This design is true of all Spanish cities, and even many towns. Living in flats, sharing the stairs and the streets, meeting your neighbours everyday (even if you do not know them by name) creates a kind of social commonwealth that you could never get in a society that lives driving everywhere.

as a resident of dallas i can confirm that nobody knows life outside of their private vehicle here

I lived in many cities, including Mexico City (8 years) Madrid (4 years) and London (5 years and counting) and I can say what I miss the most is that you can walk to any part of it if you live in the center or close to it, essentially all the important places are in a walkable distance which makes you healthy and happy... I miss that city

To go more in depth about Ildefons Cerdà and his Eixample in Barcelona: He is considered the founder of modern town planning as a discipline, having coined the word "urbanización"...urbanization! In the 1850s, Barcelona was on the verge of collapse. It was growing at an extreme rate, but it couldn't expand because of medieval walls. When they demolished the walls, they needed a plan to suddenly redistribute an overflowing population. Enter Ildefons Cerdà. His plan consisted of a grid of streets that would unite the old city with seven peripheral villages. He did a comprehensive study of how the working class lived in the old city. He calculated the volume of atmospheric air one person needed to breathe correctly. He detailed professions the population might do, and mapped the services they might need, such as marketplaces, schools and hospitals. He concluded that, among other things, the narrower the city’s streets, the more deaths occurred. He created a plan where the rich and poor had equal access to the same services. The Eixample's iconic octagonal blocks (with gardens to hang out) was his unique idea to deal with traffic, allowing drivers to see more easily what was happening to the left and right! And that last part was during a time cars weren't a thing yet! When he learned about trains, he knew there would be some sort of steam machine that could run on the streets! Even today, this design makes traffic circulation infinitely easier in Eixample. He was a visionary! However, he wasn't who Barcelona originally selected. Barcelona chose Antoni Rovira, but the Spanish government intervened and suggested Ildefon instead, and this tainted Ildefon's vision, and many didn't like his plan because of the government. He died in 1876, fittingly in an Eixample-themed tomb. Decades later, Barcelona and the world recognizes the need to carry on his legacy!

One of the best thing about the density in Madrid is that you can almost always walk on a 1-2 lane street between 6-story buildings well sheltered against cold winds in Winter or unbearable sunlight in the Summer. Unfortunately the newer neighbourhoods like Sanchinarro or Ensanche de Vallecas have some overwidened streets that discourage walking, negate the shelter from the elements and encourage vehicles to speed leading to less safe streets. Still, Madrid has a lot of transit and parks making it very livable, and even the places that aren't very good are still fine.

As a “madrileña” (born in Madrid) I thank you for sharing this positive information, so well explained! Here, in Spain, to tend to be overcritical. 😅

I'm an American and I thought I hated large cities. Until I moved to Spain. Madrid (and BCN) is really livable. Every time I visit I am floored with how absolutely FRIENDLY everyone is. In cities in America, once you crest about 2.5 million people, friendliness goes out the window--it starts to feel frenetic and competitive. I think a combination of this design and the culture contribute to this. The quality of life everywhere I've been in Spain has been fantastic and unmatched by any of my other experiences. There are, I'm sure, a lot of factors contributing to these different feelings, but I never thought I would consider living in a city of 7M people. But I consider Madrid often.

The spanish cities are made for walking to any place. Obviusly Madrid is a big city where the people can't go walking to long distances, but this make many sense of home in your neighborhood where you can go walking to the market, the medical center, the shops, the park, etc. The neighborhoods are little systems where you have all that you need and you know the people. We have a spanish friend living in Dallas, and when we was in this city to visit we feel like in another planet: she lives in a house miles away from the downtown, in a neighborhood of thousands of identical houses, in the middle of many identical areas, and have to take the car for anything! (school, doctor, gym, supermarket, to have dinner, etc etc). I don't see a bus in this area in all the days, are places building to live with a car, losing hours every morning to go to the job with no option to take a transport. If also are cities with no historical buildings of more than 200 years or places to enjoy a walk.. what sense have to live in?

This is what I love about Madrid, and Spain in general. Even in the most outer suburbs there is still great density. Most things are still within walking distance and it means Spain preserves its countryside for nature rather than sprawl. Spain has some of the emptiest countryside in Europe too

It’s a pretty good video, I just have to say one thing, Madrid city not the same as Madrid CA(Comunidad Autónoma) has a population of 6,3M but it’s served also by 356 lines of buses, you only mentioned EMT buses Empresa Municipal de Transportes (municipal agency of transport) which has more or less 200 lines, but that only serves the City of Madrid, the CA of Madrid is served by roughly 560 lines of buses, the other 356 lines comes from the CRTM buses, Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (it’s something like regional aggrupation of transports of Madrid) This is just a little mistake but if you include Cercanías and say that it has a population of 6,4 M people I thought you should count CRTM in the equation And also it’s served by 4 light rail trains ML1 ML2 ML3 And Metro Parla Thanks

This is an amazing video!! I’ve always wanted to visit Madrid and check out their amazing metro network and connection to that beautiful high speed rail network

Great video! I spent the summer in Madrid last year for studying, and I'm about to move there in a couple months and I could not be more excited. Living in a walkable city is going to be so amazing

I've seen a lot on twitter about the interesting high-density norm of suburbs in Spain, it's great to see a video about it, and so well-produced too!

Madrid fun facts: The idea of the Madrid Metro originated in 1916 when a royal decree approved the 4-line plan for the creation of the metro of Madrid. The engineers who created the plan, Mendoza, González Echarte, and Otamendi then began the process of raising the 8 million pesetas to begin the first phase of the project, and the first phase was completed in 1919! Though not actually the first subway system in the Spanish-speaking world as the Subte in Buenos Aires first opened in 1913! When Philip II became king in 1556, he understood the importance of the city of Madrid and made it the capital of Spain. He moved his court there, solidifying the city as the de facto center of royal power in 1561. Before Madrid, Toledo was the capital! Madrid is among the highest cities in Europe, yet it is often overlooked when considering high-altitude cities. Surprisingly, Madrid is situated at an elevation of 667 meters above sea level, making it the highest European capital. The documented history of Madrid dates to the 9th century, even though the area has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Córdoba Emir Muhammad I commissioned the first construction in the late 9th century and involved the establishment of a citadel on the banks of the Manzanares River in Majrit/Mayrit village. Similarly to other fortresses north of the Tagus, Madrid made it difficult to muster reinforcements from the Asturian kingdom to the unruly inhabitants of Toledo, prone to rebellion against the Umayyad rule. Extending across roughly 8 hectares, Muslim Madrid consisted of the alcázar and the wider walled citadel (al-Mudayna) with the addition of some housing outside the walls. By the late 10th century, Majriṭ was an important borderland military stronghold territory with great strategic value, owing to its proximity to Toledo. In 1739 Philip V began constructing new palaces, including the Palacio Real de Madrid. Under Charles III (1716-1788) that Madrid became a truly modern city. Charles III, who cleaned up the city and its government, became one of the most popular kings to rule Madrid, and the saying "the best mayor, the king" became widespread. Besides completing the Palacio Real, Charles III is responsible for many of Madrid's finest buildings and monuments, including the Prado and the Puerta de Alcalá.

At 5:00 either I'm dense or the math doesnt add up 39% of transit made by cars means that 61% (at most) of transit is car-free (and if we include motrobikes it will go down) Also you spent 5 and a half minutes, but 30% of the video is about USA/Dallas. The video doesn't explain Madrid's grid system, you dont acknowledge hot transit outside the city center is radial, most of the outside of madrid's centre is divided by "sectors" carved up by highways, moving across this highways in metro is tedious as most of the time you need to go to the city center grab a connection and go "out" again. Only some buses lanes go across sectors, so most likely a trip of 10 min in car gets you across a sector, but it would take 40 min by train or metro. Madrid is well designed to go in and out of the city centre, it lacks movility in any other direction that isnt radial

Note: there also are over 300 Intercity buses that are ran by different companies and others that can take you to other autonomous communities

Despite new neighborhoods in Madrid and spanish cities are dense, they all share the same problem: the low level have no shops or stores, so you have the feeling of being in a deserted city… having a dense city not only requires big blocks but also places to go, to walk, to buy, to drink something… and to live

Nice to see the video. I would like to watch a longer version with more information, thanks, form Madrid

Thank you for making more videos about Europe. Please make another video about Oslo and Norway 🇳🇴

Nicely done! You caught the essence of Madrid's desirability in a succinct manner. Keep it up!

Great video, you have a new subsciber :D

Great video. I think Madrid is a beautiful and walkable city. It’s been a few years since I was last there but plan on going back soon.

Wow you mencioned my neighbourhood as an example, btw don’t forget about “el anillo verde” the green ring which is a 60 km bike like line that goes around the city

cool video! now i want to visit Madrid!

Good Video, but a problem of the especially new neighborhoods is that the streets in them are WAY too wide, and often these neighborhoods arent that well connected to the city by public transit as you make it out to be, especially the cercanias (commuter rail) has a ton of problems with reliability Its still one of my favourite cities in the world tho no doubt, but the newer parts could be better and it could be less car friendly, especially in the center, that the gran Via is not car free is really a disaster imo

Good video with a lot of potential! I would of loved to see a different ending as this one felt quite abrupt

0:15 I’ve eaten at that restaurant on the corner (they have amazing gambas)! My ex used to live one block away from there, higher up in the Calle de Alcantara. It’s such an amazing neighbourhood, in which I dream to live if I move to Madrid one day 😊

Another amazing video!!!

I can see my house at 2:49 💀

3:03 I live near that crossroads haha. Nice video!!

God bless Madrid's public transport. ~as a resident of Madrid

I'm so excited for the extension of the Metro line 11 in Madrid. It's going to be amazing.

Wow i like your video and the content

Madrid is extremely walkable, very nice

A video in english with good spanish pronunciation :o amazing

Im Spanish and I live in Spain, in a nothern city. I don't really know how the thing is but In Madrid for example you can't even drive your private veichle or park your car in different centrical zones of the city. A few years ago there was a plan of a law, the plan was that half of the veichles could be used in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other half on Tuesday and Thursday, or something like that, I think this was rejected, but those are the type of actions that the goverment takes. This was in order to reduce pollution i guess.

I don't fully agree. The neighborhood of Salamanca is very exclusive and expensive, precisely because it's so beautiful and well designed. Most people don't live there, as it's mostly dedicated to offices, high-end retail, and wealthy people - an apartment usually costs several million euros there when the average salary is below 50,000€ per year. The M-30 motorway encircles the entire city core, making living outside of it undesirable. Many dense neighborhoods outside the city centre are poorer, worse maintained (dirtier), don't have enough trees or greenery, and, for the most, the connections by public transport are only to the city centre, not between neighborhoods in the periphery. Buses are unreliable as they depend on traffic flow. Newer neighborhoods may look well designed if you look at them from above on Google Maps, but the reality is that they're merely dormitory neighborhoods, with little or no business activity. Walking around is as if you'd be in a ghost town, as everyone commutes to the business areas in the centre or North of Madrid. While the city core has beautiful, individual buildings, the outskirts are mostly made up of copy-paste blocks with no character or beauty, just functionality. Thank you for the video though, it's insightful to see what the outside perspective is and appreciate what one has! :)

I would love to help you make a video about Tres Cantos, a singular project to decongest the city of Madrid while prioritising quality of life for its residents in combination with an efficient and profitable industrial belt. This project will not be repeated in the future because it is not the most profitable or economically beneficial urban planning, but it sure sets an example of how life could be with a different approach in mind!

The fact that those 50 last seconds were the most interesting part. I hope there is a part 2 with the critique of these PAU neighborhoods

Interesting to see. I lived in Madrid and from all the European Cities I've been to, Madrid is definitely the most car heavy city I've seen.

Really interesting. Thanks! I write a blog about the history of Madrid called The Making of Madrid so I'd love to add a little extra info: suburban expansion was initially unplanned as the population swelled in the 50-70s creating shanty towns on the outskirts. Then, these "chabolas" were knocked down to create the planned estates you're talking about. Some displacement did occur but I agree, the estates are well planned - I live on one created in the 1960s. We sadly do have some estates that look like the ones shown in Dallas in the video. Built during the early 2000s, they were not made with the same care and lacked transport connections. In any case, some are now empty shells as the construction bubble burst and half-finished projects were abandoned as Spain sunk into an economic crisis. Anyway, hope this info is helpful to anyone interested in the topic.

What surprises me (even though I understand the reasons) is how mild seasons are in Madrid compared to New York City which lies on the same parallel (between parallels 40 and 41). This of course has a lot to do with its livability.

Good video! An important thing for Madrid, and why it's so dense even in post-war years, is because of the rapid growth of the city after the war, and the Francoist Government's aims to provide affordable housing (to counter communism and anti-government forces). Madrid didn't significantly industrialise until the 1950s, since industrialisation before had been disrupted by war and political chaos, and during the 1950s a lot of slums appeared in Madrid, especially to the south of the city. An issue that I have is with the Urban highways, and preferably Madrid should demolish all their Autovias that aren't the outermost ring, since that can encourage a lot of car driving instead.

I live in Atlanta, I’m mostly stuck in a car. I can’t wait to retire and move to a place I can walk to run simple errands.

cuando eres americano hasta Madrid parece una buena ciudad

it would be nice if you could make a review of Madrid Calle 30

Nice video but I wished instead of comparing it to Dallas so much you spoke more about the topics that you missed

Very informative!

In the newer districts on the outskirts you’ll find very much lifeless care centric zones. Quite the expanding urban hell in the hot summers.

30 min extended version pls

You should study the planning of British city Milton Keynes. It is unique in the world. You probably wouldn't like it because they did not include a tram or a train so people drive, but because of the good planning, there are little traffic jams, as they use roundabouts, not traffic lights

Great video! But while i agree that spanish (mediterranean) urbanism does a better job in creating more sustainable and humane cities compared to the american way of urbanism, i would disagree in saying that madrid is well designed. The Plan Castro, has many flaws, it was designed to have only one city centre, it has been proofed that a multiple centre city works better. In its origin, it was designed to have neighbours divided by class, it is classist, and this decision affects Madrid even today. I think that you have picked up on the fact that our way of doing urbanism (creating high/medium densities and leaving street level building spaces for shops and offices) favours a more sustainable and lively way of life. But that is practically all of Spain. Madrid hasn’t had a very good urban planning, it might seem good because in general Spain has good urban planning. From an urbanist perspective, the city needs to be less car-dependent, investing in cycling mobility; and as you have pointed out the outskirts are not that well-connected or well designed. This new developments need to have more economic activity and more access to public transport. Madrid cannot have its entire public service system in the city centre. I love Madrid and have lived in this city for years. But it hasn’t worked in improving itself. This city needs to work in many ways to create a more sustainable and egalitarian place to live.

I do agree with some of the points made here, and I do love some aspects of Madrid's urban design. However, the new neighbourhoods aren't as good as you might think. Many of them lack basic public services like schools, doctors, etc. Also the transit network hasn't been planned accordingly with their development leaving many of them disconnected from the centre and very reliant on cars. While overall transport is very good, there's still a lot of progress to be made.

the only thing I miss in costa del sol is biking lanes in many parts and cities

Please don't come, too many people here already. There are very many beautiful and well designed places in Spain besides Madrid and BCN, take for example Valladolid, Salamanca, León, Logroño, Toledo, etc. Those places need people and the quality of life is better ;)

As a Spaniard I DONT CARE ABOUT THIS SHIT, I WANT TO LIVE IN SUBURBS

I lived all my live in a PAU from Madrid (Sanchinarro in my case). Although it's good, especially comparing to the US, I have to highlight the problem we have with public transport. The whole nearbourhood relies on a tram line. That makes trips to the city center longer that ideal. Sanchinarro is still Madrid but it takes longer to go to the city center than a person living in las rozas or other nearby city. Also, the commerce variety is really limited. The nearbourhood was first planed with the biggest mall in Spain back on the day. The city allowed that company to finance the building of the area but with a 15 year exclusivity period. So no business in that neighborhood could compete with the mall. This means there were no supermarkets, clothes shops, etc...

crying because im in america and not spain this summer

Madrid is the bomb!!! I ❤Madrid!!!

05:00 nice

Also, newly built buildings in these areas usually have huge communal areas with swimming pool and stuff like that. This makes it almost impossible to create areas for shops on the perimeter. These buildings are creating walled streets with little room for local shops.

Madrid is the best city in the entire world!

They learned from Marquis of Pombal from Portugal

I lived near Madrid Rio park for 2 years, and agree that it's comfortable to walk anywhere if you live in right neighborhood. Public transport is great there too, but still there are a lot of places designed primarily for cars - especially big shopping centers. There was Plaza Río 2 shopping center near our home, which covered most of our needs, but sometimes we had to go elsewhere and wished I had a car like other people there. It's also a terrible city for cycling: bike lanes are almost nonexisting, and often you have to ride in the middle lane between buses/taxis on the right and private cars on the left - I never felt safe and can't imagine my girlfriend doing this. Another bad thing for me that with this density it felt overcrowded. Literally there is no place where you can walk without seeing anybody. As for someone who value privacy and comes from much less dense eastern european city it was a problem and one of the reasons we left. But maybe someone from London or New York won't have issues with it.

my house is in the video hahahahha im shocked

mi barrio debe ser la gran excepción

NOO!!!! It's NOT Plan Cerda! 0_0 (for people who don't speak Spanish "cerda" is a female pig, also used as a pejorative towards women) It's Plan Cerdà! pronounced with stress on DA!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!!

I live in Madrid and don't have a car, I don't need it. I have a motor scooter; if it rains, or if it's cold in the winter I take a cab.

Omg thats my street

I have to add that the recent expansions shown in this video are nothing like older ones. Areas like Sanchinarro, Las Tablas, Montecarmelo or Valdelasfuentes have almost nothing in common with Barrio Salamanca or Chamartin and are more car-oriented, creating almost deserted areas. These areas have much wider avenues with sparcer commerce with lots of isolated appartment complexes or "urbanizaciones" as we call them, creating areas where you will only see people walking their dog and not much else, because of the lack of activities and the unbearable heat during the summer due to the lack of shade. It doesn't help that the architecture is usually modernist, boxy and devoid of personality (not that older expansions were better tbh), which makes some people call these complexes "pisos soviéticos". IMO peak Madrid can be found inside the M30, altghough there are some great planned cities in the outskirts that followed the old design principles and are great places to be, Alcobendas and Tres Cantos often come to mind but Majadahonda and Pozuelo are also great.

Madrid has one of the best metro systems in the world... AFTER Moscow... ====> Moscow has a metro system that is by far unparalleled in terms of design efficiency and how to get around in a city.

the problem Madrid is facing now is the rapid population growth not being followed by investment and development of the public transit. The subway is great but it is reaching max capacity and it's overloaded during rush hour.

Sadly, the USA model is the main reference for the suburbs of Madrid since the 90's: car dependant and only for residential use based areas

Then there is the other side. Highly populated neighborhoods with really old buildings with little insulation, where noise is a big problem in a country with crazy schedules. Also, the reason why the neighborhoods are like this is not a decision of the population, but the result of a scam by government organizations allied with the construction sector to speculate on the price of housing.

If its so well designed should have much more green spaces ffs

04:58 59%?

From what spaniards have told me, Madrid is miserable in the summer. Probably less so than Texan cities but still too much asphalt.

1:15 it's Cerdà, not Cerda. A 'cerda' is a female pig, so very big difference here. As with a lot of languages, the accent tells you to stress that vowel. I don't think is that hard to make a minumum research on how to pronounce words that are not in your native language, specially considering you spent a lot of time and effort in reseraching about the topic of the video. Also, 4:55, 34 + 25 = 59, not 69.

Why It has to be compared to USA which is not center of the world to be so important

I live in Madrid and I disagree with your video. It is true that some neighborhoods, such as Salamanca, are well designed; but there are many others densely built and without of green areas. Especially during the Franco’s regim, it was wildly urbanized, building poor quality and aesthetically horrible homes (mostly in working-class neighborhoods). Little by little, these problems have been corrected, such as the burial of the highway at the height of the Manzanares River. And other projects are planned, such as the surroundings of the Chamartín station. However, the lack of housing availability, the poor quality of most of the housing available and the absence of parks in many neighborhoods of the city continue to be a serious problem.

Because it was a small town.

61% not 69%

I've never been to Madrid but I lived in Spain for a year and a half (I'm moving back in two months) and have travelled a lot of it and most of the cities are so walkable with decent enough transport. Valencia has one of the best metros I've ever been on in my life. I lived on Sevilla which has pretty uneven and classist transport ie. only located in richer neighbourhoods but it has very good biking infrastructure, good buses, and is very very walkable. It is harder to get around Irish cities which are smaller than Sevilla or Valencia. Also worth noting that during Madrid's expansion in the 40s and 50s, less than 2% of households owned cars and there was a constant famine throughout the 40s due to Franco's economic policies and chasing the idea of autarky. The inefficiency he caused in farming, labour, the inability to get oil during and post-ww2 due to isolationism, as well as car parts until post Madrid Accords in 1953 meant they had no choice but to develop in this way (as in avoiding the destruction of farmland) or else they would worsen the starvation and rebellion happening. The Civil War ended in 1939 but resistance did not. Rebels were invading from the North East and capturing towns in the North West well into the late 40s, and uprisings happened in the university of Madrid in the 50s resulting in its closure. Before any Francoists come at me saying he was actually great with economic policies - I have a history degree and studied in La Universidad de Sevilla which is famously quite fascist, and you can look at Paul Preston's work on this who documents the extreme drop in wages and rise in starvation which did not level out until 1960...and then a recession started in 1961. Franco was the dumbest and worst dictator post-WW2 hands down and he had a high pitched little bitch voice which is why he never spoke in public.

Are you wear a latex glove?

YES! and NO! Madrid has suffered of big sprawl after the 70s/80s... as well, following the Highways and Motorways so it combines that compact city 3million + 1 -2 million and the left 1-2 million to readch 6million lives suburban areas some of them like the US

"Throughout Europe and North America", as if South America didn't have that type of neighborhood. Ridiculous omission considering this is a video about Madrid.

Us Spaniards living in the provinces REALLY get shocked at how messy and inconvenient it is to live in Madrid or Barcelona (though some have no choice but to move there, due to there not being enough jobs where we were born). Many people living in those two cities long to come back home, where it's less messy and less stressful. But then I come to KZfaq and there's dozens of videos about how well planned these cities are. I cannot fathom what living in Houston, or New York, feels like.

Get out of the 19th century urban planning of Madrid and you'll see that Madrid is not at all well designed. The 20th century city plan is a bunch of uncontrolled growing with chaotic and improvised grids that don't maintain a homogeneous extension of the city. Every new extra neighbourhood added to the city looks like a new patch forming a frankenstein puzzle.

It is not lol

DENSITY IS SHIT AND MADRID NEW DEVELOPMENTS ARE EITHER

I live in Madrid, and it is absolutely not insanely well designed. Mainly it has has no room for expansion. Centre and Non centre are so strictly designated that house and rent prices in the centre rise and rise. Secondly, but less so, the Metro, although there is a lot of it, is illogical, there are lines that don't pass through the centre, there is no decent ring line, there is no connection from the centre to the airport. Also, there is a constrictive inner ring road, which is a nightmare to drive on and will restrict future growth. Madrid is a great city and it is booming at the moment, but it is no way well designed.

Ah Central Planning, wasn't Fascism wonderful.

Insanely well designed.... what a joke. Don'r compare American flaws with European normalities. It is horrendous to live in Madrid compared with other cities. It is either freezing cold or boiling hot. The city has way too many people to walk comfortably around. Change the title to "Why Madrid has become huge though being a small town during the Middle Ages".

Prefiero las casas con jardín y con automóvil, como en USA.