The idea of a non-walkable city still boggles my mind, I had never experienced one until I went to the states. Would not recommend, it's like someone built a city but had never actually met a human being before.
Yes I think it’s so sad that most the United States you cannot even walk to nearby small grocery if you want it just to buy a few things or you could not walk to a nearby café in most of the United States.
@@thetillerwiller4696 "Not just Bikes" said that too in his channel and it saddens me to realize that seems to be true for many. makes me realize how good I had it as a young kid and grateful for that
I love exploring cities on foot when I travel. I live in a very walkable city and there have been so many improvements in the past 10 years. Curb cuts, bike lines, new paint for cross walks, better signage. Still a long way to go but it's great to see the progress.
I wish all cities were walkable. I visited Toronto and I was walking the whole day. My legs were in so much pain after because im not used to walking so much. Unfortunately I live in a smaller city where you need to drive to get to places
I think also there needs to be measure for bikes and electric scooters, too. Cheaper yo run than cars and a little better than walking city distances. As Simeone pointed out, concrete isnt the best for your joints.
This! At least if abolishing all petroleum cars harm one's state economy, make a regulation for all electric motorcycle/schooters, mandatory bike and school bus for student
These are all wonderful and important ideas and approaches, and I genuinely mean that. But as a person with a number of disabilities who has difficulty walking far and sometimes needs a wheelchair, the biggest problem I have in cities that are promoting walking is that when I am having a very bad day, I cannot get to any shops or venues or restaurants that are more than a 25m inside pedestrian areas. I cannot afford a motorized wheelchair, nor an aide to push me. Also the bumpy cobblestones and similar materials turn my wheelchair into a torture device. So I am simply *locked out* of whole areas except on very good days. I wish someone were working on that issue.
I just want to thank you! I find this comment very inspiring, because me as a person who can walk doesn’t think too much about that. Now I genuinely think about a solution and my first thought is that, when city’s are more walkable there are more people who can help to take care of others, because communities are much closer together.
@@d4rkfreedom I hope so! And the idea of having everything in small neighbourhoods is also really helpful. But my experience of pedestrian areas in cities is nothing like that so far.
@@rakkatytam On the contrary, lack of consideration for people with various disabilities is the issue. At least in more pedestrianised areas. Along with the massive expense of motorised wheelchairs.
@@anahidkassabian4471 Its only an issue because they barely have consideration for pedestrians in general, disability or not. Walkable cities are not more unfriendly to people with disabilities, in fact they are more friendly. Everything you need to survive is much closer since small neighborhood businesses thrive in walkable cities. Walkable cities such as ones in the Netherlands, still have car free paths that allow for "mini cars", basically enlcosed scooters that people with disabilities use to commute. There is still handicap only parking and people who need cars are still able to get them. The fact that a scooter is too expensive for you should not be an indictment against walkable cities, but an indictment on a horribly flawed medical system. Walkable cities are made so people can travel around without the use of obsolete cars. So of course they are going to put more infrastructure in place to ensure that those with disabilities can get around easily.
Where I live they have climate action goals and one was to make the city more walkable which I am excited about and they have already started making adjustments and more sidewalks
I lived in a walkable biking city for a decade. Transportation was part of the most enjoyable experiences. I bike year round for transportation. All of this was integral to my empowerment as a teenager escaping a toxic childhood into full self determination, and even led me to become a youth mentor and empowerment advocate. I recently moved across the country and have experienced my first American suburb up close and personal. It's commonly accepted back home that city people despise the suburbs, so we generally know the desolate nature of suburbanism. But I've never seen it so dire and desperate until my experiences now. It left me isolated and almost destitute trying to crawl my way to stability. I ended up getting a car at my poorest and worst health because there are so few jobs here in this copy-paste corporate wasteland. Shortly after I learned many other poor people around me are in the same boat. Car ownership is modern day indentured servitude. It is nothing short of absolutely shocking and disgusting to me how this world has been created when we had historic opportunities to create something so much better. This issue is now one of the most important in my life and I will dedicate to getting people on board to tackle suburbanism NOW.
I live in the UK. Walking here is considered just the norm. If you live in a city there's no need to own a car as you can easily walk or cycle wherever you need to go. It's the same across most of Europe. If I really wanted to, I could probably walk the coastline of britain without having to worry about being hit by a car.
Yeah, that’s because in the 1970s the Silent Generation won the fight for traditional neighbourhoods, but in the US they doubled downed despite an oil crisis. That was also when unions started to break.
5:38 also, the higher cost is literally due to demand. More dense areas are much cheaper to build and maintain. The reason dense areas are expensive is because so many people want to live in walkable places vs what's available that landlords can really jack up the price and still fill their spaces. If more cities were walkable with medium-high density population, the prices would probably be much lower for individual units.
The other cost that cars levy on the environment is space. Regulations mandate that businesses create huge parking lots which means less green areas. Also, cars need more and more roads which also eat up more green space.
Good presentation. But people make this so much harder than it has to be. The solution is to simply up abolish much of the existing zoning laws, up zone entire cities and focus on mass transit and everything falls else into place. There's no masterplanning needed. Look at Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, etc. They aren't masterplanned, they just allow the market to build the housing and walkable neighborhoods that people want. The reason why we don't have these walkable cities in North America isn't because there's not enough "conversation", its because the State prohibits it.
I didn't believe the idea that "if you build it, they will come" when it comes to incentivizing walkability. That is, until huge renovations were made on my own street. The area was already decent for pedestrians, but holy cow, now it's always full of people walking to and from stores, train station and parks. Widened sidewalks, slower speed limits, bright street lights, shade, protected crossings make ALL the difference.
Very little parking does help but isn't the full solution. Part of the problem is also the large sprawl that already exists, the distances still need to be covered.
@@PerfectAlibi1 Eliminate minimum parking requirements and developers will feed the need for space efficient places. Higher density, mix use, walkable, car (light). Some people will opt for this and have much shorter daily commutes that don't add to congestion. Right now, those places are expensive to build. Minimum parking requirements adds 20-50% to the cost of construction. Parking takes takes up space which is an opportunity cost for some other more productive use. To reduce the cost of parking per unit, fewer larger and more expensive units are favored as opposed to more units that are smaller and economical. This means fewer affordable units. All these things results in high rents and high condo prices. Since fewer people can afford such places, fewer units are built. Buildings are shorter than otherwise, much of the airspace is simply unused. Imagine all the wasted highly desirable airspace of all the parking lots and parking structures. Just look at any downtown built in compliance with with minimum parking requirements.
@@Basta11 I agree! With all the empty parking lot whether it’s not big events or each parking lot to get to stores it just makes an atmosphere of ugliness.
I hate walking running or defending myself on concrete i always prefer walking on grass or dirt. Better for your joints too. Runnings not bad for your knees running on concrete is.
I am already changed.!! I am not obsessed with cars although I can drive. I like idea of protective bicycle lanes and once I lived in a city that had them and I also like the ideas of walkable cities then I would get exercise without having to go to the gym and can spontaneously run into friends sometimes. I never felt at home with American culture like that. Even though I am American.
As a Turk the fact that even my hometown Ankara is much more walkable than a typical American/Canadian city along the fact that people comparing ethical infrastructure to communism boggles my mind very very much
Don't know if you've addressed this elsewhere: street codes are very important, since they ensure that future streets (including street revamps) cater to walkers. (Streets have a life time of about two decades, so a street code leads to ~ 5 % of street infrastructure being made walkfriendly every year without the extra cost of changing existing, still okay streets). Furthermore, the street code needs to be paired with a zoning code that favours mixed use over single use (as is the current default in the US).
Just copy Disneyland in Anaheim. Create a large parking structure on the outskirts of the city or maybe have it underground like Apple, then have trams that take you into city like Disneyland does, or you can walk into the city.
I really like this idea, have cars on the outskirts of the city or maybe underground and trams or something else that takes you into the city. Of course emergency vehicles and some other exceptions by delivery vehicles have to be allowed in some kind of lane. And this of course doesn’t have to be every city they can be cities left for people who want it the other way. But walkable cities combined with public transport makes for a healthier person because when you have to walk or bicycle sometimes then gets more exercise than if you just drive everywhere and I have friends who are coming home from work, driving home from work and they’re too tired to exercise. But if they had to walk or bicycle even part of the way they would’ve gotten more exercise even if they were too tired to do any other exercise.
They can also make lanes for golf carts. We don't all need to go 50 miles an hour. Not all of us can use a bike, and wheelchairs and assistance scooters aren't allowed on streets. There's a city in Georgia that uses golf carts everywhere, and it's NICE.
But are the golf carts a danger to bicyclist and to walkers, I’ve seen golf carts, sometimes going too fast, made so they can go faster than they’re supposed to go so just faster than 20 mph
There’s other choices besides apartments such as townhouses or condominiums. The town houses or garden houses might have a small backyard. There might even be what’s called a Eco village where there’s a community living together but they have a community garden and other things in common.
Good Priscilla! It’s important not to think for yourself & have a perfectly programmed mind. That’s what government encourages. See the faces of the people in this picture? Zombies.
As a walker, I’ve noticed that if you use the crosswalk it is often more dangerous since it is allowed for drivers to turn right and they don’t always stop and turn right and so they don’t see the walker in the middle of the crosswalk to the last minute such as what happened to me.
Pedestrian needs more than walkable street. Not only comfortable surface of street, we also need a canopy (better make of a tree if that makes sense) that absorb pollution and protect you from heat. Electric vehicle regulation is also needed for pedestrian as we could die from air pollution if the surroundings still packed with gasoline based vehicle. Lotsa lots of public transpo can help reduce the air pollution too
Um. Even with costs of car payment, car insurance, and gas, rents are still more in NYC then they would be in some ruralish area. (Plus you are still gonna pay for transportation through subway and bus)
5:14 walkable cities are expensive because Euclidean zoning laws prohibit them from being built. The only walkable cities are remnants from the past. They're in short supply but in high demand. Therefore the price goes up. Walkable neighborhoods only inherently for wealthy people, if we make walkable neighborhoods the default it will become affordable for everyone.
I don't like how the youtube algorithm is working like this, it's a lidged a crime that videos that's is related to climate change doesn't get the views that it needs, so it's ok for a women to show they behind and they like thousands of likes but subjects like this is that important
All cities should be walkable and dense, like you see in central Florence, Prague, Oxford, etc. Even if you use modern materials, cities are beautiful when everything is designed for humans, with narrow streets, courtyards, gardens, etc. There shouldn't be any roads wider than 4 lanes (2 in each direction) inside a city and cars should never be allowed to go fast in cities. The only cars moving around inside a city should be for deliveries and disabled folk (or rich people who don't mind paying steep congestion charges).
You have to make whole cities walkable and bikeable to avoid gentrification- you probably want to make it a state-wide policy, as at the moment ANY neighbourhood that is walkable will generate high demand and poor people will be displaced even further a way! My neighbourhood isn't well off, but it is VERY walkable- plaenty of good infrastructure, even when you do reach the more car centered areas- one problem is that we don't actually have any truly pedestrianized areas and our cycling infrastructure is awful, though it is manageable in quiet places or if you use the pavements- which the local council is largely turning into shared pedestrian/biking paths in a bid not to annoy the car addicts because while it isn't good for pedestrians or cyclists for MANY reasons, it doesn't require taking space away from the real space-hogs they love so much- these paths aren't ideal for biking because there are people walking and because they don't have raised priority crossings, you end up faster on the road as yielding at every side street is tiring on a bike.'There is lots of space for people and bikes to be accomodated safely, just take some of it from the greedy motorists!
Eliminate oil subsidies, single family home zoning, and parking lot minimums and the market will take care of the rest. If the true cost of driving was borne by drivers, there would be much fewer of them, and the suburbs would not be affordable for most people. Right now, the demand for walkable neighborhoods far outstrips supply because developers are not allowed to build what the market wants in most places.
This would he good in my hometown but not during the wintertime. Now that I'm in Orlando I cant see it happening due to distance of everything and the crazy heat during spring/summer.
Cities need to make turning right illegal for cars because they put walkers in danger. I can count several times where I had to walk signal and I was in the walk area and a car turning right on red almost hit me and another time where even in Fort Lauderdale they had yield on red sign for the cars and the car still didn’t yield so I think there has to be some kind of enforcement also
Suburbs on the outskirts of a city are walkable. City centers are not. People go to the restaurants, shops and markets a few blocks away. Why would they drive downtown where there is no parking. You can literally walk to the shops in your suburban neighborhood.
The problem is that that only serves the young and unencumbered. There are more than half the population that are old, very young, handicapped, or I'll not to mention the portion of the population taking care of elderly parents, handicapped spouses, or young children. And have you ever tried walking around toting 4 or more kids on crowded streets without losing anyone. Also many young nonathletic types can't ride a bike and never could. So what do you plan to do to serve all those people. And this will be just great in outbreaks also. Many are just trying to get groceries or see a doctor.
You still CAN drive in a walkable city, it's just that on most journeys there's no reason to. Car centric infrastructure only makes it harder for people with reduced mobility, because the streets are clogged with cars, things are further apart and they often can't drive a car, so they're left with no independence
City dwellers are more conscious of having 4+ kids lmao. I would have two max. I would NEVER have children if my fate is to live in a car infested hellhole. It’s all about using our noggin which millennials really have it down. We are not having children just because…
It’s quite common for example in Germany and some other countries to see a woman or man and who’s in their 70s and 80s bicycling or walking by and as for the very young there are children that are bicycling with their parents and having a great time and the handicapped can sometimes get around with special vehicles or if they can ride the trains. As for the young non-athletic types some of them could become more athletic when they do more walking instead of always drive and if there’s people that can’t ride a bike because they’re really not athletic then they can walk to where you can take the train or some combination that would work for them . But you don’t really need to be athletic to learn to ride a bicycle unless you’re first learning when you’re 70 maybe.
What I don'tlike about some walkable cities (hoboken.. cough cough) that they throw themselves into the road with headphones out of nowhere I might add☝🏼
Yes that’s certainly a walker that doesn’t Think before they cross the street however there’s many Drivers they don’t think when they drive, they drive drunk or with illegal drugs that they have taken or they simply don’t put on their turn signal when they suddenly turn or they turn at the last minute off across another lane of traffic or they text and drive etc. etc.
Yes the metro and trains would also be good for other choices especially to get from city to city. Also you could rent a car if you don’t want to have the cost of keeping one, when you go out to the countryside or from city to city if it’s easier than to get the train for some people that may have disabilities or they’re taking a lot of sports equipment or some other reason.
They make carts to buy a lot of groceries and comfortably carry them home, but generally, if you live in a walkable neighborhood with easy access to affordable groceries, you will get groceries several times per week, and your trips will be a smaller number of items.
@@michah321 you'll need to be a little more creative because you just cannot see it, but actually walkable cities have a few choices of grocery store to walk to, and some are the more affordable types. In our current situation the more affordable grocery stores are on the outskirts, but nobody said it had to be that way. When our infrastructure is designed to drive everywhere, a return to a normalcy of walking places can seem revolutionary, but it is feasible. I was saying if you had a grocery store within walkable distance you could choose to walk there more often and do smaller trips, but if that's not your style you could also do weekly trips or whatever. I'm reading your comments as your personal preference and not a critique of the true merits or not of mixed use zoning. The idea that you do not support grocery stores you can walk to because you would have to carry a lot of groceries is kind of a red herring when you refuse to consider hypothetical solutions and move the goalposts.
@@totoroben i'm never choosing to live in a mixed use zoning place. so it's not relevant. It's not a red herring. It's part of the reason I would never choose it. I don't have to overcome it, I just won't live that way. I' choose R1A zoning.
@@oggyreidmore New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco... and if you don't know, maybe you should get un-woke and actually listen to the people you vote for.
@@johnfolk1448 What city had a decrease in crime by spending more on cops? Crime has increase all over the country no matter what spending is done on cops. That's because criminals don't check the annual police budget to make sure it's okay to commit crimes. Police budgets all over the country rise every year, yet crime also on the rise. There is no correlation between police budgets and crime. There IS a correlation between economic struggle and crime, and I don't know if you noticed, but those cities - along with most everywhere else in the country - is struggling economically. THAT is the real reason for increased crime. Maybe if you spent less time worried that you might be "woke", you wouldn't be "asleep" and having a right wing paranoid fever dream that has no relation to reality.
@@oggyreidmore They don't have to check the police budget. They just have to watch the news and listen to leftist politicians declare they aren't punishing all crimes. Couple that with a diminished police presence resulting from defunding cops and it's pretty obvious why crime has skyrocketed under leftist governance, which, as you say, has also wrecked the economy by implementing foreign and domestic policies that have led to massive inflation. As it happens, I sleep just fine. Instead of being paranoid, I've taken advantage of specific constitutional rights to mitigate threats to my household that may result from leftist crime boosting policies. It's kinda funny that you expect to be taken seriously while admitting you don't understand the affect of cutting back on law enforcement, but your obviously woke, so it's understandable.
Forgot to directly answer your question,@@oggyreidmore. In the early 90s, NYC got a lot of federal funding, and added thousands of cops to the nypd resulting in a dramatic drop in crime. Even idiots like Biden understood that, which is why he supported that funding and boasted about it until recently. I know none of this is convenient to your woke narrative, but facts rarely are...
You've missed the point, the point is designing cities so you don't have to go miles and miles to access basic daily facilities and amenities. Public transport is more suited to longer journeys
if your city is designed correctly your office job or regular job wouldn't be a hassle to get to because the infrastructure would be CONVENIENT FOR YOU
Sure, where in NYC everyone still goes indoors, therefore so many sky scrapers polluting the city. NYC is dirty, trash everywhere, and even trash on the street for pickup overnight. Oh right, environmentalists also loves animals, including disease spreading rodents. "Walkable city is richer" is also false. NYC is extremely expensive on all counts, regardless of walking status. Not to mention you are promoting an app, which then keeps people walking, but not engaging in actual outdoor activities, but staring at their phone. Very poorly done episode with literally no valuable argument.
It costs a average of 9500 usd per year if car ownership. The subway in nyc Costs around 127 dollars a month for a pass or 1524 a year for 12 passes. That’s very cheap
Umm, car dependent infrastructure makes it take much longer to get places because a, things are further apart and when everyone has to drive everywhere, traffic becomes awful
A kid sees a system that works in Asia and Europe, and think they are the genius that can solve problems and implementing it in North America. First the space here is so big, and the person per square meter is so little, large businesses can't survive on foot traffic alone. Walking half hour to a restaurant and then walking back is a waste of time and energy. Unless all the people are willing to live close together and in smaller places, walking is out of the question. Also if that city has lots of mountains or bad weather, walking will be a lot harder. Walking is only good for cities that has a large population and a small area. Try telling people just to walk in Louisiana or Montana and not drive, and see what happens.
Did you know both of those states had cities before cars were invented? Those cities used to be walkable until they got thorn down and artificially spread out in order to make room for cars Walking when it' hilly or bad weather is a little harder, but still perfectly doable, especially if the infrastructure is designed to allow it Big businesses will survive, they have enough stored up to adapt to this sort of thing, small businesses on the other hand struggle in car centric areas where everyone drives to the nearest supermarket I want to mention that I grew up in a small town several hours drive away from the nearest city and walking to the grocery store was something I did regularly, it had cold winters, frequent rain and there were hills everywhere, I was still expected to get places by foot or bike
Foreigners always complain how America tells others how to live, but then turn around and tell us how to live. We want cars, not bikes. If the Netherlands want bikes, then they can have bikes. If we want cars, we can have cars. Everyone should mind their own business.
@@johnathin0061892 Wrong. Typical American, assuming everyone around you has your same level of rational. It's not your fault though, you have no control over your cognitive dissonance. This is because you would first have to be intelligent enough to recognize it. Which you clearly aren't
@@johnathin0061892 saying America wants cars because everyone drives is like saying everyone loves hoovering because everyone has a vacuum cleaner. Cities also just don't have space for everyone to drive, you can't argue with the geometry, a car just takes up lots of space and the earth simply can't sustain everyone driving cars, that's not my opinion, it's a fact whether you like it or not, and the climate is the business of every single person on earth
Making a city for a blind illegal immigrant who's in a wheelchair is foolish. Make the city for the general masses. A no excuse to get around town. The blind immigrant will adapt easiest if u can make it so u can take a stroll to the local coffee shop for a bagel and coffee. We can have kids go out and walk to and from stores and schools. This way u won't have ton of kids with mental health issues where they have homicidal behavior because he never found a way to socialize outside of school.
Walkable cities…. Basically metropolitan areas…. All have the highest concentration of pollution, highest crime rates and homlessness. Unless you remove the option of taking a car, people will continue to use them, wether they have their own or use Uber. Other than the pollution problem, it wont solve the other problems of having such a densely populated area.
suburbs are worse for the environment lmao. all of your comment screams ignorance. you're an average american unable to comprehend anything besides the status quo
The idea of a non-walkable city still boggles my mind, I had never experienced one until I went to the states. Would not recommend, it's like someone built a city but had never actually met a human being before.
Kids are basically locked in the house until 16, when they get a license. It’s horrible
I hate Houston
Yes I think it’s so sad that most the United States you cannot even walk to nearby small grocery if you want it just to buy a few things or you could not walk to a nearby café in most of the United States.
@@thetillerwiller4696 "Not just Bikes" said that too in his channel and it saddens me to realize that seems to be true for many.
makes me realize how good I had it as a young kid and grateful for that
It’s meant for cars, but was created for veterans for some reason.
I love exploring cities on foot when I travel. I live in a very walkable city and there have been so many improvements in the past 10 years. Curb cuts, bike lines, new paint for cross walks, better signage. Still a long way to go but it's great to see the progress.
We also need good transit to support walkability
As a young mother pushing a stroller I really appreciated enabling infrastructure.
As a young father pushing a stroller I also appreciate walking infrastructure
As a 3 month old child, I appreciate being pushed by you.
unity!
I wish all cities were walkable. I visited Toronto and I was walking the whole day. My legs were in so much pain after because im not used to walking so much. Unfortunately I live in a smaller city where you need to drive to get to places
I think also there needs to be measure for bikes and electric scooters, too. Cheaper yo run than cars and a little better than walking city distances. As Simeone pointed out, concrete isnt the best for your joints.
This! At least if abolishing all petroleum cars harm one's state economy, make a regulation for all electric motorcycle/schooters, mandatory bike and school bus for student
One might think there no edgy-ness in electric scooter/motorcycle but theres no edgy-ness in doomsday either
I love my walkable city. It takes 1 hour tops to make it from one side to the opposite. Used to live dead-center and I could walk everywhere!
What city?
Where was it
Ban the cars in cities.
Turn car lanes into bicycle,Train and green belt.
Tokyo is really good with their infrastructure. Many people dont even need cars
And still lots of cars
@@timjr.jucotan9813of course, but at least everyone isn’t forced to drive
@@timjr.jucotan9813last time i’ve heard, there were few instances of car-to-car traffic in Tokyo
These are all wonderful and important ideas and approaches, and I genuinely mean that. But as a person with a number of disabilities who has difficulty walking far and sometimes needs a wheelchair, the biggest problem I have in cities that are promoting walking is that when I am having a very bad day, I cannot get to any shops or venues or restaurants that are more than a 25m inside pedestrian areas.
I cannot afford a motorized wheelchair, nor an aide to push me. Also the bumpy cobblestones and similar materials turn my wheelchair into a torture device. So I am simply *locked out* of whole areas except on very good days. I wish someone were working on that issue.
I just want to thank you! I find this comment very inspiring, because me as a person who can walk doesn’t think too much about that.
Now I genuinely think about a solution and my first thought is that, when city’s are more walkable there are more people who can help to take care of others, because communities are much closer together.
@@d4rkfreedom I hope so! And the idea of having everything in small neighbourhoods is also really helpful. But my experience of pedestrian areas in cities is nothing like that so far.
Most of your problems seem like they are rooted in car friendly infrastructure in the first place though
@@rakkatytam On the contrary, lack of consideration for people with various disabilities is the issue. At least in more pedestrianised areas. Along with the massive expense of motorised wheelchairs.
@@anahidkassabian4471 Its only an issue because they barely have consideration for pedestrians in general, disability or not.
Walkable cities are not more unfriendly to people with disabilities, in fact they are more friendly. Everything you need to survive is much closer since small neighborhood businesses thrive in walkable cities. Walkable cities such as ones in the Netherlands, still have car free paths that allow for "mini cars", basically enlcosed scooters that people with disabilities use to commute. There is still handicap only parking and people who need cars are still able to get them. The fact that a scooter is too expensive for you should not be an indictment against walkable cities, but an indictment on a horribly flawed medical system.
Walkable cities are made so people can travel around without the use of obsolete cars. So of course they are going to put more infrastructure in place to ensure that those with disabilities can get around easily.
Where I live they have climate action goals and one was to make the city more walkable which I am excited about and they have already started making adjustments and more sidewalks
Mind if I ask which city you live in?
there are people who walk LESS than 8 minutes a day??
I lived in a walkable biking city for a decade. Transportation was part of the most enjoyable experiences. I bike year round for transportation. All of this was integral to my empowerment as a teenager escaping a toxic childhood into full self determination, and even led me to become a youth mentor and empowerment advocate.
I recently moved across the country and have experienced my first American suburb up close and personal. It's commonly accepted back home that city people despise the suburbs, so we generally know the desolate nature of suburbanism. But I've never seen it so dire and desperate until my experiences now. It left me isolated and almost destitute trying to crawl my way to stability. I ended up getting a car at my poorest and worst health because there are so few jobs here in this copy-paste corporate wasteland. Shortly after I learned many other poor people around me are in the same boat. Car ownership is modern day indentured servitude. It is nothing short of absolutely shocking and disgusting to me how this world has been created when we had historic opportunities to create something so much better.
This issue is now one of the most important in my life and I will dedicate to getting people on board to tackle suburbanism NOW.
Who would have thought I was extremely old fashion and years ahead by walking everywhere!
If this video was interesting, please check out 'not just bikes' or eco gecko's playlist about suburbia
Great video!
Getting more ideas for better cities/towns. Are these on RUclips?
Not Just Bikes is.
I live in the UK. Walking here is considered just the norm. If you live in a city there's no need to own a car as you can easily walk or cycle wherever you need to go. It's the same across most of Europe. If I really wanted to, I could probably walk the coastline of britain without having to worry about being hit by a car.
Yeah, that’s because in the 1970s the Silent Generation won the fight for traditional neighbourhoods, but in the US they doubled downed despite an oil crisis. That was also when unions started to break.
5:38 also, the higher cost is literally due to demand. More dense areas are much cheaper to build and maintain. The reason dense areas are expensive is because so many people want to live in walkable places vs what's available that landlords can really jack up the price and still fill their spaces. If more cities were walkable with medium-high density population, the prices would probably be much lower for individual units.
The other cost that cars levy on the environment is space. Regulations mandate that businesses create huge parking lots which means less green areas. Also, cars need more and more roads which also eat up more green space.
Please!!! We need to have people seeing each other, and stop using fossil fuels!
Good presentation. But people make this so much harder than it has to be. The solution is to simply up abolish much of the existing zoning laws, up zone entire cities and focus on mass transit and everything falls else into place. There's no masterplanning needed. Look at Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, etc. They aren't masterplanned, they just allow the market to build the housing and walkable neighborhoods that people want. The reason why we don't have these walkable cities in North America isn't because there's not enough "conversation", its because the State prohibits it.
Conservatives should agree with you big government is the problem lobbied by corporate interests
The key is to car dependency is minimum parking requirements. Get rid of that and the free market can do a lot of undoing the damage.
Also to loosen up on single family zoning, allowing people to build stores or apartment buildings within the suburbs would do wonders for walkability
I didn't believe the idea that "if you build it, they will come" when it comes to incentivizing walkability. That is, until huge renovations were made on my own street. The area was already decent for pedestrians, but holy cow, now it's always full of people walking to and from stores, train station and parks. Widened sidewalks, slower speed limits, bright street lights, shade, protected crossings make ALL the difference.
Very little parking does help but isn't the full solution.
Part of the problem is also the large sprawl that already exists, the distances still need to be covered.
@@PerfectAlibi1 Eliminate minimum parking requirements and developers will feed the need for space efficient places. Higher density, mix use, walkable, car (light). Some people will opt for this and have much shorter daily commutes that don't add to congestion.
Right now, those places are expensive to build. Minimum parking requirements adds 20-50% to the cost of construction. Parking takes takes up space which is an opportunity cost for some other more productive use.
To reduce the cost of parking per unit, fewer larger and more expensive units are favored as opposed to more units that are smaller and economical. This means fewer affordable units.
All these things results in high rents and high condo prices. Since fewer people can afford such places, fewer units are built. Buildings are shorter than otherwise, much of the airspace is simply unused.
Imagine all the wasted highly desirable airspace of all the parking lots and parking structures. Just look at any downtown built in compliance with with minimum parking requirements.
@@Basta11 I agree! With all the empty parking lot whether it’s not big events or each parking lot to get to stores it just makes an atmosphere of ugliness.
I hate walking running or defending myself on concrete i always prefer walking on grass or dirt. Better for your joints too. Runnings not bad for your knees running on concrete is.
For this to happen we would need to change the American culture obsessed with cars and suburbs.
I am already changed.!! I am not obsessed with cars although I can drive.
I like idea of protective bicycle lanes and once I lived in a city that had them and I also like the ideas of walkable cities then I would get exercise without having to go to the gym and can spontaneously run into friends sometimes. I never felt at home with American culture like that. Even though I am American.
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957i concur, thanks for putting yourself out here!
For many for us , we will not see this in our lifetime.
Can we do the same for suburbs?
As a Turk the fact that even my hometown Ankara is much more walkable than a typical American/Canadian city along the fact that people comparing ethical infrastructure to communism boggles my mind very very much
Love Jeff specks book walkable city
Love not just bikes and city beautiful too
Had not heard of this book yet. Thank you for the suggestion!
Don't know if you've addressed this elsewhere: street codes are very important, since they ensure that future streets (including street revamps) cater to walkers. (Streets have a life time of about two decades, so a street code leads to ~ 5 % of street infrastructure being made walkfriendly every year without the extra cost of changing existing, still okay streets). Furthermore, the street code needs to be paired with a zoning code that favours mixed use over single use (as is the current default in the US).
Just copy Disneyland in Anaheim. Create a large parking structure on the outskirts of the city or maybe have it underground like Apple, then have trams that take you into city like Disneyland does, or you can walk into the city.
I really like this idea, have cars on the outskirts of the city or maybe underground and trams or something else that takes you into the city. Of course emergency vehicles and some other exceptions by delivery vehicles have to be allowed in some kind of lane.
And this of course doesn’t have to be every city they can be cities left for people who want it the other way. But walkable cities combined with public transport makes for a healthier person because when you have to walk or bicycle sometimes then gets more exercise than if you just drive everywhere and I have friends who are coming home from work, driving home from work and they’re too tired to exercise. But if they had to walk or bicycle even part of the way they would’ve gotten more exercise even if they were too tired to do any other exercise.
Blame the oil and auto industries for discouraging this kind of city planning.
They can also make lanes for golf carts. We don't all need to go 50 miles an hour. Not all of us can use a bike, and wheelchairs and assistance scooters aren't allowed on streets. There's a city in Georgia that uses golf carts everywhere, and it's NICE.
But are the golf carts a danger to bicyclist and to walkers, I’ve seen golf carts, sometimes going too fast, made so they can go faster than they’re supposed to go so just faster than 20 mph
Ooh, wasn't expecting to see Pikmin Bloom here! 💖😍🏵🌷
TLDR: Walkable cities are a good thing for everyone. The best way to do it is design for "the weakest link" so that everyone can enjoy the city.
I love walkability but I hate apartments
There’s other choices besides apartments such as townhouses or condominiums. The town houses or garden houses might have a small backyard. There might even be what’s called a Eco village where there’s a community living together but they have a community garden and other things in common.
Ok. You don’t need an apartment to have a walkable city, Mackinac Island for example
That's so ridiculous. No safe modern affordable walkable city in whole USA??
Shout out to the Black Panthers… AGAIN!
As a pedestrian I follow crossing rules and take drivers into account...
Good Priscilla! It’s important not to think for yourself & have a perfectly programmed mind. That’s what government encourages. See the faces of the people in this picture? Zombies.
@@karifredrikson8492 ok snowflake 🙄
As a walker, I’ve noticed that if you use the crosswalk it is often more dangerous since it is allowed for drivers to turn right and they don’t always stop and turn right and so they don’t see the walker in the middle of the crosswalk to the last minute such as what happened to me.
Pedestrian needs more than walkable street. Not only comfortable surface of street, we also need a canopy (better make of a tree if that makes sense) that absorb pollution and protect you from heat. Electric vehicle regulation is also needed for pedestrian as we could die from air pollution if the surroundings still packed with gasoline based vehicle. Lotsa lots of public transpo can help reduce the air pollution too
Also, small walkable cities do not need to be expensive at all, and they still offer a lot.
I love walking in my city, New York City!
It's crazy in our city that escorted cause accidents. Or we could create zones for them with no cars or pedestrians to hit.
I like where I live be I do wish it was more walkable. East TN is not wall friendly.
just?? 8??? minutes?? per?? day?? is the bar that low? screaming in european
It’s -14 where I live, think I’m gonna get a ride!
Really? Jackets exist dude
Ok, no one is stopping you lol. It's not like walkable developments eliminate cars entirely.
Great compilation!
Um. Even with costs of car payment, car insurance, and gas, rents are still more in NYC then they would be in some ruralish area. (Plus you are still gonna pay for transportation through subway and bus)
My hometown used to be walkable town before. Now it s filled with vehicles especially cars.
That sucks
5:14 walkable cities are expensive because Euclidean zoning laws prohibit them from being built. The only walkable cities are remnants from the past. They're in short supply but in high demand. Therefore the price goes up. Walkable neighborhoods only inherently for wealthy people, if we make walkable neighborhoods the default it will become affordable for everyone.
I don't like how the youtube algorithm is working like this, it's a lidged a crime that videos that's is related to climate change doesn't get the views that it needs, so it's ok for a women to show they behind and they like thousands of likes but subjects like this is that important
All cities should be walkable and dense, like you see in central Florence, Prague, Oxford, etc. Even if you use modern materials, cities are beautiful when everything is designed for humans, with narrow streets, courtyards, gardens, etc. There shouldn't be any roads wider than 4 lanes (2 in each direction) inside a city and cars should never be allowed to go fast in cities. The only cars moving around inside a city should be for deliveries and disabled folk (or rich people who don't mind paying steep congestion charges).
No wonder more enclosed cities are expensive. Walkable cities are rare nowadays. So we have to make walkable cities more common.
Great video!
You have to make whole cities walkable and bikeable to avoid gentrification- you probably want to make it a state-wide policy, as at the moment ANY neighbourhood that is walkable will generate high demand and poor people will be displaced even further a way! My neighbourhood isn't well off, but it is VERY walkable- plaenty of good infrastructure, even when you do reach the more car centered areas- one problem is that we don't actually have any truly pedestrianized areas and our cycling infrastructure is awful, though it is manageable in quiet places or if you use the pavements- which the local council is largely turning into shared pedestrian/biking paths in a bid not to annoy the car addicts because while it isn't good for pedestrians or cyclists for MANY reasons, it doesn't require taking space away from the real space-hogs they love so much- these paths aren't ideal for biking because there are people walking and because they don't have raised priority crossings, you end up faster on the road as yielding at every side street is tiring on a bike.'There is lots of space for people and bikes to be accomodated safely, just take some of it from the greedy motorists!
Social housing-that is affordable housing provided by the government can solve this.
Eliminate oil subsidies, single family home zoning, and parking lot minimums and the market will take care of the rest. If the true cost of driving was borne by drivers, there would be much fewer of them, and the suburbs would not be affordable for most people. Right now, the demand for walkable neighborhoods far outstrips supply because developers are not allowed to build what the market wants in most places.
This would he good in my hometown but not during the wintertime. Now that I'm in Orlando I cant see it happening due to distance of everything and the crazy heat during spring/summer.
Is it hot out there? Im nit use to neutral wheather tho
I only watch videos because of this man.
Cities need to make turning right illegal for cars because they put walkers in danger.
I can count several times where I had to walk signal and I was in the walk area and a car turning right on red almost hit me and another time where even in Fort Lauderdale they had yield on red sign for the cars and the car still didn’t yield so I think there has to be some kind of enforcement also
How accessible are they though to wheelchair and walker users????
Suburbs on the outskirts of a city are walkable. City centers are not. People go to the restaurants, shops and markets a few blocks away. Why would they drive downtown where there is no parking. You can literally walk to the shops in your suburban neighborhood.
Take a look at njb
Americans live on the past
Could you drop the sources you used?
one small step for feet one giant foot for mankind
Vignesh!!!! From tiktok
How to make people exercise more? Easy. Rise everybody's income and shorten the work hours.
Hopefully they don’t make sky scrapper size buildings in the city since that would make longer distance of travel.
Do like to share this informative video please.
The problem is that that only serves the young and unencumbered. There are more than half the population that are old, very young, handicapped, or I'll not to mention the portion of the population taking care of elderly parents, handicapped spouses, or young children. And have you ever tried walking around toting 4 or more kids on crowded streets without losing anyone. Also many young nonathletic types can't ride a bike and never could. So what do you plan to do to serve all those people. And this will be just great in outbreaks also. Many are just trying to get groceries or see a doctor.
You can still drive in a walkable city. In fact, it's a more pleasant drive.
Other cities seem to be doing fine, all the issues you listed are issues in the first place because cities aren't walkable to begin with
You still CAN drive in a walkable city, it's just that on most journeys there's no reason to. Car centric infrastructure only makes it harder for people with reduced mobility, because the streets are clogged with cars, things are further apart and they often can't drive a car, so they're left with no independence
City dwellers are more conscious of having 4+ kids lmao. I would have two max. I would NEVER have children if my fate is to live in a car infested hellhole. It’s all about using our noggin which millennials really have it down. We are not having children just because…
It’s quite common for example in Germany and some other countries to see a woman or man and who’s in their 70s and 80s bicycling or walking by and as for the very young there are children that are bicycling with their parents and having a great time and the handicapped can sometimes get around with special vehicles or if they can ride the trains.
As for the young non-athletic types some of them could become more athletic when they do more walking instead of always drive and if there’s people that can’t ride a bike because they’re really not athletic then they can walk to where you can take the train or some combination that would work for them . But you don’t really need to be athletic to learn to ride a bicycle unless you’re first learning when you’re 70 maybe.
People in the comments have thousands of excuses to promote everything that’s not walking or not using cars.
What I don'tlike about some walkable cities (hoboken.. cough cough) that they throw themselves into the road with headphones out of nowhere I might add☝🏼
Yes that’s certainly a walker that doesn’t Think before they cross the street however there’s many Drivers they don’t think when they drive, they drive drunk or with illegal drugs that they have taken or they simply don’t put on their turn signal when they suddenly turn or they turn at the last minute off across another lane of traffic or they text and drive etc. etc.
This wouldn’t work you have to drive from city to city. Metro and train would be a better option
Walkable in terms of walking to the supermarket, friends houses and maybe even work
Umm did you not watch the video?
Yes the metro and trains would also be good for other choices especially to get from city to city. Also you could rent a car if you don’t want to have the cost of keeping one, when you go out to the countryside or from city to city if it’s easier than to get the train for some people that may have disabilities or they’re taking a lot of sports equipment or some other reason.
Yeah, like Europe
I will take bike
There's no place to walk to. I would need commercial infrastructure in my neighborhood first.
Yeah that's kind of the point.
That was kinda the sarcasm. Thanks for letting me know.
Who else clicked on the video because Alejandro was looking like a snack on the thumbnail?
X
They can do what they want in cities. NOT MY CITY!! NO ONE in my city is looking to lug groceries on foot!! For God sakes....🙄
They make carts to buy a lot of groceries and comfortably carry them home, but generally, if you live in a walkable neighborhood with easy access to affordable groceries, you will get groceries several times per week, and your trips will be a smaller number of items.
@@totoroben I would hate going to the store multiple times on foot. And groceries in small stores are never affordable.
@@michah321 you'll need to be a little more creative because you just cannot see it, but actually walkable cities have a few choices of grocery store to walk to, and some are the more affordable types. In our current situation the more affordable grocery stores are on the outskirts, but nobody said it had to be that way. When our infrastructure is designed to drive everywhere, a return to a normalcy of walking places can seem revolutionary, but it is feasible. I was saying if you had a grocery store within walkable distance you could choose to walk there more often and do smaller trips, but if that's not your style you could also do weekly trips or whatever. I'm reading your comments as your personal preference and not a critique of the true merits or not of mixed use zoning. The idea that you do not support grocery stores you can walk to because you would have to carry a lot of groceries is kind of a red herring when you refuse to consider hypothetical solutions and move the goalposts.
@@totoroben i'm never choosing to live in a mixed use zoning place. so it's not relevant. It's not a red herring. It's part of the reason I would never choose it. I don't have to overcome it, I just won't live that way. I' choose R1A zoning.
Less and less walking in cities where politicians are pushing crime by defunding cops...
What city defunded cops? Also which city had crime decrease by spending more on cops? Most cities haven't been walkable since the late 1960s.
@@oggyreidmore
New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco... and if you don't know, maybe you should get un-woke and actually listen to the people you vote for.
@@johnfolk1448 What city had a decrease in crime by spending more on cops? Crime has increase all over the country no matter what spending is done on cops. That's because criminals don't check the annual police budget to make sure it's okay to commit crimes. Police budgets all over the country rise every year, yet crime also on the rise. There is no correlation between police budgets and crime. There IS a correlation between economic struggle and crime, and I don't know if you noticed, but those cities - along with most everywhere else in the country - is struggling economically. THAT is the real reason for increased crime. Maybe if you spent less time worried that you might be "woke", you wouldn't be "asleep" and having a right wing paranoid fever dream that has no relation to reality.
@@oggyreidmore
They don't have to check the police budget. They just have to watch the news and listen to leftist politicians declare they aren't punishing all crimes. Couple that with a diminished police presence resulting from defunding cops and it's pretty obvious why crime has skyrocketed under leftist governance, which, as you say, has also wrecked the economy by implementing foreign and domestic policies that have led to massive inflation. As it happens, I sleep just fine. Instead of being paranoid, I've taken advantage of specific constitutional rights to mitigate threats to my household that may result from leftist crime boosting policies. It's kinda funny that you expect to be taken seriously while admitting you don't understand the affect of cutting back on law enforcement, but your obviously woke, so it's understandable.
Forgot to directly answer your question,@@oggyreidmore. In the early 90s, NYC got a lot of federal funding, and added thousands of cops to the nypd resulting in a dramatic drop in crime. Even idiots like Biden understood that, which is why he supported that funding and boasted about it until recently. I know none of this is convenient to your woke narrative, but facts rarely are...
Wow, I didn't know that men are the majority in the US...and i still don't.
No kidding can you walk to your work 40 miles every day
You've missed the point, the point is designing cities so you don't have to go miles and miles to access basic daily facilities and amenities. Public transport is more suited to longer journeys
if your city is designed correctly your office job or regular job wouldn't be a hassle to get to because the infrastructure would be CONVENIENT FOR YOU
Agenda 21
Lol nope.
Walkable cities, old news. 🤨
Making cars less affordable will keep the rich rich and the poor poor
How does reducing a $30,000+ cost to, at most, a $1,000 cost (price of an e-bike) keep people poor?
@@HigherQualityUploads how many kids can you bring to childcare on an e-bike?
@@snupmadra3787 4 with a trailer
Or they can ride their own
@@snupmadra3787Have you heard of the school bus bikes specifically made for transporting lots of small children.
Sure, where in NYC everyone still goes indoors, therefore so many sky scrapers polluting the city. NYC is dirty, trash everywhere, and even trash on the street for pickup overnight. Oh right, environmentalists also loves animals, including disease spreading rodents. "Walkable city is richer" is also false. NYC is extremely expensive on all counts, regardless of walking status. Not to mention you are promoting an app, which then keeps people walking, but not engaging in actual outdoor activities, but staring at their phone.
Very poorly done episode with literally no valuable argument.
Speck made excellent arguments.
NY City is a cesspit and people pay an astronomical premium to live in it.
@Chuck How exactly?
Where do you think that pollution comes from? It begins with a c... Cars!
It costs a average of 9500 usd per year if car ownership. The subway in nyc Costs around 127 dollars a month for a pass or 1524 a year for 12 passes. That’s very cheap
I’d rather spend my extra time with my family. So keep the cars
Umm, car dependent infrastructure makes it take much longer to get places because a, things are further apart and when everyone has to drive everywhere, traffic becomes awful
And I’d rather get daily exercise so I can live longer
What a weird take.
A kid sees a system that works in Asia and Europe, and think they are the genius that can solve problems and implementing it in North America. First the space here is so big, and the person per square meter is so little, large businesses can't survive on foot traffic alone. Walking half hour to a restaurant and then walking back is a waste of time and energy. Unless all the people are willing to live close together and in smaller places, walking is out of the question. Also if that city has lots of mountains or bad weather, walking will be a lot harder. Walking is only good for cities that has a large population and a small area. Try telling people just to walk in Louisiana or Montana and not drive, and see what happens.
Did you know both of those states had cities before cars were invented? Those cities used to be walkable until they got thorn down and artificially spread out in order to make room for cars
Walking when it' hilly or bad weather is a little harder, but still perfectly doable, especially if the infrastructure is designed to allow it
Big businesses will survive, they have enough stored up to adapt to this sort of thing, small businesses on the other hand struggle in car centric areas where everyone drives to the nearest supermarket
I want to mention that I grew up in a small town several hours drive away from the nearest city and walking to the grocery store was something I did regularly, it had cold winters, frequent rain and there were hills everywhere, I was still expected to get places by foot or bike
Foreigners always complain how America tells others how to live, but then turn around and tell us how to live. We want cars, not bikes. If the Netherlands want bikes, then they can have bikes. If we want cars, we can have cars. Everyone should mind their own business.
@@johnathin0061892 Many Americans want to live in walkable, bikable cities. You don't represent the preferences of a nation of 300 million.
@@johnathin0061892 Wrong. Typical American, assuming everyone around you has your same level of rational. It's not your fault though, you have no control over your cognitive dissonance. This is because you would first have to be intelligent enough to recognize it. Which you clearly aren't
@@johnathin0061892 saying America wants cars because everyone drives is like saying everyone loves hoovering because everyone has a vacuum cleaner. Cities also just don't have space for everyone to drive, you can't argue with the geometry, a car just takes up lots of space and the earth simply can't sustain everyone driving cars, that's not my opinion, it's a fact whether you like it or not, and the climate is the business of every single person on earth
Making a city for a blind illegal immigrant who's in a wheelchair is foolish. Make the city for the general masses. A no excuse to get around town. The blind immigrant will adapt easiest if u can make it so u can take a stroll to the local coffee shop for a bagel and coffee. We can have kids go out and walk to and from stores and schools. This way u won't have ton of kids with mental health issues where they have homicidal behavior because he never found a way to socialize outside of school.
Walkable cities…. Basically metropolitan areas…. All have the highest concentration of pollution, highest crime rates and homlessness. Unless you remove the option of taking a car, people will continue to use them, wether they have their own or use Uber. Other than the pollution problem, it wont solve the other problems of having such a densely populated area.
suburbs are worse for the environment lmao. all of your comment screams ignorance. you're an average american unable to comprehend anything besides the status quo
Which is why reducing cars and getting more people to walk around is best
But why you hate auto industry? No. So many jobs will be lost. Nooo
Automobile companies also make buses, so not completely screwed. That and some trucks that deliver food, furniture etc would still be available
@@louisnall3102 yeah. But that is not so profitable.
Texas is better! 😂
no it isnt, texas has horrible liveability
You mean asphalt deserts
Texas is a massive parking lot
Hard Pass
ew american
Why?
Keep lying to yourself