as an LA native who's yet to own a car (resisting as much as possible), thank you for raising awareness and educating folks on how we can make LA a more walkable/public-transit oriented city! you just gained a subscriber
I don't have a car or even a license and live in LA county. Commuting via bus sucks when it only runs every 20 or 30 minutes. It is very difficult and EXTREMELY time consuming to try and get anywhere
My wife and I went to a park in Anaheim a few weeks ago just to hang out for a while, and you could hear the 91 traffic noise literally a mile away. Just tires on pavement. What's always been interesting to me is how the white noise of, say, a water feature can be so relaxing and calming, but the white noise of traffic is stressful and anxiety-inducing.
I occasionally visit my office in Culver and man is it a nightmare during rush hour. Thanks for showcasing the problems in these videos while also showing the highlights. 🎉 Also your animating skills are gr8
Cities could be exciting like Disney Land. Last time I went, everything was surprisingly easy to get to on foot, and after one day I pretty much knew where every attraction was located. Think about it. We’re sacrificing a lot just so 40k people can lose their lives in motor accidents. Wth are we doing…
@@omegamale7880 depends on what you mean by “Disney-fied”. There are some good things the environment there provides, but there’s a resort aspect that hides a lot of the “sausage making” that will remain present in real cities.
5:02 your Trader Joe’s example really hits home for me because I shop at a Trader Joe’s which I swear must hold a record for the smallest parking lot ever. So why does the store seem to thrive just fine? Well loads of people live within walking and biking distance so the parking lot size doesn’t matter at all to us! Personally, the result is that I swing by the grocery store 4-5 times a week rather than the once a week I used to back when I lived a car drive away from it.
I love this channel so much! I live on the Northridge / Reseda line of the San Fernando Valley and have lived here most of my life and admittedly don’t know much about the west side, as that may as well be across the world to this valley girl, but i can relate a lot because LA is LA and we have the same issues in every neighborhood. The video of Trader Joe’s in Santa Charita reminded me of the sad state of our Chatsworth Trader Joe’s. The Encino one is like a death trap because of the parking lot. But you’re right - I miss working at Disney and going to much smaller and much friendlier neighborhood Toluca Lake one. But I am not in that area anymore or spontaneously. Because we don’t have walkable neighborhoods or cities, at least not in the San Fernando Valley, this type of exploration just isn’t possible. I appreciate the restaurant recommendations. If you’re ever in my neck of the woods, Awesome Thai in Reseda has the best yellow curry around. And Garden Wok in Tarzana on Reseda Blvd is the best vegan Chinese food in the world. I’m disabled too and can’t drive and really appreciate the portion of the video on how us disabled folks struggle to get around. Very relatable and can’t wait to check out those other disabled creators and get some tips on stuff i struggle with. Thank you! Especially excited to see a disabled female creator on your list - we don’t have a lot of traction sometimes in the media and our voices are so important. Men don’t realize that getting around for women who are disabled is even less safe than walking down a road at night alone as a woman.
@01:40 I really, really like your way of explaining harm reduction, I'm going to use it! @08:45 The shop diversity is staggering. I don't think I'd like to go to a restaurant sitting between two car shops either. @12:49 I'd love to see Culver's face today after seeing how diverse it's become :D
I live on the east coast and have never been to California, let alone LA. However, I am a big time transit enthusiast, mostly due to Atlanta traffic sucking the life out of everyone around me. Your passion for your city and way to improve it really shine through in this whole video. You really showcase your community in all its vibrancy! I hope that one day soon changes like that ones you discuss get implemented, it seems like it would be incredible! Wonderful video :)
Returning light rail to Culver Blvd. and Venice Blvd. would be amazing. A tram on Culver could probably be built by Culver City Transit. Since it is so short they could probably build it as a shuttle with only one track, or a loop coming back to CC on Washington. Also stations would be half as large, only one side. Very affordable.
You brought up a lot of concepts from diverse topics-from health to urban planning to business-that I hadn’t heard of before. And I sure didn’t realize they could be related in ways that affect where I live and work. I think this is what we need more of in our discourse.
Its funny how my recent demotion from housed individual to vehicle dweller is changing my perspective on this issue. Its damn hard to find places to simply exist. Parking is rarely free, often too busy, and malls chase people out.
what's cool is that after seeing all of these videos Nimesh, you actually have influenced me to go check out Culver City. Seeing the walkable downtown area and malls where I don't have to worry about cars constantly driving through is good. The downtown actually is made to just be; enjoyed. You don't see that much here in the US. San Francisco kinda has the Gharedelli Square and that area over there that has shops and walkability but it doesn't really come close to this. Huntington Beach has a similar style, but it's still open for cars. No downtown does it as good as Culver and it makes me want to actually buy property there as it seems they are moving in the right direction
Excellent video! At 76 I continue to cycle. I was hit by a car trying to access Venice Blvd. in 1957. I was a paperboy; folded my newspapers in the center of Venice Blvd. Now I travel to Europe for really safe cycling. Cycling can be great in Culver City, it is mostly flat and easy riding, close to the beach and Venice. Good luck!
I love riding in Paris and anywhere in the Netherlands. Even those tank-like Paris city bikes (Vélib') are fun to ride because it's safe to ride there. I have to be very very careful here in LA.
In my city (Fort Wayne, Indiana), we have an outdoor mall (lifestyle center?) called Jefferson Pointe that after a decade of existence got its pedestrian-only center replaced with two-way streets and parking.
Thanks for this deep dive. I really enjoy your videos. Can you do one on Streetcar Neighborhoods of Los Angeles - I know you touched on this with the transit mall in this video. The most sought after neighborhoods in LA were once Streetcar neighborhoods. We got it right before, we can get it right again.
As a Santa Clarita resident who shops at that Trader Joe's, it's always SO packed during the afternoon. Wheeling my cart around and trying not to bump into other customers between the aisles is almost just as stressful as driving in this godforsaken city.
0:26 some actual shopping malls do (or did) have congested main roads going through them. In downtown Phoenix, the CityScape mall had Central Avenue going through the middle of it, and I bet it got decently congested during rush hour. Nowadays, that one block of Central is pedestrianized as a result of the still under construction South Central light rail extension (the station pair that’s becoming the downtown hub, which is Washington/Central Ave and Jefferson/1st Ave, got a significant rework to accommodate 2 perpendicular lines going through it). The CityScape complex has a mall on the first few floors, while the rest are apartments.
The fact that The Grove feels like a simulated urban space, complete with shops, dining, and even it's own mini rail line, is kind of a sad reflection on how people view public spaces here. We'll drive out of our way to store a private vehicle in a huge parking lot, just to walk around a pleasant place made for people, but we won't consider bringing those types of public spaces to where we live.
That's a complete exaggeration. In fact, more malls have closed in SoCal in the last decade than ever. During this same time there has been more development combining retail with housing throughout tge LA region.
@@mrxman581 I think it's more that the best car-free spaces for people to walk are all privately owned destinations. Think The Grove, Westfield Century City, the Culver Steps, Downtown Disney; and contrast that with our most popular public spaces like Larchmont Village, Santa Monica Blvd, Sunset Junction, Abbot Kinney, and Hollywood Blvd. Places for people vs. places for people and vehicle traffic.
Street parking should be illegal and any street that ONCE had a railway on it should have it again... I'd love to see battery electric trams like many cities now have relink neighbourhoods that have been severed by freeways and auto-sprawl. Even Detroit has the Battery-electric hybrid Q Line which should serve as a model for other cities on how you turn an 8-lane mega boulevard into a somewhat balanced street again...
I'd love a future video on a before/after of LA where streetcars/trams ONCE ran and what replaced them. You briefly touched on that local version of that in this video but maybe an expanded one would be good too! Just a thought! Love your channel! New subscriber from Edmonton whose own downtown just went through a similar argument when they FINALLY opened the Valley Line tramway that runs from Downtown to the southeast planned city within a city, Mill Woods which was designed as being a 1970's railroad suburb that NEVER got its train connection until literally November 4, 2023... Very much like London's Thamesmead.. Another city within a city planned around a train line that was never built... But I digress!
Love your ideas---exxtend those lines to the beach. I'm in Venice. Would love to see Abbott Kinney & Main Street (the one that is parallel to the beach) closed to motor vehicles. With the Olympics coming in 4 years and the example of Paris---let's hope there's more carless options in our future in So. CA.
Really amazing well produced video advocating for making LA better. Do you wonder if the best solution is just to move to a place with an urban fabric? To be able to live that lifestyle. Because the rate of change in LA is going to be so slow. I wonder that myself alot as I also live somewhere with a poor urban fabric.
Thanks! I think there are a lot of factors that go into where you live - job, family, social network, etc. Moving to a place just for it's urban design may not ultimately be the best decision. That said, it's easier to move to a place where you feel you fit in than to change your current place to fit to you.
What are you talking about? LA has gone through a huge building boom resulting in many more mixed use developments that combine retail and housing. It's been happening in DTLA, Century City, South LA, Hollywood, etc.
I know there are wealthy neighborhoods in LA with seriously juiced NIMBY power, but I feel like Los Angeles would be extremely easy to make very pleasant for transit…just by dedicated bus lanes alone. Add transit priority signaling into the mix and I think the buses would be what’s congested instead of the roads. LA just has great bones for transit. Get more people out on foot and zipping around on monthly transit passes, and you’d have neighborhoods getting a whole lot more walkable in a hurry because there would be obvious opportunities in the real estate market to sell to the locals on foot in the neighborhood.
Something I think you only brushed up against when discussing the market area is that most cities have mixed used commercial/residentail properties and that all those restaurants in downtown culver would normally have apartments on top of them. The result of those more condensed apartments would mean the market area wouldn't need to be as big.
Thanks for the video Nimesh. Since moving here for grad school, I found it so hard to believe there’s no train line to UCLA. The traffic is down so much during the summer so clearly theres a heavy load from students. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I love all your suggestions and I have thought up the exact same thing in some cases. See you around!
11:35 - I've lived in LA for 40+ years. The disaster that is the Beverly Center used to be painted brown. We called it the Brown Turd. 13:01 - Every time I see a pre-1950 map of Los Angeles transit my heart breaks. Right here, I can see the line that runs just a half-block from where I live now. Every time I cross that street walking to the grocery store, I sense the tracks that are still buried underneath and imagine what it would be like to just hop on and go to the beach. Or to the mountains. They were all accessible from a just a half-block away. Sigh. 17:53 - That looks heavenly.
Regarding pre 1950s transit, I think you might be interested in looking up the realities of the "street car" system and whether or not you actually would have used it. The implementation was quite bad, and they died out because they had an unsustainable business model, and because busses were much better. LA's streetcars were basically just worse busses with more infrastructure.
Thank you for the section about wheelchair users. Though some of that stock footage was kinda painful… I’m SO jealous of that motorised ramp in Wheels2Walking’s clip… the buses in the UK have manual ramps which don’t even fill the whole width, and half the drivers (ime) literally refuse to even get out to pull out the ramp. If it was a button they pressed just like the doors, I could travel with some damn dignity. Also, while I definitely agree most pedestrianisation schemes generally improve wheelchair accessibility, it’s not guaranteed. I’ve seen some amazingly poorly thought-out layouts where too much space is taken up by outdoor dining and signage and my chair can’t fit past. Even when people help move chairs out of the way, it’s humiliating. Also sometimes the disability parking is placed in the worst part of the street for wheelchairs, though I do support getting rid of other parking besides disabled parking. So I personally like to specify Universal Design principles, rather than just assuming pedestrianisation will always be done right. Loving these videos, and your perspective as a doctor!
amazing and fun video as always. I show your videos to all my non-urbanist friends Nimesh, you really help me relate to those who I might have started out disagreeing witb
I've seem some people who want to drive but can't handle driving at reasonable street speeds, they need to drive at a fast highway speed or at maximized speeds. There is no patience for it otherwise. Sometimes some people just can't handle being impeded, or the perception of it. They get angry and road rage just seeing another car in front of them and have to rush to be first at the next red light. I've always questioned why my neighborhood speed limit is 35 and 45 mph just to reach the end of a gated road or to the elementary school at the corner they could have walked to. I would say some people are car addicted and I've personally known some people who get very angry and frustrated driving just to get somewhere 10 minutes away. Some are even terrified and need a big vehicle to feel safe and comfortable. It seems very mentally harmful.
Good post. As an angeleno and a transit enthusiast it's nice to see someone talk about transit in LA and how it can be better with a positive attitude and a love for what genuinely makes the city great.
I love your channel and am always excited when I see you've posted a new video, and this latest one doesn't disappoint. I moved to LA from London last year and find myself agreeing so strongly with all the comparisons you make. It baffles and infuriates me that this city places such a low priority on foot traffic and discovery (or 'unplanned visits' as you phrase it). It leaves no room for spontaneity at all as every visit to one of the handful of high-density, walkable, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods has to be planned out. And these walkable neighbourhoods (off the top of my head: Larchmont Village, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Highland Park, Beverly Grove, West Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard, Santa Monica, Culver City, Atwater Village) are all so small - often it's just tiny islands of a few nice blocks of cute stores with pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, before you then find yourself back in the great 8-lane ocean of nothingness. One quirk of LA which contributes to this which I don't believe you addressed is how decentralized this city is. There is no agreed-upon 'city centre' and that means that you have really bizarre combinations of businesses all right next to each other that make no sense. In my hometown of London you simply wouldn't put a fireplace store or a giant pet supply store or an auto collision centre right in the middle of Soho, Carnaby, or Bank (three London neighbourhoods you featured in this video) because those are high-density, city-centre areas designated for walking and optimised for unplanned visits and that magic of urban discovery. Those types of shops exist in London of course but that's what the suburbs / more industrial & residential areas are for! In LA however, even the most 'walkable' neighbourhoods have this incongruous and confusing jumble of premises that have no business being right next to each other.
8:54 take a drive down Rosecrans and you’ll see it all thru El Segundo and Manhattan Beach. They have a bunch on shopping malls right next to each other w the exact same restaurants in them tht you have to drive to bc their streets are too big to walk around. Even in Redondo Beach and Torrance
I live in WeHo and it would be AMAZING if there were direct transit service down Robertson to Downtown Culver. Now there's only the 617 bus, which only runs once an hour from Culver only as far as the Beverly Center, so the only viable option is the 105 down La Cienega, which still only runs every 15-20 minutes and requires a transfer to the E line for one stop to get to Downtown Culver City
This was a really great video! I didn't stop to double check if it was covered with your vid/maps but I was a science monitor on the metro line running just to the east down Crenshaw and the goal with that project was to be a funnel to LAX but mostly from the DTLA area. You're absolutely right that Culver City/Venice/WeHo, and UCLA areas all need a better transit route/dedicated transit routes to LAX that help reduce car traffic. Also absolutely loved your use of interactive GIS maps 🧡😅 im working through a GIS cert rn and you did such a good job!
Wow! a bunch of my favorite disabled youtubers here! If you ever get the chance, and want to expand beyond Culver, Please consider DTLA (I *love* historic downtown)!
I LOVE how you take all the excuses and turn them around! And the detailed analysis of DTCC! And pointing out that the city was actually designed for streetcars, and not cars! BY FAR Los Angeles would benefit more than any other city in the country from just _slight_ improvements to public transportation…like dedicated bus lanes, transit priority signaling, and increased bus frequency-which you’d get automatically if you did the first two-because the buses would no longer get stuck in traffic. LA could overnight become less congested with just a little paint and a few thoughtfully placed bollards. We’re only talking millions here, not billions…and overnight…those buses would be FULL.
Downtown Ventura closed Main Street to cars in 2020. In my opinion the best thing they ever did for downtown. But there seems to be a constant battle with drivers that want it opened again
Thanks for this. LA in general feels like a case study in how a once-great city that was ruined by cars could be switched back with only a minimal amount of political effort.
Every time I go to a mall I think about how it could be redeveloped into a new downtown, essentially in suburbs that don't have a downtown (like Cerritos and Lakewood). But a lot of malls were built "conveniently" by freeways so it wouldn't work anyway, if people even wanted to live there considering the pollution and sound. I'd love for the LA area to be developed into a bunch of smaller "village" cities with downtown cores connected by regional rail but I doubt it would ever happen sadly.
I LOVED KURRYPINCH!! What happened to it??? They opened that huge new location and then it seemingly closed immediately. I went to the soft opening. But I must admit-the new location wasn’t very convenient.
living in Toronto I`m sick of the fact that we don`t fully ban cars on king street. It`s just a wimpy local traffic only system there is no filtered permeability. give up the addiction already! Thanks for including it in the video btw.
My Suburb hellscape was mentioned! as much as i hate santa clarita we do have a new transit orianted development being built around the antelope valley line which I think is a great project, look up Vista Canyon village if your interested. But going through santa clarita and seing how large our streets are makes me physically ill. but there is a future for this town and I hope we start to build more up rather than out
5:58 Downtown Culver, where you could get Speculoos Cookie Butter and the Hailey Bieber shake within walking distance Also, 8:02 I’m definitely feeling those meatballs and pizza. I want to try them next time I’m in LA
I'm all for public trans, but in general most people in LA choose not to use it due to safety reasons. This literally just happened on a metro bus to a Disneyland employee: th-cam.com/video/6e1r4TuBvFM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=6eaIT7bCCjXsCXJ9 Note, my edit was to add the video and this.
These are all great ideas, but they'll never happen. I wouldn't be surprised if Culver City actually reduced the size of the sidewalks to add an additional lane for traffic, or bought-out and razed entire neighborhoods to add more traffic lanes and car parking, or even constructed a second, elevated street system above the existing one. Funny how there's never money for mass transit but there's always money for expanding stroads.
12:00 Another factor for mom-and-pops is if they can afford the rent they'll often prefer to be in a strip mall than a mall with a faux city-center-like concourse since even car-oriented facing-the-parking-lot access is still direct access, better than customers having to walk hundreds of feet down a dark liminal concourse of a near-dead mall.
While I hope Metro gets its act together, the only viable line Culver could do on its own is the Culver line. Once you cross city boundaries, things get messy.
Eruopean: Laughing out loud at "A city center that's like a mall." - We call this simply "a city center" - This is the way it should be. And we turn them into pedestrian areas as a matter of principle.
I laughed when you put, "Even England has its issues". You give England a lot of credit. I live in London and it's nice but not all of England is central London by any means. We also have a super right wing government and the transportation department, just recently got outed for believing q-anon conspiracies about 15 minute cities and rolling back "active transport" such as walking or biking prioritisation in policy. Here everything is culture war, and the driver lobby in London has a lot of sway.
Correction: Busses come every 6-8 minutes in Chicago's DOWNTOWN. In the outlying sections of the city, southside especially, busses come every 10-12 minutes during the day, then every 30 minutes at night, if at all.
It's not that they resemble a mall, it's that many malls in the US are made to resemble actual city centers.
Bingo
@@nimeshinlosangeles i cannot drive, so living in Houston kind of sucks.
@@nimeshinlosangeles also you need more trees, it would take care of carbon emissions however i do know there an issue with water usage too.
Thank Rick Caruso for that.
as an LA native who's yet to own a car (resisting as much as possible), thank you for raising awareness and educating folks on how we can make LA a more walkable/public-transit oriented city! you just gained a subscriber
As an incoming LA transplant that doesn't want a car, I'm happy to hear that you've been able to make it work
currently living in LA for college, trying my hardest to avoid getting a car
I thought I was insane living in San Diego suburbs without a car. Props to you! I hope you live close to a rapid transit line
I don't have a car or even a license and live in LA county. Commuting via bus sucks when it only runs every 20 or 30 minutes. It is very difficult and EXTREMELY time consuming to try and get anywhere
It’s the constant tyre/car noise in the background that kills me. We have become so numb to that noise.
My wife and I went to a park in Anaheim a few weeks ago just to hang out for a while, and you could hear the 91 traffic noise literally a mile away. Just tires on pavement.
What's always been interesting to me is how the white noise of, say, a water feature can be so relaxing and calming, but the white noise of traffic is stressful and anxiety-inducing.
I occasionally visit my office in Culver and man is it a nightmare during rush hour. Thanks for showcasing the problems in these videos while also showing the highlights. 🎉
Also your animating skills are gr8
Cities could be exciting like Disney Land. Last time I went, everything was surprisingly easy to get to on foot, and after one day I pretty much knew where every attraction was located. Think about it. We’re sacrificing a lot just so 40k people can lose their lives in motor accidents. Wth are we doing…
How’d you GET TO Disneyland? That’s as much of an issue as how you got around once you were there
Well, we wouldn't want the cities to be Disneyfied, would we?
@@ttopero How we got around was walking and tram. Yeah sure getting there was an issue for sure.
@@omegamale7880 depends on what you mean by “Disney-fied”. There are some good things the environment there provides, but there’s a resort aspect that hides a lot of the “sausage making” that will remain present in real cities.
@@ttoperoyou can take a bus. Just saying it does not have to be car centric
5:02 your Trader Joe’s example really hits home for me because I shop at a Trader Joe’s which I swear must hold a record for the smallest parking lot ever.
So why does the store seem to thrive just fine? Well loads of people live within walking and biking distance so the parking lot size doesn’t matter at all to us!
Personally, the result is that I swing by the grocery store 4-5 times a week rather than the once a week I used to back when I lived a car drive away from it.
Is it the one in Toluca Lake?
I love this channel so much! I live on the Northridge / Reseda line of the San Fernando Valley and have lived here most of my life and admittedly don’t know much about the west side, as that may as well be across the world to this valley girl, but i can relate a lot because LA is LA and we have the same issues in every neighborhood.
The video of Trader Joe’s in Santa Charita reminded me of the sad state of our Chatsworth Trader Joe’s. The Encino one is like a death trap because of the parking lot. But you’re right - I miss working at Disney and going to much smaller and much friendlier neighborhood Toluca Lake one. But I am not in that area anymore or spontaneously. Because we don’t have walkable neighborhoods or cities, at least not in the San Fernando Valley, this type of exploration just isn’t possible.
I appreciate the restaurant recommendations. If you’re ever in my neck of the woods, Awesome Thai in Reseda has the best yellow curry around. And Garden Wok in Tarzana on Reseda Blvd is the best vegan Chinese food in the world.
I’m disabled too and can’t drive and really appreciate the portion of the video on how us disabled folks struggle to get around. Very relatable and can’t wait to check out those other disabled creators and get some tips on stuff i struggle with. Thank you! Especially excited to see a disabled female creator on your list - we don’t have a lot of traction sometimes in the media and our voices are so important. Men don’t realize that getting around for women who are disabled is even less safe than walking down a road at night alone as a woman.
@01:40 I really, really like your way of explaining harm reduction, I'm going to use it!
@08:45 The shop diversity is staggering. I don't think I'd like to go to a restaurant sitting between two car shops either.
@12:49 I'd love to see Culver's face today after seeing how diverse it's become :D
I live on the east coast and have never been to California, let alone LA. However, I am a big time transit enthusiast, mostly due to Atlanta traffic sucking the life out of everyone around me. Your passion for your city and way to improve it really shine through in this whole video. You really showcase your community in all its vibrancy! I hope that one day soon changes like that ones you discuss get implemented, it seems like it would be incredible! Wonderful video :)
Returning light rail to Culver Blvd. and Venice Blvd. would be amazing. A tram on Culver could probably be built by Culver City Transit. Since it is so short they could probably build it as a shuttle with only one track, or a loop coming back to CC on Washington. Also stations would be half as large, only one side. Very affordable.
09:34 Love the "public feedback" segment. That would make a great short; really drives the point home.
This is one of the most well thought out urban planning/transit videos I’ve seen
The Ripped Bodice is a great store. Loved this video.
You hit the nail on the head. Cars and NIMBYs stay out of city planning. Thanks for the great essay on urban improvements.
The end is awesome! The metro planning to connect ucla weho and playa to culver city is so smart! Loved the video
You brought up a lot of concepts from diverse topics-from health to urban planning to business-that I hadn’t heard of before. And I sure didn’t realize they could be related in ways that affect where I live and work. I think this is what we need more of in our discourse.
Its funny how my recent demotion from housed individual to vehicle dweller is changing my perspective on this issue. Its damn hard to find places to simply exist. Parking is rarely free, often too busy, and malls chase people out.
Always appreciate your videos and ideas about improving LA transit, Nimesh!
Love the human comparison here and address stepped change as harm reduction!! Keep it up Nimesh, looking forward to what you make next
what's cool is that after seeing all of these videos Nimesh, you actually have influenced me to go check out Culver City. Seeing the walkable downtown area and malls where I don't have to worry about cars constantly driving through is good. The downtown actually is made to just be; enjoyed. You don't see that much here in the US. San Francisco kinda has the Gharedelli Square and that area over there that has shops and walkability but it doesn't really come close to this. Huntington Beach has a similar style, but it's still open for cars. No downtown does it as good as Culver and it makes me want to actually buy property there as it seems they are moving in the right direction
Excellent video! At 76 I continue to cycle. I was hit by a car trying to access Venice Blvd. in 1957. I was a paperboy; folded my newspapers in the center of Venice Blvd. Now I travel to Europe for really safe cycling. Cycling can be great in Culver City, it is mostly flat and easy riding, close to the beach and Venice. Good luck!
I love riding in Paris and anywhere in the Netherlands. Even those tank-like Paris city bikes (Vélib') are fun to ride because it's safe to ride there. I have to be very very careful here in LA.
In my city (Fort Wayne, Indiana), we have an outdoor mall (lifestyle center?) called Jefferson Pointe that after a decade of existence got its pedestrian-only center replaced with two-way streets and parking.
Love your videos man. Culver is on its way to being seriously improved from a car filled hellscape to an urbanist island nation
Thanks for this deep dive. I really enjoy your videos. Can you do one on Streetcar Neighborhoods of Los Angeles - I know you touched on this with the transit mall in this video. The most sought after neighborhoods in LA were once Streetcar neighborhoods. We got it right before, we can get it right again.
I live in one of them. I wish the streetcar were still here, but it's great. For LA.
As a Santa Clarita resident who shops at that Trader Joe's, it's always SO packed during the afternoon. Wheeling my cart around and trying not to bump into other customers between the aisles is almost just as stressful as driving in this godforsaken city.
I love seeing my home town in these videos. Great work! I hope to meet you at Cliffs of Id sometime.
Dang, Nimesh really do be in Los Angeles.
(Actually though, very glad there are cool people like you advocating to improve the place I live)
0:26 some actual shopping malls do (or did) have congested main roads going through them. In downtown Phoenix, the CityScape mall had Central Avenue going through the middle of it, and I bet it got decently congested during rush hour. Nowadays, that one block of Central is pedestrianized as a result of the still under construction South Central light rail extension (the station pair that’s becoming the downtown hub, which is Washington/Central Ave and Jefferson/1st Ave, got a significant rework to accommodate 2 perpendicular lines going through it). The CityScape complex has a mall on the first few floors, while the rest are apartments.
this guy for president 👍
The fact that The Grove feels like a simulated urban space, complete with shops, dining, and even it's own mini rail line, is kind of a sad reflection on how people view public spaces here. We'll drive out of our way to store a private vehicle in a huge parking lot, just to walk around a pleasant place made for people, but we won't consider bringing those types of public spaces to where we live.
That's a complete exaggeration. In fact, more malls have closed in SoCal in the last decade than ever.
During this same time there has been more development combining retail with housing throughout tge LA region.
@@mrxman581 I think it's more that the best car-free spaces for people to walk are all privately owned destinations. Think The Grove, Westfield Century City, the Culver Steps, Downtown Disney; and contrast that with our most popular public spaces like Larchmont Village, Santa Monica Blvd, Sunset Junction, Abbot Kinney, and Hollywood Blvd. Places for people vs. places for people and vehicle traffic.
bingo
Always appreciate your honest, kinda cornball presentation. Good nuanced discussion of the bizarre carbrained thinking we take for granted
Thanks for an excellent production: informative, well argued and clearly laid out.
Street parking should be illegal and any street that ONCE had a railway on it should have it again... I'd love to see battery electric trams like many cities now have relink neighbourhoods that have been severed by freeways and auto-sprawl. Even Detroit has the Battery-electric hybrid Q Line which should serve as a model for other cities on how you turn an 8-lane mega boulevard into a somewhat balanced street again...
I'd love a future video on a before/after of LA where streetcars/trams ONCE ran and what replaced them. You briefly touched on that local version of that in this video but maybe an expanded one would be good too! Just a thought! Love your channel!
New subscriber from Edmonton whose own downtown just went through a similar argument when they FINALLY opened the Valley Line tramway that runs from Downtown to the southeast planned city within a city, Mill Woods which was designed as being a 1970's railroad suburb that NEVER got its train connection until literally November 4, 2023... Very much like London's Thamesmead.. Another city within a city planned around a train line that was never built... But I digress!
Love your ideas---exxtend those lines to the beach. I'm in Venice. Would love to see Abbott Kinney & Main Street (the one that is parallel to the beach) closed to motor vehicles.
With the Olympics coming in 4 years and the example of Paris---let's hope there's more carless options in our future in So. CA.
Really amazing well produced video advocating for making LA better. Do you wonder if the best solution is just to move to a place with an urban fabric? To be able to live that lifestyle. Because the rate of change in LA is going to be so slow. I wonder that myself alot as I also live somewhere with a poor urban fabric.
Thanks! I think there are a lot of factors that go into where you live - job, family, social network, etc. Moving to a place just for it's urban design may not ultimately be the best decision.
That said, it's easier to move to a place where you feel you fit in than to change your current place to fit to you.
Aw it's difficult but sometimes the little changes can make a big difference
What are you talking about? LA has gone through a huge building boom resulting in many more mixed use developments that combine retail and housing. It's been happening in DTLA, Century City, South LA, Hollywood, etc.
fwiw la is building more trains than anywhere else in the country and it isn't close. walkability will follow
I know there are wealthy neighborhoods in LA with seriously juiced NIMBY power, but I feel like Los Angeles would be extremely easy to make very pleasant for transit…just by dedicated bus lanes alone. Add transit priority signaling into the mix and I think the buses would be what’s congested instead of the roads. LA just has great bones for transit. Get more people out on foot and zipping around on monthly transit passes, and you’d have neighborhoods getting a whole lot more walkable in a hurry because there would be obvious opportunities in the real estate market to sell to the locals on foot in the neighborhood.
it took me 11 whole minutes of wow this is similar to his other videos to realize this was a reupload
I felt it in the first few mins...
Your channel is underrated!
Something I think you only brushed up against when discussing the market area is that most cities have mixed used commercial/residentail properties and that all those restaurants in downtown culver would normally have apartments on top of them. The result of those more condensed apartments would mean the market area wouldn't need to be as big.
Great video, love your storytelling style!
Thanks for the video Nimesh. Since moving here for grad school, I found it so hard to believe there’s no train line to UCLA. The traffic is down so much during the summer so clearly theres a heavy load from students. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I love all your suggestions and I have thought up the exact same thing in some cases. See you around!
11:35 - I've lived in LA for 40+ years. The disaster that is the Beverly Center used to be painted brown. We called it the Brown Turd.
13:01 - Every time I see a pre-1950 map of Los Angeles transit my heart breaks. Right here, I can see the line that runs just a half-block from where I live now. Every time I cross that street walking to the grocery store, I sense the tracks that are still buried underneath and imagine what it would be like to just hop on and go to the beach. Or to the mountains. They were all accessible from a just a half-block away. Sigh.
17:53 - That looks heavenly.
Regarding pre 1950s transit, I think you might be interested in looking up the realities of the "street car" system and whether or not you actually would have used it. The implementation was quite bad, and they died out because they had an unsustainable business model, and because busses were much better.
LA's streetcars were basically just worse busses with more infrastructure.
Thank you for the section about wheelchair users. Though some of that stock footage was kinda painful…
I’m SO jealous of that motorised ramp in Wheels2Walking’s clip… the buses in the UK have manual ramps which don’t even fill the whole width, and half the drivers (ime) literally refuse to even get out to pull out the ramp. If it was a button they pressed just like the doors, I could travel with some damn dignity.
Also, while I definitely agree most pedestrianisation schemes generally improve wheelchair accessibility, it’s not guaranteed. I’ve seen some amazingly poorly thought-out layouts where too much space is taken up by outdoor dining and signage and my chair can’t fit past. Even when people help move chairs out of the way, it’s humiliating. Also sometimes the disability parking is placed in the worst part of the street for wheelchairs, though I do support getting rid of other parking besides disabled parking. So I personally like to specify Universal Design principles, rather than just assuming pedestrianisation will always be done right.
Loving these videos, and your perspective as a doctor!
amazing and fun video as always. I show your videos to all my non-urbanist friends Nimesh, you really help me relate to those who I might have started out disagreeing witb
Can’t wait to see more carbrains in the comments as your channel grows lol
This is one of the best urban planning/transit/walkability videos that I’ve ever seen. Great job!
I've seem some people who want to drive but can't handle driving at reasonable street speeds, they need to drive at a fast highway speed or at maximized speeds. There is no patience for it otherwise. Sometimes some people just can't handle being impeded, or the perception of it. They get angry and road rage just seeing another car in front of them and have to rush to be first at the next red light. I've always questioned why my neighborhood speed limit is 35 and 45 mph just to reach the end of a gated road or to the elementary school at the corner they could have walked to. I would say some people are car addicted and I've personally known some people who get very angry and frustrated driving just to get somewhere 10 minutes away. Some are even terrified and need a big vehicle to feel safe and comfortable. It seems very mentally harmful.
Good post. As an angeleno and a transit enthusiast it's nice to see someone talk about transit in LA and how it can be better with a positive attitude and a love for what genuinely makes the city great.
I love your channel and am always excited when I see you've posted a new video, and this latest one doesn't disappoint. I moved to LA from London last year and find myself agreeing so strongly with all the comparisons you make. It baffles and infuriates me that this city places such a low priority on foot traffic and discovery (or 'unplanned visits' as you phrase it). It leaves no room for spontaneity at all as every visit to one of the handful of high-density, walkable, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods has to be planned out. And these walkable neighbourhoods (off the top of my head: Larchmont Village, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Highland Park, Beverly Grove, West Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard, Santa Monica, Culver City, Atwater Village) are all so small - often it's just tiny islands of a few nice blocks of cute stores with pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, before you then find yourself back in the great 8-lane ocean of nothingness.
One quirk of LA which contributes to this which I don't believe you addressed is how decentralized this city is. There is no agreed-upon 'city centre' and that means that you have really bizarre combinations of businesses all right next to each other that make no sense. In my hometown of London you simply wouldn't put a fireplace store or a giant pet supply store or an auto collision centre right in the middle of Soho, Carnaby, or Bank (three London neighbourhoods you featured in this video) because those are high-density, city-centre areas designated for walking and optimised for unplanned visits and that magic of urban discovery. Those types of shops exist in London of course but that's what the suburbs / more industrial & residential areas are for! In LA however, even the most 'walkable' neighbourhoods have this incongruous and confusing jumble of premises that have no business being right next to each other.
8:54 take a drive down Rosecrans and you’ll see it all thru El Segundo and Manhattan Beach. They have a bunch on shopping malls right next to each other w the exact same restaurants in them tht you have to drive to bc their streets are too big to walk around. Even in Redondo Beach and Torrance
the legendary doctor-urbanist has returned 😂
9:32 CityNerd has entered the chat
Great video, keep the message in the forefront!
enhanced editing, loving the growth in your content
I live in WeHo and it would be AMAZING if there were direct transit service down Robertson to Downtown Culver. Now there's only the 617 bus, which only runs once an hour from Culver only as far as the Beverly Center, so the only viable option is the 105 down La Cienega, which still only runs every 15-20 minutes and requires a transfer to the E line for one stop to get to Downtown Culver City
Nice cameo by ice cream guy 😂
This was a really great video! I didn't stop to double check if it was covered with your vid/maps but I was a science monitor on the metro line running just to the east down Crenshaw and the goal with that project was to be a funnel to LAX but mostly from the DTLA area. You're absolutely right that Culver City/Venice/WeHo, and UCLA areas all need a better transit route/dedicated transit routes to LAX that help reduce car traffic.
Also absolutely loved your use of interactive GIS maps 🧡😅 im working through a GIS cert rn and you did such a good job!
Wow! a bunch of my favorite disabled youtubers here! If you ever get the chance, and want to expand beyond Culver, Please consider DTLA (I *love* historic downtown)!
This is quickly becoming my favorite urbanism channel
I LOVE how you take all the excuses and turn them around! And the detailed analysis of DTCC! And pointing out that the city was actually designed for streetcars, and not cars!
BY FAR Los Angeles would benefit more than any other city in the country from just _slight_ improvements to public transportation…like dedicated bus lanes, transit priority signaling, and increased bus frequency-which you’d get automatically if you did the first two-because the buses would no longer get stuck in traffic. LA could overnight become less congested with just a little paint and a few thoughtfully placed bollards. We’re only talking millions here, not billions…and overnight…those buses would be FULL.
I've been stuck at that intersection in santa clarita for like ten minutes! It is a pain. in. the. ass.
Downtown Ventura closed Main Street to cars in 2020.
In my opinion the best thing they ever did for downtown. But there seems to be a constant battle with drivers that want it opened again
Since nobody uses cable anymore, I have to get my discovery educational series from somewhere
Thanks for this. LA in general feels like a case study in how a once-great city that was ruined by cars could be switched back with only a minimal amount of political effort.
Do you have any idea how big LA is? Are you that unrealistic?
Honestly love this idea and your videos have you ever thought collaborating with nandert ? You have very similar approaches to transit
Every time I go to a mall I think about how it could be redeveloped into a new downtown, essentially in suburbs that don't have a downtown (like Cerritos and Lakewood). But a lot of malls were built "conveniently" by freeways so it wouldn't work anyway, if people even wanted to live there considering the pollution and sound. I'd love for the LA area to be developed into a bunch of smaller "village" cities with downtown cores connected by regional rail but I doubt it would ever happen sadly.
I know you’re a doctor and probably super busy but post more often!
Looks like you’ve gotten good at recycling content to suit other suggestions. Because you focus on one area, this seems like a good idea😉
I LOVED KURRYPINCH!! What happened to it??? They opened that huge new location and then it seemingly closed immediately. I went to the soft opening. But I must admit-the new location wasn’t very convenient.
Nimesh! I miss your videos. You and German in Venice are my two hyper local TH-camrs. We need you. Come back.
This is such an amazing video. I am so glad I stumbled upon it. Subscribed immediately!
another absolute banger! keep it up Nimesh
Lived in Culver pretty much all my life. I think your ideas are solid. Are you planning to take the next step and propose this to the city?
living in Toronto I`m sick of the fact that we don`t fully ban cars on king street. It`s just a wimpy local traffic only system there is no filtered permeability. give up the addiction already! Thanks for including it in the video btw.
am I going crazy or have I seen this video before
You need transit in your mall when you get so car centric that walking across the parking lot is infeasible and you need to take a train.
My Suburb hellscape was mentioned! as much as i hate santa clarita we do have a new transit orianted development being built around the antelope valley line which I think is a great project, look up Vista Canyon village if your interested. But going through santa clarita and seing how large our streets are makes me physically ill. but there is a future for this town and I hope we start to build more up rather than out
Go algorithm, go!
Man.... Wish you could do my city. Great video and analysis.
5:58 Downtown Culver, where you could get Speculoos Cookie Butter and the Hailey Bieber shake within walking distance
Also, 8:02 I’m definitely feeling those meatballs and pizza. I want to try them next time I’m in LA
I'm all for public trans, but in general most people in LA choose not to use it due to safety reasons.
This literally just happened on a metro bus to a Disneyland employee: th-cam.com/video/6e1r4TuBvFM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=6eaIT7bCCjXsCXJ9
Note, my edit was to add the video and this.
new video lets fucking go
We need to get you playing Cities Skylines.
The bootleg public transportation to and from LAX could be its own video, and it’s still one of the better parts of the network
I really hope this guy goes to his city council meetings.
These are all great ideas, but they'll never happen. I wouldn't be surprised if Culver City actually reduced the size of the sidewalks to add an additional lane for traffic, or bought-out and razed entire neighborhoods to add more traffic lanes and car parking, or even constructed a second, elevated street system above the existing one. Funny how there's never money for mass transit but there's always money for expanding stroads.
12:00 Another factor for mom-and-pops is if they can afford the rent they'll often prefer to be in a strip mall than a mall with a faux city-center-like concourse since even car-oriented facing-the-parking-lot access is still direct access, better than customers having to walk hundreds of feet down a dark liminal concourse of a near-dead mall.
7:50 LOL that american ´bread´ 😂
I have only visited the Ripped Bodice by train. I expect I will be spending less time and far less money in Culver City.
While I hope Metro gets its act together, the only viable line Culver could do on its own is the Culver line. Once you cross city boundaries, things get messy.
Eruopean: Laughing out loud at "A city center that's like a mall." - We call this simply "a city center" - This is the way it should be. And we turn them into pedestrian areas as a matter of principle.
Its like no where else in the world can people reach markets without a car.
Great video. But adding living accommodation (2 or 3 floors) above the businesses would also make sense. LA has a really low density.
I wish King St in Toronto had no cars at all. And maybe Yonge south of Bloor as well.
It’s possible we saw some of these segments already?
Awesome video!
I laughed when you put, "Even England has its issues". You give England a lot of credit. I live in London and it's nice but not all of England is central London by any means. We also have a super right wing government and the transportation department, just recently got outed for believing q-anon conspiracies about 15 minute cities and rolling back "active transport" such as walking or biking prioritisation in policy. Here everything is culture war, and the driver lobby in London has a lot of sway.
Keep fighting the good fight
We have to build more housing. We have to build more housing. We have to build more housing.
AFFORDABLE housing... Housing for the 99% not investors and the wealthy... They have enough to choose from...
@@stickynorth the more housing stock available the more affordable it will become. Reduce certain housing regulations and build.
Correction: Busses come every 6-8 minutes in Chicago's DOWNTOWN. In the outlying sections of the city, southside especially, busses come every 10-12 minutes during the day, then every 30 minutes at night, if at all.
A fellow city nerd fan I see
12:57 tell tht to the cops😭