10 Cities Where Driving Consumes the Most of Your Life
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 เม.ย. 2024
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In 1974, Ivan Illich wrote that the typical American male spent 25% of his waking life either driving a car or working for the income required to pay for one. 50 years later, is this true? And, which cities consume the most -- and least -- of our time with driving?
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- The Scandal of Car Harm: • All the Ways Car Depen...
- Location Efficiency - the best cities: • Where People Spend the...
- Location Efficiency - the worst cities: • 10 Cities Where Housin...
- City Visit: Long Beach: • The Wild Contradiction...
- Supercommuting: • Why Americans Live So ...
- Reverse Commuting: • Cities Where People Tr...
- Fastest Urbanizing Suburbs: • 10 Suburbs That Are Be...
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Resources:
- Car Harm: A Global Review www.sciencedirect.com/science...
- www.bts.gov/content/average-c...
- nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2022/pub...
- data.census.gov/table?q=Incom...
data.census.gov/table?q=s0801...
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The intro was crazy that mini van umm
I like your videos but.... compared to what? How many hours do you spend on your bus/bike/waiting for the bus? Yes, you can read a book on the bus, sometimes. But I listen to Spanish lessons in my car everyday, and practice out loud and no one looks weirdly at me.
I spend 25% of my life waiting for the next CityNerd video to drop
Those are rookie numbers
Wonder if you'd be ahead by getting Nebula? 🤔
@@Reglar_Cat is this propaganda?
So true
@@ThisIsNotARealHandle Not at all. It is a $ for time/convenience trade-off, like owning a vehicle (ostensibly) is. How long it takes to earn enough to pay for Nebula in order to see videos a week earlier will vary by individual.
_Owning_ a car is freeing.
*Needing* to own a car is imprisoning.
It's a rich vs poor thing, isn't it.
@@stevesecret2515 always is!
best way to sum up that question tbh
It probably depends more on where you live. My nearest neighbor is about a mile and a half away. Nearest town with a grocery store is 10 miles. Nearest gas station is in that town also. My county has less than 200 people per square mile.
Take a train or bike to work/groceries
Drive a sports car on the weekend.
It’s a fortunate life
Nothing is more freeing than being able to walk out of my building and get anywhere I need to go with no car. That's true freedom. How is someone more "free" than me when I can just walk out of my front door and use nothing but my own two feet to get to the grocery store or to work etc? I can still rent a car if I need to. I could even purchase one if I absolutely wanted to, but I don't need to so I don't because I have the choice. If you live somewhere that's car dependent, you don't get the choice. You have to have the car or you're stuck at home, unable get your basic needs taken care of. That sounds like the opposite of freedom to me.
It sucks when you walk out of your building to find an encampment on the sidewalk full drug addicts. Don't be surprised when people move to the suburbs to get away from that.
@@Marlin2231 why should the only options we have be 1. dangerous city full of criminals and drug addicts or 2. soulless, boring suburb where you have to operate a 2-ton pile of machinery to have any semblance of a normal life?
@@Marlin2231 And that makes cars worth every penny of their asking price.
@@Marlin2231 Not sure what you're talking about. When I walk out of my building, there aren't any encampments. I'm in the middle of the cultural district of my city. My street and block is filled with bars and restaurants and people enjoying themselves, often out for a night in town to go see a live show at one of several live venues and stages here. There's a school across the street from me so the worst I deal with is kids being kids (aka yelling and having fun) as they're gathering around outside before and after school.
And because my city is still very affordable relative to the other major metros, I'm paying several hundred dollars less than the national average for a 1 bedroom despite being in the literal culture center for my region. And my transportation costs are virtually free because I don't own a car and can pretty much walk or bike to everywhere I need to go on a regular basis so I rarely pay for even the bus/train or an Uber etc. I'm sorry that your city seems to have such an issue with inequality that you're incapable of being able to enjoy it, but the existence of extreme inequality in one city doesn't mean all cities are inherently inequitable.
@@Marlin2231 That my good sir is called a false dichotomy. And a strawman on top of that since you've misconstrued the original argument. The argument was that freedom comes from having the choice to own a car. in no way have you addressed that in your rebuttal.
This is the real CityNerd-ery I come here for. Where else am I going to find precise citations of data sources and screen recordings of spreadsheets?
Ditto!
Not everyone can screen record Excel, it took me decades to learn this skill
Almost as shocking as this data is the degree of denial that exists among the people who spend so much of their life in service to their vehicle. I've had so many discussions with people who simultaneously deny the high total cost of car ownership even as they complain about every little increase in gas prices.
Yeah I just used a national average, but the truth is there are people who spend much MUCH more on car payments and all the other expenses because they HAVE to have to biggest / newest / highest trim level etc. regardless of whether it makes financial sense. The auto industry doesn't want everyone driving about in six year-old pre-owned cars
That reminds me of attending a conference in Germany. A lady was picked up at the airport by a representative of her company and brought to the conference. "We passed a gas station on the way in. I thought gas was supposed to be expensive here." "That was in liters." "Oh."
This is our country on fossil fuel propaganda
not high at all, stop being poor
Alternative video title: “Cities Never Discussed in the History of this Channel”
Please tell us more about Charles County! I’ve lived in the DC area off and on my whole life but Waldorf remains shrouded in mystery
Most on the list aren't really cities just suburbs or major US cities. As a non US citizen I just find it odd that areas of say LA, Miami, or LV that aren't that far from the centre (unless you are counting the hours stuck in traffic commuting, ironically) are even called cities in their own right. I know in the US being incorporated or not it's not what is used to define a city but shouldn't the definition he having certain services and amenities, most people who live there working in them, and at least some kind of separation from a major city. Only a few on this list meet this criteria, although it's still interesting being about all these places I've never even heard of (though maybe this video shows the reason for that). Who'd have guessed there was a Pittsburgh in California!!!
Joliet mentioned
@@mattpotter8725 One of the fastest growing cities, not far from Pittsburg (no h), is Dublin, and just south of San Francisco is Brisbane.
The way the United States has structured life around the car is financially draining to the average person. Housing is even worse.
Because the US is a country built in favor of Upper Class and at the expense of everyone else. Not for you.
A lot of the housing costs could also be attributed to the cars...
The one good thing about covid was that it made people realize they don’t have to waste hours in a car every week driving to work (which didn’t apply to everyone, some can’t work remote). We’ve been so indoctrinated into driving long distances that we never even questioned it.
What?
@@elliotwilliams7421 wfh only blew up after covid, nobody wants to commute
tell that to my manager and his boss who wants to get rid of WFH.
Yeah, there is some re-wiring of behavior due to COVID, I think
Cambridge MA resident here: Working from home is such a great deal when you really consider and add up all the saved costs. I couldn’t dream of an hour long commute at this point. It would be like living in a nightmare.
I still have a fully paid off (used) car for weekend getaways and grocery getting when I’m buying more than I want to carry by hand.
Nuanced input on the car thing… as an athlete where organized cycling and running events/races are a big part of my free time being able to drive to these is required so weirdly car ownership is enabling my cycling experience.. if it wasn’t for biking/skiing I probably wouldn’t bother owning one where I live now.
If you want to interview me for your Cambridge video I’d be happy to talk about the culture here
Agreed. I had been carfree but got one primarily to support hiking and bicycling excursions on weekends, even though I rarely use it during the week. Eventually was just too much of a pain renting one each weekend that I wanted to explore way out of the city. An older, paid off, cheap compact car isn’t too much cost to own if you don’t drive it often. Now if my apartment building didn’t come with a parking spot included, would be a different story altogether.
Psst… Keep quiet. Employers are listening.
Just have to hope the MBTA gets *ahem* back on track. I love the Greater Boston area though. The real hidden gem is taking Amtrak along the Northeast Corridor.
Iys for the wealthy, don't funf many skiers in Central Park on a Saturday night
somerville resident.... would rather DIE than get a vehicle around here... too expensive and nerve-racking in the areas to only occasionally go up the mountains... would rather push myself to explore more cities via train/bike anyways
Having lived in Centerville, VA and commuted to the Pentagon every day between 1998-2002, I can say with authority the average daily drive was well over 4 hours. Metro had yet to make it out my way. Traffic was already heavy by 4:00 am. The evening crush was so bad I would take two hour naps at the office hoping the traffic would meanwhile thin out. The cost of commuting, while high, was still less than a mortgage or rent within the city. Ultimately, the advantage of a car was not with me, but with my wife and kids, who could work and go to school within five minutes of a house that we could afford. Great videos by-the-way: looking forward to the next one :)
Video idea: worst use of downtown space that aren’t parking lots.
Churches!
Stadiums
The obvious answer is highways.
Those parking lots shouldn't be parking lots. It should be housing for those that work there so they wouldn't have to drive.
Eataly
I lived and worked in Waldorf, MD for my first five years out of school before moving up to DC. It is literally, 100% the definition of a bedroom community. Everyone drives to DC in the morning, returns home to sleep, and does the same thing the next day. The main drag, Route 5/301 is, as you can imagine, the kind of stroad that experiences gruesome car accidents with extreme regularity.
Truly an awful place to live as a young person (or any person for that matter).
My only saving grace was that my commute was 3 miles each way, but it was impossible to commute with anything other than a car due to the massive arterial stroads. Rent/mortgages aren’t cheap there either, so the value proposition is just terrible.
When we moved to the DC area, we looked into Waldorf because the home prices were a little lower than in towns a similar distance to DC, at the time. Ultimately, we decided to spend a little more to be somewhere that had a MARC line, because it allowed us to drop to 1 car, saving us about $600/month. Those kinds of situations are really underrated, I think, by people who instead choose to occupy a less expensive place in a car-centric area. Basically, if you think the car is inevitable, you're going to end up spending a lot more to maintain it than you would if you moved to a place that allowed you to get rid of a car.
It's like when my wife and I decided to move into the city from the burbs. We were spending $1400/month on our mortgage (from 2009) and over $1000/month on our cars (payments insurance, gas). When we told people we were moving into the city, they couldn't believe we'd be able to afford it. But the math is simple, we ditched both cars, saving us $1000/month, and our 2 BR apartment in a prime location was $1900/month. You already see the saving. BUT, we also both received significant pay RAISES moving into the city. All-in-all, we were brining home a lot more money, which allowed us then to do a bunch of traveling (Europe) that we would've never been able to do if we stayed in the burbs.
Anyway, point of all that is people need to think outside of their car-centric bubble a bit to see how being chained financially to these things is just weighing them down.
I'm in Waldorf now, I was not ready to hear it or Charles County mentioned in a City Nerd video, but it's definitely a well deserved call out! Everything you said rings true. We just started a Strong Towns LC here that's gaining some good traction, so rest assured we're gonna try to make it better :)
@@maddiekaba7015 that’s amazing to hear! I’m sorry that I painted such a gloomy picture because there are some good things going for SoMD generally. The newer arterials are designed with asphalt walking paths that are set far away from the road, the older neighborhoods in central Waldorf are a bit circuitous but usually in walkable distance to shops and restaurants, and there’s a nonzero chance that the green line will someday be extended there. Waldorf also has a lot of good people down there. It wasn’t for me, but I hope you guys make some waves!
I'm a sportscar and motorcycle enthusiast. But I also can't stand relying on a car to commute, shop, etc. Luckily I live in Boston and don't use my car or bike until I want to, usually on Sundays and almost always just for fun. That is freeing to me. Relying on a car to get to work or to the grocery store, even a cup of coffee, and sitting in traffic is definitely not freedom. This reminded me of how much I love the truck owner videos too because of how silly those ideas are. If people truly loved driving, they would be all for walkable cities to free up the gridlock and allow for a more enjoyable experience. If the average American is going to pay $12k per year on their car, shouldn't it be more fun than sitting in traffic?
As I've been phrasing it for a while, we're not trying to get rid of cars, we're simply trying to make the "daily" in "daily driver" optional.
@@ashleyhamman I really like that!
Why not get a new hobby. If you like going fast there's bikes, inline skates, skateboards, windsurfing, skis... about a zillion things.
@@paulblichmann2791 I'm not exactly advocating for outright speed or danger. I'm happy cruising through the Berkshires at 45 mph.
9:41 I feel like the hardest part of the cycle to break is the "car = freedom" mindset. It is deeply ingrained, to the point where a built environment that was not dominated by the car is now no longer within living memory for most of America, plus there is a not insignificant proportion of the population for whom choice of vehicle represents a goodly portion of their identity. The worst part is that people who believe staunchly that having to devote 15% or more of their waking lives to paying for their ability to get around is freeing also tend to be those who view our cities as hives of crime, violence, and degeneracy. All the more reason to invest in a rolling bunker, I guess.
I'm a technician at a pharmacy with a drive-through, and I get assigned the short straw to run the drive-through about 75% of the time I'm there.
Every time someone yells "I've been sitting in this f---ing line for 40 f---ing minutes!" I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from telling them "If you'd come inside where there was no line, you'd have been done 35 minutes ago."
My first goal to combat the dependency on a car was finding an employer who allows you to work from home. Check. Next, I moved away from a heavily car dependent city (Houston). Check. My reliance on my car has dropped significantly and I'm very thankful for that
Good for you! Where did you move to?
Why do none of you talk about friends and family .......only work and shopping. I find it creepy and bot like
@@elliotwilliams7421 😂
@@FasuDoziere Denver
@Osiris3657 all sad lonely people backing this...kinda like folk need people to be forced to be their friends
the worst addiction is car addiction, and it contagious as well
and with additional healthcare costs from car pollution this only gets worse
He did a video on the cost of driving for society, and healthcare costs (mostly from crashes and not pollution) are insanely high.
@@Ruzzky_Bly4t There was a Washington University study done on automobile pollution about 10 years ago that showed the cost was shockingly high...and that was just near highways. Whatever you think is the damage from crashes, just multiply that by three and that's emissions.
Not to mention the health impact on people who literally can not drive for health reasons and are basically stuck at home because of that.
Lack of exercise too
Living un cities is unhealthy......and tou winter to force everyone into them.....bless
All Americans should see this to understand that needing a car is not freedom.
BAAAAHHHH
Pretty much true. The car-brained will disagree of course.
People view freedom differently. It's a little subjective.
I live in North Delta, a suburb to Vancouver Canada, and I recently had a son. Previously I was 95% committed to living car free: I have a 2004 Volvo S60 I left uninsured, and when I truly needed the car for something I would insure it for the day. Since having my baby things have changed; I've ended up insuring the car for the year and using it roughly once every week or two, typically for something related to my son. I still try to walk to go grocery shopping, but I haven't yet figured out a way to get my son to his appointments without a car.
What I really want prepared for was just how much jeering I get from not only strangers but my own family for even suggesting I take my son places by means other than a car (again: in greater Vancouver a supposedly progressive bike-friendly city.) I'm regularly told that its time to move into the suburbs and buy a Cheve, and that any attempt to walk to get groceries or bike to the pediatricians office is not only eccentric but dangerous. Bizarrely, driving is seen as the only way to safely get an infant to his doctor. Given that even my wife feels this way I'm afraid I probably will end up with a car and simply driving everywhere.
If an MLA or city councilor is reading this: We need better transit. We need better express bus service and regional rail that's worth something south of the Fraser river. Translink has done a good job at keeping bus headways low, but with a high stop frequency and a lack of dedicated lanes or lights, what could be competitive with a 15 minute drive turns into a trip that takes three times as long.
You should tell them that car exhaust has a n effect on the occupants of a car similar to smoking and those in the backseat are worst affected. You would be backed up by quite a few reputable studies from many European Universities.
One of the most disturbing things about all this is the way car-brain gets people to turn nasty on anyone who wants to live differently. They blather on and on about “freedom” then in the next breath they’re lecturing, mocking, shaming, and even trying to scare you with lurid crime fantasies if you so much as say, “hey I think we could use some more buses around here.”
i see plenty of ppl in my city with child seats for kids and covered/protected strollers for infants attached to their bikes. i do not get the argument about walking being unsafe???
Public transport isn’t the only solution. Reducing friction in real estate and fixing public schools would go a very long way towards reducing commute distance as would GOOD zoning reform.
What do you mean by reducing friction and real estate?
Reducing friction in real estate. The cost of buying and selling so you can move closer to where you work. A lot of the cost is created by government when it should be reduced by government. We’ll see if the recent court case results in a reduction in broker fees. Also, it varies by state, but the title fees and insurance are simply ridiculous. Also the amount of records is a testament to bad government.
A lot of the problem is simply a matter of making it too easy to be an agent and not stopping bad lawyer behavior.
@@enjoystraveling letting people keep their mortgage when selling a house for example. Anyone who bought before 2022 is reluctant to sell and move somewhere because they'd have to get a new mortgage at over 7%. No bueno.
Better zoning laws too
Better zoning makes it easier to improve public transportation. Bike and walk paths are also needed to avoid being required to use public transport all the time and allow the car to be optional.
Ah yes, this is a topic that definitely ties into one of the topics that drew me into studying ethics in college. The arguments for and against cars really comes down to positive and negative liberties. The ownership of cars is a negative liberty, as owning a vehicle enables the ability to travel in any direction at will. The US prioritizes negative liberties culturally almost always. The problem with negative liberty is that it also causes an environment where there is an inherent inequality of opportunity; if you start with more resources, in this case parents that drive and have money to get you your first car, you are at a distinct advantage compared to those that do not have those advantages. However, if we were to just focus on positive liberties more, that gap would narrow and income inequality as well as the financial burden of vehicle upkeep and having to live further from work would become much smaller issues at the expense of motorists having less infrastructure devoted to them decreasing their negative liberty. The argument of whether to embrace positive vs negative liberties is entrenched in everything in politics and as long as people are willing to sacrifice the freedom of opportunity afforded by the positive liberties of public infrastructure for the more selfish desires for negative liberty infrastructure, we will not see improvements to solidarity and class mobility in this country.
In the same framework, bicycles would also be a negative liberty. Active transportation with transit would increase both positive and negative liberties. The really big negative liberty that of course is in a doom loop with the car is suburban housing.
One of the things I'm most grateful for when I moved from Boston to Pittsburgh is that I found an apartment in the same neighborhood as my company's office. This video makes me feel incredibly lucky to have a commute that is a
How easy is it to live in Pittsburgh if you don't own a car?
@@averyshaw2142depends on what part of the city you want to live in. There are transit paradises where you have 8 bus lines within your immediate area and transit deserts where you’re lucky if you get a bus every hour. I’ve done it for 8 years and it limits where you can live, but it’s doable
I live in atlanta and barely ever use my car (planning to sell it soon) which surprises a lot of people because we’ve become so accustomed to having to drive everywhere. I bike and/or take marta and when I combine them I can get many places as fast as I could driving and probably faster since I don’t have to worry about all the parking bullshit. yet people still complain about marta and insist on driving everywhere even though it’s so expensive and makes them less healthy and more stressed. I feel so much more human and connected to the city when walking, biking and taking transit compared to being trapped in my metal box
MARTA isn't very good, but I used it when I could.
@@timothykeith1367 It could definitely be better, but I honestly find that most of the places where marta doesn't have rail access aren't really places I want to go anyway. virtually everything I want to do in atlanta is within a 15 min bike ride of a rail stop. so people who can't or won't bike are definitely hampered, but I feel like it serves me very well as a biker
Topic for a video: The Richmond/ San Rafael Bike Path in California. It was established in the right most lane across the bridge during the pandemic, when traffic dramatically improved around the bay (when everyone worked from home). Now bridge traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels and the Bay Conversation and Development Commission (BCDC) is considering removing the path to "improve traffic." The commissions has a public comment hearing tomorrow (May 2nd) with more decision meetings to come later this year.
Whether you use it or not, big fan of your work.
What's crazy to me is it was just a shoulder before, not a travel lane. So unless there's a crash, there's no impact on capacity.
This is summed up best in the Ben Folds song Rockin' the Suburbs (modified for Over the Hedge): "We drive our cars every day, To and from work both ways, So we make just enough to pay, To drive our cars to work each day, hey, hey"
That's a good one. I had thought of a refrain from Handshakes by Metric where it goes "Buy this car to drive to work,
Drive to work to pay for this car"
@@delenandrew Over the Hedge is urbanist praxis
Suffolk, VA (pronounced suf-fuck) is a county that declared itself an independent city. But yes, Hampton Roads is disgustingly car dependent
I appreciate that the map in the beginning showed the UP in the same color as Wisconsin.
Michiganders - We're coming for the UP. Your time is limited.
Worst weather in the entire country. You can keep it, lol :).
The key to understanding commute times for Suffolk, Virginia, is to observe that the major employment centers are across the James River in Newport News or across the Elizabeth River in Norfolk and Virginia Beach; hence, it is necessary to cross a tunnel or bridge, which are major choke points.
Your findings in Bayamón set up the stage for a video on the reality of Puerto Rico. The old San Juan tourist area misleads outsiders to think Puerto Rico is a walker's paradise. The Island is probably one of the most car-dependent places in the US. I can vividly remember my hour-long morning commutes… just to go to school!
PR used to have trains and trams running all over the place. All that was destroyed to give way to the car. Add to that the hellish combination of crumbling infrastructure, low incomes, and above-average cost of living. It is truly the American poster child of the woes of car dependency.
I live in Singapore. I don't own a car because I don't need too. Out of my family members, only my brother and SIL own cars and that's because they have a kid to ferry around and use their car and truck to get around to transport goods for their business. Me and my other sibling do not need to drive because we simply have no need for a car. If we need to be at a place in a hurry or have too much stuff to carry, we call for a cab on an app and that only happens once in a while.
I pay quite a bit of taxes but the fact that things work in my country means I glad pay all these taxes. Public transportation in Singapore has covered the entire city and the trains and buses are fast, clean, and comes regularly that you don't need a schedule.
I lived in the US for over a decade before I moved back. I have no desire to live there again.
It continues to shock me how common it is for people in America to buy cars brand new and make monthly payments of hundreds or thousands of dollars on them, on top of insurance, gasoline, maintenance, etc. I bought a used Toyota years ago for about $4,000. It isn't pretty, but it's reliable, it's low-maintenance, and it lets me live in a heavily car-dependent area with no car payment.
I was once on the Red Line here in Chicago, and I heard two guys talking about this. At one point one of them said, "That car'll pimp ya." I've never heard it said better.
Wow. That’s a great phrase.
❤ 22 years car free in Eugene!
I think we should find it more profound that we spend such a huge amount of time driving cars, working to afford cars and talking about traffic.
We're taught this grants us freedom yet some of us aren't free from having to use one and pay for it too.
the issue is that cities are intentionally built to strip you of the freedom of movement, only to sell you cars
you ever see that video where a guy went around cutting earbud wires, then gift wireless earbuds?
It’s like that, except there’s a pretty high chance that someone else uses their earbuds incorrectly and kills you
lol actually the car is not for itself, the car is for being able to afford a place cheap enough to live and a work that pays enough. Maybe ask yourself rather than why are we spending money on cars ask why do housing cost so damn much that we need cars to do anything.
Millions of Americans literally live in places where they simply don't have a choice. Instead of 15 minute cities, they should be worrying about 4-hour cities
I'm very depressed about the forest we are losing and the world being covered in concrete.
thanks to suburban sprawl, where area developed per 100K population is much higher than urban/ walkable areas
Just the time spent driving in these places is mind boggling. 2+ hrs a day in the car is insane. For contrast, I'm on a bike probably 8-12hrs per week, and I'm a state champion level mountain biker.
Not trying to brag, but imagine what people could achieve if they could spend that time doing something for themselves.
I wish so badly. But my connection over the Columbia River to Portland got NIMBYD out of existence. So now I'm stuck driving over the stupid ass Columbia River bridges. It eats up so much time in the afternoon.
What you say doesn't make sense or have a point.
What time? They'd lose time without transport and pay more.
So much of the Google Maps footage is soul crushing.
Culdasacs, strip malls and stroads... ugh.
California is the land of extremes. Some of the most beautiful landscapes and Ag and oil sacrificed areas. The Inland Empire is just depressing.
Give me an old streetcar suburb any day. Walkable with nearby retail and diverse housing styles.
People do not want to know how much $$$ they spend on their vehicles or how much time.
The costs are going in only one direction.
The irony is a lot of the Inland Empire evolved from streetcar suburbs.
Crazy that in the US, saying "I went to the doctor" would cause people to freak out...
Eh, not really I think he was just specifying that his health is fine. Though a decent amount of people do skip out on appointments that they should be going to because of money.
Originally from Portland, Oregon, I've been living in Seville, Spain for two years now. It's a place where it would actually be a burden for me to own a car, since it's incredibly walkable, bike-able and the public transit is cheap and easy to use. Driving in the city doesn't make sense and parking would be a nightmare. Everything I need is within a 15 minute walk and there is housing practically everywhere. I don't think many Americans understand how a place like Seville could even exist. Do you think it is possible to use actual well designed cities to help places in the US to improve? Or is it too late and we are destined to live a quarter of our lives in cars lol
My parents live in a small town where the walkable downtown is dead, and all the stores are along the highway on the edge of town. To make it even worse, most of the businesses are on the opposite side of the highway from the houses. Few stoplights means it's almost impossible to walk or bike to the store without going miles out of your way. The town has a lot of poverty, made worse by the totally unnecessary car dependence. I would bet that many low-income people give up far more than a quarter of their lives to have a car there.
New York is like 5 cities in one, The Bronx is like Detroit and is so poor it drags every metric down. The median income is greatly exceeded in Manhattan and the Monarch counties while the Bronx drags it all the way down to 65k lmao. Staten Island is basically any Central Valley California city and is isolated from the city with lackluster transit. 95% and 70% of SI and Queens are zoned for SFH or duplexes and are really low density without access to transit. Moral of the story when you combine San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, and Bakersfield you get New York.
If The Bronx were a stand-alone city it would be in the Top 10 most populous cities in the U.S. and have twice the density of San Francisco.
I think you underestimate just how massive and dense NYC (as well as parts of New Jersey across the Hudson) is in comparison to any other American city.
Shout out to the DC metro perfect ceiling shadows in the intro
Video suggestion: Congestion pricing in big cities worldwide (London, NYC, ...) - planning, realization, and consequences. Thank you!
Went to high school in Mt View, back in the stone age. Took the bus and biked most places, even after I got my license. Nowadays, Mt View and Palo Alto are almost indistinguishable, though I usually drive when I visit now.
Most of my work travel time is waiting in the Kitsap fast ferry queue to Seattle - have to wait as long as the trip now to get on in the days rush.
Don't forget your loyal longtime listeners and subscribers. We helped spread your message in the early days when you were getting far fewer views. I support what you do and have shared your videos with everyone I know.
Shoutout to the "SLAYER" graffiti in the New York drone footage
Like Zorro meats batman but Ghettooo
PRO KETO
Angel of Death!
Fun fact, Wichita Kansas is a 15 minute city! It just has the caveat of needing a car, but that's true of many other cities where commute and other travel times are much longer than 15 minutes. Nice job on the methodology where the cost of car ownership scales based on drive time/distance! Too many people don't do that
I'm in Wichita. Until my hip problems precluded it I could walk or bike to almost everywhere I needed to go. But even with being car dependent I drive under 1000 miles per year.
Why is it that so many American think all this time in their car is a GOOD thing? I know "car brain" is the easy answer, but I wonder if it is just a lack of imagination of a different (better) life?
Some of it is probably people with hectic home lives AND stressful work lives who don't have a moment to themselves outside of their commute. Trading the commute for e.g. a walk outside is a no-go because that would be perceived as selfish and intentionally spending time away from the family.
They have to emotionally justify why they paid $65,000 for it … plus interest
A few generations of "happy motoring" propaganda being drilled into us, along with our environments being built to force it as the only lifestyle option in most of the country, will do it.
It might be from too much imagination instead of too little. Almost all Americans imagine the world outside of suburban areas to be full of drug addicts, high-school dropouts, and thugs (ie blacks) just waiting to accost them of life and limb. Just last week I was told by that downtown Montgomery, AL has 14 straight days of homicides and rent was $2500/month. That wasn't true, of course, but he believed it.
@@TasteOfButterfliesYEP! I think you hit the nail on the head. Although I actually enjoy driving and always have, once I had two kids the only time I got to myself all day was the commute to work and a 5 min shower.
Wow! Both my childhood region (Inland Empire) and my current region (Hampton Roads) made the list. Regarding rail transit for the Southern California offenders, the Metrolink system serves Fontana, San Bernardino, Perris, and Palmdale.
The Yoopers are gonna drag you for that map at 2:10
Wtf? Is that like sasquatch ?
I live in South Florida and it sucks. Saving up to move out of here as quick as I can
Came for the driving analysis. Stayed for the hot air balloon story.
Weird, rich areas have a higher quality of life. Who knew?
I think it should be much higher than 25%. The cost of car ownership failed to include the infrastructure each of us have in order to own a car. The garage and driveway, typically around 800 sqft, takes up a percentage of the mortgage and that space cost more in more expensive areas. Car ownership enable sprawl. In Southern California that sprawl has resulted in us running out of space to build before demand is met so the average home price is now $1M.
"The Inland Empire Strikes Again." Someone's getting ready for "May the Fourth be with you" and "Revenge of the Sixth."
My boss used to commute every day from Suffolk to Chesapeake. His freeway route has a drawbridge, several mile long back ups.
4:08 I think using post-tax income here would paint an even more accurate picture and probably get you closer to the national 4h a day statistic.
I live in the San Gabriel Valley and don't own a car. I do take the bus tl to work (2 buses), which takes me about 2.5 hours from the time i leave my house to the time i clock in. Going home requires 2 buses and a train and can take anywhere from an hour (from the time i clock out to the time i walk in my door) to two hours, depending on when my first bus arrives, train arrives and second bus arrives. It is a giant pain in the ass, but it only costs me a maximum of $18/week with my TAP card, which is like 3 gallons of gas
Plus, you can read or nap or watch YT or do other things while taking pub trans that you can't do while driving.
Kind of wonder how complete your research on Joliet is. I've lived here since 1985. Many people who drive to work don't work in Chicago but rather work in Joliet or another suburb. Those that do work downtown most often commute via train as Joliet is the terminus for 2 Metra lines. The Heritage goes to Union station in Chicago. The Rock Island goes to the LaSalle St. station. During rush hours The Rock leaves Joliet about 5 times an hour and the reverse is true during the evening commute. The Heritage line primarily runs during rush hours. The Rock runs pretty much all day but less frequently in non commute hours. Joliet has also recently expanded its train station and is attempting to integrate Pace bus and other non private transportation at the train station. They are also attempting to develop more housing in the area near the train station. Joliet is not by any measure not car centric but probably less so than many of the hundreds of other towns in the Chicago orbit.
It would be interesting to look at how much of your life NOT having a car costs you, too. I own half a car so very little of my life is spent driving or working to supporting it, but there's definitely a chunk of my life "lost" to taking longer to get places I want to go (and a chunk of my income "lost" to living in a desirable place where bike/walk/transit commuting to errands and events is possible to begin with). I'm very happy with this tradeoff, but it _is_ a tradeoff.
You did touch on this, but it's also worth pointing out that while bike commuting can take the place of working out, if you're pushing your limits, you'll need a higher workout intensity than a commute alone can give you, so it can't _always_ take the place of working out.
On the flip side, while transit trips can take longer, they often allow reading and such, plus the lack of stress from not driving in traffic.
It's also a lot easier to improve the alternatives to driving (protected bike paths, more frequent transit with better routes) than it is to speed up driving commutes or make cars cost less.
How can one be free while being trapped in a moving metal cage
Aren't trains, buses, and airplanes also moving metal cages? (And ships too). At least with a car, you get to decide where to go and when to stop and get out.
@@markweaver1012 I was mostly referring to using bikes or scooters, I also don’t really find trains and buses to be freedom either, especially since they go to predefined locations whereas at least you can go wherever you want in a car.
Re: Waldorf, MD. It is viewed as a DC suburb by some, but it isn't connected to DC by any useful transit. To compare, the suburbs in between DC and Baltimore, and DC and Brunswick/Frederick are connected via a commuter train, the MARC. This doesn't exist for Waldorf. The proximity to DC makes people believe that the car commute would be nice and easy, but it isn't. I expect La Plata to be climbing up that list, soon, as well.
I haven't ever bought a car, depsite having my driver's license for more than a decade. I can live perfectly fine like this, namely I can easily do (most) shopping nearby, I can go to work and leisure by public tranport, bike or on foot and I can make trips by train or bus.
Despite that I'm starting to get the feel that there really are limits. I crave to go to quiet areas with nature and beautiful scenery. Those areas are far away and public transport won't get you there. During covid and the years after it I have explored pretty much all places in and around my city that I can easily get to without a car and I'm very tired of them all. I feel like I can't get to the places I want to get without a car. I'm stuck in this place.
Maybe this is something that citynerd has never considered. He doesn't own a car, but he seems able to move a lot and thus can enjoy a change of scenery often enough in order not to get bored.
So that's why I might eventually buy a car, despite the high cost. Car sharing isn't great for my objective, sinnce this is meant for frequent, but short use. It also isn't meant for going abroad. Renting a car is fine for once or twice a year, but not for multiple trips per month. There just isn't any option, apart from buying my own private vehicle.
You could fly or take a train somewhere and explore such as I live in Florida and I found a $22 fare and next month I’m taking the Brightline train from Orlando to Miami for the first time and exploring an old house now museum and some other sites.
That’s not nature unless you count snorkeling, but that’s just an idea which you can use other cities and states.
Personally I kind of had a similar problem and got an electric bike that can take me to a lot of nature.
I've sometimes wished I'd kept up my license, so I could rent a car and drive out into nature. But I would *rent* a car. No point for me in owning one.
For a time in my life, I lived in Berkeley and commuted to San Francisco to work, by walking, using BART, and taking a bus. It was almost certainly cheaper than driving a car across the Bay Bridge and finding parking. However, I did spend a substantial amount of time on that commute, every day.
How long would the rush hour drive have been?
Perris has the Metrolink! The trains are relatively few and absurdly early in the day, but they at least exist.
They messed up big time though with the siting of the UC Riverside station. It should be right on the campus but it's a mile away... because?
Perris has a railway museum. Also served by Metrolink.
1. A lot of people don't drive to work anymore, we work remotely and only drive in a couple of times a week at most.
2. You can have a cheap car, then the cost of insurance goes down. An old Honda or Toyota is not expensive, and gets good gas mileage. I have a $3000 CR-V that has given me 100,000 miles with nothing more than routine maintenance.
3. What percentage of the US population lives in areas where driving is pretty much required? And what is the build out required to create the density necessary to reduce car dependency for that portion of the population? Maybe converting office use nodes to housing would take a bite out of it, especially in places with really expensive core areas.
Looking forward to your Ohio visit
In my opinion, owning a car definitely gives you more freedom. Visiting rural areas and national parks and being able to just drive where you want. However, being forced to own a car is the real imprisonment. Not being able to get to work, get groceries, enjoy close amenities, etc, without a car makes us all slaves to the car industry.
I agree if I needed to visit my cousins who live on a farm a car is how to get there but since I live in a suburb, and if I had a choice that it would be easier to bicycle and take public transport, I’d rather than do that then have to drive everywhere such as even to the grocery to get three items. I don’t go to the groceries like Costco or Sam’s or Walmart since it’s too gigantic and I might get tempted to buy too much ha ha
you can visit those places by renting a car too, no need to actually own the vehicle you plan on using.
@@jasonhoffarth personally i think the real freedom is always having choice, not being confined to one mode or the other
@@yuriydee right, and currently it’s practically impossible to live with that choice in most of the US, and the places where viable choice is present costs are inflated because of how desirable they are and how few regions can accompany not using a car at scale
@@jasonhoffarth Renting a car can easily become more expansive than owning one outright and renting a car can also require days of planning in advance.
Really enjoyed this. Thanks for the great content!!!
13:42 Man, you gotta be more specific next time. I felt like I was about to faint. I heard "Pittsburgh" and immediately thought Pennsylvania, not knowing there's a city of the same name in California. As someone who is looking to relocate for a lower cost of living, cheap rent, and the potential for living car lite, Pittsburgh PA is where I currently have my mind set to. So, hearing that name but in a different state as a dishonorable mention nearly gave me a heart attack.
I like watching budgeting videos from the US (envelope method) and I am always shocked by how much money people (all of them), even the poor ones put away for car insurance, car tags, car repairs, or just the monthly car loan and gas. I keep thinking how much of my own salary would vanish in that if I had a car and lived in America. Crazy. I mean most of my savings would not be a saving bcs I would constantly had to waste it on these things.
Ironic that the tiny island you could bike around has the most work being put towards getting a car.
This is a subject I realized many years ago in conjunction with the big pickup truck mental disease. Which has morphed into a few sub categories including ones no longer related to pickup trucks.
this is really good work.
9:40 I’m someone who’s lived in a car centric, smallish town and didn’t have a car for about two years. Most trips were 3-4 miles and I only had a mediocre two speed bicycle during that time. It’s very imprisoning to be in that environment without a car. There weren’t many tall buildings nearby to cut winds and main roads had huge elevation changes. I was also young and stuck in that town without enough financial headway to move somewhere which would’ve been 2-3 times or more expensive to live. This all goes without mentioning how much more complicated dating becomes. Eventually I installed an ebike motor to make living less exhaustive, but I don’t think I wanna go back to those days.
Now before someone thinks I’m a midwit, I absolutely do want to have walkable, bikable cities. I don’t enjoy driving very much. That town was a hell hole for many reasons and its zoning was one of the biggest culprits. But since the question was so blunt I figured I’d answer it bluntly as well.
This was a great video, thank you for doing what you do ^^
Can confirm, living in Southern California sucks.
Then there's the property costs of housing a car, driveway, garage and the maintenance on such.
I remember in Puerto Rico how bad traffic was from San Juan in the Hato Rey area. I used to study there and drove from Rio Grande to the college and the worst traffic for me was the 4-6pm one. There was no other way to dodge until you reach Carolina to take highway 66 and pay the toll. Puerto Rico is so car dependent is insane. I didn’t realize until after I left the island for the mainland.
I work in community mental health in the Inland Empire and I can confirm I spend most of my day in the car. I live in one county then drive all throughout a different county! Makes me feel great /s
The distribution of percentage of life spent on car ownership cannot be strictly Gaussian, correct? Surely there are significant percentages of individuals in these areas (especially the best on this list) that do not have a car, and thus do not contribute to the statistic. Then on the other end, others that contribute significantly more than the average, ie., super-commuters. More likely to be bimodal, then, correct?
Great video, would live to hear everyone’s thoughts!
As a European enjoying these videos, what first struck me when viewing this one was how grotesquely ugly the places featured appear to be.
I'm a native Angeleno who spent five years as rideshare driver and doing delivery for a solar company. I quit rideshare driving when Covid broke out after five years of zooming people around the greater Los Angeles area. I saw more of L.A. in my five years as rideshare driver than in my five decades of living in L.A. I saw traffic get worse and worse every day, in real time. It was hell. I own two cars which I drive as little as possible.
Love your channel man! 👍
When I tell people I average around 5000 miles driven a year, they generally mock me as a total loser. Time spent driving is considered an indispensable part of the American experience, and an expression of your very manhood for American males. Sigh.
I have not owned a car since 2020 bicycles/e bikes and walking I call it adventure commuting
I wish that GOOD e-bikes weren't as expensive as they are. Used car prices are finally dipping after cash for clunkers and covid shook the market, you can get reliable japanese sedans for like 8-15k right now. Name brand e-bikes are 3k starting and good ones are like 4-6k. Not to say you can't get a cheap e-bike, I got my single speed for 1100 bucks, but no gears+limited power and range makes it harder to use.
@@matthewshultz8762 I've found a lot of great ebikes for under 2000. Aventon, Denago, Velotric, and Ride1Up are all affordable brands that have great options.
@antonioiniguez1615 no you haven't, you found money drains. Cheaper motors components and battery components. You get what you pay for.
@@elliotwilliams7421 Aventon and Denago are companies with really good reputations.
@antonioiniguez1615 still cheaper components and batteries.
60% transmission loss when charging them too.
Perris actually has a train! The last two stations on the 91/Perris Valley Metrolink commuter line are in Perris. Only five round trips on weekdays and two round trips on weekends though.
I live in Los Angeles, where I used to spend nearly two hours a day driving 25 miles each way to and from work. Since the pandemic, I have worked from home. My quality of life has dramatically improved. I can take the kids to and from school and exercise locally every morning. I dropped 20 lbs and my mood significantly improved. We used to have two cars but now we only need one. Still don’t understand why we force so many knowledge workers to work in an office.
Very pleased with Cambridge’s ranking. It’s a city where car light is just the natural state of most residents because driving’s annoyances are more significant than other transportation modes for most trips.
I probably spend an average of 40 minutes a day driving, alone closer to 20, with negligible costs (40 minutes across an entire week) discounting parking because I’m the main chauffeur for friends to downtown Boston events.
We’re not going to mention the equivalent calculation to housing, that’s a very different story.
Definitely come check it out soon, along with the rest of metro Boston.
When watching your videos, I am reminded of a meme that I saw recently, which said, "I'd give up sarcasm, but that would leave interpretive dance as my only means of communication."
Yeah, not surprised that LA would do poorly by this metric. It makes it clear why people here talk about driving so much - not just long commutes, but high financial burden. It really makes me appreciate that I can take the Metro to work, despite the system having a rough couple of weeks.
Cambridge has some really fascinating urbanization as it tries to maintain its own identity so close to an A tier city
Car-sharing. Problem solved. I drive about a half dozen times a year when a car is the only realistic option. I have all the benefits of not owning a car and all the convenience of a car when I need one. I rent out my included parking stall and that covers over 100% of my urban transportation costs including bike-share, transit and car-share. There are half a dozen fixed-location cars within a 5 minute walk (half are electric) and a dozen and a half within 10 minutes. That's pretty typical in the central area of the city. There are also thousands of floating-location car shares that you can drive one way. The bike share system is awesome too - perfect for going out on the town.
It's hard to imagine why people would choose to set up their lives in a way that makes a motor vehicle a necessity for personal mobility.
What city are you in? Or what country are you in?
@@enjoystraveling Vancouver.
@@ronvandereerden4714 thanks for your quick answer, I had a feeling it wasn’t in the United States. Darn. !
Good for you
People don't choose to set up their lives.....some of us have loved ones and friends we like to see, some have moved out the city.
With no car I'd lose around 15 hours Monday to Friday minimum and have no free time and my weekends I'd have to rent a car ro see friends and family.....lose rime and money
No idea why people want to lose rime and money
@@elliotwilliams7421 The issue isn't whether many people need a car for some trips, it's that in the US and Canada almost everybody needs a car for every trip. I can't tell if you're justifying where you chose to live, or justifying how crappy your transportation options are. But nobody expects rural people not to have a car. The city and suburbs are another story. If a car is needed for most rips then the development pattern is a callosal failure.
Feeling that you have no choice but to own a car in a metro region is not freedom. It's the opposite. Given that a typical car is about 0.5% energy efficient, it is also madness that it has become an unquestionable default. More maddening is that cars take up sooo much space and cost the taxpayer so much money. Absurd amounts of money.
My brother and his family live about 35km away in a distant suburb with poor transit connections. It would take a little over an hour to drive and takes about an hour and a half by transit. But I can be doing things on transit that I couldn't in a car. It isn't really longer if you make use of the time. But if everybody chooses to drive, you'll neve get transit that is worthwhile.
América está diseñada en gran medida en la época del automóvil, y la movilidad el urbanismo la arquitectura y los distintos intereses sociales comerciales culturales y económicos giran alrededor del automóvil. Lo primero que se ve desde la calle al mirar una casa común en los Estados Unidos son las dos grandes puertas automáticas del garaje que alberga los coches familiares, generalmente grandes sub. Esto afecta al carácter de la gente a su forma de vida y sobre todo a su salud , su calidad de vida y su esperanza de vida. En Europa desde donde escribo , el urbanismo en los centros poblacionales de las ciudades y de las pequeñas , es en la mayoría de los casos medieval o incluso romano. Cadiz en Andalucía lleva 3.000 años edificada en el mismo sitio. Esto puede ser no comprensible para un americano pero el urbanismo en gran parte de Europa es obra del imperio Romano. Aquí se prioriza al peaton y se potencia el transporte publico. En todas las ciudades hay como una competición no reglada por ver quien peatonaliza más calles y quien relega más el uso del automóvil particular. Estoy seguro que los Estados Unidos tienen la capacidad de solucionar estos problemas urbanísticos y de movilidad por el bien de la salud de sus ciudadanos, as algo que deseo como admirador de ese pais. Vivan los Estados Unidos y Viva España. Un abrazo a todos
11:57 LVT shoutout!
My favorite part of biking is where folks call me a "sissy" for riding a bike through 40 degree rain to get to work. Feels good man
I’ve definitely been in conversations with New Yorkers where it’s clear they spend 50% of their waking hours talking about subway routes.
When you come so early there is 3 views
I enjoy cars as a hobby, but after spending 90+ mins/day commuting daily in Las Vegas for 7 years I moved to U.S. NE corridor and have happily lived car free for years. Walking and public transport is great
Being stuck in the suburbs without a car sucks. While I can get to almost everything I like via transit, I'm often not motivated. Driving would be nice, and I do feel like it would be freeing. But I don't see it happening any time soon. Not to mention, I work for the local area transit network, and I ride for free.