The biggest objection that Americans have (especially anyone over 30) is that walking. biking and/or transit takes too long and is "too hard." As you point out in your video, in North America driving is almost always significantly faster. Although I'm 63 and have been biking everywhere since I was 6, the vast majority of people in the US think bicycling is a "sport" for "exercise" which is best for "kids." I do not sweat on my 3 minute ride to the supermarket, the 4 minute ride to the gym, the 5 minute ride to the coffee shop or even the 15 minute ride to the train station for work. But I'm seen as an eccentric old coot for treating my bike as a transportation choice.
I see nothing wrong with recreational biking while driving for groceries. People are free to live as they please. We're on this earth for far too little to all be a giant ant colony
Biking in the US is among the most dangerous activities. For the most part, you must ride in the road or just a few inches off of it. 99% of the time, you are OK. But 1% of the time you are in deep marimba.
@@cmdrls212 Except people aren't free to live as they want when the only infrastructure that exists is car dependent infrastructure. And what do ant colonies have to do with walkable/bikeable neighborhoods?
Blame General Motors and Koch Industries. They are the ones that have engineered the US into a society that is hostile to anyone who does not have an automobile.
That's a huge benefit if you travel under human power regularly. When he mentions that it takes more time to get around without a car, it would be worth including the time-suck that is work hours required to pay for a car. My driving is typically within a big city and average speeds are around 20mph. Most of my trips are around 5 miles. I keep car expenses low but it still costs me around 0.30 USD per mile to drive, which is around 25¢ above the price to travel by bicycle. At my current pay rate $1.50 (drive 5 miles) is worth about 5 minutes of my work time; in effect my drive takes 15 minutes of driving time plus 5 minutes of "earning money to pay for my car" time. On a bicycle, in city traffic, I can't beat that 20min time but I can get close.
Most is paid for by gas taxes. Public transport is often unable to pay for itself and when it does, it is actually privatized and works well. The problem is the public part 😉
@@cmdrls212public transit should be free and shouldn't need to make a profit or pay for itself. Its primary purpose is to serve the public, not make money. Highways are a huge deficit yet no one bats an eye at them.
100% agree your location can make your decision of living without a car easier or harder, and I'm thankful for being privileged enough to live in a walkable neighbourhood close to frequent and reliable transit, yet still able to go to work, school and my needs! Also survived the grid alert 2 weeks ago✌️the warm clothes really help!
@@humanecities my fav part about living in canada is not being able to afford a car or groceries because all my tax dollars go to provide health care and housing to infinity migrants who live off of benefits while I have to work for a living. How come they get free housing and I don't? Also all the beautiful Chinese police stations in my Canadian territory is just wonderful.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318They don't get free housing, and "despite" universal healthcare, immigrants are (on average) a net contributor to our tax base within a year. There are issues with our immigration strategy (ahem, housing supply) but these ain't it 😂 Also, the tax bracket for lowest earners is near zero. They're keeping you from buying groceries?
On the flip side, if people have big suburban houses with lots of rooms and lots of stuff, they're not going to be able to fit it in their extended-cab/tiny-bed Chevy Silverado, so they'll need the moving/rental industries.
@@Zalis116true, with urbanism, you’re gonna have smaller living spaces and as a result, less stuff to have to move around. If you have big houses, you’ll likely have a box-truck’s worth of stuff to need to move around.
I live in a small town in The Netherlands and it’s also faster to drive here than cycling or walking because our transportation network has become so efficient, traffic signals are replaced with roundabouts, no thru roads, modal filters, removing the road and replacing it with a 50km corridor with no side streets to make car traffic more efficient and replacing some signaled intersections with more narrow raised intersections.
I have the same except for one day a week. I work two days on Schiphol Airport, two days on head office in Utrecht and one day in The Hague. Only to The Hague it is as fast by train as by car, that’s because of the rush hour traffic jams. I work next to the Central Station, so ideal for using the train. To Schiphol Airport takes three times longer than by car, to Utrecht two times longer and the same time to The Hague. So to The Hague I take the car to the nearest train station and then a commuter train and in Gouda station I transfer to the InterCity train to The Hague CS. The transfers have to go smoothly otherwise it takes longer. If I have a seat in first class, then I can work and I can return home before rush hour. Sadly I hardly ever get a seat in first class, mostly I have to stand in the aisle of the InterCity train. That sucks for a first class ticket price year card (luckily my boss pays it for me). To Schiphol Airport and Utrecht, I go by car. At Breukelen station I can park for free now, but the province decided to make passengers pay for parking at the station in the coming month or so. So I intent to go to The Hague by car when that happens. Sometimes I don’t get it, first no seat in the InterCity first class and now pay for parking, public transport is going worse very fast. Another issue are the insanely high ticket prices compared to the rest of Europe, with the exception of the UK of course, they’re always the exception). The ticket prices alone would make me go by car instead of the train. And if I get to sit on the train, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I have to stand in the aisle and pay for a first class seat (Well I don’t pay for it, my boss does, but you get my drift).
Interestingly, if the price of cars keeps going up the way it has this will be IMPOSED. Most people think that is a BAD thing (some thing it is absolutely terrible and to be avoided no matter what) but the reality is that it's a trade-off. The more people can't afford a car, the more cities like Calgary or London will be pushed to add bike-friendly and transit-friendly options and the more people CAN go car free.
Great video. I'm car free in LA, which should be a transit paradise. But given the bike and transit infrastructure means that a 30 minute drive can be 2+ hours by bus. I love getting around without a car and things are very gradually shifting due to popular support for more urbanization but a lot of inertia resisting it. We have gotten some new bus lanes, bike lanes, but even those are mostly in the wealthier areas and not the places that most desperately need them.
@@matthewconstantine5015 It can be for recreational cycling or if you happen to live and work in perfect locations. Rode there for 10 years. The South Bay bike path from Santa Monica to Torrance can be a revelation of what recreational cycling can be. Long distance bicycling in LA can be problematic, but getting better.
@@thomaseboland8701Yes, it's slowly getting better for daily commuting especially around DTLA. There are more bike lanes now including some protected ones like along Figueroa. I used to bike recreationally along some of the river bike paths. My favorite was along the San Gabriel River down to Seal Beach or North to the Dam. Also around Griffith Park, and, of course, along the LA River. But never felt confident enough to use city street bike lanes for daily commuting.
Yes!! I live/go to school in Claremont, an affluent college town. Pretty good bike lanes and other bike infrastructure! Even though most people can afford cars here, there's a healthy biking community between college students, professors, and families. I recently transitioned from my car to a bike for local trips (I have dogs, so definitely still rely on the car for traveling with them), and it's been wonderful! But literally the moment you cross the border into Pomona, a much less affluent city, the bike lanes STOP! It's crazy because far more people in Pomona live car free by necessity.
I live in Edmonton and finally invested in some studded tires for my commuter bike. Since new years my car has hardly moved, and I feel much better each day with the extra exercise. Sadly I can't go totally car-free since I have to take trips outside the city multiple times per month, but now I never have to stress myself out in rush hour. My bike commute only ends up being ~10 minutes longer than driving
I live in Melbourne. Getting from my eastern suburb into the CBD is easy. Transit is a lot faster than driving, especially at peak time. But try going north-south and you'll find that it's sometimes faster to walk than to get public transport. Melbourne is a city with a reputation for great public transport, and it is great if you can afford to live within a 10km radius of the CBD and primarily travel to and from the CBD. If you're beyond that, it's not good and drastically needs improvement.
I live in almost antipodal Melbourne, Florida USA. We have loop bus routes that only go in one direction around, with a frequency of one per hour. And it's never on time, so good luck getting your connection. The bike infrastructure is non-existent to the point of being hostile. The marked Bike Routes, which are just sidewalks, also have signs that state that bikes must yield ON THE SIDEWALK to crossing vehicle traffic, even if the vehicles have a have a stop sign. Sidewalks will just end mid-block. You have no idea what it's like around here to live car-free. It's a prison. This is in a region of around 350,000 people.
I live in Calgary, just like you. For me the point has always been convenience. I live in the NW and I can drop my wife off at the University of Calgary in 7 minutes, or if I hit a few traffic lights, 10 minutes. It takes my wife 45 minutes by bus or even longer if she takes the LRT (add on nearly 30 minutes of walking). She is a public transit enthusiast, so she doesn't mind but I just can't do it. Before moving here I spent a decade living in a midwestern suburb in the US that had zero public transit options, so I guess my bias is rooted in my experience. I still watch your channel so I can point out cool options to my wife 😁
One of the big things I absolutely hate about not having a vehicle is grocery shopping. I cook all my meals. Being able to get 2 weeks to a month of groceries in 1 trip vs 3-4 trips a week without a vehicle is game changer. Also I love the freedom to go just about anywhere on a moments notice with a vehicle instead of planning routes and transfers and if it is even feasible.
I get that this may not be feasible for everyone, but for me I usually just get whatever groceries I want on my way home from work/university/whatever if I'm biking, which I am most of the time. I don't even have a cargo bike, I just put them in my backpack.
@@Newbyte Yeah this. In real walkable areas, there's often a supermarket right by (or under) the train station near your home, and maybe others in walking distance of home too. And if you need to carry a lot, personal folding carts help. On the flip side, the nearby supermarkets may not even _have_ car parking.
Re Grocery: 1. Delivery and 2 Uber/Ride Sharing. If you are shopping for 2 weeks at a time, the Uber ride 2x per month is worth it. Then trips out of town, car rental when you need it.
Just about every major American city misses a key factor that Tokyo gets right - relaxed zoning laws. I live in a zone that allows buildings up to about 450 ft in height. A block away is a district that allows buildings only about 1/6 of that. Handwaving some complications aside (I'm assuming people are uniformly distributed in a circular city), if you can cram people into 1/6 the land by making the buildings 6x taller, on average, the distance between you and every destination you want to go to has shrunk by sqrt 6 = 2.45. If you intend to support this with cars, you need a lot of expensive underground parking, streets need to be wider to support all of the cars, congestion is much worse. Driving may very well take just as long as it did before, even with the shorter distance. Now, if you want to take a trip to the dentist, assuming we preserve the number of transit stations, the nearest one is 2.45x closer to you. The nearest transit station to the dentist is 2.45x closer to it. If that means you go from 45 minutes of walking to 18 minutes, that's a huge win on its own. But on top of that, if you only had one station within a 15 minute walk of your apartment, now you might have multiple (up to 2.45x) to pick from. Same for the dentist, so there's a much better chance you can find a route that's pretty close to the shortest path and doesn't require transfers. But that's not it. Since there are so many more things conveniently placed relative to the transit network, there's a huge number of trips which once weren't feasible but now are. My city and the surrounding county have a bus system, and in 2021, a survey said that 80 percent of people use it for little or some of their trips. Not great data, but let's assume that 80 percent of trips are taken by car. If these changes can turn 70 percent of those into public transit trips, that'll mean 76 percent of trips are taken by public transit. That means the transit network will need to support 3.6 times as many trips as before. If that's accomplished by making the headways 3.6x shorter, we've reversed the biggest practical issue with cars - more ridership doesn't cause congestion, but shortens your trip by justifying shorter headways. On average, you wait half the headway, so that's another 3 minutes and 38 seconds you're saving. 10 minutes between trains turns to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. 10 minutes is long enough for me to check the schedule and delay my departure. 2 minutes and 45 seconds is short enough that I don't even have to think about it. On top of that, on average, you wait half the headway, so that's another 3 minutes and 38 seconds you're saving. In Tokyo, I could just get up and go, since I knew I would be able to get on a train within a couple of minutes no matter what. The trains were clean, law enforcement was accessible and helpful, they had enough redundancy that maintenance on the Hanzomon line didn't impact my ability to get anywhere very much. Some of these things are cultural, but they're all things that we can improve with the 3.6x increase in revenue from increased ridership. Plus, public transportation and walking feel safer if you have more people around. So all in all, the biggest problems people cite with public transportation are all heavily mitigated with more dense urban areas. And you still get all of the benefits of public transportation. More consistency, reliability, and safety with your mode of commute. Less of a headache with regards to maintenance/refueling of your car. Not incurring the costs of owning a car in general, and letting the more cost effective public transit system handle things for you. Being able to stick your head in a book during your commute instead of being behind the wheel. Living in areas dense enough to support healthy, thriving third spaces that are easily accessible. Reducing the infestation of cars that make walking even a block away feel terrible at times. Improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare costs by reducing pollution and encouraging people to walk more than the few steps it takes to get to their car door.
Then again, relaxed zoning laws can also produce places like Houston, so they're kind of a crapshoot. And I don't know that more people in a given space produce greater safety, not when most of them are staring at their phones, oblivious to the world around them, and resolutely indifferent to anything that doesn't directly affect them. On the contrary, I feel _less_ safe in crowded places that're target-rich environments for panhandlers, hustlers, junkies, pickpockets, and other unsavory types, where every bump and jostle can be part of a coordinated scheme to separate people from their valuables. On several occasions, I've walked the 2.5 km distance home from downtown bars alone, late at night through a sketchy area along one of the main stroads in my city. (Which I mainly felt safe enough doing thanks to "able-bodied middle-aged cishet white dude" privilege.) And every time, I've felt that the fewer people I saw or encountered, the better off I was. As you say, it's kind of a cultural thing -- maybe these dense urban spaces can work in places like Japan, where people value social harmony and not inconveniencing others. (Though the dark side of that takes the form of young women and girls being conditioned to "not make a scene" when molested on crowded public transit.) But more selfish, individualistic cultures like the US need more social separation to avoid a descent into chaos and madness. I don't know how much the money from fare revenues can change that. That's why I'm wary of urbanist initiatives that seek to change car dependency by building "urban villages" that're more expensive than the costs of car-centric-suburban life, or vanity tram and bike lane projects that take car travel lanes away while not actually reducing car traffic. And despite its world-class transit, high density, and abundance of 3rd places, Japan remains a notoriously lonely and depressed place, with an aging population and abysmal marriage/birth rates. Is it any wonder that many US suburbanites are skeptical of the promises of urbanism, and reluctant to accept radical changes in lifestyle and transportation habits?
@@Zalis116I think the OC was still right on the ball. With regards to Houston they switched out zoning laws for other regulations like parking minimums increased to the point where the only city design practical and available is the car centric one. Safety in crowds is usually better yes petty crime like pickpocketing can increase but most other crimes run into issues in crowds such as increased ease of surveillance, slower speed of running compared to even a bike cop. Etc. i think a big problem is the culture like you said but also the large scale of cities means cops have to cover more area per unit which increase wait times. I don’t believe suddenly densifying a city would solve everything magically but I do believe its a step in the right direction. As for the Urban villages I agree they are mostly gimmicks but at the very least the crowds that flood into them are an indicator that people desire walkable cities and business benefit from such.
@@Zalis116You can have mixed low, medium or high density zoning. Mixed high density is more like downtown where you have highrise & people can walk to almost every kind of shops. Mixed medium density has more park/green space/space between building and smaller building the you have mixed low density keeping building to a max of 3 level with small shop like corner store.
Damn broski I'm at 731 hours, which is roughly the distance every employer expects you to be comfortable travelling every day. Ill start and meet you at the 600 mark 🫡
I've got: 15 minute walk to university 10 minute walk to gym (there are closer ones though) five supermarkets within 10 minutes Of course I live car free.
One of the major issues with the metro near me is that most of it goes all the way downtown before going back out. There's very little in cross-route connections or wheels for all the spokes...
@@humanecities I know downtown used to be more of a "job center" but that's not so much true anymore and transit systems need to change to support people going in more varied directions.
When I had a car, winters were hell. Whenever I wanted to use it I had to first go about 10 minutes of clearing ice and snow and warm it up for the foggy windows to clear up before I could go anywhere, sometimes I had to clear snow just to leave the parking space because a snow plow had shoved a bunch of snow in the way. Oh and I had to constantly think about moving the car because of street cleaning days so even when I didn't use the car it was still constantly in the back of my mind. Getting rid of that thing was a very good decision.
I went in reverse.. from car-free to driving. And these numbers largely explain why. Taking an hour and a half on a bus for what would be 15 minutes by car gets really old really fast when it's a regular thing you need to do. Watching the bus you need to catch blow by before it's scheduled time when the next one doesn't arrive for 40 minutes (and then shows up late to boot) is incredibly frustrating.. especially in sub-zero weather. Been there, done that. The time and frustration saved by owning a car is well worth the price, IMO. I wouldn't give it up for the world.
Same here. I would love it if the transit options were better or the city was more walkable, but currently, that's not the reality we live in. Maybe one day.
as a fellow Calgarian, i definitely love to get around on the available pedestrian paths and infrastructure, especially since i own a really fun device called the OneWheel, which i can easily bring onto public transit if i need to. i do really wish parts of the city had better pedestrian accommodation, but for the place that ARE built for it, I do genuinely enjoy it. I don't have my license yet, but i am not really in a rush to since car-free transport works just fine for me. I hope more of the city is slowly transformed to have more pedestrian walkways and sidewalks for sure.
We really do have great sidewalks in Calgary (mostly). Having visited several places in the States, Canadian cities have a huge head start on improving our cities. Also, OneWheels are so cool! I love my e-scooter for similar reasons. Thanks for commenting! I love having fellow Calgarians here!
In Hamilton, Ontario it's almost always faster to ride your bike than it is to take the bus. The only time it's faster to take the bus is when your destination is at the top of the escarpment cutting the city in two.
I live in the suburbans of Denver, CO. My experience is about the same. Public transportation or bike takes double or triple the time of driving. I plan on keeping my car.
As a dude from Edmonton who sold his 2002 Honda Civic and went car free I really feel this video! (Oddly enough I also moved up from the states in the last couple years too) I’ve really waned to do everything car free for a while, but the average travel time being 2-3 times longer than driving makes it difficulty when my life is already a time crunch. I’m off in a suburb because the rent here is super cheap and unfortunately the infrastructure to get around by bike/bus here is not great… Anyways Around the Bend is only 311km away, so I’ll have to stop by when I go to visit the Calgary zoo I’m curious, what do you do for bike parking down in Calgary? Do they have the standard racks? Or are there places with better parking? I’ve wanted to ride my bike more, but I’m always worried about it getting stolen.
You’re pretty much in the same spot as me 😂 It’s a challenge and life pretty much revolves around being car-free. The Calgary Zoo is a MUST! As far as bike parking goes, the City of Calgary has a standard rack found at a lot of bus stops and train stations - as well as around city streets. I find most shopping areas have racks as well, though quality and location varies… I worry about it getting stolen, too. At the same time, my sister’s car was just stolen last week. It’ll hurt for her to replace that… if my bike gets stolen, I can just go get a new one.
First principle of real estate ... location location location. Suburban renting is cheaper than downtown living because your location is in poor proximity to destinations, and your connections are lesser, necessitating a car. It wouldn't be so cheap if it wasn't so disconnected from your destinations.
Living car-free in the suburbs of DC, I have a similar situation. I used to work on the other side of the town I live in, and the trip took an hour by bus (if everything was on schedule), which included a trip to another town, a 20 minute wait, and then a trip back into town to my job. There is no cross-town bus. It's 15 minutes by car, but because of how the pedestrian infrastructure is set up, it's a three hour, zig-zagging walk, which is also exceptionally unpleasant, as it is almost constantly along various 4+ lane roads. It was an hour by bike, but that included about a half hour in the middle where you had to get off the bike & walk, as there was ZERO safe place to ride. I found an alternate route that was almost twice as long, but only took 10 minutes longer, because there weren't so many cross streets, driveways, and wacky traffic patterns, and you could stay on the bike the whole time. The craziest thing was when I switched to working in downtown DC, about five times further away, and the bus/Metro combo going in was also one hour. Coming home, because of terrible bus service out here, it was 90 minutes at best. There are big gaps in the schedule, though, so there's no bus between 6:45 and 8:15PM. And buses stop running at about 9:30. So, if you get out of work at 6, it takes 10 minutes to walk to the Metro station, you wait 5 or 10 minutes for a train, and it's 35 minutes to your station...Well, turns out it's a 45 minute walk from the Metro station to my house, which I found out because I'd rather be walking than waiting around for 60+ minutes. Luckily there is now pedestrian infrastructure between the Metro station and where I live (some of it is OK for cycling). There wasn't when I first moved here 15 years ago. In the winter? Well, that's a different story. But DC often has low to no snow winters, so it's not so bad. That said, whenever I get too frustrated, I remind myself that I'm a 10 minute walk from a movie theater, two grocery stores & a market, one of my favorite Peruvian chicken places, three bus routes, and a bunch of other stuff. I'd prefer to live in the city core, but if I have to live in the suburbs, I could be in a worse spot. Oh, and if I biked 8 hours a day, I believe it would take me about 25 days to get to Around the Bend.
I think it was about a decade ago that we had a couple winters where it really snowed. Like, as a New Englander, I had to say, "yes, this is a real snow." That was awful. They plowed huge piles of snow up on the sidewalks, so that even when we were seeing 70 & 80 degree days in late March, sidewalks were still blocked by banks of snow. In spite of there being several of the richest counties in America in this region, the snow removal is appalling. I can't even imagine how difficult it is to get around as an older person or a person with mobility issues. I'm able bodied and it's a nightmare. Still not enough for me to want a car, though. I've driven here a couple of times over the years, and that was way more than enough for me.
I have been living 18 years car free, where you live is really important. It takes me about an hour each way to get to work but I live right beside a big mall and grocery stores. I have everything I need within a 20 minute walk even a movie theater and several fast food stores.
Living car free in Calgary is always better if you live near LRT station and can use it. Also living and working downtown is great. Lots of options for restaurants and groceries too. Biking is great as there are trails in all directions.
live in Calgary myself - been Car free since early spring of 2020, I started to do bike packing throughout Alberta - which I have really enjoyed. great post .. thank you
Since you asked how long it will take me to get to Around The Bend: I live in North Macedonia. It would take at least two hours to get to the nearest international airport in Skopje, but I'd need to leave home at least three hours before my flight. The shortest flight time is just over 16 hours. After landing in Calgary, let's assume 30 minutes to clear customs and immigration and pick up my luggage. Then it will take 90 minutes by bus or 25 minutes by car to get to Around The Bend. So about 20 hours if everything goes right and I drive and about 21 hours if everything goes right and I take the final part by bus. I think I'll pass on that, no matter how good the food may be.
Why does nobody talk about how debilitating rain is when biking is your mode of transportation? I live in Amsterdam and the wind and rain honestly makes biking horrible for me, I legit just don’t go out when the weather is bad because of it. And the weather is often bad
In my county, you can theoretically take transit from the northernmost town in said county to the county seat. Leaving at 9:17 AM (earliest departure), it would take four buses and 2 hours 35 minutes to get to the county seat. Driving is a total of 28 minutes. For the record, that first bus only runs three days a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) and runs hourly through 9:00 PM. You could drive between these two communities twice round-trip and still not make it one way on the bus.
In the US, one year of rent in the city costs more than a few unrestricted acres and building materials for a house. A house in the city costs 5-50x more than a similar house on more land elsewhere, and that's not even factoring in a lifetime of extra taxes and utility bills. Is being closer to anything really worth paying 50x? Nope.
From my home in Minneapolis to Around the Bend, it's 19 hours driving; 4 days cycling; 18 days walking; public transit time unknown. Probably a brutally desolate cycling route since it's across the entire state of North Dakota.
In my town in the UK, while its almost always faster to get places by car, the nightmare parking means that youll be spending 5-10 minutes looking for parking whereas if you walk you have nothing to park and if you bike the bike racks are never busy enough to have you looking far
That's definitely an issue I face in the town I live in, in Italy. Bike infra is straight-up nonexistent, and the buses have terrible frequencies, which make getting anywhere much slower than by car. Getting to the nearest cities is quite fast by train, definitely faster than driving (you can't go at 140 km/h by car!) but getting to/from the stations at each end takes up a lot of time, and so does waiting for the train to arrive, since that too is quite infrequent
I was so shocked when you just passingly mentioned that you bus stop is 10 minutes away from your house. That's so unreasonable, I live in tel aviv which tends to put a bus stop almost every 100 meters, surely bus stops cost next to nothing
thank you for speaking on this. I'm glad I discovered your channel. I live on Long Island, NY and I've been living without a car for over 6 months now. Tbh it's not something I'll be able to continue doing for much longer. Living this way will quickly teach you that these car dependent suburbs consider us as second class citizens. My only solutions so far are to move to the more transit oriented NYC nearby, or to give up and just get a car. It's been rough, but channels like yours give me a glimmer of hope.
Girl. I wanted to see my friend in Chicago today, I live in Racine. 3+ hours. And only a few departures and only a few available trips back. I’d be traveling 6 hours, hanging with my friend for 2
Sounds like Calgary is just too spread out and low density, making distances excessive. Makes biking both take longer and require more effort compared to someplace more compact. I moved to Vancouver from a more spread-out US city and one thing I noticed quickly was how being more compact and dense really made things more bike-friendly. And yes, I had to leave my mattress in the USA, too! Google Maps says it is 976 km to Around the Bend from my home.
Someone who understands my mattress woes!! Calgary is very spread out. We’re slowly densifying. But Vancouver has definitely done better at that. And nice!! Under 1000 km!
Though I've seen more people use e-scooters and electric bikes on bike paths and lanes in Los Angeles so not as much effort is required for longer distances. As prices continue to fall, e-bikes could finally entice a whole new generation of daily biking commuters.
I'm on the north shore, people who don't bike will say it's "too hilly/too rainy/what if it snows/too far" but the reality of it is that most people in this city could take an e bike to work easily! If we had proper safe infrastructure for the entirety of metro van you'd see a lot more people out riding, but when your safe infrastructure is limited to select parts of Vancouver/CNV/Burnaby it's pretty tough to convince someone that struggling up a hill with cars buzzing them or getting splashed by cars is a cool idea. People like me will always bike, the freedom of not having to check traffic on Google Maps before going anywhere is worth it to me, but the "interested but concerned" crowd will never ride until the infrastructure is there.
@@humanecities Vancouver sort of lucked out with the fact that it's geographically constrained, so it couldn't really do suburban sprawl like other cities. The sprawl is prevalent in places like Surrey and Langley. Edmonton's Strathcona area (where I spend a lot of time in) looks a lot like Vancouver at times. Edmonton has a lot of the same problems in this regard as Calgary, but we're slightly smaller and have somewhat better transit than Calgary, and we passed the new zoning bylaw recently, so hopefully things do densify more here. Plus, the 132 Avenue Renewal is an interesting road design for North America (basically Dutch-style design), and I really hope it becomes the default for collector roads here.
Wonderful video, thank you! I went car free 3 years ago and love it. I ride EUC and have gained complete freedom in my commute. I ride through rain, snow, ice, mud, and shine! I recommend The Electric Wheel to anyone who is opened to change. It is a small challenge to learn, with a Grand Reward. Let go of Fear and find your balance with this revolutionary design Wheel. Enjoy the Ride! Cambro Wheels
something to mention about very short car drives, its usually not even really that worth it, especially in the winter if youve gotta wait for your car to warm up, finding parking on either end of the trip, even a 5 minute car drive is extended by 10-15 minutes for parking, warming the car, etc. at that point transit or cycling might actually be faster. not to mention the heat cycling of the car slowly wearing the engine down.
True. Here in America, the bus really does take too long lol (usually at least 3x longer than driving, whether in Oregon or California), and there's a high chance I'll end up with a car. But if I end up having anything within a mile of where I live, I wouldn't drive there, simply because it'll be too easy to walk (unless I end up in the outer suburbs), and short car trips are the worst thing you can do to your car
Glad to see your work is getting more visibility! Keep up the great content man you're killing it. Also, you've done a good job explaining why car free in the suburbs just isn't a great option. Other modes will never come close to competing. And maybe that's ok, I don't mind some places being car centric, I just wish cities would allow there to be alternatives as well. There should also be sections of the city that are as nightmarish to drive through as your walk from the bus stop to the soccer dome.
Thank you 🙏 And you’re right! Not everything has to be a park, plaza, or cute walkable street, but yeah, we need that option! I have some videos planned talking about it!
Great video. I have gone carless in Vancouver, NYC and the Bay Area. It can be difficult at times but you just have to learn to take the commute as down time. Thank you for the mattress info, I will sell my expensive mattress before heading back home
I'm fortunate to live in the best transit city in the country, New York. As a result, I've never owned a car. Still, a comparison strictly of time misses something important, namely that, when taking transit, the time is your own time, simply because someone else is driving. You can read, watch something, or catch a snooze, none of which you can do while driving. So, even if travelling by transit takes longer than the same trip by car, it's still preferable.
Cool! I live in Airdrie now but lived in Calgary and Saskatoon. I've been car free for over 20 years; sometimes I think about driving but then I think of the money and how my commute now keeps me healthy. I get to spend time outside, sometimes I run, sometimes I ride, sometimes I walk and sometimes I take the bus. Life is simple, I'm healthy and happy and if I need a car for anything their is a million ways to rent one.
I used to catch the train and the train station was right next to a supermarket. Actually, it sort of was on both ends (the station in town required a slightly longer walk to/from my final destination). Basically I ended up going to the supermarket every day (or just ate leftovers). There was absolutely no point in bothering about shopping for a longer period of time.
Location is so important! I’ve been car-free since 2009, when I moved to Montreal. I probably wouldn’t be living car-free if it wasn’t for the metro. I hate the bus, and the bicycle-vs-car dynamic is scary! However I am subscribed to a car share service for the occasions when I need a car - so I’m only 99% car free. I use public transit for groceries, most shopping, work, and all social activities. I’ll take the car share when I need to go to a specific store that isn’t accessible by transit. However, for example, this weekend I went to a guy’s place to pick up a guitar pedal. Google maps told me it was less than 20 minutes by car; between walking and the metro, it was just under an hour each way. To be honest, that made me wish I had a car (especially since my condo came with a parking spot). I could have taken a car share, but I chose to metro… Based on the skyline, it looks like you’re in Calgary. It’s brave to go car-free in Calgary. In Montreal it’s easier… but it depends on the neighborhood.
I've ridden my bike to Around The Bend! Took about an hour in the summer from near the University of Calgary. Might take closer to 1.5 hours in the winter depending on conditions. Hmm, maybe I should make a video of the bike ride one day? My current struggles are finding new places to ride that I haven't already recorded, haha.
I'm in Mississippi in one of the only towns with a bus system, and I could take the bus from my apartment complex and get dropped off 2 minutes from class. But the bus takes an inefficient route to get to campus (stops at another apartment complex and then loops around to the other side), only runs every 20 minutes, and sometimes the driver will randomly stop the bus for up to an hour on lunch break. So I usually bike or drive which makes the commute both faster and much more reliable. It's never enough to have public transit in place, but to make public transit a value proposition that beats out other forms of transportation.
I have been car free in Calgary since the 90's, I enjoy the riding in all seasons. The only time riding seems a chore to me is when it's pouring rain. I've lived in most of the ares of Calgary over the years and still found that cycling is by far the most enjoyable method, I have the proper gear for all seasons and ride clipped in to the pedals for better energy transfer and control on the bike.
I love how you break everything down. For me, while the commute is "longer", what is done on the commute can save time. It takes me 10 minutes to get home by car but 25 minutes to bike 3.5 miles. My workout is done and I'm home just 15 minutes later. Hard-pressed to drive home and get a similar amount of workout in 15 minutes. Traffic is another component that 10-minute car commute is slowly turning into 15 minutes due to congestion. Taking the trails is consistent.
This was an eye-opener! I live a 20 minute single bus ride to the center of my city and 35 minutes to the university I attend. There are many multiple different options of transportation open to me if I for whatever reason decide to not go with the fastest & cheapest which is this bus line. Yet my city which together with the two neighbouring counties closest to the city center won't even reach 1 million in 2035. Still, our network of trams and multiple kinds of buses is getting an upgrade until then with BRT *and* LRT *and* two additional train stations connected by tunnels (maybe laying the groundwork for a future metro, who knows?), all done with the purpose of relieving the city center from all the people who only go there to hop on another line out of the center and to instead connect the city and suburbs both radially and orbitally.
I live in Calgary, and it's insanely easy to get around and insanely difficult to get around any other way. We still make do as a 1-car household though.
A vehicle is a huge money pit and source of stress. I try to use my bikes (mountain bike and an e-bike) as much as possible, even in the winter, but unfortunately I still rely on a cheap vehicle from time to time. I think I put under 2,000 kms on it last year. I would love to go car-less. I never realized how freeing, enjoyable and healthy it was to use a bike around town until I was in my 40's.
Living a car-free lifestyle with a car in the garage is quite different from actually living without a car. It sucks when you have to carry your groceries and walk for 20 minutes at minus 40 Celsius. And when you want to visit a friend, you can never tell when you could be there. Besides, for people living in up NW Calgary, it is nearly impossible to try out the Around the bend, it would kill more than 3 hours just for coming there, having a meal, and then coming back on red line.
In Norway there are so many [long] tunnels vehicle-only, if you are a pedestrian or have a bysikkel good luck pedaling around them. In Stavanger for example the public bus network connects the center to the airport through a 1.5hr detour. oh but you can take the express which is 15$ for a 20m trip, but here is the kicker.. the public buses are free.
@@knifefest Yes, cargo bikes are very useful! :-) But you still can't bring a major grocery shopping trip home in one. Well maybe if you can if you attach a small lightweight trailer behind, lol.
@@fredashay when you live closer to the grocery store you don't need to do gigantic hauls every week or two. You can just do smaller trips 2-3x per week.
The thing is I live in a mid-sized city in Central-Europe (Szeged, which has like around 161k people) and taking the care is basically only 3-4 minutes shorter on most trips. In rush hour taking the tram or bike even gets you +10 minutes of advantage. It is just that much better. The biking infrastructure is pretty good and most of the public transport in electrified via tram/tram-train/trolleybus/E-buses. Most trolleys/buses get their own lanes shared with the tram tracks. There aren't any "big" besides 2 avenues, others are only 2 laned. Funnily enough you do not get that much of a traffic jam on these roads, only the big ones, unlike Budapest, the capital, and it is not because there are less people here, because the size of the city is comparatively that much smaller.
Great vid. See, the whole problem here is the bias of urban planners : they assume everyone is middle class and has a desk job downtown, and built infrastructure, both roads and public transit, based on that idea. Well newsflash. That did not apply to seniors, the mobility challenged, or parents with young children, where ~70% or so of their commuting is within 3km of their home, and it was not for employment. For everyone else, only ~50% were commuting more than 20km for employment, and most were not headed downtown anyways. Then the pandemic happened, and a lot of those desk jobs became hybrid. And yet, we are stuck with legacy infrastructure that is expensive to adapt to this reality for the majority of the populace. Here are the low hanging fruit municipalities can do 1) prioritize snowclearing sidewalks, roads and parking lots leading to schools. Per capita, more people in your neighbourhood are going there than down some arterial road towards a highway 2) update traffic lights with advanced signals for pedestrians, so cyclists and car drivers turning left or right do not have to guess 3|) in newer developments, there are always storm management ponds built to deal with run-off - and they often cut diagonally across residential streets built on a grid-like pattern. That is the perfect place for building walking trails and bike path infrastructure, shrinking distances to shopping, major arterial roads etc. Two painted lines on a road is NOT satisfactory bike infrastructure. 4) Replace worn out buses with ride-sharing vehicles that are disability-friendly. It is just not economically sustainable to drive around a mostly empty bus through cul-de-sac routes. Save the buses for the higher density major arterial routes 5) work with cell phone companies to get actual data of where and when people are commuting, instead of relying on old-fashioned stereotypes.
"That did not apply to seniors, the mobility challenged, or parents with young children," Or to the children themselves. A proper urban neighborhood can give children a lot of independence.
Problem what I see in North America are distances. You have to travel so far even within city. Cities are huge, Calgary is very good example of massive grid without density. People in suburbs doesn't have anything, groceries are far. So people move transport more than in Europe
I grew up in Montréal and took relatively efficient public transport for granted. I am now in New-Brunswick and I miss it a lot. I am in the process of moving to Houston and I will miss it even more over there. Most North American cities are living in a car madness.
It's not -35, but I was biking in -25 c weather earlier this winter, and surprisingly, it wasn't that bad since i was prepared for it. Was using a full face motorcycle helmet with a neck tube pulled up over my mouth and nose to reduce fogging on the visor, double layer of gloves (although thicker gloves would probably work just fine), some old socks rubber banded around the metal brake levers so i didn't have to touch any metal even through my gloves, and plastic bags with small holes in the side to put my handlebars through that i could use as wind shields for my hands. Other than that, just layers and sometimes a poncho as a wind breaker (although that would add a bit of time to the ride), and I was actually kinda on the warm side. The big snowstorm that happened right before the coldsnap was actually more inconvenient since the city can't even clear the snow well for cars, so you can imagine how the bike paths were. Had to change up my route and pretend i was a slow motorcycle or something lol
It takes roughly 21 hours to Around the Bend: 15 min walk to train station, 1.5 hour train trip to airport where I have to be two hours before the flight (recommended for flights to N. America) and 15 h 14 min flight to Calgary. Then there's passport control and it seems that it will take another hour and half to take transit to the restaurant. Got to come and stop by sometimes.
I am a University of Calgary student who moved to Calgary from a smaller Albertan town. I have a car but its almost always more convinient to take the bus from where I live to the university because free parking at the LRT station is a bit of a walk, and its nice to not have to worry about parking. I dont think I'm alone when i say thay I would absolutely use public transit as my main transportation method if it was more convinient. I find that I take the bus when the distance is anything less than around 3km, just because its easier. However, due to busses using the same lanes as regular traffic and having to make frequent stops, anything more than that can easily double the travel time versus taking a car. I can't wait for more bike infrastructure to be built, its an amazing expirience being able to bike to downtown from the university on bike lanes (especially when I come from somewhere that has no bike lanes anywhere)
I'd never heard of Around the Bend. Thanks for the recommendation! It's 17 minutes away by car for me, 86 minutes by transit, or 3 1/4 hours by foot (ouch!)
I live in Calgary, at the Mount Royal University Campus. Kinda surreal to see location I know in a youtube video. But the public transit in this city sucks ass. I'm a student with no family, so I can't afford a car. I get everywhere by bike or bus, but when it's -35 and the bus stops are nothing but a bench and sign, it's so frusterating when the buses are late. One day I was in Signal Hill, it began pouring rain. I had gone there to pick my bike up from the repair shop. I waited for a bus that was 50 minutes late in the storming rain. When the bus got there, there was no bike rack on it for some reason. Driver wouldn't let me on with my bike, and told me to just bike home. ...I came down with a severe cold the next day
With the places I've lived in Calgary, only once did the work commute get past that 40-minute ride (but it was offset by a train within walking distance).
Calgary can be great for that! But where I live and where I work put me in such a weird spot with the commute. My brother has 20 minute bus ride to work, and my sisters are only 10 minutes. Something I’ve not discussed in a video is that I’m slowly transitioning to working from home, negating concerns about commute time. So I’m sucking it up for now. Otherwise I’d be looking for a job with a better commute 😂
im about 4 months car free in a suburb of washington dc and yesterday i began to miss driving for the first time. kind of a duh moment but cycling and taking public transit sucks when the weather is crappy :/
Biking was fastest for me in Calgary as long as I wasn't going too far. Especially during Calgary's rush hours. When people measure time in their car, they don't account for the time it takes to get to from wherever you park to your location. That could easily add 5-10 minutes (same applies when you can leave your bike somewhere convenient). The thing that I remember most from Calgary was that walking/jogging could often get me around the city faster than transit.
@@shauncameron8390 Using Calgary as an example it's an easy win for the bike as parking is stupid expensive in Calgary. Most cities I've been to I can find bike parking probably in 1/4 the time compared to car parking in the downtown. In the burbs not so much. I live in Vancouver and if you destination is along the Sky Train it's actually quicker by transit. Most other times not.
It's not just making bike infrastructure into something that allows bikes to be a viable alternative. It's also poor city planning. With some foresight put into the distribution of residential and commercial spaces, everything would be at least within a 30 minute bike trip at the most. The added benefit to biking is that you don't need to allocate time outside of work to exercise, so your time off from work can be put into something else you prefer.
THANK YOU! For actually addressing the daily and weekly activities that desperately need alternatives to driving. So much urbanism TH-cam content is pie in the sky ideals about ten minute walks to everything when that’s just not realistic. Everybody can’t be ten minutes from their favorite activities (especially niche ones) but especially WORK. It’s a pretty basic reality that good employment opportunities with in a ten minute walk from home will be incredibly scarce outside of a very busy (and expensive) downtown.
Honestly that sounds pretty great to me. For one, even though biking takes longer than driving, it doubles down as exercise and once you factor in that, it doesn't feel all that slow. I switched to biking to work now, it takes me 1.5 hour round trip per day, which may sound a lot but it is significantly better than driving. For one, driving is less predictable, and I don't have close parking at work. The net time cost is only 20 mins per day, which is well worth the money it saved. Also, I don't have to be so alert when biking, because the vehicle is smaller and speed is lower, I can have an empty mind when I bike on the separated bike path.
in london, public transport is generally faster than driving. EXCEPT if you live in the outer suburbs. it takes me about 30 minutes minimum to get anywhere outside of where I live because my connections are so poor.
Just found your channel from this video, specifically because I recognized Calgary in the thumbnail haha. I have lived in the NW for all my life so it is interesting to hear about the transit in the south, very strange how the MAX Teal stops running so early on weekends. Around the Bend is a little over 2 hours on the bus for me, still might check it out!
I get by mostly without a car in Calgary, but I live close enough to have a twenty-minute walk to any of the places I would work and I still have my car as a backup (and for trips to the rest of the city, which mainly occur on weekends). Because of the reduced usage and no car payments, I'm only spending around $2000 per year on my car (a monthly transit pass would cost $1380). And a $620 difference in cost is not worth the extra hassle and time of ever using transit.
When I try to go without car (or being downtown even with a car), another big bummer is shopping for non-food items. For me, getting to work, grocery store, pharmacy, cafe, or places to eat are
I also live car-free in Calgary (Mission), and it's interesting how many people offer me rides, I think in some cases because they pity me. they will go on and on about how transit is awful, slow and full of weirdos, but this is no different to taking transit in Berlin (where driving is also faster). But in Berlin everyone takes transit.
No kids, no need to buy significant groceries, and apparently no need to carry significant stuff (back packs, sports gear, instruments, etc). Also, he doesn't own a home, so he doesn't shop for the endless things a home needs (new water heater, faucet, lawn mower, etc). This is all FINE if you are single, not a homeowner, and don't need to carry stuff. Everyone else needs a car.
University District has a lot of walkability, but doesn't offer much right now. No detached homes either, it's just a lot of apartment buildings (though that might be intentional)
Rush hour in Calgary makes it so that the driving times are usually petty similar to other modes. As a car enthusiast, and someone who used to cycle to school everyday, I would like to see dedicated cycling pathways intended for commute. Surely its not that expensive to run 2 north south pathways, and a few east west pathways. The residential streets are perfectly fine for cycling even in winter, the problem is major roads that are largely impassible as a cyclist. Cheers, subscribed.
Great insight! I haven’t thought too much about rush hour 🤔 And you’re right! There are some cycling routes that’d go a long way! Throw one down on Southland Drive, Fairmount Drive, Richmond Road, Memorial…
At some point I'd love to visit the other Canadian cities. I've only been to Toronto so far and I'd love to visit the rest, and I'll make sure to hit Around The Bend when in Calgary. I'm only 2,038 American Miles or 3,280 Canadian Kilometers from Around The Bend :/
I’ve not been to many Canadian cities, either! I’m hoping to add a few more to my list this year! Sounds like we should just build an Around the Bend by your place! 3280 km is too far!
I'd love to go car free, but sadly I live somewhere with no public transport options, not even taxis, Uber, etc. However, when my current car gets to the point of no longer being viable, going car free is a discussion my partner and I will have. Also helps to live somewhere where winter, at it worse, might be -5 C early in the morning, and is usually no worse than say 3 or 4 during the day, even then not consistently. Living in a small town may mean no public transport, but it also means everything is close together in a smaller space. I fuel up my car each fortnight, and it's about $50 AUD, insurance is $90 AUD/mo, rego is free being on disability, and a service is $450 AUD/year, so it's still relatively cheap to keep running...for now.
In Berlin (outside the SBahn Ring) i need 45min by Bus or train to work, 15mins if i took a car (but zero parking, so +30mins to find a spot and "get in"), plus... uhh i haven't ridden a bike in ages. Restaurants and Grocery Stores are less than 5mins by foot. I haven't had a car in years, parking just sucks here.
I immediately knew it was Calgary from the Google maps times, I love the city and have lived here for 17 years. While I've made do without a car, the transit system leaves a lot to be desired. The frequency is a joke if you're not downtown and if it's a weekend then you're facing a minimum trip of 60 minutes even if you time your transfers perfectly with the infrequent weekend service
Im just surprised in how much longer the bus is than a car. I live in a city that's got okay public transport (mostly buses which don't seem to follow their timetable) and the closest to that difference I can find between bus and car is going to a village 15/20 miles out of town
My city doesn't have the best bus system. The buses stop running from downtown (their hub) after 7pm. It would take me 3 hours on bus with multiple transfers to get across a not as big as other cities. By car, it would take most 45 minutes because of so many interstates in town. I wish I could take a bus to places, but it is not feasible with our time schedules. I also work out of the city and there is no bus or train systems going out. Texas is huge. We really need a better bus and train system. The city has spent so much of the money on tourist bus system, but forget regular people need the bus. They replaced some buses with on-demand uber like vehicles, but those are still only in certain areas.
To get to Around the bend 16 minutes driving 80 minutes by transit 50 minutes biking It’s a 20 minute drive to work or a 40 minute bus. If I bike 10 minutes to the train total trip is 25 minutes. It’s way more reliable than driving and way less stressful. This winter was so mild I’ve been biking/train every day. Even in the -35 week we had. More people should combine biking with transit, my only regret is it took so long to start
I'm European but one thing I'm jealous of in American transit is that you guys seem to have more buses with bike racks on the front of the bus. I've seen that a couple of times in Europe but it's nowhere near as common as it seems to be in the states. Combining those different modes can do wonders for extending range.
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The biggest objection that Americans have (especially anyone over 30) is that walking. biking and/or transit takes too long and is "too hard." As you point out in your video, in North America driving is almost always significantly faster. Although I'm 63 and have been biking everywhere since I was 6, the vast majority of people in the US think bicycling is a "sport" for "exercise" which is best for "kids." I do not sweat on my 3 minute ride to the supermarket, the 4 minute ride to the gym, the 5 minute ride to the coffee shop or even the 15 minute ride to the train station for work. But I'm seen as an eccentric old coot for treating my bike as a transportation choice.
I see nothing wrong with recreational biking while driving for groceries. People are free to live as they please. We're on this earth for far too little to all be a giant ant colony
Biking in the US is among the most dangerous activities. For the most part, you must ride in the road or just a few inches off of it. 99% of the time, you are OK. But 1% of the time you are in deep marimba.
@@cmdrls212 Except people aren't free to live as they want when the only infrastructure that exists is car dependent infrastructure.
And what do ant colonies have to do with walkable/bikeable neighborhoods?
@@skyisreallyhigh3333I agree
Blame General Motors and Koch Industries. They are the ones that have engineered the US into a society that is hostile to anyone who does not have an automobile.
Another thing about biking and walking are that they eliminate the need to make separate time for cardio and remember to do it.
absolutely, i want more physical activity in my day-to-day but its so miserable in carcentric infrastructure
That's a huge benefit if you travel under human power regularly.
When he mentions that it takes more time to get around without a car, it would be worth including the time-suck that is work hours required to pay for a car.
My driving is typically within a big city and average speeds are around 20mph. Most of my trips are around 5 miles. I keep car expenses low but it still costs me around 0.30 USD per mile to drive, which is around 25¢ above the price to travel by bicycle.
At my current pay rate $1.50 (drive 5 miles) is worth about 5 minutes of my work time; in effect my drive takes 15 minutes of driving time plus 5 minutes of "earning money to pay for my car" time. On a bicycle, in city traffic, I can't beat that 20min time but I can get close.
@@mywholedarname you do realize you can go to parks or trails
When car infrastructure gets 100,000x the funding and isn’t 100,000x better.
Great point!
3 bus trip vs 15 minute car ride? I beg to differ.
Most is paid for by gas taxes. Public transport is often unable to pay for itself and when it does, it is actually privatized and works well. The problem is the public part 😉
@@cmdrls212public transit should be free and shouldn't need to make a profit or pay for itself. Its primary purpose is to serve the public, not make money. Highways are a huge deficit yet no one bats an eye at them.
@cmdrls212 roads do not pay for themselves. Neither do they make any profit. Yet, you still hold it to a higher standard than public transit?
100% agree your location can make your decision of living without a car easier or harder, and I'm thankful for being privileged enough to live in a walkable neighbourhood close to frequent and reliable transit, yet still able to go to work, school and my needs!
Also survived the grid alert 2 weeks ago✌️the warm clothes really help!
Sounds like you’re in a great spot!
@@humanecities my fav part about living in canada is not being able to afford a car or groceries because all my tax dollars go to provide health care and housing to infinity migrants who live off of benefits while I have to work for a living. How come they get free housing and I don't? Also all the beautiful Chinese police stations in my Canadian territory is just wonderful.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318They don't get free housing, and "despite" universal healthcare, immigrants are (on average) a net contributor to our tax base within a year.
There are issues with our immigration strategy (ahem, housing supply) but these ain't it 😂
Also, the tax bracket for lowest earners is near zero. They're keeping you from buying groceries?
@@planefan082 oh well in that case I don't see any issue with allowing a migrant family to stay with you in your home.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 They're called roommates, and I don't exactly live alone right now. As I said, we do need more housing.
Come to think of it, U-Haul and similar companies should be promoting car-free living (or at least truck-free) as it only makes good business sense.
The entirety of urbanism could be funded by the moving truck industry 😂
On the flip side, if people have big suburban houses with lots of rooms and lots of stuff, they're not going to be able to fit it in their extended-cab/tiny-bed Chevy Silverado, so they'll need the moving/rental industries.
@@Zalis116true, with urbanism, you’re gonna have smaller living spaces and as a result, less stuff to have to move around.
If you have big houses, you’ll likely have a box-truck’s worth of stuff to need to move around.
I live in a small town in The Netherlands and it’s also faster to drive here than cycling or walking because our transportation network has become so efficient, traffic signals are replaced with roundabouts, no thru roads, modal filters, removing the road and replacing it with a 50km corridor with no side streets to make car traffic more efficient and replacing some signaled intersections with more narrow raised intersections.
I have the same except for one day a week. I work two days on Schiphol Airport, two days on head office in Utrecht and one day in The Hague. Only to The Hague it is as fast by train as by car, that’s because of the rush hour traffic jams. I work next to the Central Station, so ideal for using the train. To Schiphol Airport takes three times longer than by car, to Utrecht two times longer and the same time to The Hague. So to The Hague I take the car to the nearest train station and then a commuter train and in Gouda station I transfer to the InterCity train to The Hague CS. The transfers have to go smoothly otherwise it takes longer. If I have a seat in first class, then I can work and I can return home before rush hour. Sadly I hardly ever get a seat in first class, mostly I have to stand in the aisle of the InterCity train. That sucks for a first class ticket price year card (luckily my boss pays it for me). To Schiphol Airport and Utrecht, I go by car. At Breukelen station I can park for free now, but the province decided to make passengers pay for parking at the station in the coming month or so. So I intent to go to The Hague by car when that happens. Sometimes I don’t get it, first no seat in the InterCity first class and now pay for parking, public transport is going worse very fast. Another issue are the insanely high ticket prices compared to the rest of Europe, with the exception of the UK of course, they’re always the exception). The ticket prices alone would make me go by car instead of the train. And if I get to sit on the train, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I have to stand in the aisle and pay for a first class seat (Well I don’t pay for it, my boss does, but you get my drift).
I think I won't visit that restaurant anytime soon, about 7390 km one way. 😂 Not exactly around the bend...
🤣
Yeah, me living in Pennsylvania in the USA; that seems like a stretch. Though if I take a trip out there Id love to visit Calgary
You forgot to calculate how long it takes to walk and bike and take the bus to get there.
Interestingly, if the price of cars keeps going up the way it has this will be IMPOSED. Most people think that is a BAD thing (some thing it is absolutely terrible and to be avoided no matter what) but the reality is that it's a trade-off. The more people can't afford a car, the more cities like Calgary or London will be pushed to add bike-friendly and transit-friendly options and the more people CAN go car free.
You’re right! I think this is where we’re heading. It’ll happen as a necessity.
Great video. I'm car free in LA, which should be a transit paradise. But given the bike and transit infrastructure means that a 30 minute drive can be 2+ hours by bus. I love getting around without a car and things are very gradually shifting due to popular support for more urbanization but a lot of inertia resisting it. We have gotten some new bus lanes, bike lanes, but even those are mostly in the wealthier areas and not the places that most desperately need them.
It's crazy to me that LA isn't a cycling paradise. I mean, I understand the history of why it isn't, but it really should be.
@@matthewconstantine5015 It can be for recreational cycling or if you happen to live and work in perfect locations. Rode there for 10 years. The South Bay bike path from Santa Monica to Torrance can be a revelation of what recreational cycling can be. Long distance bicycling in LA can be problematic, but getting better.
@@thomaseboland8701Yes, it's slowly getting better for daily commuting especially around DTLA. There are more bike lanes now including some protected ones like along Figueroa.
I used to bike recreationally along some of the river bike paths. My favorite was along the San Gabriel River down to Seal Beach or North to the Dam. Also around Griffith Park, and, of course, along the LA River. But never felt confident enough to use city street bike lanes for daily commuting.
Yes!! I live/go to school in Claremont, an affluent college town. Pretty good bike lanes and other bike infrastructure! Even though most people can afford cars here, there's a healthy biking community between college students, professors, and families. I recently transitioned from my car to a bike for local trips (I have dogs, so definitely still rely on the car for traveling with them), and it's been wonderful! But literally the moment you cross the border into Pomona, a much less affluent city, the bike lanes STOP! It's crazy because far more people in Pomona live car free by necessity.
As someone who also lives in Calgary, I can give some comparisons:
Biking to work: ~40 minutes
Driving to work:
We REALLY need increased bus frequencies. I’m looking forward to warmer weather. Biking doesn’t require me waiting around!
I live in Edmonton and finally invested in some studded tires for my commuter bike. Since new years my car has hardly moved, and I feel much better each day with the extra exercise. Sadly I can't go totally car-free since I have to take trips outside the city multiple times per month, but now I never have to stress myself out in rush hour. My bike commute only ends up being ~10 minutes longer than driving
I live in Melbourne. Getting from my eastern suburb into the CBD is easy. Transit is a lot faster than driving, especially at peak time. But try going north-south and you'll find that it's sometimes faster to walk than to get public transport. Melbourne is a city with a reputation for great public transport, and it is great if you can afford to live within a 10km radius of the CBD and primarily travel to and from the CBD. If you're beyond that, it's not good and drastically needs improvement.
I live in almost antipodal Melbourne, Florida USA. We have loop bus routes that only go in one direction around, with a frequency of one per hour. And it's never on time, so good luck getting your connection. The bike infrastructure is non-existent to the point of being hostile. The marked Bike Routes, which are just sidewalks, also have signs that state that bikes must yield ON THE SIDEWALK to crossing vehicle traffic, even if the vehicles have a have a stop sign. Sidewalks will just end mid-block. You have no idea what it's like around here to live car-free. It's a prison. This is in a region of around 350,000 people.
I live in Calgary, just like you. For me the point has always been convenience. I live in the NW and I can drop my wife off at the University of Calgary in 7 minutes, or if I hit a few traffic lights, 10 minutes. It takes my wife 45 minutes by bus or even longer if she takes the LRT (add on nearly 30 minutes of walking). She is a public transit enthusiast, so she doesn't mind but I just can't do it. Before moving here I spent a decade living in a midwestern suburb in the US that had zero public transit options, so I guess my bias is rooted in my experience. I still watch your channel so I can point out cool options to my wife 😁
One of the big things I absolutely hate about not having a vehicle is grocery shopping. I cook all my meals. Being able to get 2 weeks to a month of groceries in 1 trip vs 3-4 trips a week without a vehicle is game changer. Also I love the freedom to go just about anywhere on a moments notice with a vehicle instead of planning routes and transfers and if it is even feasible.
I get that this may not be feasible for everyone, but for me I usually just get whatever groceries I want on my way home from work/university/whatever if I'm biking, which I am most of the time. I don't even have a cargo bike, I just put them in my backpack.
Walmart provides the service to bring your grocery to your house. The service fee is 100 bucks per a year.
@@Newbyte Yeah this. In real walkable areas, there's often a supermarket right by (or under) the train station near your home, and maybe others in walking distance of home too. And if you need to carry a lot, personal folding carts help. On the flip side, the nearby supermarkets may not even _have_ car parking.
Re Grocery: 1. Delivery and 2 Uber/Ride Sharing. If you are shopping for 2 weeks at a time, the Uber ride 2x per month is worth it.
Then trips out of town, car rental when you need it.
Panniers, a basket on the front and a backpack can easily do a week's worth. Or get a trailer or even a cargo bike.
For the bike option, you should deduct the time you would need to spend in the gym to burn the same calories if you drove the car or took the bus.
Just about every major American city misses a key factor that Tokyo gets right - relaxed zoning laws. I live in a zone that allows buildings up to about 450 ft in height. A block away is a district that allows buildings only about 1/6 of that. Handwaving some complications aside (I'm assuming people are uniformly distributed in a circular city), if you can cram people into 1/6 the land by making the buildings 6x taller, on average, the distance between you and every destination you want to go to has shrunk by sqrt 6 = 2.45.
If you intend to support this with cars, you need a lot of expensive underground parking, streets need to be wider to support all of the cars, congestion is much worse. Driving may very well take just as long as it did before, even with the shorter distance.
Now, if you want to take a trip to the dentist, assuming we preserve the number of transit stations, the nearest one is 2.45x closer to you. The nearest transit station to the dentist is 2.45x closer to it. If that means you go from 45 minutes of walking to 18 minutes, that's a huge win on its own. But on top of that, if you only had one station within a 15 minute walk of your apartment, now you might have multiple (up to 2.45x) to pick from. Same for the dentist, so there's a much better chance you can find a route that's pretty close to the shortest path and doesn't require transfers.
But that's not it. Since there are so many more things conveniently placed relative to the transit network, there's a huge number of trips which once weren't feasible but now are. My city and the surrounding county have a bus system, and in 2021, a survey said that 80 percent of people use it for little or some of their trips. Not great data, but let's assume that 80 percent of trips are taken by car. If these changes can turn 70 percent of those into public transit trips, that'll mean 76 percent of trips are taken by public transit. That means the transit network will need to support 3.6 times as many trips as before. If that's accomplished by making the headways 3.6x shorter, we've reversed the biggest practical issue with cars - more ridership doesn't cause congestion, but shortens your trip by justifying shorter headways. On average, you wait half the headway, so that's another 3 minutes and 38 seconds you're saving. 10 minutes between trains turns to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. 10 minutes is long enough for me to check the schedule and delay my departure. 2 minutes and 45 seconds is short enough that I don't even have to think about it. On top of that, on average, you wait half the headway, so that's another 3 minutes and 38 seconds you're saving.
In Tokyo, I could just get up and go, since I knew I would be able to get on a train within a couple of minutes no matter what. The trains were clean, law enforcement was accessible and helpful, they had enough redundancy that maintenance on the Hanzomon line didn't impact my ability to get anywhere very much. Some of these things are cultural, but they're all things that we can improve with the 3.6x increase in revenue from increased ridership. Plus, public transportation and walking feel safer if you have more people around.
So all in all, the biggest problems people cite with public transportation are all heavily mitigated with more dense urban areas. And you still get all of the benefits of public transportation. More consistency, reliability, and safety with your mode of commute. Less of a headache with regards to maintenance/refueling of your car. Not incurring the costs of owning a car in general, and letting the more cost effective public transit system handle things for you. Being able to stick your head in a book during your commute instead of being behind the wheel. Living in areas dense enough to support healthy, thriving third spaces that are easily accessible. Reducing the infestation of cars that make walking even a block away feel terrible at times. Improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare costs by reducing pollution and encouraging people to walk more than the few steps it takes to get to their car door.
Then again, relaxed zoning laws can also produce places like Houston, so they're kind of a crapshoot. And I don't know that more people in a given space produce greater safety, not when most of them are staring at their phones, oblivious to the world around them, and resolutely indifferent to anything that doesn't directly affect them. On the contrary, I feel _less_ safe in crowded places that're target-rich environments for panhandlers, hustlers, junkies, pickpockets, and other unsavory types, where every bump and jostle can be part of a coordinated scheme to separate people from their valuables.
On several occasions, I've walked the 2.5 km distance home from downtown bars alone, late at night through a sketchy area along one of the main stroads in my city. (Which I mainly felt safe enough doing thanks to "able-bodied middle-aged cishet white dude" privilege.) And every time, I've felt that the fewer people I saw or encountered, the better off I was.
As you say, it's kind of a cultural thing -- maybe these dense urban spaces can work in places like Japan, where people value social harmony and not inconveniencing others. (Though the dark side of that takes the form of young women and girls being conditioned to "not make a scene" when molested on crowded public transit.) But more selfish, individualistic cultures like the US need more social separation to avoid a descent into chaos and madness. I don't know how much the money from fare revenues can change that.
That's why I'm wary of urbanist initiatives that seek to change car dependency by building "urban villages" that're more expensive than the costs of car-centric-suburban life, or vanity tram and bike lane projects that take car travel lanes away while not actually reducing car traffic.
And despite its world-class transit, high density, and abundance of 3rd places, Japan remains a notoriously lonely and depressed place, with an aging population and abysmal marriage/birth rates. Is it any wonder that many US suburbanites are skeptical of the promises of urbanism, and reluctant to accept radical changes in lifestyle and transportation habits?
@@Zalis116I think the OC was still right on the ball. With regards to Houston they switched out zoning laws for other regulations like parking minimums increased to the point where the only city design practical and available is the car centric one.
Safety in crowds is usually better yes petty crime like pickpocketing can increase but most other crimes run into issues in crowds such as increased ease of surveillance, slower speed of running compared to even a bike cop. Etc.
i think a big problem is the culture like you said but also the large scale of cities means cops have to cover more area per unit which increase wait times. I don’t believe suddenly densifying a city would solve everything magically but I do believe its a step in the right direction.
As for the Urban villages I agree they are mostly gimmicks but at the very least the crowds that flood into them are an indicator that people desire walkable cities and business benefit from such.
@@Zalis116You can have mixed low, medium or high density zoning. Mixed high density is more like downtown where you have highrise & people can walk to almost every kind of shops.
Mixed medium density has more park/green space/space between building and smaller building the you have mixed low density keeping building to a max of 3 level with small shop like corner store.
I'm about 627 hours of walking away from Around The Bend.
Meet you there at the end of February? 😂
Damn broski I'm at 731 hours, which is roughly the distance every employer expects you to be comfortable travelling every day. Ill start and meet you at the 600 mark 🫡
@@sickna-sty3244 lol
Yes sometimes when my car is in the shop I take light rail to work. Including the walks to/from the stations it takes three times longer 🙄
I wish we built better for all options 😥
I've got:
15 minute walk to university
10 minute walk to gym (there are closer ones though)
five supermarkets within 10 minutes
Of course I live car free.
That’s a beautiful life 🤩
One of the major issues with the metro near me is that most of it goes all the way downtown before going back out. There's very little in cross-route connections or wheels for all the spokes...
This is a HUGE problem! In Calgary, our LRT lines are both spokes. Fortunately, we’ve started building some crosstown BRTs.
@@humanecities I know downtown used to be more of a "job center" but that's not so much true anymore and transit systems need to change to support people going in more varied directions.
When I had a car, winters were hell. Whenever I wanted to use it I had to first go about 10 minutes of clearing ice and snow and warm it up for the foggy windows to clear up before I could go anywhere, sometimes I had to clear snow just to leave the parking space because a snow plow had shoved a bunch of snow in the way. Oh and I had to constantly think about moving the car because of street cleaning days so even when I didn't use the car it was still constantly in the back of my mind. Getting rid of that thing was a very good decision.
Great points! For some reason people think a car makes the winter disappear 😂
I went in reverse.. from car-free to driving. And these numbers largely explain why. Taking an hour and a half on a bus for what would be 15 minutes by car gets really old really fast when it's a regular thing you need to do. Watching the bus you need to catch blow by before it's scheduled time when the next one doesn't arrive for 40 minutes (and then shows up late to boot) is incredibly frustrating.. especially in sub-zero weather. Been there, done that.
The time and frustration saved by owning a car is well worth the price, IMO. I wouldn't give it up for the world.
Same here. I would love it if the transit options were better or the city was more walkable, but currently, that's not the reality we live in. Maybe one day.
as a fellow Calgarian, i definitely love to get around on the available pedestrian paths and infrastructure, especially since i own a really fun device called the OneWheel, which i can easily bring onto public transit if i need to. i do really wish parts of the city had better pedestrian accommodation, but for the place that ARE built for it, I do genuinely enjoy it. I don't have my license yet, but i am not really in a rush to since car-free transport works just fine for me. I hope more of the city is slowly transformed to have more pedestrian walkways and sidewalks for sure.
We really do have great sidewalks in Calgary (mostly). Having visited several places in the States, Canadian cities have a huge head start on improving our cities.
Also, OneWheels are so cool! I love my e-scooter for similar reasons.
Thanks for commenting! I love having fellow Calgarians here!
In Hamilton, Ontario it's almost always faster to ride your bike than it is to take the bus. The only time it's faster to take the bus is when your destination is at the top of the escarpment cutting the city in two.
That’s rough! I mean, I love cycling… but the bus really should be faster, right?
I live in the suburbans of Denver, CO. My experience is about the same. Public transportation or bike takes double or triple the time of driving. I plan on keeping my car.
As a dude from Edmonton who sold his 2002 Honda Civic and went car free I really feel this video! (Oddly enough I also moved up from the states in the last couple years too)
I’ve really waned to do everything car free for a while, but the average travel time being 2-3 times longer than driving makes it difficulty when my life is already a time crunch.
I’m off in a suburb because the rent here is super cheap and unfortunately the infrastructure to get around by bike/bus here is not great…
Anyways Around the Bend is only 311km away, so I’ll have to stop by when I go to visit the Calgary zoo
I’m curious, what do you do for bike parking down in Calgary? Do they have the standard racks? Or are there places with better parking? I’ve wanted to ride my bike more, but I’m always worried about it getting stolen.
You’re pretty much in the same spot as me 😂 It’s a challenge and life pretty much revolves around being car-free.
The Calgary Zoo is a MUST! As far as bike parking goes, the City of Calgary has a standard rack found at a lot of bus stops and train stations - as well as around city streets. I find most shopping areas have racks as well, though quality and location varies…
I worry about it getting stolen, too. At the same time, my sister’s car was just stolen last week. It’ll hurt for her to replace that… if my bike gets stolen, I can just go get a new one.
@@humanecities " At the same time, my sister’s car was just stolen last week." thank Trudeau for that one.
First principle of real estate ... location location location. Suburban renting is cheaper than downtown living because your location is in poor proximity to destinations, and your connections are lesser, necessitating a car. It wouldn't be so cheap if it wasn't so disconnected from your destinations.
Living car-free in the suburbs of DC, I have a similar situation. I used to work on the other side of the town I live in, and the trip took an hour by bus (if everything was on schedule), which included a trip to another town, a 20 minute wait, and then a trip back into town to my job. There is no cross-town bus. It's 15 minutes by car, but because of how the pedestrian infrastructure is set up, it's a three hour, zig-zagging walk, which is also exceptionally unpleasant, as it is almost constantly along various 4+ lane roads. It was an hour by bike, but that included about a half hour in the middle where you had to get off the bike & walk, as there was ZERO safe place to ride. I found an alternate route that was almost twice as long, but only took 10 minutes longer, because there weren't so many cross streets, driveways, and wacky traffic patterns, and you could stay on the bike the whole time. The craziest thing was when I switched to working in downtown DC, about five times further away, and the bus/Metro combo going in was also one hour. Coming home, because of terrible bus service out here, it was 90 minutes at best. There are big gaps in the schedule, though, so there's no bus between 6:45 and 8:15PM. And buses stop running at about 9:30. So, if you get out of work at 6, it takes 10 minutes to walk to the Metro station, you wait 5 or 10 minutes for a train, and it's 35 minutes to your station...Well, turns out it's a 45 minute walk from the Metro station to my house, which I found out because I'd rather be walking than waiting around for 60+ minutes. Luckily there is now pedestrian infrastructure between the Metro station and where I live (some of it is OK for cycling). There wasn't when I first moved here 15 years ago. In the winter? Well, that's a different story. But DC often has low to no snow winters, so it's not so bad.
That said, whenever I get too frustrated, I remind myself that I'm a 10 minute walk from a movie theater, two grocery stores & a market, one of my favorite Peruvian chicken places, three bus routes, and a bunch of other stuff. I'd prefer to live in the city core, but if I have to live in the suburbs, I could be in a worse spot.
Oh, and if I biked 8 hours a day, I believe it would take me about 25 days to get to Around the Bend.
Hey I’m in NOVA too, I live near Manassas what area do you live near?
@@sammymarrco2, Fairfax for me.
“dc often has low to no snow winters” i know its not the norm but man last week made me reconsider not having a car 😭
I think it was about a decade ago that we had a couple winters where it really snowed. Like, as a New Englander, I had to say, "yes, this is a real snow." That was awful. They plowed huge piles of snow up on the sidewalks, so that even when we were seeing 70 & 80 degree days in late March, sidewalks were still blocked by banks of snow. In spite of there being several of the richest counties in America in this region, the snow removal is appalling. I can't even imagine how difficult it is to get around as an older person or a person with mobility issues. I'm able bodied and it's a nightmare.
Still not enough for me to want a car, though. I've driven here a couple of times over the years, and that was way more than enough for me.
I have been living 18 years car free, where you live is really important. It takes me about an hour each way to get to work but I live right beside a big mall and grocery stores. I have everything I need within a 20 minute walk even a movie theater and several fast food stores.
That’s fantastic! I’m transitioning to work from home, so at least I’ll be able to cut one big distance out!
Living car free in Calgary is always better if you live near LRT station and can use it. Also living and working downtown is great. Lots of options for restaurants and groceries too. Biking is great as there are trails in all directions.
live in Calgary myself - been Car free since early spring of 2020, I started to do bike packing throughout Alberta - which I have really enjoyed. great post .. thank you
Bike packing is awesome!! Glad to share this city with you!
Man those trails, rivers and skyline.. Calgary looks INCREDIBLE.
I love my city ♥️ I can’t wait to capture some more incredible footage this year!
@@humanecities you will be able to get your mattress once Alberta secedes from Canada and joins the US 😉
Since you asked how long it will take me to get to Around The Bend: I live in North Macedonia. It would take at least two hours to get to the nearest international airport in Skopje, but I'd need to leave home at least three hours before my flight. The shortest flight time is just over 16 hours. After landing in Calgary, let's assume 30 minutes to clear customs and immigration and pick up my luggage. Then it will take 90 minutes by bus or 25 minutes by car to get to Around The Bend. So about 20 hours if everything goes right and I drive and about 21 hours if everything goes right and I take the final part by bus.
I think I'll pass on that, no matter how good the food may be.
😂 I appreciate the detail!
Why does nobody talk about how debilitating rain is when biking is your mode of transportation? I live in Amsterdam and the wind and rain honestly makes biking horrible for me, I legit just don’t go out when the weather is bad because of it. And the weather is often bad
Bruh just use trams or metro when its raining like everybody else? You dont have to be 100% on bikes
In my county, you can theoretically take transit from the northernmost town in said county to the county seat. Leaving at 9:17 AM (earliest departure), it would take four buses and 2 hours 35 minutes to get to the county seat. Driving is a total of 28 minutes.
For the record, that first bus only runs three days a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) and runs hourly through 9:00 PM. You could drive between these two communities twice round-trip and still not make it one way on the bus.
In the US, one year of rent in the city costs more than a few unrestricted acres and building materials for a house. A house in the city costs 5-50x more than a similar house on more land elsewhere, and that's not even factoring in a lifetime of extra taxes and utility bills. Is being closer to anything really worth paying 50x? Nope.
That's why we need 15-minute cities.
🙌
From my home in Minneapolis to Around the Bend, it's 19 hours driving; 4 days cycling; 18 days walking; public transit time unknown. Probably a brutally desolate cycling route since it's across the entire state of North Dakota.
You’d get to enjoy a lot of pretty sunsets on the way!
In my town in the UK, while its almost always faster to get places by car, the nightmare parking means that youll be spending 5-10 minutes looking for parking whereas if you walk you have nothing to park and if you bike the bike racks are never busy enough to have you looking far
I love how easy it is to just walk up to places when I don’t have to park - even when there’s a spot easily available!
That's definitely an issue I face in the town I live in, in Italy. Bike infra is straight-up nonexistent, and the buses have terrible frequencies, which make getting anywhere much slower than by car.
Getting to the nearest cities is quite fast by train, definitely faster than driving (you can't go at 140 km/h by car!) but getting to/from the stations at each end takes up a lot of time, and so does waiting for the train to arrive, since that too is quite infrequent
I was so shocked when you just passingly mentioned that you bus stop is 10 minutes away from your house. That's so unreasonable, I live in tel aviv which tends to put a bus stop almost every 100 meters, surely bus stops cost next to nothing
We have a long way to go!
thank you for speaking on this. I'm glad I discovered your channel. I live on Long Island, NY and I've been living without a car for over 6 months now. Tbh it's not something I'll be able to continue doing for much longer. Living this way will quickly teach you that these car dependent suburbs consider us as second class citizens. My only solutions so far are to move to the more transit oriented NYC nearby, or to give up and just get a car. It's been rough, but channels like yours give me a glimmer of hope.
Girl. I wanted to see my friend in Chicago today, I live in Racine. 3+ hours. And only a few departures and only a few available trips back. I’d be traveling 6 hours, hanging with my friend for 2
Sounds like Calgary is just too spread out and low density, making distances excessive. Makes biking both take longer and require more effort compared to someplace more compact. I moved to Vancouver from a more spread-out US city and one thing I noticed quickly was how being more compact and dense really made things more bike-friendly. And yes, I had to leave my mattress in the USA, too! Google Maps says it is 976 km to Around the Bend from my home.
Someone who understands my mattress woes!!
Calgary is very spread out. We’re slowly densifying. But Vancouver has definitely done better at that.
And nice!! Under 1000 km!
Though I've seen more people use e-scooters and electric bikes on bike paths and lanes in Los Angeles so not as much effort is required for longer distances. As prices continue to fall, e-bikes could finally entice a whole new generation of daily biking commuters.
@@mrxman581 True! E-bikes are very popular here, too.
I'm on the north shore, people who don't bike will say it's "too hilly/too rainy/what if it snows/too far" but the reality of it is that most people in this city could take an e bike to work easily! If we had proper safe infrastructure for the entirety of metro van you'd see a lot more people out riding, but when your safe infrastructure is limited to select parts of Vancouver/CNV/Burnaby it's pretty tough to convince someone that struggling up a hill with cars buzzing them or getting splashed by cars is a cool idea. People like me will always bike, the freedom of not having to check traffic on Google Maps before going anywhere is worth it to me, but the "interested but concerned" crowd will never ride until the infrastructure is there.
@@humanecities Vancouver sort of lucked out with the fact that it's geographically constrained, so it couldn't really do suburban sprawl like other cities. The sprawl is prevalent in places like Surrey and Langley. Edmonton's Strathcona area (where I spend a lot of time in) looks a lot like Vancouver at times.
Edmonton has a lot of the same problems in this regard as Calgary, but we're slightly smaller and have somewhat better transit than Calgary, and we passed the new zoning bylaw recently, so hopefully things do densify more here. Plus, the 132 Avenue Renewal is an interesting road design for North America (basically Dutch-style design), and I really hope it becomes the default for collector roads here.
Wonderful video, thank you! I went car free 3 years ago and love it. I ride EUC and have gained complete freedom in my commute. I ride through rain, snow, ice, mud, and shine! I recommend The Electric Wheel to anyone who is opened to change. It is a small challenge to learn, with a Grand Reward. Let go of Fear and find your balance with this revolutionary design Wheel. Enjoy the Ride! Cambro Wheels
something to mention about very short car drives, its usually not even really that worth it, especially in the winter if youve gotta wait for your car to warm up, finding parking on either end of the trip, even a 5 minute car drive is extended by 10-15 minutes for parking, warming the car, etc. at that point transit or cycling might actually be faster. not to mention the heat cycling of the car slowly wearing the engine down.
True. Here in America, the bus really does take too long lol (usually at least 3x longer than driving, whether in Oregon or California), and there's a high chance I'll end up with a car. But if I end up having anything within a mile of where I live, I wouldn't drive there, simply because it'll be too easy to walk (unless I end up in the outer suburbs), and short car trips are the worst thing you can do to your car
Glad to see your work is getting more visibility! Keep up the great content man you're killing it.
Also, you've done a good job explaining why car free in the suburbs just isn't a great option. Other modes will never come close to competing. And maybe that's ok, I don't mind some places being car centric, I just wish cities would allow there to be alternatives as well. There should also be sections of the city that are as nightmarish to drive through as your walk from the bus stop to the soccer dome.
Thank you 🙏 And you’re right! Not everything has to be a park, plaza, or cute walkable street, but yeah, we need that option! I have some videos planned talking about it!
Great video. I have gone carless in Vancouver, NYC and the Bay Area. It can be difficult at times but you just have to learn to take the commute as down time. Thank you for the mattress info, I will sell my expensive mattress before heading back home
I'm fortunate to live in the best transit city in the country, New York. As a result, I've never owned a car.
Still, a comparison strictly of time misses something important, namely that, when taking transit, the time is your own time, simply because someone else is driving. You can read, watch something, or catch a snooze, none of which you can do while driving.
So, even if travelling by transit takes longer than the same trip by car, it's still preferable.
Cool! I live in Airdrie now but lived in Calgary and Saskatoon. I've been car free for over 20 years; sometimes I think about driving but then I think of the money and how my commute now keeps me healthy. I get to spend time outside, sometimes I run, sometimes I ride, sometimes I walk and sometimes I take the bus. Life is simple, I'm healthy and happy and if I need a car for anything their is a million ways to rent one.
I love that! Thank you for sharing! You’re right about car rentals! It’s not rocket science!
I used to catch the train and the train station was right next to a supermarket. Actually, it sort of was on both ends (the station in town required a slightly longer walk to/from my final destination). Basically I ended up going to the supermarket every day (or just ate leftovers). There was absolutely no point in bothering about shopping for a longer period of time.
Location is so important!
I’ve been car-free since 2009, when I moved to Montreal. I probably wouldn’t be living car-free if it wasn’t for the metro. I hate the bus, and the bicycle-vs-car dynamic is scary! However I am subscribed to a car share service for the occasions when I need a car - so I’m only 99% car free.
I use public transit for groceries, most shopping, work, and all social activities. I’ll take the car share when I need to go to a specific store that isn’t accessible by transit.
However, for example, this weekend I went to a guy’s place to pick up a guitar pedal. Google maps told me it was less than 20 minutes by car; between walking and the metro, it was just under an hour each way. To be honest, that made me wish I had a car (especially since my condo came with a parking spot). I could have taken a car share, but I chose to metro…
Based on the skyline, it looks like you’re in Calgary. It’s brave to go car-free in Calgary. In Montreal it’s easier… but it depends on the neighborhood.
Came for the change in commute, stayed for around the bend
🤤
I've ridden my bike to Around The Bend! Took about an hour in the summer from near the University of Calgary. Might take closer to 1.5 hours in the winter depending on conditions. Hmm, maybe I should make a video of the bike ride one day? My current struggles are finding new places to ride that I haven't already recorded, haha.
I'm in Mississippi in one of the only towns with a bus system, and I could take the bus from my apartment complex and get dropped off 2 minutes from class. But the bus takes an inefficient route to get to campus (stops at another apartment complex and then loops around to the other side), only runs every 20 minutes, and sometimes the driver will randomly stop the bus for up to an hour on lunch break. So I usually bike or drive which makes the commute both faster and much more reliable. It's never enough to have public transit in place, but to make public transit a value proposition that beats out other forms of transportation.
WHOA 🤯 Your bus driver’s break isn’t built into the schedule?! That’s wild! I like my bike for the same reason as you: you just get on and go!
I have been car free in Calgary since the 90's, I enjoy the riding in all seasons. The only time riding seems a chore to me is when it's pouring rain. I've lived in most of the ares of Calgary over the years and still found that cycling is by far the most enjoyable method, I have the proper gear for all seasons and ride clipped in to the pedals for better energy transfer and control on the bike.
I love how you break everything down. For me, while the commute is "longer", what is done on the commute can save time. It takes me 10 minutes to get home by car but 25 minutes to bike 3.5 miles. My workout is done and I'm home just 15 minutes later. Hard-pressed to drive home and get a similar amount of workout in 15 minutes. Traffic is another component that 10-minute car commute is slowly turning into 15 minutes due to congestion. Taking the trails is consistent.
This was an eye-opener! I live a 20 minute single bus ride to the center of my city and 35 minutes to the university I attend. There are many multiple different options of transportation open to me if I for whatever reason decide to not go with the fastest & cheapest which is this bus line.
Yet my city which together with the two neighbouring counties closest to the city center won't even reach 1 million in 2035. Still, our network of trams and multiple kinds of buses is getting an upgrade until then with BRT *and* LRT *and* two additional train stations connected by tunnels (maybe laying the groundwork for a future metro, who knows?), all done with the purpose of relieving the city center from all the people who only go there to hop on another line out of the center and to instead connect the city and suburbs both radially and orbitally.
In the ideal town, you can do both. They don't really make those too much though.
Sadly 😢 That’s what we’re working for, I guess!
I live in Calgary, and it's insanely easy to get around and insanely difficult to get around any other way. We still make do as a 1-car household though.
A vehicle is a huge money pit and source of stress. I try to use my bikes (mountain bike and an e-bike) as much as possible, even in the winter, but unfortunately I still rely on a cheap vehicle from time to time. I think I put under 2,000 kms on it last year. I would love to go car-less. I never realized how freeing, enjoyable and healthy it was to use a bike around town until I was in my 40's.
Putting under 2000 km/yr on your car is impressive! Definitely living car-lite!
Also, cars depreciate in value mostly based on how much they are driven, not their age, so it is less of a financial burden.
Living a car-free lifestyle with a car in the garage is quite different from actually living without a car. It sucks when you have to carry your groceries and walk for 20 minutes at minus 40 Celsius. And when you want to visit a friend, you can never tell when you could be there. Besides, for people living in up NW Calgary, it is nearly impossible to try out the Around the bend, it would kill more than 3 hours just for coming there, having a meal, and then coming back on red line.
In Norway there are so many [long] tunnels vehicle-only, if you are a pedestrian or have a bysikkel good luck pedaling around them. In Stavanger for example the public bus network connects the center to the airport through a 1.5hr detour. oh but you can take the express which is 15$ for a 20m trip, but here is the kicker.. the public buses are free.
Hello fellow Calgarian! Every part of this video is on point
Love having other Calgarians here! Thank you 🙏
Can you get your groceries and bulky houseware items delivered? That will solve the "I need a car for big shopping trips" issue.
Cargo bikes are also pretty cool.
@@knifefest Yes, cargo bikes are very useful! :-)
But you still can't bring a major grocery shopping trip home in one. Well maybe if you can if you attach a small lightweight trailer behind, lol.
@@fredashay when you live closer to the grocery store you don't need to do gigantic hauls every week or two. You can just do smaller trips 2-3x per week.
The thing is I live in a mid-sized city in Central-Europe (Szeged, which has like around 161k people) and taking the care is basically only 3-4 minutes shorter on most trips. In rush hour taking the tram or bike even gets you +10 minutes of advantage. It is just that much better. The biking infrastructure is pretty good and most of the public transport in electrified via tram/tram-train/trolleybus/E-buses. Most trolleys/buses get their own lanes shared with the tram tracks. There aren't any "big" besides 2 avenues, others are only 2 laned. Funnily enough you do not get that much of a traffic jam on these roads, only the big ones, unlike Budapest, the capital, and it is not because there are less people here, because the size of the city is comparatively that much smaller.
That sounds like a great place to live! I’ll have to look it up!
Great vid. See, the whole problem here is the bias of urban planners : they assume everyone is middle class and has a desk job downtown, and built infrastructure, both roads and public transit, based on that idea. Well newsflash. That did not apply to seniors, the mobility challenged, or parents with young children, where ~70% or so of their commuting is within 3km of their home, and it was not for employment. For everyone else, only ~50% were commuting more than 20km for employment, and most were not headed downtown anyways. Then the pandemic happened, and a lot of those desk jobs became hybrid. And yet, we are stuck with legacy infrastructure that is expensive to adapt to this reality for the majority of the populace.
Here are the low hanging fruit municipalities can do
1) prioritize snowclearing sidewalks, roads and parking lots leading to schools. Per capita, more people in your neighbourhood are going there than down some arterial road towards a highway
2) update traffic lights with advanced signals for pedestrians, so cyclists and car drivers turning left or right do not have to guess
3|) in newer developments, there are always storm management ponds built to deal with run-off - and they often cut diagonally across residential streets built on a grid-like pattern. That is the perfect place for building walking trails and bike path infrastructure, shrinking distances to shopping, major arterial roads etc. Two painted lines on a road is NOT satisfactory bike infrastructure.
4) Replace worn out buses with ride-sharing vehicles that are disability-friendly. It is just not economically sustainable to drive around a mostly empty bus through cul-de-sac routes. Save the buses for the higher density major arterial routes
5) work with cell phone companies to get actual data of where and when people are commuting, instead of relying on old-fashioned stereotypes.
"That did not apply to seniors, the mobility challenged, or parents with young children,"
Or to the children themselves. A proper urban neighborhood can give children a lot of independence.
Problem what I see in North America are distances. You have to travel so far even within city. Cities are huge, Calgary is very good example of massive grid without density. People in suburbs doesn't have anything, groceries are far. So people move transport more than in Europe
Would have been interesting to see the same comparisons showing costs (including parking fees).
I grew up in Montréal and took relatively efficient public transport for granted. I am now in New-Brunswick and I miss it a lot. I am in the process of moving to Houston and I will miss it even more over there. Most North American cities are living in a car madness.
It's not -35, but I was biking in -25 c weather earlier this winter, and surprisingly, it wasn't that bad since i was prepared for it. Was using a full face motorcycle helmet with a neck tube pulled up over my mouth and nose to reduce fogging on the visor, double layer of gloves (although thicker gloves would probably work just fine), some old socks rubber banded around the metal brake levers so i didn't have to touch any metal even through my gloves, and plastic bags with small holes in the side to put my handlebars through that i could use as wind shields for my hands. Other than that, just layers and sometimes a poncho as a wind breaker (although that would add a bit of time to the ride), and I was actually kinda on the warm side. The big snowstorm that happened right before the coldsnap was actually more inconvenient since the city can't even clear the snow well for cars, so you can imagine how the bike paths were. Had to change up my route and pretend i was a slow motorcycle or something lol
It takes roughly 21 hours to Around the Bend: 15 min walk to train station, 1.5 hour train trip to airport where I have to be two hours before the flight (recommended for flights to N. America) and 15 h 14 min flight to Calgary. Then there's passport control and it seems that it will take another hour and half to take transit to the restaurant.
Got to come and stop by sometimes.
I am a University of Calgary student who moved to Calgary from a smaller Albertan town. I have a car but its almost always more convinient to take the bus from where I live to the university because free parking at the LRT station is a bit of a walk, and its nice to not have to worry about parking.
I dont think I'm alone when i say thay I would absolutely use public transit as my main transportation method if it was more convinient. I find that I take the bus when the distance is anything less than around 3km, just because its easier. However, due to busses using the same lanes as regular traffic and having to make frequent stops, anything more than that can easily double the travel time versus taking a car.
I can't wait for more bike infrastructure to be built, its an amazing expirience being able to bike to downtown from the university on bike lanes (especially when I come from somewhere that has no bike lanes anywhere)
I'd never heard of Around the Bend. Thanks for the recommendation! It's 17 minutes away by car for me, 86 minutes by transit, or 3 1/4 hours by foot (ouch!)
🤣 Sounds like a driving trip!
I live in Calgary, at the Mount Royal University Campus.
Kinda surreal to see location I know in a youtube video.
But the public transit in this city sucks ass. I'm a student with no family, so I can't afford a car. I get everywhere by bike or bus, but when it's -35 and the bus stops are nothing but a bench and sign, it's so frusterating when the buses are late.
One day I was in Signal Hill, it began pouring rain. I had gone there to pick my bike up from the repair shop. I waited for a bus that was 50 minutes late in the storming rain. When the bus got there, there was no bike rack on it for some reason. Driver wouldn't let me on with my bike, and told me to just bike home.
...I came down with a severe cold the next day
Honestly, the buses out to Signal Hill are a mess - as is Signal Hill 🤮 And that bus driver was an ass. I’m sorry that happened to you 🫤
That's what I liked in Sweden if the bus stop says 9.34 it will be there at 9.34 talking around end of 80s
My best friend lived in Sweden for a bit and LOVED it. He had very high praise for the transit!
With the places I've lived in Calgary, only once did the work commute get past that 40-minute ride (but it was offset by a train within walking distance).
Calgary can be great for that! But where I live and where I work put me in such a weird spot with the commute. My brother has 20 minute bus ride to work, and my sisters are only 10 minutes.
Something I’ve not discussed in a video is that I’m slowly transitioning to working from home, negating concerns about commute time. So I’m sucking it up for now. Otherwise I’d be looking for a job with a better commute 😂
im about 4 months car free in a suburb of washington dc and yesterday i began to miss driving for the first time. kind of a duh moment but cycling and taking public transit sucks when the weather is crappy :/
Biking was fastest for me in Calgary as long as I wasn't going too far. Especially during Calgary's rush hours. When people measure time in their car, they don't account for the time it takes to get to from wherever you park to your location. That could easily add 5-10 minutes (same applies when you can leave your bike somewhere convenient).
The thing that I remember most from Calgary was that walking/jogging could often get me around the city faster than transit.
@@shauncameron8390 Using Calgary as an example it's an easy win for the bike as parking is stupid expensive in Calgary. Most cities I've been to I can find bike parking probably in 1/4 the time compared to car parking in the downtown. In the burbs not so much. I live in Vancouver and if you destination is along the Sky Train it's actually quicker by transit. Most other times not.
Living some 10,300 km away from Around The Bend, I rather agree with this name they chose; if by bend they mean the curvature of the Earth that is
🤣
It's not just making bike infrastructure into something that allows bikes to be a viable alternative. It's also poor city planning. With some foresight put into the distribution of residential and commercial spaces, everything would be at least within a 30 minute bike trip at the most. The added benefit to biking is that you don't need to allocate time outside of work to exercise, so your time off from work can be put into something else you prefer.
0:01 "An 2008 Toyota Corolla"
*Meet The Sniper Title Screen+Music*
*Changes to French Music*
"That is one sweet ride"
THANK YOU! For actually addressing the daily and weekly activities that desperately need alternatives to driving. So much urbanism TH-cam content is pie in the sky ideals about ten minute walks to everything when that’s just not realistic. Everybody can’t be ten minutes from their favorite activities (especially niche ones) but especially WORK. It’s a pretty basic reality that good employment opportunities with in a ten minute walk from home will be incredibly scarce outside of a very busy (and expensive) downtown.
5:06 i really feel you, in my small town of airdrie near calgary, the local buses stop at 5pm and dont even run on weekends 😭😭
Honestly that sounds pretty great to me. For one, even though biking takes longer than driving, it doubles down as exercise and once you factor in that, it doesn't feel all that slow.
I switched to biking to work now, it takes me 1.5 hour round trip per day, which may sound a lot but it is significantly better than driving. For one, driving is less predictable, and I don't have close parking at work. The net time cost is only 20 mins per day, which is well worth the money it saved. Also, I don't have to be so alert when biking, because the vehicle is smaller and speed is lower, I can have an empty mind when I bike on the separated bike path.
in london, public transport is generally faster than driving. EXCEPT if you live in the outer suburbs. it takes me about 30 minutes minimum to get anywhere outside of where I live because my connections are so poor.
Connections are a huge deal! I could get downtown in 20 minutes easy, but getting to/from work has such poor connections.
@@humanecities yep. it takes me about the same amount of time to go to school about 9km away as it does to work 30km away..
Just found your channel from this video, specifically because I recognized Calgary in the thumbnail haha. I have lived in the NW for all my life so it is interesting to hear about the transit in the south, very strange how the MAX Teal stops running so early on weekends. Around the Bend is a little over 2 hours on the bus for me, still might check it out!
I love having other Calgarians here!! I like to think Around the Bend is worth the 2 hours in transit 😂
I get by mostly without a car in Calgary, but I live close enough to have a twenty-minute walk to any of the places I would work and I still have my car as a backup (and for trips to the rest of the city, which mainly occur on weekends). Because of the reduced usage and no car payments, I'm only spending around $2000 per year on my car (a monthly transit pass would cost $1380). And a $620 difference in cost is not worth the extra hassle and time of ever using transit.
When I try to go without car (or being downtown even with a car), another big bummer is shopping for non-food items. For me, getting to work, grocery store, pharmacy, cafe, or places to eat are
I also live car-free in Calgary (Mission), and it's interesting how many people offer me rides, I think in some cases because they pity me. they will go on and on about how transit is awful, slow and full of weirdos, but this is no different to taking transit in Berlin (where driving is also faster). But in Berlin everyone takes transit.
No kids, no need to buy significant groceries, and apparently no need to carry significant stuff (back packs, sports gear, instruments, etc). Also, he doesn't own a home, so he doesn't shop for the endless things a home needs (new water heater, faucet, lawn mower, etc). This is all FINE if you are single, not a homeowner, and don't need to carry stuff. Everyone else needs a car.
You’re spot on! Everyone has a different situation, for which they need to make different mobility decisions!
It's 7400 km from where I live to Around The Bend. But if I'll ever be in Calgary, I'll go and see it :)
I’ll probably be there!
University District has a lot of walkability, but doesn't offer much right now. No detached homes either, it's just a lot of apartment buildings (though that might be intentional)
Rush hour in Calgary makes it so that the driving times are usually petty similar to other modes. As a car enthusiast, and someone who used to cycle to school everyday, I would like to see dedicated cycling pathways intended for commute. Surely its not that expensive to run 2 north south pathways, and a few east west pathways. The residential streets are perfectly fine for cycling even in winter, the problem is major roads that are largely impassible as a cyclist.
Cheers, subscribed.
Great insight! I haven’t thought too much about rush hour 🤔 And you’re right! There are some cycling routes that’d go a long way! Throw one down on Southland Drive, Fairmount Drive, Richmond Road, Memorial…
At some point I'd love to visit the other Canadian cities. I've only been to Toronto so far and I'd love to visit the rest, and I'll make sure to hit Around The Bend when in Calgary. I'm only 2,038 American Miles or 3,280 Canadian Kilometers from Around The Bend :/
I’ve not been to many Canadian cities, either! I’m hoping to add a few more to my list this year! Sounds like we should just build an Around the Bend by your place! 3280 km is too far!
I'd love to go car free, but sadly I live somewhere with no public transport options, not even taxis, Uber, etc. However, when my current car gets to the point of no longer being viable, going car free is a discussion my partner and I will have. Also helps to live somewhere where winter, at it worse, might be -5 C early in the morning, and is usually no worse than say 3 or 4 during the day, even then not consistently. Living in a small town may mean no public transport, but it also means everything is close together in a smaller space. I fuel up my car each fortnight, and it's about $50 AUD, insurance is $90 AUD/mo, rego is free being on disability, and a service is $450 AUD/year, so it's still relatively cheap to keep running...for now.
There’s a lot that goes into the decision! Interesting to hear what car costs are like in another place!
In Berlin (outside the SBahn Ring) i need 45min by Bus or train to work, 15mins if i took a car (but zero parking, so +30mins to find a spot and "get in"), plus... uhh i haven't ridden a bike in ages. Restaurants and Grocery Stores are less than 5mins by foot. I haven't had a car in years, parking just sucks here.
I immediately knew it was Calgary from the Google maps times, I love the city and have lived here for 17 years. While I've made do without a car, the transit system leaves a lot to be desired. The frequency is a joke if you're not downtown and if it's a weekend then you're facing a minimum trip of 60 minutes even if you time your transfers perfectly with the infrequent weekend service
We have a loooong way to go!
Im just surprised in how much longer the bus is than a car. I live in a city that's got okay public transport (mostly buses which don't seem to follow their timetable) and the closest to that difference I can find between bus and car is going to a village 15/20 miles out of town
.We have a lack of crosstown transport, relying primarily on a hub and spoke transit model. I could get downtown in 20mins, but work and such…
My city doesn't have the best bus system. The buses stop running from downtown (their hub) after 7pm. It would take me 3 hours on bus with multiple transfers to get across a not as big as other cities. By car, it would take most 45 minutes because of so many interstates in town. I wish I could take a bus to places, but it is not feasible with our time schedules. I also work out of the city and there is no bus or train systems going out. Texas is huge. We really need a better bus and train system.
The city has spent so much of the money on tourist bus system, but forget regular people need the bus. They replaced some buses with on-demand uber like vehicles, but those are still only in certain areas.
To get to Around the bend
16 minutes driving
80 minutes by transit
50 minutes biking
It’s a 20 minute drive to work or a 40 minute bus. If I bike 10 minutes to the train total trip is 25 minutes. It’s way more reliable than driving and way less stressful. This winter was so mild I’ve been biking/train every day. Even in the -35 week we had.
More people should combine biking with transit, my only regret is it took so long to start
I'm European but one thing I'm jealous of in American transit is that you guys seem to have more buses with bike racks on the front of the bus. I've seen that a couple of times in Europe but it's nowhere near as common as it seems to be in the states. Combining those different modes can do wonders for extending range.