Can North America Have Walkable Cities? | Responding to Linus Tech Tips
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มี.ค. 2023
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When my favourite TH-camr (Linus of LinusTechTips) had a hot take on cities and transit this week I knew it was time for a reaction video of my own, so check out my latest video on why hope is not lost for walkable transit-oriented North American cities.
Linus's Video: • I’m breaking one of my...
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
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I'm infamous for my cynical view of North America, but even I thought that Linus' take was extreme.
You're absolutely right that there's a lot of "low-hanging fruit" available in North America. The thing that's missing the most is good land use.
Even just taking the GO Train network, the turning those suburban parking lots around each station into walkable town centres would do more than switching everyone to electric cars. And it's so easy; the land around the GO stations is owned by GO. It just takes prioritizing using land for people's homes and destinations instead of places for suburbanites to park.
I get that the current political climate makes this nearly impossible, and it's going to take many decades to make it happen, but even I'm willing to admit that making more places in NA walkable is a better approach than the status quo + electric cars.
Hmmm... makes me think. Translink (Vancouver transit authority) recently decided to become a real estate developer of sorts. The idea is that if they put in new transit, they try to capture some of the increased value that gives to properties in the vicinity. If GO did this, they could also make money? Use that money to further build out transit, creating a cycle of growth. It's what business people call a "flywheel". Translink is currently planning a redevelopment of the Coquitlam Central Station park and ride.. if you google that, it's basically the strategy GO needs to copy.
Real estate sales are what powered Los Angeles' streetcar network development, I understand. As long as the ongoing operations are financially sustainable, it could be a good model.
I'll say Mexico Citys public transport is pretty good... And yes, México is in North America, as well... I don't understand, why it isn't taken in consideration...
TOTALLY agree (probably because I watch all your videos. haha). I was going to say land use is the biggest problem. Namely sprawl. Everything being spread out makes transit more difficult to be viable than in Europe. It can be changed but it will take decades. FWIW I had the same thoughts about GO stations. As a UK citizen it seems crazy to have those massive free car parks around each station.
Mount Pleasant GO station in brampton is how you describe.
walkable cities are cool because you can walk to places and they're cool
Unless you live in Texas or Florida -- then they're hot instead of cool.
@@fredashay turns out that even those places are less hot when you don't have massive portions of your city's surface area dedicated to the massive heat traps that are huge parking lots and multilane highways (not to mention all the extra heat generated by all those extra small engines in all the cars, larger engines being generally more efficient).
@@laurencefraser r/whoosh
@@fredashay even if it's a joke, I think they make an important point. One argument used against improving walkability is that "my city is too hot to walk in", but this overlooks cars' contribution to said heat.
Cool indeed
Im sure a walkable city would have been more conducive to Linus and Luke's wish to bring back LAN Cafes/Centers.
Given that the best LAN Cafes were located around the walkable universities and schools, yes to this.
And gaming arcades! I'd go there everyday, it would be my pub.
still common in many wealthy east asian cities
I could not agree more!
@@catlerbatty a gaming arcade pub!
I gotta say, the "RM Optimism" comment is on point. A lot of the time, you help people put their pessimism to the side when thinking of how well and what kind of transit we can have.
Not just bikes is the exact opposite and one said that not all suburbs can be saved and have to be abandoned.
@@falconwaver Did he actually say that? What video did he say that in?
@@falconwaver I really enjoy Not Just Bikes, but you can get whiplash going between this channel and that one!
Thank you! Things can get better, I have seen it happen in a wide range of places.
@@matthewp956 Perhaps not directly, buy he did make videos (ST02, ST04, ST07) on why suburbs are not financially sustainable.
This is similar to the reason why I as a swiss person am so obsessed with American transit projects. There is just so much potential with serving areas that have no access to public transit currently, and just the amount of abandoned or underused rail corridors fascinate me.
Absolutely. There’s a lot of demand for good transit here. Hell, Brightline is building a new intercity rail line between Miami and Orlando in Florida because there’s so much demand that it’s actually becoming profitable for private companies to build railroads and operate passenger trains.
@@michaelimbesi2314 Oh god that reminds me of the privatised mess the UK has.
@@michaelimbesi2314 can't wait for the Orlando station to open in a few months! It's even forcing the local commuter line in Orlando, Sunrail, to have extensions to the airport and amusement parks being made now.
Mindless growth and land consumption leaves a lot of scrap room for efficient use, and i dont mean efficient in cars/meter.
That's amazing, funny how us Americans are always praising Europe, but y'all are cheering us on too!
It really is so nice having a channel like yours that consistently gives me hope for transit in the US and Canada. Often I'll walk away from your videos a bit longing and maybe a little frustrated that things aren't moving faster, but never hopeless. I think that's really really important.
Thanks for the comment! I agree that being optimistic is so so so important!~
Just spread the message and do real organizing, the results will come.
The "We Don't Have A Perfect Solution So We Should Do Nothing" mindset just drives me absolutely wild
That's pretty much what a Brain Drain scenario is.
Same, and I see this across all kinds of societal issues. It’s maddening
i do think there's a distinction though between when this mindset is actively defending the status quo and when this mindset is instead looking for a workaround like electric cars, as flawed as that may be
So instead your mindset is "let's waste billions of dollars on a system that few people will use"
Makes perfect sense.
@@Ifslayanct What are you on about? If you build it, the people will use it. It’s not like people are just going to ignore public transit especially when it’s new.
Love the optimism here. Me, my wife, and my daughter live in Guelph, close to downtown. 10-15 years ago, it'd be weird for a family like ours to not have 2 cars. Now, not so much. We use one car and all have bikes (including an electric bike). I can bike to work and walk to most shoppes. The central GO Station is a 15 min walk as well. This one car family structure is becoming more common and as Ontario continues to invest in transit, I imagine more families will follow suit.
In another 10-15 years, these micro changes will have macro impacts.
I love the go station, perfectly integrated with the bus network, always easy to get home for the weekends.
I know Guelph transit is sorta university centric but i truly think Guelph is the best medium size city in ontario.I love those frequencies and clock face scheduling, and downtown Guelph is fantastic.
Such a great comment that could not highlight my point better!
Now that I heard about how Guelph is transforming, I definitely want to visit!
I believe Guelph got a shout-out in that NJB video abt urban3
Guelph is on the cusp of being very transit-oriented. Even the huge sprawling strip malls where Pergola used to be have several mid-rises and even a high-rise on the edge of town; pretty uncommon density for that kind of commercial space. Once the GO train gets proper weekend service to Guelph, I think the flood gates will open.
"RM Optimism" is a big part of why I keep coming back to this channel, even when I'm not on a transit/urbanism kick. There's quite enough content out there telling me everything that sucks about the world. I KNOW what sucks about the world. Anyone who can show me something *good* that's going on from time to time will find it that much easier to get my attention.
This is lowkey what I love most about RM, the plain positivity, it's not try hard, it just is what it is and Reece makes the case for why we should appreciate it. Tbh he's so good at this that even for me, who has no interest in public transpo, I keep my attention for the entire vid. Just as a taxpayer and someone whose interested in my city (TO).
but then the crushing reality sets back in...
Thanks for watching! Things aren't perfect, but the general pace of things is steadily forwards!
Mmmm, this channel and City Beautiful def give me hope!
A few good starts to making new neighborhoods walkable would be:
-Make cul de sacs that have a thru path for pedestrians and cyclists
-Allow mid-density housing (triplex, townhouse, lowrise) and small grocery stores (something like Walmart lite) to be built
-Building the transit first
Edit: Bike paths need to exist in more places and not only over natural gas pipes.
Just getting rid of the single family home restrictions would help a lot. It's supposedly the land of the free. Give people the choice of what to build.
Having local grocery stores is a great tool to get people to get used to walking 5-10 minutes to buy daily necessities, and that lets them understand that not having to always drive everywhere is freedom. It also allows kids to do simple errands, which is important for their growth and maturity.
And allow mixed zoning to be easy enough that someone can turn their multi-car garage into a shop or cafe to service the neighbourhood without fear of the NIMBYs (won't only benefit from such things).
@@soviut303 Some people turn part of the property into a small rental apartment if they're allowed to. It's one way of increasing the density.
@@AnotherDuck Yeah, but that's still residential. Whereas a corner store or cafe can make even low density areas like suburbs more walkable. Imagine how many car trips are saved when all the nearby households don't need to drive 20 minutes to a supermarket just to get milk or bread.
Those would be very good starts. It'd take a lot of 'force' and willpower, but doing stuff like setting a precedent that suburban housing and euclidean zoning don't have to be mandatory across ALL of North America is gonna be huge progress. Of course, you'd be fighting with HOAs (though to be fair it's not like most residents like them either), but nonetheless, with time comes progress, and the progress North America has made in the past 3 years is hopeful enough.
"Activism" can mean a lot of things, but for me it only counts as activism if it inspires hope for a better future. You sir, are certainly a transit activist.
Why thank you!
This is a really important video. I feel like even in a lot of urbanist discourse, people act like the US and Canada are 100% stroads and there are literally no walkable or transit-oriented areas here. There are plenty of areas here where you can happily and comfortably live car-free and experience decent bike infrastructure and high-quality public transport. I would know, I live in one.
Many times it feels like Europeans that just watch N. American channels where the MO of the host is just to dump on the continent for likes and kudos, giving the impression that we are either NYC or some no-name burb. Like there arent tons of places on a spectrum in-between.
It's also worth noting that the US and Canada are hardly the only countries with these problems. Basically everywhere that isn't Europe or Asia has bad urbanism. Australia and New Zealand have more cars per capita than Canada does even.
Some of the newer neighbourhoods in my hometown were also built with a small retail center and include townhomes and duplexes. Even though they are still overwhelming single family, and largely still car dependent since the majority of people need to commute to more central areas where most offices are, they do create little walkable pockets.
Bus service to them isn't great, and the retail businesses are also pretty limited, but it's a start.
@@WillmobilePlus we know they exist but houston have more parkinglots than they have connection points for mass transit. You know how much traffic would improve if half of those parking lots got turned to mixed zoning or locations to connect busses/streetcars etc?
@@davidreichert9392 And most of Central and South America also has bad urbanism !!
Living in Calgary, a city with a massive amount of sprawl, I’m still able to walk to get groceries. I live in a single family home, in an area that is mostly single family homes. I’m a short walk to a BRT, and connected right to the city’s cycle network.
To help walkability in North America, lots of what is needed is kinda simple… Widen the pathway, add a bike lane (our rights of way have room…), improve intersections, convert a basement to a suite, etc. We don’t need to build 18th century style brick buildings and cobblestone roads.
Building the newer multiuse pathways wider, and with concrete rather than asphalt (which seems to hold its shape better over time), seems to have lead to significantly more use than the older, narrower, asphalt paths, now kinda frost heaved and uneven, in a nearby city to me.
@@bearcubdaycare That sounds like a good idea! I really don’t know much about which materials are useful in which situation 🤔 But we do use concrete at bus stops and in the bus advance signal lanes. I figure that’s because of what you’re saying about keeping its shape.
We also do need better bus service, especially in Calgary!
@@RMTransit 100%! Increased frequency and hours of operation would go a long way.
@@humanecities Guess where the funds for that can come from?
**Casually looks at large cycle parking facilities, and 9-16x larger-in-volume transit catchment areas**
I really appreciate your optimism. We are absolutely making progress. The tide has turned in Canada in my lifetime and it's snowballing. It just takes time and a generation to shift their perspectives on what they want out of urban living.
This is how I've always felt. Euro cities are built on thousands of years of incremental change, new pieces being added all the time. The same can, and most likely will, happen in NA as we shift from a car centric development culture to a multi-modal culture. It will take a lot of time, effort, money, and careful planning, but it will happen.
The main difference really with Europe is the lack of single family house zones and that suburbs gets both roads and bike trails linking them to the nearby area.
The thing is that cities in NA grew the same way they did in Europe, only in a quicker time.
Until ww2 the US had the most extensive rail and public transportation network in the world and getting rid of it was a political decision, not something was inevitable. But if you acknowledge it, you realize that the opposite political decsion can be made, it surely isn't easy and it's going to take some time (as it took decades to transform NA in the car centric place it is now) but it's definitely something achievable.
@@nicknickbon22 Yeah, the US changed to car dependency; they can change back.
I hope it happens in my lifetime!! . I’m not old yet but I hope I’m young enough to see change when I’m young enough to still bicycle, etc..
Yeah. City building is a very slow process.
Didn't expect Reece to make a video referencing Linus, but I'm glad he did. What I feel Linus didn't have in his response was exactly what Reece pointed out - optimisim, and a way to improve things. I really hope Mr. Tech Tips comes and sees this video
Who knows! Maybe he will!
🙇 and be open-minded about optimism in other subjects
@@grahamturner2640 Funny how a tech guy (or, honestly, anyone at all) at least has a better understanding and acceptance of urbanism (and detachment from car centricity) than many politicians and those at local governments.
Although this vid is mostly about transit, I think a lot would change by simply getting rid of parking minimums and restrictive zoning policy. In many American cities, about 90% of zoning is single family housing. It's crazy! it's not even legal to open corner stores or convert into a duplex. American cities literally make it illegal to build walkable communities.
Almost as if car companies and the oil industry had influence on government decisions.
@@lilbaz8732 That is not necessarily why it happened that way, because the cultural preference for single family homes predates the automobile by decades if not centuries; City Beautiful has videos about thar. But it certainly has not made undoing this mess any easier.
You're right, but what's frustrating is how slow things are changing. Here in Seattle a project will be approved and then you have years and years of studies, community comments, budget meetings, design reviews etc. If by some miracle the project survives this whole process without being outright canceled, it will be so watered down that it might not achieve the goal it set out to accomplish.
And yet, there is progress. Just painfully slow progress.
Compare that to, e.g. Paris, which has undergone a complete transformation in not much more than a decade.
Remember, every time we get small gains, we build a bigger support base for big changes. It's exponential growth,once 20% of people aren't driving, they will really want fewer cars killing them
The slow rate of change is a problem, the high costs of projects and excessive processes for planning often have an impact on this
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 LTN's!
For so long there hasn't been an intention to change or change actually happening in the right way.
Once we get that on a common ground, and we still haven't quite yet, there will be that snowball effect
Didn't NJB make a video very recently about how Paris completely transformed one crossing and the adjacent street - and barely anything outside of that? Patchy data from places you haven't been to makes it seem like elsewhere is different. Progress is always slow and steady, don't worry.
Remember, all North American cities were very walkable up until 80-100 years ago. Car dominated urban design hasn't been around very long - we could reverse the trend in the same way car dominated infrastructure was built. Fund sidewalks, separated bike lanes, and transit instead of stroads and freeways. Legalize and incentivize high density, mixed use development.
As a European, I do not feed I am special :-).
We live on cities that most of time existed for a while, used to have a "historical center" or at least some plaza, a church, the town hall and some shops that acts as a center. With time cars colonized this space and for a few decades people have been struggling to get back this places and get rid of cars. "Walkable cities" have two leverage points: old people that want to get back their cities as they were and young people demanding more ecological cities.
I used to live in some places in US near San Francisco and near Raleigh (North Carolina). In those places I could not find a center, or I find out that the center is a cross road near the town hall.
My understanding is that in the US, you have to find out places to invent a walkable area and convince people around this project. It requires a lot more effort to invent the future than going back to what cities were.
I'm a Civil engineer... change the requirements and it will happen, end of story. When the car companies changed it to their advantage, well that means we can change it to a fairer and better system.
Awesome video, your optimism is on point and always appreciated! Here’s to a more transit-friendly N. America! ❤️
Thank you! Optimism is good! Thanks for the support!
Great video!
In his video he talks about razing whole neighbourhoods to build amenities, but the funny thing is you could make a huuuuge difference in suburban towns across North America simply by allowing for the construction of a small grocery store in the neighbourhood. How about you get rid of ALL the single-family only zoning laws (like make it illegal to zone that way), and slowly implement mixed use developments across North America. Suburbs could have their own local grocery stores, little family restaurants dotted around, comic stores, cinemas, places for kids and teenagers to hang out, and millions of car journeys, tons of CO2 could be prevented.
I think most people in those areas are concerned with large buildings in general, they don't want a 4 storey apartment block looming over their detached suburban homes. So perhaps compromise on the residential only aspect but implement a height and size limit on any building. That would allow for small supermarkets and businesses to exist while keeping the residents happy. It's not the densification some people want, but it would achieve some of your mixed use goals (probably not going to be able to have a small cinema economically). I think there are lots of places in the US which are kinda like this already.
@@Croz89 Form based zoning over use base zoning is better for everyone, I agree
It's a nice though, but I don't think it gives enough attention to the mentality of car ownership. Live in a neighborhood like your describing, and we are a 1 car family where my partner works shifts, so I walk a lot. But I also see my neighbors drive to the grocery store that is literally a 5 minite walk from me, amd TBH when we have the car I've done it. I try to avoid it, I want to encourage walkability, but once you have a car the incremental usage cost is very low, and lazyness is very tempting.
Unless you banned parking lots at those locations, and street parking, I think you will have trouble eliminating those trips in practice. That isn't to say we shouldn't do it, but I think the formula has to be
Large, mixed use TOD at malls, rail stations, and former downtowns (Which NIMBYs will fight less because it's in fewer back yards and reduces traffic and taxes)-> Bike infrastructure and walkablity improvements in the surrounding suburbs-> increasing density in those suburbs with more mixed use low rise and SDU development (which the first step gives you support for by creating a car independent population)
@@Croz89 we have a national housing crisis, a 3-4 story apartment building is a big whoop, if we had more missing middle housing legalized (literally townhouses and brownstones) we could achieve the requisite densities needed. Homeownership should not give you a 100% veto check over the ability to improve a community, it's this selfish entitlement that's put Cali and NY and the whole nation into the rut that it is on housing
@@mohammedsarker5756 I disagree that NA has a national housing crisis, it has regional housing crises in high demand areas.
"Missing middle" housing can be imposing, many are 3-4 storeys by themselves and if built too close to existing properties can be an issue.
And in the end, like it or not, those homeowners are the voters in local government and will absolutely stop densification proposals as they will be the vast majority. So you have to please them one way or another, so proposals have to be carefully designed and limited in scope. Finding out what they actually have an issue with is important there.
Washington DC is a good example of a walkable city. Despite the problems from WMATA, the fact that DC still has a good framework of a 15 minutes city in most neighborhoods.
Yeah! DC isn't bad! Lots of cars, but a lot of walkable urbanism too!
@@RMTransit Thanks for replying. Could DC do better? Yep. Does DC has good urban bones and lots of walkable amenities? Yep.
I like DC for making me a YIMBY and pro public transportation and DC gave a good example of it. I believe that DC can compete with other cities around the world. Hell, missing middle housing surrounds most of DC and even the suburbs. Just need to raise the numbers.
Not only is DC very walkable, they have, in my opinion, the best subway system in America
Huh?
No subway to the entire NW area/Georgetown.
@@SK-lt1so is there a system that covers the entirety of the city without missing any areas? I mean I live in Philly and we have 2 subway lines that cover maybe 20% of the city. I said it’s the best subway system in America, not the best subway system ever conceptualized.
Connecticut (and Mass too) is making a lot of transit-oriented development moves, I wish transit channels would talk about it more
Any useful links please? Would like to see some of those
@@ivanrubnenkov919 I would recommend looking up Massachusetts East-West Rail, as well as Northern Tier Rail. Plus the Greater Hartford Mobility Study, which will be released in a few days. Both states are also pursuing zoning reforms (for example, HB6890 and SB985 in Connecticut). New train stations in Enfield and Windsor Locks too.
I know it may be easy to dismiss New England because it’s so car dependent rn. But it’s a densely populated area that is quickly making moves away from car dependency and towards TOD. State officials aren’t even shy about saying it either- state govs as well as their legislatures state that we need to move towards mass transit. Honestly I might make a video about it myself if no one else does.
EDIT: also Hartford is unfortunately just one big parking lot, but city officials realized their mistake and are now building entirely new apartment complexes where parking craters used to be. I’m most excited for the Bushnell South development, which is 1000 new apartments on one block in the center of downtown
"Entire neighborhoods would need to be razed to get us there"
Like they were to put the highways in?
The comparisons in ridership between popular trains really helped with visualizing it! Thanks
I take the 49 here in van on a near daily basis to UBC and skytrain to richmond (where I work). The bus is great as its only double the time from driving, 30 to 40 min bus as opposed to a 20 min car drive. Its cheaper and more comfy, not having to focus on the ride. The skytrain is way faster and no traffic. I wish for more trains here to be honest
Americans: “We would have raze entire neighbourhoods to make space for public transport”
Also Americans: raze entire neighbourhoods to build six-lane highway.
I love how you visited my home city, salt lake, and how you keep bringing it up in videos. We're still car-centric, but there's hope for more transit in the future. People still think it's weird when I tell them I bike places instead of drive.
Every time someone thinks it's weird that I cycle places instead of driving, I'm tempted to buy them a one-way ticket to Amsterdam to see the true power of cycling.
If you have a grid it's always possible.
The only place where it's hard is in suburbs with a lot of dead ends. You would need to aquire property to build paths between those dead ends
Property acquisition I see would likely be a deal-breaker for most projects. If the landowners aren’t willing to play ball, the cost of invoking Eminent Domain (because landowners will fight tooth and nail in court) will be formidable, perhaps too much so for many local governments.
Which is kind of a shame. I’d love to see a rural community with dedicated bike roads.
Not if we continue down the path of Big Box retail, we will never have walkability. If people cannot walk to their daily needs a place isn't walkable. In my town, we still have a grocery store but it is unable to compete with the big box grocery stores outside of town, and is only kept alive because of community support. When I grew up in suburbia, in a subdivision, I was able to walk to my friends house in the neighborhood, or even cross through the woods to get to my friends house in another neighborhood but if I wanted to buy something. I had to ask my parents to take me to the store, because there were no shops within walking distance, and the shops were all located on a dangerous stroad. My mother grew up in the town I am living in now, and she talked about how she walked to the record store, the grocery store, the bookstore and several others when she was a child. Today some of those stores still exist and I still see people walking to them, but all of the serious shopping is done by car, even I who lives car lite does most of my shopping at BJs wholesale, Aldi, or Trader Joes none of which are located in walkable places and are all a 20min drive away, I only use the in town grocery store for emergencies. I try to be optimistic as alot of people here in this town walk, like how I walk to the gym daily, but if there is no retail, many will have no place to walk to.
Don't worry, amazon and pickup options are killing those box stores, no one is investing in them anymore and a lot are having trouble finding tenants.
Tbh I think they offer a real opportunity. The large parking lots allow a space for High density residential to be built, and they aren't perfect for walkability, but those power centers offer a lot of variety in options and drive a lot of local bus usage. I'm seeing several in my area redeveloping to act as local hubs.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 Amazon isn't helping the walkability either. infact they may be as bad as the big box in that regard. I actually have more respect for Dollar General than Amazon as they have given many unwalkable rural places a store to walk to now, that they didn't have before like where my camp is located in northern pa, it used to be we had to drive far to walmart to get something but now we can walk to DG instead.
@@linuxman7777 They aren't helping walkability in suburban communities, I agree. But I don't think this should be our main concern, the infrastructure and political cost of redeveloping our suburbs is not worth it, imo. What amazon is doing is killing Commercial retail, and thats leading to those companies wanting a locked in demand base and looking to add high density residential to their property. And this creates an opportunity to build walkable communites with transit supportive density, while avoiding the majority of political battles with NIMBYs, and to the extent you do, having a corperate giant on the pro development side.
Idk about the future of Big Box retail, thats something I would not be optimistic about
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 The best way to avoid corporation of the development side is to keep lots small and offer them to local residents first, and let them use all of the land they are given, No frontage laws, no Floor Area Ratio laws etc. Also it would help if the government would give money directly to smaller developers instead of indirectly subsidizing large corporations like they do now. As for a locked in demand base, that is really only true for restaurants but in most other cases, the average citizen now has access to the same or similar suppliers that the local store has, in America the average citizen can access wholesale quite easily so in 95% of cases they won't pay the local stores higher prices. I hear that in Germany you need a business licence to shop at a wholesaler, which I guess does prevent people from getting the best prices, but it helps local shops.
It's just so hard to have any of this optimism when you've lived your whole life in a city, region, and state that is actively hostile to any type of mobility that isn't car-focused. When your city's most famous bit is how sprawling it is, it's hard to think that things can be better when literally everyone with power is working toward all of the opposite goals.
Vancouver is certainly a wonderful example highlighting the good a city can do. But Vancouver is notoriously good, in a land of bad, and fighting that bad is like climbing Mount Everest: possible, but just barely.
In both Chicago and NYC you can get pretty much anywhere either by walking or public transit.
This is so encouraging and uplifting. Thank you! :D
Very glad I found your channel. I grew up in the Langley Township in the middle of no where as well, and I'm a bit of a development/city planning nerd, so this is perfect for me.
It really feels like Linus has his head buried in the sand on this as his office is literally right next to Langley city, and the difference in how the city is today compared to 7 years ago when I moved here is night and day.
When I moved here it was lowrise (4 storey) apartments and run down shops everywhere with almost no bike lanes/walkability. Now though, with the new OCP in place, there's new 6 storey condos/apartments everywhere, with larger projects on the way in the next couple years ranging from 6 up to 15 storeys. There's several bike lanes that were built in that time as well (Glover road, 208th, 56th, 53rd), with city counsel just last week announcing several new protected bike lanes being built next month around the downtown core that will actually take away the asinine and dangerous slip/turn lanes on several roads around the Langley mall to build them.
There's also the new one way design that will make it more pedestrian focused that will be built in the next couple years, several improvements planned for Fraser highway from the one way to Willowbrook mall, new trails and improvements coming to the Nikomekl river trails system, the list goes on and on.
The current mayor and counsel have stated many times they intend to turn Langley city into a walkable pedestrian focused city, which makes me ecstatic. I love going for bike rides, so the thought of being able to do it safer without having to worry about cars side swiping me is amazing.
There are still areas in Europe that aren't yet as walkable, cyclable, and/or well connected by public transit.
For instance here in the Netherlands, outside of the Randstad area (Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and everything between and close to them) except for some of the larger cities, the public transport can still be fairly lacking, especially in the most rural areas.
So whilst we certainly do some things well, we also definitely still have room for improvement.
For sure! The whole world does!
This is also true for Japan outside of Tokyo.
I think what people forget is living in ‘walkable communities’ will mean greater density. It will likely mean living in an apartment as single family homes. I’m really not sure people in the US are willing to sacrifice what they have. It’s easy to see the problems with what you have but easy to not see the problems of what you’re moving to. Are you ready to move your family of 4 around on public transportation when your child is having a tantrum? Almost every one I know who lives in a dense urban environment eventually moves out of dense areas when they are younger to less dense areas when their older. Americans should feel lucky that they have the choice they do.
If crime didn't exist, population density wouldn't be as bad.
But it really is good to have suburbs available, as a side option. Even better if there's public transportation that connects the two.
Greater density doesn't have to mean living in an apartment. You can create fairly dense neighborhoods comprised of duplexes, condos, townhouses, and yes single family homes. The key is having a mixture of different housing, in my neighborhood for instance it is a mixture of single family homes and duplexes, there are also apartments about a block away. Even a neighborhood of mostly single family homes can be pretty dense, you need to build the homes close together, make the homes have a smaller footprint (especially on the side that faces the street), and have smaller yards. Even existing neighborhoods can increase in density without bulldozing most of the neighborhood by allowing ADUs.
While Linus was quick with this dismissiveness it was on point for his situation. LTT has reviewed ebikes and other options while it is done by those who can give them a proper use and fair review of which Linus himself would not be able to do. Unfortunately Taren(Sp?) who did run most of those review has left.
Less dense doesn't mean it can't be walkable. London has suburbs, they still have shops and a highstreet within walking distance. Also seviced by bus, tube and trains.
I'm from the Denver area and I just got back from visiting Vancouver the other day. It was a shock to see how clean, used, and frequent the transit was.
I blame Denver's problems on the evil car-addicted suburbanite named Jason Spelts.
This made me feel a lot better, thank you
Ah yes, a pipe dream...then I guess the years I spent living in Jersey City was a pipe dream, huh? Smh Linus is so much better than that. When I lived in Jersey City's The Heights, everything from the supermarket, swimming pool, Rite Aid, salon, pet shop, fast-food, good local pizza, and the bank were all on Central Ave, a five-minute walk away. And if we wanted to go to the mall, we could either take a private Spanish jitney, NJT bus, or walk to the HBLR to get to Newport Centre. Or if we wanted to spend the day in NYC, we took a direct NJT bus to the PABT. Jersey City is an example of a transit city in North America done right, and that's not talking about the fact there's the PATH, pedestrianized downtown, and the nearby Hoboken Terminal for NJT rail.
By losing hope on not just walkable cities but ANY big issue in North America and just saying "move to Europe" as the solution is how we don't improve on our society. Many people don't have the luxury to just pack up and move across an ocean and are stuck here. Change IS very much possible, and that's why it's important to speak up.
Also apparently NYC is a pipe dream: one of the largest cities in the Americas?
I share your optimism because creating walkable cities is already happening in North America. No, not in every city and it feels like it's taking forever, but compare Montreal, Vancouver or Boulder or D.C. to 30 years ago and you can see things getting better. Imagine if there was real money and real political momentum behind it.
Good transit within a city is a begin of a process. Transit alone however is not the solution to create a more walkable city. Walkability also means that the destination (office, shops, bars, restaurants and theaters) are within a walkable distance. It will take some time to transform a city to be more walkable. Amsterdam started in the mid- 70ties to transform from a highly car depended city to a walkable inner city and with good cycling infrastructure around that and is still not ready with that transition.
Of course, but these things all help get the ball rolling!
I love your spirit of optimism. I also agree that we are on the cusp of a significant uptake in the development and use of rapid transit here in Canada. The concept of walkable cities doesn't require a big stretch of ones imagination to become a reality. Thanks for such a positive spin on what we can look forward to as time passes.
Thanks Steve! We need to be positive!
All we have to do is build more transit and then upzone the area around it, and then allow for things besides single-family homes to be built. I’m sure there’s more but this is the way to start.
I think downtowns in North America have generally pretty good bones and could easily be transformed and densified. Where I'm less optimistic is with the amount of urban sprawl due to single family zoning, stroads, big box retail parks and huge wide roads. Changing that will be a big job. I think the key will be to build lines out and then densify around stations. Then hopefully people will be attracted to those areas and away from the suburbs. I'm just not sure what you'd do with the remaining suburbs. They will probably stay car dependent for a long time, or perhaps go into decline like areas of Detroit. Perhaps the houses could be demolished and turned into parks or turned back to farming again (wishful thinking I know).
I think the contrasting example to Detroit(decline) would be LA(growth). Famous as an early example of auto dependent sprawl, and over the past few decades, made some serious moves towards building out a metro and TOD: the plan is essentially to make LA more like Tokyo. It's not there yet, and there are conflicts at every step, but that's where the trend is.
@@JH-pe3ro Well that's encouraging
@@JH-pe3ro Los Angeles is definitely building more new transit than any other city in the United States right now (and for the next few decades). Having a dedicated, long term funding source (a portion of the sales tax) does wonders.
That being said, it will never be Tokyo. There will always be tons of low density suburbs surrounding it. The car will remain dominant, even after building a ton of new rail transit.
Detroit's suburbs actually flourished while the city itself declined. due to white flight and the decline of the auto industry.
@@shauncameron8390 Well ok, but there are definitely areas of Detroit that are a shadow of their former selves.
The North American "love affair" with cars is vastly overstated. Many people may admire certain cars, have favorite brands and models, but I don't think very many are in love with the idea of driving every single day, multiple times a day. Funnily enough the idea of car mobility as status symbol is way more prevalent in some developing countries, where car ownership is truly seen as a mark of middle class independence from a literally or virtually nonexistent public transit system. My mom looks at me like I'm nuts when I say it feels great to only have to drive once a week at best.
There is reason for hope but still struggles to be fought. In Vancouver, the Broadway Subway is well under construction, which will finally provide grade-separated rapid transit to Vancouver's "second downtown" and will be a major win for the region. However, the regressive city council just voted down protected bike infrastructure on Broadway despite significant public support. It would have been relatively inexpensive to add during the reconstruction and would have allowed even more car-free trips and more economic activity. Two steps forward, one step back sometimes.
I had the same reaction when Linus said that. Glad you picked up on it.
Now let's figure out how to get Winnipeg LRT!!
Good points, well made. I appreciate your optimism.
We need to end R1 zoning and get better at building here in CA.
Thanks, nice to hear someone be positive about change happening in NA. It takes a frustrating amount of effort to get even small changes done, but we really do gotta celebrate the victories where we can get em. Plenty of people just don't have the option to "move to Europe" so making our cities better is critical if we want a good quality of life for us, and for the next generation
We could definitely use some of your optimism on Vancouver Island. The govt just decided not to invest in the island corridor, which is now being chopped up…it was a really sad day to live in Victoria. Also, I’d love to hear your take in Victoria’s public transit future!
The optimism is a breath of fresh air we needed. Thanks!
I have to say, having recently relocated to this city from DFW, Oklahoma City is (by comparison anyway) WAY more walkable than any other city I’ve been to. It’s been a blast living here and just being able to walk to restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, etc.
My partner and I walk to our local movie theater, walk to a new breakfast place on the weekend, and she even walks to work. I’ve felt more connected to OKC living here for six months, than I ever did in Texas. OKC also has decent public transit options. It’s a super slept on city.
I live in Chicago and appreciate the connectivity here, although there’s a lot of room for improvement. I’ve also lived in the Netherlands and Japan, where transit is generally really efficient. One thing I’d like to see (optimism) in the US is a better/faster interstate rail system, or an improvement of the Amtrak so we’re not having to drive and fly everywhere
Well Amtrak is more funding now and are planning on expanding it's network. Unfortunately for a county as big as the U.S. it's easier said than done. Usually high speed rail is only more logical than flying if you're traveling under 500 miles. Most major cities in the U.S. (except the northeast where we have high speed rail) are much further away than that. The state of Texas alone is 16 times bigger than the Netherlands.
I like Linus a lot but I have a feeling he would choose to live in a McMansion 10 minutes outside of a walkable city no matter what.
Outside of tech I've only ever heard bad takes from him
@@tann_man He has talked about how he was seriously considering making LTT a worker cooperative in his will, that's a pretty good take IMO.
@@Junebug89 Are you being facetious? That's an awful take. Why not live out his principles and coop immediately? Oh yeah...coops don't work.
It's certainly possible. They have lots of wide open spaces in their suburban cityscapes which can be used to build wider sidewalks, shared pedestrian cycle paths, and plonk in a rail transit or BRT system. The square grid system also makes this much easier
Hey! I think alot of cities in North America are changing, alot in Canada; like you mentioned. But do you think you can make a video about Halifax's transit, and what can be improved? Kinda simmilar to the Salt Lake City transit video you made.. 🤔
It’s really cool that the ‘walkability and transit’ discussion has reach far beyond a select few nerdy TH-cam channels. It gives me a lot of hope for meaningful change.
It would have been cool to mention Latin American examples of good urbanism and people centric approaches you could have used in your video . Mexico and South America are plenty of them. Greetings from Bogotá Colombia
Thanks for making the awesome video! I'm in a small city interior BC and the bus here is so bad and unreliable. I hope things improve in the future and that I can hang up my driving gloves more and more as I get older.
Born and raised in Vancouver; still in Vancouver, now primary breadwinner of a family of four (living in a 1.5 bedroom basement suite), no car - we bike and transit everywhere
I hate to say it because I'm a LTT fan as well, but one of the most common strategies for people who don't actually want change is to convince others that change is impossible and there's no point in trying. They get to preserve their virtuous image by claiming to want progress in principle while still acting as a barrier to it happening. It's great to want to assume everyone is acting in good faith and sometimes they are, but it's often not the case.
Many European cities have shifted away from car-centric culture, because the people chose it and drove the changes.
Far too many Americans (and, I suspect, Canadians) fully-expect to be car-dependent their entire life. Far too many simply cannot imagine life without a car.
While I'm planning on buying an electric-assisted cargo bike, and using it for a great many errands, my wife (who grew up in rural areas) still fully expects to be car-dependent her entire life. She has zero interest in living somewhere with enough population density that public transit might be practical, which might be walkable.
Because I've lived in Europe and Asia, I'm far more open to the idea of having transit, a bicycle or walking as the primary modes of getting around. I'm far more comfortable with living somewhere sufficiently dense that these are realistic.
When I was a teenager, getting a driver's license was a rite of passage. You had no mobility until such time as you had a license and access to car. Sure, I had a bike before that, but I was limited in how far I could go. And the times when I lived in a rural area, riding a bike on the road was taking your life in your hands. It was considerably less dangerous riding a bike on rural roads in Europe or Asia.
Modern teens and Millennials are uninterested in having a drivers license. They recognize that cars are poor investments and many of them are sufficiently squeezed, financially, that they're choosing lifestyles which do not require a car. So it's possible the USA is just a couple decades behind Europe; it's a source of optimism to me. Sadly, though, I wouldn't bet money on it. American Exceptionalism still widely buys into the idea that consuming an outsized fraction of the world's resources is, somehow, our birthright and people can get downright violent when that notion is challenged.
Was hoping to see a response, thanks for being awesome
Great video! That's not Le Plateau @4:24 though ;)
Wow, I responded to that video in the comments for that exact reason so I'm glad to see this being addressed by urbanists with some reach. What I hope is this sparks some interest from the LTT folks to start covering more transit tech, among other things. A "don't use your car for a week" challenge from Linus would be pretty good at identifying and hopefully addressing some of the issues his neighbourhood might suffer from in terms of walkability.
I honestly think plenty of the peeps over at LMG/LTT are pretty positive of urbanism. Linus wasn't exactly optimistic, but it was clear that he acknowledged that car centricity was something we should move away from. Then their team also had Taran who's made multiple micromobility videos (e-scooters and e-bikes) and it's clear that he's held onto not needing a car for the majority of his days, for a long time now. Not sure of any other example since a portion of the rest are instead 'car guys', but that doesn't detest the idea that most of LMG (not discounting the ones who are car guys either) would be on board with transit tech.
@@jinsory5582 Possibly a little bit of a hot take, but I feel like you can be a "car guy" and still actually be pro-urbanist. Cars are pretty cool, they just don't need to be the center of our lives. I mean, the cool things about cars are definitely not when you have to use them to get to your local store or school.
what many people fail to realize is that North America has enough places that were designed to be walkable from the start and still have enough of those bones/meat present to fit EVERYONE comfortably already. We just need to invest in housing, transit, and cycling in a (relatively) few key places, and then we are set! Places primarily built around rail/walking: Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, omaha, buffalo NY, most County seats in Indiana etc etc. Places initially built for walking: NYC, Boston, Portland Maine, Savanna Georgia etc etc.. It can be done, we just have to recognize what we have and use it!! (Sorry my examples were only U.S. ons, that's my homeland! :) We have Reece to give us Canadian examples! :) )
It’s almost too easy to achieve. Pretty much every major city has vast vacant lots and flat parking lots with mothballed or lightly used rail alignments. Any new neighbourhood only need to offer cheap rentals and you’d have young workers queuing for the new lifestyle which is only how many Americans were living prior to the car anyway.
you're making a lot of valid & relaxed point of views it's true, most tri-state areas here in North America don't have every walkable or vast cities constract to countries like e.g. across the Atlantic/Pacfic because of lack of funds or economic issues, public transportation is good but sometimes it can be pain for people but i'm optimistic it could begin in the possible future & oh yes some cities are great to walk in without large highways & expressway.
My response: you neglected the cycling and transit combination. There are lots of train station parking facilities that have and are being built right now in the Netherlands. There's also quite a few in Japan, including rural.
like with many discussions in mainstream culture these things lack so much fucking nuance. Its not cars or no cars. Its people choosing to use their cars less for the majority of their trips because its easier to use public transport, walk or cycle. Most people in Holland are drivers, cyclists, public transport users, and pedestrians. The key is designing towns and cities so that more and more people leave their car at home
I’m still out there living in my car dependent suburb. I hope eventually I’ll be able to move out and somewhere walkable.
The place that’s on my radar is Portland. Their rail network looks really impressive, and the cost of living seems close to what it is in my hometown.
Here in Brooklyn, my friend asked me to meet for coffee at a shop near a stop on my bus route and his subway stop. Less walking than in the parking lot of a suburban mall.
Every bloody skytrain station has either become, or is in the process of becoming, a walkable urban center. Vancouver is so walkable and transit oriented that I use my car once a week maybe, and that's always to drive out to Langley or Abbotsford. What is Linus smoking, because if it isn't thermal paste, I want some.
I enjoy this video very much, had a very similar feeling when watching his comment, I'm glad you wrote and created a well explain response to verbalise my feelings !
Thanks for watching!
I've heard 'it's too far gone, give up basically' or 'we've tried stuff sometimes, didn't fix everything, so urbanism won't work' before and thought this too, so it's good for that too 👍
9:37 I really really would like that train to Banff… 😔 someday. *looks at the mountains longingly*
Even in my suburban home that gets called a suburban sprawl hell hole, there has been a ton of effort in improving bicycling infrastructure, definitely ain't perfect, but I do think it's a solid start.
love the fact that you’ve touched that we start and end without being able to drive a car.
Bit of a background, I am European (Portugal), and although it’s not as bad as NA, people are very car dependent. I would rely on buses to go to school, but as soon as I got a license, I would drive everywhere. I lived in the UK where the situation would be similar, but mostly because traffic in Bristol was terrible and would affect buses, and the trains in the UK are so expensive that it would be cheaper to take a car to (for example) London and book accommodation with parking included.
After that, I have spent 1 year in Australia, half of that working in Melbourne. I was living in the CBD, and did not have a car, but it was here that I never felt the need for one. The tram networks is frequent and extensive, but for me the best were the trains. They are frequent, there are a lot of routes and they go so far away and to super interesting places to visit. Not only that, the fare is the same as the one you have in the city Centre, which meant that since I had a monthly pass for going to work during the week, I could visit anywhere for no extra cost during the weekend and days off.
After living in Melbourne I reached the conclusion I don’t need a car if living in a city with a good, clean and affordable transit system (who would have tough…). Anyway, after those 6 month I bought a car because I did a roundtrip all around Australia, but other than that I could easily live without one and rent when needed.
Now I am living in Toronto, and the difference to Melbourne and Europe is crazy, mostly with the trains. With a Go Train the places are can go are fewer, it is more expensive and less frequent. The subway is kind of a mess (I take it everyday to work), a lot of crime, almost everyday there is an issue and they are increasing the fares while reducing service. All this while there is tons of traffic and everyone I know that drives complains about it. It almost like they don’t want to solve it… I have been following your videos about Toronto and it is great that there are so many good projects going, better late than never. I live in Downtown, so I am good in the city center, but outside? Right now I feel super restricted without a car in Toronto…
Buy a car then. Dude I’m sorry but Europeans a weird. Explain to me why I would walk anywhere, when I can drive
Congrats on 200k!
Just out of curiousity, do you have an editor, and what's the payment structure like? If you don't want to disclose it in the comments I'd be happy to send you an email :)
We should be optimistic and there is more we can do. But there are some low density developments in the US that are a lost cause. Fixing entire cities to be more dense in some cases isn't practical. IMO we to instead focus on special density islands. Cities should create special high density/walkable islands/campuses with unique zoning rules and focused around rapids transit stations so those that want to work/play/shop using transit can. And those that don't can live in lost cause sprawl. Current city zones are typically residential, commercial, industrial, office, and municipal. Adding a new zone say "transit zoning" would help so much for urban planning.
I absolutely agree, existing regional rail stations, dilated downtowns, and malls are great locations for this.
Once we build high density mixed use cores, we can build bike lanes in suburbs connecting to them, zone SDUs to build up those suburbs, and create bus ROW based off the higher two way transit demand we've created. And that way we can save our suburbs in a 20 year horizon.
I commented on that video about this exact point!
Would love RM Transit, Not Just Bikes and LTT to do a panel and actually have a discussion on this. I know I’d watch it.
There are cities that aren't that far away from being ideal in NA. NYC, Washington DC, Denver and Philly all come to mind. Those cities aren't perfectly designed, but they have enough public transit and enough walkable areas to give a bit of hope.
NYC is probably the closest thing in the western world to Tokyo in terms of rail transit
People seem to forget that london hasn’t had a new underground line since 1972, America is actually building a lot of good stuff
well they built the over ground and Queen Elizabeth line though.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 overground already existed was just part of national rail network no? And yeah it only took them 50 years between opening the Victoria line and opening the Elizabeth line. In fairness they have it very good in london but there’s many other cities around England with shite public transport and cycling infrastructure
We had the jubilee line extension in 1999 which sure isn't a new line, but it was a very significant extension to an existing line. The entire DLR network was built from 1987 onwards. The London Overground became a thing which sure used a lot of existing infrastructure but a lot of it was overhauled so much that it might as well be considered new (especially for the east London line - the stations in hackney were completely new), also the service was so dramatically improved by TFL that I think it should count as new. Also I think it's a bit of a reach not to acknowledge the Elizabeth line as a new line. Also various other smaller extensions have happened since then like various extensions to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, the recent northern line extension. Wood lane station opened. I'm probably missing a few. Point is I think it's a bit unfair to say London has had no new underground lines since 1972...
@@theowainwright7406 Proud to say I live in the most pedestrian friendly city in the UK 2023.
I think it's best to look at places which ARE still building. London is good, but I am not sure I'd say the best!
I was actually considering making a video on this exact same topic. But seeing that I live in Salt Lake City I was going to talk about specific projects and room for improvement around the city
This video was what I needed after watching that LTT episode as well.
It's worth noting that there's twice daily bus service to nearly every address...school buses. So, clearly some level of transit is possible nearly everywhere. Another daily trip or two of the school bus should be possible, for the school age and the elderly.
One of the very interesting developments is that new suburbs in USA are often very walkable, organized around small "town centers" with shops and entertainment.
The only thing they are missing is the high capacity rapid transit to connect these "town centers" with the downtown.
@@erejnion Auckland, New Zealand is like this. There are like three town centres on my way to work, lol! Three within a few kilometres of my suburban home!
We also have 'city centres', along side the 'town centres.' But at the end of the day, I think it would simpler to just call them major and minor metro centres.
We have been increasing density lately. But, back then when it was lower density, we still had lots of centres. It's one of the reasons why I won't move to Australia... mono-centric metros are stupid.
When you add in transit, with cycle parking, it's even even better! 9-16x more catchment area to increase revenue for services! The whole metro would be accessible by a short bike ride, then rapid transit, then a short walk or public transport bicycle. Most likely walking at the end (which does simplify things), because amenities would be consolidated in these centres.
It actually makes shopping pretty easy too. After a short cycle to your local centre... and they don't have what you want, you can just leave you bike alone, and take a bus to the next centre. And the shop will only be a short walk away.
@@C0deH0wler I think the terms we use over here are primary and secondary city centers, but I wasn't sure people will understand me if I just say "secondary city center". But yeah, that's the normal way to do city planning. In the past, esp in old cities like in Europe, it happened naturally as the city grew and absorbed satellite towns, so it's good that people are returning to this model.
Thank you! I felt the exact same way when I saw Linus' video. Here's to a better future! ❤
8:11 This is me in rural Indiana. Trying to use the bus (run like a cab service) to get to work is a struggle at times. Hopefully it will get more funding, and my travel payments will help pay for a better future of transit.
Visited Vancouver this past weekend, took the Amtrak cascades up there and then used the sky train to get to the waterfront area. Walked and biked everywhere else, was a great few days!
As you pointed out it's not correct to see both Europe and North America as monolithes: in fact there can be a huge diference in the quality of public transportation even between nearby cities.
I live in Verona for example, one of the most car friendly cities in Italy where at the moment there's only a bus system with few dedicated lanes, with vehicles often stuck in traffic, but nearby cities like Padua and (mainland)Venice have modern light rail lines in continuous expansion and another nearby city, Brescia, has even a metro line even if it has 30% less population than my hometown.
So there's definitely room for improvement in both continents.
Walled downtown Quebec City has narrow streets that were designed for the horse. Bus service within the walled city is very impractical. Fastest most direct way just seems to be on bike or foot. Parking is also scarce downtown.
brampton transit is a pretty good model for suburban service first transit, though could use more TOD
I think that walkable cities are possible in NA but we have to improvise a little since so much of NA is car-dependent suburbia. First, we need to make sure that most of the downtown and other “urban” and central areas of the cities are linked with some form of rail transit. BRT won’t cut it in these areas. In suburban areas we can build shopping centers with more walkability (similar to lifestyle centers) and also include transit hubs for connectivity. Finally we could find ways to connect the suburban neighborhoods by providing transit service in the form of BRT or suburban light rail. Large megacities such as Dallas or Houston could also benefit from a subway system (Toronto style not NYC style). Larger stations are also more beneficial than smaller ones in these cities since we could also put businesses and restaurants/retail space inside.
We also need to staff all heavily used forms of transit with police/security since crime is the #1 reason why NIMBY’s are against transit/urbanist development. This would also get more policemen out of their cars as well and onto bikes/busses/transit leading to less money being spent on vehicles by law enforcement agencies.
Honestly, using the Canada model for suburbs is good as a base but we need to milk it more and make the transit more reliable.
The main hurdle we need to overcome is the fact that autocentrism is the “hot trend” in North America. Once we can make bikes/transit/walking (even rideshare/Uber) the “hot trend”, more people would partake in it and businesses will cater to it and it’ll be a lot easier for our cities to become walkable. That was what happened in Europe and it can definitely happen here.
Who's we?
@@tann_man Canadians AND Americans, the target audience of this video. When I said the Canada model, I was mostly referring to Americans but Canada could benefit from strengthening it’s own model as well.
@@highway2heaven91 No thanks. I as an American will not be building any infrastructure because that's not my expertise nor my job. I also would prefer not to have my property violently taken from me so the state can use it to attempt to build these things either.
@@tann_man Whoa, nobody said anything about you personally building anything. Also no one said anything about you giving up your property. This was just a suggestion to make North American cities popular, like the other suggestions in the comment section of this video.
@@highway2heaven91 You understand I was describing taxation right? If you think 'we' as in the state should accomplish these proposals, I oppose it for my previously stated reason.
Replace the far left lane of all multilane freeways with trains.
6:21 As recently as 60-65 years ago, there were plans to build a motorway (similar to a German autobahn) right through Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. People’s ‘thinking” was still very car-centric back then, just a couple of generations ago, although it started to change soon after that.
I watched the same video and immediately thought of you and your channel, love that you addressed this!