Aqui termine vendiendo los vehiculos privados y motos, porque no los usaba, si a 3 minutos de mi casa tengo tren que pasa cada 4 minutos en hora punta, o menos, tardo 18 minutos a Chamartin, esta a 24 km creo de distancia, el abono mensual que vale para tren, metro, bus y tranvia vale 30€ al mes puedo usarlo todas las veces que quiera, ademas Madrid por el centro esta muy mal para estacionar y se termina tardando menos en el transporte publico. th-cam.com/video/xjgoEJr1yJc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=By3TSyU62oLX2tkd&t=1
This design is true of all Spanish cities, and even many towns. Living in flats, sharing the stairs and the streets, meeting your neighbours everyday (even if you do not know them by name) creates a kind of social commonwealth that you could never get in a society that lives driving everywhere.
@@joseantoniodepilares6509 Actually that's a wrong perspective, Galicia has a way bigger population density than Castille or Andalusia for example, and way above the Spanish average. The reason why urban planning in Galicia is so bad is a bit complicated and it has a lot to do with how the land was traditionally divided ("minifundio" vs "lactifundio" or direct control from the Church or State) and also culture.
The spanish cities are made for walking to any place. Obviusly Madrid is a big city where the people can't go walking to long distances, but this make many sense of home in your neighborhood where you can go walking to the market, the medical center, the shops, the park, etc. The neighborhoods are little systems where you have all that you need and you know the people. We have a spanish friend living in Dallas, and when we was in this city to visit we feel like in another planet: she lives in a house miles away from the downtown, in a neighborhood of thousands of identical houses, in the middle of many identical areas, and have to take the car for anything! (school, doctor, gym, supermarket, to have dinner, etc etc). I don't see a bus in this area in all the days, are places building to live with a car, losing hours every morning to go to the job with no option to take a transport. If also are cities with no historical buildings of more than 200 years or places to enjoy a walk.. what sense have to live in?
One of the best thing about the density in Madrid is that you can almost always walk on a 1-2 lane street between 6-story buildings well sheltered against cold winds in Winter or unbearable sunlight in the Summer. Unfortunately the newer neighbourhoods like Sanchinarro or Ensanche de Vallecas have some overwidened streets that discourage walking, negate the shelter from the elements and encourage vehicles to speed leading to less safe streets. Still, Madrid has a lot of transit and parks making it very livable, and even the places that aren't very good are still fine.
Lo del ensanche no tiene ningun sentido jajajajaja conducir por ahí es como conducir por una ciudad fantasma XDDD sin coches con una carretera de 6 carriles jajajajaja.
@@oldskoolmusicnostalgia I agree. I've lived in multiple countries, and Spain has little to envy to other nations. However, keep in mind this complex doesn't come out of nowhere. Spain was behind the curve for nearly two centuries. It wasn't until pretty much the 1980s that we managed to begin to catch up with our peers in any meaningful way. You can't turn around the pessimism born out of 200 years of decay in just 40 years, specially with the 2008 recession, the 2011 Eurozone crisis AND COVID stalling the whole thing.
This is what I love about Madrid, and Spain in general. Even in the most outer suburbs there is still great density. Most things are still within walking distance and it means Spain preserves its countryside for nature rather than sprawl. Spain has some of the emptiest countryside in Europe too
In Spain there's a defined place for the city and another place for the countryside. They don't get mixed. And for @JustinSh.: Actually no. The density of Madrid is the same in almost every Spanish city greater than 50.000 inhabitants. It's a matter of urban legislation across the country mixed with the Spanish culture of enjoying living surrounded by your neighbours in order to socialize and with everything (work, school, services, etc) in a walkable distance.
@@JustinSh. As soon as the 3.2 million Capital city ends within its limits, then there are lots of small 50k -200k people towns that follow the same pattern. Paris is similar, yet bigger.
@@JustinSh. Density is the same in every town (not the same in villages, though there are more individual houses). The buildings and urban design is like that because the roman empire's and arab culture's urban designs
Madrid fun facts: The idea of the Madrid Metro originated in 1916 when a royal decree approved the 4-line plan for the creation of the metro of Madrid. The engineers who created the plan, Mendoza, González Echarte, and Otamendi then began the process of raising the 8 million pesetas to begin the first phase of the project, and the first phase was completed in 1919! Though not actually the first subway system in the Spanish-speaking world as the Subte in Buenos Aires first opened in 1913! When Philip II became king in 1556, he understood the importance of the city of Madrid and made it the capital of Spain. He moved his court there, solidifying the city as the de facto center of royal power in 1561. Before Madrid, Toledo was effectively the capital! After the crushing of the Revolt of the Comuneros in 1520-1521, Charles V's court was installed in Toledo, with the monarch choosing the city as his residence at least 15 times from 1525 on. Not to mention Toledo was the capital of Visigothic Spain from 542 to 725 CE. Madrid is among the highest cities in Europe, yet it is often overlooked when considering high-altitude cities. Surprisingly, Madrid is situated at an elevation of 667 meters above sea level, making it the highest European capital. The documented history of Madrid dates to the 9th century, even though the area has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Córdoba Emir Muhammad I commissioned the first construction in the late 9th century and involved the establishment of a citadel on the banks of the Manzanares River in Majrit/Mayrit village. Similarly to other fortresses north of the Tagus, Madrid made it difficult to muster reinforcements from the Asturian kingdom to the unruly inhabitants of Toledo, prone to rebellion against the Umayyad rule. Extending across roughly 8 hectares, Muslim Madrid consisted of the alcázar and the wider walled citadel (al-Mudayna) with the addition of some housing outside the walls. By the late 10th century, Majriṭ was an important borderland military stronghold territory with great strategic value, owing to its proximity to Toledo. In 1739 Philip V began constructing new palaces, including the Palacio Real de Madrid. Under Charles III (who ruled from 1759-1788) that Madrid became a truly modern city. Charles III, who cleaned up the city and its government, became one of the most popular kings to rule Madrid, and the saying "the best mayor, the king" became widespread. Besides completing the Palacio Real, Charles III is responsible for many of Madrid's finest buildings and monuments, including the Prado and the Puerta de Alcalá.
I'm an American and I thought I hated large cities. Until I moved to Spain. Madrid (and BCN) is really livable. Every time I visit I am floored with how absolutely FRIENDLY everyone is. In cities in America, once you crest about 2.5 million people, friendliness goes out the window--it starts to feel frenetic and competitive. I think a combination of this design and the culture contribute to this. The quality of life everywhere I've been in Spain has been fantastic and unmatched by any of my other experiences. There are, I'm sure, a lot of factors contributing to these different feelings, but I never thought I would consider living in a city of 7M people. But I consider Madrid often.
Yet still Madrid Capital city is not 7M, that's the whole Comunidad de Madrid population. Madrid city is around 3,5M, the rest are peripheral cities/towns
@@ChesterRGC ...actually yesno, 7M is also the metropolitan area, which is a bunch of cities and towns so close together and tightly connected that they end up acting as a system of its own... what people end up thinking of as "Madrid", just like you would think of Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, etc.
@@xerzysin ir las lejos, Paris tiene 2.2 millones de habitantes, pero nadie se pone a pensar en eso, la gente piensa en Paris, como una ciudad de 11 millones, que es lo que tiene su área metropolitana
This is an amazing video!! I’ve always wanted to visit Madrid and check out their amazing metro network and connection to that beautiful high speed rail network
just keep in mind that a huge chunk of the local population leaves the city in August due to unbearable heat (despite good overall shade on streets and parks). so perhaps visit in August if you don’t mind extreme heat, and to take advantage of the quiet, or visit in the fall to get a more realistic feel of the city.
@@johnnysecularPlease don’t come in August. The heat is unbearable for a reason. Lots of things will be closed too, because madrileños indeed flee the city during the summer. The nicest thing about Madrid is to calmly stroll around and discover every corner of the city. You won’t enjoy doing that in August of July.
@@lioneliv3195 You'll be least bothered in July and August, and you can stay inside the Museums and transit (or a restaurant) during afternoon (to take advantage of the AC) and walk, bike and explore the city before noon or after 7PM. The sun is unbereable, but you can avoid it and the heat is manageable as long as you keep hydrated, since the air is very dry sweting is very efective and isn't unconfortable. Anyway, I'd recomend visiting in Autumn since it is cheaper and you get to see a more actual version of the cities and most of the typical food can be enjoyed in Autumn, or in Spring if you'd rather see some of the Easter cellebrations as well, want to enjoy more sunlight without the heat of Summer or as much rain as in Autumn.
@@fjp3305 Same here. The summer is my favorite time of the year in Madrid. Less people in the commercial streets and the metro, no need for reservations in good restaurants and no queueing for finding a place at the nicer terrazas. But of course, I do have an A/C at home 🙂
I've been living in Madrid for a few years and here's some unique things that make it sooo walkable: 1. Creating lots of underpasses under the city to divert traffic and minimising busy crossings for pedestrians 2. Having many nodes of activity so residents can have varied businesses and services near them instead of centralising everything 3. Free drinking fountains literally everywhere (with an online map to find them), meaning you can be outside as long as you want without worrying about being prepared 4. most areas have round the clock activity (nightlife mixed with day businesses) making it safe to be out even at 5 am because there's always people around 5. the public transport is affordable and very well designed so even if you walk too far and get tired, you can get home easily
It’s a pretty good video, I just have to say one thing, Madrid city not the same as Madrid CA(Comunidad Autónoma) has a population of 6,3M but it’s served also by 356 lines of buses, you only mentioned EMT buses Empresa Municipal de Transportes (municipal agency of transport) which has more or less 200 lines, but that only serves the City of Madrid, the CA of Madrid is served by roughly 560 lines of buses, the other 356 lines comes from the CRTM buses, Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (it’s something like regional aggrupation of transports of Madrid) This is just a little mistake but if you include Cercanías and say that it has a population of 6,4 M people I thought you should count CRTM in the equation And also it’s served by 4 light rail trains ML1 ML2 ML3 And Metro Parla Thanks
As a madrileño that grew on barrio Salamanca from 6 to 21, I miss so much of the urban planning and architecture of Madrid. I never had to get a drivers license, I never needed it until I came to live in the US. You walk everywhere, you meet people, you get to know interesting places you dindt thought about etc. Stroads and 8 line highways are depressing and I feel like I have to battle to get out of my house. In Madrid I may go out one night and arrive at a park, get into 3/4 different bars and a couple discos within a 20 min walk, while here in the us, its more like go to this place or this house and thats it.
I work in Madrid 2 months a year. Usually I'll have to rent a couple of different places too... I've noticed that most people don't realise the newer (past 50 years) areas are not very well planned and not well connected. The reason why most people think their transport system is good, is because they live on their metro line and their barrio, while rarely leaving it.
Great video! I spent the summer in Madrid last year for studying, and I'm about to move there in a couple months and I could not be more excited. Living in a walkable city is going to be so amazing
I’ve lived in Dallas and Madrid haha I love the combo. Yup in Dallas you NEED a car and in Madrid I was happy taking the metro and just walking to get around. Always pushing for better walkability…
Madrid also has the anillo ciclista (cycling ring) a rout of 65 kms that goes around the capital through many green areas, and also the nice casa de campo by the royal palace where you feel like it is the end of the whole city overlooking the sunset, but the best secret is the north of madrid, 20-40 minutes from the city centre by regular trains connect the city center with the north towns and little villages which is calm, fresh, suny, quiet, and highest qualty of life.
You're right. Here in Madrid there's really no pressure to use cars, it's more of a choice and not an obvious one. It feels like the city doesn't end, where you can find similar population density for miles on end. If an alien dropped somewhere in Madrid, just by walking, it would take it some time to realise where the center is. I love Madrid.
I used to live in the Salamanca neighborhood and now I live in Atocha, and you're so right. All the amenities available there are available throughout the city.
0:15 I’ve eaten at that restaurant on the corner (they have amazing gambas)! My ex used to live one block away from there, higher up in the Calle de Alcantara. It’s such an amazing neighbourhood, in which I dream to live if I move to Madrid one day 😊
As a resident of madrid for many years, it's insanely easy to live here without a car. With patience you can cross the city and even go to villages by the different methosd of publuc transport.
I've travelled all around the world and I've not found a better place to live than Madrid, with a perfect balance between urban and green areas. I love it!!
As someone who's been living in madrid for their whole life, that's also the reason why houses are insanely expensive here(in proportion to our salaries) so if you want a more quiet peaceful life i would recommend some of the other cities in spain, the urban planning is really well done in the rest of the country too and rent/buying properties is way more affordable ^^
At 5:00 either I'm dense or the math doesnt add up 39% of transit made by cars means that 61% (at most) of transit is car-free (and if we include motrobikes it will go down) Also you spent 5 and a half minutes, but 30% of the video is about USA/Dallas. The video doesn't explain Madrid's grid system, you dont acknowledge hot transit outside the city center is radial, most of the outside of madrid's centre is divided by "sectors" carved up by highways, moving across this highways in metro is tedious as most of the time you need to go to the city center grab a connection and go "out" again. Only some buses lanes go across sectors, so most likely a trip of 10 min in car gets you across a sector, but it would take 40 min by train or metro. Madrid is well designed to go in and out of the city centre, it lacks movility in any other direction that isnt radial
Nope! Madrid does NOT lack mobility in any direction: neither radial, nor diagonal, nor tangential, nor sinusoidal, nor horizontal, nor vertical, nor circular or whatever...
Esto no es del todo cierto, aunque el origen de la ciudad es radial, en los últimos 30 años se están haciendo lineas de metro circulares y tangenciales que conectan todas las lineas. Además ya desde los años 70 las autopistas que pertenecen a la Comunidad de Madrid son circulares ( hay 3 anillos) Y precisamente los nuevos barrios son pequeñas ciudades en si misma, con todos los servicios como hospitales transporte, centros educativos. Lo que está claro es que cualquier ciudad europea tiene un centro en el que converge toda la ciudad pero precisamente Madrid lo tiene muy bien resuelto para el tamaño que tiene
@@cristinaravet3706 Hasta que no vea la línea 11 operando desde Cuatro Vientos hasta Valdebebas no empezaré a tomarme la tangencialidad del transporte público en serio... y todavía faltarán el resto de PAUs y algo que conecte el noreste con el noroeste...
And now you can add the amazing electric bikes system we have in madrid, where you can rent a high quality electric bike in 2 seconds and go anywhere in the city, paying 0,5€ for the trip, so you don't even need to use the subway or the bus anymore. There are stations of bikes everywhere in the streets, since its a public service, so it's rare not to find one when you need it.
I was born and raised in various places in Madrid, looking at the videos that you have chosen looks that you know the the city phisonomy in a very acurate way. That's really impresive, the outsiders don't really know the city even if they live here for years. The only thing you missed it's the lack of high volumen traffic in the main roads, and the restrictive direction in many streets to avoid traffic on neighbourhoods, that makes a lot of traffic jams only to persuade non residents to go to the inner center. 8/10
I'm from Spain. I grew up in the Canary Islands (extremely dense in terms of population), which has a very messy and spontaneous city planning system. I currently live in Madrid since 5 years ago and I have to say this video is very accurate. It's a big but quite liveable city. The grid style helps building community identity and proximity to small business. I've never been in the US, but I see how the suburbs in big American cities grow and it makes people use less public transport and build more isolated communities. I guess European and American urban planning systems are totally the opposite.
The land extension, history and therefore and culture are very different in the US. If Europe had started as a single country it would have developed very differently.
I have lived in London, (near to Paris), and Madrid. Of the three, Madrid is the best to live in by far. I also lived in Logroño, in the north of Spain, and I liked it there even more.
I mean, of course Madrid is a gazillion times better than US cities in terms of walkability and public transport, but we're still more car-friendly than we should be. I would say that for its briefness, this video is good because it's a concise introduction to Madrid's urban planning, especially for US people. I would've taken a bit of moment to mention that the development of Madrid in the second half of the 20th century was far from ideal (there were slums in the outskirts formed by internal migrants who couldn't afford proper housing, and much of the new housing during the 50s, 60s and 70s was poor in quality), but the video is still good. By the way, that newspaper you cited, El Salto, is extremely good for delving into social topics.
What surprises me (even though I understand the reasons) is how mild seasons are in Madrid compared to New York City which lies on the same parallel (between parallels 40 and 41). This of course has a lot to do with its livability.
@@Lucas24997 Sí, pero tampoco es para tanto, yo soy de Valencia y hasta se agradece la sequedad de Madrid. Jaén ya es otro cantar, se nota la meridionalidad y la reducción de altitud.
Despite new neighborhoods in Madrid and spanish cities are dense, they all share the same problem: the low level have no shops or stores, so you have the feeling of being in a deserted city… having a dense city not only requires big blocks but also places to go, to walk, to buy, to drink something… and to live
Not all buildings have those in the new neightbourhoods, but enought of them do, and they tend to be concentrated is some streets turnong them into the most lively places of the neightbourhood, along with the parks.
What are you on about? The streets of Madrid are full of comercial and restaurants with people drinking and eating in terraces. Spain has some of the most lively cities I’ve seen.
Indeed, in the new ones there are usually no commercial premises on many streets, but these are concentrated in some streets and these become the center of the neighborhood with all kinds of services, leaving the rest of the streets with a feeling of tranquility. But it is true that almost all of them have gardens and swimming pools inside, so life is pretty much done within the urbanization, especially for children.
Totally agree. There’s so much car infrastructure but then you also get a massive metro system and some dense enough areas where people walk. Very interesting combo
This "from all the European cities I've been to" is very relative. Maybe you've only lived in cities smaller than Madrid... I've been to many European capitals and cities and in the largest ones there are as many cars on their streets as in those of Madrid.
Something you have missed is the existence and propose of the M30 motorway. This motorway surround Madrid and was supposed to fix all the traffic problems of the city. The truth is, it didn't. Encourage people to use more will never fix traffic problems. Meanwhile, you have one of the best public transport systems in all Spain. Metro and busses are wonderful and quite cheep. So, why the M30 exist? Well, if you look te neighborhood which are outside the M30, all of them are low income neighborhood. Carabanchel, Pan Bendito, Ciudad Lineal. So you have all this people segregated from the wealthy neighborhood but you allow them to go to work to the main logistics centers by public transport.
@@cianmcguire5647 So, without that question mark: An "urban hell" in the hot summers, full of parks, trees and green areas... And 15,000 swimming pools (140,000 in the Community of Madrid) Not too bad.
It’s difficult to enjoy visiting some US cities as it feels like the downtown areas are hellholes, and I assume this is what some Americans have against high density. Though it is funny to see Americans visit European cities, walk and public transport everywhere, enjoy themselves, but not want that back in their home
As a Spaniard not living in Madrid but in a connected-to-public-transportation city (Bilbao) is funny how perspective and individual background can change how we see Madrid. You compare its metro system to the non existent one in Dallas. I compare the fact that I can get to a place in Bilbao 3 miles away with a 10 minute metro ride and no change of line, whereas in Madrid it can take at least one change of line and a 30-40 min ride a lot of the times, which for me it's frustrating
@@jorgemoyano1728 yeah, as I said it all depends on our own experience and background in order to judge how we find the public transportation system in Madrid. It's funny
As a Madrid resident, yeah, we mostly use public transport or walk because how well connected most of things are, but have to say the traffic inside the city is madness, so many cars, motorbikes, bikes and even scooters, so little parking space or expensive ones, so it discourages you to use cars (my conspiracy mind thinks the city council does this on purpose, even with new laws that are limiting the access of old vehicles to the city, it's insane), can't be said the same if you want to go to cities or villages outside the city, most of public transport doesn't reach all areas or have limited operation times, making it a long trip, so private vehicle is preferred.
3:34 The multiapartment with central courtyards are a double edge sword if not implemented very carefully, a lot of the newer neighborhoods became basically suburbs of apartments(we literally call them "bedroom neighborhoods"), there's no density or business in the streets and it seems that people is encouraged to go to malls built nearby to spend their free time, which is different from the model they were using before the 2000s. I think the feeling of belonging decreases in these new neighborhoods and local economy don't have many chances to bloom. On the older and central part of the city what's happening is that housing is being converted to AirBnB or their price is prohibitive to most people thanks to hedge funds intervention and lack of local regulation regarding housing, so yeah, in the past 15 years I noticed a shift to that quality of life we had before... It's a pity because I used to love this city a lot... Still, right now in some places like the mentioned neighborhood of Salamanca, the quality of living is superb, and in more humble areas you can be quite comfortable as well... I just hope the tendencies I mentioned don't get worse.
Dense urban living maybe desirable for some but not everyone. After 20 years of Manhattan I appreciate low density and my private vehicle. Brooklynites can deal with 110 degree heat on old subway platforms and the occasional knee deep water when it rains heavily!
I lived in Madrid for several years, and what you say is basically the general style of Spanish urbanism, if not southern European urbanism overall. What I have found the most shocking, however, is that after I moved from Spain to China, now in Beijing, I have found a similar approach in chinese urbanism, if not better! In many Chinese cities you can basically remove the fraction of car transport and be done with bikes (also getting a new car plate in Beijing is nearly impossible). Also there are so many more green areas and parks. I basically walk/ride the bike all the time here, which I couldn't always do in Spain
I live in Madrid, and the cost of this toughtfull city planning is a thightening in construction licenses. Places are so close from each other and the public transport is eficient, but the cost of buying a house is extremely high.
Then you compare it with almost any other city in the "developed" world and it turns out that Madrid is among the cheapest. Now, if you have a lousy job and you expect to live on Gran Vía, it obviously doesn't add up.
Great video. I live in Madrid and can say the transport is decent, and that social harmony is maintaned. However, it is usually faster to get to places by bicycle, and yet there are virtually no bike paths or cyclists, which would make transport even easier. Plus, most people I know here do try to get a car as soon as they can. No, it's not needed, but the culture is still a car-favoring one.
Good approach, but interestingly enough, you make no comment about Arturo Soria (ciudad lineal). Also the circumventing highways M-30, M-40… And Km 0, this one is anecdotic, explaining why Madrid is in the center of Spain.
No tengo ninguna duda de que Madrid sea una buena ciudad... y pues comparandola a cualquier ciudad grande en norte america la hace parecer aún mejor jajaja
Eso es un chiste, frijoles? Lo digo porque no tiene ni puñetera gracia, ni es verdad. Madrid es una fantástica ciudad sin importar de donde sea quien opine, excepto para los envidiosos como tú...
@@Benito-lr8mz Los ejemplos que pone no son la norma, en salamanca solo viven ricos y oficinas y empresarios, los barrios nuevos de madrid apenas tienen bares y comercio, haciendolos parecer un sitio fantasma y donde tienes que ir "al centro" si o si para hacer vida. La M30 divide Madrid en ricos y pobres y ahora con el nuevo madrid central, ricos y turistas (m30 pa dentro)-pobres(entre m30 y m40) y escoria (más allá de la m40) generando una brutal gentrificación y que provoca, por tanto que a las afueras florezcan bandas, tiroteos, droga y suciedad. Si tienes un día un rato largo para andar desde Sol (centro centro) hasta "Sierra de guadalupe" (mas allá de M40, pero aun dentro de Madrid), vas a ir viendo cómo poco a poco la ciudad se va transformando a peor. Ese mismo ejemplo se ve saliendo dirección Usera o dirección Villaverde. (Si lo haces apóyate en el metro porque es mucha distancia) El sistema de buses de EMT maravilloso acaba en la "Zona A", osea hasta M40, como antes he mencionado, para salir hacia los exteriores dependes de unos buses de empresas privadas que ofrecen servicio y que no van realmente bien, ya que al no ser tan centralizado como la EMT, no se puede usar dinero de lineas con más afluencia para dotar de servicio a sitios ligeramente menos poblados, (que aun así afecta en total a fácil 1 millón de habitantes de la comunidad), estos dependen del coche para ir, pero como se les prohibe, pues nada, más problemas para vivir. Otro problema de Madrid centro, derivado de los 2 anteriores, es con la vivienda, que ya no solo que falten viviendas para todos los que quieren vivir en madrid, sino que comprar para reformar es mision imposible, porque muchas empresas de reforma no trabajan en el centro por los problemas que implica la distribución del material, por ejemplo un reformista solo tiene 2 horas para dejar su furgoneta aparcada, sino le multan, y eso suponiendo que pueda entrar, que a partir del año que viene van a excluir a otros 140.000 autónomos de la comunidad que no tengan para renovar su flota (tengo familiares afectados por ello, además). Otro problema de movilidad es lo mal integrados que están los carriles bici en el trafico, mucha gente usa bicimad, y más después de que prohibiesen ir a los patinetes en cercanías y metro (que era una opcion excelente para reducir tráfico), se han pasado a bicimad con una infraestructura ciclista que no está a la altura. Es muy complicado en tema de diseño urbano hacerlo bien, pero actualmente para mí es deporte de riesgo usar bicimad. Otro problema es Las Rozas y el tunel de Recoletos/sol para las lineas de cercanías, no sé qué pasa, no soy experto en trenes, pero o con las obras o yo que se, los trenes de cercanías van tremendamente lentos viajando de norte a sur y viceversa, hablamos de 2 horas para un Galapagar-Vicálvaro por ejemplo o 1 hora desde El pozo a Pitis, trayectos que podrían hacerse en 40 y 20 minutos respectivamente. Otro problema son los barrios de nueva creación, los que aún no están construidos, que, aparte de que seguro pecan de lo que decía en la primera frase, encima se han diseñado sin transporte público en medio para la movilidad de todos esos nuevos vecinos, un desastre, además, se han diseñado con grandes avenidas que tienen ausencia de sombra y refugio, algo que en Madrid es muy necesario para protegerse del sol en verano y del viento en invierno. Y podría seguir un rato más con cosas mejorables, pero bueno, lo que decía el comentario inicial, comparándolo con cualquier ciudad americana, Madrid gana por goleada.
Pollution is bad in Salamanaca and the whole center area has this problem. Now it's a little bit better after introducing ZBE (Zona de Bajos Emisiones) - Low Emissions Zone, but still in summer it's not the best place to stay.
As a madrilian, district Salamanca doesnt count, is expensive af, Madrid Metro is the best Ive been so far, and Ive been to Barcelona and London, which also have a very good Metro system
Also worth mentioning that the public transport in Madrid is insanely cheap! It cost me €8 a month when I was living there in 2023 (for unlimited buses and metros). I would argue though that the neighbourhoods with the grid system feel more sterilised and less intimate than the older neighbourhoods’ layouts although I do understand that the efficiency of the grid system justifies its use somewhat.
Good video! An important thing for Madrid, and why it's so dense even in post-war years, is because of the rapid growth of the city after the war, and the Francoist Government's aims to provide affordable housing (to counter communism and anti-government forces). Madrid didn't significantly industrialise until the 1950s, since industrialisation before had been disrupted by war and political chaos, and during the 1950s a lot of slums appeared in Madrid, especially to the south of the city. An issue that I have is with the Urban highways, and preferably Madrid should demolish all their Autovias that aren't the outermost ring, since that can encourage a lot of car driving instead.
Hi Im from Madrid and i live en the suburbs where you need cars. Madrid is quite big, and also we have residencial parts where you can live in unifamiliar homes (like me), in this parts you earn having a best home to live, but you loose the advantages of having everything really close like in the city center... We also hace public transport in bus which conect this parts with the rest of the city, there are worse than the subway but are good. The case os Barrio de Salamanca is one of the best parts for live in Spain but also one of the most expensives... Its really dificult to get one home there... Is quite similar to have a good flat in Manhattan... For all the americans, home to see u here in Madrid!! You will be welcome!
NOO!!!! It's NOT Plan Cerda! 0_0 (for people who don't speak Spanish "cerda" is a female pig, also used as a pejorative towards women) It's Plan Cerdà! pronounced with stress on DA!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
Quick fact, Spain has the most elevators per capita in the world. It's very common to live in an apartment block, not sure if people in other countries would like this so much. For example in the UK for cultural reasons people strive to own their own house and land.
the problem Madrid is facing now is the rapid population growth not being followed by investment and development of the public transit. The subway is great but it is reaching max capacity and it's overloaded during rush hour.
You should study the planning of British city Milton Keynes. It is unique in the world. You probably wouldn't like it because they did not include a tram or a train so people drive, but because of the good planning, there are little traffic jams, as they use roundabouts, not traffic lights
Also, newly built buildings in these areas usually have huge communal areas with swimming pool and stuff like that. This makes it almost impossible to create areas for shops on the perimeter. These buildings are creating walled streets with little room for local shops.
As someone who grew up in Dallas, and now lives & works in Madrid - I can very much confirm this. I have loved ditching my car, and happily pay my 20€ a month to use unlimited metro & bus. And many of my activities (including dance class, work, grocery shopping, meeting at bars/terrazas with friends, going to the gym, etc.) can all be done with my favorite friends: My feet. Visiting family back in Dallas often leaves me feeling a bit hyper simply from lack of constant, gentle movement that comes from simply going about my day - while at home. And I do not miss having to travel 20-40+ mins for simple activities, while in car - in which I have to be mentally active/on to operate.
As a Madrid resident the compact city model its far from the present model in more of the half of the new PAUs (urban plannings), in the new model the streets are too wide, car dependant, not walky driven design, and this kind of hybrid model implies less local meetings, streetlife, business creation, because its less touchpoints formula. In another point, the Manzanares river, both the firstly the buried and boring the central ring highway and secondly the later change and renaturalization of the river, because has a network of small dams with gates that stagnate the water, to give the effect of making the river appear more voluminous like other coastal capitols of Europe. The great discovery of the renaturalization fo the river was a huge growth of local native flora and fauna, new riverside forest in the middle of the city, all kind of birds and unique ones from all over Europe have now and a incredible stop in the middle of their annual migrations to Africa. And a chemical and health state of the river was improved and now continues that way, even the water enter the urban section of the river more contaminated and polluted than exits this section, only because the new flora and fauna filter, cleans and fixed the excess of nitrates and other chemical contamination. For me, it's incredible. And firstly, sounds like a contradicting paradox. Thank you for the content and appreciating the urban model of Madrid, and extents the most of the cities of Spain, we are a compact urban country, more than suburban sprawl model. BTW Now at this time Madrid city It is being devoured at atrocious speed by gentrification and the purchase of residential properties by international vulture funds, turning the cities of Spain into amusement and theme parks, and not only the city center. The political elites, on a personal level, have a lot of investment in this type of activity as a business and are promoting it. It's destroying the lives of all generations after Generation X and Boomer, And boomers are still the social majority, they always have been, with the political consequences. With the logical consequences in politics, political promises are aimed at obtaining votes and majorities, so they aspire to the voters of the majority group. Perhaps breaking the factual and implicit social contract that we learn and inherit in a systemic way.
I lived near Madrid Rio park for 2 years, and agree that it's comfortable to walk anywhere if you live in right neighborhood. Public transport is great there too, but still there are a lot of places designed primarily for cars - especially big shopping centers. There was Plaza Río 2 shopping center near our home, which covered most of our needs, but sometimes we had to go elsewhere and wished I had a car like other people there. It's also a terrible city for cycling: bike lanes are almost nonexisting, and often you have to ride in the middle lane between buses/taxis on the right and private cars on the left - I never felt safe and can't imagine my girlfriend doing this. Another bad thing for me that with this density it felt overcrowded. Literally there is no place where you can walk without seeing anybody. As for someone who value privacy and comes from much less dense eastern european city it was a problem and one of the reasons we left. But maybe someone from London or New York won't have issues with it.
whats nice about european urban core density is that it's like excessive in height like USA and a lot of Asia. residential buildings above 5 or 6 stories are ridiculous and destroy life at the ground level. in spain you can be living an urban life, but also be able tosee the sky from the street level
1:15 it's Cerdà, not Cerda. A 'cerda' is a female pig, so very big difference here. As with a lot of languages, the accent tells you to stress that vowel. I don't think is that hard to make a minumum research on how to pronounce words that are not in your native language, specially considering you spent a lot of time and effort in reseraching about the topic of the video. Also, 4:55, 34 + 25 = 59, not 69.
Please don't come, too many people here already. There are very many beautiful and well designed places in Spain besides Madrid and BCN, take for example Valladolid, Salamanca, León, Logroño, Toledo, etc. Those places need people and the quality of life is better ;)
@@cocazade7703 That's why big cities keep getting bigger 😂 Many have urged people to go to and live in and develop the small cities (to keep them from dying) but seems it hardly works.
Great video! But while i agree that spanish (mediterranean) urbanism does a better job in creating more sustainable and humane cities compared to the american way of urbanism, i would disagree in saying that madrid is well designed. The Plan Castro, has many flaws, it was designed to have only one city centre, it has been proofed that a multiple centre city works better. In its origin, it was designed to have neighbours divided by class, it is classist, and this decision affects Madrid even today. I think that you have picked up on the fact that our way of doing urbanism (creating high/medium densities and leaving street level building spaces for shops and offices) favours a more sustainable and lively way of life. But that is practically all of Spain. Madrid hasn’t had a very good urban planning, it might seem good because in general Spain has good urban planning. From an urbanist perspective, the city needs to be less car-dependent, investing in cycling mobility; and as you have pointed out the outskirts are not that well-connected or well designed. This new developments need to have more economic activity and more access to public transport. Madrid cannot have its entire public service system in the city centre. I love Madrid and have lived in this city for years. But it hasn’t worked in improving itself. This city needs to work in many ways to create a more sustainable and egalitarian place to live.
Cycling is very tough in Madrid because of its topology! The highest neighbourhoods in the north are circa 825 metres, and the river (obviously the lowest) districts are about 640 metres high. There are 10 kilometres between them, but there's a slight but steady raise that can be really tiring when you go walking or cycling. Madrid is a rollercoaster.
This is misinformation. Only rich people live in Barrio de Salamanca and all other neighborhoods built with "sensible planning" and only a small portion of the city is designed like this. There is a far higher number of people (working class) who lives either in neighborhoods that stemed from slums settlements laid after the civil war and are literally the opposite of Salamanca (with thin chaotic streets and very few trees and garden areas) or in the ones mentioned in the video that are not well integrated to the rest of the city and are relatively car dependent.
I was born and raised in Madrid, and I still live here. You'd be surprised how much we complain about public transport, especially the short-distance trains HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
as a resident of dallas i can confirm that nobody knows life outside of their private vehicle here
Most US cities are unviable without a car
Do you have a net of urban buses? Can you go from downtown to the suburbs by bus?
I used to live in Dallas and can confirm. Your life is your car. In Dallas TX who you are is your car.
Aqui termine vendiendo los vehiculos privados y motos, porque no los usaba, si a 3 minutos de mi casa tengo tren que pasa cada 4 minutos en hora punta, o menos, tardo 18 minutos a Chamartin, esta a 24 km creo de distancia, el abono mensual que vale para tren, metro, bus y tranvia vale 30€ al mes puedo usarlo todas las veces que quiera, ademas Madrid por el centro esta muy mal para estacionar y se termina tardando menos en el transporte publico. th-cam.com/video/xjgoEJr1yJc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=By3TSyU62oLX2tkd&t=1
Madrid would welcome anyone who wants to live here!!!!!!!!!
This design is true of all Spanish cities, and even many towns. Living in flats, sharing the stairs and the streets, meeting your neighbours everyday (even if you do not know them by name) creates a kind of social commonwealth that you could never get in a society that lives driving everywhere.
I love that term social commonwealth.
Well, that depends a lot on the region. Galicia has a really bad urban planning, for example. Meanwhile Andalusia has one of the best.
@@theurbanspokesman Just made it up, but it's good ain't it? Feel free to use. ;-)
@@diogorodrigues747 True, that's why I said cities. Galicia is more rural, right? Never been there, but it's what I get from reading maps.
@@joseantoniodepilares6509 Actually that's a wrong perspective, Galicia has a way bigger population density than Castille or Andalusia for example, and way above the Spanish average. The reason why urban planning in Galicia is so bad is a bit complicated and it has a lot to do with how the land was traditionally divided ("minifundio" vs "lactifundio" or direct control from the Church or State) and also culture.
The spanish cities are made for walking to any place. Obviusly Madrid is a big city where the people can't go walking to long distances, but this make many sense of home in your neighborhood where you can go walking to the market, the medical center, the shops, the park, etc. The neighborhoods are little systems where you have all that you need and you know the people.
We have a spanish friend living in Dallas, and when we was in this city to visit we feel like in another planet: she lives in a house miles away from the downtown, in a neighborhood of thousands of identical houses, in the middle of many identical areas, and have to take the car for anything! (school, doctor, gym, supermarket, to have dinner, etc etc). I don't see a bus in this area in all the days, are places building to live with a car, losing hours every morning to go to the job with no option to take a transport.
If also are cities with no historical buildings of more than 200 years or places to enjoy a walk.. what sense have to live in?
and Spain is going extinct.
@@muhcharona Thats all the first world
One of the best thing about the density in Madrid is that you can almost always walk on a 1-2 lane street between 6-story buildings well sheltered against cold winds in Winter or unbearable sunlight in the Summer. Unfortunately the newer neighbourhoods like Sanchinarro or Ensanche de Vallecas have some overwidened streets that discourage walking, negate the shelter from the elements and encourage vehicles to speed leading to less safe streets. Still, Madrid has a lot of transit and parks making it very livable, and even the places that aren't very good are still fine.
The quantity of lanes implemente in newers partes of the Ensanche are crazy and don't make any sense. They even surpass the lanes the highway M45 has.
Lo del ensanche no tiene ningun sentido jajajajaja conducir por ahí es como conducir por una ciudad fantasma XDDD sin coches con una carretera de 6 carriles jajajajaja.
no se, soy de sanchi y no sufro mucho por el clima en la calle, aunque tampoco es que salga mucho
that shelter is a byproduct of buildings being very close, which also means less direct light on apartmenrs. there are tradeoffs...
Los nuevos barrios son una auténtica ruina, y lo peor es que los siguen haciendo igual
As a “madrileña” (born in Madrid) I thank you for sharing this positive information, so well explained! Here, in Spain, to tend to be overcritical. 😅
Eres gata entonces
Against Madrid. Everybody talks great things about other cities that are far worse than Madrid, but...
We Spaniards have really bad case of inferiority complex towards the rest of developed countries.
@@XanderVJ🇪🇸 has many good things like its architecture and high speed rail, no need to feel a complex anymore 🙃
@@oldskoolmusicnostalgia I agree. I've lived in multiple countries, and Spain has little to envy to other nations.
However, keep in mind this complex doesn't come out of nowhere. Spain was behind the curve for nearly two centuries. It wasn't until pretty much the 1980s that we managed to begin to catch up with our peers in any meaningful way. You can't turn around the pessimism born out of 200 years of decay in just 40 years, specially with the 2008 recession, the 2011 Eurozone crisis AND COVID stalling the whole thing.
This is what I love about Madrid, and Spain in general. Even in the most outer suburbs there is still great density. Most things are still within walking distance and it means Spain preserves its countryside for nature rather than sprawl. Spain has some of the emptiest countryside in Europe too
I wonder if that empty countryside has something to do with the dense network of the capital...
In Spain there's a defined place for the city and another place for the countryside. They don't get mixed. And for @JustinSh.: Actually no. The density of Madrid is the same in almost every Spanish city greater than 50.000 inhabitants. It's a matter of urban legislation across the country mixed with the Spanish culture of enjoying living surrounded by your neighbours in order to socialize and with everything (work, school, services, etc) in a walkable distance.
A culture brought by the very planning that happened.
@@JustinSh. As soon as the 3.2 million Capital city ends within its limits, then there are lots of small 50k -200k people towns that follow the same pattern. Paris is similar, yet bigger.
@@JustinSh. Density is the same in every town (not the same in villages, though there are more individual houses). The buildings and urban design is like that because the roman empire's and arab culture's urban designs
Madrid fun facts: The idea of the Madrid Metro originated in 1916 when a royal decree approved the 4-line plan for the creation of the metro of Madrid. The engineers who created the plan, Mendoza, González Echarte, and Otamendi then began the process of raising the 8 million pesetas to begin the first phase of the project, and the first phase was completed in 1919! Though not actually the first subway system in the Spanish-speaking world as the Subte in Buenos Aires first opened in 1913! When Philip II became king in 1556, he understood the importance of the city of Madrid and made it the capital of Spain. He moved his court there, solidifying the city as the de facto center of royal power in 1561. Before Madrid, Toledo was effectively the capital! After the crushing of the Revolt of the Comuneros in 1520-1521, Charles V's court was installed in Toledo, with the monarch choosing the city as his residence at least 15 times from 1525 on. Not to mention Toledo was the capital of Visigothic Spain from 542 to 725 CE. Madrid is among the highest cities in Europe, yet it is often overlooked when considering high-altitude cities. Surprisingly, Madrid is situated at an elevation of 667 meters above sea level, making it the highest European capital. The documented history of Madrid dates to the 9th century, even though the area has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Córdoba Emir Muhammad I commissioned the first construction in the late 9th century and involved the establishment of a citadel on the banks of the Manzanares River in Majrit/Mayrit village.
Similarly to other fortresses north of the Tagus, Madrid made it difficult to muster reinforcements from the Asturian kingdom to the unruly inhabitants of Toledo, prone to rebellion against the Umayyad rule. Extending across roughly 8 hectares, Muslim Madrid consisted of the alcázar and the wider walled citadel (al-Mudayna) with the addition of some housing outside the walls. By the late 10th century, Majriṭ was an important borderland military stronghold territory with great strategic value, owing to its proximity to Toledo. In 1739 Philip V began constructing new palaces, including the Palacio Real de Madrid. Under Charles III (who ruled from 1759-1788) that Madrid became a truly modern city. Charles III, who cleaned up the city and its government, became one of the most popular kings to rule Madrid, and the saying "the best mayor, the king" became widespread. Besides completing the Palacio Real, Charles III is responsible for many of Madrid's finest buildings and monuments, including the Prado and the Puerta de Alcalá.
I'm an American and I thought I hated large cities.
Until I moved to Spain.
Madrid (and BCN) is really livable. Every time I visit I am floored with how absolutely FRIENDLY everyone is. In cities in America, once you crest about 2.5 million people, friendliness goes out the window--it starts to feel frenetic and competitive. I think a combination of this design and the culture contribute to this. The quality of life everywhere I've been in Spain has been fantastic and unmatched by any of my other experiences.
There are, I'm sure, a lot of factors contributing to these different feelings, but I never thought I would consider living in a city of 7M people. But I consider Madrid often.
Madrid is great as well 😉
Yet still Madrid Capital city is not 7M, that's the whole Comunidad de Madrid population. Madrid city is around 3,5M, the rest are peripheral cities/towns
@@ChesterRGC ...actually yesno, 7M is also the metropolitan area, which is a bunch of cities and towns so close together and tightly connected that they end up acting as a system of its own... what people end up thinking of as "Madrid", just like you would think of Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, etc.
In fact the 7M conurbation is a metropolitan area of 30 cities, Madrid with 3.2M and then lots of 50k -150k people smaller ones.
@@xerzysin ir las lejos, Paris tiene 2.2 millones de habitantes, pero nadie se pone a pensar en eso, la gente piensa en Paris, como una ciudad de 11 millones, que es lo que tiene su área metropolitana
This is an amazing video!! I’ve always wanted to visit Madrid and check out their amazing metro network and connection to that beautiful high speed rail network
just keep in mind that a huge chunk of the local population leaves the city in August due to unbearable heat (despite good overall shade on streets and parks). so perhaps visit in August if you don’t mind extreme heat, and to take advantage of the quiet, or visit in the fall to get a more realistic feel of the city.
@@johnnysecularPlease don’t come in August. The heat is unbearable for a reason. Lots of things will be closed too, because madrileños indeed flee the city during the summer. The nicest thing about Madrid is to calmly stroll around and discover every corner of the city. You won’t enjoy doing that in August of July.
@@lioneliv3195 You'll be least bothered in July and August, and you can stay inside the Museums and transit (or a restaurant) during afternoon (to take advantage of the AC) and walk, bike and explore the city before noon or after 7PM. The sun is unbereable, but you can avoid it and the heat is manageable as long as you keep hydrated, since the air is very dry sweting is very efective and isn't unconfortable.
Anyway, I'd recomend visiting in Autumn since it is cheaper and you get to see a more actual version of the cities and most of the typical food can be enjoyed in Autumn, or in Spring if you'd rather see some of the Easter cellebrations as well, want to enjoy more sunlight without the heat of Summer or as much rain as in Autumn.
@@johnnysecular I love Madrid in August, it's half empty, and if you have a/c at home the heat isn't
that bad.
@@fjp3305 Same here. The summer is my favorite time of the year in Madrid. Less people in the commercial streets and the metro, no need for reservations in good restaurants and no queueing for finding a place at the nicer terrazas. But of course, I do have an A/C at home 🙂
Great video! 🤩 I’m from the US but live in Madrid and I always go on about how the urban planning and public transport here are amazing.
Madrid is extremely walkable, very nice
I've been living in Madrid for a few years and here's some unique things that make it sooo walkable:
1. Creating lots of underpasses under the city to divert traffic and minimising busy crossings for pedestrians
2. Having many nodes of activity so residents can have varied businesses and services near them instead of centralising everything
3. Free drinking fountains literally everywhere (with an online map to find them), meaning you can be outside as long as you want without worrying about being prepared
4. most areas have round the clock activity (nightlife mixed with day businesses) making it safe to be out even at 5 am because there's always people around
5. the public transport is affordable and very well designed so even if you walk too far and get tired, you can get home easily
It’s a pretty good video, I just have to say one thing, Madrid city not the same as Madrid CA(Comunidad Autónoma) has a population of 6,3M but it’s served also by 356 lines of buses, you only mentioned EMT buses Empresa Municipal de Transportes (municipal agency of transport) which has more or less 200 lines, but that only serves the City of Madrid, the CA of Madrid is served by roughly 560 lines of buses, the other 356 lines comes from the CRTM buses, Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (it’s something like regional aggrupation of transports of Madrid)
This is just a little mistake but if you include Cercanías and say that it has a population of 6,4 M people I thought you should count CRTM in the equation
And also it’s served by 4 light rail trains
ML1
ML2
ML3
And Metro Parla
Thanks
As a madrileño that grew on barrio Salamanca from 6 to 21, I miss so much of the urban planning and architecture of Madrid. I never had to get a drivers license, I never needed it until I came to live in the US. You walk everywhere, you meet people, you get to know interesting places you dindt thought about etc. Stroads and 8 line highways are depressing and I feel like I have to battle to get out of my house. In Madrid I may go out one night and arrive at a park, get into 3/4 different bars and a couple discos within a 20 min walk, while here in the us, its more like go to this place or this house and thats it.
I work in Madrid 2 months a year. Usually I'll have to rent a couple of different places too...
I've noticed that most people don't realise the newer (past 50 years) areas are not very well planned and not well connected. The reason why most people think their transport system is good, is because they live on their metro line and their barrio, while rarely leaving it.
@@asparadog i dont agree with that, we a have a great public transport system period.
@@asparadog can you name some barrios not well conected?
@@VictorAlbaa the last one I experienced is entrevias; that place can be annoying.
@@VictorAlbaa it is great, I didn't say it wasn't. But depending on where you live/work, it can be a coñazo.
I'm so excited for the extension of the Metro line 11 in Madrid. It's going to be amazing.
Y yo. Pero aún quedan años...
Great video! I spent the summer in Madrid last year for studying, and I'm about to move there in a couple months and I could not be more excited. Living in a walkable city is going to be so amazing
I’ve lived in Dallas and Madrid haha I love the combo. Yup in Dallas you NEED a car and in Madrid I was happy taking the metro and just walking to get around. Always pushing for better walkability…
Madrid also has the anillo ciclista (cycling ring) a rout of 65 kms that goes around the capital through many green areas, and also the nice casa de campo by the royal palace where you feel like it is the end of the whole city overlooking the sunset, but the best secret is the north of madrid, 20-40 minutes from the city centre by regular trains connect the city center with the north towns and little villages which is calm, fresh, suny, quiet, and highest qualty of life.
The madrid rio development is incredible. Its absolutely transformed the neighborhood and city
You're right. Here in Madrid there's really no pressure to use cars, it's more of a choice and not an obvious one. It feels like the city doesn't end, where you can find similar population density for miles on end. If an alien dropped somewhere in Madrid, just by walking, it would take it some time to realise where the center is. I love Madrid.
I used to live in the Salamanca neighborhood and now I live in Atocha, and you're so right. All the amenities available there are available throughout the city.
3:03 I live near that crossroads haha. Nice video!!
3:14 and 4:36 Same neighbourhood (Las Rosas)
@@lh2738 yo tembien por la zona de las rosas, cerca de la calle suecia y manchester
God bless Madrid's public transport.
~as a resident of Madrid
I am from Madrid and Id say this is a pretty accurate video! Glad I came across it, thanks!
0:15 I’ve eaten at that restaurant on the corner (they have amazing gambas)! My ex used to live one block away from there, higher up in the Calle de Alcantara. It’s such an amazing neighbourhood, in which I dream to live if I move to Madrid one day 😊
As a resident of madrid for many years, it's insanely easy to live here without a car. With patience you can cross the city and even go to villages by the different methosd of publuc transport.
I've travelled all around the world and I've not found a better place to live than Madrid, with a perfect balance between urban and green areas. I love it!!
Great video.
I think Madrid is a beautiful and walkable city. It’s been a few years since I was last there but plan on going back soon.
As someone who's been living in madrid for their whole life, that's also the reason why houses are insanely expensive here(in proportion to our salaries) so if you want a more quiet peaceful life i would recommend some of the other cities in spain, the urban planning is really well done in the rest of the country too and rent/buying properties is way more affordable ^^
Moved to Madrid a couple years ago and was very happy to come across this. Very interesting!
At 5:00 either I'm dense or the math doesnt add up 39% of transit made by cars means that 61% (at most) of transit is car-free (and if we include motrobikes it will go down)
Also you spent 5 and a half minutes, but 30% of the video is about USA/Dallas.
The video doesn't explain Madrid's grid system, you dont acknowledge hot transit outside the city center is radial, most of the outside of madrid's centre is divided by "sectors" carved up by highways, moving across this highways in metro is tedious as most of the time you need to go to the city center grab a connection and go "out" again.
Only some buses lanes go across sectors, so most likely a trip of 10 min in car gets you across a sector, but it would take 40 min by train or metro.
Madrid is well designed to go in and out of the city centre, it lacks movility in any other direction that isnt radial
Maybe the figures are wrong. Last time I checked travels in Madrid where split aprox. 1/3 walking 1/3 transit and 1/3 car
Nope! Madrid does NOT lack mobility in any direction: neither radial, nor diagonal, nor tangential, nor sinusoidal, nor horizontal, nor vertical, nor circular or whatever...
Esto no es del todo cierto, aunque el origen de la ciudad es radial, en los últimos 30 años se están haciendo lineas de metro circulares y tangenciales que conectan todas las lineas. Además ya desde los años 70 las autopistas que pertenecen a la Comunidad de Madrid son circulares ( hay 3 anillos) Y precisamente los nuevos barrios son pequeñas ciudades en si misma, con todos los servicios como hospitales transporte, centros educativos. Lo que está claro es que cualquier ciudad europea tiene un centro en el que converge toda la ciudad pero precisamente Madrid lo tiene muy bien resuelto para el tamaño que tiene
@@cristinaravet3706 Hasta que no vea la línea 11 operando desde Cuatro Vientos hasta Valdebebas no empezaré a tomarme la tangencialidad del transporte público en serio... y todavía faltarán el resto de PAUs y algo que conecte el noreste con el noroeste...
And now you can add the amazing electric bikes system we have in madrid, where you can rent a high quality electric bike in 2 seconds and go anywhere in the city, paying 0,5€ for the trip, so you don't even need to use the subway or the bus anymore. There are stations of bikes everywhere in the streets, since its a public service, so it's rare not to find one when you need it.
I was born and raised in various places in Madrid, looking at the videos that you have chosen looks that you know the the city phisonomy in a very acurate way. That's really impresive, the outsiders don't really know the city even if they live here for years. The only thing you missed it's the lack of high volumen traffic in the main roads, and the restrictive direction in many streets to avoid traffic on neighbourhoods, that makes a lot of traffic jams only to persuade non residents to go to the inner center. 8/10
I'm from Spain. I grew up in the Canary Islands (extremely dense in terms of population), which has a very messy and spontaneous city planning system.
I currently live in Madrid since 5 years ago and I have to say this video is very accurate. It's a big but quite liveable city. The grid style helps building community identity and proximity to small business.
I've never been in the US, but I see how the suburbs in big American cities grow and it makes people use less public transport and build more isolated communities.
I guess European and American urban planning systems are totally the opposite.
We are isolated, lonely and sick. And our oligarchs like it that way.
The land extension, history and therefore and culture are very different in the US.
If Europe had started as a single country it would have developed very differently.
I have lived in London, (near to Paris), and Madrid. Of the three, Madrid is the best to live in by far. I also lived in Logroño, in the north of Spain, and I liked it there even more.
I mean, of course Madrid is a gazillion times better than US cities in terms of walkability and public transport, but we're still more car-friendly than we should be.
I would say that for its briefness, this video is good because it's a concise introduction to Madrid's urban planning, especially for US people. I would've taken a bit of moment to mention that the development of Madrid in the second half of the 20th century was far from ideal (there were slums in the outskirts formed by internal migrants who couldn't afford proper housing, and much of the new housing during the 50s, 60s and 70s was poor in quality), but the video is still good. By the way, that newspaper you cited, El Salto, is extremely good for delving into social topics.
A video in english with good spanish pronunciation :o amazing
Cerdá though
Nice to see the video. I would like to watch a longer version with more information, thanks, form Madrid
What surprises me (even though I understand the reasons) is how mild seasons are in Madrid compared to New York City which lies on the same parallel (between parallels 40 and 41). This of course has a lot to do with its livability.
Madrid has milder winters, but summers here will alwars get really hot, it is not rare to have +40°C hear waves
@@Lucas24997 Sí, pero tampoco es para tanto, yo soy de Valencia y hasta se agradece la sequedad de Madrid. Jaén ya es otro cantar, se nota la meridionalidad y la reducción de altitud.
Despite new neighborhoods in Madrid and spanish cities are dense, they all share the same problem: the low level have no shops or stores, so you have the feeling of being in a deserted city… having a dense city not only requires big blocks but also places to go, to walk, to buy, to drink something… and to live
Not all buildings have those in the new neightbourhoods, but enought of them do, and they tend to be concentrated is some streets turnong them into the most lively places of the neightbourhood, along with the parks.
There are shops on most of the ground floors of these blocks.
What are you on about? The streets of Madrid are full of comercial and restaurants with people drinking and eating in terraces. Spain has some of the most lively cities I’ve seen.
Indeed, in the new ones there are usually no commercial premises on many streets, but these are concentrated in some streets and these become the center of the neighborhood with all kinds of services, leaving the rest of the streets with a feeling of tranquility. But it is true that almost all of them have gardens and swimming pools inside, so life is pretty much done within the urbanization, especially for children.
Please do a video on Buenos Aires
One day
I'm from Madrid, and I think it's the best place to live on Earth, prove me wrong!!! 😊
congrats on the recent success man!
Interesting to see. I lived in Madrid and from all the European Cities I've been to, Madrid is definitely the most car heavy city I've seen.
Totally agree. There’s so much car infrastructure but then you also get a massive metro system and some dense enough areas where people walk. Very interesting combo
And what’s insane is that 70% of the cars on the road are taxis. I’ve never seen a city so full with taxis. Maybe NYC but that’s it
This "from all the European cities I've been to" is very relative. Maybe you've only lived in cities smaller than Madrid...
I've been to many European capitals and cities and in the largest ones there are as many cars on their streets as in those of Madrid.
Thank you for making more videos about Europe. Please make another video about Oslo and Norway 🇳🇴
What an analysis. Wow. Keep going please
Something you have missed is the existence and propose of the M30 motorway. This motorway surround Madrid and was supposed to fix all the traffic problems of the city. The truth is, it didn't. Encourage people to use more will never fix traffic problems. Meanwhile, you have one of the best public transport systems in all Spain. Metro and busses are wonderful and quite cheep. So, why the M30 exist?
Well, if you look te neighborhood which are outside the M30, all of them are low income neighborhood. Carabanchel, Pan Bendito, Ciudad Lineal.
So you have all this people segregated from the wealthy neighborhood but you allow them to go to work to the main logistics centers by public transport.
I fully agree with you and I had in mind the pb with the river so that disclamer at the end is incredible hahaha
Thank u for putting the sources
😂 I can see my house in the vídeo next to Ciudad Lineal, funny
In the newer districts on the outskirts you’ll find very much lifeless care centric zones. Quite the expanding urban hell in the hot summers.
An urban hell??? in the hot summers, full of parks, trees and green areas...
@@rsnankivell1962 I actually live in Madrid. Anyone who lives will agree that the summers here are HELL.
@@cianmcguire5647 So, without that question mark: An "urban hell" in the hot summers, full of parks, trees and green areas... And 15,000 swimming pools (140,000 in the Community of Madrid)
Not too bad.
It’s difficult to enjoy visiting some US cities as it feels like the downtown areas are hellholes, and I assume this is what some Americans have against high density. Though it is funny to see Americans visit European cities, walk and public transport everywhere, enjoy themselves, but not want that back in their home
Nice to see shots of the street I walk down every day to get to work, as part of that 69%.
As a Spaniard not living in Madrid but in a connected-to-public-transportation city (Bilbao) is funny how perspective and individual background can change how we see Madrid.
You compare its metro system to the non existent one in Dallas. I compare the fact that I can get to a place in Bilbao 3 miles away with a 10 minute metro ride and no change of line, whereas in Madrid it can take at least one change of line and a 30-40 min ride a lot of the times, which for me it's frustrating
Bilbao follows a river so it is more of a line city whereas Madrid is more like a circumference?
@@jorgemoyano1728 yeah, as I said it all depends on our own experience and background in order to judge how we find the public transportation system in Madrid. It's funny
As a Madrid resident, yeah, we mostly use public transport or walk because how well connected most of things are, but have to say the traffic inside the city is madness, so many cars, motorbikes, bikes and even scooters, so little parking space or expensive ones, so it discourages you to use cars (my conspiracy mind thinks the city council does this on purpose, even with new laws that are limiting the access of old vehicles to the city, it's insane), can't be said the same if you want to go to cities or villages outside the city, most of public transport doesn't reach all areas or have limited operation times, making it a long trip, so private vehicle is preferred.
Great video!
3:28 Viva alcorcon
Thanks for the video. I would love an extended version.
3:34 The multiapartment with central courtyards are a double edge sword if not implemented very carefully, a lot of the newer neighborhoods became basically suburbs of apartments(we literally call them "bedroom neighborhoods"), there's no density or business in the streets and it seems that people is encouraged to go to malls built nearby to spend their free time, which is different from the model they were using before the 2000s. I think the feeling of belonging decreases in these new neighborhoods and local economy don't have many chances to bloom. On the older and central part of the city what's happening is that housing is being converted to AirBnB or their price is prohibitive to most people thanks to hedge funds intervention and lack of local regulation regarding housing, so yeah, in the past 15 years I noticed a shift to that quality of life we had before... It's a pity because I used to love this city a lot... Still, right now in some places like the mentioned neighborhood of Salamanca, the quality of living is superb, and in more humble areas you can be quite comfortable as well... I just hope the tendencies I mentioned don't get worse.
Dense urban living maybe desirable for some but not everyone. After 20 years of Manhattan I appreciate low density and my private vehicle. Brooklynites can deal with 110 degree heat on old subway platforms and the occasional knee deep water when it rains heavily!
Good video with a lot of potential! I would of loved to see a different ending as this one felt quite abrupt
I lived in Madrid for several years, and what you say is basically the general style of Spanish urbanism, if not southern European urbanism overall. What I have found the most shocking, however, is that after I moved from Spain to China, now in Beijing, I have found a similar approach in chinese urbanism, if not better! In many Chinese cities you can basically remove the fraction of car transport and be done with bikes (also getting a new car plate in Beijing is nearly impossible). Also there are so many more green areas and parks. I basically walk/ride the bike all the time here, which I couldn't always do in Spain
I live in Madrid, and the cost of this toughtfull city planning is a thightening in construction licenses. Places are so close from each other and the public transport is eficient, but the cost of buying a house is extremely high.
Then you compare it with almost any other city in the "developed" world and it turns out that Madrid is among the cheapest. Now, if you have a lousy job and you expect to live on Gran Vía, it obviously doesn't add up.
Great video. I live in Madrid and can say the transport is decent, and that social harmony is maintaned. However, it is usually faster to get to places by bicycle, and yet there are virtually no bike paths or cyclists, which would make transport even easier. Plus, most people I know here do try to get a car as soon as they can. No, it's not needed, but the culture is still a car-favoring one.
100%
Madrid needs to adopts a good pro-bike infrastructure platform.
4:55 that math ain't mathing bro, 34% + 25% is 59% not 69% lmao
Good approach, but interestingly enough, you make no comment about Arturo Soria (ciudad lineal).
Also the circumventing highways M-30, M-40…
And Km 0, this one is anecdotic, explaining why Madrid is in the center of Spain.
Ciudad Lineal/Arturo Soria would require a whole nother video - maybe for the future
cuando eres americano hasta Madrid parece una buena ciudad
No tengo ninguna duda de que Madrid sea una buena ciudad... y pues comparandola a cualquier ciudad grande en norte america la hace parecer aún mejor jajaja
Madrid es una de las mejores ciudades/regiones del mundo considerando sus 7 millones de habitantes.
Por qué es mala Madrid?
Eso es un chiste, frijoles?
Lo digo porque no tiene ni puñetera gracia, ni es verdad. Madrid es una fantástica ciudad sin importar de donde sea quien opine, excepto para los envidiosos como tú...
@@Benito-lr8mz Los ejemplos que pone no son la norma, en salamanca solo viven ricos y oficinas y empresarios, los barrios nuevos de madrid apenas tienen bares y comercio, haciendolos parecer un sitio fantasma y donde tienes que ir "al centro" si o si para hacer vida.
La M30 divide Madrid en ricos y pobres y ahora con el nuevo madrid central, ricos y turistas (m30 pa dentro)-pobres(entre m30 y m40) y escoria (más allá de la m40) generando una brutal gentrificación y que provoca, por tanto que a las afueras florezcan bandas, tiroteos, droga y suciedad. Si tienes un día un rato largo para andar desde Sol (centro centro) hasta "Sierra de guadalupe" (mas allá de M40, pero aun dentro de Madrid), vas a ir viendo cómo poco a poco la ciudad se va transformando a peor. Ese mismo ejemplo se ve saliendo dirección Usera o dirección Villaverde. (Si lo haces apóyate en el metro porque es mucha distancia)
El sistema de buses de EMT maravilloso acaba en la "Zona A", osea hasta M40, como antes he mencionado, para salir hacia los exteriores dependes de unos buses de empresas privadas que ofrecen servicio y que no van realmente bien, ya que al no ser tan centralizado como la EMT, no se puede usar dinero de lineas con más afluencia para dotar de servicio a sitios ligeramente menos poblados, (que aun así afecta en total a fácil 1 millón de habitantes de la comunidad), estos dependen del coche para ir, pero como se les prohibe, pues nada, más problemas para vivir.
Otro problema de Madrid centro, derivado de los 2 anteriores, es con la vivienda, que ya no solo que falten viviendas para todos los que quieren vivir en madrid, sino que comprar para reformar es mision imposible, porque muchas empresas de reforma no trabajan en el centro por los problemas que implica la distribución del material, por ejemplo un reformista solo tiene 2 horas para dejar su furgoneta aparcada, sino le multan, y eso suponiendo que pueda entrar, que a partir del año que viene van a excluir a otros 140.000 autónomos de la comunidad que no tengan para renovar su flota (tengo familiares afectados por ello, además).
Otro problema de movilidad es lo mal integrados que están los carriles bici en el trafico, mucha gente usa bicimad, y más después de que prohibiesen ir a los patinetes en cercanías y metro (que era una opcion excelente para reducir tráfico), se han pasado a bicimad con una infraestructura ciclista que no está a la altura. Es muy complicado en tema de diseño urbano hacerlo bien, pero actualmente para mí es deporte de riesgo usar bicimad.
Otro problema es Las Rozas y el tunel de Recoletos/sol para las lineas de cercanías, no sé qué pasa, no soy experto en trenes, pero o con las obras o yo que se, los trenes de cercanías van tremendamente lentos viajando de norte a sur y viceversa, hablamos de 2 horas para un Galapagar-Vicálvaro por ejemplo o 1 hora desde El pozo a Pitis, trayectos que podrían hacerse en 40 y 20 minutos respectivamente.
Otro problema son los barrios de nueva creación, los que aún no están construidos, que, aparte de que seguro pecan de lo que decía en la primera frase, encima se han diseñado sin transporte público en medio para la movilidad de todos esos nuevos vecinos, un desastre, además, se han diseñado con grandes avenidas que tienen ausencia de sombra y refugio, algo que en Madrid es muy necesario para protegerse del sol en verano y del viento en invierno.
Y podría seguir un rato más con cosas mejorables, pero bueno, lo que decía el comentario inicial, comparándolo con cualquier ciudad americana, Madrid gana por goleada.
cool video! now i want to visit Madrid!
Another amazing video!!!
Pollution is bad in Salamanaca and the whole center area has this problem. Now it's a little bit better after introducing ZBE (Zona de Bajos Emisiones) - Low Emissions Zone, but still in summer it's not the best place to stay.
As a madrilian, district Salamanca doesnt count, is expensive af, Madrid Metro is the best Ive been so far, and Ive been to Barcelona and London, which also have a very good Metro system
Also worth mentioning that the public transport in Madrid is insanely cheap! It cost me €8 a month when I was living there in 2023 (for unlimited buses and metros). I would argue though that the neighbourhoods with the grid system feel more sterilised and less intimate than the older neighbourhoods’ layouts although I do understand that the efficiency of the grid system justifies its use somewhat.
Good video!
An important thing for Madrid, and why it's so dense even in post-war years, is because of the rapid growth of the city after the war, and the Francoist Government's aims to provide affordable housing (to counter communism and anti-government forces).
Madrid didn't significantly industrialise until the 1950s, since industrialisation before had been disrupted by war and political chaos, and during the 1950s a lot of slums appeared in Madrid, especially to the south of the city.
An issue that I have is with the Urban highways, and preferably Madrid should demolish all their Autovias that aren't the outermost ring, since that can encourage a lot of car driving instead.
Hi Im from Madrid and i live en the suburbs where you need cars. Madrid is quite big, and also we have residencial parts where you can live in unifamiliar homes (like me), in this parts you earn having a best home to live, but you loose the advantages of having everything really close like in the city center... We also hace public transport in bus which conect this parts with the rest of the city, there are worse than the subway but are good.
The case os Barrio de Salamanca is one of the best parts for live in Spain but also one of the most expensives... Its really dificult to get one home there... Is quite similar to have a good flat in Manhattan...
For all the americans, home to see u here in Madrid!! You will be welcome!
NOO!!!! It's NOT Plan Cerda! 0_0 (for people who don't speak Spanish "cerda" is a female pig, also used as a pejorative towards women)
It's Plan Cerdà! pronounced with stress on DA!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
Ya decía yo...
3K subs?! You deserve more.
Quick fact, Spain has the most elevators per capita in the world. It's very common to live in an apartment block, not sure if people in other countries would like this so much. For example in the UK for cultural reasons people strive to own their own house and land.
the problem Madrid is facing now is the rapid population growth not being followed by investment and development of the public transit. The subway is great but it is reaching max capacity and it's overloaded during rush hour.
I'm thinking... I wonder... Madrid must be the ONLY big city in the world that has its subway system overloaded during rush hour?... Really?
@@rsnankivell1962 It wasn't the case like 10 years ago.
@@doal92 Really? (again)
10 years ago, it was the case in quite a few stations in the city centre.
another proof of the proper functioning of the highways, one of them crossed the vicente calderon stadium below
Last map is not from Madrid, it's from a neighbour city, Alcobendas
SANSE > ALCO
2:25 Minneapolis mentioned lol
You should study the planning of British city Milton Keynes. It is unique in the world. You probably wouldn't like it because they did not include a tram or a train so people drive, but because of the good planning, there are little traffic jams, as they use roundabouts, not traffic lights
Of course! Yea Milton Keynes is super interesting, I want to make it out there one day to check it out in person.
Nicely done! You caught the essence of Madrid's desirability in a succinct manner. Keep it up!
Also, newly built buildings in these areas usually have huge communal areas with swimming pool and stuff like that. This makes it almost impossible to create areas for shops on the perimeter. These buildings are creating walled streets with little room for local shops.
There are shops on most of the ground floors of these blocks.
As someone who grew up in Dallas, and now lives & works in Madrid - I can very much confirm this.
I have loved ditching my car, and happily pay my 20€ a month to use unlimited metro & bus. And many of my activities (including dance class, work, grocery shopping, meeting at bars/terrazas with friends, going to the gym, etc.) can all be done with my favorite friends: My feet.
Visiting family back in Dallas often leaves me feeling a bit hyper simply from lack of constant, gentle movement that comes from simply going about my day - while at home.
And I do not miss having to travel 20-40+ mins for simple activities, while in car - in which I have to be mentally active/on to operate.
Wow i like your video and the content
As a Madrid resident the compact city model its far from the present model in more of the half of the new PAUs (urban plannings), in the new model the streets are too wide, car dependant, not walky driven design, and this kind of hybrid model implies less local meetings, streetlife, business creation, because its less touchpoints formula.
In another point, the Manzanares river, both the firstly the buried and boring the central ring highway and secondly the later change and renaturalization of the river, because has a network of small dams with gates that stagnate the water, to give the effect of making the river appear more voluminous like other coastal capitols of Europe.
The great discovery of the renaturalization fo the river was a huge growth of local native flora and fauna, new riverside forest in the middle of the city, all kind of birds and unique ones from all over Europe have now and a incredible stop in the middle of their annual migrations to Africa.
And a chemical and health state of the river was improved and now continues that way, even the water enter the urban section of the river more contaminated and polluted than exits this section, only because the new flora and fauna filter, cleans and fixed the excess of nitrates and other chemical contamination. For me, it's incredible. And firstly, sounds like a contradicting paradox.
Thank you for the content and appreciating the urban model of Madrid, and extents the most of the cities of Spain, we are a compact urban country, more than suburban sprawl model.
BTW Now at this time Madrid city It is being devoured at atrocious speed by gentrification and the purchase of residential properties by international vulture funds, turning the cities of Spain into amusement and theme parks, and not only the city center. The political elites, on a personal level, have a lot of investment in this type of activity as a business and are promoting it.
It's destroying the lives of all generations after Generation X and Boomer, And boomers are still the social majority, they always have been, with the political consequences.
With the logical consequences in politics, political promises are aimed at obtaining votes and majorities, so they aspire to the voters of the majority group. Perhaps breaking the factual and implicit social contract that we learn and inherit in a systemic way.
Leave the drama in the last few paragraphs, pls!
@@rsnankivell1962 who are you? What’s your problem? Why waste your life here reply people pov? Are you angry? Go to therapy troll.
I lived near Madrid Rio park for 2 years, and agree that it's comfortable to walk anywhere if you live in right neighborhood.
Public transport is great there too, but still there are a lot of places designed primarily for cars - especially big shopping centers. There was Plaza Río 2 shopping center near our home, which covered most of our needs, but sometimes we had to go elsewhere and wished I had a car like other people there.
It's also a terrible city for cycling: bike lanes are almost nonexisting, and often you have to ride in the middle lane between buses/taxis on the right and private cars on the left - I never felt safe and can't imagine my girlfriend doing this.
Another bad thing for me that with this density it felt overcrowded. Literally there is no place where you can walk without seeing anybody. As for someone who value privacy and comes from much less dense eastern european city it was a problem and one of the reasons we left. But maybe someone from London or New York won't have issues with it.
whats nice about european urban core density is that it's like excessive in height like USA and a lot of Asia. residential buildings above 5 or 6 stories are ridiculous and destroy life at the ground level. in spain you can be living an urban life, but also be able tosee the sky from the street level
the only thing I miss in costa del sol is biking lanes in many parts and cities
The road system is horrendous here in Madrid. Also the traffic flow.
I think Buenos Aires is like this too
Funny... People who lives there think that's a city designed to get exhausted of it and eventually make you crazy
1:15 it's Cerdà, not Cerda.
A 'cerda' is a female pig, so very big difference here.
As with a lot of languages, the accent tells you to stress that vowel.
I don't think is that hard to make a minumum research on how to pronounce words that are not in your native language, specially considering you spent a lot of time and effort in reseraching about the topic of the video.
Also, 4:55, 34 + 25 = 59, not 69.
crying because im in america and not spain this summer
Please don't come, too many people here already. There are very many beautiful and well designed places in Spain besides Madrid and BCN, take for example Valladolid, Salamanca, León, Logroño, Toledo, etc. Those places need people and the quality of life is better ;)
Some of those places are very boring compared to Madrid tho
@@cocazade7703 That's why big cities keep getting bigger 😂 Many have urged people to go to and live in and develop the small cities (to keep them from dying) but seems it hardly works.
Too many people and Too Gentrified.
I'd agree to have spanish come to the smaller cities but not foreigners, they will make everything worse.
*Proceeds to come* 😀
Great video! But while i agree that spanish (mediterranean) urbanism does a better job in creating more sustainable and humane cities compared to the american way of urbanism, i would disagree in saying that madrid is well designed.
The Plan Castro, has many flaws, it was designed to have only one city centre, it has been proofed that a multiple centre city works better. In its origin, it was designed to have neighbours divided by class, it is classist, and this decision affects Madrid even today.
I think that you have picked up on the fact that our way of doing urbanism (creating high/medium densities and leaving street level building spaces for shops and offices) favours a more sustainable and lively way of life. But that is practically all of Spain.
Madrid hasn’t had a very good urban planning, it might seem good because in general Spain has good urban planning.
From an urbanist perspective, the city needs to be less car-dependent, investing in cycling mobility; and as you have pointed out the outskirts are not that well-connected or well designed. This new developments need to have more economic activity and more access to public transport. Madrid cannot have its entire public service system in the city centre.
I love Madrid and have lived in this city for years. But it hasn’t worked in improving itself. This city needs to work in many ways to create a more sustainable and egalitarian place to live.
Por favor, deja a un lado la ideología "commie" cuando opines de Madrid... apesta.
Además de apestar creas un relato bastante sesgado de la realidad.
Cycling is very tough in Madrid because of its topology! The highest neighbourhoods in the north are circa 825 metres, and the river (obviously the lowest) districts are about 640 metres high. There are 10 kilometres between them, but there's a slight but steady raise that can be really tiring when you go walking or cycling. Madrid is a rollercoaster.
This is misinformation. Only rich people live in Barrio de Salamanca and all other neighborhoods built with "sensible planning" and only a small portion of the city is designed like this. There is a far higher number of people (working class) who lives either in neighborhoods that stemed from slums settlements laid after the civil war and are literally the opposite of Salamanca (with thin chaotic streets and very few trees and garden areas) or in the ones mentioned in the video that are not well integrated to the rest of the city and are relatively car dependent.
I recommend you the book "la España de las piscinas"
I was born and raised in Madrid, and I still live here. You'd be surprised how much we complain about public transport, especially the short-distance trains HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA