It really says a lot about this country in the fact that there has to be bike advocates so that pedestrians and cyclists are prioritized more. The car industry has really made a mess of a country.
You're not alone in this, although the extent you've developed your highway networks to is on another level. Here in Poland 'cycling advocate' is seen as a demeaning title for many drivers, it can be used as an accusation in an Internet discussion. This can be most seen in the cities which grew too much and have inadequate public transportation.
While the situation is a lot more extreme in the USA, bike advocates are often also still necessary in countries with an actual cycling culture. There are solid frameworks for calculating car throughput, which are sometimes blindly applied without realising that these calculations do not consider all aspects of managing traffic in urban areas.
Yeah. The car industry forced people to buy cars. It had absolutely nothing to do with people who wanted to live outside the city, but work in them because of industrialization. Or the fact that cities, after the car became popular, decided to kick industries out the cities and into the fields. No. Of course not.
@@JamesDavis-mb1jw Part of it has been choice but a bigger reason for everywhere being built how it has been is government subsidies and regulation dictating that only car-centric infrastructure may be built and the underfunding of other modes of transportation, making people have no choice but to participate in car-centric suburbanization. Today there is a shortage of walkable areas because of regulations on development and that shortage can be seems in the exponentially growing cost to buy housing in areas that were built before the car took over and haven’t been bulldozed yet to accommodate the car.
@@jacobe4836 No. The bigger part is choice. The subsidies, if there were any, were meant to induce people to move to their city. Like how cities were competing for the new Amazon headquarters. You also can’t deny that industry was driven from the city for a variety of reasons. People just followed. To be closer to work and because the housing was cheaper and families wanted room to grow. Sacramento is booming in housing because SF residents want cheaper housing and are willing to drive 90 miles to get to work. They could ride Amtrak, a government subsidized business, but chose not to. LA is investing billions into public transit. Yet ridership numbers dwindle, not rise.
As someone who's going blind in the US I can safely say that if you don't have a car, you can't go anywhere. I'm going to have to move to a city with some sort of bike and walking infrastructure or I'm going to be stuck in my house for the rest of my life. I've legit considered moving to the UK just because I would be able to walk or scooter most places. Having better non-driving forms of transportation will literally improve my quality of life.
Been screaming this for years. My sister was hit when she 3. She was struck by a vehicle AGAIN, when she was 35-and it killed her. She was blamed. My 5ft 00in sister, was blamed. Cuz she was 8 inches from the curb. At least 3-8 people die here from being hit by cars. Low population, so that’s a lot. Anyway, been fighting since 2018, for human rights over cars.
Sad situation but the reality is both are at fault, the driver for not paying attention and your mother for not controlling her kids especially when traffic is around; then sounds like your mothers lack of teaching responsibility affected your sister reasoning thus possibly why she was hit again... roads are built for traffic thus it should be blatantly obvious that anyone near a road should take caution and not play around... Cars have blindspots and drivers have to focus on countless aspects of there surrounding, since ppl are not computers they can't be expected to notice every single aspect all the time... If so many ppl in your area are hit by cars then your community needs to step up it's basic education so ppl are more responsible... Blaming traffic for unresponsible pedestrians is not a logical solution
@@jaybelle1909 That's bullshit. Are you really implying that pedestrians should be always "take caution and not play around" considering things like drivers blind spots but drivers can't be expected to notice a human becasue they "can't be expected to notice every single aspect all the time?" . Stop blaming victims, the drivers are the ones responsible for not killing people. In civilized countries, when a neigboorhood gets many accidents, measures are being taken to change the design, reduce speed and protect pedestrians from cars. Also, blaming the mom? You're broken.
@@jaybelle1909 This comment must sound so rational to you.. I don't blame you though, it is hard to imagine how things can be different without knowing examples. There are many different countries that design their streets in such a way that the likelihood of collisions of any kind is reduced by about 400% compared to typical USA "car first" infrastructure planning (which is a lot!). Weirdly enough, getting into road accidents has much less to do with paying attention than just good road design. Think about lawnmowers for example, lawnmowers are always moving around the garden and have a cable connecting them to a source of electricity. This makes the risk of the lawnmower cutting the electrical cord a very obvious one. Lawnmower companies go to great lengths to reduce this risk and succeed in doing so through many different clever little tweaks. Design Really matters! Humans are fallable as can be, so it is the job of the designer to reduce the risks.
My city started doing this in during covid. From claiming lanes for usable public space and outdoor dining to completely closing of sections of streets. It is so refreshing and enjoyable to be in our mid town downtown area and use the space not just drive through it.
The sad thing is people think these human-centered city planning is new or on the forefront of ideas...it's not, we just forgot what things looked like before highways and cars took over
@@patrickfitzgerald2861 I've been to Amsterdam multiple times. It isn't that bad. Just like a street, you need to know where you're walking and what you're stepping into. But if you do get hit by a bike, you're far less likely to die from it than a car.
The distinction between "streets" and "roads" is key here. A street is a destination, where you go to be somewhere. A road is a way to get to somewhere else. When you try to mash them up by moving lots of cars through a space at high speeds while also having places along the roadside you end up with the worst of both, a stroad. Also, hi City Beautiful and Not Just Bikes folks!
The difference between street and road is street comes from Latin and road comes from Germanic. They otherwise mean the same things. There are real terms used for the distinction you are trying to make such as access road or a collector.
I don't see that difference. In my experience, "street" is usually only used for paved roads and paths in cities, towns or villages, while "road" is much more general and can describe any stretch of land that is regularly travelled.
Sounds like we need to demolish those stroad-side businesses and turn them into high-speed, limited-access roads into urban areas so that people can actually reach them. Eight lanes of shimmering Interstate 70 cement from Woodlawn to Baltimore! My God, it'll be beautiful.
It’s ridiculous to see how cars almost won’t fit in the lane that was narrowed at the end of the video. They are actually the size of a battleship. It’s really cool to look at and drive but damn, that should not be the norm for car size…
Thing is, the cars do fit. They just can't comfortably go 40 mph in a street that narrow- which is a good thing. Besides, with more pedestrian access, fewer people will drive cars through the area. Good for reducing smog, and good for preventing fatal accidents.
Exactly, US needs road expansion not contraction... it would be great to add extra walking and beautification area but you can't do so at the expense of traffic... Notice in the video the lady with a bike changed the streets to give herself an enormous amount of space but greatly restricted road traffic which makes up for the Vast majority of transportation; it's almost like she's doing the exact thing she blames others for... My question is do Atlantian drivers still have to pay the extra taxes for roadways they can't use as it's being given to private businesses and bikes who don't pay road taxes?
@@jaybelle1909 Thats not how road taxes work. Car registration taxes go into the big pool of taxes, same as income tax etc. Military expenses, schools, road expenses etc are taken from that pool. Bike riders do pay for the roads. Also a lot of people who ride bicycles also pay car registration. Please look at some videos explaining 'induced demand'🙂
@@jaybelle1909 Cities are for human beings, not oversize gas-guzzling heaps of metal. The point of claiming back the streets from car traffic is to allow *more* options for people to move around, instead of designing infrastructure that leaves no other viable option but driving. It's about increasing choice and personal autonomy. As for taxes, look up how much of your tax money is wasted maintaining suburban infrastructures. That's where the real scandal is.
@@shatterquartz And yet without "oversize gas-guzzling heaps of metal," those lovely streetside restaurants and quirky shops don't have any supplies or inventory to sell. Those who insist on 19th-century transportation networks and expect 21st-century convenience are going to find themselves paying a premium price for the latter.
honestly i feel like this video was made for me. i click on the video without realizing the video was specifically on atlanta. Ive lived in the atlanta area my whole life and in the city proper for about 3 years. one complaint i always have about atlanta is how unwalkable and uninviting a lot of the city feels. very disconnected districts and lack luster public transport. I recently just changed my major to urban planning and i feel like this is a cool video for me to see. Thanks!
Video is disingenuous; US roadways need to expand not contract. Notice how basically the only bike rider in the city changed up the roads to give herself a large traffic free area where already stressed traffic is now even more stressed? Notice how she did so by stealing road taxes paid for by vehicle traffic who now have less road space, more backups, more stress, and delays in commerce while she herself doesn't contribute to the taxes? Cities are indeed outdated but need to expand not contract, extra area for pedestrians and beautification is needed but should never be done at the expense of causing more traffic issues... Problem is to properly expand and better build cities requires reconstruction of property; public, private, corporate, and would also entail resetting lower class homes but no one will touch this issue as ppl ignorantly equate class with race... Just look at the Atlanta highway as it was rationaly and strategically placed to separate classes while providing best logical location for structure but since many black ppl are in a lower class liberals ignorantly automatically equate class separation to racial discrimination which any rationaly minded person could tell the difference... For as long as liberals remain racist and ignorant no city will ever improve...
Buses, bikes, and walking need to be more convenient than driving otherwise people will keep driving everywhere. Buses need to have dedicated lanes and priority so they don’t get stuck in traffic. Do you really think the person texting on their phone in their car prefers driving or just that the alternatives are so bad they still drive? We need more mixed use zoning, better street design like the Netherlands, and an end to federal and state governments subsidizing the cost of low density suburbs that expect city levels of services. The suburbs in the US want to benefit from the entertainment and employers of the city, while imposing noise, dangerous traffic, and car centric design on city residents despite not paying taxes to the city. This must change.
If you enjoy this video, please look up 'not just bikes'. Incredible channel. Also watch the playlist from eco gecko about suburban sprawl. Thank you for taking these issues to a wider audience. Much appreciated :)
Your example street is the norm in the Netherlands and those are even safer an more beautiful. We mostly use bicycles for short distances (less then 8 miles), shopping etc. Or we just walk. We have an excellent public transport system for longer distances. We don’t really need a car for daily life.
As an american who’s been to your country, the road infrastructure is a shock at first but I slowly fell in love with it. The only time I’ve been able to bike through a city has been there. (Also the countryside is beautiful to bike through)
@@Tinil0 they have immobility scooters, three or four wheels, and they can ride on the sidewalk or bicycle path. For bigger distances, they use public transport with those scooters. If they can’t ride such a thing, there’s a special taxi scheme for them.
I live in a german city with lots of one way streets, few parking and many pedestrian lights. It’s not that good for cars. However there are broad sidewalks on all main streets and lots of bike lanes too. Sometimes separate traffic lights for bikes and bus lanes. The bus system is very good too and gets me almost everywhere in the city. Now my city is a middle size city, nothing like a big city as Atlanta BUT I don’t even think about it, I mostly walk or take the bike and bus even though I have a car. I use the car for distances over an hour.
And I thought streets in Russia were bad! At least we have sidewalks everywhere, they’re kind of obligatory. Although in many cities recently shops and malls make ‘pedestrian areas’ in parking lots, which is way worse than a real sidewalk
Yeah, those are the worst, here in Poland they're really thin and placed right next to the main car alley in the mall. It's no surprise that people can be seen walking all over the car park in diagonal lines.
I know it's amazing, the only lady in the city using a bike changed the roadways to give herself her own private traffic free lane while causing car traffic build up. Not to mention that she used road taxes taken from car owners to pay for her private lane which she doesn't pay taxes on..
Great video! I went to the APA conference in Atlanta back in 2014 and it was clear the car was king. I remember taking Marta up to the Dunwoody station and was greeted by a parking structure when I got off the train. Then at street level there were wide road crossings with free-flow right hand turns that are terrible to cross as a pedestrian. There was developing TOD nearby but if you work or live near that station, it is not easy or safe to access. There are some great efforts (also shown in this video) to make some improvements and I hope it continues street by street!
I ride my bicycle for about 9000 kilometres a year, including my daily commute. There's hardly a single day that I'm not endangered by cars ignoring my right of way, or overtaking at high speeds and little to no lateral distance. So yes, making roads safer for cyclists is a hugely important factor in getting more people to choose this environmentally sustainable and healthier mode of transportation.
The fact it's environmentally sustainable almost shouldn't be mentioned, people are so spiteful they'll take it that that's a burden they don't owe. But you could point out car dependency makes them anxious, fat, stressed and poor with no free time and they'll still reject any right for others to choose another way so how do you convince them for themselves
@@Freshbott2 You don't. Some people are resistant to persuasion or facts. But you change the road layout so it's harder for them to ruin everyone else's day.
Proper term would be theft as the non contributors took a lane from traffic who actually pays the taxes for the road and now has more traffic back up cause of it...
The forgettable street shown is still one of the better looking streets. Looks relatively dense and the buildings seem kinda historic. Honestly, Atlanta has trees and hills, while Florida is flat with super wide streets and constant strip malls.
Thank you fo doing a video about Atlanta and it’s changing road policies. Thank you for supporting the Atlanta film industry with a video made entirely of b-roll from Atlanta.
Like city planners and state "engineers" know anything about building functional roads. It's as if they have Star Trek transporters moving them everywhere they go. ('cause if they ever drove on the BS roads they designed, they'd want to kill themselves.) What they're doing to Peachtree, they might as well of just removed the road entirely. They're creating a massive traffic headache -- on top of what is already a daily headache. (the common "downtown" problem... cramped streets, heavy traffic, and f*** all for parking.)
@@LisaBeergutHolst That door swings both ways. I've seen more lanes just filled with more traffic [interstates], and more lanes totally eliminate congestion [city streets.] There are various reasons for both. (some more predictable than others.)
Great video. As a walker in ATL would love to see similar changes be made on Ponce and many other streets that despite being surrounded by stores & parks feel unwalkable.
Same here in Kazakhstan, danger streets everywhere, one difference our people not rich enough to have a car, all who want it. Cuz of that we almost dont have a highways in our cities
Without modifying any infrastructure, we can cut down of road deaths simply by changing the way we turn left. In the US, we turn left in front of an oncoming vehicle also turning left. The result is that the other vehicle obstructs your view of other oncoming traffic, setting you up for more likely collision. In Europe, you turn left behind an oncoming car also turning left: your view of oncoming traffic is not obstructed, and you are less likely to proceed with other vehicles hurtling toward you.
One of my biggest grievances with city/suburb streets is when residential roads don't have sidewalks. I live in a residential suburban area, with the only buildings anywhere remotely close to me that aren't houses being restaurants or schools. All of that requires sidewalks, but there are very few of them. There are even places with crosswalks and not sidewalks.
America has a very easy job. Europe has already done all the research and development. We simply need to adopt what they have done and see that we shouldn't make life revolve around cars. Not having a car in America is like not having legs in Europe.
Better yet end all zoning except for industrial zoning, the original purpose of zoning. The market will figure out everything else better, and give everyone the option to live their preferred lifestyle.
Revitalizing one street maybe big change but to be really useful and creat safe networks to walk and drive on you need to change more then just one street. People need to experience that they feel pleasent and one new street doesn't serve this goal enough.
This feels more like a social experiment aimed at local residents to get them exposed to a different format to road design and maybe to adopt this format as an effort worth putting city funds towards. But really, this video seems superficial in that it says some keywords and provides one possible solution to part of a problem. It doesn't show any examples where street restructuring has already occurred and succeeded or failed.
@@ShaudaySmith doing it for one street won't change anything. Indy did something similar with a street over a decade ago, and it is still the only street like that. They did a lot more than it looks like Atlanta is doing. The reason it doesn't work is because it isn't changing the root problem. The way streets are designed and built are a symptom of other regulations and demands. The root problem is density. For these kinds of streets to make sense the people who use them need to also live on them. In order to change how streets are designed, you first have to increase density in order to make a walking or biking lifestyle more reasonable. Having a walkable street is useless if everyone has to drive to it to use it.
So I am not a native of Atlanta but I HAVE been on that exact street a good bit, because that's the nexus of the chaos known as DragonCon! And all those changes are going to be on display to a WHOLE LOT of people, because of the big hotels right around it and so on. That means, far more than just locals will be able to see, experience, and ruminate on what's possible, what's better (or what's perhaps not better, since there WILL be plenty of folks protesting these changes). It will expand the discussion beyond the city limits of Atlanta. And I sure hope it inspires a lot of people, everywhere in the US, to make similar changes. Changing the attitude with which we view our roads is the biggest and most powerful thing we can do to make our cities safer for everybody, whether they are on foot, on a bike, on a bus, OR in a car. Speaking from my personal experiences at DragonCon - a time during which those streets are pretty darn choked with pedestrian traffic - all those changes shown here, seem WONDERFUL to me. It looks more spacious, it looks cooler (and lemme tell ya, Atlanta in August needs all the cooling off it can get), and it very much looks safer. To the one or two folks I noticed in the comments mentioning fumes and traffic noise as a detriment to sitting outside (eating or otherwise) - Gotta say, on THAT stretch of street, the local buskers were the music I heard. Granted it was a slightly unusual time! And, if we can finally break the addiction to petroleum fuels and go MOSTLY electric for city vehicles, there won't be any fumes to hassle with either. Another very good reason to push for that change, which has been so very difficult to sell people on. Plus, electric vehicles don't stress the speed aspect as much. And honestly...it would do the whole USA a world of good to slow the heck down, right?
They'd be better off just removing the street entirely. How did you get to DragonCon? Drive? Fly, then taxi or bus? I'd have to say you got there by way of roads. So streets have to be there, and they have to go where people need to be. And there has to be capacity ("lanes") to handle the volume of people. The problem we face today is rooted in decades old city planning; there's only so much space for people because we put buildings and roads everywhere. Without a change to those rules, any reclaimed street space will eventually become more building space.
@@jfbeam Demand for roads isn't fixed; it often follows "if you build it they will come". If you have a walkable neighborhood, people will do many trips on foot. If you've designed an unwalkable neighborhood, those trips usually move to cars. Cars are incredibly space-inefficient, so building more capacity can ironically actually increase congestion. Roads are necessary, but they really, really don't scale well.
Roads need to expand not contract; how are ppl not seeing the obvious? the practically only bike rider in the city took away a lane from vehicle traffic so she personally has a large traffic free space while vehicle traffic is slowed, backed up, delayed, and is unable to use the lane they paid. She stole road taxes she doesn't contribute to, for her personal use and so privately owned diners can also steal/take advantage of which they also don't contribute to... dinners picked high traffic areas for business opportunities now they want to decide and control the traffic rate and types of fuel they are powered by when the road and traffic was there first; what the f gives you the right to push expensive impractical modes of transports or fuel type restrictions when you're the ones evading traffic locations? The vast majority of ppl don't ride bikes, walk everywhere, or dine outside yet you expect they should not only flip the bill but change their car and lifestyle to fit your extremely niche population...
@@jfbeam the street was there first and paid from road taxes taken from vehicle owners... the convention center should relocate if there is an issue... if an Amish guy move in a city should the entire city now cater to his person desires?
Just changing one street isn't gone help enough. Depending on the number and kind of incidents before and after the redesign. Some people don't view as an improvement despite this good change that has been tested before. This is why i think multiple streetd has to be changed to really highlight her is change and to pay attention.
It's going to be interesting to see how all the outdoor dining spaces developed during covid will affect street design. I think pedestrians are going to be giving a lot more room as businesses and cities realize how popular those spaces are
The best solution is to not blame drivers/pedestrians, but to investigate the infrastructure itself. If one area is shown to be dangerous, it needs to be redesigned. That’s a very Dutch approach to street design.
@@eriklakeland3857 Honestly, this works best for everything, nuclear power, hospitals, aircraft and definitely streets. Don't blame people, work out how we got into this dangerous situation in the first place and fix that. Blaming people just assigns fault and improves nothing, examining the underlying system makes things safer and saves lives
@@drivers99 I saw many in Europe that were. They had cross walks in front of the roads leading into the round abouts. And for really bit round abouts they put in pedestrian bridges.
LOL Atlanta being the first city shown where I almost get ran over by a car everyday. Walking in Atl causes soooo much anxiety Ps. She a trooper cause I wouldn’t dare ride a bike in Atlanta
I love the fact the only bike rider in the city took over a car lane for her private use at the expense of traffic build ups and paid for it by stealing the taxes of vehicle owners who actually pay road taxes where she does not...
I spent my life, here in the US, hearing that this was a free country, only to find out that it isn't! Needless to say I am mad as hell at the way this country was built!
@@drivers99 perhaps he means that they make it politically difficult to use the corridors for public transit service in the future, cementing car ownership. My city has ripped up unused railways for trails which happened to be the best rights of way for transit, so instead we get slower, less direct, street-running bus rapid transit. The Dutch masters show us that you don’t need to sacrifice a railway to create awesome pedestrian space or a great trail. The cultural trail in downtown Indianapolis is a good American example of an alternative.
Atlanta is a city in a forest. It is on the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and has an elevation of 1,050 feet. The highest major city east of the Mississippi River.
Nah they are tons of "green" cities with concerted efforts to create green spaces, parks, and plant loads of trees. Gainesville Florida is a good example too.
Atlanta is actually worse than L.A. L.A. Is actually prettydense by sprawly city standarts, many cities have since surpassed it in terms of hostility towards pedestrians, like Las Vegas, Houston, Orlando etc.
In my town we got a huge grant to build sidewalks and mandated that new commercial construction needs to install them too. No one uses them though because we're in a desert. You can get a heat stroke within 15 minutes. This is the deciding factor for us to remain car-centric, which I don't see changing soon.
Are the houses a walkable distance from the shops? If your house is 3 miles from the closest shop you're not going to walk there even if they put sidewalks around the parking lots
@@whoeveriam0iam14222 It depends which neighborhood you live in. I have a grocery store within walking distance and I handle the heat well. Most of the time, things aren't a walkable or bikeable distance; even if they were, the extreme heat keeps people from doing that.
sidewalks, safety amenities, green spaces like parks and recreational centers, bike lanes, and easy access to banks and grocery stores tend to be privileges that only wealthy urban and suburban (and largely white) areas of cities consistently have access to. thanks, city beautiful & pbs for producing videos that can help us reimagine how cities can better serve everyone.
This is really the opposite from my experience, and what I suspect is reality in most places. The wealthy areas have fewer sidewalks and amenities within walking or biking distance.
The US is so behind. Legit look at any other developed country and there are years ahead. Total design is much more considered. They can use a roundabout.
I’ve seen roundabouts in cities in the US, it’s just not very common. I remember hearing someone say the reasoning is that Americans aren’t used to roundabouts, but seriously they would get used to it over time, similarly to how people have to get used to a new streetlight in an area that used to not have one.
It’s different in the US/Canada compared to other developed parts of the world like Europe. Walking and biking around in smaller countries makes a lot more sense because many people work in the city/town that they live in. Also, streets are smaller which makes it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to get around. In North America, most people work anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour and half away from where they live. Many Americans also like to travel from city to city and do different activities, see other people , etc. Roads in the US are designed to get millions of people from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, which means massive freeways and streets going straight through cities and areas of high population. I don’t think the U.S is behind, its just a different method of getting everyone to where they need to be.
They're rare in the US because they just don't work. The claim is they'll reduce intersection accidents and slow cars down. But the numbers (from the few I've looked at) at best are a wash. At best, they reduce excessive speeding. My favorite waste of tax money is this [ goo.gl/maps/hyBoCUBsUE1dvJBg7 ] Pull it up in G.Earth to see the evolution of that stupidity. It's all paved now because box trucks and semi's couldn't get around it. (that's over 50% of the traffic there.)
Remove all the streets downtown and tell me how much you love walking a mile to get to a car to get anywhere else. Or worse, ask all the people who work in all those glass towers how much they like paying to park in a similar concrete tower and walk to work -- in the rain, snow, 100F heat, etc. -- every day. (ok, snow and ice are rare, but cold, heat, and rain aren't.)
@@jfbeam I live blocks away from those “glass towers” and have to walk 4 blocks to my parking garage. It’s clear you don’t live or work in an urban setting because everyone knows it’s just something you have to put up with dense urban areas should be built with pedestrians as their main target and cars should be second.
@@mitchyrosa It's not "just something to put up with". It's greedy developers and failure of city planning. If there aren't laws (building codes) requiring some amount of parking per unit, developers will not "waste" valuable rentable space for parking. Around here (Raleigh, NC) there are parking requirements, and downtown living (and office) spaces have parking built into the site plans. (they're generally inadequate, but non-zero) Nobody wants to take their multi-million dollar per acre downtown land and put a parking deck on it. (it's a bad investment, which is why governments generally have to do it.) If the city has sufficient, affordable mass transit, a carless society is more acceptable. Sadly, there's basically only one city in the entire country where that's close to true (NYC). DC, SF, and Chicago _maybe,_ but it's still a pain to get around without your own car.
@@jfbeam we live here and we're just FINE with a walk AND most want more of it, not less. It's hard to grasp that idea, isn't it? That you're overwhelming insight into Atlanta from the burgeoning metropolis of Raleigh just isn't shared? We want better, here. Not wedded to that past you love so much. Don't worry, we got your kind here too. Most live in Buckhead or don't actually live in Atlanta, but pretend they do for clout. GTFO
Roadways where there first that's why all those places you like to visit set up there; how could you now say the roads need to go... vehicle traffic pays the taxes for the road yet you think ppl not contributing should now have a say to take the roads from them... notice how the basically only bike rider in the city took a lane for her personal traffic free use while the car drivers who paid for the road now have back ups, time delays, delays in commerce all so the thief is happy... citys need to expand not contract; reason they don't is because it involves relocating low class homes which no one will touch because ignorant liberals equal class with race when there is obviously no relation; just look at their remarks for the Atlanta highway it separated class while also being the best logical location but to ignorant minded ppl they falsely claimed it to be a race issue...
Making cities livable is not an issue that only impacts people of one race. It effects everyone. Stop being so ethnocentric, or you’re going to turn a lot of people off to an important topic because you’re associating it with your exclusion. Streets can be made beautiful and inclusive for everyone. And it deserves more attention. Also, I’d recommend painting the asphalt a different color so it more clearly identifies and makes it feel more like a people space, vs. car lane with a plant on it.
I am happy to see Sonia and Nedra advocating for more pedestrian-friendly communities and tackling the issue of relying a car. And it was great to have City Beautiful and Joe talk about this as well. It goes to show there are people who cares about making communities more livable
Thank you PBS for bringing forth this amazing story about citizens changing Atlanta's streets to make them pedestrian and cyclist friendly!! Atlanta is the perfect laboratory for this experiment, given that it feels like one giant speedway, and changing the feel of a place can change mindsets, helping to heal the planet and our country.🌞🌍🌏🌎 Peach street and beyond! 🍑
Cursing American Stroads without context is as bad as the idea of the Stroad itself. The reason they exist is due to the lack of good, usable public transport. They are essentially a "cheap" alternative to designing, building and maintaining a good public mass transit system. Without speaking of the root cause, simply advocating revamping of these city roads into so called public malls and plazas would just lead to more traffic jams and noise, not just in the streets, but across the entire neighborhood. Classic example: Santana Row in San Jose, CA. Once there is good public transportation available, dependency on cars would automatically reduce. Making the extra space on Stroads available for conversion into bike lanes and wider sidewalks. Advocacy and funding should therefore should be for Underground/Overground metro rail systems and Public bus systems across major metro areas. Not for stupid things like "electric" cars.
Passenger cars don't belong inside a city anyways, not anywhere in the world. The only cars that should be allowed are trash trucks & ambulances, delivery & moving vans with a special permit and maybe busses, with stress on maybe. For the rest, cars should be parked at a central place at the edge of the city. Inside the city people should travel by foot, bicycle, slow scooters (max 25km/h), subway (subway ftw!) and maybe by bus. Passenger cars should only be used for intercity travel, similarly to trains
@@jfbeam Allowing every dipshit to own their own car in the United States was one of the worst ideas in the history of bad ideas, and now we're pretty much stuck with mindless slaves to OPEC (in the hundreds of millions) spewing poison out of death machines. Poison goes in a car to make it run, poison comes out of it, what a fucked up world we have all inherited.
at least you're willing to allow people from outside the city to park their cars. but you need to keep in mind that American cities can be as big as 50 miles across.
"In the US, Black pedestrians are stuck by drivers at a rate 82% higher than White pedestrians. Living in poorer neighborhoods without sidewalks, bike lanes, and crosswalks increases your chances of getting hit." But don't richer/suburban neighborhoods lack those features as well? The real difference is just that being richer makes you less likely to _be_ a pedestrian in the first place, because you're driving or riding in a car. Though I thought denser urban environments without suburban stroads lined with strip malls, drive-throughs, and personal-injury-lawyer signs were safer. Maybe drivers these days are too incompetent and distracted, and we need self-driving vehicles with advanced Silicon Valley AI if we're going to save Black pedestrian lives. Oh wait...!
What would make Americans want to have safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists? Remove their subudy for paking and the 67% subsidy to gas, making it cost 3 times as much (aka, Europe gas prices) Suddenly, walking a mile to get somewhere doesn't sound so bad.
Interesting how the graph at 3:50 is labelled "The chance of being killed by a car" instead of "The risk". Objectively there's no difference, but the way it reads, well...
Shameless plug for the TH-cam channel Not Just Bikes. The channel covers how North American cities are overly car-centric and the host discusses how North America can learn from European city planning to make cities more at the human-scale. Europe isn't perfect, but on a spectrum of walkable/bikeable city designs, North American is literally on the opposite extreme end.
Awesome to see City Beautiful on PBS...fellow Norcal kid doing big things!! (We don't know each other or anything, but I thought a shout-out to a fellow Sacramento-an was appropes 👋)
I love the human centric element of European cities. And before you tell me because they were designed before the advent of the automobile, I should remind you new cities are being built in Europe too and none of them are car dictatorships like North American ones.
Force everyone to take transit or ride a bike. Remove travel lanes on all streets like they did on Peachtree St downtown. Just make driving as inconvenient as possible. We could bring back the horse and carriage and all the horse ship. Might not smell as bad as this BS.
Better weather, food isn't as good (but it's still great) traffic's worse, public transport is MUCH worse, more affordable (for now) and more welcoming.
These planters are cancer of european cities. Not only they need manual watering, they are also quite ugly. It shows a quick, cheap, ad-hoc solution. Move the curb and plant trees. Taking back your streets will not work this way. You need to replace the transport capacity cars provided up to now, or those restaurants starve. And that means big investition in public transport. And yes, public transport requires walkable neighbourhoods and certain level of safety. Trams are my reccomendation, they are much stronger than buses, and can be built on fast, separate reails outside of city center. Right now this project looks like a kindergarden´s "build a snowman" activity. Nice to look at but totaly meaningless, the main purpose is to entertain the participants.
![Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05]](/img/n.gif)
Thanks for having me on this great video! If we can fix Atlanta's streets, we can fix any street. :D
I'm also a subscriber, but on Nebula ;)
When will PBS join Nebula?
who ever did the voice over, let them know i like their voice, sounds so fun
GDOT won't allow police to enforce speeding on streets less then 35 MPH. That's why the minimum speed for most collector and arterial roads
Great job Dave!
@@offergrembek9594 Thanks Offer! Hope everyone at SafeTREC is doing well!
It really says a lot about this country in the fact that there has to be bike advocates so that pedestrians and cyclists are prioritized more. The car industry has really made a mess of a country.
You're not alone in this, although the extent you've developed your highway networks to is on another level.
Here in Poland 'cycling advocate' is seen as a demeaning title for many drivers, it can be used as an accusation in an Internet discussion. This can be most seen in the cities which grew too much and have inadequate public transportation.
While the situation is a lot more extreme in the USA, bike advocates are often also still necessary in countries with an actual cycling culture. There are solid frameworks for calculating car throughput, which are sometimes blindly applied without realising that these calculations do not consider all aspects of managing traffic in urban areas.
Yeah.
The car industry forced people to buy cars.
It had absolutely nothing to do with people who wanted to live outside the city, but work in them because of industrialization. Or the fact that cities, after the car became popular, decided to kick industries out the cities and into the fields.
No.
Of course not.
@@JamesDavis-mb1jw Part of it has been choice but a bigger reason for everywhere being built how it has been is government subsidies and regulation dictating that only car-centric infrastructure may be built and the underfunding of other modes of transportation, making people have no choice but to participate in car-centric suburbanization. Today there is a shortage of walkable areas because of regulations on development and that shortage can be seems in the exponentially growing cost to buy housing in areas that were built before the car took over and haven’t been bulldozed yet to accommodate the car.
@@jacobe4836
No.
The bigger part is choice. The subsidies, if there were any, were meant to induce people to move to their city. Like how cities were competing for the new Amazon headquarters.
You also can’t deny that industry was driven from the city for a variety of reasons. People just followed. To be closer to work and because the housing was cheaper and families wanted room to grow.
Sacramento is booming in housing because SF residents want cheaper housing and are willing to drive 90 miles to get to work. They could ride Amtrak, a government subsidized business, but chose not to.
LA is investing billions into public transit. Yet ridership numbers dwindle, not rise.
Why doesn't PBS or NPR have a whole series about City Planning? People would really enjoy more content like this!
Because that’s what the TH-cam channel” not just bikes “ is for😁❤️
@@dariann1661 and that's why I love that channel!
How about making planning departments work on housing accessibility? Even better!
As someone who's going blind in the US I can safely say that if you don't have a car, you can't go anywhere. I'm going to have to move to a city with some sort of bike and walking infrastructure or I'm going to be stuck in my house for the rest of my life. I've legit considered moving to the UK just because I would be able to walk or scooter most places. Having better non-driving forms of transportation will literally improve my quality of life.
Do it. I suggests moving to the Netherlands because this isn’t going to improve any time soon, LOL
Terra x City Beautiful collab was unexpected but so well deserved. Hoping to see more collabs w/ other niche TH-camrs in the future!
They should work with Not Just Bikes or Strong Towns
@@trent6319 Yes! NJB and Strong Towns, About Here (for some Canadian flair). RMTransit and Coasterfan are options should Amtrak cross their mind.
@@mattjasuncion about here is amazing i can't believe i hadn't found it yet
Been screaming this for years. My sister was hit when she 3. She was struck by a vehicle AGAIN, when she was 35-and it killed her. She was blamed. My 5ft 00in sister, was blamed. Cuz she was 8 inches from the curb. At least 3-8 people die here from being hit by cars. Low population, so that’s a lot. Anyway, been fighting since 2018, for human rights over cars.
I'm sorry to hear about what happend to both of your families, God bless.
Sad situation but the reality is both are at fault, the driver for not paying attention and your mother for not controlling her kids especially when traffic is around; then sounds like your mothers lack of teaching responsibility affected your sister reasoning thus possibly why she was hit again... roads are built for traffic thus it should be blatantly obvious that anyone near a road should take caution and not play around... Cars have blindspots and drivers have to focus on countless aspects of there surrounding, since ppl are not computers they can't be expected to notice every single aspect all the time... If so many ppl in your area are hit by cars then your community needs to step up it's basic education so ppl are more responsible... Blaming traffic for unresponsible pedestrians is not a logical solution
@@jaybelle1909 That's bullshit. Are you really implying that pedestrians should be always "take caution and not play around" considering things like drivers blind spots but drivers can't be expected to notice a human becasue they "can't be expected to notice every single aspect all the time?" . Stop blaming victims, the drivers are the ones responsible for not killing people. In civilized countries, when a neigboorhood gets many accidents, measures are being taken to change the design, reduce speed and protect pedestrians from cars. Also, blaming the mom? You're broken.
@@jaybelle1909 This comment must sound so rational to you.. I don't blame you though, it is hard to imagine how things can be different without knowing examples. There are many different countries that design their streets in such a way that the likelihood of collisions of any kind is reduced by about 400% compared to typical USA "car first" infrastructure planning (which is a lot!). Weirdly enough, getting into road accidents has much less to do with paying attention than just good road design. Think about lawnmowers for example, lawnmowers are always moving around the garden and have a cable connecting them to a source of electricity. This makes the risk of the lawnmower cutting the electrical cord a very obvious one. Lawnmower companies go to great lengths to reduce this risk and succeed in doing so through many different clever little tweaks. Design Really matters! Humans are fallable as can be, so it is the job of the designer to reduce the risks.
@@jaybelle1909 So, concluding: none of them were at fault. The quality of the road is easilly the biggest factor in road accidents.
My city started doing this in during covid. From claiming lanes for usable public space and outdoor dining to completely closing of sections of streets. It is so refreshing and enjoyable to be in our mid town downtown area and use the space not just drive through it.
Really?? What city do you live in? I’m looking for a place that’s at least slightly more livable than Orlando
The sad thing is people think these human-centered city planning is new or on the forefront of ideas...it's not, we just forgot what things looked like before highways and cars took over
Exactly dawg. Which is why I actually think it's a conservative issue
'Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality' by Melissa Bruntlett is a great book about this exact topic.
Building the anti-poor city, more like.
@@sootyjared4208 Yes because nothing hurts the poor more than the cheapest mode of transport, aside from walking, being encouraged.
@@sootyjared4208 didn’t read the book, but living in the Netherlands I know about the Dutch urban design. So I wonder why you call it anti-poor city?
Amsterdam is now a nightmare of crazed cyclists and scooter drivers, so just getting rid of cars is no magic bullet.
@@patrickfitzgerald2861 I've been to Amsterdam multiple times. It isn't that bad. Just like a street, you need to know where you're walking and what you're stepping into. But if you do get hit by a bike, you're far less likely to die from it than a car.
The distinction between "streets" and "roads" is key here. A street is a destination, where you go to be somewhere. A road is a way to get to somewhere else. When you try to mash them up by moving lots of cars through a space at high speeds while also having places along the roadside you end up with the worst of both, a stroad.
Also, hi City Beautiful and Not Just Bikes folks!
The difference between street and road is street comes from Latin and road comes from Germanic. They otherwise mean the same things. There are real terms used for the distinction you are trying to make such as access road or a collector.
I don't see that difference. In my experience, "street" is usually only used for paved roads and paths in cities, towns or villages, while "road" is much more general and can describe any stretch of land that is regularly travelled.
Sounds like we need to demolish those stroad-side businesses and turn them into high-speed, limited-access roads into urban areas so that people can actually reach them. Eight lanes of shimmering Interstate 70 cement from Woodlawn to Baltimore! My God, it'll be beautiful.
It’s ridiculous to see how cars almost won’t fit in the lane that was narrowed at the end of the video. They are actually the size of a battleship. It’s really cool to look at and drive but damn, that should not be the norm for car size…
Thing is, the cars do fit. They just can't comfortably go 40 mph in a street that narrow- which is a good thing. Besides, with more pedestrian access, fewer people will drive cars through the area. Good for reducing smog, and good for preventing fatal accidents.
Exactly, US needs road expansion not contraction... it would be great to add extra walking and beautification area but you can't do so at the expense of traffic... Notice in the video the lady with a bike changed the streets to give herself an enormous amount of space but greatly restricted road traffic which makes up for the Vast majority of transportation; it's almost like she's doing the exact thing she blames others for... My question is do Atlantian drivers still have to pay the extra taxes for roadways they can't use as it's being given to private businesses and bikes who don't pay road taxes?
@@jaybelle1909 Thats not how road taxes work. Car registration taxes go into the big pool of taxes, same as income tax etc. Military expenses, schools, road expenses etc are taken from that pool. Bike riders do pay for the roads. Also a lot of people who ride bicycles also pay car registration. Please look at some videos explaining 'induced demand'🙂
@@jaybelle1909 Cities are for human beings, not oversize gas-guzzling heaps of metal. The point of claiming back the streets from car traffic is to allow *more* options for people to move around, instead of designing infrastructure that leaves no other viable option but driving. It's about increasing choice and personal autonomy. As for taxes, look up how much of your tax money is wasted maintaining suburban infrastructures. That's where the real scandal is.
@@shatterquartz And yet without "oversize gas-guzzling heaps of metal," those lovely streetside restaurants and quirky shops don't have any supplies or inventory to sell. Those who insist on 19th-century transportation networks and expect 21st-century convenience are going to find themselves paying a premium price for the latter.
honestly i feel like this video was made for me. i click on the video without realizing the video was specifically on atlanta. Ive lived in the atlanta area my whole life and in the city proper for about 3 years. one complaint i always have about atlanta is how unwalkable and uninviting a lot of the city feels. very disconnected districts and lack luster public transport. I recently just changed my major to urban planning and i feel like this is a cool video for me to see. Thanks!
Video is disingenuous; US roadways need to expand not contract. Notice how basically the only bike rider in the city changed up the roads to give herself a large traffic free area where already stressed traffic is now even more stressed? Notice how she did so by stealing road taxes paid for by vehicle traffic who now have less road space, more backups, more stress, and delays in commerce while she herself doesn't contribute to the taxes? Cities are indeed outdated but need to expand not contract, extra area for pedestrians and beautification is needed but should never be done at the expense of causing more traffic issues... Problem is to properly expand and better build cities requires reconstruction of property; public, private, corporate, and would also entail resetting lower class homes but no one will touch this issue as ppl ignorantly equate class with race... Just look at the Atlanta highway as it was rationaly and strategically placed to separate classes while providing best logical location for structure but since many black ppl are in a lower class liberals ignorantly automatically equate class separation to racial discrimination which any rationaly minded person could tell the difference... For as long as liberals remain racist and ignorant no city will ever improve...
Buses, bikes, and walking need to be more convenient than driving otherwise people will keep driving everywhere. Buses need to have dedicated lanes and priority so they don’t get stuck in traffic. Do you really think the person texting on their phone in their car prefers driving or just that the alternatives are so bad they still drive? We need more mixed use zoning, better street design like the Netherlands, and an end to federal and state governments subsidizing the cost of low density suburbs that expect city levels of services. The suburbs in the US want to benefit from the entertainment and employers of the city, while imposing noise, dangerous traffic, and car centric design on city residents despite not paying taxes to the city. This must change.
At least that's one reason why I hate driving.
Other people? Me too.
If you enjoy this video, please look up 'not just bikes'. Incredible channel.
Also watch the playlist from eco gecko about suburban sprawl.
Thank you for taking these issues to a wider audience. Much appreciated :)
I'm a fan.
Not Just Bikes and City Beautiful are two great city planning channels.
I would strongly advise not taking these channels too seriously. While they do have good points, they are also very biased.
@@evancombs5159 Do they pretend not to be "biased"? Can you cite any examples of where they mislead viewers?
@@evancombs5159 I agree
Roundabouts are a wonderful addition to a dangerous intersection. They make a left turn so much easier and safer.
Your example street is the norm in the Netherlands and those are even safer an more beautiful.
We mostly use bicycles for short distances (less then 8 miles), shopping etc. Or we just walk.
We have an excellent public transport system for longer distances.
We don’t really need a car for daily life.
As an american who’s been to your country, the road infrastructure is a shock at first but I slowly fell in love with it. The only time I’ve been able to bike through a city has been there. (Also the countryside is beautiful to bike through)
What about people with disabilities who can't walk or bike?
@@Tinil0 they have immobility scooters, three or four wheels, and they can ride on the sidewalk or bicycle path. For bigger distances, they use public transport with those scooters. If they can’t ride such a thing, there’s a special taxi scheme for them.
@@Tinil0 what about people with disabilities who can't drive
And you can drive in the Netherlands they just give you options
Pedestrians over cars should always be the priority!
I live in a german city with lots of one way streets, few parking and many pedestrian lights. It’s not that good for cars.
However there are broad sidewalks on all main streets and lots of bike lanes too. Sometimes separate traffic lights for bikes and bus lanes. The bus system is very good too and gets me almost everywhere in the city.
Now my city is a middle size city, nothing like a big city as Atlanta BUT I don’t even think about it, I mostly walk or take the bike and bus even though I have a car. I use the car for distances over an hour.
It's true. I live and work in Atlanta and don't have a car. It's a serious pain. But as long as you stick along Peachtree, you're pretty good.
And I thought streets in Russia were bad!
At least we have sidewalks everywhere, they’re kind of obligatory. Although in many cities recently shops and malls make ‘pedestrian areas’ in parking lots, which is way worse than a real sidewalk
Yeah, those are the worst, here in Poland they're really thin and placed right next to the main car alley in the mall. It's no surprise that people can be seen walking all over the car park in diagonal lines.
I have seen streets in small towns in Russia without sidewalks, but they usually also don't have many cars either
We've gotten onto public broadcasting! The revolution is nye comrades! Soon we shall end the tyranny of the automobile!
I know it's amazing, the only lady in the city using a bike changed the roadways to give herself her own private traffic free lane while causing car traffic build up. Not to mention that she used road taxes taken from car owners to pay for her private lane which she doesn't pay taxes on..
@@jaybelle1909 maybe you should start using the lane too. Show that lady who's boss.
Great video! I went to the APA conference in Atlanta back in 2014 and it was clear the car was king. I remember taking Marta up to the Dunwoody station and was greeted by a parking structure when I got off the train. Then at street level there were wide road crossings with free-flow right hand turns that are terrible to cross as a pedestrian. There was developing TOD nearby but if you work or live near that station, it is not easy or safe to access. There are some great efforts (also shown in this video) to make some improvements and I hope it continues street by street!
Great video, I'll be showing this to my class in the fall. Thanks!
I ride my bicycle for about 9000 kilometres a year, including my daily commute. There's hardly a single day that I'm not endangered by cars ignoring my right of way, or overtaking at high speeds and little to no lateral distance. So yes, making roads safer for cyclists is a hugely important factor in getting more people to choose this environmentally sustainable and healthier mode of transportation.
The fact it's environmentally sustainable almost shouldn't be mentioned, people are so spiteful they'll take it that that's a burden they don't owe. But you could point out car dependency makes them anxious, fat, stressed and poor with no free time and they'll still reject any right for others to choose another way so how do you convince them for themselves
@@Freshbott2 You don't. Some people are resistant to persuasion or facts. But you change the road layout so it's harder for them to ruin everyone else's day.
Lot of similarities to Detroit. Not nearly enough is being done, though.
Detroit has been struck a lot in the last years and it really worries me that conditions are really bad their but change is coming for the better.
8 mile road...enough said.
Detroit proves an example of potential. They could redesign their whole city and breathe new life into it.
Not Just Bikes is a channel dedicated to this topic.
The channel Not Just Bikes goes in depth into this problem. He even came up with a word for these streets: stroads.
i think he borrowed the term stroad from Charles Marohn, the creator of the blog Strong Towns
aka what you get when you cross a snake with a tortoise with a toad lmao
He said he stole it from strong towns
Proper term would be theft as the non contributors took a lane from traffic who actually pays the taxes for the road and now has more traffic back up cause of it...
@@jaybelle1909 yes exactly sprawling infrastructure is theft of public money
As someone who grew up in Atlanta metro, this video is awesome!
The forgettable street shown is still one of the better looking streets. Looks relatively dense and the buildings seem kinda historic. Honestly, Atlanta has trees and hills, while Florida is flat with super wide streets and constant strip malls.
Thank you fo doing a video about Atlanta and it’s changing road policies. Thank you for supporting the Atlanta film industry with a video made entirely of b-roll from Atlanta.
3:12 Didn't know _Green Book_ could get any worse lol
Like city planners and state "engineers" know anything about building functional roads. It's as if they have Star Trek transporters moving them everywhere they go. ('cause if they ever drove on the BS roads they designed, they'd want to kill themselves.) What they're doing to Peachtree, they might as well of just removed the road entirely. They're creating a massive traffic headache -- on top of what is already a daily headache. (the common "downtown" problem... cramped streets, heavy traffic, and f*** all for parking.)
@@jfbeam Imagine thinking adding more lanes will relieve "traffic" instead of creating more lol
@@LisaBeergutHolst That door swings both ways. I've seen more lanes just filled with more traffic [interstates], and more lanes totally eliminate congestion [city streets.] There are various reasons for both. (some more predictable than others.)
@@jfbeam Wow, your unsubstantiated personal anecdote has totally convinced me to ignore years of data to the contrary! Great job!!
Great video. As a walker in ATL would love to see similar changes be made on Ponce and many other streets that despite being surrounded by stores & parks feel unwalkable.
Fantastic video. I am seeing more Biker Lanes pop up near me these last couple of years. I just need to learn to ride a bike someday.
Same here in Kazakhstan, danger streets everywhere, one difference our people not rich enough to have a car, all who want it. Cuz of that we almost dont have a highways in our cities
Without modifying any infrastructure, we can cut down of road deaths simply by changing the way we turn left.
In the US, we turn left in front of an oncoming vehicle also turning left. The result is that the other vehicle obstructs your view of other oncoming traffic, setting you up for more likely collision. In Europe, you turn left behind an oncoming car also turning left: your view of oncoming traffic is not obstructed, and you are less likely to proceed with other vehicles hurtling toward you.
thats just straight up not true
One of my biggest grievances with city/suburb streets is when residential roads don't have sidewalks. I live in a residential suburban area, with the only buildings anywhere remotely close to me that aren't houses being restaurants or schools. All of that requires sidewalks, but there are very few of them. There are even places with crosswalks and not sidewalks.
Isn't there some kind of code for mandatory sidewalks inside inhabited areas?
America has a very easy job. Europe has already done all the research and development. We simply need to adopt what they have done and see that we shouldn't make life revolve around cars. Not having a car in America is like not having legs in Europe.
Want to fix streets? End single use zoning and remove the cars. Simple as that.
Better yet end all zoning except for industrial zoning, the original purpose of zoning. The market will figure out everything else better, and give everyone the option to live their preferred lifestyle.
Nedra's bike is pretty sick
must be stolen
@@madd5 Why are you like this?
@@fslknsadglkdahawerykljwa3aw643 LOL
@@madd5 No, it's a serious question. Did your parents just not raise you right or did you turn out like this despite their best efforts?
@@fslknsadglkdahawerykljwa3aw643 At least I'm not black.
That advocate is so cool!
Revitalizing one street maybe big change but to be really useful and creat safe networks to walk and drive on you need to change more then just one street.
People need to experience that they feel pleasent and one new street doesn't serve this goal enough.
This feels more like a social experiment aimed at local residents to get them exposed to a different format to road design and maybe to adopt this format as an effort worth putting city funds towards. But really, this video seems superficial in that it says some keywords and provides one possible solution to part of a problem. It doesn't show any examples where street restructuring has already occurred and succeeded or failed.
@@ShaudaySmith doing it for one street won't change anything. Indy did something similar with a street over a decade ago, and it is still the only street like that. They did a lot more than it looks like Atlanta is doing. The reason it doesn't work is because it isn't changing the root problem. The way streets are designed and built are a symptom of other regulations and demands. The root problem is density. For these kinds of streets to make sense the people who use them need to also live on them. In order to change how streets are designed, you first have to increase density in order to make a walking or biking lifestyle more reasonable. Having a walkable street is useless if everyone has to drive to it to use it.
So I am not a native of Atlanta but I HAVE been on that exact street a good bit, because that's the nexus of the chaos known as DragonCon! And all those changes are going to be on display to a WHOLE LOT of people, because of the big hotels right around it and so on. That means, far more than just locals will be able to see, experience, and ruminate on what's possible, what's better (or what's perhaps not better, since there WILL be plenty of folks protesting these changes). It will expand the discussion beyond the city limits of Atlanta. And I sure hope it inspires a lot of people, everywhere in the US, to make similar changes. Changing the attitude with which we view our roads is the biggest and most powerful thing we can do to make our cities safer for everybody, whether they are on foot, on a bike, on a bus, OR in a car.
Speaking from my personal experiences at DragonCon - a time during which those streets are pretty darn choked with pedestrian traffic - all those changes shown here, seem WONDERFUL to me. It looks more spacious, it looks cooler (and lemme tell ya, Atlanta in August needs all the cooling off it can get), and it very much looks safer.
To the one or two folks I noticed in the comments mentioning fumes and traffic noise as a detriment to sitting outside (eating or otherwise) - Gotta say, on THAT stretch of street, the local buskers were the music I heard. Granted it was a slightly unusual time! And, if we can finally break the addiction to petroleum fuels and go MOSTLY electric for city vehicles, there won't be any fumes to hassle with either. Another very good reason to push for that change, which has been so very difficult to sell people on. Plus, electric vehicles don't stress the speed aspect as much. And honestly...it would do the whole USA a world of good to slow the heck down, right?
They'd be better off just removing the street entirely. How did you get to DragonCon? Drive? Fly, then taxi or bus? I'd have to say you got there by way of roads. So streets have to be there, and they have to go where people need to be. And there has to be capacity ("lanes") to handle the volume of people. The problem we face today is rooted in decades old city planning; there's only so much space for people because we put buildings and roads everywhere. Without a change to those rules, any reclaimed street space will eventually become more building space.
@@jfbeam Demand for roads isn't fixed; it often follows "if you build it they will come".
If you have a walkable neighborhood, people will do many trips on foot. If you've designed an unwalkable neighborhood, those trips usually move to cars. Cars are incredibly space-inefficient, so building more capacity can ironically actually increase congestion.
Roads are necessary, but they really, really don't scale well.
Roads need to expand not contract; how are ppl not seeing the obvious? the practically only bike rider in the city took away a lane from vehicle traffic so she personally has a large traffic free space while vehicle traffic is slowed, backed up, delayed, and is unable to use the lane they paid. She stole road taxes she doesn't contribute to, for her personal use and so privately owned diners can also steal/take advantage of which they also don't contribute to... dinners picked high traffic areas for business opportunities now they want to decide and control the traffic rate and types of fuel they are powered by when the road and traffic was there first; what the f gives you the right to push expensive impractical modes of transports or fuel type restrictions when you're the ones evading traffic locations? The vast majority of ppl don't ride bikes, walk everywhere, or dine outside yet you expect they should not only flip the bill but change their car and lifestyle to fit your extremely niche population...
@@jfbeam the street was there first and paid from road taxes taken from vehicle owners... the convention center should relocate if there is an issue... if an Amish guy move in a city should the entire city now cater to his person desires?
The girl on the bike is so rad!!
Just changing one street isn't gone help enough.
Depending on the number and kind of incidents before and after the redesign. Some people don't view as an improvement despite this good change that has been tested before.
This is why i think multiple streetd has to be changed to really highlight her is change and to pay attention.
Doing this to a single city block _isn't_ an improvement. It's just going to annoying the people who drive through this new bottleneck.
Yeah, it needs to be a city-wide effort.
It's going to be interesting to see how all the outdoor dining spaces developed during covid will affect street design. I think pedestrians are going to be giving a lot more room as businesses and cities realize how popular those spaces are
"Car accident" implies that it was a accident, or that the driver probably wasn't at fault. "Car crash" is much better
A fellow Hot Fuzz fan? XD
The best solution is to not blame drivers/pedestrians, but to investigate the infrastructure itself. If one area is shown to be dangerous, it needs to be redesigned. That’s a very Dutch approach to street design.
@@eriklakeland3857 Honestly, this works best for everything, nuclear power, hospitals, aircraft and definitely streets.
Don't blame people, work out how we got into this dangerous situation in the first place and fix that. Blaming people just assigns fault and improves nothing, examining the underlying system makes things safer and saves lives
Need more round abouts
Are roundabouts pedestrian and bike friendly?
@@drivers99 I saw many in Europe that were. They had cross walks in front of the roads leading into the round abouts. And for really bit round abouts they put in pedestrian bridges.
LOL Atlanta being the first city shown where I almost get ran over by a car everyday. Walking in Atl causes soooo much anxiety
Ps. She a trooper cause I wouldn’t dare ride a bike in Atlanta
I love the fact the only bike rider in the city took over a car lane for her private use at the expense of traffic build ups and paid for it by stealing the taxes of vehicle owners who actually pay road taxes where she does not...
More rapid transit like the Marta rail will help too.
Thank you pbs for featuring this super important topic.
I spent my life, here in the US, hearing that this was a free country, only to find out that it isn't! Needless to say I am mad as hell at the way this country was built!
Rails to trails are dupes of the highway lobby
Do you mean the way they aren’t connected to anything and are really only useful for exercising for its own sake?
@@drivers99 perhaps he means that they make it politically difficult to use the corridors for public transit service in the future, cementing car ownership. My city has ripped up unused railways for trails which happened to be the best rights of way for transit, so instead we get slower, less direct, street-running bus rapid transit.
The Dutch masters show us that you don’t need to sacrifice a railway to create awesome pedestrian space or a great trail. The cultural trail in downtown Indianapolis is a good American example of an alternative.
@@eriklakeland3857 oh good point. That seems more likely.
Love city beautiful!
Please provide where you got your stats? Can you please provide the stats for other races being hit as pedestrians?
LOL, that one dude flipping off the camera.
So forested, didn't know the US has such cities. I always believed their cities are all ugly grey concrete/asphalt infernos.
Atlanta is a city in a forest. It is on the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and has an elevation of 1,050 feet. The highest major city east of the Mississippi River.
Nah they are tons of "green" cities with concerted efforts to create green spaces, parks, and plant loads of trees. Gainesville Florida is a good example too.
US cities are generally very spread out so they tend to also be very green. It is only old cities like NYC or Chicago that are just slabs of concrete.
My boy City Beautiful is here, but I think they should've also invited Not Just Bikes.
Did anyone else notice the guy flipping the bird @0:24 😆
"There is no better example than Atlanta." Joe has never heard the song "Nobody walks in LA".
Atlanta is actually worse than L.A. L.A. Is actually prettydense by sprawly city standarts, many cities have since surpassed it in terms of hostility towards pedestrians, like Las Vegas, Houston, Orlando etc.
This is awesome for a deeper look check out Not Just Bikes series "Strong Towns"
In my town we got a huge grant to build sidewalks and mandated that new commercial construction needs to install them too. No one uses them though because we're in a desert. You can get a heat stroke within 15 minutes. This is the deciding factor for us to remain car-centric, which I don't see changing soon.
Are the houses a walkable distance from the shops?
If your house is 3 miles from the closest shop you're not going to walk there even if they put sidewalks around the parking lots
@@whoeveriam0iam14222 It depends which neighborhood you live in. I have a grocery store within walking distance and I handle the heat well. Most of the time, things aren't a walkable or bikeable distance; even if they were, the extreme heat keeps people from doing that.
Ban. Cars.
That would help. Of course allow emergency vehicles, but otherwise that would be great.
sidewalks, safety amenities, green spaces like parks and recreational centers, bike lanes, and easy access to banks and grocery stores tend to be privileges that only wealthy urban and suburban (and largely white) areas of cities consistently have access to. thanks, city beautiful & pbs for producing videos that can help us reimagine how cities can better serve everyone.
This is really the opposite from my experience, and what I suspect is reality in most places. The wealthy areas have fewer sidewalks and amenities within walking or biking distance.
Here from City Beautiful.
Cool. But which peach tree street?
The US is so behind. Legit look at any other developed country and there are years ahead.
Total design is much more considered. They can use a roundabout.
I’ve seen roundabouts in cities in the US, it’s just not very common.
I remember hearing someone say the reasoning is that Americans aren’t used to roundabouts, but seriously they would get used to it over time, similarly to how people have to get used to a new streetlight in an area that used to not have one.
It’s different in the US/Canada compared to other developed parts of the world like Europe. Walking and biking around in smaller countries makes a lot more sense because many people work in the city/town that they live in. Also, streets are smaller which makes it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to get around. In North America, most people work anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour and half away from where they live. Many Americans also like to travel from city to city and do different activities, see other people , etc. Roads in the US are designed to get millions of people from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, which means massive freeways and streets going straight through cities and areas of high population. I don’t think the U.S is behind, its just a different method of getting everyone to where they need to be.
What exactly is the U.S. so behind in? You "rest-of-the-worlders" are quite hilarious.
Roundabouts are not great for pedestrians, though.
They're rare in the US because they just don't work. The claim is they'll reduce intersection accidents and slow cars down. But the numbers (from the few I've looked at) at best are a wash. At best, they reduce excessive speeding. My favorite waste of tax money is this [ goo.gl/maps/hyBoCUBsUE1dvJBg7 ] Pull it up in G.Earth to see the evolution of that stupidity. It's all paved now because box trucks and semi's couldn't get around it. (that's over 50% of the traffic there.)
I live in downtown Atlanta on Peachtree and the new project!! Reclaim downtown for people not cars
Remove all the streets downtown and tell me how much you love walking a mile to get to a car to get anywhere else. Or worse, ask all the people who work in all those glass towers how much they like paying to park in a similar concrete tower and walk to work -- in the rain, snow, 100F heat, etc. -- every day. (ok, snow and ice are rare, but cold, heat, and rain aren't.)
@@jfbeam I live blocks away from those “glass towers” and have to walk 4 blocks to my parking garage. It’s clear you don’t live or work in an urban setting because everyone knows it’s just something you have to put up with dense urban areas should be built with pedestrians as their main target and cars should be second.
@@mitchyrosa It's not "just something to put up with". It's greedy developers and failure of city planning. If there aren't laws (building codes) requiring some amount of parking per unit, developers will not "waste" valuable rentable space for parking. Around here (Raleigh, NC) there are parking requirements, and downtown living (and office) spaces have parking built into the site plans. (they're generally inadequate, but non-zero) Nobody wants to take their multi-million dollar per acre downtown land and put a parking deck on it. (it's a bad investment, which is why governments generally have to do it.)
If the city has sufficient, affordable mass transit, a carless society is more acceptable. Sadly, there's basically only one city in the entire country where that's close to true (NYC). DC, SF, and Chicago _maybe,_ but it's still a pain to get around without your own car.
@@jfbeam we live here and we're just FINE with a walk AND most want more of it, not less.
It's hard to grasp that idea, isn't it? That you're overwhelming insight into Atlanta from the burgeoning metropolis of Raleigh just isn't shared?
We want better, here. Not wedded to that past you love so much.
Don't worry, we got your kind here too. Most live in Buckhead or don't actually live in Atlanta, but pretend they do for clout.
GTFO
Roadways where there first that's why all those places you like to visit set up there; how could you now say the roads need to go... vehicle traffic pays the taxes for the road yet you think ppl not contributing should now have a say to take the roads from them... notice how the basically only bike rider in the city took a lane for her personal traffic free use while the car drivers who paid for the road now have back ups, time delays, delays in commerce all so the thief is happy... citys need to expand not contract; reason they don't is because it involves relocating low class homes which no one will touch because ignorant liberals equal class with race when there is obviously no relation; just look at their remarks for the Atlanta highway it separated class while also being the best logical location but to ignorant minded ppl they falsely claimed it to be a race issue...
Making cities livable is not an issue that only impacts people of one race. It effects everyone. Stop being so ethnocentric, or you’re going to turn a lot of people off to an important topic because you’re associating it with your exclusion. Streets can be made beautiful and inclusive for everyone. And it deserves more attention. Also, I’d recommend painting the asphalt a different color so it more clearly identifies and makes it feel more like a people space, vs. car lane with a plant on it.
So when I bicycle on 40-45 mile an hour roads, I could get really f'ed up?
I am happy to see Sonia and Nedra advocating for more pedestrian-friendly communities and tackling the issue of relying a car. And it was great to have City Beautiful and Joe talk about this as well. It goes to show there are people who cares about making communities more livable
Thank you PBS for bringing forth this amazing story about citizens changing Atlanta's streets to make them pedestrian and cyclist friendly!! Atlanta is the perfect laboratory for this experiment, given that it feels like one giant speedway, and changing the feel of a place can change mindsets, helping to heal the planet and our country.🌞🌍🌏🌎 Peach street and beyond! 🍑
i hope more cities add bike and pedestrian lanes. it is past time to focus on safety and accessibility.
Cursing American Stroads without context is as bad as the idea of the Stroad itself. The reason they exist is due to the lack of good, usable public transport. They are essentially a "cheap" alternative to designing, building and maintaining a good public mass transit system. Without speaking of the root cause, simply advocating revamping of these city roads into so called public malls and plazas would just lead to more traffic jams and noise, not just in the streets, but across the entire neighborhood. Classic example: Santana Row in San Jose, CA.
Once there is good public transportation available, dependency on cars would automatically reduce. Making the extra space on Stroads available for conversion into bike lanes and wider sidewalks.
Advocacy and funding should therefore should be for Underground/Overground metro rail systems and Public bus systems across major metro areas. Not for stupid things like "electric" cars.
Passenger cars don't belong inside a city anyways, not anywhere in the world. The only cars that should be allowed are trash trucks & ambulances, delivery & moving vans with a special permit and maybe busses, with stress on maybe. For the rest, cars should be parked at a central place at the edge of the city. Inside the city people should travel by foot, bicycle, slow scooters (max 25km/h), subway (subway ftw!) and maybe by bus. Passenger cars should only be used for intercity travel, similarly to trains
Try selling that to the thousands of cities across the US. If you're lucky, your city has buses, but most have zero mass transit.
@@jfbeam Allowing every dipshit to own their own car in the United States was one of the worst ideas in the history of bad ideas, and now we're pretty much stuck with mindless slaves to OPEC (in the hundreds of millions) spewing poison out of death machines.
Poison goes in a car to make it run, poison comes out of it, what a fucked up world we have all inherited.
at least you're willing to allow people from outside the city to park their cars. but you need to keep in mind that American cities can be as big as 50 miles across.
"In the US, Black pedestrians are stuck by drivers at a rate 82% higher than White pedestrians. Living in poorer neighborhoods without sidewalks, bike lanes, and crosswalks increases your chances of getting hit."
But don't richer/suburban neighborhoods lack those features as well? The real difference is just that being richer makes you less likely to _be_ a pedestrian in the first place, because you're driving or riding in a car. Though I thought denser urban environments without suburban stroads lined with strip malls, drive-throughs, and personal-injury-lawyer signs were safer. Maybe drivers these days are too incompetent and distracted, and we need self-driving vehicles with advanced Silicon Valley AI if we're going to save Black pedestrian lives. Oh wait...!
I hate Atlanta, but I wish anyone trying to make it better all the best.
Lol. If you guys think Atlanta is bad, wait until you go to Detroit 🤣
We're bad. Not saying you ain't worse. 🤣
City beautiful is one of my favorite channels
Living in the Netherlands ,this is a nightmare to she.
What would make Americans want to have safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists?
Remove their subudy for paking and the 67% subsidy to gas, making it cost 3 times as much (aka, Europe gas prices)
Suddenly, walking a mile to get somewhere doesn't sound so bad.
Whatever walk of life your in.
Interesting how the graph at 3:50 is labelled "The chance of being killed by a car" instead of "The risk". Objectively there's no difference, but the way it reads, well...
Yeah American roads are crazy
You mean "prioritize PEOPLE over cars"...
Too bad they took out the stuff on Peachtree downtown and added the traffic lane back :-/
Good place for a drone.
Shameless plug for the TH-cam channel Not Just Bikes. The channel covers how North American cities are overly car-centric and the host discusses how North America can learn from European city planning to make cities more at the human-scale. Europe isn't perfect, but on a spectrum of walkable/bikeable city designs, North American is literally on the opposite extreme end.
Awesome to see City Beautiful on PBS...fellow Norcal kid doing big things!!
(We don't know each other or anything, but I thought a shout-out to a fellow Sacramento-an was appropes 👋)
I love the human centric element of European cities. And before you tell me because they were designed before the advent of the automobile, I should remind you new cities are being built in Europe too and none of them are car dictatorships like North American ones.
Also a lot of american cities where build before cars but then bulldozed to make space.
Where does the traffic go?
영상잘보고갑니다 항상 건강하시고 행복하시길 응원합니다 ~👍
Eons sent me. Also architects.
Force everyone to take transit or ride a bike. Remove travel lanes on all streets like they did on Peachtree St downtown. Just make driving as inconvenient as possible. We could bring back the horse and carriage and all the horse ship. Might not smell as bad as this BS.
Already almost looks like New York.
Better weather, food isn't as good (but it's still great) traffic's worse, public transport is MUCH worse, more affordable (for now) and more welcoming.
Ah yes my city 😂
Brāvi! Maybe USA has not lost their fight with automobile just yet. 🤔💚
"Imagine the last time you drove on an US street".. lol i never did
Lucky you
They're pretty shite, you're not missing out on anything
7:02. That's a bad idea. Why not just put a table in the middle of the road. It's so passive aggressive.
what is wrong with converting parking to outdoor dining?
@@nishiljaiswal2216 What's wrong with having parking be parking?
@@cbalan777 its an inefficient use of valuable land, there is more too urban spaces than just cars and parking
These planters are cancer of european cities. Not only they need manual watering, they are also quite ugly. It shows a quick, cheap, ad-hoc solution. Move the curb and plant trees.
Taking back your streets will not work this way. You need to replace the transport capacity cars provided up to now, or those restaurants starve. And that means big investition in public transport. And yes, public transport requires walkable neighbourhoods and certain level of safety. Trams are my reccomendation, they are much stronger than buses, and can be built on fast, separate reails outside of city center.
Right now this project looks like a kindergarden´s "build a snowman" activity. Nice to look at but totaly meaningless, the main purpose is to entertain the participants.