In Chicago, Bike Grid Now, Active Transportation Alliance, and Better Streets Chicago have been doing solid work to create more justice and human-centered transit.

my group in Toronto TTCriders has successfully been able to pressure politicians into moving forward with funding various transit infrastructure. an example of this is with getting the city to add platform screen doors to Bloor-Yonge subway station (Torontos busiest subway station), which was a place where many people died after falling onto the tracks (homocides, suicides etc.). The station was already undergoing a $1.5B infrastructure upgrade anyways and the subway line had the technology to allow for PSDs to be installed. Now a precedent has been set to hopefully make the entire lines platforms safer and more efficient to walk along (since you now know exactly where to board)

Join an org, everyone.

I approve of this - it's all well and good highlighting the issues and proposing a solution, but the thing that gets left out the most is how to actually make it happen. Mentioning transit advocacy groups should be more widespread with these kind of channels

​@@OurChangingClimatewhere can i get the thumbnail picture? It looks really nice

same~

Why not just move to those places then? There are literally thousands of them.

@@mickeygraeme2201Not any that are affordable, at least in the US. They're the hottest places to move to and therefore have the highest cost of living. It's simply inaccessible to most people.

@@givemedeath5801 A) that's not true. B) living without a car can be done easily in any city if one picks where they live to be close to work.

Yeah. I just. Try getting that through to my government. They'd look at you like you're crazy. Especially the rural areas.

We can say the same thing about the buses that replaced streetcars.

true electric cars are useless toys, get real car.

I don't mind EVs, they're a good alternative. What I mind is all the car companies who've jumped onto making more EVs to sell to customers instead of putting in the effort to support better public transportation and communities. All these now think they're doing something for the environment by buying an EV, it's basically a bandaid.

If we're focusing solely on the environment, then they're like adding a tar filter. Sure, it's a step up and you aren't getting quite as many carcinogens, but you're still probably gonna end up with cancer. In terms of urbanism, that comment is 100% correct. They're not even good menthols either. (This comment was written by a former smoker. Don't smoke kids.)

@@bruderdereintagsfliege3327 not everyone wants to freeze at the bus stop and then catch flu at the bus from 100 strangers.

Why is the EV market in trouble? No one wants an EV.

True😮

I’m pretty sure the majority of EV startups are not motivated by the notion that auto industry is somehow at risk of extinction. A huge chunk of the motivation to create electric vehicles is to wean off of dependency of fossil fuels.

they're also created to save the ruling class. why else would Teslas need to be bulletproof? the only people who can afford them are the people with obscene hoards of wealth, or the people designated to protect the people with obscene hoards of wealth. when the lowly peasants get unruly the ruling class can stay safe in their speeding hunks of bulletproof steel.

In Germany, the big car companies only started building electric cars very late, just to save themselves. The state has heavily subsidized this. So I would say that this statement is really true here!

Turn the Highways into Rapid Transit

@@IndustrialParrot2816*high speed trains

I don't want to ever have to take public transportation again. Driving cars is one of my greatest passions.

@@TheMidnightBandit It's important to have passions! You should support building better public transit so you don't have to share the road with people who don't like driving. 👍

Not going to happen. Nice fantasy.

Zamn, that's pretty cheap, actually

I was surprised that we were able to implement something like this in Germany. The car industry is very strong and most of the subsidies are put into car infrastructure. More money is needed for public transportation infrastructure. There are many train cancellations and delays and buses do not drive for lack of staff.

That sounds amazing 😢 wish I could loose mt 45 min drive, 90 min total per work day, for work

@@nates9105 I did exactly that. Previously, I lost 90 minutes per day driving to and from work and now I sit in a bus and two trains and can read, work or simply sleep during the 120 minutes it takes that way. I don't see it as losing 30 mins per day but gaining 60.

If that had happened 30 years ago, you might have had age demographics more like the UK, than Italy these days.

I'm Autistic and hate driving one.

Me too! In fact, people often walk less and accidents are common!

According to WHO, 2 people die from a car accident every minute

@@Vacouryard Plus, you meet more people when you're out walking and get more exercise and social infrastructure is maintained as a result.

what about old cars from the 20's, 30's, 50's, 80's, and early 2000's?

Your comment was like a psychedelic trip lol

love this comment 🙃

Yeah, it's horrible noise. I think that trip simulated to some degree for you what it's like to be autistic. I'm autistic and I can't block out any sensory input. The modern world is so overwhelming and I wish other people and designers and engineers valued quiet as much as I do.

@@aubriethegreat8175 I'm Autistic and I get this completely.

@@comradestannisI came here to say the same haha! I’m also autistic, this is my daily life.

yeah, same with my town as well...

most of the time there are ways to participate in planning the development of your town.

Elect officials who Prioritize community, people, and clime change

Love the avi. I think I've seen it before. Black Power?

@@comradestannis It's the Pan-African flag rotated 90 degrees

In some places making public transportation free will make it downright dangerous because of the crowd that it will attract.

​@@soundscape26 what crowd? 🤨 you think poor people shouldn't be able to get around? why?

if people can get themselves to a stable job they won't have to be out there stealing

I'm sorry for your loss. I agree and in the meantime we need speed governors on cars. This should continue to be a requirement even after we transition car trips to walking/rolling, biking, and transit.

​@@LoveToday8 What are Speed Governors?

​@@wolfboy20Speed limiters, essentially a cap on how fast cars can go. Governor is a synonym for controller, or something that makes decisions.

@@LoveToday8 I'm not sure about that now, I can see that being abused

I believe that traffic jams are mostly caused by an ever growing population. No population growth - no traffic jam. The infrastructure could be optimized.

Same

Well, "car guy" you should just love attempts to keep the riff raff and their personal autos out of urban areas as in London. Frees up the roads for the money privileged few.

Cars should be _niche,_ not the _norm._

Enjoy your car! And enjoy this movie! Every child deserves to see this movie. They’ve been abused enough the last five years. It needs to stop. Children are literally flocking to psychologists over climate change lies. It is disgusting what we’ve done to them and are doing to our planet believing the lies about electric cars, wind farms, solar panels etc. Everyone, actually, deserves to see this outstanding movie and hear directly from Nobel Prize winners, MIT and Harvard scientists, researchers and professors the true data and science about “climate change” the political system pushes for geopolitical financial interests. “Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth)” Should be required in every school, through every level, in every country.

Don't try to speak for me.

Youre dangerous

Boy never go on a airplane u could die from a plane crash, never go outside cuz you could get struck by lightning, never take public transit cuz u will encounter crime. Everything has its own cons but should u be anxious about everything?

I'm curious, what's your firm?

Agreed.

Hey, that's awesome! I'm studying landschape architecture & spatial planning and want to dedicate my studies to realising a better transport system. So, like @chilloutlemur9979 I'd also very much like to know more.

Then maybe electric tricycles seem to be the better option

Then maybe electric tricycles seem to be the better option

Can you drive golf carts and microcars in cities and suburbs?

@@comradestannis Not legally in most of the US

@@13ccasto That's a pity... I would've like to have one.

Oil companies are also tied to the military industrial complex.

GM used to be the largest North American producer of both buses and railway engines. The non politically motivated information against social media overuse is stronger than that against Big Oil. Not that Big Oil is totally innocent, but most people in America back then simply thought cars were the way to go, just like people thought the same of smartphones circa 2007.

Actually no they ripped out the Fantastic streetcar systems

@@delftfietser No.

Tough crowd in the com boxes. GM's formerly owned divisions of Truck and Coach Division and Electro-Motive Division. Comforting lies are still lies.

You can also just put the tanks on trains. Saves fuel and everything

It was meant to be an alternative in case that was destroyed, damaged, overloaded, or otherwise unsuitable. But even Eisenhower hated how these highways were rammed through urban centers willy nilly.@@gijskramer1702

It was meant for military vehicles and commercial vehicles… not private cars. Private cars being allowed on the highway system was directly the result of a GM executive becoming secretary of defense. They pushed for private usage so the company could sell more and more cars.

Viable alternatives to driving, and Not Just Bikes lol

More Trains for longer distances

For many people bicycles are a good alternative and for all other people bicycles create space and save money which can be used for public transportation. So let the people who want and able cycle ❤🚲

that’s not a realistic solution but go on

@@sioul8485 why?

We’re better than many other cities. Could be better, but we rank 21 for cities with the lowest car ownership among households. And most of our neighborhoods are very walkable. We also have pretty good transit within the city, even if it’s heavily reliant on buses.

Well done! It’s not always easier, but most of the time I have far less stress and much more enjoyment getting around without needing to own or use a car! Car free in beautiful Chicago for 5 years!!

That's awesome. I've never owned a car in my life, and have been living in a Philly car free for 20 years. With the money I saved I bought my house in 2015, and at this point own it free and clear. Recently there was a parade and it had one of the center streets blocked form east to west. Cars were gridlocked all around, but I rode through everything on my bike like butter. Most people don't realize how free one actually feels when they can get to where they want to go in a city without obstruction. The only real concern is fast driving reckless cars. Ironically I welcome traffic because it forces people to drive slower. As a biker I want there to be either as little cars as possible, or as many cars as possible so that people realize how miserable cars are in general.

@@AB-wf8eksuch a great story! More people should be able to choose whether they even need to own a car or not throughout the US. It’s similar to supporting small businesses - so important to do and yet the specific benefits aren’t obvious to most until they have such an experience themselves.

This, the urbanist movement shout such an extreme that it turns off people who are in the middle. I'm fortunate enough to live in the Uk in Europe. I can ride my bike to do my errands in my town and do all my shopping and appointments on it. I can take the train if I want to visit the capital or see my parents, at the same time I have a project car that I love to take out to the backroads and have a drive in.

Exactly. Cars are only for hobbies and sport, and should stay that way while Trains, Trams, Buses and Bikes are for transportation.

I still think cars have a purpose (coming from someone who loves trains) but its about providing other options and also countries like the USA and Canada would need drastic / long-term change until transport would work​@@ghytseries5101

exactly, and even amongst the local transit activist groups like the one i work with in Toronto, the types of policies we advocate for are nowhere in the vicinity of “abolishing all cars”. like outback road driving and rural work cars/vehicles are obv gonna still exist even after enacting policies to make cities and small towns more walkable. if anything not having to deal with insane levels of traffic jams better supports the drivers as well, which is why our largely “pro-car” conservative premier Doug Ford is still willing to invest in major transit projects (otherwise driving to commute would literally take many hours each way)

@@MrLense like what “extreme” positions are you referring to? and I say this because even amongst the more provocative transit KZfaqrs like NJB, i’ve never heard them once say something akin to “abolishing all cars”. making transit malls in the downtowns of various towns and cities is not the same thing as abolishing all cars ftr

Do you really believe your first sentence?

@@LarryInNM more or less yeah

I agree! We'll still need cable cars, for instance.

Cars need to go from norm to niche.

@@denelson83 Exactly.

One of the top rated places in the world where it's good to be a driver is the Netherlands which is famous for having really good biking and public transportation. As it turns out, removing everybody who doesn't need to drive or want to drive from driving makes driving better, even if the amount of physical space devoted to cars is greatly reduced.

Yeah, so the person bringing office supplies to a company brings them on the bus? You go to Walmart and need to buy a t.v. you carry it home?

@@youtubesucks1499 I get where you are coming from but at one point I bought two computer monitors in Nijmegen and brought them back home to Amsterdam on the train (+- 2 hours). Honestly most people here who don't own a car usually just orders large things online and have them delivered. This is another point where I disagree with the video companies like Ikea, Bol and Amazon make living this way much more convenient by offering home delivery. One delivery van in front of your home for 10 minutes is a lot better than a car parked in front of every home. But in general yes, you can take office supplies / tv's on the bus but it is usually easier to get them delivered.

​@@youtubesucks1499 yes or delivery, when me and my roommate bought a kitchen table from goodwill we walked home with it If you gotta do then then there's probably some way to do it without a car

Our shopping habits will also need to change. In Canada, we often go to places like Costco to buy groceries in bulk and it’s not possible for everyone to buy groceries over the course of a week. Also, not everyone likes buying groceries online.

Yeah, bike-riding is hard in the USA; I've tried.

I studied in the NL and LOVED being able to bike all over the small city (Nijmegen) I lived in! The only happier time in my life was when I lived in Istanbul, and could walk to work and most places I needed, but if I couldn't, I could take one of the MANY forms of public transit they have to get around. Not having the stress of driving, upkeep of a car, and ridiculous amounts of money for car payments and/or insurance is SOOOOOO liberating. I visited Denmark, too, because my husband is Scandinavian-American (as in his great-grandparents and grandma were FOB from Denmark, and grandpa was FOB from Sweden), and especially close to his Danish culture because they had a big farming family, and kept the traditions for Xmas and such. It is AMAZING, I wish they did like Italy and Scotland and gave citizenship to the grandchildren of immigrants, but they don't. 😢 We would be there in heartbeat if he could get residency. Anyhow, best of luck wherever you move. I'm stuck in Albuquerque ATM, biking when I can, but this city is NOT set up for it, the whole d*mn city looks like a burb, like LA. As it's one of the oldest European-founded cities in North America, Old Town is walkable, but not liveable, of course.

I intend to do the same eventually, though I want to have a skill that’s marketable worldwide (cybersecurity is what I’m aiming at) before I try leaving the country 😅

@@thecrazycapmaster lol Good idea.

@@thecrazycapmaster I'm a little lucky as I worked in law enforcement. I intend to ride bicycle DAILY until I die. As in I'm so old I can't even lift the bicycle!

You have essentially described Jevons' paradox.

Living in a villiage in mountains in Germany, car-free is just not an option. And you cannot build rail to every villiage...

​@@btudrusmaybe not, but alternatives to driving sure have a lot of potential yet to be met, especially in dense areas

Great until it rains or three feet of snow .@@christafranken9170

I'm so jealous.

@@btudrus You are correct, please show me an example of someone saying people who live far from the nearest town should also live car free. If you are not trolling and really believe someone is advocating for this I would recommend you reconsider your trusted news sources. The absolute worst someone in my position would be advocating for is that you would need to park your car outside the city center when visiting and commute in by public transport but even that would be a fringe position for most people who would otherwise agree with me.

Same here, 5 years car free in Chicago. I save thousands of dollars a year not owning a car!

I just bought a brand-new truck---best decision of my life!

@@OGtruthserum More power to you, but that was also a completely unnecessary comment for the audience you know is here.

@@jhodapp LOL. I been to Chicago, I will never own a vehicle if I live there. I camp in my truck in the summer months, so it acts as a temporary mobile house. Save on motel/hotel costs and being closer to nature. I'm also a former biker (mountain/road) but there is no dedicated road for bikes in the U.S. Got hit 4 times and died before paramedic revived me.

And what about muslim criminals in Berlin?

electric cargo bikes are fantastic for urban deliveries and small scale contractors like landscapers or painters. They won't replace it all, but they can really help, even in colder cities like Toronto they're used all year round by companies including FedEx. Emergency vehicles are obviously an exception, and this would mean they don't get stuck in traffic or behind cars that can't hear them due to loud music in the cabin

@@pex3 The only way you can move bulk shipments is with either a Sprinter or p10. Cargo bikes are good for small deliveries like food or shirts, but they can't be used to deliver to businesses. Commercial vehicles would have to stay on the road that's in everyone's best interests.

Ambulance still exist. It's personal cars that are an unnecessary burden on society.

Yeah, like the Soviet Union.

Less cars would be a benefit to ambulances and firetrucks. The number one obstacle that emergency responders need to deal with when they're getting to the scene is personal drivers

I agree 1000%

Sounds like a you problem.

@@dividedstatesofamerica2520 It doesn't sound like a problem, it sounds like an opinion

Basically all influential people drive cars so that's a bit of a moot point.

Frequency is better no

@@qjtvaddict What do you mean?

Thank god you don't have to deal with the MBTA.

@@IzzyBone10000 Oh I do. I take the commuter rail to South Station every week.

And don't forget the race baiting fallacy: the highways were constructed where they were to avoid paying more money to acquire the land from residents. The bottom line was financial.

The main problem with planes is that they make it seem reasonable to go really far away quite often. It's ridiculous that corporations habitually make their employees fly thousands of kilometres for a few days trip.

I was thinking too! It doesn't have to please the businesses, but this is about real service. A truck delivered my washing machine some time ago, and if these delivery services weren't allowed and I don't have a car, how would I transport this washing machine home??? However, I would really love to have a less car-depended society in my country.

In fact leftists do not think this, they only wanna make shut down the most possible works.

Vienna has a few of those too and is building more, as I just found out (because I was about to complain again xD). Bike infrastructure here isn't comparable to Amsterdam but it's good to see they are actually trying at the moment.

You say for a couple of years you had decent WFH policies? What were they, what changed if it did?

The tax doesn't even subsidize the low fare on the public transport, realistically. Car infrastructure costs a lot more than car owners ever pay back on taxes - it just isn't sustainable. It only gets worse when you buy into the whole "suburb" plan, where even more of the money and development is lost by the "rich" who commute by car to work in the city every day (though still not nearly to the extent they are in the US). In my (European) capital city, the expenditures are pretty telling. Taking road maintenance as the baseline, buses cost a fifth of that, as does rail. The whole public transport system inside the city takes slightly less than three times as much, which might sound expensive... until you realize that personal cars represent only about 20% of people transported... while producing more than 90% of the traffic (and the vast majority of the road maintenance expenses goes towards infrastructure that's only there because of cars and for cars). And those public transport expenditures include vehicle purchases, maintenance and fuel - needless to say, those are a lot cheaper (and more eco-friendly) than cars too, per-passenger. And of course, most of the PT is electric (rail, trams and underground; buses are lagging behind). I'm not even going to get started on pollution and especially noise, or the ridiculous amount of land area the car infrastructure takes (which in turn makes _every_ transportation take longer and cost more, because things are further apart). Not to mention the effect car use has on communities, whether _they_ use them or not. Use a car if it makes sense. Don't use it habitually. If there's somewhere you need to go by car every day, maybe you could do better. Especially if you live in (or commute to) a city. And if you don't live in a city... the reason your rural area sucks is mostly tied to the car too; cars took away local businesses and jobs. And again, that's coming from a country where people always commuted to a city by mass transit much more than using cars. Even today, the car traffic comes mostly from out-of-city commuters... and the amount of passengers transferred this way is still dwarfed by intercity mass transit. And sure, some trips in PT take longer than in a car. But honestly, as far as I'm concerned, I don't lose that time. In a car, you have to pay attention to the road, there's plenty of stress and it's entirely wasted time (especially once you have to do it often and it stops being fun). In PT, I can read a book and relax, or take care of something on the go. And a lot of that time advantage disappears once you account for all the extra time you have to deal with in a car other than just the A->B trip.

I think it starts with the fact that we have lost confidence in our own abilities. We are denied the ability to get from A to B dry in the rain without a car. The car driver from his parking space to the building can be wetter than a well-dressed pedestrian or cyclist. As long as there is no good local transportation, walking and cycling are almost free. We also greatly overestimate the time saved by the car. We also need to rethink why we constantly want to travel such long distances or whether it makes more sense to organize our everyday lives more locally.

I'm in my 40's, born & raised in the US and proud to say I've never owned a car in my life. Even in the 80's growing up cars just gave me anxiety. Visualizing driving around at 80 mph surrounded by concrete seemed like a reckless endeavor, and the fact that's how everyone got around was insanity to me. At the same time I don't blame people for owning cars, because our infrastructure simply requires it. To me, seeing all these urbanist videos and reading all the comments has finally validated what I saw as a child. I'm really hopeful that their are more people waking up to this everyday.

@AB-wf8ek If you knew how to actually drive(unlike most people), you would have nothing to worry about.

@@dividedstatesofamerica2520 I know how to drive, but I also know that being a good driver doesn't always prevent a collision at 80 mph in a 2 ton hunk of metal

Love from this Communist Party USA member.

​@@comradestannis honestly anything other than capitalism is looking real appealing right now

@@DrizzyBincluding US capitalism without the ultra wealthy being able to buy politicians through lobbyists and super PACs!

@@DrizzyB Eh, as long as the alternative isn't fascism, I'm good. 😅

Then we know what to do next... We just don't do it.

​@@comradestannis Basically all our worldy issues can already be solved, but we don't because it's not profitable for the ricu elites.

@@DrizzyB And the people who _think_ they are, or _aspire_ to be the rich elites, don't forget. That's one of the crazy things about the American world - how many people are ready to harm themselves and their friends and acquaintances just because they think one day, they'll be part of "the rich" and reap the rewards.

LOL, not everyone lives in a city. This shows how these "climate folks" are just discriminatory and rassist...

And roads themselves too.

what have steam trains ever done wrong?

@@ryanmatthews3609 Nothing.

@@eggballo4490 then why the hate for them after all the good they did?

@@ryanmatthews3609 I don't. I love steam locomotives.

Electric cars are not environmentally friendly. A lot of pollution goes into the manufacturing of them. Plus like any other car, it will often only transport one person while occupying lots of space, creating lots of noise, and presenting a danger to people outside the car. An electric bike would be a more environmentally sustainable. Yes, they use batteries as well but you can create hundreds if not thousand of electric bikes with the batteries required for one electric vehicle.

because like it's literally the first start in the USA as he mentioned about the government act

Same~

China cancels almost all loans. Also, imperialism isn't "when trade."

@@BlueScreenCorp I didn't say that though. I was compounding your point.

@@comradestannis That was my mistake, I misinterpreted, I am far too used to comments from the other side... I will remove that response

@@BlueScreenCorp Thank you! And thanks for telling me. I didn't mean to cause offense. I get it. This is social media and we're leftists (which means that, even if our ideas are popular, we ourselves are outnumbered, at least depending on where you are).

@@comradestannistry masquerading as a trump like figure

Cycling for short distances and public transit for longer is. Mass transit can never have the flexibility and speed needed to be really attractive on short distances.

Now you do.

Well-said.

You're welcome. 😅

"A definitive phase out approach towards individual car ownership" dictatorship. "to meet climate goals" Which are nonsensical anyway. We have to concetrate on regenerating the nature which is capable of reestablishing the climate equilibrium, not on some GHG chimaera...

And by the way, no one else here believes a world without cars was even possible. Same with money...

The rural Midwest is already forgotten by your state. The economic overlords only visit you guys to rip the copper wire out of the few institutions you have left. You had better access to mass transit in 1890 than you do today.

Yes, I agree, though I still think it's fine.

Good point.

The part of that story that is never mentioned is that GM had agents go out and hire blacks fresh out of prison to go and start trouble on the streetcars, which caused ridership decline and panic selling in neighborhoods en-route.

Yep that accelerated the Decline of the Streetcar systems like the once Mighty Pacific Electric Railroad

When you go outside, there's people out there

@@noahboucher125😱

If you were around more people, maybe you'd be more used to it.

I agree as a fellow introvert with immunodeficiency I do not enjoy public transportation. People especially in the US don't care about the safety of disabled and immunocropromised. I know public transportation is overall better for environment but there always feels to be a oversight for the needs of some neurodivergent and disabled people.

Fr, I said something about those in the past. It really rubs me the wrong way.

Why not?

Whats the problem