I have idea. Let's make lock-picking competition on the Charles bridge. It will be fun, many locks are easier to lock-pick than to cut and you'll get free workforce to remove those locks.

The biggest fail here is how Janek is still not the Mayor of Prague.

Oh dear that tourist was so rude. Seriously, some people are so damn selfish.

There's a city in Portugal (Aveiro) where they give little ribbons so you can tie it on the bridge instead of putting locks. Leaves the bridge all colorful and doesn't hurt the structure.

For the grass in the park problem, this is the perfect moment to map the hot spots and plan a new layout. I'm not a city planner or landscape designer, i am UX designer and this looks like similar problems we have with products :)

Here in Poland there is a lot of illegal sellers offering locks around bridges and charging extra to engrave names on it. It makes me furious because they suggest it to tourists that maybe otherwise would not have had the idea to do it or would just not had a lock in hand at that moment. Maybe a cool idea of video is to look out where the locks are coming from. If many locks look the same it's a sign they all came from the same place.

Maybe you need to get together with the Lock Picking Lawyer and make it a viral thing for people in Prauge to go pick the love locks and take them home with them? :D

Remove the locks...full stop! Tourists needs to learn.

My first time to Paris, I bought a beautiful brass turtle lock to put on the bridge. We never thought or knew what a problem it was. I read an article about if and that lock ended up not being put out - still have it. We were ignorant, but fortunately learned before we added to the problem. I think Honest Guide and other channels like it help to educate tourists, though obviously there are those who prefer to be stupid as opposed to ignorant.

Those fences with lovelocks are perfect training grounds for lock-picking amateurs! I'm sure that there is a lock-picking community in Prague. You should probably reach out to them and suggest removing those lovelocks. You could even make a competition and make a vid about it! It's a win-win-win situation =D

I remember long time ago they renovated a huge square in my city but had no idea where to put the sidewalks. So they planted grass and they put a sign saying something like "feel free to walk on the grass, we will put sidewalks on the trodden paths afterwards". And they did. So don't consider it a fail, just convince the city to finish the job ;)

It's not a fail if you're doing it to make something better ❤️ I wish you guys were on the city council because you clearly care about this city

*Idea on how to fix the dead grass area* (from a landscaper). The fastest, cheapest, simplest way, is to just mulch it. Either do the whole thing with mulch, OR, make a pathway with mulch, and try again to re-seed the other grassy areas around it. You can go one step further (budget notwithstanding) and line the pathway with rocks. Keep in mind, mulch usually needs to be topped up once a year, since it will degrade, as well as get knocked around by foot traffic. And as a personal preference, get the natural brown mulch, not the black or red dyed shit. Black mulch starts to turn white and moldy in areas, and red is just ugly. If people see a clear pathway with mulch, hopefully they are more likely to walk on there, rather than the grass. If you want to re-seed, then make sure you do it during the rainy months (in my area, that would be October, November, April, May. Grass needs lots of water to get established, and if the lawn isn't irrigated, then the seeds won't take. If you don't want to rototill the area again, then just put down a layer of new soil, and put grass seed on that, with some peat moss on top.

The City of Prague is to blame, of course. It is their job to create a concept that not only attracts tourists but also manages the impact they have on the city and protect it from all the negatives that come along. Overtourism is destroying some of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Luckily Prague is far from such a situation but there's some worrying signs already. Good job Janek for always pointing out things that need to be fixed! He's actually saving them time, if they bothered to watch / do something about the issues he has already brought to light. Btw, about the green space near the "dancing" building - an elegant, low fence with a sign "do not walk on the grass" could be a cost effective solution.

4:42 I was thinking a funny way to dispose of those locks... and the only thing that comes into mind is to organized a lockpingking competition. LPL fans get some fun and the city gets rids of locks, win win.

As a scooter driver I love traffic circles a lot. It makes survival in crowded places easier.

How dare you be in that place next to the railings first filming a video. Clearly that woman owns that spot and how rude of you to interrupt her photograph 🤣 fucking people are so rude. The flip side to tourism

I would love to help revitalize the grass at the statue near the dancing house. As you mentioned in the video, I think if they could create a cement or new cobblestone walkway,, the might help to keep people off the grass. A sign banning it might help too. Also, regarding the love locks, they should set up a single dedicated area- like erect a wall or something that would serve as the city's new and only love lock site. Put signs up to ban love locks everywhere else in the city. Then, they could schedule a day to invite volunteers to help remove all the love locks from the beautiful historic fence lines and other locations. You guys care deeply about the city, and you're not alone! All the best!

That tourist Karen...

No fails from you, you guys just saved my life many times!! When I moved to Prague 4/5 years ago I didnt know anyyyything! learned it all from you. I never got scammed, but there were a lot of situations I could have been scammed if I didnt watch your videos! Also I gained a lot of weight just because I had to try out all the food and beer spots you guys showed haha. Only ate a trldnik once because a friend wanted to share, the rest local foods :D

ad the grass - i think all you need to do to "deter" tourists is make 2 straight paths, 1 on each side of the "statue" so they can walk through there, it usually significantly decreases people walking on grass when they do have a "path"

As a tourist, on the roundabout instance, my personal thought would be, “Good mess, they have traffic going right through an ancient gothic arch into some haphazard roundabout? Wow… weird priorities..”

Please try removing the locks again. I did something similar by picking locks in my town and now i actually have a whole bucket of them sitting on my closet.

The thing I LOVE the MOST is the roundabout.

About the car traffic: I totally agree, there's too many cars (and also reckless drivers) in the old town. As from the perspective of a tourist, I wouldn't mind the whole old city be car free.

I'm glad you left that tourist at 4:03 being rude in the video. Maybe she'll watch it and find out that you make these videos to help people like her. Grr she made me mad.

It got me cracking up when he said, "oh, and if you're wondering if all of this is legal, I don't know. 🤣

Idea! Plant flowers instead of grass near the dancing house. I bet tourists won’t have an audacity to go over flowers, at least in a hot season

Bolt those locks.

When I came into Prague last week, my Regiojet night coach drove over Jirásek Bridge & past the Honest Grass, & I was dismayed to see how the condition of it had deteriorated. I think the current situation under the Powder Tower is satisfactory, but I do think they could widen the pavements to make more room for pedestrians. It probably would've been wide enough for 2-way traffic 50 years ago back when cars were narrower.

To me, Prague is just another European city. But this man’s passion towards the betterment of his city means a lot. He’s literally just a concerned an caring citizen that changed the city for years to come. The scrubbing of the filth from the city is always appreciated no matter where it is

You should run for the mayor of Prague

I´m waiting for "cutting the love locks - part 2"!

Yes! Redo the grass and once it is back…Place stepping stones around the statue…easy way to create a path without laying cement. As far as the love locks go…stupid is as stupid does. They will never stop…but if you keep up on the cutting of them then there will not be so much to cut like last time. Crazy idea…recruit the tourists to cut them off? Take home a real love lock from Prague! Thanks for all you do guys!!

You're right, the roundabout and the traffic is an eyesore! The proposal with pedestrian zone, trees and tram tracks is waaaay better. Build for people, not cars! Best regards, an urban planner.

Leave the roundabouts but close nearby streets on weekends and in the evenings. We did it with Krakowskie Przedmieście street in historical center of Warsaw and it works great!

As an architecture student I'm very intrigued by the first "failed" project. I think it's a nice little project to design that public space in such a way that people will actually stop ruining the grass. Try and analyse where people like to stand and how they like to move around. The fact that you planted the grass is actually a great advantage, because now you can easily spot this, just by looking at the grass and where it has weathered. P.S. If you can't find an actual architect/city planner to do this, I'd be more then happy to help!

As for the locks, there is a Luzhkov Bridge in Moscow, there are special "trees" for locks, which are then easier to dismantle entirely than to cut off one lock at a time.

I was really hopeful that the pandemic was gonna change certain things. Travel was pretty much restriction-free last summer, yet the pre-covid mania was not coming back, life seemed somewhat slower, honest local businesses started opening up in the center... It was looking pretty optimistic. And not just in Prague, all the countries I traveled during covid seemed to be moving in the same direction. Fast forward to this summer, seeing what's happening is pretty shocking and it honestly makes me want to throw up. It's like the overtourism of 2019 on steroids.

I feel that one of the biggest fails in Prague are the bike paths. With so many trams they could easily close a lot of streets in the center and along the Vltava for cars and only allow trams, pedestrians and bikes.

A U.S. university planted grass on the Quad. Then let the students walk on it. After determining where the grass was worn, they poured concrete for the walk ways.

Makes you wonder, from all those "love locks", how many couples have actually stayed together since they put the locks up.

I have simple solution to make Prague nicer: Simply replace it with Brno.

9:42 I agree with you guys, it's weird. I'm from Canada and I can say that people do not know how to drive in a traffic circle. That's probably why there's so many signs

1. That sucks 2. If i lived in Prague i’d harvest the love locks about once a month for scrap metal. 3. I like roundabouts. Also probably fun to watch from a Café.

There's a grass and landscaping technique that can produce grass that can be walked on. I'm not sure what part of the expense is material vs labor but it involves putting some kind of support mesh in the ground. This makes it so the ground doesn't compress and kill the roots. It's used by parks, golf courses, etc. It works so well that cars can even drive over it regularly without killing the grass. It's even being used to make driveways that lead to a garage as it's more environmentally friendly than pavement.

You can't fail when you actually do things. What failed is people's brain for being so selfish, putting locks for a "love" that probably doesn't exist anymore. And not respecting nature to take a picture they will never look at again... Well done to you guys.

That roundabout is probably a temporary fix for the mess that was there before. I'm sure IPR/CAMP have ideas (did I see a tram line going through there?) and with time they'll implement it. Prague has been improving in this sense lately and there's no sign of stopping .)

If you do anything about the dancing building, you should create an pavement or path to the statue and incorporate the "photo hot-spots" in that. Like a larger spots on the path for the photo taking spots. That might reduce wear on grass and might inspire people to take photos on specific spot that a paved.

The best compliment for your work is the irrelevance of your "fails" and their small number. Keep up the good work!

There needs to be a fine for those love locks. Just a weird trend that ruins the beauty of the old bridge

I want a channel like this about Amsterdam. Much love from the Netherlands!

It’s hard for a person to put a lock on anything if they lack fingers. Maybe a better use for the bolt cutters? 🤔

Some of these things seem like they're just things that will have to be done every few years during the off-season.

In some cities they have beautiful alternative to hang padlocks on. A wall forming the word love, a heart, a metal tree or some other kind of artwork especially designed for this purpose. Maybe that's a solution for the bridge (or better, tie the people who do it to the bridge, because honestly I think they are just stupid and need to feel the consequences 😉).

Regarding the wavy building...just put a spot in cobble stone where people can take their mandatory picture and the back part put grass and build a small fence to it

9:08 At Budapest there's a square between the castle hill and the Chainbridge, Clark Ádám square, and it has got a roundabout its now under reconstrucktion but usually in the middle of the roundabout there's a garden of flower. I suggest thing like so would suit this roundabout.

I absolutely love people like you, using their relatively short time on the planet to make things better. If only everyone had the same attitude. Hats off to everything you do, sir.

On that drawing of the gate area, someone circled the design and said let's go with this, and someone else took that way too seriously. I was thinking they could grow grass in the middle of the roundabout 🤷🏻

Personally I think there should be a concrete path which allows for people to go to the statue, while also bringing back grass to have the final finish. The path should also have barriers to allow for people to respect the garden.

For the grass problem, it would be really cool if some sort of patern could be made that would resemble the Czech flag. 🇨🇿

2:30 you can put 'green mesh' like for cars when the're parking on the grass.

6:02 yeah the tram line looked a lot better... but hey, here in Florence that same roundabout would have had parking lots leading up to it rather than that large sidewalk... also, green spaces, if the city does nothing put some vases with plants in them, that area is really bland right now.

Get electric rebar cutter! It will not damage the fence, does not tire your arms. And with the money collected from all the brass from the Locks it will Pay for itself.

If you decide to do another round of lock cutting, let us know, I'll bring my own bolt-cutters

This may sound very bad, but hear me out. Whole that area should be covered in concrete slabs and concrete planters. Like around the statue there should be white gravel that form a walkway to it and a area to walk around, it shall have stones/bricks to show the separation between the walking area and the "grass". The grass area where folk stand to take the photo shall be covered in concert blocks that allow grass to grow inside them, that prevent the grass from being destroyed at the roots so it will keep grow and look green again, then put planters around the area, heavy portable concert planters is often good way to make an area look nice and also make it a bit safer. The adventade with big planters is that the city can have an area where they plant and grow the flowers, then move the to where they are needed, or remove them during the winter to help with road maintenance, and many do forget that gravel and stones slabs can look good and were often used in to decorate castle gardens, so that it just need to be grass is a restrictive idea, and when it rain the dirt that the grass need can be washed away during rain so it block drainage system, so the whole area need to be rebuild to dirt do not flow towards the street so it keep much of the water and then have a drainage that is a bit higher but that can prevent floodings and that is made so it is easy to clean. I hope you can get that area and get some help to design it, but let architects make an layout for the area and not "designers", for designers have often an eye for the esthetic but may lack the knowledge about durability a city need, material usage and how the area is affected during different seasonal climates. Btw, great video and I think most of this was good try, great inspirations and not fails.

Oh my god, it's the Honest Circle!

I can’t imagine how you can consider any of what you do a "fail." You guys do such amazing work! It’s not your fault that tourists or city government do stupid things.

4:09 you got a karen there

An idea for collab with another huge channel (LockPickingLawyer). Fly him to Prague, and check how many locks he can unlock in 1h. You can even donate X amount of euros per locker he can take out to a institution or to a renewal in the city. It'd also be interesting if he can detail how he opened them, so people can go there and do the same. Collaborating with another channel with high views, contributing positively for the city and still raising money! It's a bonus formula for me!

honestly the drawing that they made for the street was already 10 times more beautiful than that stupid roundabout. i wish they had picted that idea instead of this, i never even fisited but i already dont want to go to that part just because it looks so ugly when it could be so beautiful.

solution to 1st point. if you want the area to look nicer, put a tree next to the area positioned in front of the camera perspective, this blocks photographers from standing on the grass, making them go on the sidewalk

Honestly I don’t see anything wrong with the Roundabouts, I don’t really know what your issue is with them. There are roads there and it has seemed to limit traffic constantly under the powder tower. In most European major cities roundabouts are quite common and I don’t think one on the floor is that ugly. Also the road signs are a bit ugly but a common thing in any city. The pavements in that part of town are also very large and right next to a big pedestrian square outside Palladium. Don’t really see a major issue here

Re the grass… it needs gravel or paving stones and raised flower boxes, which will force people onto the gravel/pavers and iff the plants. Grass just won't work if there aren't obstacles to keep feet where they belong.

Hi! I'm not exactly a tourist since I live here, I'm an immigrant tho, and I gotta say that Prague's historical centre has a huge problem with car accessibility, in the sense that there's too much of it! From the areas around Narodni Třida to the Powder Gate, and even just short of the beautiful Old Town Square there's car traffic, and takes away so much space to pedestrians and activities (not necessarily talking about Trdlnik shops tho haha). Even when there's no traffic the whole city centre is a huge parking slot, there's cars parked literally everywhere, and it's not hard to imagine how much better the city would look if it didn't have all these cars. Maybe there would be space for trees, or bike lanes :) On top of that the historical centre is perfectly serviced by public transportation 24/7, so for the majority of people there is already a viable alternative:D

for the fence to be free of love locks one would have to entforce it, meaning every lovelock gets cut down the same day it is put on. And a sign that says its forbidden, I think that would be of interrest for the city too.

Tags: There's a saying in Czech: Mena hloupych na všech sloupych... 🤣🤣🤣 Sorry for the probably wrong spelling 🤣 Meaning: "Names of stupid people on all poles...." 🤪

Hats off to you for trying to improve that area! I wouldn't count that as a failure because you improved that area!

Put times for when normal traffic is allowed into those areas. This allows local workers to arrive and depart but helps prevent tourist traffic. It has the added benefit of aiding delivery trucks enter and leave tourist areas more quickly.

The roundabout is a "quick build" installation with the posts and signs and striping. It's way cheaper and quicker to build than a real roundabout and they're very safe, and pretty common in the UK and I've even seen a few in the US... The contraflow bike lanes are pretty sweet too.

The roundabout is making the place look disgusting 😭 waste of charm

I don’t think that the roundabout is the worst idea. I come from a historic city and usually when trying to solve a traffic issue they would implement some kind of junction reconfiguration on a 6-12 month trial basis so that they can undertake studies and decide whether to make the changes permanent. I would imagine it’s more cost effective to not adapt kerbs and install posts and painted lines & cats eyes. If the trial is successful the street furniture could be upgraded at a later date to make the change look more aesthetically pleasing.

People are unthinking peanuts.

Roundabout is for tourist buses. Allows driver to make full circles where all seats have a view.

PLS PLS PLS GET YOUR BOLT CUTTERS AND DO IT AGAIN!!!!! Lol

As they say in silicon valley: Fail fast and fail forward. You're doing great stuff Honest Guide! As a Canadian who is currently visiting Prague, you've absolutely added to my experience here in the city!

Cars should be banished (with exceptions) in the city centres and foot and bike traffic should be prioritized.

I absolutely hate love locks, it's trashy and ugly vandalism. With the vehicles under the arch I don't really see your point, vehicles has traveled under that arch forever. The fact that they're more efficient and quieter now, and thus make it more accessible to pedestrians is a good thing. Not a bad thing.

Hi Janek and Honza! Can you make a video about the fake cannabis shops that seem to be all around Prague? Every souvenir shop seems to also sell cannabis related products. It took us like 20 seconds to google and find out that it was a scam but people really seem to fall for it.

There's another example of the difference between a traveler and a tourist. Tourist do the things that are trendy with no regards to the place they are "touring" because for them is not about knowing the culture but showing what they did

I think placing round concrete pebble slabs forming a path to the spot most ppl pose from, would definitely help with the grass situation.

Prague: So many love locks. Cologne: Hold my beer.

About the roundabout - i have family living in Old Town and they want to live here like normal people, which includes parking car on their street. And for that and also to maintain supply chain, you need to keep the roads open.

9:30 i think it should add be pedestrianised too (as a tourist and hopefully be a local one day)

I don't think I would notice the roundabout at all. I wasn't sure what the problem really was at first you were trying to point out, I suppose I would need to see what it was like before/other alternatives. My first thought was where else is the traffic going to go, and a roundabout is and effective way of managing traffic.

I also like that planned version. The green grass. Well I wish the best also with love locks.

A fun fact I like to share.. Janek once showed a lamp post on the bridge and said if u touch it you will come back someday again to prague.. well on my visit to prague in 2018 I touched it, and guess what on my very last day in prague I forgot my gold bracelet in kings Court hotel's pool side and left for Austria and when I realized it, I was already hundreds of miles away. So I thought to myself ok so now I have to go back to prague to get it back..lol... but I didn't need to go back as the hotel staff was so kind enough to find it and keep it with them and then courier it to me all the way to India.. thanks to them, but I actually thought was touching the lamp post story actually turning out to be true cos I was almost ready to go back to get it had they not couriered it to me

Perhaps you could put up a sign. Like "If you love Prague, please don't put any love locks here".

Big fan, love all your videos, and your guide book. The only "fail" or disappointment that I can think of is that the R2-D2 Ventilation Shaft at the Folimanka Park Bunker mentioned in your guide book is missing his legs these days.

In Wrocław they removed the locks for the bridge renovation. The weight of all the locks was around 15 tons! It was dangerous for the bridge's construction because it bent upward since it was no longer burdened.