The more often people who want to ride trains can, the more open freeway lanes there are for me to go VRRRRRRROOOOM. Nobody should feel forced into any mode of transportation. Including driving.
@@RoadGuyRob Now thats a way of thinking i can get behind. Everyone should be free to make their own decisions and not be forced to one option or the other
About a month. I started the day after the ramp meters video went online. Literally the time between my final video render and your eyes is a couple of hours.
@@RoadGuyRob Hi! I've been a regular viewer of your channel for a couple of months now. It's amazing how the production value and overall quality of your videos (sound, principal photography, b rolls, arts, animations and such) have vastly improved! You're reaching cable (NatGeo or Discovery) quality thresholds. But, as a non native English speaker and as a person that not knows in depth about north america geography, sometimes I kind o struggle to keep to the pace of your script. Maybe an adjustment in tempo of the narration or a more detailed introduction on each topic could easy this for more people like me. Sorry to bother! Keep up the amazing work!
@@craesmeyer , he does have a very thick American accent. I remember decades ago before coming to this country, that kind of accent was very difficult for me to understand even though I spoke English at school in my old country
My girlfriend lives a couple houses away from the train track. She used to live a block from the airport. Both are annoying but the train can be ignored a lot of the time because it's not as noisy.
I live in the path of my local International Airport (Toronto Pearson) and when you have a flight every 3 mins, you get used to it, in fact I find it weird when I go somewhere else and there isn't flights over my head
@@voidvector Doesn't help the first example in the video has a grade crossing right by it as this massively amplifies the noise trains need to make for safety reasons. I live right by a heavy rail passengers station but there are no grade crossings nearby and they are really not something you notice unless you have the window open. Even then mostly it's just that first second or so when the engine is revving up in low gear to build up enough torque to get the several hundred-ton train to start rolling. Electrics would be even less annoying still as they generate good torque at zero speed without having to rev their engine like a bat out of hell and gear it right down.
I love production quality of your videos :D I went through all of your higher production videos through the last month. I would love to see you do a video on the roads in London one day. It would be interesting to see your American view.
@@RoadGuyRob I’d suggest doing a smaller city in the UK. London is the UK’s biggest city by an order of magnitude so it’s not representative of the typical British city. You’d be better off doing a city of about a million people like Liverpool, Glasgow or Newcastle.
the "good walls make good neighbors" is completely true. I think many people have had poor experiences with multifamily housing because while we mandate setbacks and fences and other such things in single-family neighborhoods, there is less quality of life regulation in apartments, leading cheap developers to cut costs to compete. really a case where strong regulation makes sense, as it's hard to judge and make a meaningful choice about sound quality in a brief apartment tour.
The problem, Rob, is that even living in downtown KC, I still need a car to visit relatives and transport my child back and forth between her mothers house in the burbs. It really sucks paying almost half of what my rent is on parking, tagging, and insuring a vehicle I rarely use.
Trains can be noisy, but people tend to forget that cars/trucks/motorcycles are also extremely noisy, with their sheer numbers. They're the main noise pollutant in cities
Trains are noisy... in North America. A lot of developed countries have trains that don't have continuously ringing bells or ones that sound their horn every 5 seconds, and still maintain a better safety record. It's good to see municipalities are coming around to the idea that car centric development comes with a ton of downsides that are not easily or cheaply solved.
I lived less than 50 m from train tracks in the UK and barely heard the trains. It was the main freight and passenger line going into a large city, too. But growing up, I could hear the train horns from half a mile away.
I live 2 mins walk from a station in London. I can't hear the trains unless I'm outside. They don't have bells and they don't blow their horns much. The only problem you'll have is if you're right next to one as you'll hear the platform announcements. There's also a level crossing at my station which makes a noise. That would annoy me.
It's a problem. I've been to every station he's visited in this video and the crossing-guard bells are really very loud, whether it's 10am or 1am. The trains themselves usually only use their horns with lots of passengers on the platform as they roll in (and even then they have a choice between the loud horn and the quiet horn). [Though the Commuter Rail that blasted him is more like a regular train, very loud] It's interesting to hear they don't have these safety requirements in other countries but surely they must have *something* -- maybe they require no at-grade crossings? or maybe they care less when folks get hit by trains? idk how you avoid it without serious rebuilding.
@@x--. It does take a significant effort. I can only speak or the Netherlands, but the rule since quite a number of years is: no new level crossings are allowed to be built. Existing ones are being closed where possible or converted to a grade separated crossings, mostly by creating road underpasses.
Lol imagine a train running through a apartment building and that would be a transit enthusiasts and railfans dream house lol Btw I love your humor you put in this video
To address concerns of noise: You get used to it pretty quickly. I was in a dorm at my college last year that was right next to a busy freight railroad (easily 20-30 trains per day) and the noise never bothered me.
@@lynx9373 I live less a quarter mile from a railroad crossing been there for over 20 years it doesn't bother me anymore I be very honest I be very worried if it wasn't a railroad sound at least once.
@@bbgun061 The dorms I was in had paper thin walls. I could clearly hear the conversations of people in rooms around me. Even with that, the railroad never bothered me.
The whole train thing is really weird tbh, I live next to a train station in NJ, and we have trains every 30 minutes. It's not an issue, and most of the time you never notice it, since there's this din going on around you, of just all types of noise. Then I went out to a business trip to Oklahoma city, and I was in a hotel 10 miles away from the freight tracks, and every fucking hour, 10 solid minutes of train horns. It was impossible to sleep. But Oklahoma has no insulation, no trees, and no background noise to deaden the sound of trains. It also didn't help that it was 10 solid fucking minutes of HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK.
Trains not at-grade don't have to blow their horns because there is nobody in the path of the train. In New York's MetroNorth commuter line, the parts close to NYC are above or below grade so no horns. But farther away, horns are really loud.
I’ve genuinely never noticed the trams near me in London, or trains in Manchester , they’re utterly silent but with100m both places. I never realised that’s what I found weird when American trains burst onto the scene with noise. I guess I just presumed it was to make train crash scenes in disaster movie more dramatic, or crappy scenes more eerie.
@@cmmartti Maybe for you but I do use the word "train" for tramway vehicles unless it's to differenciate the type of mode. In addition, it isn't just grade crossings where trains can be quite loud since driving at high speed generates quite a lot of sound (especially near the curves) and the motors can too get quite loud at start up (the DBAG Class 481 trains used on the Berlin S-Bahn are infamous for this) so many settlements have got sound barriers next to rails. Even grade crossings are different: The biggest difference is that in Europe, many rail crossings are protected when not part of a tramway so the trains don't have to blow their horns (when there are unprotected crossings, they tend to be away from residence) and second, the laws for crossings aren't as strict either since trains in NA have do blow their horn three times and ring a bell while in Europe, it tends to be done only once.
The horns and bells are safety features of railroad locomotives. They are meant for a warning that the train is in or about to be in motion. The equipment at railroad crossings of streets and highways have warning bells that a train is coming. This is all necessary noise, then the engines themselves are noisy. I am surprised that European don't have that noise.
The problem with HK is that the government controls the land use and they release very small amounts for development at a time, which goes to the highest bidder, which drives up price. The MTR has nothing to do with it.
@@mfaizsyahmi I was under the impression that OP said that because they already build over the railway station. I could be wrong though, that’s just how I read it.😊
Another example is Singapur. The Government also controlls land use, butdoesn´t always sell for high prices, so it is quite affordable for most people, if you are a citizen else you have a problem. Public transport is cheap. Car usage is also controlled...
I kinda get it on a basic level, but.. is this a reference to some car anime or manga or something?.. where does the drifting tofu delivery come from?..
Yeah, for me I would love to live that close to a transit station. My only issue would be, as most others seem to agree, the noise. But if that was mitigated with soundproofing I'd be all for it.
Yes, I think question is a bit stilted, since he is going heavy rail commuter trains mostly, whereas LRT, streetcars, or trams, would be much less noisy. Still more noise than the suburbs, but they won't have a horn blowing through the intersection.
Why do American trains sound the horn so much anyway? It doesn't really seem necessary except in emergencies but I guess not everyone looks before crossing and a lot of people jump the barriers anyway, is that why?
I’d listen to the bells and whistles of trains and light rail in a dense setting over the sound of lawnmowers and weed wackers in a suburban area any day.
In my country (Singapore) the outer suburbs are actually more densely populated than the inner ones (because their buildings are mostly historic & shophouses built before our post WW2 population boom) or downtown (whose land is traditionally zoned more for office & shopping malls than housing). A drawback might the greater environmental footprint due to more residents having to travel further to work, for those who work downtown. ~80% of my country's workers were surveyed to be working outside downtown though, which can be either better or worse, depending on whether your house & workplace are in suburbs on the same or opposite sides of town, but that also helps promote reverse commuting (at least for parts of commuters' journeys) that helps even out demand across different parts of our transport network
Thank you. This video gives me hope. I have always been fearful of growing old in this country since most of the senior living places are isolated in the suburb away from everything else. you would be lucky to get on a bus to get to some buffet once in a while. It just seems a terrible way to live.
In the case where the train is too loud, the town can opt for "quiet zones" on the part of the railroad that goes through their town, given that there aren't any high speed trains passing through. The "quiet zones" tell the engineer to only use a bell when approaching a crossing instead of a horn, the difference being somewhere of maybe 40-60dbs to 120 dbs.
@@rosaamarillo2110 My secondary/middle school lies under the flight path of an AFB so every hour or so our teachers get interrupted by the sound of a C130 on landing approach. Sound that some of my countrymen also call "the sound of freedom"
Rob, I've always wondered, the majority of the apartments and townhouses are in San Fran. I wonder what's stopping building them in (relatively low-rise) San Jose and actually making a city out of it - and actually build housing right next to all those Silicon Valley offices (and alleviate some of the housing shortages in San Fran itself). As for the TOD question: My family lives in Tokyo, and we live just minutes away from a station. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I also look for a place that is close to a station. Cheaper on the wallet, and less stressful to get around.
The United States adopted very strict land use controls after World War II. These pretty much mandated low-rise single-family neighborhoods pretty much EVERYWHERE outside central business districts (CBD). The rules haven't updated with free-market economics. So suburbs, like San Jose (which should be a new CBD) still have 1960s rules preventing houses from turning into apartments, condos, or townhouses. Existing homeowners vote for candidates who maintain "property values" (shortage pricing). Potential residents don't get a vote, so they are unrepresented. It's a national problem - but most noticeable in the Bay Area.
@@RoadGuyRob Brownfield sites? Back of Dideron Station or any disused rail yards nearby? Maybe relocate Mineta Airport so that proper high-rises can be built?Places where we can build on the space above I-280, I-680, or Highway 101? Any other place where we can build without risk of NIMBY neighbours - as a start?
@@selanryn5849 wish they would do that in other states., Eliminate those impractical zoning so there can be more townhomes and other choices than just single-family homes with big ones
It's important to remember that every new unit brings down the marginal cost of each existing unit. Even if you have 300 new luxury units, that's 300 new units to bring down the supply imbalance. In other words, while THOSE units may not be affordable, they make other houses slightly more affordable.
I don’t have a land issue, I live on the {southern} east coast. Though seriously, does anyone find it more ironic that the far more populated and smaller (in land size) East has less land worries?
@@LinkinParkFanNorway and fortunately the people that came before us did a decent, tho not great, job at prioritizing transit. I am lucky enough to be able to be home shopping in an area where I can reasonably afford a home within biking distance of the train.
The east coast tends to have far fewer restrictions on when and where developers can develop, so yea, finding land you can build on is easier just because our local governments allow it.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr I don't think being pro pedestrian and such means you are anti car. Like he said in another post. Getting those people who don't want cars out of cars frees up the road for those who like them.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr being anti car doesn't mean not wanting you to have your car, it means not wanting to be forced to live by one just because you want one.
It’s almost like people before cars knew what they were doing... building street cars along the busy streets with density on those streets & a short walk to single family homes is quite similar to our “new” transit oriented development
I'm so glad I came across your channel! You're so positive and knowledgeable, and I really enjoy the enthusiasm you put into presenting this material. Thanks for putting in all this effort! Keep em coming! 😀
I was disappointed when the video ended because I really wanted to hear about how developers were dealing with the train noise. Silence is golden when living in dense situations, and even more so around trains. Perfect soundproofing is the only way I could imagine wanting to live close to a train - or an airport, for that matter. All that said, I loved this video. Thank you, Rob!
there are many ways to reduce the noise of nearby train tracks. Soundproofed windows on the buildings, noise-insulating walls between the tracks and buildings, vibration-free strutures for tracks running through buildings, no-honking times for trains, ...
Thank you for mentioning the people that can't drive; it's something that gets overlooked all the time when people talk about suburban sprawl and urbanization. Hell, I'm pretty sure the original planners who thought up the suburbs didn't give a damn about the disabled or the elderly. So... Yeah, thanks. Thanks for remembering us. Affordable and traversable matters to me.
There are also other people besides the disabled and elderly that can’t drive., or just does not enjoy driving, Such as people who were in a bad car accident and I knows someone who was in a fire from a car accident accident that was not her fault and she’s afraid to drive anymore and even though she’s somewhat young she has to be taken around by other people because there’s no public transport. Also some people like me can drive well but in congested areas and high speed highways just does not enjoy driving and I can drive it but it really stresses me especially with all the bad drivers weaving in and out. And texting. While driving.
How is this channel so small? Great video. That's the thing about trains, or apartment buildings, etc. Even if you're not into it, it lowers the amount of competition for what you are into.
@15:15 "trains are noisy"... in the US... Elsewhere there is no constant horn-blasting and bell-ringing and trains (especially urban/light-rail) are actually much quieter than cars (especially per passenger).
@@peskypigeonx They also created the entire notion and pass legislation to continue it. Detroit and American auto makers still lobby against public transport in favor of roadways like it's the 50s.
How does this channel only have 62k subs?!? The production quality is better than most broadcast network news shows AND the amount of work put into editing and animations is extraordinary. Road Guy Rob, as far as I'm concerned you are a future national treasure. Keep up the amazing work!
Well, in Japan big railway companies are usually big conglomerates that have a diverse business portfolio. So, one of things they do is to build department-stores and lots of apartments in their railway stations (the also have bus companies to feed their rail services)
I grew up watching California's Gold with Huell Howser, you and your channel reminds me of his work, the production quality, the narration, and the amount of love and badassery you put into it.. its just f*ckin awesome! keep up the awesome work sir!
RGR asks if building housing at urban transit stations would "help solve America's affordable housing shortage?" Without reviewing the video further, the answer is yes because ANY housing built where it is in demand helps with housing affordability for everyone. Even if someone built 1,000 mansions, homes become more affordable for the working class. Because the people who buy those mansions are no longer competing with us (and winning!) for our housing. In California we argue night and day about "what kind of housing do we allow to be built" while we are stuck in a paralysis of perpetual housing shortage. We are so far gone that ANY housing helps!
Okay, so now that I've watched the rest of the video, you did a great job bringing ideas taught in planning schools to a general audience. I have a planning degree myself and I think more people need to be exposed to these concepts. (I know you hear the "but" coming) BUT, I also have an economics education and there are some realities and market forces that planning schools don't consider that not only have greatly impacted their ability to implement these ideas you discuss but also are making our efforts counterproductive when it comes to promoting housing affordability. I hint at this in my original comment above. We focus WAY too much on building "new" affordable housing. You even mention that building housing downtown is "never going to be affordable when it has to sit on some of the most expensive land in the region." But that's not the point. The point is to build housing where it is in demand. Demand means people are "willing and able" to buy. Yes, you build housing that wealthy people will buy or rent. Why? Because when you don't build enough of it (and we don't in CA), wealthy people start competing with the middle class for their housing. And the middle class start competing with the poor for their housing (what we call gentrification). And congratulations, housing is unaffordable for everyone! Or worse, your middle class decide that life would be better in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and all the other places you mention and more. We are being left with two groups of folks - people who are wealthy enough to afford to live here, and people who are too poor to leave. That's not a good trajectory for us. And this is not a new problem - it's been happening for decades now. But we keep doing and promoting the same ideas using the same processes over and over again and... expecting different results? That's insane! So we deflect: "It's those greedy developers' fault!" Sure, let's blame the only group of people in our society who have the tools to solve this problem. You've heard the term referring to corporate management incompetence "The beatings will continue until morale improves?" Well, we're applying this here: "The beatings of developers will continue until housing affordability improves." The thing is, for the most part, the needs of the community and the incentives for developers are aligned. We need housing. Developers make money building housing that people want to buy. But the community gets in the way. NIMBYs. BANANAs. And while they fight development, everyone loses. Well, not everyone - if you own a house that has appreciated in value during all of this, then you're the cat that caught the canary. You're probably also the NIMBY or BANANA and know deep down that your efforts are rewarding you monetarily and don't care that it is at the expense of the poor, but I could go on about that far longer than I have here. :)
Great video Rob, I agree with you that T.O.D's are the way to go, but I also think you should allow ever so slightly higher density in single family neighborhoods as well. This way the density is more feathered out from the T.O.D. downtown to the surrounding suburbs
Re the soundproofing comment at the end, I find rather than solid soundproofing material which can still conduct sound, the best soundproofing comes incidentally from fire code isolation requirements. When there’s no physical connection between units except for a couple of steel beams, you can’t hear your neighbours at all. I wouldn’t want a train honking its horn after exiting the building, but I imagine I’d hear nothing from the basement station, just as I don’t hear engines in the underground car park where I presently live. I’d love to have a train station in the basement or otherwise very close on the development, I use a wheelchair which does limit me to about a quarter mile before it stops being easy pushing. Over here in the UK a train station is considered nearby if it’s about a mile away, which I happily walked back when I could walk. But now I find myself having to use cars because the trains and buses just don’t come quite close enough to my apartment. Though also speaking from that perspective, the stock photo you used for a wheelchair user was a very bulky temporary use chair. Like you’d see in a hospital. The model probably didn’t use it day to day. I always like to see more streamlined single-piece chairs, think what you see with wheelchair basketball. Those exist for daily meandering about, much easier to push than one of those temporary chairs. They’re pretty much identical to a sports chair, just don’t usually tilt the back wheels a strongly as in basketball, tennis, etc. I’m sure there must be some stock photos like that, and it’d be great to see those kind used more frequently! (Not just for aesthetics, I do find it affects public perception of and self esteem for wheelchair users!) Anyway this was a good video, I’m glad I found your channel today. Some people who make transport videos predominantly about roads can be kind of territorial against other kinds of transportation, so your balanced take is really refreshing.
Honestly, the commuter train idea is cool. Like the S-Bahn, but S-Bahns only run to the hinterlands of a city, while commuter trains may connect multiple cities. The neat thing about both S-Bahns and commuter trains is that you can make them run into the middle of nowhere where land is cheap, build a station, and you can have affordable housing around the station with some underground parking, and sometimes, all sorts of amenities!
Great video, though I'm a little disappointed not to hear from the resident of the showcase building about how the noise levels are. If they are bearable, that does sound like an amazing place to live.
Really interesting piece, my dorm at Carleton U in Ottawa was right by a train track that ran through the whole of campus, connecting downtown at one end with all the big box stores on the other. Extremely freeing for someone who couldn't afford a car back then. These transit oriented developments have also since sprung up around other stops and have even given students more options. I remember back in 2014, I either had the option to pay ridiculous dorm fees or go and live with a bunch of random people in the suburbs, was genuinely surprised how there was no in between, like what you find all over Europe for example.
Transit oriented development is already the norm in most urban areas in some countries. This might be a shocker to us North Americans, but there are a few places in the world where active transport and public transit are not an afterthought and you don't NEED a car. It doesn't mean that you can't have one; it just means that you can live happily without having one. Take Japan (a country that I know pretty well) for example, the overwhelming majority of transit stations in urban areas have high density housing and services right next to the station if not in it. Noise isn't such a big problem because, beside street cars, all trains run underground or on elevated tracks in urban areas. Therefore, there is no need for horn blowing or crossing bells all the time. Noise wise, I would say that it's not louder than car traffic; it might even be a little more quiet. It's really connivent to have grocery stores, convenience stores, hair dressers, dry cleaners, clinics, dental clinics directly in the same building when you get off the train. Granted, not all stations have those shops and services, but it's actually extremely difficult to find a station that doesn't at least a convenience store within a few seconds of walking out the door. I also agree that soundproofing is requirement for multi-tenants residential buildings. The problem where I live (Montreal) is that soundproofing in a condo or apartment is still treated as a luxury reserved for premium price places. The legislative and regulatory requirements are so low that housing that comply without going beyond the requirements is not a descent place to live.
Why limit yourself to the walkable area within reach of a train station? Why not provide bycicles and quadruple the area? Also, those shared living space blocks might seem like a good idea, but it's very difficult to keep bad people out and once they get in, it all becomes a big mess!
I wished every city could be as good as Amsterdam. They have the best cycling, walking and great public transportation. All of that means most people don't need a car and those that do are far better off because there are far less cars on the road. We also need mix use land development. Building suburbs is so incredibly stupid because it forces everyone to own a car because there are no shopping like groceries or restaurants in walking or biking distance. More and more land is needed to park all those cars which causes cities and suburbs to be spaced out farther and farther. More road networks need to be built and maintained and so much city budget will be spent on maintaining this. That is one reason why so many cities are in deficit. Also having nothing to do in suburbs means less people are spending time outside especially children and since less people are outside it becomes less safe. This is why downtown areas with lots of people walking around need less of a police budget. You aren't going to get mugged when there are so many people around. It is called passive surveillance.
I’d love to see a discussion of why Missouri has a “supplemental highway system” that uses Letters. These letters reset every time you hit a county line so there all over the state. Then we also have our primary state highways, which are numbered, like most states. Missouri is the only state to use this system and I’s love to hear your digression on it.
I totally agree with this, but if the US got serious about public transport, there'd be even more room for this type of housing, which would be great. (I prefer denser neighbourhoods, anyhow-I always feel trapped in suburban wastelands.)
I grew up across the road from a train yard. An actual yard. Full of trains 24/7/365. If anyone is worried about the noise. Take it from me, you get used to it, and you tune it out.
@@jimc.goodfellas you ain’t joking. I stumbled upon his channel a couple of months ago and watched most of his videos. Have you checked out his video on the width of roads? That is a personal favorite of mine
Charlotte NC wanted to build a light rail system to “uptown” but had a problem that the convention center was in the way. The idea of running the LRV system through the convention center had a significant problem. During conventions, forklifts scurry back and forth and might come in contact with the overhead wiring for the catenary. Also, the display area needed to be kept secure. Part of the master plan to sell high density condos next to the light rail was to have a bicycle trail to attract young professionals with no children - hoping they would buy before realizing the bike trail was not continuous to Uptown. The master plan left out building a bridge over the freeway to save money. The $11 million dollar bridge should open next year
Great ideas, so long as states start to crack down on crooked landlords and property managers who skirt around loopholes in state laws. And better access to lawyers at rates that renters can afford to counter landlord obfuscation of due process. If we want affordable housing for a number of different social economic blocks of people this has to be addressed. These centers are a great start, but renters also figure out which land lords and property managers are crooked and avoid those properties.
"Mom, can I get a bank account, car insurance, and gasoline?" Mom: "We have a bank account, car insurance, and gasoline at home." Bank account, car insurance, and gasoline at home: Bells Fargo Snake Farm Insurance Mexaco
I live in Toledo, Ohio. I grew up here but hadn’t really considered moving back until four years ago. I was recruited away from a stressful position as a Creative Director to something more like Art Director with a nebulous job description and the ability to live anywhere. I telecommuted before Covid made everyone do it. We had narrowed down the move to Portland and Austin. We were back visiting my parents with our sons. They associated Toledo with fun. We looked at housing prices sort of as a joke and we were stunned. $800,000 was our budget. We spoke with a real estate agent that was sort of a friend of a friend. I asked him if $800k would maybe get us something nicer. In Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin that was a normal budget. His jaw dropped and he said ‘mansions. You can buy mansions.’ We ended up buying a ridiculously beautiful mid-century modern rustic with almost 4,000 square feet, literally perched above a wide creek with giant mature oaks that make it feel like a National park, a ton of original beautiful oak woodwork, within a mile of amazing restaurants and three groceries, great schools and a market excited for new residents. It was one of our smartest decisions. That house wouldn’t have been near our price range elsewhere. We got it for $295,000, far below half of what we had planned on spending. As telecommuting becomes rapidly more a part of worklife, I suspect others will discover these amazing midsize cities in the Midwest with a lot to offer and insanely low costs of living. I think now would be when these cities should be thinking about extraordinary transportation options, particularly high speed rail.
@Endless Fields What the heck are you talking about? The rich are the first ones to gtfo. And the reason is the idiotic state government, not capitalism
Track sleepers with resilient bearing pads? trains with steel tires and composite bead,? rail bed on seismic isolators? buildings with good sound insulation? Yes, you can run a train through a building.
There's something amusing about "Road Guy Rob" advocating for more trains. You love to see it.
It’s great to see him acknowledge that roads aren’t the be all end all solution to our transportation needs. I love it!
The more often people who want to ride trains can, the more open freeway lanes there are for me to go VRRRRRRROOOOM.
Nobody should feel forced into any mode of transportation. Including driving.
@@RoadGuyRob Now thats a way of thinking i can get behind. Everyone should be free to make their own decisions and not be forced to one option or the other
@@MeDicen_Rocha That includes the mode of powering their vehicles.
I guess that counts as a steel road ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Meeting a fan while filming a standup turns into an impromptu interview ON TOPIC. Boom!
A true professional broadcaster.
Learned everything I know from my college senior project colleague
@@RoadGuyRob I'm flattered and honored! But it is I who have learned from you.
I can’t even imagine how long this video took to produce. There are so many little creative flourishes.
About a month. I started the day after the ramp meters video went online.
Literally the time between my final video render and your eyes is a couple of hours.
@@RoadGuyRob Hi! I've been a regular viewer of your channel for a couple of months now.
It's amazing how the production value and overall quality of your videos (sound, principal photography, b rolls, arts, animations and such) have vastly improved! You're reaching cable (NatGeo or Discovery) quality thresholds.
But, as a non native English speaker and as a person that not knows in depth about north america geography, sometimes I kind o struggle to keep to the pace of your script. Maybe an adjustment in tempo of the narration or a more detailed introduction on each topic could easy this for more people like me.
Sorry to bother! Keep up the amazing work!
@@craesmeyer , he does have a very thick American accent. I remember decades ago before coming to this country, that kind of accent was very difficult for me to understand even though I spoke English at school in my old country
@@craesmeyer you can slow down the video in settings (:
@@RoadGuyRob Is that a month of 18 hour days? Good lord, there's so much unique B-roll in your projects. I don't know how you do it.
A train through my apartment would still be quieter than my upstairs neighbors
Or a 4 lane arterial!
Or a 8 lane highway which has the same thur put as that Train line
nice apartment for deaf people, low prices bc of all the noise (i assume)
Noisy neighbors is he biggest curse on close housing. It's never "white noise" and a non-freight train is.
Or in line and neer to the airport runway.
10:45 I’ve gotta admire your commitment to safety, wearing your orange vest in the studio.
My biggest fear: ruclips.net/video/185mOV5Y3zM/видео.html
@@RoadGuyRob That seems rational.
He lives his gimmick.
My girlfriend lives a couple houses away from the train track. She used to live a block from the airport. Both are annoying but the train can be ignored a lot of the time because it's not as noisy.
Also, less likely to die after just a few years from inhaling burnt kerosene...
I live in the path of my local International Airport (Toronto Pearson) and when you have a flight every 3 mins, you get used to it, in fact I find it weird when I go somewhere else and there isn't flights over my head
If you are a heavy sleeper, you can get use to it. I used to live next to the subway (above ground line) in NYC, those ran 24/7.
@@voidvector Doesn't help the first example in the video has a grade crossing right by it as this massively amplifies the noise trains need to make for safety reasons. I live right by a heavy rail passengers station but there are no grade crossings nearby and they are really not something you notice unless you have the window open. Even then mostly it's just that first second or so when the engine is revving up in low gear to build up enough torque to get the several hundred-ton train to start rolling. Electrics would be even less annoying still as they generate good torque at zero speed without having to rev their engine like a bat out of hell and gear it right down.
Being near one of Boeing's factories, I feel. The Dreamlifter is one loud sonofa, if ya catch my drift. And I'm at least a mile from the runways.
I love production quality of your videos :D
I went through all of your higher production videos through the last month.
I would love to see you do a video on the roads in London one day. It would be interesting to see your American view.
Love your wt videos
That would be amazing! I am hoping to venture beyond the western U.S. later this year (depending on... everything)
@@RoadGuyRob spiritual successor to huel howser but only focused on transit
@@RoadGuyRob I’d suggest doing a smaller city in the UK. London is the UK’s biggest city by an order of magnitude so it’s not representative of the typical British city. You’d be better off doing a city of about a million people like Liverpool, Glasgow or Newcastle.
@@RoadGuyRob come make a visit to Italy. You would love the public transportation systems here in Milan.
The production quality on this is amazing
the "good walls make good neighbors" is completely true. I think many people have had poor experiences with multifamily housing because while we mandate setbacks and fences and other such things in single-family neighborhoods, there is less quality of life regulation in apartments, leading cheap developers to cut costs to compete. really a case where strong regulation makes sense, as it's hard to judge and make a meaningful choice about sound quality in a brief apartment tour.
The problem, Rob, is that even living in downtown KC, I still need a car to visit relatives and transport my child back and forth between her mothers house in the burbs. It really sucks paying almost half of what my rent is on parking, tagging, and insuring a vehicle I rarely use.
Maybe you could do a car share, if not now sometime in the future if it’s not feasible or not in the city yet.
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 there are also platforms for renting out your car when you're not using it, so you can recuperate some cost.
Trains can be noisy, but people tend to forget that cars/trucks/motorcycles are also extremely noisy, with their sheer numbers. They're the main noise pollutant in cities
Trains are noisy... in North America. A lot of developed countries have trains that don't have continuously ringing bells or ones that sound their horn every 5 seconds, and still maintain a better safety record. It's good to see municipalities are coming around to the idea that car centric development comes with a ton of downsides that are not easily or cheaply solved.
I lived less than 50 m from train tracks in the UK and barely heard the trains. It was the main freight and passenger line going into a large city, too. But growing up, I could hear the train horns from half a mile away.
I live 2 mins walk from a station in London. I can't hear the trains unless I'm outside. They don't have bells and they don't blow their horns much.
The only problem you'll have is if you're right next to one as you'll hear the platform announcements. There's also a level crossing at my station which makes a noise. That would annoy me.
Get rid of the horn rules
It's a problem. I've been to every station he's visited in this video and the crossing-guard bells are really very loud, whether it's 10am or 1am. The trains themselves usually only use their horns with lots of passengers on the platform as they roll in (and even then they have a choice between the loud horn and the quiet horn). [Though the Commuter Rail that blasted him is more like a regular train, very loud]
It's interesting to hear they don't have these safety requirements in other countries but surely they must have *something* -- maybe they require no at-grade crossings? or maybe they care less when folks get hit by trains? idk how you avoid it without serious rebuilding.
@@x--. It does take a significant effort. I can only speak or the Netherlands, but the rule since quite a number of years is: no new level crossings are allowed to be built. Existing ones are being closed where possible or converted to a grade separated crossings, mostly by creating road underpasses.
I'd love to see a collab with city beautiful
Yes
I can't stand City Beautiful, he does the same hand gesture and is really really annoying
Same, especially since you guys have different points of view I would love to see City Beautiful and Road Guy Rob hash out some of the bigger issues.
E.g. "Are highways/cars/auto oriented planning/development evil?"
Am I worthy yet? City Beautiful is phenomenal!
Wow love your sketches and animations around 4:40. Really well done.
Unexpected seeing you here
Howdy partner
Train expansion in jail break? 👀
Aye i hope ya patch the bugs soon 👍
Unexpected
Lol imagine a train running through a apartment building and that would be a transit enthusiasts and railfans dream house lol
Btw I love your humor you put in this video
Miami has a few of those Apartment buildings especially downtown with the Metro Mover trains running through them.
If the soundproofing on the windows and walls is good and it's a new apartment - of course
To address concerns of noise: You get used to it pretty quickly. I was in a dorm at my college last year that was right next to a busy freight railroad (easily 20-30 trains per day) and the noise never bothered me.
I'm sure that IF the builder doesn't skimp on windows and insulation, the noise shouldn't be a problem.
@@bbgun061 you are correct, if people plan for the infrastructure, there is less negitive effect.
@@lynx9373 I live less a quarter mile from a railroad crossing been there for over 20 years it doesn't bother me anymore I be very honest I be very worried if it wasn't a railroad sound at least once.
@@bbgun061 The dorms I was in had paper thin walls. I could clearly hear the conversations of people in rooms around me. Even with that, the railroad never bothered me.
Sounds like flagstaff
The whole train thing is really weird tbh, I live next to a train station in NJ, and we have trains every 30 minutes. It's not an issue, and most of the time you never notice it, since there's this din going on around you, of just all types of noise. Then I went out to a business trip to Oklahoma city, and I was in a hotel 10 miles away from the freight tracks, and every fucking hour, 10 solid minutes of train horns. It was impossible to sleep. But Oklahoma has no insulation, no trees, and no background noise to deaden the sound of trains. It also didn't help that it was 10 solid fucking minutes of HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK.
It might also be the difference in the trains. Commuter trains are very different.
I lived in a suburb and the sound of cars kept me up form about 8pm-10pm every night.
Trains not at-grade don't have to blow their horns because there is nobody in the path of the train. In New York's MetroNorth commuter line, the parts close to NYC are above or below grade so no horns. But farther away, horns are really loud.
I live in OKC it's not good
RGR is not only knowledgeable, but adorable as well with his enthusiasm and friendliness
I’ve genuinely never noticed the trams near me in London, or trains in Manchester , they’re utterly silent but with100m both places.
I never realised that’s what I found weird when American trains burst onto the scene with noise. I guess I just presumed it was to make train crash scenes in disaster movie more dramatic, or crappy scenes more eerie.
@@cmmartti Maybe for you but I do use the word "train" for tramway vehicles unless it's to differenciate the type of mode.
In addition, it isn't just grade crossings where trains can be quite loud since driving at high speed generates quite a lot of sound (especially near the curves) and the motors can too get quite loud at start up (the DBAG Class 481 trains used on the Berlin S-Bahn are infamous for this) so many settlements have got sound barriers next to rails. Even grade crossings are different: The biggest difference is that in Europe, many rail crossings are protected when not part of a tramway so the trains don't have to blow their horns (when there are unprotected crossings, they tend to be away from residence) and second, the laws for crossings aren't as strict either since trains in NA have do blow their horn three times and ring a bell while in Europe, it tends to be done only once.
North American freight trains, even if they don't sound their horns, are often so massive, they make the ground shake.
@@heronimousbrapson863Yeah, because we decided to let them be there damn miles long so you have to have five locomotives to pull them. It's asinine.
The horns and bells are safety features of railroad locomotives. They are meant for a warning that the train is in or about to be in motion. The equipment at railroad crossings of streets and highways have warning bells that a train is coming. This is all necessary noise, then the engines themselves are noisy. I am surprised that European don't have that noise.
(Buliding over the railway station to make more affordable housing)
Hong Kong citizens: that doesn't solve our housing problem AT ALL!
Yes but that's Hong Kong, not the US or Canada, just cause one place has a problem, doesn't mean it's going to happen somewhere else
The problem with HK is that the government controls the land use and they release very small amounts for development at a time, which goes to the highest bidder, which drives up price. The MTR has nothing to do with it.
@@mfaizsyahmi I was under the impression that OP said that because they already build over the railway station. I could be wrong though, that’s just how I read it.😊
@@mfaizsyahmi the MTR as a company actually has a lot to do with it since they're one of the largest real estate developer in the city.
Another example is Singapur. The Government also controlls land use, butdoesn´t always sell for high prices, so it is quite affordable for most people, if you are a citizen else you have a problem. Public transport is cheap. Car usage is also controlled...
0:59 He's got a car, and if his T-shirt is any indication he might be drifting it to deliver tofu...
GAS, GAS, GAS! 🤣
Lmao I noticed that too
I kinda get it on a basic level, but.. is this a reference to some car anime or manga or something?.. where does the drifting tofu delivery come from?..
@@SPFLDAngler It comes from "Initial D"
knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/initial-d
@@kabochaVA Ah, yes, the Japanese band, singing in English with a EuroBeat backing. Gotta love it.
Yeah, for me I would love to live that close to a transit station. My only issue would be, as most others seem to agree, the noise. But if that was mitigated with soundproofing I'd be all for it.
Yes, I think question is a bit stilted, since he is going heavy rail commuter trains mostly, whereas LRT, streetcars, or trams, would be much less noisy. Still more noise than the suburbs, but they won't have a horn blowing through the intersection.
Or just surround all railtracks with high non living buildings
@@matiasgrioni292 if LRT/trams/streetcars are on grass it's even quieter.
Why do American trains sound the horn so much anyway? It doesn't really seem necessary except in emergencies but I guess not everyone looks before crossing and a lot of people jump the barriers anyway, is that why?
I’d listen to the bells and whistles of trains and light rail in a dense setting over the sound of lawnmowers and weed wackers in a suburban area any day.
Transit-oriented development, or how we call it in western Europe: development
In my country (Singapore) the outer suburbs are actually more densely populated than the inner ones (because their buildings are mostly historic & shophouses built before our post WW2 population boom) or downtown (whose land is traditionally zoned more for office & shopping malls than housing). A drawback might the greater environmental footprint due to more residents having to travel further to work, for those who work downtown. ~80% of my country's workers were surveyed to be working outside downtown though, which can be either better or worse, depending on whether your house & workplace are in suburbs on the same or opposite sides of town, but that also helps promote reverse commuting (at least for parts of commuters' journeys) that helps even out demand across different parts of our transport network
Thank you. This video gives me hope. I have always been fearful of growing old in this country since most of the senior living places are isolated in the suburb away from everything else. you would be lucky to get on a bus to get to some buffet once in a while. It just seems a terrible way to live.
In the case where the train is too loud, the town can opt for "quiet zones" on the part of the railroad that goes through their town, given that there aren't any high speed trains passing through. The "quiet zones" tell the engineer to only use a bell when approaching a crossing instead of a horn, the difference being somewhere of maybe 40-60dbs to 120 dbs.
That's really cool! And even 60 db is about the sound level of a car passing, and bells are much more pleasant anyways.
Jake: "How often do the trains come by?"
Elwood: "So often you won't even notice."
Seems like a lot than😂
I live by a busy AFB... what planes?
@@rosaamarillo2110 My secondary/middle school lies under the flight path of an AFB so every hour or so our teachers get interrupted by the sound of a C130 on landing approach. Sound that some of my countrymen also call "the sound of freedom"
It helps if you're on a mission from God.
Yes
The trains wouldn't be a problem. It's those dam bells that would do my head in.
why is there a bell on them? I know for sure there are none on them in Sweden, neither are they on cars.
@@Pro09video It's for blind drivers who can't see the lights.
@@chaos.corner blind drivers?
@@Pro09video ;)
Here you have what they sound like in Sweden. ruclips.net/video/LF5sPhMGDxI/видео.html Without the unnecessary loud bell.
Rob, I've always wondered, the majority of the apartments and townhouses are in San Fran. I wonder what's stopping building them in (relatively low-rise) San Jose and actually making a city out of it - and actually build housing right next to all those Silicon Valley offices (and alleviate some of the housing shortages in San Fran itself).
As for the TOD question: My family lives in Tokyo, and we live just minutes away from a station. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I also look for a place that is close to a station. Cheaper on the wallet, and less stressful to get around.
The United States adopted very strict land use controls after World War II. These pretty much mandated low-rise single-family neighborhoods pretty much EVERYWHERE outside central business districts (CBD).
The rules haven't updated with free-market economics. So suburbs, like San Jose (which should be a new CBD) still have 1960s rules preventing houses from turning into apartments, condos, or townhouses. Existing homeowners vote for candidates who maintain "property values" (shortage pricing). Potential residents don't get a vote, so they are unrepresented. It's a national problem - but most noticeable in the Bay Area.
@@RoadGuyRob Brownfield sites? Back of Dideron Station or any disused rail yards nearby? Maybe relocate Mineta Airport so that proper high-rises can be built?Places where we can build on the space above I-280, I-680, or Highway 101? Any other place where we can build without risk of NIMBY neighbours - as a start?
@@RoadGuyRob California just passed new legislation largely eliminating SFH zoning aimed at addressing this very problem.
@@selanryn5849 wish they would do that in other states., Eliminate those impractical zoning so there can be more townhomes and other choices than just single-family homes with big ones
And to write at the end, big lawns
So glad that you ran into a fan in real life!
It's important to remember that every new unit brings down the marginal cost of each existing unit. Even if you have 300 new luxury units, that's 300 new units to bring down the supply imbalance. In other words, while THOSE units may not be affordable, they make other houses slightly more affordable.
Fujiwara Tofu Delivery guy, you know he's a good subscriber
I don’t have a land issue, I live on the {southern} east coast.
Though seriously, does anyone find it more ironic that the far more populated and smaller (in land size) East has less land worries?
The Northeast megalopolis has some of the most expensive land in the country. We don't have land worries? Huh?
Where tf on the east coast do you live? There is a huge affordable housing issue! Just look at NY,NJ,PA,MD
The cities on the East Coast are WAAAY MOORE denser than the West Coast. Prizes are still high, but the land accomodate way more people.
@@LinkinParkFanNorway and fortunately the people that came before us did a decent, tho not great, job at prioritizing transit.
I am lucky enough to be able to be home shopping in an area where I can reasonably afford a home within biking distance of the train.
The east coast tends to have far fewer restrictions on when and where developers can develop, so yea, finding land you can build on is easier just because our local governments allow it.
you and "not just bikes" should do something together.
And City Beautiful!
Yes. 1000x yes.
These AFAIK are all Anti-Freeway and Anti-Car -
I'd have nothing to do with them - after all, this
channel is about Freeways! Trains are cool though!
@@RedKnight-fn6jr I don't think being pro pedestrian and such means you are anti car. Like he said in another post. Getting those people who don't want cars out of cars frees up the road for those who like them.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr being anti car doesn't mean not wanting you to have your car, it means not wanting to be forced to live by one just because you want one.
9:26 Holy crap, a new development that's *not* soul-crushingly ugly? Nice job Pasadena
If you were a stock I would buy because you’re undervalued
True. Also I'm using this on my next date
It’s almost like people before cars knew what they were doing... building street cars along the busy streets with density on those streets & a short walk to single family homes is quite similar to our “new” transit oriented development
I'm so glad I came across your channel! You're so positive and knowledgeable, and I really enjoy the enthusiasm you put into presenting this material.
Thanks for putting in all this effort! Keep em coming! 😀
YES PLEASE! More transit-oriented development and non-traditional co-renting-style units. And more trains. WHOO! Good video sir.
YO Nick is a fellow initial D fan! He'll yeah! Nick if you see this really cool shirt!
I was disappointed when the video ended because I really wanted to hear about how developers were dealing with the train noise. Silence is golden when living in dense situations, and even more so around trains. Perfect soundproofing is the only way I could imagine wanting to live close to a train - or an airport, for that matter. All that said, I loved this video. Thank you, Rob!
there are many ways to reduce the noise of nearby train tracks. Soundproofed windows on the buildings, noise-insulating walls between the tracks and buildings, vibration-free strutures for tracks running through buildings, no-honking times for trains, ...
This show is awesome!
YES! Bring back railway suburbs! Every town should be built outward with a transit station and a main street at the center.
In Asian cities they still build those, by the dozen
Thank you for mentioning the people that can't drive; it's something that gets overlooked all the time when people talk about suburban sprawl and urbanization. Hell, I'm pretty sure the original planners who thought up the suburbs didn't give a damn about the disabled or the elderly. So... Yeah, thanks. Thanks for remembering us. Affordable and traversable matters to me.
There are also other people besides the disabled and elderly that can’t drive., or just does not enjoy driving, Such as people who were in a bad car accident and I knows someone who was in a fire from a car accident accident that was not her fault and she’s afraid to drive anymore and even though she’s somewhat young she has to be taken around by other people because there’s no public transport.
Also some people like me can drive well but in congested areas and high speed highways just does not enjoy driving and I can drive it but it really stresses me especially with all the bad drivers weaving in and out. And texting. While driving.
How is this channel so small? Great video.
That's the thing about trains, or apartment buildings, etc. Even if you're not into it, it lowers the amount of competition for what you are into.
The High Price Leader..I just caught that
@15:15 "trains are noisy"... in the US...
Elsewhere there is no constant horn-blasting and bell-ringing and trains (especially urban/light-rail) are actually much quieter than cars (especially per passenger).
single family dwellings killed passenger rail in america.
*Detroit* you mean
@@DGTelevsionNetwork Detroit.. Detroit was what happened if we continued with that car-centric mile-separate housing
@@peskypigeonx They also created the entire notion and pass legislation to continue it. Detroit and American auto makers still lobby against public transport in favor of roadways like it's the 50s.
Wish this wasn’t such a niche community- I can see you being one of the pioneer creators on this site. I love the quality going into these videos!
RUclips recommended me your channel back in early December and I've been subbed since then. love these vids!
How does this channel only have 62k subs?!? The production quality is better than most broadcast network news shows AND the amount of work put into editing and animations is extraordinary. Road Guy Rob, as far as I'm concerned you are a future national treasure. Keep up the amazing work!
They ain't doing SHIT with Staten Island.
Flood the buses bro
Well, in Japan big railway companies are usually big conglomerates that have a diverse business portfolio. So, one of things they do is to build department-stores and lots of apartments in their railway stations (the also have bus companies to feed their rail services)
I grew up watching California's Gold with Huell Howser, you and your channel reminds me of his work, the production quality, the narration, and the amount of love and badassery you put into it.. its just f*ckin awesome! keep up the awesome work sir!
RGR asks if building housing at urban transit stations would "help solve America's affordable housing shortage?" Without reviewing the video further, the answer is yes because ANY housing built where it is in demand helps with housing affordability for everyone. Even if someone built 1,000 mansions, homes become more affordable for the working class. Because the people who buy those mansions are no longer competing with us (and winning!) for our housing. In California we argue night and day about "what kind of housing do we allow to be built" while we are stuck in a paralysis of perpetual housing shortage. We are so far gone that ANY housing helps!
Okay, so now that I've watched the rest of the video, you did a great job bringing ideas taught in planning schools to a general audience. I have a planning degree myself and I think more people need to be exposed to these concepts. (I know you hear the "but" coming) BUT, I also have an economics education and there are some realities and market forces that planning schools don't consider that not only have greatly impacted their ability to implement these ideas you discuss but also are making our efforts counterproductive when it comes to promoting housing affordability. I hint at this in my original comment above. We focus WAY too much on building "new" affordable housing. You even mention that building housing downtown is "never going to be affordable when it has to sit on some of the most expensive land in the region." But that's not the point. The point is to build housing where it is in demand. Demand means people are "willing and able" to buy. Yes, you build housing that wealthy people will buy or rent. Why? Because when you don't build enough of it (and we don't in CA), wealthy people start competing with the middle class for their housing. And the middle class start competing with the poor for their housing (what we call gentrification). And congratulations, housing is unaffordable for everyone! Or worse, your middle class decide that life would be better in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and all the other places you mention and more. We are being left with two groups of folks - people who are wealthy enough to afford to live here, and people who are too poor to leave. That's not a good trajectory for us. And this is not a new problem - it's been happening for decades now. But we keep doing and promoting the same ideas using the same processes over and over again and... expecting different results? That's insane! So we deflect: "It's those greedy developers' fault!" Sure, let's blame the only group of people in our society who have the tools to solve this problem. You've heard the term referring to corporate management incompetence "The beatings will continue until morale improves?" Well, we're applying this here: "The beatings of developers will continue until housing affordability improves." The thing is, for the most part, the needs of the community and the incentives for developers are aligned. We need housing. Developers make money building housing that people want to buy. But the community gets in the way. NIMBYs. BANANAs. And while they fight development, everyone loses. Well, not everyone - if you own a house that has appreciated in value during all of this, then you're the cat that caught the canary. You're probably also the NIMBY or BANANA and know deep down that your efforts are rewarding you monetarily and don't care that it is at the expense of the poor, but I could go on about that far longer than I have here. :)
Great video Rob, I agree with you that T.O.D's are the way to go, but I also think you should allow ever so slightly higher density in single family neighborhoods as well. This way the density is more feathered out from the T.O.D. downtown to the surrounding suburbs
Re the soundproofing comment at the end, I find rather than solid soundproofing material which can still conduct sound, the best soundproofing comes incidentally from fire code isolation requirements. When there’s no physical connection between units except for a couple of steel beams, you can’t hear your neighbours at all. I wouldn’t want a train honking its horn after exiting the building, but I imagine I’d hear nothing from the basement station, just as I don’t hear engines in the underground car park where I presently live.
I’d love to have a train station in the basement or otherwise very close on the development, I use a wheelchair which does limit me to about a quarter mile before it stops being easy pushing. Over here in the UK a train station is considered nearby if it’s about a mile away, which I happily walked back when I could walk. But now I find myself having to use cars because the trains and buses just don’t come quite close enough to my apartment.
Though also speaking from that perspective, the stock photo you used for a wheelchair user was a very bulky temporary use chair. Like you’d see in a hospital. The model probably didn’t use it day to day. I always like to see more streamlined single-piece chairs, think what you see with wheelchair basketball. Those exist for daily meandering about, much easier to push than one of those temporary chairs. They’re pretty much identical to a sports chair, just don’t usually tilt the back wheels a strongly as in basketball, tennis, etc. I’m sure there must be some stock photos like that, and it’d be great to see those kind used more frequently! (Not just for aesthetics, I do find it affects public perception of and self esteem for wheelchair users!)
Anyway this was a good video, I’m glad I found your channel today. Some people who make transport videos predominantly about roads can be kind of territorial against other kinds of transportation, so your balanced take is really refreshing.
Your production quality has improved heaps! Keep it up Rob!👍👍
Those communal living unit spaces sound like absolute hell.
Great video man. Of course more transit and walkable/bikeable neighborhoods are desirable!
Honestly, the commuter train idea is cool. Like the S-Bahn, but S-Bahns only run to the hinterlands of a city, while commuter trains may connect multiple cities. The neat thing about both S-Bahns and commuter trains is that you can make them run into the middle of nowhere where land is cheap, build a station, and you can have affordable housing around the station with some underground parking, and sometimes, all sorts of amenities!
Road Guy: should we live next to rail stations?
Me, a European: umm . . . Thats the whole point . . .
Holy fuzzy, those apartments at the beginning are $2,500 for a studio. California's got to start building more housing
Great video, though I'm a little disappointed not to hear from the resident of the showcase building about how the noise levels are. If they are bearable, that does sound like an amazing place to live.
Agreed.
It's a light rail line, they are dead silent
Really interesting piece, my dorm at Carleton U in Ottawa was right by a train track that ran through the whole of campus, connecting downtown at one end with all the big box stores on the other. Extremely freeing for someone who couldn't afford a car back then. These transit oriented developments have also since sprung up around other stops and have even given students more options. I remember back in 2014, I either had the option to pay ridiculous dorm fees or go and live with a bunch of random people in the suburbs, was genuinely surprised how there was no in between, like what you find all over Europe for example.
Nick is basically every railfan’s dream.
Transit oriented development is already the norm in most urban areas in some countries. This might be a shocker to us North Americans, but there are a few places in the world where active transport and public transit are not an afterthought and you don't NEED a car. It doesn't mean that you can't have one; it just means that you can live happily without having one.
Take Japan (a country that I know pretty well) for example, the overwhelming majority of transit stations in urban areas have high density housing and services right next to the station if not in it. Noise isn't such a big problem because, beside street cars, all trains run underground or on elevated tracks in urban areas. Therefore, there is no need for horn blowing or crossing bells all the time. Noise wise, I would say that it's not louder than car traffic; it might even be a little more quiet. It's really connivent to have grocery stores, convenience stores, hair dressers, dry cleaners, clinics, dental clinics directly in the same building when you get off the train. Granted, not all stations have those shops and services, but it's actually extremely difficult to find a station that doesn't at least a convenience store within a few seconds of walking out the door.
I also agree that soundproofing is requirement for multi-tenants residential buildings. The problem where I live (Montreal) is that soundproofing in a condo or apartment is still treated as a luxury reserved for premium price places. The legislative and regulatory requirements are so low that housing that comply without going beyond the requirements is not a descent place to live.
Why limit yourself to the walkable area within reach of a train station? Why not provide bycicles and quadruple the area?
Also, those shared living space blocks might seem like a good idea, but it's very difficult to keep bad people out and once they get in, it all becomes a big mess!
I wished every city could be as good as Amsterdam. They have the best cycling, walking and great public transportation. All of that means most people don't need a car and those that do are far better off because there are far less cars on the road.
We also need mix use land development. Building suburbs is so incredibly stupid because it forces everyone to own a car because there are no shopping like groceries or restaurants in walking or biking distance. More and more land is needed to park all those cars which causes cities and suburbs to be spaced out farther and farther. More road networks need to be built and maintained and so much city budget will be spent on maintaining this. That is one reason why so many cities are in deficit.
Also having nothing to do in suburbs means less people are spending time outside especially children and since less people are outside it becomes less safe. This is why downtown areas with lots of people walking around need less of a police budget. You aren't going to get mugged when there are so many people around. It is called passive surveillance.
Mike Holmes from the HGTV show Holmes on Homes said that noise is the number one complaint that they receive to fix.
I'm a simple man, I see a Road Guy Rob upload, I click and like
that guy recognizing you must have been INSANE for you in the moment 😎 yeah i am that guy hahaha
@9:22 this is what a lot of the neighborhoods in Berlin are. It would be nice to see more of this mentality in urban development in the US.
This is one of the best and most accessible explanations of how/why/where we should be using transit in future development plans
In Switzerland we have a tram depot in an apartment building. The whole 1st floor is a depot :) #DepotZurichKalkbreite
My first thought was "Train guys would love that." You then immediately meet a train guy living there.
Initial D shirt 👀😁
Fujiwara tofu shop!
This is a great solution !
A public playground in these zones could attract young family’s...
Great video
hmn :) sounds like how we done it in europe since hundreds of years. yeah, and it works very well - for everybody
I’d love to see a discussion of why Missouri has a “supplemental highway system” that uses Letters.
These letters reset every time you hit a county line so there all over the state.
Then we also have our primary state highways, which are numbered, like most states.
Missouri is the only state to use this system and I’s love to hear your digression on it.
The intersection of route F and route U. Funniest thing I saw related to that.
I would only live by a train in a dorm style apartment only if I was fresh out of college. Many good points in this video
I totally agree with this, but if the US got serious about public transport, there'd be even more room for this type of housing, which would be great. (I prefer denser neighbourhoods, anyhow-I always feel trapped in suburban wastelands.)
14:24 "on the fringes of the city"
In geometric order. An insulated border.
RUSH?Subdivisions?
@@lostintime8651 You got it, lol.
Buckhead has turned into the worst part of Atlanta for crime...
Love a late night upload
Or early morning 😁
I grew up across the road from a train yard. An actual yard. Full of trains 24/7/365. If anyone is worried about the noise. Take it from me, you get used to it, and you tune it out.
I don’t mind the sounds of trains.
Here's a fun fact. Here in Chicago, CTA's Pink Line trains travels under Rush Hospital while it's elevated.
Bro you need more views. Fuck the algorithm. Also they mug would be great to have
I couldn't believe he only had this many subscribers..great channel. The aesthetic really reminds me of a well done TV show
@@jimc.goodfellas you ain’t joking. I stumbled upon his channel a couple of months ago and watched most of his videos. Have you checked out his video on the width of roads? That is a personal favorite of mine
Charlotte NC wanted to build a light rail system to “uptown” but had a problem that the convention center was in the way.
The idea of running the LRV system through the convention center had a significant problem. During conventions, forklifts scurry back and forth and might come in contact with the overhead wiring for the catenary. Also, the display area needed to be kept secure.
Part of the master plan to sell high density condos next to the light rail was to have a bicycle trail to attract young professionals with no children - hoping they would buy before realizing the bike trail was not continuous to Uptown. The master plan left out building a bridge over the freeway to save money. The $11 million dollar bridge should open next year
I'm Dutch so I'm genetically predisposed to point out: cycling. It's the secret to livable cities.
Electric skateboards and scooters bro
@@qjtvaddict //Passes the scooter on a pedal bike
🤷
"Good fences make good neighbors" was meant ironically.
Biden should have picked you as the Secretary of Transportation. Maybe Pete can hire you as an advisor.
Grapevine Texas is the perfect example of center near by rail station
Wtf?
don't be fooled, this is Rob's evil brother, rail guy Tod
Great ideas, so long as states start to crack down on crooked landlords and property managers who skirt around loopholes in state laws. And better access to lawyers at rates that renters can afford to counter landlord obfuscation of due process. If we want affordable housing for a number of different social economic blocks of people this has to be addressed. These centers are a great start, but renters also figure out which land lords and property managers are crooked and avoid those properties.
"Mom, can I get a bank account, car insurance, and gasoline?"
Mom: "We have a bank account, car insurance, and gasoline at home."
Bank account, car insurance, and gasoline at home:
Bells Fargo
Snake Farm Insurance
Mexaco
I live in Toledo, Ohio. I grew up here but hadn’t really considered moving back until four years ago. I was recruited away from a stressful position as a Creative Director to something more like Art Director with a nebulous job description and the ability to live anywhere.
I telecommuted before Covid made everyone do it. We had narrowed down the move to Portland and Austin. We were back visiting my parents with our sons. They associated Toledo with fun. We looked at housing prices sort of as a joke and we were stunned. $800,000 was our budget. We spoke with a real estate agent that was sort of a friend of a friend. I asked him if $800k would maybe get us something nicer. In Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin that was a normal budget. His jaw dropped and he said ‘mansions. You can buy mansions.’
We ended up buying a ridiculously beautiful mid-century modern rustic with almost 4,000 square feet, literally perched above a wide creek with giant mature oaks that make it feel like a National park, a ton of original beautiful oak woodwork, within a mile of amazing restaurants and three groceries, great schools and a market excited for new residents.
It was one of our smartest decisions. That house wouldn’t have been near our price range elsewhere. We got it for $295,000, far below half of what we had planned on spending.
As telecommuting becomes rapidly more a part of worklife, I suspect others will discover these amazing midsize cities in the Midwest with a lot to offer and insanely low costs of living. I think now would be when these cities should be thinking about extraordinary transportation options, particularly high speed rail.
If California was such great place to live, people wouldn’t be fleeing to other states at an unprecedented historical rates
Its so good it sucks lol
@Endless Fields True. Makes sense. I agree. When California taxes all your wealth away and youre not rich anymore, people flee.
@Endless Fields What the heck are you talking about? The rich are the first ones to gtfo.
And the reason is the idiotic state government, not capitalism
@@Rickety3263 nope. there's just a lot of people born poor tryin to leave. it's rich people driving housing prices up
@Endless Fields You may say taxes are used to make cities better but al the homeless camps tell another story
Track sleepers with resilient bearing pads? trains with steel tires and composite bead,? rail bed on seismic isolators? buildings with good sound insulation? Yes, you can run a train through a building.