Thank you to everyone who wrote me an essay about their walkability & car dependency experiences on my google form!! I really enjoyed working on this topic. // Thanks, Vessi! Click here (vessi.com/tiffanyferg) and use code TIFFANYFERG for $25 off each pair of adult Vessi shoes! Free shipping to CA, US, AUS, NZ, JP, TW, KR, SGP.
@laurenconrad17992 жыл бұрын
So excited for this video. I didn’t write an essay, but I do nonetheless have very strong feelings about this which I shared. Lol
@stuff14872 жыл бұрын
This is so relevant!!! I actually got into a car accident last week :/// and it reminded me of how car dependent the US is. Please make a part 2!
@I_like_Plants1302 жыл бұрын
Thanks!!! was waiting for this!!!! Haven’t watched the full, but thanks for making the beginning less depressing. I’m tired of it being sad, while I can do little about it individually. But I do understand it is depressing and interesting
@Id.rather.be.a.dragon2 жыл бұрын
We crave part two. Give us part two. x
@kaylanek12 жыл бұрын
I haven't even watched it yet but I know its going to be good
@Housewarmin2 жыл бұрын
I think this is why people thrive on college campuses. It’s the first time we can live in an area with ur friends, food and education all in a 20 min walk.
@tiffanyferg2 жыл бұрын
Yesss true!! I do miss that part of my on-campus era
@littlepoodle74432 жыл бұрын
Take me back 😭
@sophiepeterson91652 жыл бұрын
This is also a reason why college students are more politically engaged! Lots of people able to talk to each other and get each other involved bc everyone is walking and talking and building community
@elegant.destiny2 жыл бұрын
Agreed! That was the best part.
@ane3sha2 жыл бұрын
ABSOLUTELY
@LoveAndSnapple2 жыл бұрын
Let’s not forget the social stigma associated with public transportation. Anytime you watch a TV show or movie people in public transport are depicted as dirty, crazy, unhygienic, mean and practically inhuman. People who don’t have to rely on public transport are seen as “better than” being a ‘bus person’. That’s why I hated living in the county. People would look upon you either their noses turned up when they saw you standing at the bus stop. That’s why I love living in the city. I feel more like an equal in a city that favors walkers, bus riders, the elderly, and everyone else that doesn’t drive a car.
@rakkatytam2 жыл бұрын
I had no idea busses even existed in rural areas
@Weasleys932 жыл бұрын
Yes everytime the characters in a TV show have to take the bus they are like oh noo and its full of stinky people and they have to stand with their nose in someone's armpit
@samanthasingh68962 жыл бұрын
So I guess my experience living in NYC was not so great. I lived in Brooklyn, commuted to Queens for retail work. It was temporary, about 5 months. But it was TOUGH! Granted driving there still felt like it took forever! My god, lol, public transportation can definitely make sense. But my daily commute would be anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour & 1/2. It was horrible. Now, I will also say, my job was not in a direct line. I needed to transfer 2/3 times. Weekends were horrendous too! Buses & trains were never on time, they were dirty, and most employees hated their life. Just from my experience. It’s so damn unfortunate. The cities across the US need a serious overhaul. (In France for example, it is not like this!) I appreciated public transportation, absolutely. And it makes sense in the city. But man, if I’m being honest. So much of my life was also wasted going to and from work. People in rural America don’t have any exposure to public transportation. So many incredibly wealthy folks in NYC would dare never take public transportation.
@jackiepie74232 жыл бұрын
that and "I can't drive 55" sounds rad blasting from the stereo, if you are a lazy boomer.
@violetsnotroses36402 жыл бұрын
Yes, I hear from plenty of people in my city that they're scared of public transit, and sometimes it's because they had a legitimately traumatizing experience, which I can understand, but sometimes it sounds like they just didn't like sitting on a bus or waiting at a stop near a homeless person. I can't drive, so I take the bus nearly everywhere, and 95% of the time nothing notable or alarming happens. I think a lot of people, middle class white women especially, don't spend enough time interrogating our ingrained fear responses to random poor people just going about their days. Just because you feel scared, doesn't necessarily mean there's any real danger.
@NotJustBikes2 жыл бұрын
Hey Tiffany. I just saw this video pop up on my feed. Thanks so much for bringing more visibility to this issue! Even if someone likes cars, car-dependency is a huge problem, and everybody should be working to eliminate it. The world needs more walkable places!
@AndYouWillBeWithMe2 жыл бұрын
omg, I love your channel!
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
Hi, I'm thinking of doing an argumentative essay for my Spanish class. What is a list of good references for it that aren't blogs? I have a short list of books that may help but need more.
@mikeylind81072 жыл бұрын
I agree. I love cars, and I'm sort of a "gearhead" but I'm in strong support of more public transport, mixed use zoning, and walkability. I want driving my car to be my choice, not a necessity.
i kinda like cars but I hate american cities will you plz adopt me
@carmenyt2 жыл бұрын
As someone who lives in London the lack of public transport in the US (even in cities) is crazy to me
@ljc52772 жыл бұрын
It's crazy to a lot of us, too. :/
@anzaia21642 жыл бұрын
I'm so jealous of London's public transport system... "Deutsche Bahn" is a synonym for unreliable garbage.
@SamarkandChan2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, same as a Norwegian
@TheDisell2 жыл бұрын
Canada is also lacking in public transport. 😩
@NankitaBR2 жыл бұрын
Same as a Brazilian
@simplify27512 жыл бұрын
People complain about gas prices now while blaming the government, but the automobile industry has lobbied extensively and aggressively for decades in order to kill off any decent public transportation infrastructure. Car dependency is by design.
@AngelaEAwesome2 жыл бұрын
They lobby governments, governments choose to be corrupt and be bribed by these wealthy companies. Canada is the same. It’s legal and required for governments to take bribes, they just label them “donations.” And it’s not a conflict of interest for governments to give donors and lobbyists subsidies and tax breaks and access to resources way under value. Plus relaxed environmental and labour laws. Canada pays billions a year for O&G subsidies and it’s not even close to being one of the main contributors to the economy. I think economies are BS, but even this BS economy doesn’t benefit from O&G. If governments cut all subsidies, funded infrastructure, and taxed and regulated polluting industries, we would have divested by now. Innovation comes from necessity, propping up failing industries prevents innovation.
@dancingdyonysis2 жыл бұрын
And then the same people continue to simp for their cars. It's pathetic. The automobile industry doesn't care about you, they're just feeding off your materialism like a parasite.
@xxx-wu2jj2 жыл бұрын
This
@sarahnelson88362 жыл бұрын
This!!! I first learned about it from this video by NotJustBikes kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mNR7fLmJnpycgIU.html and I haven’t shut up about it since
@lainiwakura17762 жыл бұрын
Oh, like when the car manufacturers bought up all the public transportation in LA the 1920s and then killed it all so people would be forced to rely on cars?
@kerizella2 жыл бұрын
Another small detail I noticed when moving to the US from France is how even driving and laws related to driving seem to favour cars rather than pedestrians. The "you can turn right at an intersection even though the light is red" is bewildering to me - and I cannot tell you the amount of times I had to step back as I was crossing a sidewalk (when I had the right to) because a car would just go ahead. Everything related to roads/driving in the US just screams "f pedestrians"
@Author.Noelle.Alexandria2 жыл бұрын
In Portland, Oregon, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way. A friend's husband got a ticket for not stopping at a green light to let a pedestrian cross...and he has the dashcam footage to prove it.
@trevorsebastian13412 жыл бұрын
It’s so depressing being a pedestrian in the US, I’ve been almost ran over so many times.
@emerald58242 жыл бұрын
to my knowledge, pedestrians have the right of way in this situation. drivers just forget that a lot
@cloudyskies54972 жыл бұрын
Not to get too morbid, but there also aren't harsh legal punishments for hitting people in the US. It takes a lot for a case to get switched from "accident" to vehicular homicide. I once toured an apartment and the mom showing it to me apologized for being late because her daughter is scared of driving and only goes 25mph. I asked her why, and she explained her daughter struck and killed a single father of three a few months ago. According to this mom, the problem was that her daughter was now a nervous driver and wouldn't drive the proper speeds. Whereas I was bewildered that this daughter apparently murdered someone, and orphaned his three children, but the legal system labeled it as an "accident" and they didn't even revoke her license.
@alyssia72392 жыл бұрын
@@cloudyskies5497 That is morbid
@sarahtaavetti2 жыл бұрын
I (European) had a discussion with a friend (American) about the „freedom“ of owning a car. Living in a place with one of the best public transports in the world, I have never felt the need to own a car. On the contrary, just thinking of owning a car would give me an anxiety. Like, where would I put it? It‘s not like it fits in your pocket and there aren‘t any parking spaces anywhere in the city, so you end up walking everywhere anyway, so what‘s the point. I get that in America, you NEED a car to get around. And in that sense it does give you freedom, I guess. When I was staying with my friend, she organized a car for me (bless her!) and I was able to drive around while she was at work. I loved being able to „move freely“ and not be stuck at home- But man, the irregularity of traffic was driving me insane. Sometimes a route took me 45min and sometimes only 10. So in a sense, I was never in control over my own time and schedule. Made me really appriciate the freedom I have at home. Here, the bus stops right in front of my house, where it comes about every 2-5 Minutes. (Except during the night - only every 30min) and withini 10 Mins I am in the city center. Barely any traffic, ever. I never have to worry about being late, not drinking or parking. That‘s what I can freedom.
@TheDiscoDuck2 жыл бұрын
True freedom is when you have a choice to choose the transportation instead of being stuck with a car.
@birdiewolf34972 жыл бұрын
Owning a car is a huge source of anxiety. Gas price fluctuations, car insurance, parking, paying for said parking, car accidents, traffic, car repair and maintenance. It is so constraining.
@AlexCab_492 жыл бұрын
@@birdiewolf3497 I feel you too. I'm 22 and car-free because I'm a poor college student and live close to my school.
@gamermapper2 жыл бұрын
North American. South America generally doesn't have this problem
@butterscotchwm2 жыл бұрын
I agree. Cars only give us a sense of freedom when there's a manufactured need for it. Being forced to buy a car isn't freedom.
@jazmynesimon77462 жыл бұрын
Unpopular opinion before even watching: I really believe that car dependence degrades quality of life and causes most modern physical health and mental health issues.
@starhill67922 жыл бұрын
Yesss My old city was so much more walkable, and our downtown was designed more for pedestrians than cars & would often close the roads for events multiple times a week. I moved to Denver & it seems almost all of Colorado has “stroads” (but this is more so true of Denver & it’s now suburbs) I’m much less happy with my daily life here in that sense.
@userl6972 жыл бұрын
That opinion is straight from my heart
@jackiepie74232 жыл бұрын
how can 1,000,00 deaths per year be bad for your health? /s
@nicolea82052 жыл бұрын
Honestly! I left Phoenix, AZ and now live in a walkable neighborhood in Seattle, WA I feel way happier because I can walk to my grocery store, grab coffee, go to restaurants and shopping and I don’t even have to drive. It truly makes a difference.
@dream_plaza2 жыл бұрын
Not even an opinion, those are straight facts
@pierrexo2 жыл бұрын
its amazing how much life changes without the daily stress of driving, gas & literally being able to walk across the street for food & trams for everything else. life is a lot less stressful and more convenient & recreational
@euenfheiejrj2 жыл бұрын
I’ve lived in walkable cities for the last 12 years (my life after college) and I love being able to walk everywhere. I can’t imagine having to drive everywhere especially when you’re young.
@cristinab22632 жыл бұрын
My quality of life has improved since I moved into an apartment next to the hospital I work at. My husband also now works from home. We have everything we really need within a 5-30 minute walk. Car insurance is cheaper, gas fill-ups are much more infrequent, I can work overtime without pulling my hair out on the freeway, etc.
@sadem10452 жыл бұрын
If I move to the city will you pay my rent?
@chisomo80882 жыл бұрын
@@sadem1045 what sort of silly question is that?
@isidoreaerys87452 жыл бұрын
Not to mention the fact you stay thin and don’t have to stress as much about your weight
@m.f.33472 жыл бұрын
Car culture/dependency is unsustainable for both our communities and our planet
@TheSimArchitect2 жыл бұрын
If people have less children and we let human population shrink it's perfectly feasible. It's the best solution to make the planet cleaner and resources (including housing) more affordable. But they want to keep their pyramid scheme going on by incentivizing people to procreate so you have "more people working than retired".
@idunnowhat2puthere2 жыл бұрын
@@TheSimArchitect this isnt really a good argument. we cant make people have less children, unless you want to implement the one child rule they had in china(?). which would never fly in america because we're very individualistic. instead of engaging in what ifs we need to make sustainable changes and expand public transportation. not to mention car dependant cities are very bad for the environment.
@sadem10452 жыл бұрын
So if I move to the city you'll pay my rent?
@TheSimArchitect2 жыл бұрын
@@idunnowhat2puthere Easy access to contraception and abortion methods. Remove children related benefits like tax deductions for dependants. The problem is they want more desperate/poor people producing with a lower cost (less food, less comfort, less space, les fuel per capita for poor people while the rich have more for themselves while being served by an abundant army). Check what the richest people in the world say is "right" and you'll see they all want more people. China has the lie flat movement which is frowned upon by their government because they don't want people consuming as little as possible while also doing as little as possible. They want their mice (us) to run on their wheels as fast as possible with the smallest amount of food possible.
@idunnowhat2puthere2 жыл бұрын
@@sadem1045 what exactly r u even trying to say? cities are expensive to live in therefore we shouldnt expand/implement public transportation? i live in a small town which is very car dependent. the nearest walmart is a 30 min drive away. im not saying youre a bad person for using a car or anything like that, but its not good that public transportation isnt even available in a lot of places.
@Shadowseeker14572 жыл бұрын
as someone who is disabled, and cannot legally drive due to this, moving from a rural area into a city has increased my quality of life so much... being able to take buses and walk to places gave me back a lot of freedom, personally, so walkability is super important to me ^^
@zkkitty24362 жыл бұрын
Before I became disabled, I was living in a suburb and I remember having my “sedentary lifestyle” framed as a personal failing when, in reality, I was physically isolated from most places and was in an extremely draining home environment, dealing with exhaustion and high stress. Nothing was walkable, there was no public transport, and I didn’t have a car. But my health issues were framed as a personal failing by my doctors and implicitly by others, bc of my weight. I remembered that while watching this video, and reflected on how much my “lifestyle” changed when public transportation became a real accessible option for me. Even after becoming disabled, public transport in my city is so reliable that my freedom of mobility is significantly higher than it was when I was “healthy” in a suburb.
@hds66nl292 жыл бұрын
Yeah, often overlooked by city designers, my country became more people friendly, more civilized even(?), without ever realizing 🙄 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rrl3q5Z5uNCvdKM.html
@Music348972 жыл бұрын
The car-as-bubble thing makes me think of road rage too. This is obviously anecdotal but you rarely hear about small pedestrian faux pas leading to a fist fight to the death or whatever, but similar events in traffic being out bloodlust. I feel like the combo of bubbles and super high stakes is what drives up the rage
@aylamurphy64672 жыл бұрын
Idk I've seen walk rage before, two guys bumped into each other and then started jumping and bumping chests, then one pulled out a watergun, it was scary.
@hds66nl292 жыл бұрын
It should'n be called road rage, but car rage. In the Netherlands we have bikes, a lot of them, and yes sometimes you get hit and crash by another bike, you get up shake hands laugh it of and be on your way again. To be fair it doesn't happen often, few times in my life now. But also when they cut you of or whatever, ok you shout a**hole, but that is it. It is quite remarkable, put people in a powered box on wheels and it transforms them into a vindictive, unforgivenly moron with a short fuse.
@tomdonahoe35392 жыл бұрын
@@hds66nl29 I commute by bike nearly every day. A few years ago I got a sore hip that lasted several days so I commuted by car for 4 days straight. Each day driving it felt like the fangs came out just a little more. Never felt that way riding the bike.
@rwrunning18132 жыл бұрын
Being inside a car-bubble makes it more impersonal, and it's easier to get mad at someone you can't see. Kind of like gamer rage.
@dudestir1272 жыл бұрын
I do admit there have been a few times growing up in NYC when I was hurrying to try to catch a train and wanted to punch a tourist who decided that right in front of me was the best place to stop and take a picture of something.
@oartchid2 жыл бұрын
being a college student that can’t afford a car, it’s hell seeing other countries with better public transportation and sidewalks :(
@Garydos072 жыл бұрын
I attended college away from my home with no car and it was terrible, I was basically confined to my campus and the surrounding stores only. I tried to take a bus to a different shopping center once and it was like a two hour round trip by bus just to go 20 or 30 miles.
@oartchid2 жыл бұрын
@@Garydos07 omg that exactly what i’m going through! there’s a chinese restaurant like five minutes away and the owners know me by name now since it’s the cheapest and closest food besides campus :/
@choicethetaurus2 жыл бұрын
kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e9d9mMZh1tnIfps.html
@spaceboy24752 жыл бұрын
@wonderland I literally never click random links but ngl I’m kinda glad I clicked this one
@wonderland.52 жыл бұрын
@wonderland Ok this is cool! i clicked the link and i expected some scam or a dumb thing.
@cbpd892 жыл бұрын
Sidewalks that just suddenly stop are my ultimate pet peeve. I have little kids, I'm pushing a stroller around when I'm walking places and having to walk in the street with little kids is...hectic. There is a portion of community that is very walkable, but we're very close to a major, busy road with lots of industrial type businesses and traffic. If you get too close to it, the sidewalks disappear, even though there are stores that serve local people who live in easy walking distance.
@Beaverthing2 жыл бұрын
The book Invisible Women has a great chapter on snowplowing in Sweden (yeah, I know, it sounds niche but I promise it's very relevant!) that covers how city planning is done by white men, and how that affects women (and children) negatively. Like places where you can't get around with a stroller or safely or pick up your kids from daycare without driving. It's a great read!
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
Hi, in Puerto Rico (a US territory) we also have abruptly ending lanes, pedestrian bridges that stay un finished for four years, and what's worse is that we have electricity issues therefore road rage gets a whole new meaning here. We also have the issue with local boilings being unreachable for a pedestrian. People might as well play block the pedestrian in regards to local store's parking.
@swedneck2 жыл бұрын
@@Beaverthing Swede here, this is actually a large reason for why i LOVE my city's wide mixed-use paths, as they are properly plowed and will never be used to pile snow onto, unlike the sidewalks. It's crazy that they actually tell people to just use the road when the sidewalk is used to dump snow, as if sidewalks aren't primarily used by parents pushing strollers or old people with walkers! It's especially terrible because old people are certainly not going to be brave enough to share the road with cars going 50km/h, and as i heard so well said in a video i watched the other day: "once an old person stays indoors, they may never come back out.."
@francescagottardiesq2 жыл бұрын
When I moved to the US from Italy I made a point I would not buy a car and instead use public transportation or walk/ride my bike. I ended up HAVING to cave in and buy a car because that lifestyle is literally unsafe and impossible in many US cities (I currently live in Houston, Texas and previously lived in Ohio). Something's gotta change, folks!
@gamermapper2 жыл бұрын
Moving to the US from Italy? Sounds like a downgrade.
@fernandaguadian48572 жыл бұрын
why would you move here
@francescagottardiesq2 жыл бұрын
@@gamermapper The things you do for love...! 😅
@francescagottardiesq2 жыл бұрын
@@fernandaguadian4857 The things you do for love...! 😅
@shaunmckenzie55092 жыл бұрын
Move back to Italy asap. The US is a dystopian hellhole, and the world is now finding that out. Don't know why you would chose to live there.
@YOHOMEGIRL2 жыл бұрын
I'm from New Jersey, but I've been currently living in Seoul, South Korea for the past 7 years... and well last year I went to visit family for an extended period of time and jesus- it was freaking awful to be without a car! My family moved and they're pretty close to NYC, so getting to the path to go into NYC was fine. However, if I wanted to just go around NJ it just took forever to get anywhere. Plus the actual nj transit system is f*cked! The price you pay all depends on different zones,(which aren't explicitly shown on sites ) and in one city itself there can be a bunch of different zones where you'll pay extra depending on where you're going. On top of that there's no universal card system that could make this alot easier. It made me not want to go out at all. The prices of the buses were so expensive on top of that, and the unfortunate part you don't see where that it reflected because the buses are the same buses that I used to go on when I was in high school a good decade ago. I was so happy to get back to South Korea. If a whole country the size of Indiana can make a public transportation system, where the bus, card, and even taxi can all be paid with the a metro card, bank card, or even your phone (throughout the whole country) . There's no reason that one whole state can't! On top of that the price is all the same roughly $1USD with a *sometimes* varying 10 to 40 cents difference depending on where your final destination was. If you're doing a transfer from bus to subway or vice versa there's no additional fee! Let alone the actual buses/subways, do get upgrades or newer models ever so often. I didn't know I could feel so passionately about public transportation until this past trip 😭 .
@tamerebel2 жыл бұрын
Seoul's metro system is super convenient! I also walked a lot while visiting and everything is fairly close by.
@coolkait682 жыл бұрын
I'm from jersey too and I agree woth this. Were the most densely packed state. Getting around should be so easy.
@YOHOMEGIRL2 жыл бұрын
@@tamerebel most definitely! Getting around the city is so easy, and the apps go are so convenient by like telling you which car is the closest for your transfer, or it can set up an alarm for when you're a stop or two away from your destination or transfer :)
@YOHOMEGIRL2 жыл бұрын
@@coolkait68 It was honestly so crazy to me. Even though we moved, my mom's many weekly doctor appts were in the previous city we lived in which was maybe 30 mins away.. but it would take it over 2 hours to get there. On top of that nj transit isnt even reliable u___u.
@sofire33962 жыл бұрын
Off topic but I watch your videos AND LOVE THEM
@ninagrigoriev27722 жыл бұрын
I wish we weren't so car dependent in the US because driving fucking terrifies me (mostly because of other drivers).
@Yazzzledazzzle2 жыл бұрын
Same I hate driving!! Sure I can do it if needed. But I avoid driving as much as possible.
@brittanyblaser13242 жыл бұрын
I also HATE driving but live in rural areas with no public transport so I have to
@meepcity482 жыл бұрын
Same it scares me so much and it sucks bc there’s pretty much no other option to get around
@euenfheiejrj2 жыл бұрын
I hate driving so I lived/live in cities where you don’t need to have a car. I’m 34 and never owned a car.
@brittanyblaser13242 жыл бұрын
I WAS hit by a semi truck and it was freaking traumatic.
@maybehere_2 жыл бұрын
so glad you’re talking about this because i’m literally obsessed with this topic.
@tiffanyferg2 жыл бұрын
Same! I can’t stop myself from analyzing everywhere I go and ranting to everyone who will listen lmao
@sdf238882 жыл бұрын
Samee! The driving culture in the US is very different to London! (similar to New York though) It is a lot easier to travel in public transport (the tube/train) or walk than to drive, especially if you are going to central London (you have to pay congestion charges to go through with your car). Also I have met loads of people in their 20s who don't have a license!
@CalliAMusic2 жыл бұрын
Same
@ashcatalina8149 Жыл бұрын
Me too
@melissab32172 жыл бұрын
Visiting cities in England and being able to get around with no car was a huge wake up call. I absolutely love the walkability of Bath and London. Not only did it encourage me to explore, it also let me interact with people along the way. Much better than alone in a car stuck in traffic.
@JizzyF83 Жыл бұрын
Same for when you’re looking for parking space, I like to park somewhere far from my location so I can get my walk and exercise in.
@uzin0s25611 ай бұрын
@@JizzyF83 thats stupid. Why on earth would you do that. Theres a reason theres something called a gym
@alexarcadia55222 жыл бұрын
I'm so excited a non-transportation channel is talking about this! I've been in bike/pedestrian/housing advocacy in the US for years, and it's such a battle. The worst part is, I live in a very, very blue city, and the same people who call themselves progressives fight tooth and nail against denser, affordable housing, bike lanes, and public transportation. Wealthy homeowners are the biggest impediment to better infrastructure in the US.
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
Use Puerto Rico as an example, it is part of the land owned by the US. We are the example of how the lack of walkability can turn a place into a sh* hole. I am a Puerto Rican and I'm giving you permission to use my 'country' (because it falls as both a technically sovereign state by the UN under the category of getting on it's feet thanks to the US ""help"" and not). Basically Democrats stick to us being a territory (extremely vague terms of establishing an relationship, and Republicans calling us a colony. No we are not officially classified as protectorate, satellite or any other kind of place which puts vagueness in what applies to my island quite a lot but never the less, part of the US so therefore use it. What you'll see if you come here is the very walkable area of El Condado or Old San Juan, almost no tourist leaves that area except for Loiza which I personally take offense (we have every type of terrain in the world literally except for the terrain in Antartica or the Sahara somewhere within our little tiny island yet... that's besides the point). It's extremely un-walkable and people are paying for that fact extremely hard. The amount of people leaving our island is at extreme levels. People going back in, not so much.
@Gimme_bikelanes2 жыл бұрын
Yup, this isn’t a red/blue issue. This is a rich vs working class issue. The rich want to keep us poor and isolated.
@TheCriminalViolin2 жыл бұрын
The one time I agree with the NIMBYs is when it comes to development of high density in their parts of suburbs that are all low-density. There I agree with them entirely, that should stay entirely low density, while the central areas of the main cities should be the sole regions where the densities get raised higher. Keep it to the cores, allow the remaining parts of suburbs maintain their single family housing. High density belongs in the cores, not outside of them. An example is the Portland Metro of Oregon. Hillsboro, Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Gresham, Oregon City, Milwaukee, Wilsonville, Tualatin - the cores of the main cities all get their densities vastly increased, building the mid and high rise developments there and there only, while leaving the outer areas alone entirely. That's what I mean. So again, you go outside of those cores, that's when I quickly swap to defend and agree with NIMBYs on it. There HAS to be a clear line drawn, that can't be bypassed by lobbying, disagreeing parties, or loopholes.
@maxwade34512 жыл бұрын
It seems in order to win over homeowners we need to pay them off. We have kind of screwed up already in that people view houses as retirement vehicles, so you almost can't blame them for wanting to protect their retirement by maintaining the value. Obviously they maintain the value by destroying dense multi family housing initiatives.
@TheCriminalViolin2 жыл бұрын
@@maxwade3451 The idea that single-family housing should be treated as a negative only and should be gotten rid of is to me, I terrible thing and utterly wrong. Yes, we need far less sprawl and far more density, but to villanize single family housing is also wrong and not the right decision. Keep some SFH, and focus on a strict portion of the main urban cores of the towns and cities of the given metro area for increasing density of all development. So any SFH within that core would then gain the treatment you suggest in order to then demolish it for the mid and high density developments. Of course, there's another issue here, and it's actually with your idea of paying the owners off to gain their properties - a large portion still refuse to sell. There have been countless cases of this happening, where offers well over market value for the person's house and it's property into the millions are made to them, and they still refuse. So, that immediately forces a full stop on any further progress of such plans. So what do you do then? Sure, typically eminent domain is what happens if there is say a new light rail line set to go in through there, but that's only in those rarer instances, and, eminent domain is largely considered legalized abuse of power and thus highly unjust and unacceptable, which, I would wholly agree with. So again, what do you do in that position. Sitting around shit talking, being upset and pouting about it, calling them selfish or economic variety pejoratives doesn't work either and isn't okay. But then again, nor is the heavy use of eminent domain if the owners refuse the offers given by developers and cities or counties.
@rebeccadodd13942 жыл бұрын
When I visited the US (I'm Australian) one of the biggest things that surprised me was how difficult it was to walk around to places. I tried walking to a Walmart, I forget which city I was in, but it ended up with me wandering down the side of a highway with no real footpath. I understand now why Americans are so big on cars/driving, because in a lot of areas it's the safest and easiest option. A lot of footpaths here at home aren't necessarily well maintained, but they're there and I know that I'll be able to walk to most places I need, without walking in traffic
@smallishkae2 жыл бұрын
I feel like (Australian/western Sydney) local councils have been getting a lot better too, in the past 10years. I remember walking home from school without footpaths. And since walking on the roads was dangerous for young children (and in my neighbourhood, everyone parks on the street so I would have been walking in the middle of the road) I was walking over people’s front lawns, often through mud and sludge in the wintertime. Now all the side-streets have pavement, and I see a lot more residents taking leisurely walks. Although this doesn’t help the issue with travelling between suburbs without a car….
@carlysmithdd2 жыл бұрын
This is funny because as a Brit, when I moved to Australia (specifically Brisbane and Canberra suburbs) I was struck with how unwalkable it was. I currently live somewhere where I have to get in car and drive 5 minutes to get a load of bread- it would take 45 minutes to walk. I think once you’re out of the inner suburbs it’s pretty terrible.
@Misseggy242 жыл бұрын
Really!? I’m Australian, and the walkability where I live is pretty bad. Lots of areas near me - including outside my house - don’t have footpaths. And walking to the shops or anywhere nearby is too far to be a viable option. The public transport system is also really bad where I live, as the train line doesn’t reach to the outer suburbs, and buses are extremely irregular and some don’t run at all on the weekends. Living in the city or the innermost suburbs is different, sure, but the reality is that heaps of people live in the outer suburbs where it’s near impossible to get by without driving all the time.
@sandrobruni75752 жыл бұрын
It also fuels the obesity problem. The misconception is that Americans are fat and lazy so they don't walk anywhere, but the real reason for everyone driving is because alternatives are inconvenient as hell, or even dangerous. I was fortunate to grow up in an older "suburb", if you want to call it that, and was walking to school as young as a 9 year old. I enjoy walking and using public transit into the main city, and am very grateful for it
@chrisk59852 жыл бұрын
I recently moved from a very pedestrian friendly city back to a city that isn't, and a couple weeks ago I witnessed something that pissed me off. The light had just turned, and there was a person in a wheelchair who began crossing the road. They had the walk signal, they had the right of way, yet someone begins turning, sees them, HONKS AT THEM, AND CONTINUES TO PROCEED INCHING TOWARDS THEM as they continue slowly crossing the road in their wheelchair. My gosh it still makes me so mad just remembering it. I wish there was some way for me to say something to that asshole in the car.
@isabellahoy-nielsen16142 жыл бұрын
was it a truck driver
@mrmaniac32 жыл бұрын
Their car should be scrapped in front of their eyes :)
@BRhymesss2 жыл бұрын
@@isabellahoy-nielsen1614 same thoughts
@beckybyt2 жыл бұрын
That's also the thing with cars; they make everyone meaner.
@melodye142 жыл бұрын
Yep. I've seen that kind of thing so often. It really breeds resentment from pedestrians. Why try to kill people practically, just for crossing the road? They act like they own the space even if they could harm someone.
@R831452 жыл бұрын
As a person from Germany, American suburbs are so fascinating for me. This type of suburb is rarely found here, but in the last 20 years or so we have been watching rural areas that used to be at least somewhat walkable turn into car-dependent food deserts because smaller stores close down due to lack of profitability and public transport is running less and less frequently and reliably than it used to. I'm from the countryside and we used to not have a car; there were a groceries store, bakery, butcher and stationery/random stuff/kitchenware store in the store. We could manage day-to-day life without a car. For other stuff like clothes, we would go by bus to a nearby city maybe every 3 months or so and that was enough. My mother still lives in that village. Most shops have closed down, the couple that ran the random stuff shop has retired and now the bus only runs like 4 times a day, if it runs at all. It's almost impossible to live there now without a car. Many rural areas in Germany are facing this type of problem and there seems to be nothing to be done to turn this trend around...
@snowwhite41332 жыл бұрын
I’m from Germany and this scares the living hell out of me. I don’t even know what we can do as people to prevent this. I don’t want Germany turning into the nightmare that is the US
@JustAnniebody2 жыл бұрын
@@snowwhite4133 glaube nicht das Deutschland jemals so car dependent wird wie die USA, liegt eher am Wandel dass immer mehr junge Leute in großstädte ziehen und der schienenausbau eher dahin verlegt wird wo die Nachfrage am höchsten ist, doesn't make it right, aber glaube vor allem in den nächsten Jahren in Bezug auf Klima und die steigenden spritpreise wird wieder mehr auf ÖPNV gesetzt
@jackiep36042 жыл бұрын
Shops close because people are not buying. Maybe they when under like most businesses do.
@fionafiona11462 жыл бұрын
@@jackiep3604 that just kicks the can down the road. I am for decomodefied transportation and basic sustenance, especially when it comes to rural elderly people. Rural stores whent under locally because population urbanized away from bad digital aid transport infrastructure (, to university around the globe or only three villages closer to everything). The thing I saw in rural Ireland has been on call public transport/grocery delivery. With elderly people having tee partys and collecting shopping lists for those who couldn't attend, getting into the Van (12 seats) and the driver stopping at the shops with them, completing the lists for absentee shoppers. That was financed by the municipality like the school bus, given it was the same vehicle and on call times excluded that route
@venusflytrap26222 жыл бұрын
@@snowwhite4133 There would be several alternatives which sadly only work if several hundred people do it i.e. buy less online and more locally (which sadly costs more in most cases). The next part is the societal change from a young country to a old country. The reasons why most people go into the city is that basically everything is in walking distance, while as you described in rural areas most shops have closed or have a very narrow choice of products. Digitalization is the next part which was shown most evident at the begin of Corona when school, university, work etc everything had to be done from home via Internet and still hasnt been done anything about it. Combine that with incompetent and stupid decisions in terms of town politics (i.e. get above 10k inhabitants to get more subsidies while the town doesnt have to infrastructure to support that many people be it roads etc.) and thats the endresult. Public transport is also massively lacking which also forces people into the city. Prime example would be if i want to party with friends in the city, my time to get from home into the city is about 1 hour depending which club we take and thats with PT. If i´d take the car its down to maybe 20mins or 30mins at the longest, "problem" here is no drinking and you´ll probably be the driver for the night. The PT "black hole" between 1-2am and 4:30 in the morning is another point, either go early when its most fun or go late and stay until 4:30am wasting a day catching up on sleep. Before someone asks if i hate living rural, no i dont, in fact i love it but its always such things where you somehow realise or feel like a citizen of second class. To end that explanational rant with a fitting joke: Kids in the city: "Ugghh 10mins to walk? Lets wait for the bus!" Kids in rural areas: "What? Only one hour from here, lets walk!"
@OriginallyKieraMarie2 жыл бұрын
I think an important point that was missed in this conversation was the baiting a lot of companies do in interview by asking if you have reliable transportation, it's a way around asking if you have a car and they will use it against you. Say you answer yes because you are confident in your ability to read bus schedules and get there on time, then one day the bus doesn't show up (as they sometimes do), when you tell your employer you were late due to bus failing to arrive, they will say "well you told us you had reliable transportation when you applied, this is inexcusable". I've seen companies where they borderline harass people to buy cars because it affects the business when the bus system fails employees and I've seen employees get fired over being tardy because of the bus system. There are places that discriminate based on the transportation that's available to you.
@enjoyslearningandtravel79572 жыл бұрын
Actually even if you had a car to get to work sometimes you have car problems or traffic problems so even if you’re relying on public transportation shouldn’t be a reason.
@OriginallyKieraMarie2 жыл бұрын
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 it's basically the same thing. Your car breaks down, they say "you said your mode of transportation was reliable, you're still gonna get a write up/point(whatever they use for attendance) for this" there's traffic due to anything, accident, local event, whatever "it's your responsibility to make sure you're able to be here on time, you're still gonna get..." it's an extremely ridgid system that consistently holds workers accountable for things that are mostly out of their control and will fire them over these things.
@simplify27512 жыл бұрын
It seems to me like in America, even the neutral matter of transportation is warped by political ideology. It's the individualism vs collectivism debate again. If you tried to propose any kind of major public transportation infrastructure plan today you'd very quickly be dubbed a socialist and asked how you're going to pay for it.
@birdiewolf34972 жыл бұрын
Yet folks don't understand that all these car infrastructure also has to be paid for, and it isn't actually being paid for. It is incredibly expensive hence why it often gets ignored. Like this who's gonna pay for this questions never seem to extend to who is gonna pay to maintain these roads? If yall was actually paying that price our infrastructure wouldn't be falling apart. In canada, they still have the same car dependency problems. But at least folks are paying more of their cut, therefore shit is actually maintained. Here in the US, the something for nothing attitude reigns supreme.
@donaldthompson40442 жыл бұрын
This is because it's not in their interests to promote public transportation. Of course they're going to call you socialist.
@highway2heaven912 жыл бұрын
@@birdiewolf3497 Because is much easier to pay for the things you want rather than the things you actually need.
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
@@birdiewolf3497 Where I live there is the issue that most people want to stay poor because the time they leave the threshold of getting economic help they get utterly destroyed by taxes, meanwhile the really rich don't pay that much in taxes, at least where I'm from. We have a 12% tax on ever dollar spent. DOLLAR, not euros not Mexican pesos, Argentinian ones or any other kind of foreign currency. Our government, yes is bankrupt, however they refuse to tax the rich or stop with the political competitions of how many low cost low income apartments can be made within a tenure each time trying to defeat a guy who for one is legendary and for another is long as in extremely long time gone out of tenure and dead along with the fact that most of our population is leaving. Do you know how ridiculous it is for a place of just over 114 kilometers one way to have politicians attempt building hundreds of low income apartments while every decade we lose a fifth of our population? We really do loose around a fifth because the people who come into the island are people getting refuge from dictatorships so therefore that is how we still have enough population to loose about a fifth of our entire population in a single decade. It's so bad that a third of population is the current expected rate. People who actually need low income housing can't waste their money on expensive mortgages on cars because cars ARE needed and the government threw a curve ball making it penalizable to buy cheap cars... Oh sorry, people who are in the middle class where I live just want to stick to middle class if they can for the sake of their honor or become poor enough to get help. Honestly where I live it's fudged up as it is yet it would really help if people started actually diversifying in what kinds of helps they give out once in a while, such as helping walkability for the sake of retaining the amount of people who flee in a decade somewhere even near constant as in not growing too much... PS: sorry I'm coming in strong, running on not a lot of sleep.Sorry. Everything I said is true though, at least applicable to where I live personally.
@Iquey2 жыл бұрын
Yup..that is exactly what happens.
@reckonerwheel53362 жыл бұрын
I find what’s a bit frustrating about this topic is that it’s fairly complex, so you get a lot of pushback from people with misconceptions about public transit and walkable cities, thinking it means high-rises and criminals on the train and everywhere else. So thank you for being another KZfaq creator who’s making it understandable!
@man.i.f2 жыл бұрын
Especially since, in cities such as Montreal, the most densely populated area is one we call the Plateau, and buildings are 3-6 stories high, no high rises in sight
@sarahnelson88362 жыл бұрын
Definitely!!! Also if you like this content I highly recommend the channel NotJustBikes which talks a lot about this from a scientific perspective! Also write your local representatives with the infrastructure bill having been passed long term plans are being made right now all over the country!
@Caroline-us1hn2 жыл бұрын
A channal you mentioned is "Not just bikes". He is a Canadian living in The Netherlands. I am a Dutch person. I'm almost 23 years old and I don't even have a drivers licence, let alone a car. I just don't need it, public transport is good and it is walkable and bikable 😊 Most things he says are very much true
@yepitstiffany2 жыл бұрын
Something I learned in my sociology social issues class that’s worth noting is that suburbs were formed largely BECAUSE of cars. When cars were becoming more widely available, the wealthier people moved away from the inner cities (where the jobs are) and formed suburbs because they could afford to buy cars to rely on, whereas the poor people could not/cannot afford to own cars, so they live in the inner cities where they have better access to public transport. Coming from a suburb myself though, it really freaking sucks not being able to walk places. I literally live a block away from a bunch of grocery stores, restaurants, etc. which is great, but I rarely walk to those plazas despite the short distance because of the lack of sidewalks, and also mainly because the one intersection I have to cross was not made for pedestrians at all… it’s hard to see pedestrians there who are waiting to cross, it’s always super busy but there’s no traffic light (only stop signs), and also it’s California so drivers just suck in general lol. I always feel like I’m doing something wrong when I walk. And now that I attend college in a downtown area and I live here, honestly it’s not that much better. Public transportation is definitely available, but everything is super far to walk to, but super fast to drive to. The nearest Target is a 42 minute walk away, but a 6 minute drive. If you walk there, you also have to cross the freeway entrance, exit, and underpass where there is no traffic light, absolutely terrifying. Living without a car in America like I do (since I have no driver’s license) is just absolutely crap, to put it lightly. You really can’t do anything unless you take literal hours out of your day to allocate purely for travel.
@Gimme_bikelanes2 жыл бұрын
Cars were a factor, but white flight was the reason. Cars were the justification.
@enjoyslearningandtravel79572 жыл бұрын
It wasn’t always the wealthier people that moved to the suburbs sometimes houses cost less there than in the inner city. But besides that fact, I still would rather have the atmosphere of a walkable city or town to live in than a suburb that is isolated and cookie cutter like.
@HomeWorkouts_LS2 жыл бұрын
Suburbs existed before cars, its in this video at 21:33. But I agree with everything else haha
@twiggledowntown3564 Жыл бұрын
I don't know why but coming from someone who has lived in suburbs all their life, I do find it a tad bit frustrating with restaurants and stores being a bit far away.
@tiniestmonkey2 жыл бұрын
Another interesting thing to consider is the health benefits of walkable neighborhoods vs. driving everywhere. Since moving from a car dependent location to a walkable city, I get way more steps in every day without effort and I’m at a healthier weight.
@reckonerwheel53362 жыл бұрын
Right?! Exercise that's as simple as a walk is a whole separate activity you make time for, which is crazy! I moved closer to where I work and now I get a half-hour walk in Monday to Friday because it's literally my commute.
@Pomagranite1672 жыл бұрын
Also i get to enjoy the weather AND run some errands? Win win! I can get my little 6 dollar latte, make a deposit at the bank, get a little breakfast, and stop by the convenience store to buy some medicine or something. All in a 30-40 minute ENJOYABLE and HEALTHY walk. And the only pollution or emissions involved was maybe a little fart I had along the way lol.
@0neAutumnLeaf2 жыл бұрын
You could turn this into a 5 part series and I would happily watch them all
@augustlunaonline2 жыл бұрын
I, too, would love more videos about this topic! Love hearing about transportation and living situations!
@cdw24682 жыл бұрын
you should definitely check out the channel Not just bikes, that’s basically the idea of the channel
@sadem10452 жыл бұрын
Are you from the city or Suburbia? Cuz as someone who lives in the suburbs I feel extremely uncomfortable watching this video and reading the comments. I already find myself wishing I lived in the city so I could be considered a real New Yorker (and trying to remember that my neighborhood is safer than those in NYC and that NYC apartments are unreasonably expensive). Being told by someone who no longer lives in the suburbs and really does live in what non native-New Yorkers always confuse actual New York with (New York is a state. New York City - where Tiff Ferg lives - is a city.) that my living situation sucks and I'm contributing to climate issues is aggravating to say the least.
@BS-xs7jb2 жыл бұрын
Same
@mariabrandelero252 жыл бұрын
Hi! I'm an urbanist, and since so many people seem interested in city planning (which is great!!!!), i thought it would be nice to leave a book recommendation in case some of you want to dive deeper into the subject: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
@robgreene96152 жыл бұрын
Jane Jacobs, loathed city planners and thought they were unnecessary. You should read Strong Towns by Charles Marohn
@anastasiia20922 жыл бұрын
Thank you
@Violety932 жыл бұрын
As an European person I was in shock the first time I visited USA. I didn't have a car and I tried using the public bus to get around and it was so hard comparing to most cities I've visited in Europe.
@jacobs99552 жыл бұрын
I had this problem with walkability when I visited Dallas, TX recently. I didn’t have my car with me since I flew there. I wanted to walk to the nearest gas station from my hotel and there were barely any sidewalks for me to walk. I had to walk right next to a massive freeway and it felt like I was doing something wrong lol. When I finally got to a sidewalk at an intersection and waited for the pedestrian crossing light to turn, a guy in his car blares his horn at me like I was standing in the road, even though I was waiting on the SIDEWALK. So I know what you mean when you say how the way streets/stroads are designed as being hostile toward pedestrians in the US.
@kelseycoca2 жыл бұрын
I'm currently in Dallas today and experienced this same issue trying to walk around, plus everything is so spread out here so it's incredibly car dependent
@salami76772 жыл бұрын
I remember when I first moved to Dallas I decided to go to a Panda Express nearby, which was only a 20 minute walk, and not even halfway through my walk I was forced to walk on private property AND on the road because the sidewalks suddenly ended. I hate this car-centric hellhole 😭
@jacobs99552 жыл бұрын
@@salami7677 Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed Dallas. It’s a pretty cool city, but the city’s walkability leaves a lot to be desired.
@m.bonato41932 жыл бұрын
i live in South America, Argentinas capital to be exact and i just cant comprehend living without somewhat accesible public transportation. A friend of mine moved to Utah with their family, and only after moving they realised how privileged they were to not HAVE TO depend on a car to even do the groceries go to school or even go for a walk. Seems unthinkable. It just feels stupidly unfair, like a violation on basic human rights. US is not built around human rights, its clearly designed to feel exclusive and to make you adapt to its way of life. (excuse any typos)
@camelopardalis842 жыл бұрын
I'm 37, don't have a driving licence, and only had a bicycle for about two and a half years in total since October 2004. I walk or take a bus, tram, or train (depending on where I live and tend to go) everywhere. Getting a bicycle would be a nice addition, though.
@kyupin10752 жыл бұрын
I live in Utah and I actually think it's better than a lot of other states, at least in recent years. even then, there's still so much wrong here. just goes to show how bad it can get in other places
@lillianjensen11392 жыл бұрын
@@kyupin1075 I agree. I also live in Utah and it's getting better in the cities, but the suburbs are still pretty bad, and there's definitely still tons of room for improvement with public transportation,
@phosphenevision2 жыл бұрын
I'm from Rio and we have a lot of problems in our public transportation, it's nowhere near as efficient as São Paulo's but at least it's functional. It would be unthinkable to have a car be necessary specially because cars are expensive af in SA, in the US at least cars are much more affordable, I have family in the US and they don't understand why my mom has such an old car, getting a new car would take like a year's worth of her salary in Brazil. (And her salary is like 5x minimum wage) I much prefer having actual public transportation than depend on cars though, I don't even have a license lol
@camelopardalis842 жыл бұрын
@@phosphenevision Earning five times the minimum wage and not being able to afford a new car because it would cost the earnings one makes sounds really extreme. I can't even tell if your mother earns rather much or rather little. I get it, you can earn five times more than someone else without either you or that other person earning an inexplicably heigh or inexplicably low wage. But still.
@krixkhaos2 жыл бұрын
Another point I've brought up before in these kinds of discussions is that there are a lot of people who **should not** be driving, for various reasons. But often they literally have no choice because of the car-centric nature of our urban planning. I live in Auckland NZ, and the number one thing people complain about here is the traffic and incompetent drivers. Our public transport is, quite honestly, an absolute joke, and the city sprawl is ridiculous. We don't "plan" our urban areas here, it seems. We just stick metaphorical bandaids on them and go, "She'll be right." The Green party (Chloe for PM!) have been fighting for adequate public transport for decades, and nothing substantial is ever done about it because rich people don't need it so it doesn't matter. And don't even get me started on accessibility issues for people with disabilities. But anyway, my initial point is that we wouldn't have to deal with quite so many brainless (and frankly dangerous) drivers if they weren't forced to drive in the first place by our shitty urban planning.
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
Go! Hope you win. If you need the show of the example of how walkability or lack thereof can dry up economically a region, use Puerto Rico and the death of mom dad/ local stores. Where I live it's horrible sometimes. At age 16 can one get a drivers license, since it's the US then it's the only form of identification allowed. A kid I know wasn't allowed to take one of the standardized exams because he had a passport instead of a license. The utter dependency to cars to transport may also be shown since it's technically illegal to leave someone under 16 alone in a house (put into place to stop the use of children for drug trafficking, now the island is full of lazy don't want to get out of bed to go ANYWHERE AT ALL people, like me, and I do know my own faults.) People make a living by becoming private semi public buses since public transport doesn't reach all the way to anywhere and buses may arrive late or not at all... The public train isn't used since there is no connection from it to any other public transportation mode, just driving to a station that is a dead end essentially.
@swedneck2 жыл бұрын
This reminds me of my dad's story about a blind old man who drove while his wife gave him directions. That actually fucking happened in real life, and in *sweden* none the less! It's patently ***insane*** that a driver's license doesn't require YEARLY re-testing.
@enjoyslearningandtravel79572 жыл бұрын
I agree there’s many people that should Not be driving for various reasons. They are too old and have problems such as very poor vision or they have many traffic tickets such as not stopping or speeding very much over the limit or other dangerous things then they should have their drivers license taken away for a certain period of time or maybe even forever if they can’t pass a vision test or they were involved in a hit-and-run or other very dangerous situation. That is not an accident. . Some countries have a vision test when you’re over a certain age but they don’t have it every year or every two years it’s more like I forgot every five years or so I’m not that old yet.
@shaunmckenzie55092 жыл бұрын
Believe it or not, many places in the US are far worse than Auckland.
@eleo_b2 жыл бұрын
That reminds me of a popular video of an American judge who has an old men of nearly 90 years old in court. He had gotten a ticket for something (speeding or going too slow, not sure). Turns out the man was taking his 70 year old son to hospital. The judge dismissed the fine. Everybody in the comments was praising the judge. Meanwhile I was thinking, this old man who was not in the best health himself should not have had to be driving in the first place! There would have been subsidised car services or at least some form of accessible public transport. I mean, of course when someone is sick, it is hard to take the bus. But at 90 years old, people shouldn’t have to be driving others to the hospital.
@MsLinoi2 жыл бұрын
When I first went to the US at age 14 (I'm German) I was shocked by how anti-pedestrian especially the suburbs (& even some citys) are. I now live in a student town in Germany, which is extremely walking & bicycle friendly & sometimes I tend to take it for granted.
@magentahoward2 жыл бұрын
Today I went to get a bus pass for the Fresno metro system. The hoops I had to go through to get one was absurd. You can mail in a form with a check to get a bus pass mailed to you. Or you can walk to one of 12 places to buy a pass . So I walked to the nearby college. The Fresno transit website didn't say where the passes could be bought. So I went to student services. They didn't know but suggested I check student activities. That area wasn't labeled properly so I went to the bookstore to ask. They didn't know where I could get a bus pass but directed me to student activities. It wasn't there. So then I walked back to student services and asked some people out front and they didn't know so they radioed to student activities and they said "we don't sell them anymore" and then were corrected and I was told to go to business services. I went there and there isn't a terminal but a person who manually files and charges for the card. Anybody without the information or dedication might not be able to do this. Additionally I was only able to purchase a monthly pass not fare. So someone who couldn't pay $34 in one go might not even be able to purchase a pass.
@tiffanyferg2 жыл бұрын
Ugh so frustrating! Why are these systems often so impossible to use?
@magentahoward2 жыл бұрын
It seems like they haven't updated the systems in decades. There are no clearly marked signs or information on where to obtain a pass. It's almost as if it was designed to maintain Fresno's car dependency.
@newworldlord6432 жыл бұрын
Whattttt theeee fccckkkk!!!??? Dam thats ridiculous!!
@cloudyskies54972 жыл бұрын
I live in a European city and the buses and trams have machines on them so you can board without a pass and then feed it your coins to get one. I use the annual unlimited pass which works out to one euro per day. Yes it's a big payment of 365 euro all at once but I have all year to budge for the next one. There are ways to make it simple, I think in places where it is so complicated, it's like they're trying to discourage it. They act like they have to reinvent the wheel, haha.
@martah53692 жыл бұрын
For comparison I buy all my bus and train tickets through the regional service's app and have them on my phone, monthly tickets as well as temporary ones. Also the national train service has an app where I can purchase and show tickets.
@allexissmith93002 жыл бұрын
When I lived in Japan, I felt safer and I literally walked and took public transportation everywhere. We used our car almost rarely. We invested in bicycles because it was more common. I loved using public transport and preferred it because it was so reliable and cars had more traffic and toll tickets. Moving back to the states you realize how much people don’t walk or utilize public transportation unless you live in a college town.
@7BearSarah2 жыл бұрын
I personally don't drive at the age of 27. It stems from PTSD from a sexual assault that happened in a car when I was 17 so I've just avoided it all together for 10 years. I lived in a city for a good chunk of that so I survived on Lyft and Uber. I have been told more times than I can count that I need to learn to drive and I can't go my whole life without being able to. I have no desire to learn to drive and people do not get it. Moreover, I have no desire to have the responsibility and added cost of a car. I know it would be easier but I've survived this long without it.
@gaadara58432 жыл бұрын
As a French people I am BAFFLED. It is only in the country road that you had no sidewalks, and buses are a thing, a rare things in the country, but still a thing. That was very interesting !
@xoxoxxx123452 жыл бұрын
I have been saying this forever. Imagine we had a solid country wide train system? How incredible and amazing would it be not to rely on cars. There would be countless benefits if that system was created and would resolve many stresses in modern day living. But I imagine there are stakeholders that would not want push that forward and crush the car industry in the process as well as allow various economic classes to mix within environments more easily..
@Rhaifha2 жыл бұрын
There's videos on it out there, but it's kind of too late for it now. Most of the US is too low density to have trains make sense. The only area where it does make sense is for the east coast cities, but that's built in such high density there's no space for a high speed train line without demolishing a lot that's in the way. Like, don't get me wrong, trains are super cool, but yeah.
@Pomagranite1672 жыл бұрын
Psh i'd be willing. Love taking the amtrak for convenience and its really enjoyable and i can get to philly, nyc, baltimore, and dc mad quick. But its so fucking expensive and it only has 1 or 2 stations per city. There needs to be more stations and it needs to be more accesible to the public and more affordable
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
My history teacher was a historian and friend of many other historians and even quite a few anthropologists archeologists He always says that the worse thing my region has ever done is destroy all the previous train infrastructure around the early 20th century and if we had maintained that this place would be looking a lot better.
@whoisthatkidd22122 жыл бұрын
@@Rhaifha The US population is not evenly spread out. People (un)happily drive hundreds of miles between cities (but not thousands!) and a well-designed intercity rail can operate at 110 mph, blowing cars out of the water at distances between 10-300 miles. High-speed rail is often faster than flying at distances below 500 miles (most flights in the US are short-haul flights less than 1000 miles, not transcontinental flights) as there is no need for bag check, boarding, TSA, etc. Back in its heyday the Empire Builder, a passenger route between Chicago and Seattle, used to AVERAGE 80 mph ON STEAM. Also, why not use the right-of-way that freeways have, demolish a few lanes, and build new passenger trackage there? Most cities have freeways cutting through the middle of them already (lol). And why is there a double standard with eminent domain? Americans will happily allow properties to be demolished for highway or road construction/widening but will oppose it if it involves a train, even though a single railroad track has FAR more capacity than a single highway lane.
@planefan0822 жыл бұрын
@@whoisthatkidd2212 Then the "tRaInS aRe nOiSy" And cars aren't? Plus, trains are almost silent (not to mention the environment) where they're electrified, and they would be if they were used more
@samiishh2 жыл бұрын
Earlier this year, I didn’t have my car at the time and was exposed to COVID and started feeling sick. The area I live in is not walkable at all (there are zero sidewalks) and I literally couldn’t even go get a COVID test because all of the testing centers around me were drive through centers and I obviously didn’t want to expose anyone of my friends or family and I also couldn’t Uber (for obvious reasons). It made me realize for the first time how inaccessible america is for so many 🥺
@LilliD32 жыл бұрын
There are only drive through testing centers next to me too but people here regularly apear on bikes or walking to get tested there. And then they can skip the line so it's actually beneficial to bike or walk there.
@pyl44722 жыл бұрын
Coming from Singapore, there is a strong emphasis on walkability (despite the humidity, we have A LOT of shaded pedestrian walkways and sheltered paths from apartments to stations and bus stops) and accessible public transport. All the buses and trains (and stations) here have been converted to be accessible with a shift towards upgrading those that are not, and pedestrian walkways have slopes rather than curbs at crossings. Also sound activated pedestrian lights for countdown and raised dots for canes navigation. Because we are so dense and small, the planners put in parks or reserved nature areas across the island. They don’t exist independently of each other, as the planners have put in accessible pedestrian and cycling paths that are mapped across different towns, that connect a number of these parks together (“park connector network”). Some of these connectors are usual pedestrian walkways for each town, but with very strong visual indicator (colour of pathway and signs) that indicate it connects to a park or another. I have a driving licence and the family has a car which I can use, but I tend towards taking the bus and train to get everywhere because parking is expensive here, it’s faster to get to my destination by public transport at peak hours, and I can read/do other things on public transport. I’m so spoiled that I complain about a 5 minute bus ride to get to the train station (the map of which is also currently expanding intensely to all corners of Singapore). Also moving into a new apartment later this year which is 3 minutes (sheltered, clean, accessible) walk from the train station which will cut down on my complaining drastically. Public transport is cheap here, even though prices are rising, the % we spend on it based on our median salary is minimal. The buses and train companies worked together for transport to be had on a single card, and distance-based (if I take a bus, I pay a base fare + additional for the distance I ride. If I hop onto a train to continue my journey, the system automatically calculates the additional distance and applies a lower cost through my card [basically I’m not paying for the base fare twice within a journey]). For persons with disabilities, students and seniors, there are also concession cards that make it even cheaper to take buses and trains. To reduce peak hour crowds, there are also cheaper rates for adults riding the trains and buses before 7.30am. Just a lot of things like that. I hope that everywhere can experience the convenience and cost that we have here in Singapore! Not sure if there is any literature on it, but if anyone is interested, do check out the work Singapore has done in this area through Google? We’re a small nation so it was easier to implement, but lots of ideas that are well done.
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
That sounds glorious. I live in Puerto Rico, it's either extremely hot or raining. I would LOVE if the sidewalks and walkways would have that... Puerto Rico is walkability hell. I would love that to change since lot's of people need that kind of help and it would benefit a lot more.
@sarosen57312 жыл бұрын
i’ve lived mostly in a car dependent, suburban area most of my life but just recently moved to a walkable neighborhood in a new city, while also starting a work from home job. it’s so surreal to me that i don’t have to drive to run most of my errands, and i don’t even have to drive to work! i truly feel like i have a greater quality of life now since i don’t always have to deal with the stress of driving. i also have constant anxiety about my car breaking down/having issues but now that i’m not in the suburbs...it’s not such a big deal and a lot of my neighbors don’t even have cars!
@lizzyw78612 жыл бұрын
Where did you move to? (I am planning to move too)
@sarosen57312 жыл бұрын
@@lizzyw7861 seattle, WA!!
@shitty_beatles2 жыл бұрын
So this is admittedly a niche issue, although there's a lot of ✨intersectionality✨ here, but foster youth have a really hard time getting their DLs, let alone cars. In my state, a social worker can technically sign whatever form is needed for a permit, but finding someone to actually teach you how to drive or let you take the test in their car? Forget about it. That carries on to adulthood if you don't have family support or any established adults to teach you, and driving school isn't really an option when you're struggling to finance your basic needs. We were from an urban area so public transit is an option that we all took advantage of, and we got free bus passes, which was a huge help. But the services for former foster youth expire, and at that point you've lost access to the subsidized housing too, so you have to move. Right now there aren't any affordable pockets left where I grew up, so your options are likely street or suburbs. But how do you move to the suburbs if you can't drive, and how do you get around there when you do? It's like reverse white flight, privileged people are moving into the cities and pushing out the people who rely on things like walkable cities and reliable mass transit into the suburbs. Not saying that they're wrong for wanting the things cities have to offer, it just sucks that the suburbs that were designed for their class are all that's left for us
@prachiarora62452 жыл бұрын
Oh my god, never thought this way. Thank you for bringing this to light.
@chowo2 жыл бұрын
Wait, you need to have a car to do a drivers test?? In the Netherlands your car instructor (someone with a diploma, not a family member) has a car you drive in. This is so weird to me
@matthewshultz87622 жыл бұрын
Your last point - reverse white flight - is huge. White flight happens and kicks the city limits out like crazy, then now some decades later, gentrification starts again and pulls all the high-earning workers back to the city. Owning and maintaining a 2,500 sf house is a HUGE task, even with middle class income. People complain about apartments getting 'trashy' after 5-10 years of renters, but the same thing happens when homeowners can't afford to maintain their houses. Huge acreages of subdivisions fall into disarray because the only people who can afford to live in the used properties cannot afford to maintain them.... It's a big issue and only worsens the car-dependency lifestyle
@dabbeatles2 жыл бұрын
@@matthewshultz8762 I'm experiencing this in the suburb where I live. There are fleas in all of the yards, and roach infestations in all of the "low income" apartment buildings in my county. It's like no one who lives here can afford to maintain the place at all.
@rakkatytam2 жыл бұрын
I was adopted by shitty parents, ran away when I was 17, couldn't wait a year. I am now 31 and just got my license a week ago, that's how long it took me to get my license just because there are no social programs to help people learn how to drive.
@PicekRudly2 жыл бұрын
Honestly living in Europe I am really happy were not driving everywhere like I just wanna walk to the centre and go for a coffee and it takes me 30 minutes of slow walking or taking public transportation(not always perfect and in time but its good and convenient). I would die in the US and Canada and other non walkable countries 😫 (edit here: its not perfect ofc and there are problems here too, but not as big as in the US, Canada and etc)
@euenfheiejrj2 жыл бұрын
To be fair, it’s not all of the US. I lived in NYC and now Chicago and I’ve never owned a car. I walk, bike, or take the train.
@PicekRudly2 жыл бұрын
@@euenfheiejrj I know there are some cities (bigger cities like NYC yeah but honestly not enough of them are like that, especially because property prices are huge so people opt to live a bit out of the city or most of the cities are just empty business buildings with no one living there. But I do understand that there are some cities that can be walkable.
@1029blue2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, it depends on where you live in the US. However, because it's such a big country, it's not as easy to travel all over the place by train. I miss those European high-speed trains and the shorter distances. Long car rides are exhausting to me.
@BlitzsieLDiscoLSnow2 жыл бұрын
@@1029blue Fun fact, the US is very good with trains when it comes to cargo transport. It's just that when they have to switch to people transport the old white men on top will shout something like "communism" or "cars are freedom" and then they just widen highways instead of getting some proper high-speed train networks done. All the US needs is the will to change.
@cloudyskies54972 жыл бұрын
Definitely agree. I love Europe. We make less money and are taxed higher here (and now there's war, and as you said, there are problems here too) but I wouldn't trade it.
@aprilshowers12712 жыл бұрын
THANK YOU. I had to move from the city back to the suburbs for med school and I hate it. Owning a car and paying for gas is SO expensive, but the isolation thing is getting me the most. I really did feel much more connected to my community walking around, taking the subway, etc. It's a mindset of "we're all in this together" vs everyone pitted against each other in their cars. I have had so much more trouble making friends or meeting people here than I ever did in the city.
@anzaia21642 жыл бұрын
I am *astonished* by your sidewalk situation. This is absolutely ridiculous. And I thought my town had garbage sidewalks... Because they're cracked and the red bike lane paint is barely visible anymore. As a German person, I don't think I've ever been on a street in a city that didn't have a proper sidewalk. As in, a paved (or sometimes, though rarely, gravel) path, that is wide enough for two walking people to pass each other without having to take a big step to the side. In more rural villages, roads without sidewalks are pretty common, but these roads are wide and there isn't any traffic.
@pgum123gonowplayread42 жыл бұрын
Lucky. In PR our typical sidewalks are tiny, two people may walk side by side each other for sure in a few places however even then the sidewalks are just barely allowing two people to walk side by side, and in tow people I mean two not chubby teens equivalent. We do have many streets without sidewalks because parking is rather better than a sidewalk, even though it's having 4 parkings not like anything else. Sidewalks are also extremely cracked as in you could step in some as if they were a step on a staircase high, and some are so thin that a bike handle couldn't pass through because even though the lanes are so wide they couldn't thin it to make more room for the electric pole plus that new thick street button pole which takes a whole person equivalent and the fact that the stores now have no place to put their trash but in the narrow sidewalk. Utterly garbage. (Where I live)
@duane_3132 жыл бұрын
Detroit, the “Motor City” where they encouraged everyone to buy a car in its pre 60’s race riots hey day and neglected to invest in reliable public transportation making it nearly impossible to live here without a car, we have the highest auto instance rates, terrible roads (all of Michigan really), lack of good paying jobs in city limits and when we try to pass a provision to make a transportation system that goes into suburbs you know the suburbanites voted it down. The most blackest city in America, so yeah, kinda racist if you wanna think of it from that angle as well..
@amygreen96622 жыл бұрын
I lived there for a year. People said the roads were because of weather. I live in Kansas, and we get some pretty cold weather too. We're always repairing our roads. Orange cones are great! In Pontiac, my car was almost swallowed by a huge pothole.
@availandco2 жыл бұрын
I lost so much hope in 2013-2016 when provision for public transportation wasn’t passed. Our roads in Michigan are absolutely atrocious which doesn’t make sense cause construction is always happening on major freeways at least once a year it seems 🥲
@ifetayodavidson-cade56132 жыл бұрын
Baltimore is also a Rustbelt city with a high black population. Rustbelt = factories shut down and people remained, with poverty as a result. There are "free" bus lines for students (included in tuition) and tourists (paid for with taxes). The tourist bus lines mostly travel near Johns Hopkins campuses as well as near where more educated, wealthier, and whiter residents live. So -- people who already have cars can take a free bus, but many who are poor have to take the bus lines that cost money.
@dezeblogs2 жыл бұрын
Getting around Detroit is a nightmare! In order to get to work reliably, I’ve had to depend on Uber which is super expensive. I don’t have my license and I’ve basically been forced to learn how to drive because of how Detroit is built. Driving lessons are super expensive! I’m a recent college graduate just trying to get on my feet and my job opportunities are severely limited due to the fact that I can’t walk to them or I can’t Uber without spending my whole check. I also do not have any help doing all of this due to my life circumstances. It’s hard out here without a car. 🚗
@niccole35422 жыл бұрын
This angers me because this was similar to my city.There are a bunch of potholes and I am wondering where is money for infrastructure going because it's hardly going towards fixing potholes.
@coldzeroes2 жыл бұрын
this video just makes me glad i live in europe where public transport is prioritized over cars. hopefully this will become a reality in america in the future too!
@cbpd892 жыл бұрын
I hope so too! In my area there are lots of good roads, not a lot of rail transportation. It seems to me that where I live if we had decent buses that ran useful routes it would be a great option, but the buses are basically useless right now. It would take me 3 hours to do a 30 minute drive.
@InvisibleRen2 жыл бұрын
I don’t know where in Europe you live but one of those screenshots was a disabled Londoner expressing woes about the Tube.
@aim-to-misbehave56742 жыл бұрын
@@InvisibleRen The Tube is kind of a mess because so much of it was built 100+ years ago (it's so weird that there's an entire Sherlock Holmes story by Conan Doyle based around the Tube) - and there are a _lot_ of public transport systems that are nothing like London's. I live in Nottingham, which has an amazing public transport system in the trams and buses, and every single tram is 100% wheelchair accessible with multiple wheelchair spaces on every tram
@SquierMarr2 жыл бұрын
I so badly hoped that during COVID when the tube was closed they would finally have time to refurbish it properly. Nope. That was the chance of a lifetime that we will never get again and it's still horrible. So much better than being in the countryside still tho.
@tiaqmal42242 жыл бұрын
My husband and I recently moved to a different neighborhood with MUCH better walkability and I love it! There’s coffee shops, bookstores, a library and restaurants all within a 15-20 minute walk. I would never drive if I didn’t have to. Cars are a huge expense and if I didn’t need one, I wouldn’t have one at all.
@everything_is_illuminated619 Жыл бұрын
Glad you are talking about this. I moved from rural SC where I had to drive everywhere to LA county about 2 years ago and now I walk everywhere and the issue with the sidewalks is ridiculous. Sidewalks that just end, sidewalks covered in trash and holes and poles and cars hanging out of driveways. I often wonder how people with wheelchairs, walkers, strollers etc manage. And the bus' just aren't convenient when it takes 40 mins to go a few miles.
@nailinthefashion2 жыл бұрын
I was thinking about stuff like this a lot lately because a white, average, traditionally masc gay I was talking to was like, "I love public transportation!" Of course you do. Meanwhile me, a petit framed, flamboyant black guy has never once felt safe enough to use it. Cities like Compton are getting better, but still a huge mess. There's so much that needs to get done but people still argue over potholes, it's so eerie
@corvus68652 жыл бұрын
Public transportation needs to be expanded and popularized to the point that all kinds of people employ its use. Like how on a New York subway, you're just as likely to find a millionaire as you are to find a broke college student. No one should be made to feel "other" in communal spaces. This is especially the case for people who have no other option.
@PhilfreezeCH2 жыл бұрын
In other countries (like Switzerland or the Netherlands) 10-12 year old children use public transportation daily. When you enter an apprenticeship at age 16 it is pretty common to travel to the next city using public transportation. If enough people from all walks of live use it, it suddenly becomes much safer for everyone to do so.
@PhilfreezeCH2 жыл бұрын
@@corvus6865I feel it also greatly strengthens a countries/cities trust in each other. I used to take the same train to work as the then president of Switzerland (though our president isn‘t as powerful as a US president, we have a council of seven and the president is more like a speaker of the council). It really does make you feel way more like this guy actually wants to do his best for people like you, because he also lives a lot like you. Same goes for everyone, I take the same train as migrants, students, blue collar workers, white collar workers, managers, politicians and so on. So for me these aren‘t some unknown ‚other‘ people, I actually see the, every single day.
@joyh31762 жыл бұрын
Exactly even though LA public transportation can be semi reliable it's so scary
@AB-sm1qf2 жыл бұрын
The same thing about the police. White people rely on them so much and respect them but as POC woman, the only thing I’ve experienced is harassment to the point I’m downright afraid of military men and men in authority.
@imamaraim2 жыл бұрын
omg a lot of my friends are from nyc but we’re all going to a school on long island and i never understood my dependency on cars until i realized that my friends literally cannot go ANYWHERE without me driving don’t even get me started on the non existent public transportation which further fuels intense fear of not being able to get to school if my car breaks down 🙂👍
@MiaBostic Жыл бұрын
I wanted to study urban planning! One of the things I love about Illinois and Chicago is the thought and design around the highways and sidewalks. It's not perfect but when I visit other places I see how much better it is!
@aricamccarthy14212 жыл бұрын
My life is 90% of the time consumed by urban planning (work as a land use planner and am getting a masters in UP), so it makes me so happy that this profession is being publicized more (: super important stuff that people engage with typically unknowing on a daily basis!
@capysarah2 жыл бұрын
I live in the suburbs and work in the city, and don't have a car. The city's public transit isn't great, and people in the town I live in _like_ it that way. They don't want "those people" to be able to take the bus here. They don't use the bus themselves, so they don't care how that affects their neighbor (me).
@melodye142 жыл бұрын
Yeah that happens where I live too. There was a measure to move the train further out to a county neighboring the city but it was vetoed to avoid POC and homeless people.
@MegWayne2 жыл бұрын
I'm so happy you're touching on this! There's not a day I don't think of how different life could have been if Eisenhower hadn't chosen cars for the country while Japan was setting up trains everywhere.
@roundround12872 жыл бұрын
As an architect and urbanist myself, this is one of the most important aspects of city planning imo. This is a huge issue in my country, where the public transportation really sucks bc we built our country’s roads for cars, and the government is not interested on improving our public transportation. We don’t have the right infrastructure for modal interchange stations, people can and prefer buying cars bc they’re better that buses, our train system has a lot of problems from the actual infrastructure to the availability bc they don’t work on certain hours of the day, it doesn’t reach to certain areas of our country, etc. And a big part of having walkable cities also comes from the people, the culture. That’s why most cities in Europe and Asia promote public transportation, and their priority is always the pedestrians bc they’re the ones living and exploring the city. They focus on innovation, reducing time, making sure that everyone has access to it, having good infrastructure for the people who use it, improving and evolving.
@alanthefisher2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the feature! Great video and overall view of the subject! Glad to always see more awareness :)
@CTSH12 жыл бұрын
Alan! Love your videos :)
@azlanmcauliffe14502 жыл бұрын
Love this subject because I'm majoring in Geography and Urban Studies. Thanks Tiffany for everything!
@DeeQJohnson2 жыл бұрын
I majored in geography as well. I loved jt
@rose-co1xz2 жыл бұрын
PedestrianDignitiy was one of my favorite accounts while I had TikTok. I don’t drive. I have a learning disability and can’t comprehend it. I have to get rides everywhere because walking is UNSAFE. Not even just because I’m a woman, the suburban landscape is a joke
@Shelbizleee2 жыл бұрын
Tiffanyyyy! I loved this video! It is such a struggle living in Texas and especially the suburbs where we've been pushed out to for being unable to afford housing closer to the city. America, amiright? Thank you for making this!
@YourMajesty1432 жыл бұрын
Yay all my favorite KZfaqrs keep coalescing! And usually around relevant topics I care about!!
@samspam17882 жыл бұрын
I live in London and it's so pedestrian friendly. Whenever someone mentions the USA they talk about how u have to drive to get anywhere there
@emilypruyn27782 жыл бұрын
When I lived in a city I was about a block and a half from a grocery store, a cvs, a whole bunch of restaurants, and a bunch of other convenient businesses all clumped together right there in the middle of the neighborhood for this exact purpose. Not to mention the strong sense of community with everyone living close together in townhouses or apartments and hanging out on each other's front stoops. It was honestly my dream life and I miss it constantly. I'm now living out in the suburbs for the time being, but I can't wait to return to that lifestyle! It truly is the way we should all be living. It just feels right!
@emilypruyn27782 жыл бұрын
Also just to add to this, I was living in DC which has great parks, as well as trees lining most of the residential streets, especially in my neighborhood. This also makes a huge difference in terms of long-term livability in my opinion. I feel like this whole lifestyle should be obtainable for everyone, but the neighborhoods where you can usually have it all rolled into one are by far the most expensive :(
@taylorabbott87302 жыл бұрын
@@emilypruyn2778 Yeah I totally agree! it bothers me so much that the few walkable cities that do exist are so expensive. It also leads to gentrification, a lot of the young high-income tech workers where I live (silicon valley) move to San Francisco neighborhoods because of the museums/parks/restaurants and they're walkable. They end up driving up the price of rent and pushing out the working class people who used to live there. Like I don't blame tech workers for wanting to live in cool walkable neighborhoods, I wish government would build more cities like that to keep up with demand. The rest of the bay area is full of boring car-dependent suburbs and McMansions, it's really a huge bummer
@emilypruyn27782 жыл бұрын
@@taylorabbott8730 I can sadly relate. I have even witnessed one of my best friends from high school (and their mom and the rest of the working-class, BIPOC community, some of whom had been there for decades) get kicked out of their apartment complex because someone with more money and power than them decided they wanted to tear it down and put new and very expensive condos in its place. People aren't obstructions that can just be moved around at the will of someone more powerful. We have pride in our homes, we have sentiment and free will! It's horrible, and even more horrible to know that you can't do a damn thing about it. The whole thing reminds me too much of the story of Seneca Village in Central Park.
@rodgerlang8843 ай бұрын
As a counterpoint, I grew up in 3 different apartment complexes and I can't understand the draw. I now own my own home, so I don't have people living right on top of me, I don't have to hear everyone else's business and people aren't all over my business all the time. I also don't have to worry about a landlord raising rent or not getting around to fixing something.
@clairemcmonigle85152 жыл бұрын
i love this topic! i recently started riding my bike to my gym- it’s a 10 minute drive but a 45 minute bike ride. it’s only 3.5 miles but in order to navigate around the closed side walks due to construction and crosswalks it takes me so much longer. it’s worth the inconvenience- i enjoy being out in nature and outside of my bubble of a car. i hope the u.s. begins to be less car dependent. i agree it’s very isolating.
@alexisreve12 жыл бұрын
I grew up mostly in the Chicago suburbs and live in Madrid, Spain. One of my most favorite parts of living here is how unnecessary a car is for me. Madrid has incredible public transportation. I live in the center of the city, so I can walk almost everywhere I need to go. Less than 1% of the things I've wanted or needed to do in the almost 9 years I've lived here absolutely required a car. In fact, the year and a half before moving here, I was back home and did not have access to a car. Now I've more-or-less designed my life to not have a car limit me. But that involved literally leaving the country.
@parkerfitzen36092 жыл бұрын
I just got appointed to my city's Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, so hopefully, I'll be able to help with some of this stuff! Here's you're reminder to check with your city to see if they have open committee positions or to run for city council. If the people making decisions doesn't change, it's unlikely that the decisions will change. Videos like this are great, but what's even better is taking action to change your city for the better!
@Yazzzledazzzle2 жыл бұрын
With the rise of warehouses, stroads are becoming more common because they need it for tractor trailers to make a turn to the warehouse. It goes to show how it’s also affected by our shopping choices.
@macyfisher52092 жыл бұрын
The shopping choices thing is a great point! I don't think people often realize that all/most of the things wrong in the US are related, and worsening one thing leads to worsening of all the others!
@julienorcross85482 жыл бұрын
I recently moved from a semi-walkable neighborhood in a suburb to a truly walkable one within (a different) city limits and the difference just with that is insane. I barely get in my car anymore because everything is so close by. My new city is also apparently super bike-able so I'm going to get an e-bike to take advantage of that! It makes me so sad that there aren't more areas in the US that are like this. It has made me love + explore my neighborhood more.
@user-um4hi9bc2k2 жыл бұрын
what city are you in if you don't mind sharing?
@matthewshultz87622 жыл бұрын
e-bike is a great tool for reducing car dependency. Check out radpower bikes out of Washington. I've ridden mine 45 miles on one charge and it hold speed on flat ground at 20 mph.
@badassien12 жыл бұрын
I'm a transport planner, and if anyone found this video interesting and need a career change/looking for something to study, look into urban planning!! It's such an interesting and rewarding career. Everyday I work on projects that have a real and tangible impact on the city (hopefully for the better), with topics such as the ones explored in this video are the foundation of good transport planning for people, not just vehicles. Despite being such a vital and fantastic career choice, people often haven't even heard of it or consider it. Also, read The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup, wild stuff.
@Lemonz19892 жыл бұрын
It’s great living in a walkable city. I live in Aarhus in Denmark, and have an electric bike for fast short distance travel, like grocery shopping. I can take public transportation that goes, in the most used routes, every 10 minutes. In lesser traveled routes it’s usually every 30 minutes outside rush hour, and every 15 minutes during rush hour. I live 7 km from the city center, but can take the city rail and be in the center in 14 minutes. There are large no car zones in the center, where is nice and quiet. :)
@jbeeee422 жыл бұрын
walkability is the # 1 reason I live in nyc. And if it's too far to walk, the subway goes most places. And if I don't want to take the subway, I can jump on a CitiBike or take the ferry! I'm putting off having to rely on a car for as long as I possibly can.
@DeeQJohnson2 жыл бұрын
Really good video! I love it! I want to add my personal experience here…. As a government city planner (project planner) a lot of the times we do advocate for walkable streets/walkability … sometimes it’s the developers, citizens and/or the voting board/commissioners that go against what we ask or recommend .
@reckonerwheel53362 жыл бұрын
Do you like your job? Being a project planner seems really cool from an outsider perspective!
@DeeQJohnson2 жыл бұрын
@@reckonerwheel5336 i do like it! What is frustrating is trying to keep everyone on one accord (the developer, owner, engineers , architect, landscape architect, citizens, and even other internal departments). Have to be very organized and plan things out
@llamaindisguise2 жыл бұрын
Yes girl preach!! I'm a civil engineer that works in designing new transit and bike/ped facilities. I feel seen and heard! Prioritize the movement of people over cars!!!!!!!!
@youguyswantsomecookies2 жыл бұрын
I wrote in a micro essay 😂 I am so happy to have moved from the suburbs to an urban environment. Living across the street from a 11 mile well-connected pedestrian only path, grocery stores, bars, restaurants, I never drive. We've considered selling one of the cars because my husband still drives to work.
@alli32632 жыл бұрын
you could make this a whole series bc I’m obsessed with city planning/development and how it impacts communities (and it seems like many other people are too!)
@NataliaNNS2 жыл бұрын
Yes! This is such an interesting topic!
@thaysamelo91132 жыл бұрын
I went to the us many years ago and I remember feeling weirded out before I even arrived at the hotel and now I get why. The city looked perfectly built for me, a tourist that rented a car, but devoit of any indication of life outside of it. I remember asking my mom if she noticed we had been driving all day and, by my standards, had barely seen any people walking, friends hanging out, busses, bikes.... It took so long to even see a crossroad
@marshandsarah2 жыл бұрын
As someone who is getting a degree in urban and regional studies and planning, this video is so so good!!!
@Harmony_OW2 жыл бұрын
9:37 this section made me burst into tears. I am not disabled (though both my parents are), just someone who wants to get around without a car. I can't tell you how many times I've encountered obstacles like this while walking--not even counting the things I don't notice as an abled person. The knowledge that I can simply scoff at these obstacles while it is a much harder experience for disabled people is horrible. This makes me extremely sad that our cities have come to this. Thank you for making this video.
@morgan59232 жыл бұрын
Inland empire naturalized here. Good luck finding a bus depending on where you are in the IE. Middle school was rough if my mom didn’t want to give me a lift and I couldn’t navigate bus lines where they did happen to run. I grew up in mostly developing areas. I had strong legs though. Your bus experience sounds so much like mine. I took the bus to school 2 times with a friend to test the route. Ended up taking the train in the end. Years of memories and inside jokes with my best friend who accompanied me for those Odysseys. You are always so inclusive in your commentary that it astounds and amazes me. Thank you!
@PaintFae2 жыл бұрын
I've been on this civil planning / walkability / suburban / urban design kick for a while now (Not Just Bikes and Climate Town are great channels I agree check them out). I've lived everywhere from walkable US suburbs to very isolated suburbs to manhattan. I hate being forced to drive. I can enjoy it, sure, but I want the option not to drive. I deal with a lot of chronic fatigue and have had to organize my day around when I'm alert enough to drive myself to / from work, events, and stores. I've taken the Great American Cross Country Roadtrip and I love it. It's bonkers that I live in an apartment complex off a main arterial road and there are no SIDEWALKS anywhere, I have to get into my car to go to a store less than a mile away. I can't take a stupid walk for my stupid mental health because my options are grass with dog poop or street with cars. Aaaaahhhhhh.
@ixtahdanielac49222 жыл бұрын
I love that you’re talking about this. It’s important to get young people on the same page regarding this issue for things to change.
@justinemorency71442 жыл бұрын
As someone who prefer to walk instead of driving, this issue is so often overlooked but critical
@pri.sci.lla.2 жыл бұрын
As someone form Chicago, most of my friends don’t have cars. We have our licenses but depend on walking or public transit mostly. I really want a car but they’re such a huge depreciating expense.
@kylewilliams81142 жыл бұрын
Typically yes, this past year though cars have appreciated in value. I've seen people buy a new car last year, sell it for more than they paid. Dealerships gouging buyers is the big, messed up driving factor though.
@carissa45512 жыл бұрын
i live about an hour and a half southeast of chicago in nwi and we can’t get anywhere without cars. i went to chicago a few years ago and it amazed me that you can just walk everywhere!!! there is a “downtown” here that is walkable with little gift shops and restaurants but if you had to go to the grocery store you would NEED to drive or you’d get run over on the highway
@ramochai2 жыл бұрын
I live in Chicago too, but even the most walkable US city has an anti-pedestrian, “cars first” feel, compared to an average European city.
@sumtime___58812 жыл бұрын
lol i started tearing up with you about teenage years and your car. inland empire, CA and hanging out in the car, music, ice cream really was the thing to do with friends
@itsmaya92182 жыл бұрын
as someone who grew up (and is still growing up) in a family without a car, I really appreciate this video! this topic isn't addressed as much as it should be
@wrenb7275 Жыл бұрын
As a disabled person who can't drive and whose parents contributed to urban sprawl by buying a house in a subdivision in the middle of nowhere, a lot of what you said really resonated with me. The kicker? My bus service, which is LITERALLY down the road, won't service this area. They gave me the excuse that we're literally one road "off" of their route, and because they're dangerous country roads, it's not possible to walk to the nearest one. I'm so happy this video exists. Public transport is so essential, especially to folks who really need it and have no other option.
@RainyDayzDraws2 жыл бұрын
I once was stuck waiting for a bus to work for over 3 and a half hours and one of my coworkers got permission to just come pick me up. It was winter and I was freezing and stressed about loosing my job. And this was on a college campus, where the buses were usually more consistent than the rest of the county. Edit: The bus is supposed to come every hour
@midorisour28442 жыл бұрын
I live in rural Japan and I walk to the grocery store pretty much every day. I am within walking distance of a train station, tons of restaurants, and three grocery stores. It does take more time than driving, but I find driving to be stressful, while walking actually relieves my stress. Plus, I get to meet so many dogs!
@dailymdesdemona2 жыл бұрын
I remember first hearing about the concept of urban sprawl vs. walkable neighborhoods in my Environmental Science course in college. It's stuck in my mind ever since, and I love seeing all of the factors surrounding it getting more attention these days.
@birtarb072 жыл бұрын
Ugh it makes me go insane that Reykjavík is designed for the personal car and not proper public transport Ever since I was young the average number of cars per household has been 2, which is a lot for a population of 300.000 :(
@hellosabrinachaney2 жыл бұрын
And it doesn't help that the #1 tourist thing to do in Iceland is drive the golden circle!
@birtarb072 жыл бұрын
@@hellosabrinachaney I mean, I get it if you live in the countryside that you need to have a car, hell, most people need to have some sort of a jeep to get through the winter if they wanna be able to get somewhere for nessecities. But at the same time it's so blatantly obvious that the same people that had shares in the oil companies had a hand in the city planning for Reykjavík that it's infuriating. The same people are STILL talking against public transport and how it doesn't work and how nobody uses it (the catch 22 of trying to get a suburb-structured city to adheir to public transport-structured city I guess). I don't hate cars, I just dislike the fact that if you don't live downtown in the most expensive area, both in terms of renting as well as cost of living, you can just kiss your dreams of walking or cycling goodbye. Not saying it's impossible but if you value your time it's not preferable by any means.
@jbates7252 жыл бұрын
As someone who hasn't been able to have car for 9 years, due to chronic health conditions, and is disabled, and is very low income - those things tend to go together, unfortunately - I appreciate you making content about this so much. I think it's funny though hearing that one of the things you liked best about walking was being able to interact with all the different kinds of people. When you have to do it all day everyday for any tiny little need, being forced to interact with the general public is actually one of the worst parts, and it's very dangerous, at least for women. I'm 41 now, and I've been 100% walking everywhere for everything for 9 years come and even at my age, I get constant, CONSTANT remarks and harassment from men, in public, in broad daylight, of course even much worse after dark, the most vile, disgusting things said to me all the time, all kinds of men following me, stalking me, comments about my vagina (no matter how conservatively dressed), what they want to do to me sexually, marriage proposals. Getting asked for drugs, solicited, and just constant unwanted attention and remarks. Just to try and get my groceries or get to a job, or run any little errand. It's exhausting and scary. I desperately missed having my little safety bubble of a car that some people complained about. They are very, very fortunate to have that. Live in a city where absolutely everyone has a car, and everyone assumes I'm some kind of degenerate whack job when they find out not only do I not have a car now, but I haven't had one for years, and I don't know if I can have one again ever. Everyone says there's no way you can survive in the city without a car, and they don't know how right they almost are, although for them it's still a choice, for me it's not. And it's not because I'm on drugs or got a bunch of DUIs or that I'm crazy or whatever reason people assume when they see you walking all over the streets for years all hours of the day and night. It's dehumanizing, and degrading, and it makes having so many chronic illnesses even so much more exhausting. And then your friends avoid you on case might ask them for a ride some time when there's something you really, really need and just can't make it happen. It's all just so incredibly stressful all the time and humiliating.
@Pomagranite1672 жыл бұрын
Thats the worst part about underfunded transportation though. Its not all ppl using it. Its all ppl who HAVE to use it. So it gets a bad rap bc its all ppl that for whatever reason, cant drive. And ofc, if u cant drive for whatever reason, ur seen as a degenerate, and therefore, all public transport users are degenerates. But if it was mor accessible to the general public, kids would be there too. Other single women. Young people. Older people. Diasabled and able bodied, ppl from all walks of life, moms, couples, whole ass families, workers. Everyone trying to get somewhere. It would no longer be a "degenerate" space, but a public one that EVERYONE would care for and have a vested interest in protecting and keeping safe. Which is why its so critical for Pub Trans to beclme more accessible- so that ur life wouldnt have to be so difficult. I'm so sorry the system has neglected and failed u. As someone suffering shoulder injuries in both arms rn, driving is a real pain in the ass rn, and I am so so so grateful to live in a relatively walkable city. I do not know what i would do if i had to stress over driving absolutely everywhere.
@coreyinthedryer73682 жыл бұрын
this is a very low risk situation but i remembered I walked 30 minutes to get markers to finish an art piece i needed to get done i spent an hour walking towards there and i’m in those places where cars are way too close to pedestrians and i made many close calls
@kateb26432 жыл бұрын
So unexpected seeing this topic getting so popular. I've been on my little soapbox about this for a couple years already. This sort of coverage means things actually stand a chance of changing. LOVE TO SEE IT
@maleficara2 жыл бұрын
Having moved to Finland back in June and been introduced to a public transportation system unlike anything I experienced in the States - it is an adjustment, to be sure. I have had a few conversations with people Stateside who can't fathom not having a car or that public transportation (Bus/Metro/Tram) is inexpensive and quick to get around a big city.
@avgeek7072 жыл бұрын
And this is why I will major in Urban Planning. There's good money and scholarships for studying it, too, if you liked this topic and are an undecided youth.
@TheAimeeRT2 жыл бұрын
I would LOVE a part two! I'm currently in Germany, going to move back to the states next year, and I am dreading it mostly for this reason. I don't want to buy a car - for similar reasons you mentioned (money, sustainability, freedom), and so I'm looking for places that are walkable or bikeable. I also can't count the number of times I have had a job application rejected SOLELY because I don't have "reliable transportation." As if it's my fault I'm not rich and can't make the bus come on time. Also, if anything, a bike is MORE RELIABLE than a car as it requires less maintenance and can still be safe to use on days with light to medium rain or snow.
@AD-eg9cw2 жыл бұрын
Just lie. They're not going to come and check to see if you really have a car.
@enjoyslearningandtravel79572 жыл бұрын
You could put Yes you have reliable transportation. A bike can be reliable even a bus can be reliable if they have many per hour. Whose to say that a car is always more reliable, they break down, there’s traffic congestion unexpectedly, there’s car accidents in front of you that leads to being unreliable, there is traffic construction. So you don’t need to put it you don’t have a car just put you have reliable transportation. And then if they somehow find out you don’t have a car and wanna fire you then you have a reason to sue them. I’m not normally ever for suing someone but if they fire you for that reason try to work it out first and then if they don’t want to work it out and fire you can sue them .
@putrijd51732 жыл бұрын
I live in Jakarta and (before the pandemic) our family used to do regular trips to Singapore and even as children my brother and I would be most excited about the part where we would literally just be *walking* around. Being able to directly access your surroundings outside the confines of your vehicle does wonders to your mental health.