The funny thing would be to encourage all urbanism youtubers to do the same exercise. With enough luck that'd influence the Boise political scene.

You should do more citys like a series of renovating cities

I love the "here's what I would do as an urbanist" videos. Especially in smaller, more obscure cities. They really help get a sense of much potential they have! Would love to see more of these! Great Job!

Boise resident here…you NAILED this video! Boise continues to make significant investments in bike infrastructure and those living in the city could use more efficient and effective transport to and from the suburban areas and the downtown core. The regional transit authority completely overhauled the bus scheduling to increase frequency among its already dense transit corridors. Boise also completed it’s years-long zoning code rectification that incentivized high density development. As for tram and wider commuter rail, there is already heavy rail infrastructure in place that goes from the Boise Depot through Meridian to Nampa and Caldwell. Realistically, re-appropriating those tracks current in place is the single best chance Boise has of introducing any sort of new downtown-oriented transit. We will see…Boise is still young enough for developers to plan their own transit story!

Boise is pretty underrated! It had Tim Keane as lead planner for a while, well known for putting up a hard fight for zoning reform. He hopped up north to my city Calgary for a few weeks, but unfortunately went back to home base to get closer with family. Show your lead planners some love!!

This video was insanely well made and conprehensive! I have lots of respect for the work you put into it, its really worth it to show what boise could turn into! Excited for more ^^

Really loved this video!! It's so refreshing to stop seeing "what exists in europe that we should emulate", and instead see what a city like boise could really turn out to be!

Impressive plan! Thanks for taking time to explain in so much detail. US cities need to visualize improvements in this way

Please do Cincinnati 🙌 Love these videos! It helps those who are on the fence get a visual for what their city could look like. Keep up the good work!

>street walking tour >drives a 2 ton death machine to "walk" america, where people have to drive a murder box to go out for a meandering walk to nowhere. Freedom, truly. Inspiring.

I live in Idaho and most of our cities are growing astronomically and is widening freeways and spreading out into suburban sprawl unfortunately. It pains me as a long time Idahoan to see our state not densifying and growing so fast… 😞

Boise video! We actually have a pretty good mayor, but weird state politics blocks a lot of funding. Thanks for the video!

Very good idea to propose instead of criticising which is most of the times inefficient. As you told, better not building a "streetcar in loops" instead of an actual useful LRT whose purpose is moving people and not a kinda inefficient "turistical attraction" in city center. Unfortunately, most of the Trams (not LRT) in USA are conceived as "gadgets in loops" and of course, with bad planning, haven't got any customers (Atlanta, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Cincinnati, etc.), which discourage other cities to build them. Maybe a video about that would be useful and teaching for municpalities.

Amazing video. I would love to see these idea evolve into reality one day.

if this becomes a series and you are sticking with smaller cities in the northwest, I'd say Salem OR, Tri-Cities WA, or Spokane WA would be a good next video

19:40 I'd suggest having line 2 turn south at the western end and link up with line 1 across the river, i.e. make it possible to use the trams to go from one side of the river to the other without having to go all the way downtown (or having to wait for a bus that will always be less popular). It would make good sense to build that either as the phase after all that's in your map, or as the end phase of whichever line is first to reach all the way west. Am I making any sense?

This cities that are facing population growth have a great opportunity to densify, when compared to cities with stagnant or weak growths.

As somebody who lives in the suburbs and would describe my self as a moderate Republican I was super impressed with the concept at 25:09. The before is classic a 'stroad' catered to large box stores and hot pavement. After the trees were added in I don't know who wouldn't want that in a town named 'Wooded'. I would be so much more excited to open a small business on the second option within walking distance of the light rail line. Besides beautifying the street the trees provide natural traffic calming and helps keep things cool. It just seems like it would be good for business all around.

You should do some of the cities in the north, such as my hometown of Post Falls and it’s neighbor Coeur d’Alene, we are also currently growing so it would be cool to see what city designs are possible as it grows

13:37 a lot of states in the western part of the US allow cyclists to ride on the shoulder of a freeway if there are no viable alternate routes.

So cool to see this video as someone living in the Boise area! As far as I can tell, everything in the video is accurate, so you clearly did your research. I really hope we see more density and better transit/biking infrastructure in the area, but I don't have super high hopes for the near future because of how much car culture is entrenched in the culture here (like in so many American cities), but it's worth imagining what is possible

I really enjoyed this video as someone with family in Boise, so much that I bought a channel subscription haha 😊 If you're looking for more cities to do, I would recommend my home city, Wilmington, Delaware. It has amazing bones for comprehensive transit and biking infrastructure, but often falls short, especially compared to our northern neighbor (Philadelphia). I love your approach, and I appreciate that you see potential in these cities, unlike some KZfaqrs I know 🙄❤

This was wonderful to watch and super detailed! I’d love more videos like this

Local Boisean here, this is a great video! I absolutely loved your tram plan, I couldn't think of a better route for a simple two-line tram to go on. Thanks for taking a great assessment of our city! I would enjoy living here much more if it was planned the way you did in this video ;-;

This was a great video, hope you do more in this series!

Fascinating stuff - please do for more cities!

Boise is making progress on the bicycle/ped front for sure, but we need state funding for public transit. Idaho is the only state, to my knowledge, that doesn't fund ANY public transit at all. This leads all funding to come from combination of cities. So VRT, Valley Regional Transit, has to go begging to cities not named Boise for funds. And once you get outside Boise, the truck drivers just keep wanting to sit in traffic...ughagh

Great work !

You should do Oklahoma City, it has a ton of potential being one of the fastest growing cities in the country, and it’s improving by adding more walkable neighborhoods like the wheeler district and getting new developments like the OKANA resort and oak OKC. But I feel like there is more that could be improved, they are trying to get a transit hub for the new nba arena they are building downtown. I have made some ideas to improve the aesthetic of the city, like expanding the river that’s next to downtown to be closer to downtown, the river is too small and the bridges have a bad design. My most recent video shows what I’m explaining. OKC has so much potential but there’s so much that needs improvement. They are trying to build the tallest building in the country in OKC as well. OKC is about the size you are looking for, it’s population is 700k but that’s because it’s border size is 600sqm, about 1k people live per square mile. It has a funky looking skyline already, it has one 844ft tall building, the Devon tower, and the 2nd tallest is 500ft while the rest are 300-400ft. So that 1907ft tall building that seems likely to be built (the legends tower) will stick out like a sore thumb

excellent video! would love to see more videos like this one of mid-size cities

Great video! Only thing I missed was how a stroad without tram tracks would be done. Like making it 5 or maybe 6 lanes with protected bike and pedestrian infrastructure and a line of trees. But for the rest, I agree, though a way for the gazillion cars to get around (or underneath?) the city center, would make this very realistic and likely to succeed. Think of, for example, the Dutch principle of a RING-road; a road that goes around the city (center). Once again, fantastic video, keep it up!

I wonder whether the office-tower model of city downtowns needs a rethink, having observed the marked reduction in downtown traffic during the covid years, and the persisting commercial property price collapse. I could envision instead smaller clusterings of walking-scale villages, perhaps "transit-oriented" in that they would be connected to other clusters by regional busses, though these mostly along existing highways, whose off-ramps are terminated by mode-change transit nodes with parking for the vestigial passenger car fleet which is discouraged from entering local bicycle oriented streets. Perhaps new residential development or villages will sprout from the vast deserted parking lots surrounding the antiquated shopping malls. Perhaps residential development will cluster arround new local manufacturing campuses as the near-shoring trend gets underway.

16:44 hey! I was there just yesterday. My kid had handball practice (outdoor, in a park) near there so we took the tram for 10-15 minutes from school to the stop just around the corner there. One glaring mistake in the planning there is that they put the bike lane between the car lane and the car parking. Which means drivers be parking in the bike lane often. Change that and it would improve so much. add in better daylighting at crosswalks (put in some bike parking) and it'd all be an even nicer area.

Why not changing the rules for city-zoning? So there will be a more compact and mixed zoning?. With all kinds of houses and apartments, shops, schools, clinics, parks and offices? ans all connected by decent bike lanes, pedestrian walks, smaller streets and decent public transport. It will give cities so much more benefits. So they don't have to use the car every time.

very cool idea! I hope someone in Biose sees the video. You should consider making this a series

Dayum, tram lines going so far already? In Montréal, the new plan for Eastern Montréal was just released to connect the Eastern parts of the Northern Crown (Repentigny) and the East point (Pointe-Claire and others) to downtown indirectly (a transfer to the Green Line is planned to make the final trip to downtown) via trams who could go up to 100 km/h. The crossing will by by a tunnel. The cost is estimated at a whopping 18,4B$. For a tram. Wtf is wrong with us!?!? So seeing your idea of a tram going to the suburbs already with 3 crossings, for a similar lenght just for the Meridian line, I get kinda scared for the costs that would make it not a worthwhile investment for politicians.

At 17:40 you suggested removal of the two most beautiful historic squares that represent the local immigrated Basque culture. I want to invite you to not only understand Urban Planning, but also Design, as I have been politically active in Bergen, Norway around these discussions. Earlier I saw the modernistic architecture you look up to from Sweden, which is proven many times over again to have a negative impact on the mental health of people living by them. They are straight out hostile and surpessing to humans. They attract less people, destroy local identity and the cityscape as a whole. People perfer and need buildings with more natural materials, symmetri and colors. Buildings should: - Be varied but systematic (Copenhagen, Paris or Amsterdam) - Use natural materials as bricks or wood. - Have colors, symmetry and ornaments that reflect nature. - Have human scale dimensions - Have inviting and open first floors. - Preserve local identity and building traditions You even compared the streets from before and after postmodernism, which indeed was a sad collage of USA's lost architectual heritage. Boise would benefit hugely from more streets which such charm as those like the Basque district around W. Grove Street. Best regards Aslak

Great job! Many things I would mention: There is already a large public square downtown(Grove Plaza): We need density instead. They are trying to plan a commuter rail like the UTAH Front Runner. They are also trying to reinstate the amtrak line that went through town (Connection to Salt Lake City and Portland.) Idaho is one of the only states without a dedicated funding mechanism for public transit. There are more and more protected bike lanes popping up. Boise just adopted a brand new zoning code, it is WAYYY better than before. ACHD (Ada County Highway District) is addicted to traffic lights. The greenbelt is awesome and tons of people already commute via bike. There ridge above town is also covered in bike trails and the vast majority of it is reserved for open space. Boise's park network is awesome. Eagle road is among the worst stroads I have ever seen. Great job!

70m trams is an overkill

Great video man, seeing all renders was cool too. Btw what programs did you use for the 3D segments and the transit diagram? I’ve been wanting to try some stuff similar to this.

I'd argue for just a swarm of on-demand AI-scheduled self-driving passenger vans downtown instead of some extensive new rail infrastructure. Likewise, regional busses along existing roads. And most streets just a single truck delivery lane with broad bicycle and pedestrian lanes bordered by alternating bicycle parking and shaded/winter-tented cafe-seating wares-display areas. Maybe a gondola from downtown to the Ski area on the ridge. I fortunately can utilize the river for daily walks and bicycle errands. On the rare winter snowy days, I see cross country skiiers using the paths. Summertimes it can be a traffic jam of bicycles and ebikes.

@City for All - 24:35 - Very impressive work. What program did you use to make your models?

As a bicyclist, I would still ride on the road on these narrow urban streets. Can easily keep up with traffic and not have to dodge pedestrians and inexperienced, slow bicyclists. The "protected" bike lanes are hazardous due to right-turning motorists at every intersection.

I love this video, what do you feel about Tempe, Az? It's a good size and is an interesting place. Growing fast, including new developments like 'Culdesac' and the recently approved 'south pier tempe' project. Excited especially for the metro.

May I suggest Halifax, NS, Canada for a future video? It's fast growing city with infrastructure that isn't keeping up, a strong walkable core but also lots of sprawly suburbs. I'd love to see your take on it!

You should do a series on the cities in Brevard County, Florida

I'm not sure if you fully solved the last-mile problem in your proposed solution. Bike lanes definitely help, but that's not enough on its own. Additional changes would be required: 1. Updating the street layouts of residential neighborhoods to slow cars down to make it safe to ride even without a bike lane. 2. Ample bike parking at every station and along every block in downtown to give people a place to store their bikes. 3. Implementing a city bike program to allow people to make multi-model commutes without having to take their bike on the tram (e.g. bike to station and lock up -> ride the tram -> take a city bike to your final destination). That first point would be, by far, the hardest to implement. The mandatory setbacks and wide, dangerous street designs in American suburbia will make traffic calming expensive to implement effectively.

This is SO cool. What prgram did you use for the visualizations?

Boise is great already. We already have a great downtown, it is called the Boise Towne Square mall. We don't need fancy California ideas in Boise. Maybe some bus service on the weekend would be nice but beyond that it doesn't matter. Boise isn't just the capital of Idaho, it is the unofficial capital of Red America.

"....first floor of the buildings..." It depends. I know in some countries ground floor counts as first floor, but otherwise, when we are walking down, below 1st we directly got -1st floor instead of 0. So I think calling the ground floor "ground floor" instead of "first floor" makes sense.

I would LOVE to see a video like this on London Ontario, Canada!!!!

great ideas and editing skills, bravo! Nice choice of a city, too. One slight improvement for the trams could be to create another intersection or even a third between the two lines in and around downtown or at subcentral areas so that there is more interconnectivity and options for better transfers throughout the city.

Amazing rendering! ❤

We need to build new self sustaining, charming towns in the US. In harmony with nature.

Just so you know, The Eastman building, the one you showed at 8:22 had burned down and collapsed in 1987, they made an effort to preserve the arch and the clay lion heads though.

Have you looked at Spokane, Washington? It might fire your imagination, seems perfect along the lines you gave in the beginning

Personal i think the way subrubs are currently are really bad. But a really good useable model for improvement walking paths and stores like small mom and pop or convenience stores could be great in US suburbs. And parking lots they're ugly and most if the time does not need that many parking spaces. A great land use idea would be to take out the parking spaces and replace them with some density next to stores. And bike lanes the way they are now remove them driver's hate them bikers don't like them and there dangerous for all users of the road. And would be great if Boise replaced alot of there lifeless soulless glass skyscrapers and modern architecture with the old buildings styles.

Visited Boise once a few years ago expecting a quiet gas station town but its pretty terrific near the river (in the summer). There were lots of people out past ten having drinks and cultivating a vibe you wouldn't ever see in Portland or Seattle.

what software did you use for the reimagined photos of the city and how was your process?

You should do victoria the capitol of BC next

What software are you using for the road remake? 25:36

I'd be a bit annoyed at how long the tram is (at that point you should consider something a bit faster) but overall really good

4:54 wow, this train station is really beautiful!

I will suggest you to make a video on e-rickshaws in india and how they made transportation better ,greener and provided millions of jobs to poor people

Ive always wanted to a similar concept to this video foe my hometown of Bakersfield. Instead I’d use cities skylines to recreate the city and do targeted developments that can alter the course of the city and could be proposed to the city council.

Can you do one for Salt Lake City? I think SLC has a lot of potential

i was just there. loved the town but walking was tough

19:35 Trams should operate Stops as Selective Stops, like how buses operate, this will allow for faster Tram frequency and because this is how the Trams used to operate, not having to stop at every stop is a bit of an annoyance, anyway the Tram Stops 23:50 should be two Trams long depending the manufacture.

but where do i park? i didnt see any parking on your street designs

I think this might be my favourite video of yours yet, brilliant work! < 3 (May I ask btw, what software do you use for your renders?) PS: pls tell me that is not some subsidised on-street parking at 31:02 ;_D

US cities used to look nice 😕 but these days not really

Absolutely wild to me that a City with 230.000 Population has no Tram and no Railway Network, even with the Improvements suggested in this Video, the Lack of Public Transport is just baffling, even from the Perspective of someone living in a car-friendly European City with 186.000 EW. And who the Hell makes a City Bus only come once an Hour?

Wait, I see a lot of potential in this format despite being only halfway through the video. Hope to see some South American cities in this video format one day.

you pronounced Caen like "Cayenne", an other city in france

I don't believe any of this will be done in 30 years. Just look at the map, this small urban area is the area of London. It's crazy, Americans will never have good public transportation apart from some exceptions here and there

Suck it nerds, we're building our glorious new highway, and there's nothing you can do about it!

As I have gotten older, I fear car travel more and more. Because of the fear, it would be difficult for me to return to the USA.

What about doing this for Moscow, Idaho? Its closer to Canada and is home to the state's flagship University, the University of Idaho, and 8 minutes east of Washington's flagship university. Its also home to a lot of other stuff even though it only has a population of about 27,000 and the college is home to about 12,000 more

Also the sidewalk are verywide and act as protected bike lanes

Two small points. The English expression is “ More than i can chew” not swallow. Also Boise is incredibly cold for about 4 months a year and plain cold for 3 months. Most urbanist never understand how cold weather and a lot of snow make many of the suggestions unsellable to most Americans. She no comparison to Barcelona or BA

😂😂😂😂 Boise doesn't have much. Jus a few 20 story office buildings. Tiny airport. No Lightrail train. Small freeways. No sports teams.

It's not about cyclists! Stop thinking that you need to do something for cyclists! A cyclist will ride a bike whether there is a bicycle path or not. It's about drivers, doing something for them to ride a bike. For drivers! Get the driver! DRIVERS are the most important!

You'd be voted out 😂

2:22 everyone in boise hate Californians even the Californians hate the californians.

Will gay people be allowed in your city?