Jeff Speck: The Walkable City - Lessons from the U.S.
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- This video was recorded on 8th of April 2015 in Lahti, Finland. The event was organised by Aalto University Professional Development, The Regional Council of Päijät-Häme and the City of Lahti. It was partially funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
How promoting walkability can increase citizen well-being and create both business and more liveable urban environment? How do we get people to walk and ride bikes instead of choosing cars?
Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer who advocates walkability and sustainable design. He is also author of the bestselling book: "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time".
That's what it was like being a kid in the middle of the country. It's like, we had a degree of independence, but there was NOWHERE TO GO.
There was just... the North American wilderness. Beats the McSuburbs, but equally car dependant.
My grandma lived close to my school, so I'd walk there after school and my mom picked me up on her way home from work, so I always had a free couple hours. And luckily that walk to Grandma's included to the only couple blocks of walkable area for MILES. There were a couple little grocery stores that also doubled as video stores, and a friend lived on the way, there was a small bridge the kids hung out under.
Otherwise you just had to be shuttled by parents to go ANYWHERE.
Western Michigan is dotted with these little towns that are fairly walkable, but once you get outside those few blocks, a car is a prerequisite again.
We envied the city kids, but it turns out so few of them had it any better in that respect.
Wow, what a fascinating lecture. This autoplayed for me as I was wrenching on my bike, apropos of nothing seemingly. I couldn’t be assed to find my phone and hit next so I ended up listening and, soon after, watching the whole thing. Utterly interesting insights into the world of urban planning for a guy who had managed to never think about it until now. Thank you!
Walkable towns and cities tend to, but not always, be better looking places overall because of foliage.
I love foliage :)
You are not in Traffic "YOU" are the Traffic
I feel this
this dude is a legend
This dude is an idiot. People need cars. Girls don't look at boys who have no rides. This idiot who walks everywhere forgot about that.
One thing for my experience in North America, going everywhere require traffic, I can never get out of the parking lot of Walmart without a car.
In a sense, we trap ourselves from distance and staying so fair away than we are limited by the seat is available to be close by. Those become our Cell mate.
Brilliant concepts that should be emphasized by our 'leaders/government' for a overall better and healthier living standard for all.
I was a car person, had dozens of them at any one time, collectibles living in Northern California, commuting 1 time a week 300km each way between two businesses, a ranch in the mountains and Marin Country just north of San Francisco where my recording studio and another business 9km away a large 10,000sq ft shop repairing professional audio equipment. In 2000 I gave everything away and moved out of the US. with 2 suitcases and $6000 to St Petersburg Russia, a large city of 7 million that is one of the most cultured and beautiful cities in the world. That was 22 years ago and I have loved every minute of it...and never bought a car. Living in the city center a world of culture is within walking distance, plus easy access to low-cost buses, trams, trolleys, electric scooters, bikes, and the most beautiful subway system of anywhere except Moscow. My total cost of transportation is about $50 per month including going out every evening and many days to explore, dine, museums, 600 beautiful parks, 44 islands, palaces cathedrals more opera, ballet and symphonic halls than anywhere. 13,000 restaurants with 4 or 5-star ratings. The rideshare taxi is about $0.30km. I walk 15km at least every day just living and exploring. Everything needed is available in small neighborhood shops, 27 food shops within two blocks, that specialize in something like dairy, meat, bakeries, small, shops just for tea, etc, then a little larger shops that are general groceries and further out large supermarkets for people with cars. There are no gas stations in the city center and very few parking lots. Quality of life is much better than in California. Electric trains can take you to forests and beaches, for $0.45. My cost of living is 1/10th of what is was in California when I owned my homes and cars outright. Overall, of the 92 countries I have spent time in, the US is one of the least true quality of life, where the cost of living is very high, and access to safe parks recreation, and culture is very poor. There are more world-class museums, concert halls, ballet palaces, parks, drama theaters, etc than the entire USA. The city has lakes, islands, 44 islands, and wide or pedestrian streets. of sidewalks 240 drama theaters thousands of pubs, and no parking lots. than any There is a drive to eliminate private cars in the city center to further improve quality of life. I am 73yo and very active socially and culturally, dancing, working out, walking, working, and dating women less than1/2 my age.
Here in Newark NJ we have a walkability score of 86 which actually makes us #3 for walkability in the U.S., although we are never mentioned. Still there are some problem areas which would really benefit from your work. Have you ever studied Newark?
This video is amazing! Come please make Southern California, Los Angeles Orange County and San Diego more walkable!
Mars is going to be walkable sooner than LA to be honest :)
@@vladick L.A. is much more walkable than most US cities. Granted, the bar is set very low with that comparison.
"No"
- local NIMBY homeowners
7:51 I've seen enough Jeff Speck talks to know he purposely left out the "strip clubs per capita" stat here
A very important area. :)
Japan can offer good examples when it comes to parking prices and acquisition.
Great talk !
One of the very phenomena of commune in extreme of story in Theaters is Falling Down from Michael Douglas.
usually in any video related to Finland, the comments are full of Finnish people, but not here...
Well the title is 'lessons from the US' not 'lessons from Finland' or 'lessons from US to apply at Helsinki .. Otherwise there would have been a lot more finnish reactions ! 😉
The general rules for me willing to walk is like getting off the class to cafeteria in high school or campus. That is more or less good distance and experience. Not everyone like to go camping for food each day.
5:00 people in the US, as it turns out, do not listen to epidemiologists.
put the cap on the CBE ! cross bronx expressway .
use new land from cap project to build affordable housing.
put a cap on RR tracks, north park ave line - bronx, 132 st -190 st.
use land for affordable housing.
build on the long island sound " A florida keys style
overseas highway " . this will relieve the CBE
I’d like to hear a little about the (semi?) outdoor venue he’s speaking at. Can anyone bring me up to speed?
What's really ironic is that these are some of the most important and planet-altering ideas available anywhere and it's gotten 1563 views, whereas (blah-blah-fill-in-your-favorite--pop-artist-new-song or someone falling on their ass) has gotten 100,000,000 views.
+Robert Lee Yes it is quite sad. The naked street idea is interesting.
But I wonder if we really need cars at all in the central part of the town.
+Dimonay There needs to be space for emergency vehicles but other than that there should be as few cars as possible.
what is even more ironic is that before planners showed up and started interfering cities were walkable :) , and the "planet altering ideas" are the common sense from 80 years ago
maybe Jeff should throw in a lil' twerk..
@@Axelschultz1 My city actually made the area around the central square walkable some years ago, with the exception of two lanes for buses and taxis. I remember being really skeptical about it but it actually made the area much more enjoyable and especially during summer days the square is more bustling than ever.
They built underground parking under the square too, but ironically almost nobody parks there. Those who want to drive their cars everywhere already favored massive stores with an infrastructure designed for cars anyway and the introduction of new parking space did not really change that. The city center has never been pleasant place to drive, but at least now it is more comfortable for pedestrians and cyclists - and because the city center has many bars and restaurants, even devoted drivers become pedestrians once in a while and benefit from the better walkability.
why havent you been to the Netherlands ?
Citizens of Amsterdam feel that there are too many tourists visiting their city and probably country as well.
@@WAL_DC-6B Amsterdam is only a tiny part of The Netherlands
@@WAL_DC-6B their fault for being so awesome 😂
@@joenuts5167 True!
I guess neighborhood is more likely of from Campus to Campus on similar concept of idea and ideal.
A city use to design with Square, is where all the event and venders happening. Where is No car in area. Then we have mall, slowly we just block off more and more in zone system only to the beneficial.
The great tension of our time: Do we optimize for system or individual? Dense populations in cities may have net lower carbon footprint per household, but he skips over things like air quality that are critical to the health of the individual.
Why can't all buildings be multi purpose? If some of us could choose to stay the night at work, that would reduce commuting/congestion, and increase personal wealth. It's a concept that helps individuals of all ages and occupation, especially shift workers.
Something to consider is a work/life balance, if you live and work in the same buildings, are you ever escaping work? Also you would have very few excuses to leave your building, especially if it's a skyscraper that may have a grocery store included
@@Mitchacho74 but now people work from home so is it considered to have a work life balance since they live on the same premises of workspace?
In Newark the walk from the train station to my house is 1.3 miles. Because of the mess of one way streets and no left turn intersections the drive is 1.7 miles. This is another problem with one way streets, you have to drive longer distances to get from point A to B than if the streets were all 2 way.
You lost me at "Newark".
Is he saying Salzburg at 1:21:22? Wonder where in the city that photo was taken
One of the funny think you know walking distance is good, is that the extreme rich of America will have every facility that need that built with within their house of garden in walking distances. A way that fair. It will be horse back riding. :)
So I am so and so from America. And we have the worst cities in the world. You can't walk or cycle, there is nothing to do or see, the logistics are the worst they can be. Esthetics is just not a word we ever heard about, children can't leave there homes unattended so they sit at home and get fat. The only thing you can do is go to a giant shopping mall with a giant parking lot in a giant car and because everybody does that it will be a logistic nightmare.
And I'm gonna tell you Finnish people, best organised country on the planet how cities should be centrally planned because i'm a progressive!
it's the planning thing that is the problem. The bigger the more stupid. Bigger countries are more stupid than smaller countries. Bigger schools are worse then small schools. Bigger malls are worse then small shops. As soon as you need "planners" for anything you know I just became too big in something.
"olipa kerran raitiovaunu"....
12:14 I don't think it does make sense. Why do you compare the whole area vs household? We should think about the others sources of carbon in the city. Decentralization could be a better option to solve the issue. Not gathering all people in the city... I think.
I think the point was that you have a set amount of people that emit carbon so you look where 1 Person emits the least carbon and you have the best place to live (carbon emissons wise)
My man looks and sounds like Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds.
The issue is how do you get around to stores etc to work to etc. Without a car??
Bikes,walking
Public transport! Bus, tram, metro!
also building cities with mixed use so you have options all walking distance and dont have to resort to a car.
@@SenorDonut indeed! We don’t have to use a car for doing our groceries! It’s a 5 min walk for a supermarket!
You do realise cars aren't the only form of transport right?
And then came Amazon. And the beast destroyed retail brick and mortar. And the cities died instead of requiring underground parking for new construction. I actually live in a city that built a multi-million new library near a train station that took land from public parking to create a new library and library-only parking lot. No underground parking was built in although it would have been a moneymaker and draw for the library in a time when the internet is making libraries passe. So instead - the underutilized, underfunded library is desperately building a Starbucks in its lobby. Meanwhile townspeople fight for rail station transit parking. Stupid. I mean, why create covered/dry, secure, covered parking in blizzard country?
Portland, Oregon tore itself apart after this.
Businesses are leaving Portland.
People are leaving Portland.
Property values are falling.
An unfortunate example.
every time I hear a great libertarian argument I hold on to it
he gave a great one, let the market decide parking
ive also heard great arguments for loosening maximum occupancy laws and minimum square footage laws
this will help American cities
I am a liberal democrat, for context, and want a well run society
most of the time the answer is to let the market decide
we should save government interference for when it is needed (pollution, for example)
@planningperson laidbackdeep
We should build robust public transport
And block services like Air BnB who price the middle class out of fashionable districts
Edit: and have a progressive property tax that rises as square footage on residential property rises (has to be on properties large enough not to effect the poor and middle class )
+ outright ban the largest residences, this would be a rather high limit
(This will discourage or prevent billionaires from buying up large swaths of a single building)
& an additional tax on foreign, non resident/non visa buyers to prevent foreign investors from raising local land prices
We already had intervention to make things more car centric, so we need intervention to make things more walkable.
@@greenmachine5600
Agreed
Also, my point was that the free market would actually demand less parking than the intervention to help the auto industries
I am all about the walkable city, interstate trains, and mass transit
@@kendomyers I would prefer to outright ban foreign citizens from buying property in the U.S.
@@Dave-zz9fh
Neither am I to be honest
I think he misunderstood the "street button" thing honestly. In a lot of places it's used to allow cars to have green light for a longer time if there's no pedestrians wanting to cross the street. Why should it constantly turn green for pedestrians outside a school or whatever if it's in the middle of the day 3 hours before any kids are let out of school? That just slows down traffic for no reason at all, if there's no pedestrians at that time just let the cars go...
*If* a kid then has to leave early one day, he or she can then press the button and it'll turn green fairly quickly. They tend to be used at a "smart" pedestrian crossings from my experience. If it's a crossing where people cross all the time and at all times (between the train station and bus station or whatever) they don't tend to require the "street button".
Having just returned from Chicago he is 100% correct, there are only two different phases in the light cycle. Think a cross road - either north/south direction is green or east/west direction is green. It makes a huge difference. It is done by not having any dedicated turning phases. Makes walking much easier
I gt the dream... But car indpendnc is just so priority... unless you're in a Mayberry-small-town type situation, where everyone seems to not need to go anywhere more than a few miles, one MUST have a car.
Forget missing a crammed bus by 10 seconds and being late to work, etc.
I don't have a car and I live in a big city in europe. If the city is build right, meaning no car dependent suburbs, then you can get anywhere with a bike or on foot with no problem and it's healthy as well. Suburbs have been a huge waste of resources and only created problems for americans. He addresses some aspects of that, so listen and learn.
@@swunt10 i was just saying that, for some of us in certain locations, a car is extremely important.
i would not live in the US if i had a choice. i would like to live in Finlan, Denmark, Norway, or Sweden. I'll take any! or Germany would be cool... i'd learn the languages to do so.
The fact that this man don't even mention public transport make this man argument point less. This man need to go to Asia great city and look how the solve the problem. May neighbourhood is 15 min city heck it's 10 min city with good continuous bikes line to CBD, and yet once train station open that bike line to the city are empty.
Public Transportation is an obvious part of multimodal transportation - but I think you need to change the question to “why are people choosing public transport over cycling?” The answer is most likely rooted in A2Bism (whatever is the fastest, most convenient, and most centrally located option will be chosen over the alternative.) as long as people aren’t using cars, I don’t really see the issue here. Public transit is very good at moving a lot of people very efficiently. As long as the bike is kept a valuable option, that’s really the only thing that matters. Equitable, democratic use of public space.
Additionally at minute 40:00 he explicitly talks about public transit and how it’s valuable at connecting walkable areas of a city. May have missed it.
Copenhagen is in Denmark bruh.
isn't that what he said?
He said that. Re-listen again
“Your meter money makes a difference in old Pasadena:
SAFETY, Streets, Cleanliness, alleys”
Oh so you mean the money gets siphoned off by militarized police forces?
The only place an American is walking is on ther driveway or parking lot.
That's how bad it is, it's American 😂
women and children 😂
Ironic; Lessons from the least walkable country I've ever been to...
A lesson can also show you what not to do
Maybe that's the point... Also NY is walkable and one.of the largest cities in the world.
Visit Chicago, Boston, New York. Very walkable as opposed to the cultureless abyss of suburbia in so much of the rest of the country.
@@oicfas4523 agreed