notjustbikes

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 21 Tagen)

None of the following is critical of City Beautiful: he is a great guy and his video is completely accurate, as usual.

In fact, there are several things in his video that are just too accurate.

When redesigning a stroad, you can't take space from cars (except in rare situations), you can't change intersections, and you can't move any utilities.

You need to plan around the scraps left over from a stroad designed for drivers.

So the ultimately, the solution will be a big compromise.

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen

Dave mentions some typical improvements that can be made to a stroad like this, given the political constraints.

The end result of this kind of redesign looks something like this photo.

This is Wonderland Road in Fake London.

Is this better than the stroad in the post above? Yes.

Is it good? Absolutely not.

And the problem is, streets and roads are only redesigned about every 30 years.

So this is it. This is all you're getting for at least a generation.

Lipstick on a pig.

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen

This is why Strong Towns does NOT advocate for redesigning stroads like this. There's no point.

It will cost a bunch of money and political capital and those "bike lanes" will be used by only a handful of people (just like on Wonderland Road), which will only serve as something to point to and say, "see? nobody bikes here!"

Chuck's article, "How do you actually fix a stroad?" is useful here.

The answer: you shouldn't.

So what should you do?

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/12/2/how-do-you-actually-fix-a-stroad

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 21 Tagen)

Strong Towns advocates for incremental improvements.

Fundamentally, it makes more sense to focus on "downtown", or whatever traditional development still exists in your town.

Making a small change to rejuvenate a traditional walkable neighbourhood will always result in better payoffs than any stroad repair.

See Dundas Street in Fake London.

This cost less than any stroad repair, but will do way more to improve your city than adding bike lanes to 5 lane stroad.

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen

Do this to every traditional neighbourhood that hasn't been bulldozed.

Relaxing zoning laws in these places to allow mixed-use development.

Add protected bicycle lanes connecting these places.

Increase transit service (even buses) to every 10 minutes between these neighbourhoods and to popular office parks.

Turn old malls into mixed-use developments with high-quality transit connections to those traditional neighbourhoods.

Build great places where people actually want to be.

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen

Let the suburban stroads rot away!

Sidewalks and bike lanes are pointless without better land use. Smaller parking lots. Slower speeds. Dedicated transit lanes. Retail near the street.

These can't be fixed except at extreme financial cost, opportunity cost, and political capital.

Focus on resuscitating the traditional neighbourhoods (as mentioned above) and maybe, if you're successful, your grandkids can redesign the stroads. Or better yet, turn them back to farmland!

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 21 Tagen)

None of this will be easy. It will take decades of hard work and political will.

I've been branded a "doomer" for saying this, but it's just cold hard facts. Any city can be repaired, but it will require a LOT of work.

Most US and Canadian cities will take generations to repair.

Meanwhile, other cities are farther ahead, and improving faster, so if you are able to move somewhere better, you should.

If not, join Strong Towns today. Your grandkids will thank you.

https://notjustbikes.com/strongtowns

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 21 Tagen)

@meena small incremental changes.

In particular, nobody lives there anymore due to decades of exclusionary zoning prohibiting residential. It would be foolish to pedestrianize a street that nobody lives near.

They implement what they can and they don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen

@Judeet88 https://youtu.be/ORzNZUeUHAM

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen

@yudderick yeah, that sounds about right.

Any city can be fixed, given enough money and political will.

I just believe that most American cities will take generations before they are significantly improved.

Although, I'm also not totally convinced that all American cities are actually improving.

If it takes you 10 years to get a few bike lanes, but in that time, 10,000 acres of new car-dependent suburbia is built on the periphery, is that really considered "moving forward?"

notjustbikes OP , vor 21 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 21 Tagen)

@MrLee there's a book called The Sprawl Repair Manual that I always wanted to make a video about, but I couldn't get the copyrights to the images.

https://sprawlrepair.com/home/

In part of it, the author talks about how to turn suburban malls into town centres, and then connect them together (and to downtown) by transit.

I think this is the best hope that suburbia has got.

Trying to urbanise the giant stroads of suburbia is basically a non-starter. There are so many other low-hanging fruits.

notjustbikes OP , vor 25 Tagen

@riderexmachina @GarethDennis thank you!

notjustbikes , vor 26 Tagen

@etam amazing. Thanks!

notjustbikes , vor 26 Tagen

@mark Yes, that is part of what the podcast he's referring to was about!

https://nebula.tv/agenda/all-trains-need-level-boarding-with-gareth-dennis

notjustbikes , vor 28 Tagen

@TechConnectify the dishwasher king has returned! 👑

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

I live in Europe. I experience Europe. I go back to Canada once a year to see family.

That's not "eurocentric", those are my regular lived experiences.

I am not going to travel out of Europe (and Canada) regularly.

That's not not a realistic thing financially, but it's also completely irresponsible from a climate perspective, and wouldn't be fair to my family either.

And it bugs me because these comments show absolutely no respect for me, or the creative process behind my videos.

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

Of course, these people don't actually care about my content. Calling my channel "eurocentric" is a virtue signal for them.

"Look at how worldly I am to consider people outside of Europe! 😇 Unlike this eurocentric YouTuber 🙄"

These people deserve the mountain of urbanist AI slop content being uploaded to YouTube every second.

Those channels aren't eurocentric!

They cover every topic on Wikipedia that can easily be summarized by ChatGPT! 🤦‍♂️

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

Anyway, if you're ever curious as to why I hate comments, it should be clear by now. 😁

Unfortunately it's basically impossible for me to avoid reading any comments about my videos, because they show up in the most unlikely places (like under completely unrelated articles on all kinds of websites).

I'd have to avoid reading anything on the Internet at all.

Actually, now that I think about it, that might not be such a bad idea. 🤔

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 29 Tagen)

@publixpace it's legitimately hilarious how I still get comments (and even emails!) from people who feel the need to "correct" me on my flags in my "winter cycling" video.

As if I wouldn't know the flags of Belgium and the Netherlands when I've lived in both countries.

Or how I could somehow use the wrong flag from Wikipedia when the country name is literally in the filename.

The best part is that they only ever notice one and don't realise that the other one is wrong, too. 🤣

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 29 Tagen)

@oook I know, right?

I should move every six months so that people consuming free content on the Internet don't have to take the trouble of having to find a video from another channel about a location that they prefer.

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@Craigp lol. Yeah, these people, plus the conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that I only talk about this stuff because of the fat cheques I recieve from the WEF and George Soros.

Still waiting on those cheques ...

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@ajsadauskas thanks!

I agree that these videos should be made by people in those countries.

I never lived in Japan, but I've been there about a dozen times for business trips, which is why I think my Shinjuku video was so accurate and well-recieved by people who actually live there.

Unfortunately almost all urbanist YouTubers are Americans, and there are various socioeconomic and cultural explanations for that.

I link to international content often but sadly there's not a lot of it out there

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@Damax lol, so far, no.

Most of the extreme ignorance and virtue signaling comes from Americans, and Mastodon already has a much more European and international audience.

And since I blocked a bunch of American servers, including some American "urbanist" and "cyclist" servers, my feed here has been great!

Er, I mean ... Mastodon is too "eurocentric"! How awful! 🤣

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@qgustavor I have no plans to visit Brazil. I'd love to see some urbanist content made by Brazilians though!

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@tanketom this is so true.

I've been consciously trying to avoid American content online for a few years now and it's not easy. But my recommendations are so much better as a result.

Tangentially, I am so fed up with Americans who expect me to make videos telling them how to fix US cities.

Like, almost all urbanist content online is about the US already, and you want ME to make MORE of it? A Canadian who lives in Europe? Don't ask me! Go bug the >95% of urbanist creators who are American! 🤣

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@mcv sadly at my scale it's nearly impossible to just ignore the bad ones.

With an audience of over a million, the signal to noise ratio is so bad that the good comments get completely buried.

That's why I try to avoid reading comments entirely.

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@dkwright yeah, you're doing it correctly. You got inspired, and found Strong Towns and other content relevant to you.

You're not expecting the first urbanist YouTuber you've found to make every urbanist video on every topic you want to watch.

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@magalhini ironically I actually DO have footage of bikes lanes in the Galápagos Islands.

notjustbikes OP , vor 29 Tagen

@burne thanks!

notjustbikes OP , vor 28 Tagen

@machinart Thanks!

notjustbikes OP , vor einem Monat (Bearbeitet vor einem Monat)

The sample was pulled from a 1999 song by Matthew Dear and Disco D entitled, "Hands Up For Detroit".

It's very clear in this version that the sample is "Our Lovely City."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb6XmFUFC18

notjustbikes OP , vor einem Monat

I never would have guessed that this is the lyric, because I've been to Detroit a lot, especially when I was young.

My cousin lived in Windsor and we went to Detroit often.

It was a great (though often sketchy) place to go to raves and concerts. And Detroit techno is great.

So I could understand how someone might "love this city," but let's be clear: Detroit was not a "lovely city," especially in the 90s.

notjustbikes OP , vor einem Monat

Also the best techno in Detroit was always Richie Hawtin (Plastikman), but he's not a Detroiter either – he's Canadian. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDBcxEMHNMs

notjustbikes OP , vor einem Monat

@jake2 who, Richie Hawton? He was born in the UK and then moved to Canada when he was a kid.

notjustbikes OP , vor einem Monat

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-njb-shinjuku-105591952

notjustbikes , vor einem Monat

@GodsoeWilliam that thumbnail cracks me up every time.

Welcome back to civilization!

notjustbikes , vor einem Monat

@owiecc I don't take transportation advice from Americans. 😉

notjustbikes , vor einem Monat (Bearbeitet vor einem Monat)

@owiecc yes of course he does. He's American. That's what I'm saying.

Americans are exposed to so much propaganda about cars that I don't care at all about their options on transportation. They're incapable of thinking outside of a car-centric view of the world.

Even American urbanists carry with them a deep-seated car-supremacist view of the world.