in a way where kids wouldn't be able to walk to school as it's so far away. My elementary and high school were too far away to walk and were dangerous to bike to. Even my middle school, which was, less than a mile away was dangerous due to lack of sidewalks and street lamps during dark, early mornings.
@@Darkknight5x5 The fact of the matter is most cities and towns in the US and Canada have been bulldozed for the car on top of the rise of suburbia in the 1950s. It happened and sadly we all let it happen.
@@wturner777 correct !
Reason why U.S. have so many obesity
I'm not a commuter, but I have to go to school. My experience in the UK is pretty similar to the Japanese commute. I take a 19 minute train from my home to the nearby town, there's a Costa and a Ritazza if I need any food or want a quick drink. Then I have a 5 minute walk to the school. It's so much nicer than a 50 minute drive with my parents every day.
I grew up in a village in the east midlands, wish it was so convenient for me but my parents insisted I took the bloody bus to Lincoln to attend a grammar school.
@@anasevi9456 that sucks, I hope the grammar school at least gave you some career opportunities
if you go to school you are a commuter, after all you are going to a place many times a week doing the same thing, so that is also commuting, and i 100% agree that the us has done it wrong for the lognest time.
@@anasevi9456 Functioning transport in the eats midlands? In a village? wut, having grew up in a small town in the east midlands, the buses suckkkeeed
@@debesys6306 exactly why we need to fund better bus services
I used to live in Indianapolis (and live only an hour away now) and the contrast with Japan is about as stark as can be. We were shocked to see Indy featured in this video! So, Greg, your ability to surprise is still strong!
I love how we call it an hour away. Bloomington is 50 miles from Indy, but still call it an hour away. I have read that other countries think that is a curious American thing. It's true though. Mileage makes no difference, getting there takes as long as it's gonna take. When my folks lived in St. Louis, I could predict my arrival time within 4 minutes once I got onto the interstate.
I lived in fishers and Noblesville in Hamilton county for years. I remember always having to regret going downtown to the IUPUI hospital near there when I would have doctor's appointments.
I wish we had transportation like Japan
It's baffling that people think a place like Indiana with literally unlimited flat land should be built up like Japan where literally only 8% of land is flat and barley habitable
Why are all these commenters so delusional to compare the apple to orange.. it's not even apple to orange. It's apple to table comparison--not even the same realm of item at this point--that is Tokyo to Indianapolis.
At least do Tokyo to NYC.
@@godmodeon666 Reminds me of an actual poster Indianapolis put out back in the early 80's that said, "Move over New York, Apple is our middle name." Eye-roll, it made me so embarrassed for my city. I left Indy in the mid 90's. Yeah on the comparison, Tokyo vs New York or Chicago yes.
I love your Urban Planning related videos. It would be so cool to see some collaborations with other UP RUclipsrs, because they tend to focus a lot on Europe for comparisons and not Asia or Japan.
Yeah, it would be cool. I don't claim to know much about urban planning, but the topic really fascinates me.
@@LifeWhereImFrom Yeah I would love more Japan and in general Asia related urban planning videos. There has been a big boom of walkable/livable/15min city whatever you want to call it content on youtube. However 99% of the comparisions are with Europe and it makes me sad cause Asian cities also do great for more people friendly cities and they are not "preserving classic characters of city" so I want to have them showcased as well.
Yes. City beautiful would be a great youtuber for comparisons.
The city design in Japan is insanely smart. We all should take a note.
But I'm not necessarily a fan of some of the tradeoffs, like the limited amount of space in the average Tokyo living quarters, or the lack of green fields, green lawns, parks, and landscape that one would normally find in a suburban or rural area.
@@mel-nq6re I fully support more green spaces. But the car-centric/suburban lifestyle is much worse for everyone and comes with MUCH worse tradeoffs. What he showed there of Japan is leagues better than the US comparison.
I don't want to be packed in like a sardine
Nope
Japan literally only has 8% of the country flat and habitable that's literally the only reason it's built like that out of necessarily. If Japan had space they would never choose to live like sardines
As someone who just got back from Japan 2 weeks ago and is a car/motorcycle enthusiast I never thought I'd miss the trains as much as I do now.
I really wish America had better public transit in most cities but the problem is also our biggest benefit and it space. We have lower population density but it also makes it really hard to get anywhere (quickly) without a car.
We may have space but we didn't need to build everything so spaced out. But I blame everything on the automobile industry lobbying our governments and people to cater to their car and road focused society.
I used to live in Chicago. In a single family house in the neighborhoods but within the limits. It was buses that ran 15 minutes and then a transfer to get to the train and then wait for the train and finally get there. No route was more than 25 minutes but combined it could take an hour. No where near enough parking to drive to the station and bypass the bus. Suburbs are much harder for public transit. Limited times of service too. Most kids walk to school in the city. I never got on a yellow bus except for a field trip. I took a regular city fare bus to high school, dropped me off a few blocks away.
@@whereaboutsunknown3822 you are 100% correct. Our abundance of space has been one of our greatest assets but also created what we experience daily. The struggle of getting around in that space.
@@kristinesharp6286 yep. I never took the bus to school because no routes ran near me and it was too far to walk.
@@whereaboutsunknown3822 Los Angeles used to have a nice trolley system that the car companies bought out and destroyed to make people buy cars. So there you go.
When we lived in Tacoma/Gig Harbor in Washington state, my commute to work was bare minimum 1 hour and 45 minutes. One day it took 3 hours due to a bad accident on I-5. A lot of people commute from Tacoma to Seattle, and in the mornings it is an absolute nightmare. We now live in Indiana, about an hour north of Indianapolis and about 50 minutes south of Fort Wayne. Where we live, it's mostly rural, and I-69 is almost never busy. I love it. Though, now both my husband and I work from home, so our commute is about 30 seconds. When I have to go to the clinic though, it's a 50 minute drive into the north end of Fort Wayne. I miss the trains in Japan. Both times I visited the trains and buses are much more convenient.
The reason we don't have trains, buses, sidewalks, etc. is basically because of three things: Car Lobby, Oil/Gas Lobby and people not wanting to pay taxes. Car lobby and oil/gas lobby is obvious why they don't want us to build trains, but the objection to taxes is a deep-rooted cultural phenomenon in America. American's just hate paying taxes even though we have the lowest among other relatively rich nations. I have no problem paying extra taxes if that means my city will build bus lanes, trains, other alternative transportation however I only represent 20% of the population whereas the other 80% don't want to see any tax increase. It is very annoying!
You should move to NYC… or Chicago
@@gytan2221 You couldn't pay me to move to either of those places XD
We left Washignton state for a reason...high taxes, heavy crime rates, high cost of living...etc... I hope to never live in a big city like that ever again. While places like Chicago and NYC may have "decent" public transit, Japan still has the US beat on all fronts as far as I'm concerned. I loved the transit system in Japan, but I couldn't live in Tokyo proper either. Its just too busy for me. I preferred the countryside in Kyoto to the big city. When I studied abroad in Kyoto, it was such a slower pace of life, and just felt more home for me. If I had my choice of where I would move to, it would be Kyoto outside the main city.
I like my rural life now. No close neighbors, 5.5 acres of peace and quiet.
Gig Harbor is a very nice place, just happened to be in a bad spot if you daily commute was to Seattle. First, that toll crossing the Narrows. Second, 99% of the time, that I-5 in either direction on ramp from Gig Harbor is a congestion nightmare and then this never ending construction. By the time you reach Fife, an hour have passed. Perhaps, taking a ferry was a better option.
@@kimberlydeverell2863 lol you like rural life but you want public transit… aren’t you self conflicted? You do know that a good public transit system requires high density right? Because houses in America are so big (especially with the unnecessarily large lawn and everything is far apart from each other which makes it impossible to have a good transit… it’s much worse in rural areas.
If US businesses had to pay for employee commutes, things would change real fast here.
Some businesses allow employees to drive their company vehicles for commute. Most other businesses won't even help you pay for gas, especially for low-wage workers. But I do agree with you on that.
In Seattle at least, larger companies are required to have commute plans, which usually results in employers giving their employees free transit passes.
@@NickCBax That's pretty cool.
Portland has an employer tax that goes to the regional transit authority (Trimet.) The idea is that all businesses benefit from public transit, whether it is their workers or customers using the service. It can be frustrating for businesses in areas of the city where car dependent designs is a part of the city code.
Fun and great video as always! As someone into urbanism and doesn’t own a car - mobility can be tricky in most US cities so it’s cool to see more creators talk about and criticize car based infrastructure!
This really makes me miss the semester I spent in Japan. Just the general activities of daily life are so much more pleasant and as someone who doesn't drive the freedom of being able to get anywhere and do anything without a car is amazing.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but one of the reasons the Japanese are some of the healthiest people on earth and have one of the highest life expectancies is because Japanese cities are so walkable, so most Japanese are always on foot. In my experience, if you live somewhere that’s very walkable, you don’t even need to hit the gym often. It’s amazing how walking so much can keep you in shape.
It's because they drink Yakult every morning. At least that's according to the Yakult commercials I used to see in the US long ago.
Yes, that's definitely true. So many problems in the US, Canada and Australia stem from suburban sprawl and zoning that makes work further from housing. There's the environmental cost of having to drive, the financial cost needed to own and maintain a car, the time lost to commuting (since you can't do anything but drive during the commute), and the health cost where lower levels of activity lead to obesity amongst adults and children (since they are driven everywhere).
People don't seem to realise that exercising is unnatural. Daily living used to be enough for fitness. Walking, cooking, getting water, growing crops, just life in general kept people healthier than modern living allows.
If you want walkable city live in Africa alot of kids have to walk 10 km just to get water.
no, its mainly diet. Japanese are also very sedentary. other than going to work or school, they don't go outside much often (its a very computer-obsessed society).
Also, a car is SO vital in most of the US. High school kids often drive themselves to school once they (or a friend) get a license, & a HS can have dedicated student parking (at my public HS school you had to enter a raffle & pay a fee to have a spot, because there weren’t enough parking spots). My college was considered a “commuter” style college, so everyone drove themselves to campus. We had huge parking garages, & you would need to leave at least 30-60 mins spare time just for “sharking” the lots for an open space. You also had to pay for a semester or 1-yr parking tag (which didn’t guarantee you a spot on the over crowded campus) Car insurance companies here also have an optional coverage level that will include a rental car if you have a car accident, so you can still get around. Otherwise you’d have to bug a coworker, call an Uber, or pay for a rental yourself which could get expensive.
My commute is 15 minutes on foot, and that includes dropping my kids off to the local school. I used to have a long commute and I actively looked for an apartment closer to my work. And my husband has a 5 minute bus ride followed by a 5 minute walk through the pedestrian city centre streets.
It's a real luxury and I wouldn't give it up to live in a suburban house, ever. Our local park is a good enough garden for us 😀
the suburbs is where dreams go to die
Wait until you have kids. I see the evolution in my university friend and family.
@@anubizz3 I literally said I have 2 kids. Less commute means seeing them more, which was one of the main reasons for leaving the suburbs and living in the city.
@@anubizz3 err... they have kids mate. They literally said they did.
Lived in Indiana for 4 years and I live in Japan now for the last 6, honestly prefer Japan, for me its more comforting living in Japan because I am an Asian.
Thanks for the nice video Greg. It brought back memories of when I had to commute by bus an average 25 minutes daily while I was in College in the US. Walking would take about 35-40 minutes. I've visited Japan and it seemed more peaceful and secure taking the train or bus and walking around the cities I've been to there. I'd very much like to visit again.
It might be more interesting to compare the same city types like Tokyo to New York city or San Francisco or Osaka to Indianapolis.
A city like Fukuoka would a better city to compare to Indianapolis.
Okinawa to Hawaii?
The difference would be negligible. Every Japanese city (and most first world cities around the world) have far surperior design and public transit and Indianapolis or and like depressing America city. Boston, Seattle, NYC, Chicago and SFO are rare exceptions.
I used to live in San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley) and took a bus and light rail to work, it would take 1 hour 15 minutes each way. Then I bought a car and my commute went down to 10 minutes each way, I was fortunate to live near a freeway on-ramp. When I moved to Illinois my commute averaged 45 minutes by car no matter where I worked except when it snowed sometimes my commute would take 3 hours to go the same distance.
US commute varies between each state and each city. Cities like San Francisco are similar to how you commute in Tokyo. Most people take trains or walk to work if they live and work in the city or outside the city in Oakland or Berkley.
True. I've been to SF and left my heart there. If it wasn't so expensive to live there, I'd still be there.
Yes, I live in SF and bike to work!
I live in Chicago & thankful for our ytrains & buses and bike paths by Lake Michigan. My commute when I go to the office is just a 45-minute bus ride, door-to-door. And my bus stop is literally half a block from my walk-up condo (I could also take the train, which a 7-minute walk to the station plus a 40-minute ride, then a 5-minute walk to the office).
Yeah there's really no such thing as a "US commute" since its largely dependent on where you live here
But Chicago is still awful to me… the L train is mostly designed for Suburban-Urban commute so if you wanna go from one suburb to the other, you’re gonna need to drive because you don’t want to go to another suburb thru the downtown, it’s a long journey since there aren’t trains that connect directly from suburb to suburb.
@@gytan2221 You're talking about Metra. Yup, it's a badly planned process. No train that goes from one suburb to another. Heck, it'd be great if there was a straight shot train from Chicago to the Starved Rock hiking trails. Those will bring in tourist money.
The L train is the trains for Chicago plus a bit of Skokie and Evanston townships.
@@akirebara Peoria and the towns between there and Chicago are working on restarting passenger rail service which would include a stop at Starved Rock if they succeed. It will take years to begin service but I’m glad it’s in motion
@@akirebara ruclips.net/video/-CA988U80R0/видео.html
I can’t remember if you have done a video like this yet, but showing the public transportation between Tokyo and a city like Chicago/New York. Overall great video and it just really highlights how much of a pain it is sometimes in the States.
Never done it before. But it would be fun!
While not a comparison, the "Tokyo's Urban Railways Explained" video from RMTransit is a good place to start.
@@LifeWhereImFrom I live in Chicago, and I would say there are more similarities between Tokyo and here compared to Tokyo and Indy.
It's always good to see this kind of comparison. I really love the way Japan build a very good walkable city compared to something we got in North America
It's not that unusual compared to urban city centers in the US. Other than the very narrow streets. A more accurate description is "rural vs urban commute".
@@FUnzzies1 within almost all US cities, the majority of people commute by car.
@@SeanJGreen You missed the point completely.
@@FUnzzies1 The US public transport is pathetic. Its easier for me to get on a train or a bus in the arse end of nowhere in England than it is in the centre of a US city. And US public transport seems to be where the asylums relocated their patients once they closed down
@@FUnzzies1 Honestly don't know the answer to this. Is the start point of the trip in Indy considered rural (roughly 82nd and i-69)? Here's the spot on Google Map goo.gl/maps/nYwMkfP6qGjGJYwE9
I'm going to guess that's just a high-traffic time and the UPS trucks would have difficulty getting out of their lot since there is no traffic light there. The company probably requested an officer to direct traffic in the mornings in order to get the trucks out on their routes in a timely manner. Again, just a guess.
This really opened my eyes as a person who has always walked to school and work
A lot of people pointed out NYC as an exception to "the American city," but it's not the only one. Downtowns of other major cities like San Francisco or Chicago, or even Santa Monica (despite being in LA county) are also dominated by walking/biking/transit. The problem is that so few Americans get to experience a real downtown commute because the suburbs are so much bigger and cheaper
Japanese: Eats healthy due to easily accessible and affordable groceries, travels by foot and train, lives long and has independence for most of their life due to a healthy lifestyle.
Americans: Eats fast food, drives everywhere, becomes obese, dies early and is disabled due to their health problems before their early death.
Good city design is soooo important!!!!
There are year round produce and seafood options for most people in US and room to store it all. Delivery for groceries.
It's something of a myth that the Japanese eat healthily, lots of everyday Japanese food is pretty unhealthy (WAY more deep fried food than I ever expected). The main difference is portion size - most restaurant servings are a sensible size for a single person; combine that with lots of walking as part of a commute and you get a population that isn't typically overweight.
On my visits to the US I couldn't get over how much food comes in a regular serving. Comfortably 2-3 times the amount you'd get in Japan. Eat all that and waddle back to your car, you have a recipe for obesity.
@@linalmeemow I've lived there for two years and of course there's unhealthy food, but like you said they eat less of it, and the majority of their food is actually pretty healthy. Especially their home cooking which is very healthy and I would say is night and day compared to American home cooking.
@@connorhay5823 Lived there for four years myself, and married a Japanese woman so we eat a lot of Japanese food at home. Agreed that home-cooked meals are often pretty healthy, but when I worked in Tokyo most of my colleagues would eat in restaurants / get takeaway food at least a few times a week.
I don't have lots of experience of US home cooking as my family over there (I'm from the UK) are not cooks in any shape or form. What surprised me though was how much sugar was added to everything. The sliced bread tasted more like cake when compared to bread in the UK...
thank you very much greg, for the wholesome and educational content. you make the world a better place
Having more buses and designated buslanes would help Indiana residents a lot.
In The Netherlands, designated buslanes are often protected by special 'bus locks' that are concrete barriers low enough for a bus to pass over but if someone in a private car tries to enter via such a lock, his or her car would get stuck.
If such an unfortunate event occurs, it will mean delays of course but such incidents almost never happen because most motorists have learned (sometimes the hard way) that they just cannot drive on designated buslanes.
UPS Hub on 16th Street Indianapolis. Every morning when the UPS drivers head out, there is a policeman there to direct traffic so all of the UPS trucks can get out easily, without having to install a stop light that would be just a few hundred feet away from another stop light. It's usually around 9am, after most of the rush traffic has left the area.
Being from Europe, I may be in a good position to comment here, as both commutes compared here feel kinda foreing to me.
Of course, the japanese commute is healthier in the end, because of the physical activity involed, not taking pollution in dense cities into consideration. But it also feels kinda depressing for me, only seeing dense city all the time and soo many people. What I loved about the US commute is, that the areads you go through are so much more roomy and scenic - the houses are more beautiful, you go through lots of nature, there are wide views, that sorta thing.
The US comparison is so utterly depressing. Since I do live in rural Scandinavia I do rely on my car since public commutes aren’t vast due to small population, but the town I live in is no way near car centric. 30km/h restrictions for cars, wide and raised sidewalks with marked bicycle paths, large speed bumps that would destroy your car if you try to speed and etc makes it very walkable. Sometimes when just going buying something minor I take a detour just because I can and check out the town. Sometimes I meet a friend and chat for short while before continuing to the store.
I honestly pity americans for missing out on that and are restricted to their cars and big box stores in strictly commercial areas.
A walkable city is a liveable city. It’s been that way for thousands of years, and frankly car centric society is an abnormality.
There are plenty of walkable cities in the US. This video was just cherry picking at its finest
@@kmo20794what you are saying is cherry picking. Of course there are walkable areas. But all over usa, i disagree
I do think that comparing Indianapolis to Tokyo is a little unfair, we're talking a city that is not even a million people to a city of at least 13 million. The best example int he US would be comparing how people get to work in NYC and I think you'd see a lot more similarities, with people taking trains, subways, and walking. San Francisco also has a lot of people who get to work via public transit, walking and/or biking, as does Seattle, Boston, and Chicago. It's partially based on when a city developed and how densely it is packed.
nah, the cities in the US that have great walkability and public transit are exceptions. most cities in the US look like the one he shows in the video.
It’s funny that you complain about Indianapolis’s population: Of the five cities you named, three of them (San Francisco, Seattle, Boston) have a population _smaller_ than Indianapolis. And if you’d lived in San Francisco you’d know that anyone living on the west side pretty much needs a car. It can take as long-if not longer-to get to downtown via public transit than from the other side of the bay.
Also, strange that you didn’t mention Los Angeles-which has a larger population than Chicago and still about 2/3 as dense-as a major city for comparison.
To be fair while SF Boston and Seattle have smaller city populations than Indy, the metro populations are way bigger
@@bubbledoubletrouble SF has less people but its also smaller in area. Indianapolis is over 400 square miles. SF is a bit over 200 square miles.
@@dylanpotato8739 , while many US cities do resemble Indianapolis more, there are also plenty of Japanese cities with poor transit once you are out of the city center. If you take say a city like Sendai and go 20-30 kms from Sendai Station, you will have a lot less public transit than in the Tokyo example and a lot more reliance on a car. I love Japan, I think they still kick the US' butt on public transit, but it seems odd to compare a super densely populated city of 13 million and compare it to a much less populated and much less densely populated city like Indianapolis. I'd love to see a comparison of say 20-30 kms from Sendai Station into Sendai proper to Indianapolis.
saw the video thumbnail and was "yeah....this is going to be fun showing my hometown." half an hour wait for the bus is IF it's even running. also, you don't get buses once you cross the county lines; might be lucky and have a county transit that can get you to an IndyGo stop or you'll have to park at a carpool lot.
great video, once again!
Nice video! It is great seeing more and more urbanist content online, especially some from Japan. People should see how Asian countries like Japan are also doing well in caring for their citizens.
Amazing production and explanations as always
Lisa's comment about how kids get to school is a little odd to me. I live in another part of the U.S. and all the kids in my area use the bus to get to school. There's also an elementary school nearby and I see many kids walking in the morning/afternoon. While I live in a city now, I use to live in a more rural area and the school buses were highly used. Driving your kids to school is a sign of a higher income area.
It really depends on the area, but for the most part kids are driven to school.
Where I grew up in Canada, almost NOBODY was driven to school. It was a rural area and we waited for the bus without parents from when I was like 4 or 5 years old. It's been a shock moving to a city in Western Canada and almost everyone drives their kids to school because they don't run buses. School zones are an absolute nightmare if you get stuck in one when the school day ends. How do parents even have time for this?
@@KokimoKandle Yeah, I live by a school, huge line of dropoffs down my street in the morning. The attitude of the parent drivers can be scary too, the way they drive they will run over their own kids one day.
Yeah I don’t understand the school is technically responsible for getting students to school. My son has does mix of bus and me driving or walking depending on grade and weather. Some schools closer and some farther from house. And that they put all the preschool kids in one school and put all the 6-8 graders in another and the high school students in yet another. They even divided the high school by grade as there are now two campuses. Even though we are in the suburbs if the local school was not just K-5 but p-8 and the local high school was 9-12 or if they had p-5 and then 6-12 he would never have needed a bus. Other would have needed I suppose a few pockets really not near a building. They really want students to branch out and make new friends every now and then. Driving to school hard for work, although there are before afterschool care hours you can pay for. Still with a 8 hour work day and 2 more hours for commuting and a five -seven hour school day it is a tough schedule. Some students get breakfast at school.
@@suspiciouspooh5988 Indiana does have less taxes than Illinois. Still someone should sue. Too much money goes to admin and not enough to each student. They had a year without needed to take anyone to school. Wait. I am Illinois. You probably had school. What a world and time to be alive to figure out if you want busing or you want to have in person classes for a year in the US of all places? Now some students pay for busing and for some students it is free. My son has an IEP so when I did not take him and he could not walk to school it was free. When I was 8 I would have had to walk along a busy street for school. Gram drove us until we were 11/13. I had been walking the three blocks to school without having to go near the busy street all by myself at age 5 with a 10 year old being the crossing guard but my parents pulled me and a lot of other parents pulled their kids cause the city wanted to bus a bunch of us randomly. My mom didn’t drive she wanted us to go to a school she could get to in walking distance for conferences and programs and besides religious school was the plan after they saved some money and could maintain the tuition for both of us. Very few nuns were teaching like when my parents went to parochial school and the prices just skyrocketed. It was the late 70’s, inflation and high mortgage interest. I loved walking 3 blocks away and coming home for lunch and watching tv before going back. It would have taken forever if I got picked up by car. Once the busy street was involved it was the car with gram and bringing a sandwich for lunch.
I bet it was the start of the morning shift at UPS and because so many drivers are leaving the facility and there’s no stop light at that intersection, a police officer will direct traffic to make sure no one waits too long. I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and there are two schools on my street, so in the morning, there are police directing traffic for safety.
Great video! I like the commentary in the second half. It’s interesting to see how both sides have benefits and drawbacks. Japan is an interesting study because while they make some of the best cars in the world, they haven’t designed their cities to be exclusively used by cars. You can drive if you’d like, but you can also walk safely and take the train to most destinations
Thank you so so much for this. I want more people to know how much transportation in the U.S. sucks. I want Americans to know what’s out there. After living in both Japan and U.S. I can say without a doubt, I much prefer trains, bikes, and walking as opposed to cars. And there’s a plethora of reasons why, but I’ll keep this comment short and end there.
Yes I agree, I think suburbs are too common for our own good. Because zoning sucks here, the roads are dangerous for us
Yes! When I see Japanese commutes, I get so jealous because it must be nice to have zoning laws that weren't put in place by NIMBY types and that favor cars. No one walks because everything is too far.
I agree. I prefer a city where a car is optional, but not needed just to go anywhere.
When was looking for apartments I've tried to reach as short commute time as possible. Ended up with 10-12 minutes from door to door. Overpaying for living in the center but having an extra hour per day is worth it.
It’s cheaper to give up and live in another country
That depends on how much space you want (ahem, not need). I'm 20 minutes driving from work and have a 2-bedroom apartment. My co-worker who lives 1 hour driving away from work on a good day, has a single house 4 times bigger than mine for the same cost.
A lot of U.S. hospitals make employees pay monthly for parking. You pay them to go to work. 🙃
As always your videos are awesome, and it's fun to see the differences between both Japan and USA. I'm from Canada and commute mostly sucks, so it's nice to see the japanese version of it since I want to move there :)
In addition of not having enough disabled parking spots, they are taken up quite frequently by people who are not disabled (especially in California). The response is usually to ignore it because no one will do anything about it.
I live and work in the Metro Detroit area and I'm lucky enough to live only about an 8 minute drive from the small business I work at, but my dad who works with me drives about an hour each way. It sucks up so much of your time, having affordable housing near work saves time and gas. Theoretically I could walk or bike to work but the area is pretty industrial and the drivers definitely do not go anywhere near our 35 mph speed limit!!
So basically, the US is hostile to pedestrians and inconvenient to live in unless you live in a dense city like New York.
You are correct, it’s also pretty depressing as you need to be in a small confined vehicle you need to take control of yourself in order to get around the country
I live in the US. The Indianapolis version is very familiar to me but the Japanese one is SHOCKING!
It all depends on what you believe the norm should be. Your question shows much bias.
Very cool video. I like the commentary demonstrating how city design can change how people in the cities think about things such as sending children to school. Makes me wonder what sort of contrasts you'd make if you looked at heavier road metropolis such as Houston.
Cant wait to visit Japan next year!!
My commute in Japan is much closer to your USA example. Buses only come twice an hour. Lots of big parking lots. Most people drive everywhere. The biggest difference is that there are shops and different house types all together here, and there are more trees and greenery over there.
Oh, what part of Japan are you in?
Sounds like a commuter town, or inaka with the buses only come twice an hour.
And I’m in Chicago where it’s much more like Tokyo than Indy.
When I went to Japan I visited Kurashiki which is a much smaller city. There was definitely a lot more people driving there as there was only a few train stations so taking the train is only good if you’re trying to get from the north of the city to the south or vice versa. Much of the city is not near a train station. But still most kids walked or biked to school and the city was pretty walkable. It didn’t have an urban sprawl like most American cities. I would say it was like a middle ground between the two cities shown in this video, leaning a bit more to the Japanese side.
Compare that to the city I live in in New Zealand that is about the same size and it’s a big difference. My city here only has one train station which is for expensive scenic trains not for regular trains. And while I still think my city here is more walkable and easier to get around than many American cities (like most kids will walk to and from school), it’s definitely a lot less than kurashiki and has more sprawl. It’s more car dependent.
@@candygram4435 You don't need kevlar vests in Tokyo.
This is something I like about countries like the UK and Japan. Walking to your destination isn't hard.
But in the US, the primary way to travel is by car. There are sidewalks, but... it's not walk friendly.
Please do a video on Kyoto train station
I hear it has several grocery stores, a mall, a theater, a hotel, and a dozen ramen shops
I have a theory that if train stations in the USA were more like malls they’d have better ridership
For the meantime, it would be likely more akin to park and ride. Sure, there is driving, but at least the distance is greatly reduced.
That is true. In fact, many big city train stations are large. They'll have grocery stores like you said, barbershops, convenience stores, clothes, etc. its pretty much like a mall underground.
And i respectfully disagree with that theory about train stations in the US. people in the US dont take trains because how inconvenient they are and for the more likely to be late. I don't think people would care if their trains were like malls, they mainly care how fast can they get to their destination in comparison to a car.
Haha it's not just Kyoto station that's like this. Most major city train stations in Japan are like that. America will never get there though as much as I would wish it so. In Seattle, it's taken more than 10 years just to connect it to it's neighboring cities and it's nowhere near done yet.
For the train companies in Japan, making effective use of the land in and around their stations is a way of subsidizing the train operations, which don't always make money on their own. Tokyu, for example, built housing all along their tracks, which has become a perpetual money-maker for them.
I live in Germany and my daily commute to work is 5min cycle ride…!
I wish we had a city plan like downtown Tokyo where public train and bus is nearby, frequent and dependable.
NYC commute is similar to Tokyo commute. I think all dense urban areas are comparable across many countries, and the same is true for rural areas.
As is Chicago
When I used to live in Manhattan, NYC, my commute to work was a 20 minute walk - those were the best years! Or, a 7 minute bus ride if it was raining hard.
Parking spaces for the disabled still require a large amount of walking,like at a hospital you're walking 300 feet just to the door. In a few cities kids ride yellow school busses, others they had to pay a city bus to take them to school.
I went to Indianapolis for a overnight stay, I took a GPS, we kept passing Lucas Oil speedway, it wanted us on the road we passed under, this also happened in a suburb of Kansas City..
Is that the case everywhere about disabled parking? In Ontario, and probably across Canada, disabled parking at hospitals, GO train stations, malls, strip malls is always closest to a main door. It may be only 1 or 2 Accessible spots for smaller shopping areas, but it's there.
Couldnt the Accessible Parking signage be relocated?
@Dyana Layng well, here's the answer I was given when I asked why spots closer to the gate were not built for "wheelchair use", not every state in this country requires a wheelchair to get disabled parking privileges.. I've had it for heavily arthritic and now can't walk for x# feet without rest. So yes they can put the stops as far away from the door if they want as long as the remainder of the path is accessible. I see this a lot at convenience stores.
I’m from Indiana. And I’m inspired by the urban planning of Japan and other, progressive, countries.
Japan is not progressive.
Not sure about the UPS at the end but it reminded me that my high school (in the United States) had so many students driving themselves that we had an SRO guiding street traffic in the afternoon. They basically worked as a stoplight that wasn't needed for the rest of the day or weekends because the street wasn't usually busy.
First, a caveat, I am not an American
People probably mentioned it, but I think that the comparison between Tokyo and an American city should be between a mega city, and even than you should take into consideration the difference between. For example L.A. and New York are two different entities when compared to each other.
Actually almost every American city looks like this, other than maybe New York City.
@@planetary2180 Most American cities definitely look like this, but New York isn't the only exception. Downtowns of other major cities like San Francisco or Chicago, or even Santa Monica (despite being in LA county) are also dominated by walking, biking, and/or transit. The problem is that so few Americans get to experience a real downtown commute because the suburbs are so much cheaper
Koiwa!!! Thanks so much Greg for this throwback to my life in japan :) amazing video as always!
that city looks horrible, only parking lots and highways
Wait till you see southwestern American cities
I desperately need to visit Tokyo once again and just marvel over the amazing infrastructure. Here in Sweden it just gets worse, they widen cities instead of densifying them.
Honestly thinking of taking tons of videos like this along with other information to form a better plan for my city.
Most commutes in my county are like the Indiannapolis one. What makes it worse is due to parking requirements, car culture, etc, someone wothout a car is completely economically screwed where I live.
I can work, but the problem is our transportation systen is so dependent on cars that someone can be perfectly able to work, but due to a vision problem, be completely looked over due to not owning a car or being able to eveb if they wanted. I've heard people try to use visual disabilities to justify car-centered thinking and planning too often. Seeing a functioning train network and good mixed-use buildings makes me envious of having that where I live. Cars are first where I live, people, especially the disabled, are an afterthought if they are one to begin with.
this is awesome, this could be a series
Total ridership of the NY subway system is about 3.5 million a day. That is equivalent to how many people use Shinjuku station alone in a day. And there are a couple of stations in center Tokyo as large as Shinjuku. There are 720 stations in Metropolitan Tokyo, and about 10 million have an access to Tokyo within an hour by public transportation in addition to the 14 million living in Tokyo.
Rm tansit and not just bikes are my other favorite channels and them commenting on this made it even better. It feels like all power rangers coming together from their universe.
Good video! I feel like you need a video on travel in small towns in the US vs Japan. I drive to the next town over (about 25min) just for work! And my dad has an hour commute!
Yep, I hope I can do one!
More and more people are catching on by the day and I'm loving it...
I live in the US and have never seen cops stopping traffic for a parade of delivery trucks. One thing mentioned about US commutes that I'd disagree with is the idea that you can't easily stop in a convenience store like 7-11 on your way to or from work. Those are all over the place. I do love the way people in Japan don't depend on cars the way they do in the US, unless you happen to live in big city with good public transit like New York or San Francisco.
A lot of people do have cars in Japan though. Every house has a spot for one or two.
@@kristinesharp6286 Even though people in Japan have cars, it's not their only mode of transportation. People have more safe transportation options compared to most of the US and Canada.
I lived in Seattle, Los Angeles and Indianapolis for a few years each and while I did drive while I lived in Indianapolis. I liked the drive but my commute was like 10 min in car. In bigger more urban cities I took a bus because it saved me on parking fees and it saved me from finding a parking spot. Commuting in USA can look very different depending on which city/ state you live but I gotta say I love how convenient it looks like in Japan.
It doesn't just look more convenient, it definitely, objectively is!
Thank you for sharing.I have always enjoyed your videos so informative.I still prefer the life in Japan over the USA.🚖
I lived in Japan for 7 years and loved the transit system there (will be moving back again). I now live in the NYC area. Most people in the NYC area use public transport, but it is one of the worst transit systems in the developed world in terms of reliability, reach, cleanliness, and time to destination. In spite of billions of dollars in spending each year, the system has not improved substantially over the last 30 years - gross inefficiencies and lack of attention to detail. I am including the NYC subway system, NJ transit, Amtrak, etc.
Thanks to my employer’s very progressive work from home policy, my daily commute to work for the past seven years has been the 50 or so steps from my bed to my work computer.
US: You drive
Japan: You know the opening to every slice of life anime? We doing that
This is not really a country comparison, but a "X ward just outside the Yamanote Line vs. Indianapolis" comparison. If you lived out in the actual suburbs of Saitama/Chiba/Kanagawa, or even just the west end of Tokyo (Tachikawa and beyond), there is no way that your commute would be that quick and painless. Even now with supposedly more people working remotely, good luck even getting on the Saikyo line, Denentoshi line, or any of the other lines that easily exceed 100% capacity during morning rush hour.
Yeah, obviously depending on your start and end point, you'll end up with wildly different commutes. Ideally I would have used population sizes that are similar and also looked up the average commute time to try and recreate that. I'd like to do another video that does that.
That’s what happens when in Japan you have no dedicated express network. USA is like many British colonies a car dependent hellscape
The way kids get to school in Indy is dependent on school district. Most kids in Indy still get to school by bus in a lot of districts.
Source: I live in Indy and have kids in school.
Thanks for the video your awesome.
I am glad that you have made such a wonderful comparison of the commute. There is no other single video on YT of such. Thank you very much.
Japan: “The cost of the trip is of no concern, since your workplace pays for your commute. This is nothing special, since it’s common practice for employers in Japan to to pay for their workers commutes”
U.S.: “We’ll just pretend we didn’t hear that, let’s increase gas price instead”
Getting to work in japan perspective looks fun, because you can see many things while you walk
I started my first job out of school in August and am living in a major US metropolitan area. I'm lucky in that I live relatively close to my workplace (22 mi/36 km, 30 mins if I leave early enough); I have heard how some people in this area have a 1, or even 1.5, hour commute. Despite my commute being relatively short I get so tired on the days that I go in to the office; when I WFH I have a lot more energy at the end of the day. I think that driving really takes a lot out of you, especially if you're doing it every day to and from work. Back in school I lived right next to campus and could walk from my apartment to the classroom in about 30 minutes; it was not nearly as tiring and I was actually in decent (physical) shape.
Same here, I wfh mostly, but when I drive to the office it can take almost 2 hours each way with rush hours traffic. I usually go there once a week, I like the interaction with colleagues (that are not at home or in another country), I also love driving, but at home I have much more energy and get much more done. I used to commute to campus by public transportation in a city and even though it didn't take too much, driving there was much better for me. i just don't like the overcrowded buses and trains
However, the only people in Japan who commute by train, especially those who can live only by train, are a small number of people: living in Tokyo, Osaka, and so on.
One in two Japanese commute to work by private car.
I love seeing these urban planning videos and the differences we see between Japan and the US/Canada.
and how terrible the system in US is compared to most parts of the world.
@@igbatious Wait until you see the abandon town around Japan, every country have its problem, Jesus even every state have its own problem.
@@anubizz3 we're discussing urban planning here, not population trends, keep up
I commuted to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from South New Jersey. I used to take a commuter train, which was subsidized by my work. I grabbed the train from the furthest station in NJ so I always had a seat. Commuter ran every 15 min during the earliest time of commuting to every 7 min at the most crowded. If I grabbed the train later than 7am. The cars were packed and were a struggle to exit at my stop in Phila. I would also get sick 2-3X a year. I gave up the train after a couple of years and drove in. Parking, if I got in with early bird, was $8.00 increasing until it was $12/day. But since I frequently went beyond early bird hours (in at 6-9am out by 6pm) rates increased to 23.00/day. This was not subsidized. I paid monthly rate of $225./mo so I could come and go as I want and even overnight if I was traveling for work. The highway to the bridge was always crowded so I took regular roads, residential roads to main roads being stores/residential. Big stores, coffee shops, drive-thrus, bagel shops, delicatessens - easy to stop for breakfast. Easy to stop at supermarket for weekly shopping on way home. Commute by train - 40 min. Commute by car - 45 min. The train was relegated to the days I had maintenance on my car and was an easy walk to the train. The Pennsylvania commute into Philadelphia was terrible. Trains ran every 30 to 40 minutes. Were frequently late or canceled due to snow in winter or wet leaves on tracks in fall. There was very limited parking at the stations. Driving in from the west was so much worse. Though not as bad as the traffic jams into New York City. Philadelphia had limited roads into/out of Phila from the PA suburbs.
tbh I live in philadelphia in the US and here train and bus commuting is common, we also have tap on tap off IC cards.. we also have regional trains that bring commuters in from all over the suburbs. mine was 45min (5min drive to train station 30min by train and a 10min walk to work). and the driving was just bc i had to be at the station by 530am and it's a 20minute walk i normally would take if it wasnt so early). downtown philly is also full or narrow one way streets with bike lanes on one side. i also lived in spain for a bit and madrid has a pretty common metro commuter network, most people dont drive there either
Never thought that the roads in suburban Indianapolis is not as smooth as I expected
A special thanks to Lisa for sticking with me on this project (we've working on it off and on for a year!) Originally it was comparing a city in USA vs. Japan, but there was too much ground to cover, so I decided to focus on the commute to start off with. Then I had all this intro about why the cities look different and I went on and on. I'd still like to cover other urban design stuff, but tackle it a video at a time vs. trying to make some mega hour-long video! Is there anything specific you'd like to see compared? - Greg
Good to see fresh market comparison.. or mall comparison.. or foodcourt comparison
Does Lisa have a RUclips channel?
Loved the video. Anything to get more information out there about how car-centric design is TERRIBLE for nearly every aspect of daily life. And how things could be so much better!
Ugh... North American stroads... 😩 Looks like there's some beautiful fall foliage there though! 🍁
Where's Aiko, Mr ?
What wasn't mentioned is that accessibility is basically not available in the US, when you cannot drive a car because of your disability. All the accessible parking spaces in the world won't help, say a blind person, to get from A to B.
True. A lot of cities and state DOTs have totally neglected ADA Guidelines and have not built sidewalks in many towns and cities across the US, and when they do, they're usually substandard.
Different people need different things. The person in the wheel chair doesn’t need the braille in the elevator but it’s helpful for the person who reads Braille. Not every accommodation is meant for everyone. But let’s face it the automatic doors and ramps help moms and dads with strollers or the person carrying a lot. Even a person who doesn’t need the accessibility can benefit. I think we are all happy the bathroom stalls got big enough to actually use. Least some of them.
@@kristinesharp6286 still, there are certain kinds of infrastructure that can accommodate all kinds of people, like continuous sidewalks.
Sadly, many places in the US don't have that, mainly because for state DOTs, cars are king.
"All the accessible parking spaces in the world won't help, say a blind person, to get from A to B."
No doubt, but blind people can´t get a drivers licence and thus are not allowed to drive a car on a public road and don´t need a parking place in consequence.
American roads are in for the worst nightmare.
If something happens, there seems to be nothing in the immediate vicinity, be it a house where you could get help or people nearby because the paths are all empty.
Everything feels so far apart even walking into parking lots is just terrifying.
In Japan, on the other hand, everything seems a bit compressed.
ideal for walking, everything is in the immediate vicinity or can be reached by public transport. Only at night, personally I've had the experience at night that even Tokyo with so many inhabitants seems dead, especially if you're not directly opposed to tourists, but even they seem dead from about 11:30 p.m.
Some streets don't really invite you to cross them in the evening.
In the country, I would think twice about going out alone at night in both countries. Since nature still has a lot to offer and yes.. Japan and some places, in America it's probably the empty sidewalks and some creepy people.
I'm from Germany myself and I feel pretty safe, even if you should avoid some places, especially at night.
But a walk in Walde in the evening or a walk to the next smaller town because you fell asleep again in Zug is not a problem as long as there is a way.
Public ones are not as good as in Japan but not as "bad" as in America either.
You could say that Germany is the middle way with good and bad things from both countries.
This also applies to work
What a contrast! Just remembering when we were living in Dubai. It is so similar with the US. Thanks for showing on how it is in Tokyo. We have some friends who just moved jn there. They say they like it there. We are now so intrigued and wanted to visit at least…
It's interesting how, in the US you don't see a single other human for your entire commute
Yep. It's a wasteland of asphalt.
I remember these kinds of topics on your channel made me interested in urban planning topic, how's city work, and stuff. And now I'm currently watching this video side-by-side with my urbanism course's assignment haha. Keep going, LWIF!
I think you can choose more an appropriate city in Japan to compare with Indianapolis. The areas of Tokyo and Indianapolis might be comparable but the “size” of two are completely different. Tokyo metropolitan population and GDP should be more than 10 times bigger.
A city like Hiroshima or Sendai has about one million population in the city and 2 millions in the metropolitan area that should be similar to Indianapolis. I guess there they see more persuasive reference and examples while seeing more common in those cities.
Whatever, I enjoyed the video;)
They were trying to show a stark contrast.
A NYC commute would have several similarities with the Tokyo commute.
Public transport in the U.S. is bad, BUT we also have vastly different zoning. Families in Japan don't get a yard, a big free standing house, a garage, a car, etc. These are amenities most Japanese people in Tokyo don't have, while they are the norm for Americans. I do envy their ability to walk to stores and restaurants, and have fast, reliable and safe public transport, but I'm not sold that the trade-offs are worth it.
" a big free standing house,"
You mean those made from "cardboard"? How expensive are they?
Interesting. I can relate way more to the Japanese experience, coming from Europe. All the cities I have lived and worked in have mostly involved commuting using Public Transport. I used to live in zone 3 in London (kinda midpoint, zone 1 being city centre and zone 6 being almost countryside), and my commute took 1 hour door to door by underground train.
In the Chicago suburbs a lot of people come from Japan to work 3 years. Their kids go to a Japan funded school that works with the local school district to make sure everything is okay by our standards too but they are able to not get behind in the school system back home too. It’s not walkable for them. So a very different experience. I think one of the companies is a car company though. Arlington Heights Schaumburg area. Much like Indianapolis.