I deeply appreciate your on camera delivery. It's dry and perfectly witty. Ignore the haters. Keep pumping great content. Thanks!

City Nerd's delivery of dry wit is one of the things that attracted me to this channel, and great content of course.

People mock your style?! I find it hilarious how dry and straight-faced you can deliver punch lines. It makes the jokes even funnier. Never change!

As a San Diego resident, this breaks my heart to see what we could be. The NIYMBY's yell the loudest here against even one bike lane.

I loved the line "I play a nerd on KZfaq, but make no mistake....I am a nerd in real life." - LMAO

I live in France and have bought an e-scooter for one crucial reason: it fits in the TGV (high speed train) right with the luggage. I travel every week between Paris and Bordeaux (500km) and it feels absolutely amazing to be able to dash to the station, spend 2h in the train, and then dash to my workplace. The whole trip takes less than 3 hours door to door. Perfectly reliable, perfectly confortable, and perfectly green (about 2kg of CO2 per trip).

I am a traffic engineer and recently found your channel. I truly appreciate your takes on these topics. Please keep up the good work.

Everyone who is on an e-scooter is one more person who chose not to bring a 2 ton metal box with them. That is admirable- very considerate not to inflict noise, danger and asthma on everyone when you travel.

City nerd is the Bob Dylan of youtube hosts. The unique quality of delivery lends itself to the well-timed jokes, making the researched material even more digestible. Don't change anything.

Thanks for being aware of not becoming one of those youtubers who just hates on American cities! I do understand that Europe has better infrastructure and city fabric than us. I just hate how pessimistic they can be and how they make it seem like everything is so static. It's not. Cities were changed to look like this and they can change again. Hope and believing that things can change are necessary for people to actually get out there and do things and I dislike how some youtubers put people doing their best down.

tears in my eyes as I see my favourite youtuber visiting my city. i'm a daily cyclist here in valència and we continue to push for more anti-car policies and tactical urbanism. still loads of street space dedicated to cars and parking but we've definitely made some good progress considering we're the 3rd largest city in spain

I lived in Valenica for a year and am planning to move back! Super exciting to hear you talk about this criminally underrated city that opened my eyes to the greatness of bikeability and excellent public transport. The 30 euros for a year of Valenbisi was one of the biggest steals of my lifetime. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Gracias por poner a España en el foco de la cuestión. Tenemos mucho trabajo que hacer aquí respecto a la lucha contra el automóvil, pero espero que poco a poco los ciudadanos vayamos recuperando nuestras ciudades y nuestras regiones.

As a Spaniard, I usually think how underrated Spanish urbanism is compared to other European countries (even by us, Spanish people). I’d say that the fact that most of our non motorised transport is done by foot rather than by bike is a big influence in the way people see our mobility. While we have similar levels of urban car use to other renowned European countries like the Netherlands, the fact that it is done mainly by foot can subtract from our image as a sustainable mobility country (as we don’t have as many shiny bike infrastructure). I’d also say, although this is just a personal opinion, Spaniards have not been historically good at selling ourselves and usually have an inferiority complex when we compare our country with others. This is not a problem for other countries that are much more prone to see their way of doing as the best (I’m not going to name any specific country, but I’m sure you can think of some xdd) I also want to thank you for not limiting yourself to the usual cities and countries and add to the conversation with less talked about places like Spain. I’m just fed up with Americans (also Canadians) in Europe saying how an specific way of doing something of the Netherlands is much superior to the rest of the world (like, for example, once I saw an absolutely stupid video on how street garbage bins are so groundbreaking. Maybe I wasn’t the target but those exist al around the world wtf xdd)

EScooters get a bad wrap, mostly because of their association with people who are tourists or people that don’t live there renting them or them being left in the middle of sidewalks or piled up somewhere. But they are a great way to get around a (particularly flat) city. They are smaller and easier to take with you into buildings or on mass transit, especially if they are collapsible. They’re more maneuverable and have a smaller footprint. Bikes are awesome but EScooters definitely have their place for many people as well. Valencia looks like a cool city!

i’m a recent e-scooter convert. i was skeptical because yeah, they do get left in bad places on sidewalks, but the benefit they provide is immense. my city’s very very limited bikeshare network is not really suited to the kind of neighborhood-level trips i make, and not having to find a dock at the beginning and end of my trips is ideal. it’s eliminated a ton of car trips for me, especially to places like my gym or my favorite bar that are over 20 minutes on foot. it’s so convenient in fact that i recently sold my bike and bought my own e-scooter off my coworker. maybe that’s insane, but i’m not someone who likes working up a sweat while running my errands.

I lived in Valencia for 3 months and it’s wild to see you talk about an intersection I walked by every single day

I see what you did there with the "Not Just Bikes" shoutout

All this time, I had no idea I was participating in Spanish culture by taking evening walks through the city with my dog after work and before dinner 😂 Me encantan mis paseos nocturnos! Another great video! I'm a shared scooter user myself. They're great when you want to get somewhere with no physical exertion and also don't want to leave your bike locked up somewhere unattended for hours. For example, I rode one downtown recently to get to a concert. It was a more formal concert so I had a suit on and didn't necessarily want to bike, but renting a scooter was the perfect solution. My friends who I was meeting commuted an hour into the city to get to the show and it took longer for them to get from the edge of downtown to a parking garage and then walk over to the venue than it did for me to scoot down from my apartment (a 1.5 mile scooter trip for reference). I actually made it back home after the concert before they even got out of downtown and then they had another 45 to 50 minute drive after that once they got out 😂 P.S. The change of scenery from Las Vegas to Valencia is a welcome one. I'm sure even more so for you haha

Studying abroad in Valencia is what made me realize how bad most transport in the US is especially in similar sized cities

Anything that lets people transport themselves round cities without taking a huge metal box with them is good in my book. I get the e scooters aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but it’s inevitable that some people won’t want to cycle but are willing to scoot. We need as many non-car transport choices as possible.

It's super important that you talk about how this is the result of a concerted effort by city governments over many years. It hasn't always been like this. It's easy to get stuck in the mindset of everything in the EU always has been and will be good, and everything in North America always has been and will be bad. The reality is that it wasn't always like this for bike infrastructure. Things can change rapidly if we make them change 👍

We have an e-scooters pilot project running here in North Vancouver, curious to hear what the city reports back with. I'd love a video on secure bicycle parking infrastructure. It's the single biggest hold-up for myself and most people I talk to here when I ask "what's stopping you from biking more rather than driving?"

I live in Oregon and my city wants to convert one lane from each of the major north/south roads into bike only lanes and the uproar against it was overwhelming. It would have to be protected lanes because I fear drivers will just ignore painted markings. The driving mentality is strong here.

The pricing strategy is genius!, it basically subsidices long-term users using short-term ones (probably turists), at the same time if you live there you will just get the year-long subscription, which is better for the bikesharing, here in GDL mexico they do the same 1-7 days 100MXN ( 5USD) - a year (20USD)

I love, love, love Valencia, and its Central Market. As an Australian living in America, I'm shocked by how good the train/tram infrastructure is in Valencia given the metro area only has about 2.5 million people. I know a lot of this is down to the age of the city, general attitudes to urbanism, and government priorities. But I would love a video about the general differences between planning and co-operation between different levels of government be that federal/state/city or city-to-city. Living in Jersey City, I know that the only reason we have some metro-style rail connection to NYC is not because of government planning but because of capitalism (ie. a wannabe railroad baron) during the golden age of rail in the US. Would NYC's subway exist without businesspeople trying to make a killing in the age of rail, and would it continue to exist without NYC's consolidation from five cities into one?

I just love the dry humor/sarcasm with which you get your points across, Ray

That alien-ship looking building is actually a Valencia Opera facility with concert halls and a network of underground rehearsal spaces (Boston's Berklee college of music also occupies some of the space). It's an amazing space that had some corruption issues during the construction process in the 2000's IIRC

Huh. So it turns out you _can_ get around in other ways, and it's not just bikes. 0:48 I feel seen.

Video idea: the potential of car free cities on islands. Here in Germany we have a few islands (like Langeoog) that do not allow cars (apart from emergency vehicles of cause). While they do not have a big population they are very touristy. Just from looking around on google maps I feel like there are a lot of cities on islands that could go car free without much work on infrastrukture. While I have never been there, Nassau seems like a good example. The island is small enough to be accessible by bike and maybe busses. And while it would be a risk for tourism, it could also attract people. The biggest advantage of islands is, that litterally everyone going there takes public transport, or at least private transportation that is not cars.

The only US city I've visited where e-scooters seemed to be a net positive was Indianapolis...because downtown was soooo spread out, it had minimal pedestrian traffic, and wide sidewalks/bike path.

Hearing the natural conditions for a bike friendly city you listed at the beginning of the video, it makes me really sad that my city didn’t take that opportunity.

City Nerd's sarcasm and monotone delivery crack me up every time. Don't ever change!

As a former New Yorker that visits NYC frequently, I hit like before even watching just because this is a topic that came to my mind last week. Thanks!

I have an E-scooter that I ride a couple miles to work with (in Scottsdale, AZ) and while I love using it, the public scooters are the worst. They're littered all over since almost no one parks them where they should go, they're always blocking ramps, sidewalks, etc. It also sucks since drivers hate any shape or form of pedestrians here so I have to be extremely careful just on my short rides to work.

As a bike commuter in San Diego.... 😭😭😭😭 Also, e-scooters are insanely fun and yes while I did break my ankle riding one it was user error actually, not poor road conditions.

I am European and I wanna defend San Diego: There is a really nice park where you can wander around in amazing architecture and even see a cactus garden with lots of different cacti. Also, they have a street with bars and clubs, which they close for cars an weekends. They have useful trams and busses as well.

Have a great time in Spain!! I’m so insanely jealous of the walking culture of Europe.

Wow, I'm regretting not going to Valencia when I was in Spain! Although all the cities I visited were still leagues above cities in the US (Barcelona probably even more so than Valencia). From hostel to hostel people (Americans, maybe some Germans too) were saying to pass on Valencia saying it was "boring"... I guess they weren't urbanists ;) Loving the Spain content! You're making me crave another visit though...

lol I like your camera delivery. it's one of the reasons I subscribed to the channel (the other bits were because I enjoy the stats about different places. being disabled and in a wheelchair, I always try to see what places might look more accessible than others. that being said, you do you.

I like your deadpan delivery and dry humor. It's perfect for the topic. Keep up the good work!

Your subscriber count can now fill the world's largest stadium to capacity. They're all here for your fantastic delivery and dry humor.

Here in Copenhagen (Denmark), helmets for e-scootists were made mandatory a year ago. I think they mentioned that the accident rate for e-scooters is about six times higher than bikes. They have also had to implement restrictions on the number of e-scooter operators in the city and where the scooters can be parked, because they were every-bloody-where for awhile. I used them briefly in Berlin a couple of years ago, but I'd much rather bike. Why stand up when you can be sitting down?

I lived in Valencia for a year. Extraordinary city! It DOES get pretty hot in summer though!

OMG! You are here in Valencia! Let's have a drink if you have time! You just filmed where I walk my dog every day. I own an electric scooter since 4 years ago and I also do bike often around the city with the city bikes (they are heavy though). You got everything right in your video. Even the weird pricing of the city bikes. You can rent the bikes on an app as a tourist, unlike other cities. I hope that you have a good time in Valencia!

I'd love to see a video on mid-sized North American cities that do everything big cities do well. Like which ones are most bike-able and walkable despite their relatively smaller size

Now we need to make Valencia, California as bike-friendly as its Spanish counterpart.

Would love a video about the affects of roundabouts for pedestrians. Especially, looking at Carmel IN. My experience growing up there was that it was great for car traffic but not much better walking. Also it's annoying how at first people bitch about them, not know how to use them, then finally figure them out and love them.

Valencia was already on my travel bucket-list, just for the architecture, but now it's even more so!

I remember when these things appeared randomly in Oakland. The cities couldn’t keep up with the legislation to regulate them. The scooters were everywhere, people riding them dangerously throughout the streets, and sometimes dumping them in Lake Merrit

Another fan of your on-camera delivery. I like the rhythmic, halting cadences in your sentences. Makes you distinctive.

The main reason I watch is your vocal delivery! I love everything you're saying, but the delivery really makes it!

Never change your delivery! It’s perfect. Love the dry witty sense of humor. That, paired with the well researched content keeps me eagerly awaiting new episodes.

I love your delivery. Obviously you're striking a chord. Keep doing what you're doing.

My wife and I are talking about retiring in the Valencia area. We've talked about making a trip to get a feel for the city. It looks amazing. Bonus points for access to trains, bike lanes, etc.

How very dare they, you've got a marvellous speaking voice! :) Isn't Valencia wonderful - my parents have retired nearby and I love the city! Tempted to move over there myself.

Your narration is the best. Sounds very informative.

In Australia, their e-scooter rentals come with a helmet, and you get a discount for leaving it in a marked zone. These seem like inexpensive ways to address safety and clutter problems that I haven't seen yet in the US.

I was actually going to visit Valencia last year but couldn't because I was sick. Really regretting it now! Spain is lovely!

This channel is my new obsession, love your videos!

Your delivery and wit make you one of the few channels I watch at 1x speed.

So awesome that you went! I'm glad you're enjoying the city, I lived there in 2014 so I had no idea how many new upgrades they have made since then. This video was a delight for many many reasons! My nostalgia is overflowing! If you're feeling homesick, there is a pub called Portland Ale House in Valencia's Eixample neighborhood (which is similar to Barcelona's Eixample grid). It's really fantastic, and was the only bar I knew of in Spain that brewed their own beer. Pretty sure an expat runs the place. Hope you continue enjoying and being inspired by this European journey, looking forward to what comes next!

Every upload from this channel makes me so happy

Thank you for your work!

Personal e-scooters are one thing. Rental ones are an absolute scourge. Here in Oulu, Finland (famous for its winter biking), we had a city-wide bike rental scheme for one summer, right before Covid. The bikes had to be returned to designated stations, or it cost you 80€. Never saw one abandoned. It was great. Even though I have my own bike, I rented these often - they meant that I didn't have to commit to a 40-minute bike ride to work, but could ride into town and get a bus from there - or just take another bike when I felt ready. The health benefits were noticeable within weeks. After Covid, we got e-scooters. Five different companies! These things just get abandoned wherever, whenever, however - on the bike path, driven into bushes, you name it. I watched two teens just jump off one at full speed and walk away, not caring where it ended up. In Helsinki I've seen a dozen of them piled up in a heap because the renters couldn't be arsed to deal with two low stairs. Also in Helsinki, the main hospital reckoned they were having to put an extra emergency doctor on every Friday and Saturday night shift because of them. The city threatened to ban them altogether unless the companies agreed to reduce maximum speeds and some total blackout periods - which does nothing to solve the abandonment problem. The few measures that the companies do employ are utterly ineffective. Any model that does not account for the existence of assholes, or knowingly outsources the cost of assholes onto society at large, has no business existing. If you let people leave these things anywhere, they will leave them everywhere. Rewarding people with free credit for returning the scooters to a designated area does very little, because the asshole doesn't think that far ahead. All the asshole understands is pain. When your 2€ ride ends up costing 82€ because you were an asshole, you either learn or run out of cash - eventually. I used to think that, when these things were discarded like trash, it was our civic duty to heave them into the nearest dumpster. But the only way this gets fixed is for us to throw these damned contraptions into the road. Nothing will be done until it affects car drivers.

Now that you're in Europe I can't wait for the CityNerd and NotJustBikes collab.

Thank you for the comparison and quick analysis between a car oriented city and a people oriented city. Please keep up the good work. 🎉

Useful video, thank-you.

the not-so-subtle dig at san diegans got a belly laugh from me

Ah, Valencia--the... Chicago? of Spain...? Ok, probably not. The dry delivery and moments like your 8:36 "I lied" is exactly why we all show up on Wednesdays for refreshing urbanist content. Still holding out hope for "CityNerd's shameless European urbanism ASMR" 2nd channel, by the way.

Great video! I completely understand the distaste for dockless scooters/bikes, but I think there is some nuance to it and possible solutions. Here in Chicago, the docked areas can be pretty far apart, especially out in the neighborhoods, and around an event time and place (i.e. near a stadium) the docks can be either completely empty or completely full (so one cannot return a bike at that location), so the option of dockless bikes/scooters is definitely beneficial. I recently visited Denmark and tried a bikeshare with a dockless system. While dockless, the bikes can only be parked in certain areas (usually near bus stops or other public bike racks), and the system won't let you end your ride unless the bike is one of these areas (which you can view on the app on your phone). Seemed to work really well.

Such a phenomenal video. Enjoy Valencia

E-scooters as a viable micromobility option hinges on the city's ability to prevent scooter litter. If you don't have dockless scooters cluttering every street in random places, they don't stick out as a problem so much.

Great video. Hope you will someday visit Prague and do a video about it, preferably in the summer if you like Spain. Its not as great as spanish cities, because it was under soviet rule for 50 years. But still a great walkable city with very good public transit. I mean 10 minute interval is seen as very bad, 20 minute is almost unusable and 30 minutes is only for the night trams. Compare this to Memphis where 30 minutes is express 🙂with infrastructure for bikes we still have a long way to go, because we lack good roads even for cars somewhere and it is a really hilly city

I heard "not just bikes" and like a reverse Pavlovian reaction was waiting for that bell

I watch your videos because I love you delivery style.

By far the best urban education channel on yt!

Another sensational video!

This is an interesting topic. I am fully on board with quality public transportation so I don't have to drive my own car as much. Save money on gas and maintenance as well as help the environment. I moved to Denver, which has a good rail system. I drive my car to the parking lot of a railstop when I need to go into town, and with me I bring an e-scooter I bought to commute around downtown Denver. I love my scooter. Saves me so much time and money from having to drive everywhere

I love the way you speak, CityNerd. Keep on being yourself!

I love your speaking style. It doesn't sound like everybody else. I'm so over the radio DJ voice so many use.

Well, I do love your camera delivery, because, on one hand, your topics are pretty much always interesting. On the other hand, if I want to take a nap, I'll put up the less interesting (to me) topics. It's perfect, keep up the good work! :)

Glad you visited here in VLC, Ray! I'll buy you that cup of coffee via KZfaq, although I'd hope to do it in person. I'm sure you're somewhere else by now. Great video of the best city ever. Keep 'em coming!

I live in San Diego and I sure wish we had the bicycle infrastructure Valencia, Spain has!

Very helpful as Valencia is currently at the top of my list of places I think I may want to live, but haven't yet visited.

bro i love your on camera delivery. keep it dry and snarky just the way i like it

I was lucky to live in Valencia for 10 months a few years back at Berklee satellite campus. Getting nostalgic!

I see what you did there at 4:02 and I appreciate you

Did not know about transportation hierarchy. Thank you.

Great video

I visited Brussels last years and I couldn’t believe the amount of E-scooters available for rent. They were literally, everywhere - almost too much to be honest. Perhaps worth a visit there too!

And that was an amazing Not Just Bikes reference.

Your delivery is at least 51% of why I watch this channel; I hope you never change. Enjoy the fallas in March!

It looks like Valencia also has some interesting architecture.

Glad you made it to Valencia! Great video. Hope you’ll get to see Alicante for its beautiful pedestrian boulevard the Esplanade of Spain

I do like the E-scooters; I used to use them a lot when I worked in downtown Cleveland. It was a lot easier to pick one up and ride it to somewhere else downtown than to move my car and have to pay extra for parking. Occasionally I will see a scooter that isn't parked in an ideal location, but overall I don't think there as much of a nuisance here as they are in other places.

Fantastic....seeing Valencia's gorgeous train station made me misty eyed (the paella made me bawl). Time revisit. Good call: much more pleasant than looking at Vegas.

Hahaha. Love the shoutout to NJB at 4:00

Your delivery is great! It's part of the fabric of the channel - don't asphalt over it ;)

I thought this was about urbanism? This has turned into your vacation livestream :) I do appreciate the Not Just Bikes shoutout.