Thank you to everyone who wrote me an essay about their walkability & car dependency experiences on my google form!! I really enjoyed working on this topic. // Thanks, Vessi! Click here (vessi.com/tiffanyferg) and use code TIFFANYFERG for $25 off each pair of adult Vessi shoes! Free shipping to CA, US, AUS, NZ, JP, TW, KR, SGP.
Thanks!!! was waiting for this!!!! Haven’t watched the full, but thanks for making the beginning less depressing. I’m tired of it being sad, while I can do little about it individually. But I do understand it is depressing and interesting
Let’s not forget the social stigma associated with public transportation. Anytime you watch a TV show or movie people in public transport are depicted as dirty, crazy, unhygienic, mean and practically inhuman. People who don’t have to rely on public transport are seen as “better than” being a ‘bus person’. That’s why I hated living in the county. People would look upon you either their noses turned up when they saw you standing at the bus stop. That’s why I love living in the city. I feel more like an equal in a city that favors walkers, bus riders, the elderly, and everyone else that doesn’t drive a car.
Yes everytime the characters in a TV show have to take the bus they are like oh noo and its full of stinky people and they have to stand with their nose in someone's armpit
So I guess my experience living in NYC was not so great. I lived in Brooklyn, commuted to Queens for retail work. It was temporary, about 5 months. But it was TOUGH! Granted driving there still felt like it took forever! My god, lol, public transportation can definitely make sense. But my daily commute would be anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour & 1/2. It was horrible. Now, I will also say, my job was not in a direct line. I needed to transfer 2/3 times. Weekends were horrendous too! Buses & trains were never on time, they were dirty, and most employees hated their life. Just from my experience. It’s so damn unfortunate. The cities across the US need a serious overhaul. (In France for example, it is not like this!) I appreciated public transportation, absolutely. And it makes sense in the city. But man, if I’m being honest. So much of my life was also wasted going to and from work. People in rural America don’t have any exposure to public transportation. So many incredibly wealthy folks in NYC would dare never take public transportation.
Yes, I hear from plenty of people in my city that they're scared of public transit, and sometimes it's because they had a legitimately traumatizing experience, which I can understand, but sometimes it sounds like they just didn't like sitting on a bus or waiting at a stop near a homeless person. I can't drive, so I take the bus nearly everywhere, and 95% of the time nothing notable or alarming happens. I think a lot of people, middle class white women especially, don't spend enough time interrogating our ingrained fear responses to random poor people just going about their days. Just because you feel scared, doesn't necessarily mean there's any real danger.
Hey Tiffany. I just saw this video pop up on my feed. Thanks so much for bringing more visibility to this issue! Even if someone likes cars, car-dependency is a huge problem, and everybody should be working to eliminate it. The world needs more walkable places!
Hi, I'm thinking of doing an argumentative essay for my Spanish class. What is a list of good references for it that aren't blogs? I have a short list of books that may help but need more.
I agree. I love cars, and I'm sort of a "gearhead" but I'm in strong support of more public transport, mixed use zoning, and walkability. I want driving my car to be my choice, not a necessity.
People complain about gas prices now while blaming the government, but the automobile industry has lobbied extensively and aggressively for decades in order to kill off any decent public transportation infrastructure. Car dependency is by design.
They lobby governments, governments choose to be corrupt and be bribed by these wealthy companies. Canada is the same. It’s legal and required for governments to take bribes, they just label them “donations.” And it’s not a conflict of interest for governments to give donors and lobbyists subsidies and tax breaks and access to resources way under value. Plus relaxed environmental and labour laws. Canada pays billions a year for O&G subsidies and it’s not even close to being one of the main contributors to the economy. I think economies are BS, but even this BS economy doesn’t benefit from O&G. If governments cut all subsidies, funded infrastructure, and taxed and regulated polluting industries, we would have divested by now. Innovation comes from necessity, propping up failing industries prevents innovation.
And then the same people continue to simp for their cars. It's pathetic. The automobile industry doesn't care about you, they're just feeding off your materialism like a parasite.
Oh, like when the car manufacturers bought up all the public transportation in LA the 1920s and then killed it all so people would be forced to rely on cars?
I (European) had a discussion with a friend (American) about the „freedom“ of owning a car. Living in a place with one of the best public transports in the world, I have never felt the need to own a car. On the contrary, just thinking of owning a car would give me an anxiety. Like, where would I put it? It‘s not like it fits in your pocket and there aren‘t any parking spaces anywhere in the city, so you end up walking everywhere anyway, so what‘s the point. I get that in America, you NEED a car to get around. And in that sense it does give you freedom, I guess. When I was staying with my friend, she organized a car for me (bless her!) and I was able to drive around while she was at work. I loved being able to „move freely“ and not be stuck at home- But man, the irregularity of traffic was driving me insane. Sometimes a route took me 45min and sometimes only 10. So in a sense, I was never in control over my own time and schedule. Made me really appriciate the freedom I have at home. Here, the bus stops right in front of my house, where it comes about every 2-5 Minutes. (Except during the night - only every 30min) and withini 10 Mins I am in the city center. Barely any traffic, ever. I never have to worry about being late, not drinking or parking. That‘s what I can freedom.
Owning a car is a huge source of anxiety. Gas price fluctuations, car insurance, parking, paying for said parking, car accidents, traffic, car repair and maintenance. It is so constraining.
I recently moved from a very pedestrian friendly city back to a city that isn't, and a couple weeks ago I witnessed something that pissed me off. The light had just turned, and there was a person in a wheelchair who began crossing the road. They had the walk signal, they had the right of way, yet someone begins turning, sees them, HONKS AT THEM, AND CONTINUES TO PROCEED INCHING TOWARDS THEM as they continue slowly crossing the road in their wheelchair. My gosh it still makes me so mad just remembering it. I wish there was some way for me to say something to that asshole in the car.
Yep. I've seen that kind of thing so often. It really breeds resentment from pedestrians. Why try to kill people practically, just for crossing the road? They act like they own the space even if they could harm someone.
I'm from New Jersey, but I've been currently living in Seoul, South Korea for the past 7 years... and well last year I went to visit family for an extended period of time and jesus- it was freaking awful to be without a car! My family moved and they're pretty close to NYC, so getting to the path to go into NYC was fine. However, if I wanted to just go around NJ it just took forever to get anywhere. Plus the actual nj transit system is f*cked! The price you pay all depends on different zones,(which aren't explicitly shown on sites ) and in one city itself there can be a bunch of different zones where you'll pay extra depending on where you're going. On top of that there's no universal card system that could make this alot easier. It made me not want to go out at all. The prices of the buses were so expensive on top of that, and the unfortunate part you don't see where that it reflected because the buses are the same buses that I used to go on when I was in high school a good decade ago. I was so happy to get back to South Korea. If a whole country the size of Indiana can make a public transportation system, where the bus, card, and even taxi can all be paid with the a metro card, bank card, or even your phone (throughout the whole country) . There's no reason that one whole state can't! On top of that the price is all the same roughly $1USD with a *sometimes* varying 10 to 40 cents difference depending on where your final destination was. If you're doing a transfer from bus to subway or vice versa there's no additional fee! Let alone the actual buses/subways, do get upgrades or newer models ever so often. I didn't know I could feel so passionately about public transportation until this past trip 😭 .
@@tamerebel most definitely! Getting around the city is so easy, and the apps go are so convenient by like telling you which car is the closest for your transfer, or it can set up an alarm for when you're a stop or two away from your destination or transfer :)
@@coolkait68 It was honestly so crazy to me. Even though we moved, my mom's many weekly doctor appts were in the previous city we lived in which was maybe 30 mins away.. but it would take it over 2 hours to get there. On top of that nj transit isnt even reliable u___u.
Hi! I'm an urbanist, and since so many people seem interested in city planning (which is great!!!!), i thought it would be nice to leave a book recommendation in case some of you want to dive deeper into the subject: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
Detroit, the “Motor City” where they encouraged everyone to buy a car in its pre 60’s race riots hey day and neglected to invest in reliable public transportation making it nearly impossible to live here without a car, we have the highest auto instance rates, terrible roads (all of Michigan really), lack of good paying jobs in city limits and when we try to pass a provision to make a transportation system that goes into suburbs you know the suburbanites voted it down. The most blackest city in America, so yeah, kinda racist if you wanna think of it from that angle as well..
I lived there for a year. People said the roads were because of weather. I live in Kansas, and we get some pretty cold weather too. We're always repairing our roads. Orange cones are great! In Pontiac, my car was almost swallowed by a huge pothole.
I lost so much hope in 2013-2016 when provision for public transportation wasn’t passed. Our roads in Michigan are absolutely atrocious which doesn’t make sense cause construction is always happening on major freeways at least once a year it seems 🥲
Baltimore is also a Rustbelt city with a high black population. Rustbelt = factories shut down and people remained, with poverty as a result. There are "free" bus lines for students (included in tuition) and tourists (paid for with taxes). The tourist bus lines mostly travel near Johns Hopkins campuses as well as near where more educated, wealthier, and whiter residents live. So -- people who already have cars can take a free bus, but many who are poor have to take the bus lines that cost money.
Getting around Detroit is a nightmare! In order to get to work reliably, I’ve had to depend on Uber which is super expensive. I don’t have my license and I’ve basically been forced to learn how to drive because of how Detroit is built. Driving lessons are super expensive! I’m a recent college graduate just trying to get on my feet and my job opportunities are severely limited due to the fact that I can’t walk to them or I can’t Uber without spending my whole check. I also do not have any help doing all of this due to my life circumstances. It’s hard out here without a car. 🚗
This angers me because this was similar to my city.There are a bunch of potholes and I am wondering where is money for infrastructure going because it's hardly going towards fixing potholes.
I am *astonished* by your sidewalk situation. This is absolutely ridiculous. And I thought my town had garbage sidewalks... Because they're cracked and the red bike lane paint is barely visible anymore. As a German person, I don't think I've ever been on a street in a city that didn't have a proper sidewalk. As in, a paved (or sometimes, though rarely, gravel) path, that is wide enough for two walking people to pass each other without having to take a big step to the side. In more rural villages, roads without sidewalks are pretty common, but these roads are wide and there isn't any traffic.
Lucky. In PR our typical sidewalks are tiny, two people may walk side by side each other for sure in a few places however even then the sidewalks are just barely allowing two people to walk side by side, and in tow people I mean two not chubby teens equivalent. We do have many streets without sidewalks because parking is rather better than a sidewalk, even though it's having 4 parkings not like anything else. Sidewalks are also extremely cracked as in you could step in some as if they were a step on a staircase high, and some are so thin that a bike handle couldn't pass through because even though the lanes are so wide they couldn't thin it to make more room for the electric pole plus that new thick street button pole which takes a whole person equivalent and the fact that the stores now have no place to put their trash but in the narrow sidewalk. Utterly garbage. (Where I live)
Coming from Singapore, there is a strong emphasis on walkability (despite the humidity, we have A LOT of shaded pedestrian walkways and sheltered paths from apartments to stations and bus stops) and accessible public transport. All the buses and trains (and stations) here have been converted to be accessible with a shift towards upgrading those that are not, and pedestrian walkways have slopes rather than curbs at crossings. Also sound activated pedestrian lights for countdown and raised dots for canes navigation. Because we are so dense and small, the planners put in parks or reserved nature areas across the island. They don’t exist independently of each other, as the planners have put in accessible pedestrian and cycling paths that are mapped across different towns, that connect a number of these parks together (“park connector network”). Some of these connectors are usual pedestrian walkways for each town, but with very strong visual indicator (colour of pathway and signs) that indicate it connects to a park or another. I have a driving licence and the family has a car which I can use, but I tend towards taking the bus and train to get everywhere because parking is expensive here, it’s faster to get to my destination by public transport at peak hours, and I can read/do other things on public transport. I’m so spoiled that I complain about a 5 minute bus ride to get to the train station (the map of which is also currently expanding intensely to all corners of Singapore). Also moving into a new apartment later this year which is 3 minutes (sheltered, clean, accessible) walk from the train station which will cut down on my complaining drastically. Public transport is cheap here, even though prices are rising, the % we spend on it based on our median salary is minimal. The buses and train companies worked together for transport to be had on a single card, and distance-based (if I take a bus, I pay a base fare + additional for the distance I ride. If I hop onto a train to continue my journey, the system automatically calculates the additional distance and applies a lower cost through my card [basically I’m not paying for the base fare twice within a journey]). For persons with disabilities, students and seniors, there are also concession cards that make it even cheaper to take buses and trains. To reduce peak hour crowds, there are also cheaper rates for adults riding the trains and buses before 7.30am. Just a lot of things like that. I hope that everywhere can experience the convenience and cost that we have here in Singapore! Not sure if there is any literature on it, but if anyone is interested, do check out the work Singapore has done in this area through Google? We’re a small nation so it was easier to implement, but lots of ideas that are well done.
That sounds glorious. I live in Puerto Rico, it's either extremely hot or raining. I would LOVE if the sidewalks and walkways would have that... Puerto Rico is walkability hell. I would love that to change since lot's of people need that kind of help and it would benefit a lot more.
As a French people I am BAFFLED. It is only in the country road that you had no sidewalks, and buses are a thing, a rare things in the country, but still a thing. That was very interesting !
this video just makes me glad i live in europe where public transport is prioritized over cars. hopefully this will become a reality in america in the future too!
I hope so too! In my area there are lots of good roads, not a lot of rail transportation. It seems to me that where I live if we had decent buses that ran useful routes it would be a great option, but the buses are basically useless right now. It would take me 3 hours to do a 30 minute drive.
@@InvisibleRen The Tube is kind of a mess because so much of it was built 100+ years ago (it's so weird that there's an entire Sherlock Holmes story by Conan Doyle based around the Tube) - and there are a _lot_ of public transport systems that are nothing like London's. I live in Nottingham, which has an amazing public transport system in the trams and buses, and every single tram is 100% wheelchair accessible with multiple wheelchair spaces on every tram
I so badly hoped that during COVID when the tube was closed they would finally have time to refurbish it properly. Nope. That was the chance of a lifetime that we will never get again and it's still horrible. So much better than being in the countryside still tho.
I just got appointed to my city's Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, so hopefully, I'll be able to help with some of this stuff! Here's you're reminder to check with your city to see if they have open committee positions or to run for city council. If the people making decisions doesn't change, it's unlikely that the decisions will change. Videos like this are great, but what's even better is taking action to change your city for the better!
I'm a transport planner, and if anyone found this video interesting and need a career change/looking for something to study, look into urban planning!! It's such an interesting and rewarding career. Everyday I work on projects that have a real and tangible impact on the city (hopefully for the better), with topics such as the ones explored in this video are the foundation of good transport planning for people, not just vehicles. Despite being such a vital and fantastic career choice, people often haven't even heard of it or consider it. Also, read The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup, wild stuff.
With the rise of warehouses, stroads are becoming more common because they need it for tractor trailers to make a turn to the warehouse. It goes to show how it’s also affected by our shopping choices.
The shopping choices thing is a great point! I don't think people often realize that all/most of the things wrong in the US are related, and worsening one thing leads to worsening of all the others!
I live in Jakarta and (before the pandemic) our family used to do regular trips to Singapore and even as children my brother and I would be most excited about the part where we would literally just be *walking* around. Being able to directly access your surroundings outside the confines of your vehicle does wonders to your mental health.
This truly resonates with me, i live in a suburb but it's also a "city" so we do have public transport close by. I walk 10 min to the nearest station to get to Boston(which imo is great for pedestrians). Where i live, during the winter the snow is not removed from the barely there sidewalk, so you have to walk on the road in the white line or even past it. Thankfully cars move to the side when they see this
walkability is the # 1 reason I live in nyc. And if it's too far to walk, the subway goes most places. And if I don't want to take the subway, I can jump on a CitiBike or take the ferry! I'm putting off having to rely on a car for as long as I possibly can.
That infographic on food deserts hit home for me. I'm from the Appalachian mountains, and lived in a small rural town. It was literally impossible for us to walk to the store from home. It was 30-45 minutes away driving, there were no safe sidewalks to use to get there, and even in the downtown area (which sounds fancier than it actually was, it was a two lane road with storefronts) the sidewalks were not well maintained. The only time I ever walked places was when I was at my mom's shop in town and could walk to the library or a friend's house, but it was still a 20 min walk partially on roads with no sidewalk or berm.
I’m glad people are talking about this. I’m from an area that’s almost exclusively stroads and they’ve killed a not insignificant number of my friends and loved ones over the years. Pedestrians die constantly and no one does anything about it.
I’m doing my Masters in City Planning and all of the topics brought up in this video are like the core of my education. I love that you’re presenting these really valuable resources to a crowd that probably would never really come across it otherwise. I do want to touch on the aspect that Not Just Bikes mentions in the Streetcar suburbs video and that is that walkable neighborhoods are still illegal throughout large parts of the US. Zoning laws in many US cities and suburbs are very strict and often incentivize car-dependent suburbs. The big step towards changing neighborhoods without investment from your city or town is to change zoning laws and allow for mixed-use and multi family development (essentially shops or grocery stores under apartment buildings).
This has always been unbelievable to me as a European. Right now, i go to university in a town of 8000 people in the Highlands of Scotland. The university itself is an hour and 20 minutes walk from my house, and there are 3 different ways I can walk there with a footpath the whole way. There are also busses 2 times an hour which are heavily subsidised by the council. Trains go to Glasgow (our nearest city) 5 times a day. This isn't weird here, its the norm (and it was better before austerity). I've lived in this relatively remote town for 4 years now without driving and its fine. Admittedly, it is less good for disabled people, as footpaths dont all have cutaways and there are some areas where the paths are not in great condition, but still, you could be a wheelchair user in this town and have good accessibility without a car.
As someone who hasn't been able to have car for 9 years, due to chronic health conditions, and is disabled, and is very low income - those things tend to go together, unfortunately - I appreciate you making content about this so much. I think it's funny though hearing that one of the things you liked best about walking was being able to interact with all the different kinds of people. When you have to do it all day everyday for any tiny little need, being forced to interact with the general public is actually one of the worst parts, and it's very dangerous, at least for women. I'm 41 now, and I've been 100% walking everywhere for everything for 9 years come and even at my age, I get constant, CONSTANT remarks and harassment from men, in public, in broad daylight, of course even much worse after dark, the most vile, disgusting things said to me all the time, all kinds of men following me, stalking me, comments about my vagina (no matter how conservatively dressed), what they want to do to me sexually, marriage proposals. Getting asked for drugs, solicited, and just constant unwanted attention and remarks. Just to try and get my groceries or get to a job, or run any little errand. It's exhausting and scary. I desperately missed having my little safety bubble of a car that some people complained about. They are very, very fortunate to have that. Live in a city where absolutely everyone has a car, and everyone assumes I'm some kind of degenerate whack job when they find out not only do I not have a car now, but I haven't had one for years, and I don't know if I can have one again ever. Everyone says there's no way you can survive in the city without a car, and they don't know how right they almost are, although for them it's still a choice, for me it's not. And it's not because I'm on drugs or got a bunch of DUIs or that I'm crazy or whatever reason people assume when they see you walking all over the streets for years all hours of the day and night. It's dehumanizing, and degrading, and it makes having so many chronic illnesses even so much more exhausting. And then your friends avoid you on case might ask them for a ride some time when there's something you really, really need and just can't make it happen. It's all just so incredibly stressful all the time and humiliating.
Thats the worst part about underfunded transportation though. Its not all ppl using it. Its all ppl who HAVE to use it. So it gets a bad rap bc its all ppl that for whatever reason, cant drive. And ofc, if u cant drive for whatever reason, ur seen as a degenerate, and therefore, all public transport users are degenerates. But if it was mor accessible to the general public, kids would be there too. Other single women. Young people. Older people. Diasabled and able bodied, ppl from all walks of life, moms, couples, whole ass families, workers. Everyone trying to get somewhere. It would no longer be a "degenerate" space, but a public one that EVERYONE would care for and have a vested interest in protecting and keeping safe. Which is why its so critical for Pub Trans to beclme more accessible- so that ur life wouldnt have to be so difficult. I'm so sorry the system has neglected and failed u. As someone suffering shoulder injuries in both arms rn, driving is a real pain in the ass rn, and I am so so so grateful to live in a relatively walkable city. I do not know what i would do if i had to stress over driving absolutely everywhere.
I live in a suburb of Portland, OR and our public transit is phenomenal. It's a 45 minute drive to the airport, but only 1hr by train (as someone who has driving anxiety, 15 minutes is a small price to pay). When I travel to other places, I literally forget that public transit isnt as good everywhere as it is here and have been literally stranded while trying my best to understand terrible transit design.
In Vienna, Austria they try to make driving in the city more and more unattractive by higher costs of parking, by removing streets or parking lots for green spots or sidewalks. The largest shopping street "Mariahilfer-Straße" was a highly frequented street by cars, but they removed it and put a "meeting-zone" .. I don't know how to describe it, but you can walk on the street now an only taxis, busses and bikes are allowed to drive in this area, with an exception of some crossing points for cars. But Vienna is not dependend on cars. There are plenty supermarkets all over the city, there are many public transportations, suchs as busses, metros, trams and trains. There are also car shares, but they cost per minute. If you want to use the public transportation system it costs only 365€ a year and you can get everywhere. Since last year there is also a "climate-ticket" where you can pay 1095€ per year to drive in whole Austria with every public transportation. I really appreciate living here and not depending on a car whatsoever, but by watching this video I appreciate it even more. Thank you for sharing this, and I hope, there will be a huge rethinking in the US...
what I would consider a 'suburb' in the UK is very different to how suburbs seem in the US... but the point about accessibility on public transport is so true! In london, there are "zones", which are basically rings around the centre city - zone 1&2 are city proper, zones 3&4 are more urban suburbs, and 5&6 are more "normal" suburbs. First, the number of tube stations decreases and the distance between them increases the further out you go from the centre. Second, in zones 1&2 almost all tube stations are wheelchair accessible, but in zones 5&6 we're lucky to get 1 in 5. I asked the mayor about this once and it seemed like TFL just isn't interested in converting existing stations to be accessible, and the tube lines are all so old and established that it would be impossible to just add in new stations
Definitely, even central London stations are crap for disabled people, sometimes they just announce that disabled access has been closed... as if its just a trivial thing
I have a fear of driving, I’m 28 and live in Philly so I’m very grateful to have the public transit as well as a neighborhood where everything is pretty close to me but when I lived in New Jersey I spent 80% of my income on Ubers to go to work because there wasn’t a bus to take me there
In Ontario, we have PRESTO which is a transit card system where you can pre-load money onto the card or buy e-tickets via their app which you can then use to ride a city bus, streetcar, or the GO bus and train system in a bunch of participating cities throughout the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, and Ottawa. With your PRESTO card you just tap it on a bus or train terminal and you're set to ride. Now our transit systems certainly aren't perfect, especially in the suburbs and congested parts of Toronto, but having a payment system like that which works for many of the majorly populated areas in the province at least takes some headache out of organizing your fare and getting around.
TBH I didn't get my license until I was 20. I was hit by cars in the crosswalks of Sacramento so many times! I've moved back to Oakland, CA and it's SO NICE to be back in a walkable city again and not have to drive. I'd missed that. I enjoy seeing my neighbors and the local scenery.
One aspect of this conversation I would like more people to talk about is safety for those using public transportation. One of the main reasons why I decided to get a car is because I would feel unsafe at night taking Uber or using the bus. I’ve been made uncomfortable just from walking to the 7/11 across the street from my dorm multiple times. Yes I could still get attacked on the way to my car but there’s less of a timeframe than walking to the bus stop. But then again if more people (especially women and femme presenting folks) took public transportation I would feel more safe. Great video though!
Ooof, as an immigrant, this video hits home. Is like the walk of shame for not having a car, you'll get wet from car splashes, almost hit by cars, running for your life to catch a bus cuz the next one is an hour away. Is so symbolic having a car in the suburbs, is depressing...
I definitely watched the video from Not Just Bikes a few months ago and I also got into this topic. My town has also suffered from redlining separating the whites from hispanics that is still very apparent to this day. Many of the big stores and shopping centers are too far too walk to and often have to go to another city. It sucks because many Hispanic mothers don't drive and can't get to the places they need to go. I can't drive at the moment and my city is not very walkable so this topic is very intriguing to me. So happy to are talking about this!
I'm so happy you're talking about this. I live in Houston and walking here is impossible unless you live in mid-town, and even then it's still not great!
That's not even unique to downtown, I grew up in Spring and it's the same way! Good luck finding sidewalks inside the residential neighborhoods in some cases.
@@hellosabrinachaney For sure! I live on the Southeast side near an HEB and I can't tell you how many times, before I had my car, I almost died trying to walk to and from there. If you saw it, it looks like it should be the simplest walk ever - only 2-3 minutes to get there.
I've been extremely passionate about urban design/city planning/placemaking for a few years now and I'm so glad it's becoming more talked about in the mainstream. These issues obviously strike the hardest at the most vulnerable populations but many changes would be positive for literally everyone. It's crazy how often the answer to "why do we do this?" is "because that's how it's been done" esp from government agencies/groups that are actually spending more money than they need to. Anyways that video about strodes got me back onto my urban design obsession a while back and I am so glad to see you also talking about it, I could listen to you talk for hours about it!
i'm glad you talked about public transportation. i lived in baltimore city and i had to bus it everywhere until i was able to buy my first car after a few years in college. it was so annoying (not to mention time consuming-forget running more than 2 errands in one day) that it took 90 mins on 2 busses to get somewhere that was maybe 20 minutes away on a slow day. one day my second bus didn't show up on time, so i started walking towards school along the bus route. this was something i often did - i could at least be getting closer to my destination while i waited. i made it all the way up to the sign for my school grounds before the bus finally whizzed past me. so i LITERALLY walked there faster. 🙄
love this video! i actually grew up in that area of toronto that's mentioned towards the end, then in middle school i moved to a neighbouring suburb just outside of toronto for a few years (before moving back at 19). since then i've had this very off and uncomfortable feeling towards suburban cities/towns, but couldn't truly understand why until i started getting into urban planning. being from a low income single parent home, living in an apartment, with no car brought up so many hassles that i know most of my peers never had to even think about. it was very uncomfortable and isolating to live in and navigate the area, like a constant reminder that i don't fit in, that i don't belong. i always thought these feelings were solely about the fact that i lived in that area during my "awkward" teen years, but now i've learned i that those feelings of discomfort, isolation, low self worth were largely due to the fact that i was living in a place that simply was not made for me. i am so grateful that i was able to move back to the city, the independence, diversity, and sociability have done WONDERS for my confidence and overall mental health.
went to korea last year & experienced a whole new world... lol yes, i had to walk a lot but the comfort of not HAVING to drive everywhere felt so good 😩
The worst part of living in a rural area that is VERY car-dependent (we just got our first glimpse of public transportation at the end of 2021) is that driving is TERRIFYING. I am terrified of driving, it is the scariest thing for me, but it is my only option
@@Preetzole we got rid of trains in my province a long time ago, so a bus system is pretty much all we can do, but trains could work for other provinces for sure
Thanks for mentioning rural communities! I grew up in a really small rural town, and the car dependency there was CRAZY. I basically had to drive anywhere, since the closest businesses/schools/churches were about 4.5 miles away. Luckily my family had cars, but I know families who didn't have multiple cars or drivers, and they were pretty much screwed, especially in the winter. Luckily I live in a college town now, so walking is much better and there's actually public transit, but it could still use tons of improvement
I’m really thankful for the snippet focusing on crappy sidewalks. That is why the disabled, runners, and people with strollers walk on the street. So instead of honking at us, just slow down and idk, call your representative? 😂
Riverdale, Toronto is accessible by subway and you just take the streetcar that goes through the neighbourhood that ends at the other side of Toronto. They have amazing food places, a few vintage boutiques, and lots of interesting shops! There's this pop-up shop hidden at the side of a cafe that have the best breakfast sandwich.
I've been thinking about how isolated I feel in a new city. And, I think it's partially (and largely) because I've allowed myself to become so car-dependent. When I think back to the happiest times in my life, it was when I didn't have a car and had to walk everywhere. Walking creates so much forced interaction that is so valuable but unrecognizable until it goes missing. I live in Boston. I don't need a car - I think I just bought into the belief that having a car will bring me more autonomy and freedom.
When you start following recumbent bikes, trikes, velomobiles, and consider the definitions for ebikes, mopeds, and motorcycles, you see that in order to remain or become healthy and desirable, the North American economy needs to address head on, the issue of mobility diversity. From a marketing stand point, retailers know its beneficial to slow the consumer down. Not in traffic. In the store! Non-car users spend money too, and most are already NOT in a hurry! Also not matter where that truck goes in a commercial- truth is only a small percentage actually do! I'm a 62 yr. old recumbent trike rider. Unfortunately, stroads and shared road scenarios wont change until enough have perished. It's super refreshing to see someone who "looks like you" interested in such issues. I cant wait to introduce you to my granddaughters!
I first had this experience when i traveled to Fort Worth in Texas. It was a whole new world. I wanted to get some food after I got to my hotel and found a restaurant that appeared to the distance of four blocks away. I figured it would be less than 20 minutes on feet but when i looked at the route on Google i was shocked to see it was a 67 minutes walk and 6 minutes drive.
I live in Krakow, POland and I never had a car. the public transport works well and often and you can basically get from one side of the city to the other just by public transport. When I was a teen making up dreams like "ooooh, I'm gonna study abroad"or "I"ll move to the US" once I started researching public transport I quickly sobered up. I can't imagine struggling to move around like this and being forced to buy a car. It really makes me appreciate my privilage.
@@TheDiscoDuck it's just very densely populated and there are so many stores and food places everywhere, especially if you live in the center. Also public transport is very cheap and convenient.
@@TheDiscoDuck my old place is Switzerland/Germany. In Switzerland public transport is quite expensive and in Germany its super unreliable, so if you're from a rural area, you have to rely on cars.
I live in a semi-rural area that is becoming more and more suburbanized and it's interesting to see how all the new neighborhoods have sidewalks and the older neighborhoods do not. The zoning laws are basically non-existent because we are county and anything goes...which means the new builders can do whatever the hell they want with no regard to existing residents. We have a grocery store that is, in theory, walking distance, but as you've stated the walk is so dangerous it discourages walking. I would give anything for some nice walking/biking trails 😔
as someone who’s lived in both suburban los angeles and tokyo, i totally understand car dependency. While the public transit system in japan is awesome and useful, my car dependent brain constantly misses the personal bubble feel of driving everywhere in a car
when i was in college none of my roommates had cars, and the only way to get to the nearest grocery store was to cross the street at the freeway on-ramp and also walking across a bridge that overlooked another freeway. so it was possible to get around i guess, but it definitely did not feel safe.
Not an American here! When I first moved to the USA for student exchange I was shocked an how unwalkable the small town I moved to was. It was a college town so the downtown area was wonderful, but if I wanted to get to the outskirts of town to get to Wegmans or Walmart, my sidewalk would literally end, I would have to cross a busy main road and wait ages for the light to change, and I'd have to walk across a huge parking lot to get to the store. Where I come from parking lots are in the BACK and the stores are more towards the street!
I've lived most of my adult life in Mexico, where public transportation is common and economic. Also, most areas are very walkable. This topic is one of the reasons i haven't gone back to the U.S. because I love the liberty of walking, and I'm terrified of driving. Wish I knew a place in the U.S that could give me those pro's
I live in a "luxury" apartment complex that's a 10 minute walk from an affluent shopping area. There's a bus stop down the street. It's a 21 minute drive for me to get to work, but if I took the bus it would take 2 hours and 50 minutes (which includes 46 minutes of walking).
I think Mississauga ontario is a really great example of a walkable major city. I only lived there for four months last year, but I lived in a suburb type area and within 5 minutes I could walk to a giant park, within 10 or 15 minutes I could walk to a school, within 8 minutes I could walk to a bus stop that took my to square one (downtown) where the mall is, my college, library, stores, go station, bus terminal, etc. the bus ride was only about 5 minutes. Also I could walk to the grocery store and a bunch of other stores in a plaza in about 10 minutes. This was actually not the most expensive part of Mississauga. My rent was $800 a month with utilities included but no parking space, in a shared home with women who were mostly new to Canada from India. The house was actually a nightmare in some ways (landlords fault) but I was sooo in love with the location and I really liked some of the housemates my room was close to. Some of them pissed me off tho LOL but anywayyy, I’m just tryna give a shout-out to Mississauga and say if you’re trying to come up with ways to make your city more walkable, maybe looking at Mississauga would be helpful
I used to live in a car dependent zone in Mexico, more than 40min walking to the closest store, 5 minutes by car. My uni was a 50min drive away. Now I live in Germany, it takes me 10 min walking to get to uni and 5 min by bus. The closest store is 15min walking, I can even get to the city center in like 20 minutes by train, while in Mexico it took me like 40 min plus up to 20 min to find somewhere to park. Its so frustrating to see that it is possible to make everything easier, but the people who build the cities decide to not do it.
Great video - as always - and such a fascinating topic! It's a slightly different subject but when it comes to city walkability, I think the rise of electric scooters is a huge factor. Some people just throw them directly onto the sidewalk after use, forcing disabled or elderly people to take a different, longer route or ask for help. It's such a new phenomenon that many cities haven't taken any measures about it yet (at least where I live).
i've lived in phoenix, az for most of my life and it's BAD out here. pretty much everyone i know has been hit by a car as a pedestrian. i grew up a 20 minute drive from the city center and my house had a walk and transit score of zero.
I live in a rural region in germany and its totally normal to own a car when you turn 18. The bus comes every hour, but not after 18:00 nor on the weekends. So i'm highly dependent on my car, for work, to see friends, to go shopping or for free time activities. Moving to a big city this year and i cant wait to be able to take public transportation, my bike or walk. Some days i dont even get my 200 steps in, because i'm just walking from my house to my car and from the parking area to my workplace. I would love to walk more but i literally cant.
This was SUCH an educational video. I had never considered many of these things (like winter weather and mobility). You’ve encouraged me to find more videos on this topic. Thanks!
I actually lived in Riverdale, Toronto. It's one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Toronto because I was a 7 min walk from the local music venue, that Loblaws featured in the video, within 20 min walk of at least 40 restaurants, there was a hospital was closeby and transit (both streetcar and subway access). There was only one day I was unable to get to work when I lived there and that was because of a city wide power outage that stopped all public transit. In order to buy a house, I had to partner up with a friend and move to the burbs'. As someone without a car, it is quite annoying to not be able to go buy groceries by foot, the local coffee shop is 1.5KM away (20 min walk) and there are no restaurants close by. It is incredibly frustrating to see the local governments say we can't increase public transport on these routes because you are right, if you build it, people will take it. I hope that more public planners and voters will take this into consideration in our next election (June for Ontario) because I can't even imagine living where I live now if I were not able-bodied. :(
I love that you're covering this topic because the algorithm has also pushed me towards channels like Not Just Bikes that have made me despise suburban sprawl. Mixed use zoning laws will save us all!
I know I'm late to this, but I'd love to hear a part 2! There are a lot of men making our voices heard about our built environments, but we have such different thresholds when it comes to what we accept for feeling safe/comfortable/welcome than women do. A video on your experiences would be very interesting!
Where I live it's almost impossible to walk anywhere and if it is possible it's too dangerous to do so. Public transport is lacking to say the least so as a young person you have no choice but to ask your parents to take you where you want to go because walking or using public transport, even Uber (which you can use but is very expensive) is considered extremely dangerous for young children, though for older people it's not much safer. So going to a friends house is like a 5 minute drive but walking takes you 40 minutes to get there and paying for a 5 minute uber is just madness. Petrol is rough on all of us these days but it was always a problem and was always expensive so it was never a thought of let's get into the car and take a drive and the biggest problem for me these days as someone who's looking for a job is the fact that if you apply for a job they ask you if you have "reliable transport" which just means if you have your own car basically and if you say you don't your chances of getting the job is so much more slim so without the job you can't afford a car because the expenses is too much but you can't get a job without a car because they're afraid you won't be able to come to work on time without one and that's just the car you have to pay for. The jobs (if you're even lucky enough to get a job) you get these days isn't even enough to cover the cost of a car so you have no choice but to rely on your parents because the pay you have isn't enough for you to live on your own. So for me as a young adult in a third world country it's hard to say the least and it will probably take me years just to get my own car and the option of living without one is rather non-existent.
I live in France and recently moved from a city with fantastic public transportation AND bike infrastructure, to a city where all those things lack. It is incredible the difference! It is also much more polluted because of all the cars...
Not the best reaction I know, but I am relieved to know that these concerns are not just something I experience in the Philippines. We have to have more conversations like this. Thanks, Tiffany!
this is so eye opening, thank you. i now recognize both my extreme privilege, but also the privilege of the people making these rules and infrastructure. so unfair, so one-sided and disunited. we need so much basic reform in this country it’s legit insane, and it seems like such easy fixes if we would just focus on other countries and what they’re doing well instead of being so collectively oblivious to outside events (which is evident in our education [opportunities] versus other places, which education also needs reform of course).
@Emily H oh wow he sounds absolutely awful, good for researching this topic though. thank you for the recommendation, i’ll probably get really angry in the process HAHA
wow just saw the buses in my city I used to take in one of the B roll footages you used! I live in Germany now and it's shocking how fast and easy it is to get from place to place without having to wait. My friend said a 17 minute wait was "way too long" so we went somewhere else whereas that would be a normal or even fast waiting time in the US
I think people mightn't even realise they don't live in a walkable area until they go somewhere which is very walkable. The suburbs I grew up in had town centres and local stores within walking or biking distance and the place I live now is on a bus route but is way less walkable. Being a commuter student it was great because I got some exercise in and still felt like it was accessible. Being a working adult however it is so much less practical to walk, bike or get public transport. New areas should have mixed use allocations but they should also have enough car parking space if the majority of residents will have to drive out of the area for daily life. Where I live now the houses aren't required to have garages and the streets aren't wide enough for a car to park on both sides and traffic to still flow through. What a fail of planning 😕😕
I'm only halfway through the video so I don't know If you'll address it later on but one of the frustrations in my city is the responsibility of the homeowner to maintain the sidewalk. They need to shovel it when it snows but they are also responsible for any repairs or maintenance. I think this is pretty common (correct me if I'm wrong), I guess it just doesn't make sense to me. The city uses imminent domain to build the sidewalk but then expects the homeowner to maintain it.
I swear Tiffany your videos don't ever show up in my sub box or I somehow miss them. I always have to go looking to see if you have uploaded. I did the bell thing now, I hope that helps!
Been diving into city planning. Honestly I hated bike lanes, walkability, public transportation, and more. But it’s more logical. This video got me to subscribe
I want to add the concept of driving anxiety to the discussion - I personally struggle with it. I live in the middle of nowhere, the closest store is ~40 minutes away and there's NO WAY to get there w/o a car. There's also no public transportation. So driving is required. Driving isn't just some fun and freeing thing, but a use of machinery. We barrel big metal boxes opposing each other on winding, hilly roads. I find it terrifying. My driving anxiety prevents me from going out much at all. I depend on my family to take me places I have to go and I can't ask them to drive me anywhere on a whim. I also get questioned a lot about getting my drivers' license. I'm 20 and it's embarrassing to say I can't drive by myself at my age. I'm also a commuter in college. Many people know the differences between that and on-campus living. So living on-campus would solve a lot of problems. But I've had separation anxiety ever since I was a baby. I end up isolated in many ways. I can't go places alone, I rely on others' schedules and don't get to make friends on campus. I know this is a very personal experience, but I wanted to express my frustration on the topic. At least I know there are others who experience driving anxiety (thanks tiktok for finding my community 😂)
Have you considered therapy It sounds like your anxiety over normal experiences is holding you back in life You’ll be okay on campus without your folks You likely won’t die driving on desolate country roads You can accept an anxiety diagnosis without letting it cripple you
@@freetobree5323 You're totally right, my mental health struggles definitely feel like they're holding me back. I am in therapy and have tried diff prescribed medications for a couple of years. Currently weaning off of one. It's a frustrating work in progress 😅 Thank you for sharing your experience and genuine advice 💜
@@strabababerry I totally get you. I know mine comes from car crash trauma though. I have invasive thoughts that I will die if I get behind the wheel of the car. It's just like how I waited 2 extra years to sit in the front seat of the car because of the same anxieties. I'm going to try to get help though. You've got this!
In the UK we often call the type of place Jason refers to at the end a viillage, even though it is technically part of a continuously developed area, where I am in Scotlands central belt they link into a near continuous built up area radiating out from Glasgow on the west and Edinburgh on the east. It can get pretty rural, but places as remote as Hartwood which has about 1000 residents are connected to both major cities by rail! And we are not even close to the best in Europe!
All of these villages have at least a general store and post office and all have at least one bus route, most have train stations and many of them have their own Main Streets!
Thank you for making a video on how so many north american cities are built around cars. I'm trying to do more on my bike, but it's still hard when you have to share the road with vehicles. Some drivers are great, but some aren't.
I lived in a really small city in Japan, and I could easily walk to several stores, restaurants, and even a few of the schools I taught at. I was just a 10 min walk from the closest train station, and there were many bus stops. The buses weren't as frequent as the trains, but overall there were many more transport options there even in a city of (at the time) 35,000.
my closest bus stop is an hr away walking, it is not even a bus, it's a van and there is only one van going one direction per day, there isn't even one van per direction per day
It's such a complicated issue for disability because walking ability isn't the only factor. I can only be out for a certain amount of time at a time and even if I could walk somewhere 30 minutes away leg-wise, that would take an hour out of my time actually doing things out. And a lot of the most "robust" public transportation systems are inaccessible for a multitude of reasons beyond walkability. For example, the NYC subway's mix of sensory stimulation (movement + heat + smells + stale air) made me faint and throw up so many times I had to start taking cabs or rideshares, and I hated the cost but it had gotten to the point where it was a medical necessity. So when people talking about totally car-free, pedestrian-friendly towns that don't mention the complexity of accessibility, I see towns I'd never be able to step foot in. The goal shouldn't be car-free towns, it's one where the other transport options are just as easy and prioritized as private cars.
Walkability is why I wierdly moved back to London from my countryside hometown for my health. Small UK towns are generally still quite walkable and I would walk to the supermarket (America feels like a total dystopia in comparison). But I just didn't have much elsewhere to go without terrible public transport experiences. In London I get over 10,000 steps a day without trying cos it's usually worth it (there's places to go) and the public transport always works.
Also I can't imagine getting a car having lived in UK, Japan and Germany, I find the idea of having a car horrifying. No idea what I would do with it, it would just drain me of money. Don't even want to get my licence because I would get it and then just forget how to drive.
Big problem here in Australia in my opinion is that most local governments give their employees free cars as part of their remuneration packages. If there was an alternative incentive package to encourage walking or public transport there might be more consideration given to these issues.
So, after watching this video I have realised, I live in the suburbs. The 'good' suburbs; there are paths everywhere, and they're mostly removed from the roads, which are not busy most of the time. There's a grocery shop down the road and a bigger chain of shops extra 2min away (walking). I can walk to the town centre, although it will take about 40/45 min and the paths are safe and accessible all the way. Although the public transport is not great, it functions and most of the time if a bus is supposed to be there, it is and you can wait on an enclose bus stop... I never realised how privileged that was? I have lived in the city in the past, but if anything it was just a more dense, busy version of where I live now. Wow. All I can say is I'm happy I never had to experience the horror of some of the suburbia shown and I'm so sorry that some have to travel in those 'standards', but I guess that's the advantage of not living in the US.
I’m so incredibly grateful to live where I do. Mexico overall is more walkable and has better public transportation than the US in general (I’ve lived in several states within both countries) but my city in particular is incredibly walkable. Everything I need is usually within a mile, maximum two miles. There is public transit for less than $0.50 that can get you most places and taxis starting at less than $2 that are super easy to find. Unfortunately it is not wheelchair friendly, same as most of Mexico and the US.
I live in the outer suburbs of an Australian city, and I often spend 3-4 hours driving PER DAY. It’s because school, work etc. is so far away because of the way our cities are laid out and how the population is distributed, and public transport options are extremely limited (the train line doesn’t reach beyond the inner suburbs, and buses only come every few hours and not at all on weekends). With petrol prices skyrocketing, it’s becoming extremely difficult to sustain the life of being a relatively poor uni student 😢 it’s already hard enough giving up so many hours of my day just to get places, and now I’m working shifts where I literally have to spend my entire pay check for that shift just on the petrol that it took me to get there and back… At the same time though, I suppose the reward for living in an area that has terrible walkability is often that you have more natural environment and less development, as we do where I live. Despite our reliance on cars, people in my area are generally very fit and healthy, as we all get a lot of outdoor time because we have large expanses of bushland, national parks and such on our doorstep - these would have to be destroyed if they wanted to make the suburbs more walkable and more liveable in that sense.
I had no idea it was this bad in other places. I feel so lucky to live in Toronto - I can't imagine having to drive everywhere. It sounds absolutely miserable.
13:18 lol it is so funny and sad at the same time that you can get fired for being late to work in the US. In Germany your company would have to pay a crazy fine if they would fire someone for being late because of a bus that didn't come on time.
My partner (who's really into urban planning and watches NotJustBikes, Climate Town, and other urban planning youtubers) and I are planning to move to the Netherlands in a few months from the SF Bay Area and accessibility is a huge reason (and NotJustBikes comparing US and Canadian places such as "Fake" London to the Netherlands highlighting the differences in urban planning). While the Netherlands isn't anti-car, they make progress to all modes of transportation, including cars. In comparison, America (and I assume also Canada) prioritize car infrastructure at the expense of all other modes of transportation. Unfortunately, these roads/stroads/etc. aren't even that nice, pleasant, or safe to drive on. When we were in Utrecht previously, we noted how the bike lanes can be used for other wheeled transportation like wheelchairs and micromobility vehicles, and it goes to show that you can get around town regardless of age. Children can't drive cars. Some physically disabled or elderly can't drive cars. But they like everyone else can use the bike and/or pedestrian paths. Growing up in American suburbia, anything over a 15 minute walk required a car, and with a single parent we didn't have the capacity or resources to get to places. Now that my grandmother is elderly in California, she can only rely on her children and grandchildren to drive her around (with the rare exception of busses).
That Riverdale neighbourhood in Toronto is about to be entirely screwed over. Loblaws has sold the property and a giant condo is going to replace the store, parking lot, and several neighbouring houses. This is typical of my beloved trash city.
Thank you to everyone who wrote me an essay about their walkability & car dependency experiences on my google form!! I really enjoyed working on this topic. // Thanks, Vessi! Click here (vessi.com/tiffanyferg) and use code TIFFANYFERG for $25 off each pair of adult Vessi shoes! Free shipping to CA, US, AUS, NZ, JP, TW, KR, SGP.
So excited for this video. I didn’t write an essay, but I do nonetheless have very strong feelings about this which I shared. Lol
This is so relevant!!! I actually got into a car accident last week :/// and it reminded me of how car dependent the US is. Please make a part 2!
Thanks!!! was waiting for this!!!!
Haven’t watched the full, but thanks for making the beginning less depressing. I’m tired of it being sad, while I can do little about it individually. But I do understand it is depressing and interesting
We crave part two. Give us part two. x
I haven't even watched it yet but I know its going to be good
Let’s not forget the social stigma associated with public transportation. Anytime you watch a TV show or movie people in public transport are depicted as dirty, crazy, unhygienic, mean and practically inhuman. People who don’t have to rely on public transport are seen as “better than” being a ‘bus person’.
That’s why I hated living in the county. People would look upon you either their noses turned up when they saw you standing at the bus stop. That’s why I love living in the city. I feel more like an equal in a city that favors walkers, bus riders, the elderly, and everyone else that doesn’t drive a car.
I had no idea busses even existed in rural areas
Yes everytime the characters in a TV show have to take the bus they are like oh noo and its full of stinky people and they have to stand with their nose in someone's armpit
So I guess my experience living in NYC was not so great. I lived in Brooklyn, commuted to Queens for retail work. It was temporary, about 5 months. But it was TOUGH! Granted driving there still felt like it took forever! My god, lol, public transportation can definitely make sense.
But my daily commute would be anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour & 1/2.
It was horrible. Now, I will also say, my job was not in a direct line. I needed to transfer 2/3 times. Weekends were horrendous too!
Buses & trains were never on time, they were dirty, and most employees hated their life. Just from my experience.
It’s so damn unfortunate. The cities across the US need a serious overhaul. (In France for example, it is not like this!)
I appreciated public transportation, absolutely. And it makes sense in the city. But man, if I’m being honest. So much of my life was also wasted going to and from work.
People in rural America don’t have any exposure to public transportation. So many incredibly wealthy folks in NYC would dare never take public transportation.
that and "I can't drive 55" sounds rad blasting from the stereo, if you are a lazy boomer.
Yes, I hear from plenty of people in my city that they're scared of public transit, and sometimes it's because they had a legitimately traumatizing experience, which I can understand, but sometimes it sounds like they just didn't like sitting on a bus or waiting at a stop near a homeless person. I can't drive, so I take the bus nearly everywhere, and 95% of the time nothing notable or alarming happens. I think a lot of people, middle class white women especially, don't spend enough time interrogating our ingrained fear responses to random poor people just going about their days. Just because you feel scared, doesn't necessarily mean there's any real danger.
Hey Tiffany. I just saw this video pop up on my feed. Thanks so much for bringing more visibility to this issue!
Even if someone likes cars, car-dependency is a huge problem, and everybody should be working to eliminate it. The world needs more walkable places!
omg, I love your channel!
Hi, I'm thinking of doing an argumentative essay for my Spanish class.
What is a list of good references for it that aren't blogs? I have a short list of books that may help but need more.
I agree. I love cars, and I'm sort of a "gearhead" but I'm in strong support of more public transport, mixed use zoning, and walkability. I want driving my car to be my choice, not a necessity.
@@pgum123gonowplayread4 ruclips.net/video/Walx0iQZfiY/видео.html
i kinda like cars but I hate american cities will you plz adopt me
People complain about gas prices now while blaming the government, but the automobile industry has lobbied extensively and aggressively for decades in order to kill off any decent public transportation infrastructure. Car dependency is by design.
They lobby governments, governments choose to be corrupt and be bribed by these wealthy companies. Canada is the same. It’s legal and required for governments to take bribes, they just label them “donations.”
And it’s not a conflict of interest for governments to give donors and lobbyists subsidies and tax breaks and access to resources way under value. Plus relaxed environmental and labour laws.
Canada pays billions a year for O&G subsidies and it’s not even close to being one of the main contributors to the economy.
I think economies are BS, but even this BS economy doesn’t benefit from O&G.
If governments cut all subsidies, funded infrastructure, and taxed and regulated polluting industries, we would have divested by now. Innovation comes from necessity, propping up failing industries prevents innovation.
And then the same people continue to simp for their cars. It's pathetic. The automobile industry doesn't care about you, they're just feeding off your materialism like a parasite.
This
This!!! I first learned about it from this video by NotJustBikes ruclips.net/video/bnKIVX968PQ/видео.html and I haven’t shut up about it since
Oh, like when the car manufacturers bought up all the public transportation in LA the 1920s and then killed it all so people would be forced to rely on cars?
I (European) had a discussion with a friend (American) about the „freedom“ of owning a car. Living in a place with one of the best public transports in the world, I have never felt the need to own a car. On the contrary, just thinking of owning a car would give me an anxiety. Like, where would I put it? It‘s not like it fits in your pocket and there aren‘t any parking spaces anywhere in the city, so you end up walking everywhere anyway, so what‘s the point. I get that in America, you NEED a car to get around. And in that sense it does give you freedom, I guess. When I was staying with my friend, she organized a car for me (bless her!) and I was able to drive around while she was at work. I loved being able to „move freely“ and not be stuck at home- But man, the irregularity of traffic was driving me insane. Sometimes a route took me 45min and sometimes only 10. So in a sense, I was never in control over my own time and schedule. Made me really appriciate the freedom I have at home. Here, the bus stops right in front of my house, where it comes about every 2-5 Minutes. (Except during the night - only every 30min) and withini 10 Mins I am in the city center. Barely any traffic, ever. I never have to worry about being late, not drinking or parking. That‘s what I can freedom.
True freedom is when you have a choice to choose the transportation instead of being stuck with a car.
Owning a car is a huge source of anxiety. Gas price fluctuations, car insurance, parking, paying for said parking, car accidents, traffic, car repair and maintenance. It is so constraining.
@@birdiewolf3497 I feel you too. I'm 22 and car-free because I'm a poor college student and live close to my school.
North American. South America generally doesn't have this problem
I agree. Cars only give us a sense of freedom when there's a manufactured need for it. Being forced to buy a car isn't freedom.
I recently moved from a very pedestrian friendly city back to a city that isn't, and a couple weeks ago I witnessed something that pissed me off. The light had just turned, and there was a person in a wheelchair who began crossing the road. They had the walk signal, they had the right of way, yet someone begins turning, sees them, HONKS AT THEM, AND CONTINUES TO PROCEED INCHING TOWARDS THEM as they continue slowly crossing the road in their wheelchair. My gosh it still makes me so mad just remembering it. I wish there was some way for me to say something to that asshole in the car.
was it a truck driver
Their car should be scrapped in front of their eyes :)
@@isabellahoy-nielsen1614 same thoughts
That's also the thing with cars; they make everyone meaner.
Yep. I've seen that kind of thing so often. It really breeds resentment from pedestrians. Why try to kill people practically, just for crossing the road? They act like they own the space even if they could harm someone.
I'm from New Jersey, but I've been currently living in Seoul, South Korea for the past 7 years... and well last year I went to visit family for an extended period of time and jesus- it was freaking awful to be without a car! My family moved and they're pretty close to NYC, so getting to the path to go into NYC was fine. However, if I wanted to just go around NJ it just took forever to get anywhere. Plus the actual nj transit system is f*cked! The price you pay all depends on different zones,(which aren't explicitly shown on sites ) and in one city itself there can be a bunch of different zones where you'll pay extra depending on where you're going. On top of that there's no universal card system that could make this alot easier. It made me not want to go out at all. The prices of the buses were so expensive on top of that, and the unfortunate part you don't see where that it reflected because the buses are the same buses that I used to go on when I was in high school a good decade ago.
I was so happy to get back to South Korea. If a whole country the size of Indiana can make a public transportation system, where the bus, card, and even taxi can all be paid with the a metro card, bank card, or even your phone (throughout the whole country) . There's no reason that one whole state can't! On top of that the price is all the same roughly $1USD with a *sometimes* varying 10 to 40 cents difference depending on where your final destination was. If you're doing a transfer from bus to subway or vice versa there's no additional fee! Let alone the actual buses/subways, do get upgrades or newer models ever so often. I didn't know I could feel so passionately about public transportation until this past trip 😭 .
Seoul's metro system is super convenient! I also walked a lot while visiting and everything is fairly close by.
I'm from jersey too and I agree woth this. Were the most densely packed state. Getting around should be so easy.
@@tamerebel most definitely! Getting around the city is so easy, and the apps go are so convenient by like telling you which car is the closest for your transfer, or it can set up an alarm for when you're a stop or two away from your destination or transfer :)
@@coolkait68 It was honestly so crazy to me. Even though we moved, my mom's many weekly doctor appts were in the previous city we lived in which was maybe 30 mins away.. but it would take it over 2 hours to get there. On top of that nj transit isnt even reliable u___u.
Off topic but I watch your videos AND LOVE THEM
Hi! I'm an urbanist, and since so many people seem interested in city planning (which is great!!!!), i thought it would be nice to leave a book recommendation in case some of you want to dive deeper into the subject: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
Jane Jacobs, loathed city planners and thought they were unnecessary. You should read Strong Towns by Charles Marohn
Thank you
Detroit, the “Motor City” where they encouraged everyone to buy a car in its pre 60’s race riots hey day and neglected to invest in reliable public transportation making it nearly impossible to live here without a car, we have the highest auto instance rates, terrible roads (all of Michigan really), lack of good paying jobs in city limits and when we try to pass a provision to make a transportation system that goes into suburbs you know the suburbanites voted it down. The most blackest city in America, so yeah, kinda racist if you wanna think of it from that angle as well..
I lived there for a year. People said the roads were because of weather. I live in Kansas, and we get some pretty cold weather too. We're always repairing our roads. Orange cones are great! In Pontiac, my car was almost swallowed by a huge pothole.
I lost so much hope in 2013-2016 when provision for public transportation wasn’t passed. Our roads in Michigan are absolutely atrocious which doesn’t make sense cause construction is always happening on major freeways at least once a year it seems 🥲
Baltimore is also a Rustbelt city with a high black population. Rustbelt = factories shut down and people remained, with poverty as a result. There are "free" bus lines for students (included in tuition) and tourists (paid for with taxes). The tourist bus lines mostly travel near Johns Hopkins campuses as well as near where more educated, wealthier, and whiter residents live. So -- people who already have cars can take a free bus, but many who are poor have to take the bus lines that cost money.
Getting around Detroit is a nightmare! In order to get to work reliably, I’ve had to depend on Uber which is super expensive. I don’t have my license and I’ve basically been forced to learn how to drive because of how Detroit is built. Driving lessons are super expensive! I’m a recent college graduate just trying to get on my feet and my job opportunities are severely limited due to the fact that I can’t walk to them or I can’t Uber without spending my whole check. I also do not have any help doing all of this due to my life circumstances. It’s hard out here without a car. 🚗
This angers me because this was similar to my city.There are a bunch of potholes and I am wondering where is money for infrastructure going because it's hardly going towards fixing potholes.
I am *astonished* by your sidewalk situation. This is absolutely ridiculous.
And I thought my town had garbage sidewalks... Because they're cracked and the red bike lane paint is barely visible anymore.
As a German person, I don't think I've ever been on a street in a city that didn't have a proper sidewalk. As in, a paved (or sometimes, though rarely, gravel) path, that is wide enough for two walking people to pass each other without having to take a big step to the side. In more rural villages, roads without sidewalks are pretty common, but these roads are wide and there isn't any traffic.
Lucky. In PR our typical sidewalks are tiny, two people may walk side by side each other for sure in a few places however even then the sidewalks are just barely allowing two people to walk side by side, and in tow people I mean two not chubby teens equivalent. We do have many streets without sidewalks because parking is rather better than a sidewalk, even though it's having 4 parkings not like anything else.
Sidewalks are also extremely cracked as in you could step in some as if they were a step on a staircase high, and some are so thin that a bike handle couldn't pass through because even though the lanes are so wide they couldn't thin it to make more room for the electric pole plus that new thick street button pole which takes a whole person equivalent and the fact that the stores now have no place to put their trash but in the narrow sidewalk.
Utterly garbage. (Where I live)
Coming from Singapore, there is a strong emphasis on walkability (despite the humidity, we have A LOT of shaded pedestrian walkways and sheltered paths from apartments to stations and bus stops) and accessible public transport. All the buses and trains (and stations) here have been converted to be accessible with a shift towards upgrading those that are not, and pedestrian walkways have slopes rather than curbs at crossings. Also sound activated pedestrian lights for countdown and raised dots for canes navigation.
Because we are so dense and small, the planners put in parks or reserved nature areas across the island. They don’t exist independently of each other, as the planners have put in accessible pedestrian and cycling paths that are mapped across different towns, that connect a number of these parks together (“park connector network”). Some of these connectors are usual pedestrian walkways for each town, but with very strong visual indicator (colour of pathway and signs) that indicate it connects to a park or another.
I have a driving licence and the family has a car which I can use, but I tend towards taking the bus and train to get everywhere because parking is expensive here, it’s faster to get to my destination by public transport at peak hours, and I can read/do other things on public transport. I’m so spoiled that I complain about a 5 minute bus ride to get to the train station (the map of which is also currently expanding intensely to all corners of Singapore). Also moving into a new apartment later this year which is 3 minutes (sheltered, clean, accessible) walk from the train station which will cut down on my complaining drastically.
Public transport is cheap here, even though prices are rising, the % we spend on it based on our median salary is minimal. The buses and train companies worked together for transport to be had on a single card, and distance-based (if I take a bus, I pay a base fare + additional for the distance I ride. If I hop onto a train to continue my journey, the system automatically calculates the additional distance and applies a lower cost through my card [basically I’m not paying for the base fare twice within a journey]). For persons with disabilities, students and seniors, there are also concession cards that make it even cheaper to take buses and trains. To reduce peak hour crowds, there are also cheaper rates for adults riding the trains and buses before 7.30am. Just a lot of things like that.
I hope that everywhere can experience the convenience and cost that we have here in Singapore! Not sure if there is any literature on it, but if anyone is interested, do check out the work Singapore has done in this area through Google? We’re a small nation so it was easier to implement, but lots of ideas that are well done.
That sounds glorious. I live in Puerto Rico, it's either extremely hot or raining. I would LOVE if the sidewalks and walkways would have that...
Puerto Rico is walkability hell. I would love that to change since lot's of people need that kind of help and it would benefit a lot more.
As a French people I am BAFFLED. It is only in the country road that you had no sidewalks, and buses are a thing, a rare things in the country, but still a thing. That was very interesting !
this video just makes me glad i live in europe where public transport is prioritized over cars. hopefully this will become a reality in america in the future too!
I hope so too! In my area there are lots of good roads, not a lot of rail transportation. It seems to me that where I live if we had decent buses that ran useful routes it would be a great option, but the buses are basically useless right now. It would take me 3 hours to do a 30 minute drive.
I don’t know where in Europe you live but one of those screenshots was a disabled Londoner expressing woes about the Tube.
@@InvisibleRen The Tube is kind of a mess because so much of it was built 100+ years ago (it's so weird that there's an entire Sherlock Holmes story by Conan Doyle based around the Tube) - and there are a _lot_ of public transport systems that are nothing like London's. I live in Nottingham, which has an amazing public transport system in the trams and buses, and every single tram is 100% wheelchair accessible with multiple wheelchair spaces on every tram
I so badly hoped that during COVID when the tube was closed they would finally have time to refurbish it properly. Nope. That was the chance of a lifetime that we will never get again and it's still horrible. So much better than being in the countryside still tho.
I just got appointed to my city's Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, so hopefully, I'll be able to help with some of this stuff!
Here's you're reminder to check with your city to see if they have open committee positions or to run for city council. If the people making decisions doesn't change, it's unlikely that the decisions will change. Videos like this are great, but what's even better is taking action to change your city for the better!
I'm a transport planner, and if anyone found this video interesting and need a career change/looking for something to study, look into urban planning!! It's such an interesting and rewarding career. Everyday I work on projects that have a real and tangible impact on the city (hopefully for the better), with topics such as the ones explored in this video are the foundation of good transport planning for people, not just vehicles. Despite being such a vital and fantastic career choice, people often haven't even heard of it or consider it.
Also, read The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup, wild stuff.
With the rise of warehouses, stroads are becoming more common because they need it for tractor trailers to make a turn to the warehouse. It goes to show how it’s also affected by our shopping choices.
The shopping choices thing is a great point! I don't think people often realize that all/most of the things wrong in the US are related, and worsening one thing leads to worsening of all the others!
I live in Jakarta and (before the pandemic) our family used to do regular trips to Singapore and even as children my brother and I would be most excited about the part where we would literally just be *walking* around. Being able to directly access your surroundings outside the confines of your vehicle does wonders to your mental health.
This truly resonates with me, i live in a suburb but it's also a "city" so we do have public transport close by. I walk 10 min to the nearest station to get to Boston(which imo is great for pedestrians). Where i live, during the winter the snow is not removed from the barely there sidewalk, so you have to walk on the road in the white line or even past it. Thankfully cars move to the side when they see this
walkability is the # 1 reason I live in nyc. And if it's too far to walk, the subway goes most places. And if I don't want to take the subway, I can jump on a CitiBike or take the ferry! I'm putting off having to rely on a car for as long as I possibly can.
That infographic on food deserts hit home for me. I'm from the Appalachian mountains, and lived in a small rural town. It was literally impossible for us to walk to the store from home. It was 30-45 minutes away driving, there were no safe sidewalks to use to get there, and even in the downtown area (which sounds fancier than it actually was, it was a two lane road with storefronts) the sidewalks were not well maintained. The only time I ever walked places was when I was at my mom's shop in town and could walk to the library or a friend's house, but it was still a 20 min walk partially on roads with no sidewalk or berm.
I’m glad people are talking about this. I’m from an area that’s almost exclusively stroads and they’ve killed a not insignificant number of my friends and loved ones over the years. Pedestrians die constantly and no one does anything about it.
I LOVE THIS! Winter as a pedestrian is a nightmare. Cities pretend everyone has car, and business and homes don't shovel...
And if they do shovel they put all the snow inside and around the bus stops. So now you’re forced to literally stand n the street to wait on the bus
I’m doing my Masters in City Planning and all of the topics brought up in this video are like the core of my education. I love that you’re presenting these really valuable resources to a crowd that probably would never really come across it otherwise. I do want to touch on the aspect that Not Just Bikes mentions in the Streetcar suburbs video and that is that walkable neighborhoods are still illegal throughout large parts of the US. Zoning laws in many US cities and suburbs are very strict and often incentivize car-dependent suburbs. The big step towards changing neighborhoods without investment from your city or town is to change zoning laws and allow for mixed-use and multi family development (essentially shops or grocery stores under apartment buildings).
This has always been unbelievable to me as a European. Right now, i go to university in a town of 8000 people in the Highlands of Scotland. The university itself is an hour and 20 minutes walk from my house, and there are 3 different ways I can walk there with a footpath the whole way. There are also busses 2 times an hour which are heavily subsidised by the council. Trains go to Glasgow (our nearest city) 5 times a day. This isn't weird here, its the norm (and it was better before austerity). I've lived in this relatively remote town for 4 years now without driving and its fine. Admittedly, it is less good for disabled people, as footpaths dont all have cutaways and there are some areas where the paths are not in great condition, but still, you could be a wheelchair user in this town and have good accessibility without a car.
As someone who hasn't been able to have car for 9 years, due to chronic health conditions, and is disabled, and is very low income - those things tend to go together, unfortunately - I appreciate you making content about this so much. I think it's funny though hearing that one of the things you liked best about walking was being able to interact with all the different kinds of people. When you have to do it all day everyday for any tiny little need, being forced to interact with the general public is actually one of the worst parts, and it's very dangerous, at least for women. I'm 41 now, and I've been 100% walking everywhere for everything for 9 years come and even at my age, I get constant, CONSTANT remarks and harassment from men, in public, in broad daylight, of course even much worse after dark, the most vile, disgusting things said to me all the time, all kinds of men following me, stalking me, comments about my vagina (no matter how conservatively dressed), what they want to do to me sexually, marriage proposals. Getting asked for drugs, solicited, and just constant unwanted attention and remarks. Just to try and get my groceries or get to a job, or run any little errand. It's exhausting and scary. I desperately missed having my little safety bubble of a car that some people complained about. They are very, very fortunate to have that. Live in a city where absolutely everyone has a car, and everyone assumes I'm some kind of degenerate whack job when they find out not only do I not have a car now, but I haven't had one for years, and I don't know if I can have one again ever. Everyone says there's no way you can survive in the city without a car, and they don't know how right they almost are, although for them it's still a choice, for me it's not. And it's not because I'm on drugs or got a bunch of DUIs or that I'm crazy or whatever reason people assume when they see you walking all over the streets for years all hours of the day and night. It's dehumanizing, and degrading, and it makes having so many chronic illnesses even so much more exhausting. And then your friends avoid you on case might ask them for a ride some time when there's something you really, really need and just can't make it happen. It's all just so incredibly stressful all the time and humiliating.
Thats the worst part about underfunded transportation though. Its not all ppl using it. Its all ppl who HAVE to use it. So it gets a bad rap bc its all ppl that for whatever reason, cant drive. And ofc, if u cant drive for whatever reason, ur seen as a degenerate, and therefore, all public transport users are degenerates. But if it was mor accessible to the general public, kids would be there too. Other single women. Young people. Older people. Diasabled and able bodied, ppl from all walks of life, moms, couples, whole ass families, workers. Everyone trying to get somewhere. It would no longer be a "degenerate" space, but a public one that EVERYONE would care for and have a vested interest in protecting and keeping safe. Which is why its so critical for Pub Trans to beclme more accessible- so that ur life wouldnt have to be so difficult. I'm so sorry the system has neglected and failed u. As someone suffering shoulder injuries in both arms rn, driving is a real pain in the ass rn, and I am so so so grateful to live in a relatively walkable city. I do not know what i would do if i had to stress over driving absolutely everywhere.
I live in a suburb of Portland, OR and our public transit is phenomenal. It's a 45 minute drive to the airport, but only 1hr by train (as someone who has driving anxiety, 15 minutes is a small price to pay). When I travel to other places, I literally forget that public transit isnt as good everywhere as it is here and have been literally stranded while trying my best to understand terrible transit design.
In Vienna, Austria they try to make driving in the city more and more unattractive by higher costs of parking, by removing streets or parking lots for green spots or sidewalks. The largest shopping street "Mariahilfer-Straße" was a highly frequented street by cars, but they removed it and put a "meeting-zone" .. I don't know how to describe it, but you can walk on the street now an only taxis, busses and bikes are allowed to drive in this area, with an exception of some crossing points for cars. But Vienna is not dependend on cars. There are plenty supermarkets all over the city, there are many public transportations, suchs as busses, metros, trams and trains. There are also car shares, but they cost per minute. If you want to use the public transportation system it costs only 365€ a year and you can get everywhere. Since last year there is also a "climate-ticket" where you can pay 1095€ per year to drive in whole Austria with every public transportation. I really appreciate living here and not depending on a car whatsoever, but by watching this video I appreciate it even more. Thank you for sharing this, and I hope, there will be a huge rethinking in the US...
so excited for this one! the endless scroll of essays haha we're all VERY PASSIONATE
what I would consider a 'suburb' in the UK is very different to how suburbs seem in the US... but the point about accessibility on public transport is so true! In london, there are "zones", which are basically rings around the centre city - zone 1&2 are city proper, zones 3&4 are more urban suburbs, and 5&6 are more "normal" suburbs. First, the number of tube stations decreases and the distance between them increases the further out you go from the centre. Second, in zones 1&2 almost all tube stations are wheelchair accessible, but in zones 5&6 we're lucky to get 1 in 5. I asked the mayor about this once and it seemed like TFL just isn't interested in converting existing stations to be accessible, and the tube lines are all so old and established that it would be impossible to just add in new stations
Definitely, even central London stations are crap for disabled people, sometimes they just announce that disabled access has been closed... as if its just a trivial thing
Public transport gets a lot worse outside of London 😔
@@beckydunn-mills3126 yep it's terrible
I have a fear of driving, I’m 28 and live in Philly so I’m very grateful to have the public transit as well as a neighborhood where everything is pretty close to me but when I lived in New Jersey I spent 80% of my income on Ubers to go to work because there wasn’t a bus to take me there
In Ontario, we have PRESTO which is a transit card system where you can pre-load money onto the card or buy e-tickets via their app which you can then use to ride a city bus, streetcar, or the GO bus and train system in a bunch of participating cities throughout the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, and Ottawa. With your PRESTO card you just tap it on a bus or train terminal and you're set to ride. Now our transit systems certainly aren't perfect, especially in the suburbs and congested parts of Toronto, but having a payment system like that which works for many of the majorly populated areas in the province at least takes some headache out of organizing your fare and getting around.
TBH I didn't get my license until I was 20. I was hit by cars in the crosswalks of Sacramento so many times!
I've moved back to Oakland, CA and it's SO NICE to be back in a walkable city again and not have to drive. I'd missed that. I enjoy seeing my neighbors and the local scenery.
One aspect of this conversation I would like more people to talk about is safety for those using public transportation. One of the main reasons why I decided to get a car is because I would feel unsafe at night taking Uber or using the bus. I’ve been made uncomfortable just from walking to the 7/11 across the street from my dorm multiple times. Yes I could still get attacked on the way to my car but there’s less of a timeframe than walking to the bus stop. But then again if more people (especially women and femme presenting folks) took public transportation I would feel more safe.
Great video though!
Ooof, as an immigrant, this video hits home. Is like the walk of shame for not having a car, you'll get wet from car splashes, almost hit by cars, running for your life to catch a bus cuz the next one is an hour away. Is so symbolic having a car in the suburbs, is depressing...
I definitely watched the video from Not Just Bikes a few months ago and I also got into this topic.
My town has also suffered from redlining separating the whites from hispanics that is still very apparent to this day. Many of the big stores and shopping centers are too far too walk to and often have to go to another city. It sucks because many Hispanic mothers don't drive and can't get to the places they need to go.
I can't drive at the moment and my city is not very walkable so this topic is very intriguing to me. So happy to are talking about this!
I'm so happy you're talking about this. I live in Houston and walking here is impossible unless you live in mid-town, and even then it's still not great!
That's not even unique to downtown, I grew up in Spring and it's the same way! Good luck finding sidewalks inside the residential neighborhoods in some cases.
@@hellosabrinachaney For sure! I live on the Southeast side near an HEB and I can't tell you how many times, before I had my car, I almost died trying to walk to and from there. If you saw it, it looks like it should be the simplest walk ever - only 2-3 minutes to get there.
I've been extremely passionate about urban design/city planning/placemaking for a few years now and I'm so glad it's becoming more talked about in the mainstream. These issues obviously strike the hardest at the most vulnerable populations but many changes would be positive for literally everyone. It's crazy how often the answer to "why do we do this?" is "because that's how it's been done" esp from government agencies/groups that are actually spending more money than they need to. Anyways that video about strodes got me back onto my urban design obsession a while back and I am so glad to see you also talking about it, I could listen to you talk for hours about it!
i'm glad you talked about public transportation. i lived in baltimore city and i had to bus it everywhere until i was able to buy my first car after a few years in college. it was so annoying (not to mention time consuming-forget running more than 2 errands in one day) that it took 90 mins on 2 busses to get somewhere that was maybe 20 minutes away on a slow day.
one day my second bus didn't show up on time, so i started walking towards school along the bus route. this was something i often did - i could at least be getting closer to my destination while i waited. i made it all the way up to the sign for my school grounds before the bus finally whizzed past me. so i LITERALLY walked there faster. 🙄
love this video! i actually grew up in that area of toronto that's mentioned towards the end, then in middle school i moved to a neighbouring suburb just outside of toronto for a few years (before moving back at 19). since then i've had this very off and uncomfortable feeling towards suburban cities/towns, but couldn't truly understand why until i started getting into urban planning. being from a low income single parent home, living in an apartment, with no car brought up so many hassles that i know most of my peers never had to even think about. it was very uncomfortable and isolating to live in and navigate the area, like a constant reminder that i don't fit in, that i don't belong. i always thought these feelings were solely about the fact that i lived in that area during my "awkward" teen years, but now i've learned i that those feelings of discomfort, isolation, low self worth were largely due to the fact that i was living in a place that simply was not made for me. i am so grateful that i was able to move back to the city, the independence, diversity, and sociability have done WONDERS for my confidence and overall mental health.
went to korea last year & experienced a whole new world... lol yes, i had to walk a lot but the comfort of not HAVING to drive everywhere felt so good 😩
The worst part of living in a rural area that is VERY car-dependent (we just got our first glimpse of public transportation at the end of 2021) is that driving is TERRIFYING. I am terrified of driving, it is the scariest thing for me, but it is my only option
@@Preetzole we got rid of trains in my province a long time ago, so a bus system is pretty much all we can do, but trains could work for other provinces for sure
9:08
🎵 Makin' my way downtown. Walkin' fast, faces pass · And I need you 🤣🤣
Thanks for mentioning rural communities! I grew up in a really small rural town, and the car dependency there was CRAZY. I basically had to drive anywhere, since the closest businesses/schools/churches were about 4.5 miles away. Luckily my family had cars, but I know families who didn't have multiple cars or drivers, and they were pretty much screwed, especially in the winter. Luckily I live in a college town now, so walking is much better and there's actually public transit, but it could still use tons of improvement
I’m really thankful for the snippet focusing on crappy sidewalks. That is why the disabled, runners, and people with strollers walk on the street. So instead of honking at us, just slow down and idk, call your representative? 😂
Riverdale, Toronto is accessible by subway and you just take the streetcar that goes through the neighbourhood that ends at the other side of Toronto. They have amazing food places, a few vintage boutiques, and lots of interesting shops! There's this pop-up shop hidden at the side of a cafe that have the best breakfast sandwich.
as someone who grew up in the suburbs and doesn't drive, its amazing that I haven't been run over by a car yet
The suburb I grew up in has so many sidewalks that end to nowhere. People weren’t considered at all when these streets were designed
After ✨living in Europe✨ I'm very passionate about this, I'm glad she's talking about this!
I've been thinking about how isolated I feel in a new city. And, I think it's partially (and largely) because I've allowed myself to become so car-dependent. When I think back to the happiest times in my life, it was when I didn't have a car and had to walk everywhere. Walking creates so much forced interaction that is so valuable but unrecognizable until it goes missing. I live in Boston. I don't need a car - I think I just bought into the belief that having a car will bring me more autonomy and freedom.
As someone in the netherlands, where the streets are made more fore bikers and walkers than cars, places like america are so weird to me
When you start following recumbent bikes, trikes, velomobiles, and consider the definitions for ebikes, mopeds, and motorcycles, you see that in order to remain or become healthy and desirable, the North American economy needs to address head on, the issue of mobility diversity. From a marketing stand point, retailers know its beneficial to slow the consumer down. Not in traffic. In the store! Non-car users spend money too, and most are already NOT in a hurry!
Also not matter where that truck goes in a commercial- truth is only a small percentage actually do!
I'm a 62 yr. old recumbent trike rider. Unfortunately,
stroads and shared road scenarios wont change until enough have perished.
It's super refreshing to see someone who "looks like you" interested in such issues. I cant wait to introduce you to my granddaughters!
I first had this experience when i traveled to Fort Worth in Texas. It was a whole new world. I wanted to get some food after I got to my hotel and found a restaurant that appeared to the distance of four blocks away. I figured it would be less than 20 minutes on feet but when i looked at the route on Google i was shocked to see it was a 67 minutes walk and 6 minutes drive.
I live in Krakow, POland and I never had a car. the public transport works well and often and you can basically get from one side of the city to the other just by public transport. When I was a teen making up dreams like "ooooh, I'm gonna study abroad"or "I"ll move to the US" once I started researching public transport I quickly sobered up. I can't imagine struggling to move around like this and being forced to buy a car. It really makes me appreciate my privilage.
I moved to singapore for 4 months and everything there is soooo walkable, it's amazing
What's Singapore urban planning like compared to your old place?
@@TheDiscoDuck it's just very densely populated and there are so many stores and food places everywhere, especially if you live in the center. Also public transport is very cheap and convenient.
@@TheDiscoDuck my old place is Switzerland/Germany. In Switzerland public transport is quite expensive and in Germany its super unreliable, so if you're from a rural area, you have to rely on cars.
I live in a semi-rural area that is becoming more and more suburbanized and it's interesting to see how all the new neighborhoods have sidewalks and the older neighborhoods do not. The zoning laws are basically non-existent because we are county and anything goes...which means the new builders can do whatever the hell they want with no regard to existing residents. We have a grocery store that is, in theory, walking distance, but as you've stated the walk is so dangerous it discourages walking. I would give anything for some nice walking/biking trails 😔
as someone who’s lived in both suburban los angeles and tokyo, i totally understand car dependency. While the public transit system in japan is awesome and useful, my car dependent brain constantly misses the personal bubble feel of driving everywhere in a car
when i was in college none of my roommates had cars, and the only way to get to the nearest grocery store was to cross the street at the freeway on-ramp and also walking across a bridge that overlooked another freeway. so it was possible to get around i guess, but it definitely did not feel safe.
Not an American here! When I first moved to the USA for student exchange I was shocked an how unwalkable the small town I moved to was. It was a college town so the downtown area was wonderful, but if I wanted to get to the outskirts of town to get to Wegmans or Walmart, my sidewalk would literally end, I would have to cross a busy main road and wait ages for the light to change, and I'd have to walk across a huge parking lot to get to the store. Where I come from parking lots are in the BACK and the stores are more towards the street!
I've lived most of my adult life in Mexico, where public transportation is common and economic. Also, most areas are very walkable. This topic is one of the reasons i haven't gone back to the U.S. because I love the liberty of walking, and I'm terrified of driving. Wish I knew a place in the U.S that could give me those pro's
I live in a "luxury" apartment complex that's a 10 minute walk from an affluent shopping area. There's a bus stop down the street. It's a 21 minute drive for me to get to work, but if I took the bus it would take 2 hours and 50 minutes (which includes 46 minutes of walking).
I think Mississauga ontario is a really great example of a walkable major city. I only lived there for four months last year, but I lived in a suburb type area and within 5 minutes I could walk to a giant park, within 10 or 15 minutes I could walk to a school, within 8 minutes I could walk to a bus stop that took my to square one (downtown) where the mall is, my college, library, stores, go station, bus terminal, etc. the bus ride was only about 5 minutes.
Also I could walk to the grocery store and a bunch of other stores in a plaza in about 10 minutes.
This was actually not the most expensive part of Mississauga. My rent was $800 a month with utilities included but no parking space, in a shared home with women who were mostly new to Canada from India. The house was actually a nightmare in some ways (landlords fault) but I was sooo in love with the location and I really liked some of the housemates my room was close to. Some of them pissed me off tho LOL but anywayyy, I’m just tryna give a shout-out to Mississauga and say if you’re trying to come up with ways to make your city more walkable, maybe looking at Mississauga would be helpful
the editing on this is IMMACULATE
I used to live in a car dependent zone in Mexico, more than 40min walking to the closest store, 5 minutes by car. My uni was a 50min drive away. Now I live in Germany, it takes me 10 min walking to get to uni and 5 min by bus. The closest store is 15min walking, I can even get to the city center in like 20 minutes by train, while in Mexico it took me like 40 min plus up to 20 min to find somewhere to park. Its so frustrating to see that it is possible to make everything easier, but the people who build the cities decide to not do it.
Great video - as always - and such a fascinating topic! It's a slightly different subject but when it comes to city walkability, I think the rise of electric scooters is a huge factor. Some people just throw them directly onto the sidewalk after use, forcing disabled or elderly people to take a different, longer route or ask for help. It's such a new phenomenon that many cities haven't taken any measures about it yet (at least where I live).
i've lived in phoenix, az for most of my life and it's BAD out here. pretty much everyone i know has been hit by a car as a pedestrian. i grew up a 20 minute drive from the city center and my house had a walk and transit score of zero.
I live in a rural region in germany and its totally normal to own a car when you turn 18. The bus comes every hour, but not after 18:00 nor on the weekends. So i'm highly dependent on my car, for work, to see friends, to go shopping or for free time activities. Moving to a big city this year and i cant wait to be able to take public transportation, my bike or walk. Some days i dont even get my 200 steps in, because i'm just walking from my house to my car and from the parking area to my workplace. I would love to walk more but i literally cant.
This was SUCH an educational video. I had never considered many of these things (like winter weather and mobility). You’ve encouraged me to find more videos on this topic. Thanks!
I actually lived in Riverdale, Toronto. It's one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Toronto because I was a 7 min walk from the local music venue, that Loblaws featured in the video, within 20 min walk of at least 40 restaurants, there was a hospital was closeby and transit (both streetcar and subway access). There was only one day I was unable to get to work when I lived there and that was because of a city wide power outage that stopped all public transit. In order to buy a house, I had to partner up with a friend and move to the burbs'. As someone without a car, it is quite annoying to not be able to go buy groceries by foot, the local coffee shop is 1.5KM away (20 min walk) and there are no restaurants close by. It is incredibly frustrating to see the local governments say we can't increase public transport on these routes because you are right, if you build it, people will take it. I hope that more public planners and voters will take this into consideration in our next election (June for Ontario) because I can't even imagine living where I live now if I were not able-bodied. :(
I love that you're covering this topic because the algorithm has also pushed me towards channels like Not Just Bikes that have made me despise suburban sprawl. Mixed use zoning laws will save us all!
I know I'm late to this, but I'd love to hear a part 2! There are a lot of men making our voices heard about our built environments, but we have such different thresholds when it comes to what we accept for feeling safe/comfortable/welcome than women do. A video on your experiences would be very interesting!
when is your part 2. I really like your chanel
Where I live it's almost impossible to walk anywhere and if it is possible it's too dangerous to do so. Public transport is lacking to say the least so as a young person you have no choice but to ask your parents to take you where you want to go because walking or using public transport, even Uber (which you can use but is very
expensive) is considered extremely dangerous for young children, though for older people it's not much safer. So going to a friends house is like a 5 minute drive but walking takes you 40 minutes to get there and paying for a 5 minute uber is just madness. Petrol is rough on all of us these days but it was always a problem and was always expensive so it was never a thought of let's get into the car and take a drive and the biggest problem for me these days as someone who's looking for a job is the fact that if you apply for a job they ask you if you have "reliable transport" which just means if you have your own car basically and if you say you don't your chances of getting the job is so much more slim so without the job you can't afford a car because the expenses is too much but you can't get a job without a car because they're afraid you won't be able to come to work on time without one and that's just the car you have to pay for. The jobs (if you're even lucky enough to get a job) you get these days isn't even enough to cover the cost of a car so you have no choice but to rely on your parents because the pay you have isn't enough for you to live on your own. So for me as a young adult in a third world country it's hard to say the least and it will probably take me years just to get my own car and the option of living without one is rather non-existent.
I live in France and recently moved from a city with fantastic public transportation AND bike infrastructure, to a city where all those things lack. It is incredible the difference! It is also much more polluted because of all the cars...
Not the best reaction I know, but I am relieved to know that these concerns are not just something I experience in the Philippines. We have to have more conversations like this. Thanks, Tiffany!
this is so eye opening, thank you. i now recognize both my extreme privilege, but also the privilege of the people making these rules and infrastructure. so unfair, so one-sided and disunited.
we need so much basic reform in this country it’s legit insane, and it seems like such easy fixes if we would just focus on other countries and what they’re doing well instead of being so collectively oblivious to outside events (which is evident in our education [opportunities] versus other places, which education also needs reform of course).
@Emily H oh wow he sounds absolutely awful, good for researching this topic though. thank you for the recommendation, i’ll probably get really angry in the process HAHA
wow just saw the buses in my city I used to take in one of the B roll footages you used! I live in Germany now and it's shocking how fast and easy it is to get from place to place without having to wait. My friend said a 17 minute wait was "way too long" so we went somewhere else whereas that would be a normal or even fast waiting time in the US
I think people mightn't even realise they don't live in a walkable area until they go somewhere which is very walkable. The suburbs I grew up in had town centres and local stores within walking or biking distance and the place I live now is on a bus route but is way less walkable. Being a commuter student it was great because I got some exercise in and still felt like it was accessible. Being a working adult however it is so much less practical to walk, bike or get public transport.
New areas should have mixed use allocations but they should also have enough car parking space if the majority of residents will have to drive out of the area for daily life. Where I live now the houses aren't required to have garages and the streets aren't wide enough for a car to park on both sides and traffic to still flow through. What a fail of planning 😕😕
I'm only halfway through the video so I don't know If you'll address it later on but one of the frustrations in my city is the responsibility of the homeowner to maintain the sidewalk. They need to shovel it when it snows but they are also responsible for any repairs or maintenance. I think this is pretty common (correct me if I'm wrong), I guess it just doesn't make sense to me. The city uses imminent domain to build the sidewalk but then expects the homeowner to maintain it.
Omg I just moved out to the suburbs after living in the big city all my life. This video couldn’t come at a better time!
I swear Tiffany your videos don't ever show up in my sub box or I somehow miss them. I always have to go looking to see if you have uploaded. I did the bell thing now, I hope that helps!
Been diving into city planning. Honestly I hated bike lanes, walkability, public transportation, and more. But it’s more logical. This video got me to subscribe
you made so many good points here! whenever I had any thought to add you said the same thing I was thinking like 2 minutes later lol
I want to add the concept of driving anxiety to the discussion - I personally struggle with it. I live in the middle of nowhere, the closest store is ~40 minutes away and there's NO WAY to get there w/o a car. There's also no public transportation. So driving is required. Driving isn't just some fun and freeing thing, but a use of machinery. We barrel big metal boxes opposing each other on winding, hilly roads. I find it terrifying. My driving anxiety prevents me from going out much at all.
I depend on my family to take me places I have to go and I can't ask them to drive me anywhere on a whim.
I also get questioned a lot about getting my drivers' license. I'm 20 and it's embarrassing to say I can't drive by myself at my age.
I'm also a commuter in college. Many people know the differences between that and on-campus living. So living on-campus would solve a lot of problems. But I've had separation anxiety ever since I was a baby.
I end up isolated in many ways. I can't go places alone, I rely on others' schedules and don't get to make friends on campus.
I know this is a very personal experience, but I wanted to express my frustration on the topic. At least I know there are others who experience driving anxiety (thanks tiktok for finding my community 😂)
Sorry if this is hard to read, I wrote this on my phone 😂
Have you considered therapy
It sounds like your anxiety over normal experiences is holding you back in life
You’ll be okay on campus without your folks
You likely won’t die driving on desolate country roads
You can accept an anxiety diagnosis without letting it cripple you
Btw I had driving anxiety as well and I didn’t get my license until I was twenty two lol you’re not alone
@@freetobree5323 You're totally right, my mental health struggles definitely feel like they're holding me back. I am in therapy and have tried diff prescribed medications for a couple of years. Currently weaning off of one. It's a frustrating work in progress 😅
Thank you for sharing your experience and genuine advice 💜
@@strabababerry I totally get you. I know mine comes from car crash trauma though. I have invasive thoughts that I will die if I get behind the wheel of the car. It's just like how I waited 2 extra years to sit in the front seat of the car because of the same anxieties. I'm going to try to get help though. You've got this!
I'm taking a new job. Relocating to a small "rural city". I found a rental townhouse that is a 9-minute walk to my work. I'm excited.
In the UK we often call the type of place Jason refers to at the end a viillage, even though it is technically part of a continuously developed area, where I am in Scotlands central belt they link into a near continuous built up area radiating out from Glasgow on the west and Edinburgh on the east. It can get pretty rural, but places as remote as Hartwood which has about 1000 residents are connected to both major cities by rail! And we are not even close to the best in Europe!
All of these villages have at least a general store and post office and all have at least one bus route, most have train stations and many of them have their own Main Streets!
Thank you for making a video on how so many north american cities are built around cars. I'm trying to do more on my bike, but it's still hard when you have to share the road with vehicles. Some drivers are great, but some aren't.
As a sustainability planning student, I LOVE that you covered this ❤️
I lived in a really small city in Japan, and I could easily walk to several stores, restaurants, and even a few of the schools I taught at. I was just a 10 min walk from the closest train station, and there were many bus stops. The buses weren't as frequent as the trains, but overall there were many more transport options there even in a city of (at the time) 35,000.
my closest bus stop is an hr away walking, it is not even a bus, it's a van and there is only one van going one direction per day, there isn't even one van per direction per day
It's such a complicated issue for disability because walking ability isn't the only factor. I can only be out for a certain amount of time at a time and even if I could walk somewhere 30 minutes away leg-wise, that would take an hour out of my time actually doing things out.
And a lot of the most "robust" public transportation systems are inaccessible for a multitude of reasons beyond walkability. For example, the NYC subway's mix of sensory stimulation (movement + heat + smells + stale air) made me faint and throw up so many times I had to start taking cabs or rideshares, and I hated the cost but it had gotten to the point where it was a medical necessity.
So when people talking about totally car-free, pedestrian-friendly towns that don't mention the complexity of accessibility, I see towns I'd never be able to step foot in. The goal shouldn't be car-free towns, it's one where the other transport options are just as easy and prioritized as private cars.
Walkability is why I wierdly moved back to London from my countryside hometown for my health. Small UK towns are generally still quite walkable and I would walk to the supermarket (America feels like a total dystopia in comparison). But I just didn't have much elsewhere to go without terrible public transport experiences. In London I get over 10,000 steps a day without trying cos it's usually worth it (there's places to go) and the public transport always works.
Also I can't imagine getting a car having lived in UK, Japan and Germany, I find the idea of having a car horrifying. No idea what I would do with it, it would just drain me of money. Don't even want to get my licence because I would get it and then just forget how to drive.
Big problem here in Australia in my opinion is that most local governments give their employees free cars as part of their remuneration packages. If there was an alternative incentive package to encourage walking or public transport there might be more consideration given to these issues.
I hate cars and driving. Living in the US would be a nightmare for me
Same. I don't even have a driver's license as I never needed one. Public transport is great here.
So, after watching this video I have realised, I live in the suburbs. The 'good' suburbs; there are paths everywhere, and they're mostly removed from the roads, which are not busy most of the time. There's a grocery shop down the road and a bigger chain of shops extra 2min away (walking). I can walk to the town centre, although it will take about 40/45 min and the paths are safe and accessible all the way. Although the public transport is not great, it functions and most of the time if a bus is supposed to be there, it is and you can wait on an enclose bus stop... I never realised how privileged that was? I have lived in the city in the past, but if anything it was just a more dense, busy version of where I live now. Wow. All I can say is I'm happy I never had to experience the horror of some of the suburbia shown and I'm so sorry that some have to travel in those 'standards', but I guess that's the advantage of not living in the US.
I’m so incredibly grateful to live where I do. Mexico overall is more walkable and has better public transportation than the US in general (I’ve lived in several states within both countries) but my city in particular is incredibly walkable. Everything I need is usually within a mile, maximum two miles. There is public transit for less than $0.50 that can get you most places and taxis starting at less than $2 that are super easy to find. Unfortunately it is not wheelchair friendly, same as most of Mexico and the US.
I live in the outer suburbs of an Australian city, and I often spend 3-4 hours driving PER DAY. It’s because school, work etc. is so far away because of the way our cities are laid out and how the population is distributed, and public transport options are extremely limited (the train line doesn’t reach beyond the inner suburbs, and buses only come every few hours and not at all on weekends). With petrol prices skyrocketing, it’s becoming extremely difficult to sustain the life of being a relatively poor uni student 😢 it’s already hard enough giving up so many hours of my day just to get places, and now I’m working shifts where I literally have to spend my entire pay check for that shift just on the petrol that it took me to get there and back…
At the same time though, I suppose the reward for living in an area that has terrible walkability is often that you have more natural environment and less development, as we do where I live. Despite our reliance on cars, people in my area are generally very fit and healthy, as we all get a lot of outdoor time because we have large expanses of bushland, national parks and such on our doorstep - these would have to be destroyed if they wanted to make the suburbs more walkable and more liveable in that sense.
your dog is adorable and I've never seen a more relevant sponsor in a video for me than this one haha
I had no idea it was this bad in other places. I feel so lucky to live in Toronto - I can't imagine having to drive everywhere. It sounds absolutely miserable.
13:18 lol it is so funny and sad at the same time that you can get fired for being late to work in the US. In Germany your company would have to pay a crazy fine if they would fire someone for being late because of a bus that didn't come on time.
And, of course, they couldn't fire someone for that, you are not allowed to fire someone for no reason here.
My partner (who's really into urban planning and watches NotJustBikes, Climate Town, and other urban planning youtubers) and I are planning to move to the Netherlands in a few months from the SF Bay Area and accessibility is a huge reason (and NotJustBikes comparing US and Canadian places such as "Fake" London to the Netherlands highlighting the differences in urban planning).
While the Netherlands isn't anti-car, they make progress to all modes of transportation, including cars. In comparison, America (and I assume also Canada) prioritize car infrastructure at the expense of all other modes of transportation. Unfortunately, these roads/stroads/etc. aren't even that nice, pleasant, or safe to drive on.
When we were in Utrecht previously, we noted how the bike lanes can be used for other wheeled transportation like wheelchairs and micromobility vehicles, and it goes to show that you can get around town regardless of age. Children can't drive cars. Some physically disabled or elderly can't drive cars. But they like everyone else can use the bike and/or pedestrian paths. Growing up in American suburbia, anything over a 15 minute walk required a car, and with a single parent we didn't have the capacity or resources to get to places. Now that my grandmother is elderly in California, she can only rely on her children and grandchildren to drive her around (with the rare exception of busses).
That Riverdale neighbourhood in Toronto is about to be entirely screwed over. Loblaws has sold the property and a giant condo is going to replace the store, parking lot, and several neighbouring houses. This is typical of my beloved trash city.