We Keep Losing The Battle Against Traffic. Is This Inevitable?
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- Опубликовано: 19 июн 2024
- Traffic sucks... the solution might not be what you think though.
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00:00 Intro
02:12 It Takes Too Long
05:37 Travel Is Too Unpredictable
07:43 The Experience Of Traffic is Terrible
09:30 Watershed Analogy
10:13 What Do We Do?
We hear that 1 subscribe = 1 less traffic. Don't take our word for it though.
Can confirm, subscribed and I am not stuck in traffic but stuck on the toilet
@@mma0911 Gives a different meaning to the phrases bottleneck or choke point! 😮😱
Everyone needs to eat more fiber.
@Strong Towns Is that Houston? Specifically, where 288 begins and 59 runs parallel, then people exit various noodles going south onto 59? Looks real familiar.
I will say # 3 feels the most true. You're stopped, crawling, or slinky-ing on a road rather than the speed you're used to going. Instead of the usual, reliable satisfaction of getting somewhere, you're stuck through no fault of your own (or so it feels).
I feel like traffic just got a little bit better.
I subscribed and average commute times in my city went down 20%? Incredible
I'm pretty sure just adding another lane would fix this broski
Just gotta keep adding lanes until every personal driveway is an on-ramp
@@strongtowns That legit sounds apocalyptic! Crap, I imagined it for a second, brrrrrr 🙈
Just one more lane, bro! I'm gonna fix traffic! 😵😖😫
Yeah, and rip out those bike lanes! They just make traffic worse!
Try one more train. ;]
If the environmental movement taught us anything, it's that shaming people into doing the right thing doesn't work. I love the Strong Towns idea of offering transportation options rather than criticizing people for driving. I'm loving these videos, and thanks for the shout-out!
We need to make our way up to Calgary soon!
Yes, it is hard not to get too militant.👍
@@strongtowns We need you.
I like positive vibes. Strongtowns always leaves me inspired or wanting to make a difference
And yet your channel is about shaming people driving........ We want bike highway, we want no mandatory helmet, we want law that have minimum free bike storage in apartment, we want free valet parking , we want free bike lock rental from business... we want ...we want....
Thankfully I think the change is happening and normal people are starting to realize that car dependent infrastructure isn’t viable. Channels like this are increasing the speed of people finally waking up. Thank you
Even without climate change it's economically unsustainable
I agree, but I don't think I'll ever see the change in my lifetime where I currently live and I think that is the case for most Americans. It's unfortunate, but most will never see change in their lifetime unless they somehow acquire wealth and move to a community with the infrastructure already, which won't be the case for a lot of people. I hope I'm wrong though. At the very least, I hope future generations don't get stuck with what we have.
idk if its just that the algorythm is pushing it to me but ive seen more stuff on cars/infrastructure as of late, something tells me its at least growing in poularity
@@josephcarreon2341 it can happen faster than you'd think. Paris basically kicked out a huge chunk of their traffic with sudden support of micro-mobility - like bikes. We're also seeing the emergence of e-bikes which can let someone easily make a 10 mile commute without burning themselves out - that's what the battery is for. Additionally a lot of US cities are leaning hard into sheltered bike lanes that make the activity safe for all types, not just blazing fast wheelrunners. The sunbelt could be a bicycle-centric region, too. The weather works all year round. Even when it's too hot the breeze does a ton of work and it's basically never too cold if you have some suitable but otherwise normal clothing. I've been doing it for a decade, it's possible.
A lot of alchemical stuff is happening in the political landscape of the US right now that is poised to mix together into a formula of change.
@@galacticpotato607 the orange pipeline is working! lol
One thing that definitely gets under looked is how poor zoning policies contribute to congestion. When all of the cultural amenities are located in city centers, and zoning laws prevent suburbs from becoming their own "city centers", you inevitably end up with congestion issues where everyone wants to go to the city but can't afford to live there.
I think that's the heart of the problem. And zoning can help; here in the Netherlands, we went the way of the USA with car-centric infrastructure in the 60s, but somehow we came to our senses. Not by turning into a car-hating society, but by making zoning laws to keep neighborhoods viable. For instance, they made a rule against huge remote shopping centers and supermarkets that can only be reached by car. Later, they relented somewhat, understanding that big box stores like Ikea or DIY stores have their place, but supermarkets are always neighborhood stores, even the big ones. And there are some rules for new suburbs: certain amenities must be within a close distance, or else they'll plan new ones to serve the new neighborhood.
Another thing that helps somewhat is functional park & ride facilities. There's several around here, all well connected to both the highway and public transport. They seem to be popular, the parking lots are always well filled with cars that aren't choking the town center instead. And many stations offer rental bikes at a very low price (or on a subscription) to cover your last mile travel.
I've seen one city solve this issue. They used "centers and corridors" approach. Instead of one big downtown, they have multiple mini-downtowns spread all over the city. This means most people on most trips can stay within 10 minutes of their house for 90% of their needs. With the exception of one highway running through the middle, the rest of the city is almost entirely 35mph endeavor. Each mini-downtown is connected by a system of 'commercial corridors'. So anything not found in your mini-downtown is likely located on the way to the next mini-downtown. The city is 250k people in size. Works great.
@@bikebudha01 That seems like an interesting idea. What city is that? I would like to learn more about it.
@@AndyGneiss Not sure if I'm correct but it sounds like Huntsville, Alabama. Lots of mini-downtowns there, just over 200k population, one major freeway (two smaller highways, though)
mentions this right at the end
I think it was City Nerd that emphasized another reason why wider freeways don't solve traffic: everyone trying to get off at the same few exits backs up everything. There's a few destinations everyone wants to get to, and that "last mile" will never have the same capacity as the freeways. This bottleneck explanation complements the ones in the video.
This makes so much sense... Anecdotally it's pretty much always the same exits that traffic lets up after passing...
You may have a 26 lane freeway but you won't have a 26 lane off-ramp or city street?
Pretty much like it does feel like alot of people in these types of videos are missing the Forest for the Trees honestly it seems like we keep trying to get more out of a system that is already beyond capacity.
God I can't even count the amount of times traffic turns from a crawl to 60mph right after an exit. I've always thought I was insane for assuming it was the exit's fault because the ramp to get off was MASSIVE. I had to go that way one day and I was astonished to see it not only expanded, but nearly unmoving. Worst traffic. Long Island Parkway. Die.
More lanes is just more parking spaces on the road. The throughput doesn't change when the last mile is backing up the traffic. Imagine a line of cars on a two lane road trying to park at a concert. Everyone waits for the car in front to pick a parking spot. Double the lanes and the line of traffic is halved! But it still takes the same amount of time to park.
A big win today ... one of my digital friends, a die hard cars first person, went on vacation to Orlando and *did not rent a car*. They took shuttles and ride hails, so were on the roads, but saved money and saw there's merit in not driving everywhere yourself.
The family owns cars, lives in big lot suburbia, and will continue to drive at home. But they had a taste of the car-free life, and liked it.
Baby steps.
florida usually makes you want to get a car.
Weird how otherwise reasonable people to to car-less places to decompress and vacation but don't want to bring that back to their normal life.
@@jeremiahamacher453 In response, another digital friend went to San Diego as a carless tourist ... using the same transit system my non-driving son uses to go from house to college.
We'll win them over eventually ... first when they're on vacation, then for rush hour commuting, then ... everything
Literally treating car dependent people like children lmao
But honestly this is likely the right way to do it
@@okaywhatevernevermind 100%. It'd be hard to be more car centric
It's no coincidence that travel times were historically actually faster by car and plane (and trains in many places too) before we started building almost exclusively for cars and airplanes.
Long ago, the transportation options live together in harmony. Then, Everything changed when the car option attacked.
@@MustraOrdo This is delightful. Well done.
@@MustraOrdo I think I like the way I put it better, but to rephrase: The travel time advantages enjoyed by personal cars and commercial aviation have been somewhat eroded by the congestion caused by dependency on these modes and lack of other options.
-It isn't about an anthropomorphized car option attacking, like in some political cartoon. Moreover- [Sorry, I am not cool enough to caught the reference], the point is that when cars were actually an option and not the only way we plan for people to get around on land, we enjoyed better travel times and experiences in cars. Likewise, before we stopped planning for strong intercity, regional and longer distance trains, and direct airport-rail-ciiy connectivity, our airports were also less congested and more pleasant. Short range flights might spend most of the scheduled travel time on the ground these days and airport security and processing have also slowed over time. The move towards many smaller aircraft rather than larger aircraft has also slowed air travel down. A more even modal split, anchored by more heavy rail investment specifically, but enabled by more transit of a wide variety generally, as well as more refined and intentional urban and road design, would make for faster safe travel for all modes.
@@kms1.62 the person you responded to was adapting the intro to avatar the last Airbender.
@@kanucks9 Thanks for the explanation. So Car Option is like the Fire Nation? Fair enough, and I approve. It is also a verifiable observation about robust multimodal options, and if it inspires a solid pop reference, that's great. Should have watched more Airbender.
I moved into an emerging walkable neighborhood and cut my driving by 75% overnight. You don't have to be in a transit rich place to make a substantial improvement in our personal situation, and when we do, we make an incremental improvement to our community in several ways.
Where did you move,
@@KhanJoltrane The NW side of downtown Raleigh, NC.
Raleigh? I loved living there! Was a great place to grow up. I lived there for 8 years and the city, albeit small, is full of life. Some people say it's dead that pass through, but they're not actually living in or around the city. The atmosphere is very welcoming.
The term "walkable neighbourhood" seems so weird to me as a european. I have never seen a non-walkable neighbourhood. I never owned a car. Petrol is very expensive here and it's often hard to find a parking space. So it's more convenient to hop in the train. But i hardly leave my neighbourhood. I have everything thing here. I can even walk to an ikea in 10min.
As a European, I am only now beginning to grasp the true scale of suburban sprawl in the USA, and the many effects it can have, on car use, on social cohesion, on walking, on municipal finances, on fossil fuel use, on physical and mental health and so on.
I live here in an apartment in the city of Leiden (120.000 people), a walking distance from both the historical centre, the main train station, supermarket, cinema, fitness, university, library, botanical garden and so on. In less than an hour I can be in the heart of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Haarlem and many other cities, all by train. And the train typically goes once every 15 or 30 minutes.
This all results in me not having a car and having many days in which I walk 6.000 - 12.000 steps just doing my daily things, which for sure has significant health benefits. It also helps those around me, as I do not take up their space with my car (or with a big house).
There are real blessing here that have complex origins and interplays of path dependency, psychological, political, economic and social forces. I am only now starting to become aware of them.
Consider the ways that POLICY has been forcing people to drive more. One is the destruction of small business, forcing more people to shop at centralized, corporate, "big-box" stores. Such big-box stores are designed to be car-centric, because a car is needed to transport the sheer volume of goods purchased each trip. Also, consider that many states/municipalities have made it illegal to allow kids to walk to school---forcing parents to make this car trip, as well.
As a cyclist who has a job that requires me to commute at odd hours this is so frustrating to me!
The 3.5 mile trip to my current work site takes me about 15-20m by car. It would take the same amount of time (if not slightly less because I'd avoid a parking garage) to take my bike... Except there are no bike lanes!
Don't let that stop you. There are no bike lanes here and it's rural with long commutes but I rarely drive even when shopping for groceries etc you can do it with a trailer over long distances.
Yeah, just wear a shirt that reads, “Please don’t hit me.” You should be fine.
There need to be bike highways across counties
lol. it is crazy sometime it is just faster just by walk to work instead of go by car. lol
“What if instead of demonizing drivers when over 91% of Americans have a vehicle…”
oh thank you so much for this. It feels like so many urbanist RUclipsrs are trying to guilt trip people all the time
It's tragedy of the commons. The same as no one droplet is responsible for the flood, yet the conclusion from the weather report is still inevitable. But I really don't see anyone trying to assign acute, personal blame either, that smells like a strawman to me.
@@ivolol no it's pretty common, especially in Facebook groups. The "cagers just love k*lling pedestrians and cyclists" mentality comes around pretty often, and I don't think it's productive
@@danielconway7190 The problem is when car oriented people are neutral or don’t take action to change the status quo but complain about the situation, which typically gives more power to NIMBYS to prevent a lot of positive city planning and policy changes. If vast majority of the car owning population don’t voice out their desire for more options and changes then politicians will listen to the small amount of people who want to keep it the same since the urbanization community is of course still much smaller than the larger population
@@danielconway7190 except it's true? out of those 91% of people, at least 30% of them are actively against any alternatives. against HSR, against walkable cities, against mixed use zoning and believe they have an inherent right to drive everywhere at the expense of everyone else.
@Daniel Conway Does anyone talk about the reckless cyclist pr the distracted person on the phone crossing the street and not paying attention and getting hit by a car, but let's blame the driver . Pedestrians and cyclist also need to pay attention.
I'd add a 4th point: aside from the stress of driving, it feels like it's a waste of time, even when it is relatively smooth. I'd rather be firing off emails or reading, planning my day or what have you, instead of being hyper-vigilant 40-60mins a day and not getting anything done. I've intentionally become car-free and moved to a city with awesome public transportation by North American standards (Montreal) and refuse to live anywhere far from PT. That's how you beat the traffic. I think there's something to be said about the attractiveness of such cities for jobs, especially going forward.
Being able to send work emails while commuting isn't inspiring to me because I don't want to work when I'm not at work. I'd rather use that time to get a casual workout in, which is why I bike everywhere. Although, being close to PT is nice in the event your bike or car is in the shop.
I'd also add a 5th point: Driving everywhere feels overkill. It feels far more appropriate walking ten minutes to the local grocery store to get a gallon of milk rather than hopping into the car and driving the same amount of time to get it.
@@karikling6751Yeah i really hope they were talking about personal emails
@@dudu28r81 I was seeing the broader point: you can do anything else instead of driving while commuting. I eventually learned that using and owning a car is like a job, without the income.
@@_SereneMango exactly, instead of getting paid you're the one paying
Building AFFORDABLE housing near where people work and only selling that housing to people Working in the Area, not to whom has the most money etc but those ACTUALLY WORKING THERE.
Over 80% of people's travel is to and from work or work related.
That was the 19th century model and it worked pretty good until Henry Ford came along.
To me the biggest obstacle is that humans tend to imagine ourselves as the main character, and everyone else is either in our way or helping us along. That’s why people say “I’m stuck in traffic” and not “I am traffic.” So yes, making alternatives to driving everywhere more accessible and appealing is important. But where the bar is set for “ok maybe I won’t drive this time” depends in some part on understanding what congestion is made up of. Once I realize it’s made up of people just like me who also decided to try to drive somewhere at the same time, then I start to realize making it better starts with someone (might as well be me, if it’s possible) deciding not to do that.
"Main Characters" will not want to be stuck in traffic for perfectly selfish reasons, so if they have alternatives, they'll take them. It's not a matter of empathy, it's a matter of alternatives. We need environments where most of those who _already own a car_ (no big up-front cost) will rationally choose not to do so because it's less convenient for some of their common trips.
i think that biggest obstacle might just be the hyper-individualist american capitalist mindset
If only there were more Non-Car Ways of Going Places.
You got me with predictable travel times. When heading to Newark Airport or to work. I know the MTA and NJ Transit are more predictable than traffic. The risk of missing a flight or a meeting is much less using public transit even if it takes normally more time than in that car (airport example from where I live).
And I'd like to add: The time in public transit when I get a seat is perceived different as I can read a book or playing games...
I am a urban design/ city planning student soon to be graduate; and whenever we design a new development, the most important things for us is the "5-min-City" concept and vehicle free planning. I hope in north america, or countriews with similar problems can transition soon into this kind of thinking!
Won't work but what you can do is change the public perception to be more viable
I can say I largely prefer being stuck in traffic surrounded by greenery than stuck in traffic surrounded by asphalt. Making the driving experience better does a lot to our sanity.
Whether you're driving or walking, a quality urban environment matters.
I feel like a “relatively” quick way to get suburbanites to learn these benefits is to build a grocery store at the ground level of an apartment complex. People will find that it’s nicer to walk to this maybe smaller store closeby rather than drive far away to the big store
Another idea from the 19th century that worked well til cars came along.
It depends on whether they like the higher prices and smaller selections. Convenience comes at its own cost. Not that the idea of smaller grocery stores at the ground level of apartments or around urban neighborhoods is a bad idea.
@@jimzecca3961 there are plenty of full size grocery stores in the ground level of apartments that in nyc and elsewhere, wouldn’t need to be convenience-store size
Y'll need to get out to the suburbs. They're full of grocery stores and they're full of thousands of apartments built right next to them.
@@AllenGraetz Well, across the giant parking lots anyway.
We didn't have this problem when major companies allowed remote work... I had an in person job still, and there was zero traffic.
underrated comment
The problem is that people get tired of staying in the same area for the next 80-90 years of there lives and wanna be somewhere different
I moved southern California (from small town Iowa) for a job 2 years ago. I can drive in the traffic. I don't have meltdowns or anything in tough situations. But by the time I make it to the destination, I'm just not in a good mood. I got a smart watch recently and noticed my heart rate is just constantly elevated while driving around here. Between getting there and searching for parking, it just isn't worth the stress. I hardly go anywhere now for fun, unless family or friends are visiting.
I have been learning about the train route that goes up to LA Union Stations that I've now taken twice in the last few weeks. It's a short drive to the train station, and apart from all the piss smell once you get there... it's a fun and easy day trip to LA!
business, old boy networks and politicians are NOT trying to solve traffic. There is too much money in traffic for them to want to solve it.
BART is empty due to crime. It's the same for most mass transit. They refuse to put violent offenders in prison, so the working people don't want to be trapped in a box with violent and crazy people.
Wrong.
Even rich people hate traffic, the obvious solution just doesn't work.
Really rich people fly in helicopters :)
@@kanucks9the rich and wealthy hate traffic but the car companies and politicians payed off buy automobile companies love it
Katy Freeway is frequently mentioned as the poster child for horrible congestion. But I checked the source on one such article, and it turns out that traffic is _not_ at a standstill there, even at peak times. Right at the peak of bad traffic, it's about 30mph: slow for an interstate highway, sure, but far from stopped. And within a couple hours, it's back up to highway speed.
There don't get to be more people, just because the way we're spread out changes. Higher density would be a solution. It's just outlawed almost everywhere in the US, because people prioritize protecting home equity above everything else, and if people were allowed to have nice complete neighborhoods like the one I live in, all of the fifty-miles-from-anything tract houses would become worthless.
Holy smokes I love how you explained \*why\* I used to seek out back roads on my commute home even though I knew it probably would be faster to sit in highway traffic. I knew it felt better to do but I didn't know why.
For point 3, I think this relates to using mass transit, too. I would despise a 45 minute driving commute, but a 50 minute bus trip isn’t as much of a “chore” to me. I’m not exhausting my body and mind to drive; I’m chilling out, listening to podcasts, reading a book. It’s become a hybrid of commute time and leisure time.
I wish you had mentioned the funnel effect of traffic, from 4 lanes to two to get off the highway into a space restricted and confined city space. That alone literally makes extra lanes a waste of money 99% of the time.
But thanks for the video. I like your reasonable nature and I hope we can see some change in America someday
Your point about a drive taking the same time whether on the highway or the scenic route is pretty great. I've started riding my bike to work a few days a week, and even though the ride in is 40 minutes uphill instead of a 15 minutes in the car, it's much more enjoyable on peaceful backstreets and bushland shortcuts. (And the return trip in the afternoon is only 20 minutes, with those same benefits)
I saw this problem years ago. I'm from Baltimore MD and when I worked in DC there was no way in hell I was going to try and navigate that commute on a daily basis. MARC train was and is a lifesaver. No expenses for gas, parking or tolls. Which would have been significant, even in the late 90s. EDIT: I did drive once. 3 hrs each way. Ridiculous. That's enough hours to hold a part time job. lol
I'd always wondered why my city felt so huge to me but not others. That half hour rule makes so much sense for me on a bus for an hour versus them in a car for 20 minutes
Love your use of sports example. Here in Brisbane, Australia we have free transit to our major sports events. Transit is cornerstone to it. Noone drives because there is no parking at the stadium. Good system
For all Australia's car dependency (relative to Europe anyway, not so much to North America), suburban rail is something we do very well. Almost every suburb in the metropolis of a major city here is well connected by fast, easy, clean and safe suburban rail to major points of interest. Most people, not just the poor like in the US, but most people commute by train to office jobs, sports events, concerts, and just nights out in the inner city in general.
@@JesusManera And, checking random stations in Sydney, it seemed pretty common to have at least two grocery stores near the station, which also helps a lot.
@@JesusManera when australia does TOD good, it does it very good, e.g Chatswood. But when Australia does car dependent suburbs, it DOES car dependency e.g Marsden Park.
Great video! On the Chicago front, I'm really hoping that ditching "Chicago is a car city" Lightfoot for Brandon Johnson will lead to some much-needed improvements in the CTA and bike infrastructure.
Yep. She was such a disappointment after Rahmbo. He did so much for cycling and transit.
The bar is so low that Johnson just needs to get us back to pre covid.
Don’t worry! You still have aldermaniacs putting stop signs on MAIN roads just so some hipster transplant from Iowa or some old hag can cross the street a little more conveniently!
kinda disappointing that instead of 'better public transit' we get 'more options' as if we dont know the answer based on the rest of the world
Strong towns, once again your content hits close to home. I'm originally from a town north of Joliet, where we would normally drive to Wrigley, and that drive made me sink deeper and deeper into the car seat when I was a kid. We much preferred to drive 30 min to the metra station and take it to the city
The never-ending battle with traffic continues
The reason we keep on building more roads is that it is easy. We know that cars can drive, and we are used to that, but they won’t look at the facts. Bike lines and walking paths move more people per hour.
1 train move more people per trip than your bike lane in an hour... and please don't include pedestrian there is plenty of pedestrian paths that make smaller to accommodate dedicated bike-lane.. and sadly even 1 bus move more people than your dedicated bike-line.... which sadly usually the first casualty of your protected bike-lane..
i *why* theyre doing this, i think things wouldve changed by now if they were actually looking at the facts. . .
@@anubizz3 either way, all modes of transportation you listed are faster, and move more people per hour than by cars.
@@anubizz3 We know nothing beats trains. But one cycle-track can move as many passengers per direction per hour as a 6 lane freeway with single-occupant cars (2,000 p/hd.lane). And no even a dedicated bus lane has less capacity than a cycle lane (only 9,000 p/hd vs 12,000 p/hd)
Did you notice that your city closes down streets for major events? The reason is that walking is actually more space efficient than even cycling for getting people out of an area (about 15,000 p/hd.lane). The main problem with walking is that you can only go a few miles before your reach the 30 minute time-out mentioned in the video.
@@anubizz3 In a lot of places there aren't enough pedestrian paths - especially in places that are comfortable to walk. And as James said, bike lanes and foot paths beat bus lanes for capacity.
I like road diets. Giving part of the multiple lanes to pedestrians and bikes and making the paths more friendly and inviting to travel to by foot is way more enticing. The cement sidewalks in my city with partial landscaping is what I feel a bare minimum to make places walkable. It's standardization and when you look at other countries walkways like Seoul, South Korea its much more walkable and beautiful that it makes you want to walk. Beautiful stone or brick walkways that are well lit with supporting greenery like trees and shrubs. It also means more foot traffic for stores. There is an adjacent bus network with busses every three minutes. That would be a game changer for the US cities. Our cities are so car oriented it will be interesting to see how we adapt them towards more travel options.
A friend of mine who lives rural asked how I stand traffic in Seattle. I said that I have four grocery stores within 5min of my house - how long do you travel to the store. She said "oh, right"
Also, in the US it’s expensive to own a car but operational costs are fairly cheap. That makes it difficult for people to leave their car at home when they’ve already paid for it and insurance.
Solving this issue is going to take a long time. I strongly believe in starting change in one neighborhood. Hopefully, people will see the benefits and want to get on board.
Yessssss let's get it. I'm here for the strong towns video essays. Gonna send this to everyone I know. 🍊🧡🔸️💊
MORE LANES MORE LANES 1,000,000 LANES🤡
great job once again! hopefully these ideas can get out to more communities struggling with car centric cities!
Love the humor, thanos snap and oof at the BB miss 😂.
This really is a great highlight of how the issue isnt the time spent traveling but how its done. A 15 minute walk down a tree lined sidewalk will be nicer than 15 minutes down a stroad. Time doesnt matter, the set up of travel does. Great video!
No kidding, and my neighborhood is a perfect example of the 7-mile road issue @ 9:20. For some reason, there's about a 100 meter gap between our dead end stub street and the one in the adjoining neighborhood. Nobody wants to complete the link--the people in those section like living on dead end streets so there's less traffic. I just want to link our neighborhoods together so we can walk to the park that accessible on their side, and theirs and our kids can get to each other's homes without it turning into a 20 minute car ride via congested primary roads. But, NIMBYs will be NIMBYs.
I hope the NIMBYS would understand that a walkway or bikeway link does not increase the kind of traffic that destroys the quiet of a dead end street they're looking for, nor does it increase crime.
Spend the millions to buy out their houses, then.
Another great video! I will say that even in cities with good-to-excellent mass transit options, there are serious issues around rider safety. Here in Portland, OR there are entire light-rail lines I avoid now because they, at times, feel more like opium dens than public transit, and smell of cigarette, feces, and urine.
Yet, that riding experience is 100 times better than some of the stops transit takers might be forced to wait at that are underlit, remote, or don't have much foot traffic, which can be a very stressful experience.
All that is to say that having options and destinations is great, but there are (currently) deeper societal illnesses that can make people feel vulnerable and/or unsafe on transit.
That really shouldn't be an issue and I think it's caused by under-use by the middle class. When public transit has a negative stigma and is seen as only being for the poor, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and it becomes that because people avoid it. In Australia, everybody uses public transport. In fact, in Melbourne if you live somewhere that you can say you commute by tram, that's actually an indicator of affluence and has a positive association. But even beyond the tram network, the whole public transport system is used by everyone. Morning trains are full of suited executives and high income professionals, alongside students, blue collar workers and everyone in between. There's no stigma.
In some metro areas (like metro-Atlanta) even those off-highway roads & streets are congested. Stroad or 2-lane "residential" road, so often get congested, particularly in the morning and afternoon. So many pockets have resisted change and different development patterns, alternatives to cars, and are still woefully behind in de-stroad-ing our built places.
All that to say - we absolutely need to take the ideas in this video to heart, because it's only going to get worse if we continue these broken patterns.
I hate cities (besides the food options) so I am moving out of Atlanta to rural Alabama tomorrow.
I really love the content you've been putting up. These videos have been stellar.
Very well made video! I live in Europe, but the transformation of US cities away from car-centric planning is really fascinating to me. Good luck with your iniatives and keep up the great work!
People are sometimes what makes the traffic unbearable. Terrible driving, road rage and aggressive/slow driving are just some of those things you can't control but also can't stand 😢😮
Good stuff. Always remember that we each have control over the length of our commute because we choose where we live and where we work. It isn’t society’s job to enable long commutes.
Not that simple in the corporate world. As an example a colleague of mine bought a house really close to the office we were based at near the edge of the city. The company was struggling a little and to reduce costs they decided to close one of their three offices and we then had to commute to a different office. For my colleague that was now about 9 miles to a city centre location.
I have seen similar scenarios on many occasions.
I am at the fourth different location for my current employer. All of the locations have been near poorly performing schools.
@@andrewm9054 People come up with plenty of excuses for why they don’t move closer to work or find a new job close to where they live. Mostly they just want the government to enable their long commute.
After taking the orange pill two years ago, this video makes my heart sing. Strong Towns is totally leveling up. 🎉
I had never heard of the Ewing effect related to traffic, but it makes total sense and engineers wouldn't get all defensive about freeway s. Thanks for another tool I can use in transportation planning.
That is what I did 5 year ago (Vilnius, Lithuania). Instead of siting in car I am taking a bus now. I spend mostly same amount of time, but instead I can listen to audiobook, watch youtube or browse social media. Commute time passes like inkstand with actual pleasure.
This channel really stepped up their game. Keep up the good work! You are amazing!
I really appreciate how your videos are ~10-15 minutes. Short enough to share with friends, but long enough to touch on the important information. The production value is also insane and engaging. Keep up the great work!
Oh man. This is perfect! So many concepts I’ve been talking about forever put in simple and research backed ways. Thanks for this.
Unpredictable Variability - WOW you hit the nail on the head there. Especially with the graphic of driving from Fort Worth to Dallas changing from half an hour up to almost 90 minutes. Exact scenario I was in while living in Fort Worth, you just can't rely on zero traffic or zero accidents on the way to somewhere so have to factor in an extra 15 minutes going anywhere important. I think everyone that drives can share the sentiment of being frustrated at standstill traffic then looking at the emergency vehicles blocking 3 lanes for a low speed rear-end collision. "WE ALL SAT IN TRAFFIC FOR 15 MINUTES FOR THAT?? GET OFF THE ROAD!!" It's stressful to say the least.
A trip to my Walmart 'neighborhood market' is 4 minutes by car, but takes one hour to walk. Hell is suburbia lmao
Two thoughts on this issue:
1. The GPS effect. GPSes are sending everyone onto the same routes, crowding them even more and making slightly slower routes superior. (I.e. Charlotte to Portland ME through Scranton is practically the fastest route, but not geographically)
2. We need more nighttime infrastructure. I think these big budget cities need to incentivize non-service industry work to be moved to later hours, also giving truckers more opportunities and overall reducing the daytime population. I know there are social factors pushing back against this but I think this time of day is underutilized versus how many people are willing to work the graveyard shift.
Working overnight has real negative health impacts though
@@BrookeKnits Like...? Also how adapted are these people being studied? I can only give personal anecdotes, but working nights as a trucker has improved just about everything. (though I had a history of night driving and shopping(pre-2020) long before I started trucking)
My city, which deactivated its last tram line in the 60's, has a project to revive trams/LRTs since 2020. It wasn't approve yet, but it is a sign that there IS an interest in expanding public transit! Progress is still slow, but things are already different.
The population in the US has basically doubled during my 56 year lifetime. And the highway system is basically the same as it was back then.
also re: driving. it's honestly just one of the more unpleasant forms of travel. you have to pay so much attention and even as a passenger i feel very boxed in. alternatively when i'm walking everything is much easier to notice and react to because people are traveling at walking speeds. for longer trips that "require cars" i prefer to take the train (though i will take the bus if the train isn't available) and it's much more peaceful and i can read on my phone or kindle or sometimes i've even brought knitting or embroidery to do on the way. it's just much more pleasant. i think car lovers just haven't encountered a good train yet
What a great video. I love the thought processes involved. Thanks ST 🏠
this is good nuance on the issue! thanks a lot!!
The shot where the Metra commuter train roared over the stop and go traffic provides your answer. That train has ferried people to those distant places since the 1870s.
One major contributor to increased congestion is the increased size of cars. Nobody ever talks about that. If you add 5 cm to each vehicle, multiply that by the number of cars, let's say some busy road has 100 000 vehicles a day. That' 500 000 cm of extra space needed, which is 5 km. I know not all vehicles are on the road at the same time but still, the increased size of vehicles is one major contributor to the congestion. Also, most vehicles just have one single occupant in them.
I spent 30 years in Tokyo where other than work daily needs are in walking or biking(on sidewalks) distance. People commonly commute an hour to work but it is a very consistent commute time. Moving back to North America was a shock. Once I discovered that post covid grocery stores deliver and most things can now be bought online and delivered life became good again. A lot of car trips really are not necessary but just bad design and bad habits.
I love delivery too. Instead of my car making a trip, someone elses does.
How timely. I literally had to deal with pretty much every point in this video yesterday as I drove from my exurb north of Toronto to Vaughn to pick up a new computer. It ended up being ready for pick up just before rush hour so by the time I got there it was peak. I had to deal with a recently expanded highway that had already maxed out due to induced demand (404), all the east-west arterial's feeding the highway being jammed (witnessed multiple intersections blocked by traffic when the lights changed), construction everywhere as the area was over the 30 year mark for road replacement, congestion from giant shopping centre's as everyone has to go to the same location for what they need and stressed out drivers. Granted, my situation may not have been avoidable as the service I was accessing was niche and only available away from my smaller town, but you can really see the overall dysfunction in the system.
I love Strongtowns and Not Just Bikes! As a transit-equity environmentalist, I love what you do AND I want to point out that we MUST consider reducing population growth, which has far outpaced our ability to continue to lived sustainably on this planet.
Congestion is the thing that discourages congestion, so as long as you have people with cars and a place a lot of them wanna go, there'll be congestion.
Wow that was the best explanation of induced demand I've ever heard!
Aren't most places in the US very deep in trouble since the sprwaling suburban environment has allready been built? It would take decades to build dense walkable neighbourhoods
Strong Towns says sprawl causes financial problems for sprawling places, but living in sprawl doesn’t have to mean your commute is long. For example I used to live in Lakewood Ranch (Florida), the epitome of sprawl development. But I commuted less than 3 miles to work and had lots of shopping/dining options within 2 miles. I put little mileage on my car. And I wasn’t unusual. Lots of people in the development were in the same situation. Deciding to live close to work is the key.
Then don't focus on walkable but bike-able neighbourhoods.
- Convert last mile streets into one way streets and add a separated bike path into each of them.
- If these streets are close-ended select one option from:
a) merge every two streets together so you can make space for bike paths
b) allow the occasional street to be two way but add speed bumps for lower speeds
c) take space from front yards to create a bike path
- Add 2 meter wide shortcuts between houses for bikes and pedestrians so they can reach the neighbourhood center faster (practiced in London, UK)
- Create small neighborhood centers in the suburbs that connect every 10-12 streets that includes all commercial activity needed for a residential area (grocery store, cafe, bakery, pub), a school, a medical center, a small park / playground and a transit station
- Connect 10-12 small neighborhood centers (meaning 100 - 144 streets) together into a big center that has a bigger park, a high school, a trade center / supermarket, a hospital and a major transit hub (regional / suburban rail)
- Connect the bigger center to the smaller ones with max 4 lane road (not stroad), a bike path, and dedicated lanes for buses (BRT) or trams
- Connect big neighborhood centers to each other, city centers / downtowns and other towns / cities with suburban / regional trains which (very important) are designed to carry bikes (U-bahn / S-bahn style)
Great vid! Makes sense, non-abrasive, car enthusiast friendly. Your other videos are great as well but this one I thing really nails it 👍
Adding another lane doesn't "induces demand", because the demand was already there. It just diverts from other less suitable solutions.
The problem is housing development has an "externality" in increased road traffic. We build houses faster than roads. If houses were taxed enough to cover the increased traffic demands, the problem would solve itself. This will never happen because cities want a higher tax base that is available to spend as they see fit.
Listening to this video while stuck in traffic👍👍👍👍👍
Dude, that water analogy is apt. We've been managing water and floods for centuries. We need to do the same thing to transportation. We need the self-driving car yesterday, but we need to push adoption so that stuff just works.
I studied in a 1 million city for a year that had relatively good transportantion options but when I went to much bigger Guadalajara, MX I started calling it embolism traffic because of the infrastructure and the driving habits in the city, which it was noticeably resemblant to me a diseased circulatory system pushing too hard to make it work.
GREAT POINTS, dude! THANK YOU for highlighting the value of having stuff in neighborhoods!!! Hooray for walking!
Sounds like your proposed solution is exactly what we call superblocks.
As a European (I'm in London), this video felt like one of those moments where you're sitting in front of the TV screaming the answer: 👏 INVEST 👏 IN 👏 PUBLIC 👏 TRANSPORT 👏
Oh and active travel is great too (cycling, walking)
Don't use the clapping
Will not change opinions
Invest in other transportation options and infrastructures and change the public perception
General motors got us good..
Can you believe that Tokyo almost have no traffic jams?! One of the world's most densest cities has no traffic jams!? It's hard to believe, but it's true
There is a lot of opposition to good public transit. There is the entire auto industry, people who make cars, sell cars, repair and maintain cars. It goes further to people who make and repair roads, car accessories and such like Baby car seats. Drive through fast food joints, most stores that want you to buy in bulk like Costco that couldn't work if you walked or rode a bike. So many people would be forced to change, that those in power spend tons of money to prevent that from happening.
Three words define this problem. Public Transportation Sucks.
I bought 5 copies of the book, Strong Towns, and handed them out to some locals and city commissioners!
@@a10001110101 I can't blame you for your skepticism, but the nice thing about small towns is you really get to know the people in them and I know this won't happen. Worst case scenario is they won't read them but I'll just ask them to pass it along.
I personally have a 25-minute commute between home and work.
I bicycle.
(I sometimes say that you cannot "fix" traffic by encouraging people to drive more. Note the specific phrasing. It's not the driving itself that's the problem -- but the compulsion to _need to drive.)_
At this point there's absolutely no reworking the system we have. It'll take 50 years to rework to a new concept and TRILLIONS.
Unfortunately you also need to talk about homelessness and crime.
To wit: a new playground was just built within walking distance of my house, but I still drive my kids to a further one because there’s always a bunch of homeless people hanging out near by and the last time we went two of them got into a violent argument with swearing and punching.
Similarly, I used to take the bud to work but started driving after too many incidents with homeless people threatening passengers or smoking fent on board.
When you have limited supply (lanes) and excess demand (automobiles), you're always going to tend to have shortages. The classical economic fix would be to use the lever of pricing. Higher tolls and/or gas taxes would be a way to alleviate rates of traffic. Of course, it helps a lot if people have viable alternatives. Automobile infrastructure currently has a monopoly hold on a huge part of the USA, leaving people trapped in a broken system.
10:27 thanks for including that Montana headline!
My issue with traffic is the constant stopping then moving forward 10 feet then stopping again
A big factor in why highway driving is so stressful for me personally is that it is incredibly dangerous. It triggers fight or flight and so every frustration in that process also hammers against the adrenaline and other stress hormones the body. Even in stop and go traffic where you are ostensibly moving slowly, you have to react quickly and pay attention constantly.
It's exhausting and unpleasant to drive under most circumstances. I hope I see the day where those of us out in smaller towns get to have other, safe options.
we need to do more health studies on this so policy makers see how detrimental driving is even if we factor out accidents.
when are commuters going to wake up and realize that the solution is to build TWO more lanes????
gotta be wide enough for my WARLOCK!!!
As this video suggests, economics and time constraints will force the issues to be resolved in better ways.
No, pave everything everywhere so that there are no destinations anymore. Everyone will always have to drive!
And still traffic will be impossible.
Finally a great well researched video that doesn’t claim public transportation as the only solution (which isn’t feasible for most Americans living in suburbs).
Working from home and having everything delivered seems to work for me.
I dropped this over on CityNerd too. This urbanism topic is great and I fully support it, but the reason why people choose to live in the suburbs is because urban schools suck! People take their wealth to good school districts so urban sprawl is a manifest destiny. People will put up with long commutes so their kids don’t have to suffer crappy educational settings. Urbanism is great for singles and empty nesters, but unless urban education is improved, nobody with the resources to live in the city will do so because the schools are bad. The hottest competition for where to buy a house is not how easy it is to get to Trader Joe’s, it’s proximity to good schools.
The best schools used to be in cities. They can be again if we had the will.
None of us will have to worry about traffic when civilization collapses in 10-20 years due to abrupt and irreversible climate change, plan accordingly
@Lucky Joestar cope sorry I mean cope I mean cope
And it's all due to compulsory automobility 😞
Keep a close watch on the packaging industry (beverages, e-commerce) with its sharp increase in usage of plastics as the oil-based industries switch their focus from transportation to them.
"when civilization collapses in 10-20 years" - 😂
German Bundesautobahn:
Has 2-4 lanes in one direction
Passing on the left is strictly enforced, especially that it's easier to enforce on narrower roads, making drivers get along well which reduces crashes and traffic
70% of the Autobahn frees just cars from speed limits, though it's recommended to go 130 km/h or 80 mph
North American Motorwways:
Can be up to 20 LANES wide
Passing on the left isn't strictly enforced especially that it's harder to do so, making drivers fight over lanes, which causes crashes and traffic
The speed limit is 100-120 km/h or 60-75 mph
My old car broke down and was too expensive to fix. I was able to junk it and receive a free year with a car share program. This curtailed my driving habit and motivated me to walk, bike or use transit. I mostly use cars for multi-store shopping or big grocery shops.