If you ever wondered why the "old town" felt nicer somehow, here's why. Source of the thumbnail picture: / 1 Check out my Patreon: / adamsomething Second channel: / adamsomethingelse
Genuine car enthusiast here. A few years back I moved into a city centre; for the lifestyle, the convenience, the culture and the vibrancy. Over that time I’ve come to the realisation that I would gladly give up my car if it meant I didn’t have to put up with the noise, pollution and cost to my local authority of accommodating car transport. I look at my local street and think of how nice it would be to take my dog for a walk and not have the threat of him being knocked down almost every day by some dingbat in a Tesla/BMW/Mercedes. I’d pay it just to NOT have to tell my kids to watch themselves every single time they cross the street. I’ll remind you, I love the automobile. Nothing I love more than taking a nice car and hustling it along a backroad, getting my hands dirty doing an oil change or just sitting and reading a Haynes manual for a couple of hours with a nice cup of tea. But city driving, in fact most driving is not what makes cars enjoyable. It’s drudgery; probably something that someone else should be doing. That’s why I take the bus. Nice video Adam.
You can enjoy driving car if the city willing to invest public transit. When people stop depending on cars, those who love driving it will have more space to drive. Fight for public transit so everyone can have their own benefits.
Literally on the same mindset as you. I love cars, bulding, modifying them, but would never ever want to drive in the city, using the tram is so much better and less of a headache inside cities. And also, everyone would use it if the city was planned to do so.
I'm of the same mindset, love cars, love driving and working on them, not in the city though. In a nice twisty road outside the city. Imo the city would be better off with just public transport. We can still enjoy cars on the track and outside densely populated areas
Driving in cities is fun. Even more fun when the city actively works against you and your car with narrow streets, no traffic lanes, areas cut off for peds and public transport etc... It becomes more of a challenge and a driving challenge is what any enthusiast relishes. Beats sitting on wide streets and letting your brain go to autopilot.
This channel and Not Just Bikes have really opened my eyes on how messed up our transportation system here in the US is. And how much it just destroyed cities by cutting through them and the suburban sprawl that's been created
I live in a small college town in indiana. The city had blocked off one street with a lot of shops and restaurants during covid, to allow for outdoor dining. After covid, I guess they decided to keep it pedestrian only. That was probably the best decision I’ve seen our city make, it’s now my favorite part of town.
Depends on where the foreigner is from. I'm American, and it looks nicer than most cities here, but it's got nothing on footage I've seen of Japan, Singapore, or Spain.
@@VoidCaeldude are you seriously comparing it based on a footage?
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Yes, in every city there are streets for people and others for cars. In Prague, there are plenty of places where only supplies go, just like in Bracelona. And the tribute author chose to present the main thoroughfare of the city as an example of the "norm".
If you mean like the one in Chicago, please don't do that, because the artist who made it (Anish Kapoor) is a horrible person who leverages his fame to profit off of other, better artists.
When I visited Prague few years ago I was shocked by the exactly this same discrepancy between pleasant walkable districts and horrible traffic zones around them. Just a remark from a fellow architect. Greetings from Zagreb!
@@szurketaltos2693 It's somewhat worse in Zagreb, but at least you have bike paths and dedicated bike lanes also trams as well, compared to my city Rijeka, which is just buses, cars and that's it
I visited Prague in 2019, right before Covid hit and only used taxi to get to/from airport and a bus for the Zoo. Spent half a week there and my experience has been mostly walkable areas with just a few car-centric streets.
Zagreb has unnecessarily wide streets/roads (like the one at 4:58). Why so many lanes? I'd just have one dedicated to public transport and only one for cars (and perhaps a two-way bike lane) and would give no fucks (provided, ofc, that I provided top notch public transit). I've come to realize that narrower streets/roads make a much more pleasant environment. Another thing about Zagreb, I've visited it on a Saturday a month ago and almost no one uses public transit (despite it being very cheap and despite the fact you can ride if for free since no one ever comes to check the tickets), 30-meter trams have 5 to 10 passengers at most. Also, no one bikes there, despite the city being flat for the most part. It's just weird. Speaking of Rijeka, where I am from, public transit is horribly expensive, but still more people use it than in Zagreb.
Cars are not evil. They are tools. Tools can't be evil. But the way they are used is not different from guns. In the US even the fatalities are similar.
@@steemlenn8797 Exactly, it's all about how you use a tool. Look at Switzerland. They have very good regulations and safety measures, and while they own 4 times less the amount of guns, there's still a lot of guns in the country with barely any casualties.
@@yincimaster8530 ,Switzerland also has better mental health overall,considering the largest amount of US gun deaths are suicides,the smallest part are psychos going on a shooting spree. I'm also going to assume that they have better housing,schooling,job security,and criminal treatment. Not sure about transportation.
Car-centred infrastructure is most hostile to kids because they can’t drive and spreads things out so they can’t walk or cycle to places or meet friends
@@justanordinaryaccount9910 most "creeps" are statistically more likely to be people close to the child than not, so yes, I'll take my chances with public transport
As an immigrant in Singapore, just walking along the streets and riverside paths gives me so much pleasure. Singapore is extremely well designed in terms of 1. Each area is self sufficient and has it's own "center", where people hang out in the evenings, there's usually some musicians around too. On sundays you can see people chilling out at public parks all day. 2. Most of the people live in public housing 3. Cars are highly disincentivized, most people use public transport which is amazing. Cycling is being encouraged and cycling paths are being expanded.
@@SC-jq9og So what you're saying is ignore any good they've achieved because their situation isn't identical to other places? A lot of cities in Europe are like this. London is actually a pretty good example of centres within centres so to speak. As it's comprised of small towns and villages that eventually grew into one giant urban blob you get pretty much everything you'd need within walking distance. A 15 minute city, as it were. Most big cities are like this. Unless they were bulldozed for cars.
@@SC-jq9og You've just described most big cities across the world. Most big cities have limited space and don't accommodate rural people either. Singapore is not comparable country-wide, but it is very much comparable to the vast majority of big cities across the world.
I was walking down a busy road a few months ago. For some reason, the traffic starting thinning out and for around 30 seconds there was zero cars within sight. And for that brief period, everything became way more quiet and I could actually hear something other than engines for once. People walking, trees in the wind and some birds. It was quite calming. It's insane just how much noise pollution is caused by cars.
Don't tree roots fuck up concrete if they're not maintained properly? Plus imo trees are pretty but by no means necessary, main thing is to make it easier to walk or bike around, and give people more public places to play chess or have a drink with friends in.
@@theghostofspookwagen4715 the strain on asphalt depends heavily on the tree species, there are many whose roots dont extend far or mostly downwards. our streets should also feature as much non "sealed" areas as possible to allow for rainwater to go into the ground. and plants, especially trees are massively important for reducing air polution and heat, while also providing big benefits for urban wildlife and mental health.
@@theghostofspookwagen4715Actually, trees help cool urban areas, by providing shade. That's actually why cities are so hot. It's not about climate change, it's about the amount of concrete, asphalt, and lack of shade.
Montreal's mayor just proposed a bunch of new pedestrianized areas in the downtown area, a great feature to complement the new regional light rail system.
I wanted to say;"see that voting helps," but then i remembered that the election i was thinking of was the one for the new mayor of Toronto & i had mixed up my Canadian cities,(as a Dutchie i feel properly guilty, sorry, eh? ;-) before thinking about the fact that Montreal's mayor also was elected. According to wiki she promised to improve public transit, alleviate traffic woes and make the city more family friendly, so it seems that she's keeping her promises. And it does show that voting is important!
Adam, as an activist dealing with sustainable transportation in Prague, I really love that you are targeting our local mindset, which is damaging our city so much. The city even has strategic aims to decrease amount of traffic (as a transportation and climate policy), but politicians NEVER allow to do any significant steps towards it; Regardless on coalition in the city council, the majority in the city parliament is always car-centric and the shift is not to be foreseen. So they actually overvote anything which would significantly harm "freedom" of car use in Prague. Even people who are aware of problems caused by cars in Prague will not accept increase of street parking fees, which is the only usable tool that Czech legislation provides to regulate cars, and whose are actually laughably low. So this is some kind of guilty pleasure to see places we are trying to change towards more livable and pleasant state, as an example of dull neglection shown to your international audience. Maybe, this is also way how to put a mirror to our city officials.
I was a tourist last summer on Prague. After seeing what car dependency and insanely free policies regarding short-term rentals can do to an otherwise lovely city, I am happy to read that there are locals pushing for a change. Keep up the slow fight, friends. Your city is too ungodly beautiful to let it rot in a sea of asphalt.
True as long as it's done in a way that people can still get to the city with a car from elsewhere. It gets annoying being totally locked out of 80% of a city because you can't even leave your car on the outskirts without paying insane parking fees. I want to visit Czechia not just Prague and it seems that city dwellers have an elitism to their city being the only thing worth visiting so people are just to fly or train in from other huge cities and screw over the country side.
I would say that at this point Prague is not fit for any reduction of car traffic in the city as neither of two outer ringroads is finished (I have never understood why D0 is design in such way rather than some D8/D35 closer to Elbe with D10 as "feeder" and some other rather tangential connections of other roads and highways further away from Prague), housing prices are extremely high (60 % at least higher than they should be) forcing people further from the city which will inevitably lead to more road traffic and rail based public transport lacks tangential lines as well, which meas that this option is less appealing option than going by car. But that seems like issue of Czech city planning in general as such lines are missing in Brno, Olomouc and Ostrava as well. I would say that only after those issues are fixed we can expect (and demand) some measures against car traffic.
Hi, thank you for your insight! I have a question for you as a local transport activist: when I was in Prague last year, I noticed a lot of massive SUVs (including American SUVs) around Prague 1. What sort of people would insist on driving them to or around Prague 1? Are they really rich Prague 1 residents, or are these just not taxed high enough in Czechia?
@@samlerman-hahn2674 Even thou this question was not addressed to me, I will answer. Unlike some other countries in Europe there is no special taxation on cars. Who would drive them to the centre of Prague? Often people who declare that need them because they are afraid and those cars are bigger and thus safer. And then some people who need to show off.
As a Barceloní, I can say that there has been a lot of pushback to Barcelona's anti-car measures particularly from people living in sides of the city with low public transport connections, and even some of the mayor's partner's in government attacked her posture. However I think it has made a safer, cleaner and overall better city and I wouldn't want it any other way.
@@Arenow Yeah that makes sense, they'll probably have to work in improving transport in the outskirts... These kinds of changes are very difficult but Barcelona has always been a pioneer when it comes to urban development and planning so I hope they can pull it off.
5:31 This is the key here. _Viable_ alternatives. In a city like London where public transport is a joke (we have signs discouraging people from travelling during rush hour because our network can't handle it. You know, the period that is defined by everyone *needing* to travel at that time) and the city is built almost entirely around the car, it is practically impossible to imagine any other way of moving large numbers of people any more efficiently. But I realised something walking through my town during the early afternoon. How empty the roads were. The hoardes of people driving were those going to and from work, or ferrying their children to school. These are the people mass transit is supposed to serve. I couldn't help but wonder what their lives would be like had we a comprehensive, functional, reliable mass transit system.
I have never imagined that somebody can say that London has a bad transit system (I've never been here, but rumours are always about how goof it is there).
One of the biggest mistakes we ever made was allowing modernists to design buildings as objects instead of placemakers. I would LOVE a video about this specific concept and how destroying our sense of place has had very negative consequences on our mental health and behaviors.
An aunt of me was convinced that LEGO was to blame. According to her, children only learned to build in blocks. And I must say that the blocks I played with as kid had several tube and rhombus shapes.
Building design is generally a taste thing. I like both classical and modern architecture. Both have their place, though modern buildings should stay out of city centers. Seeing 1960 monstrosities bext to 18th century blocks is just wrong.
I totally disagree with that. Modernism was about building places, or as they called it "spaces". In the ancient way, the most important things was the facade, just to show who important was the owner. The spaces seen as beautiful today, like square with cathedral view or boulevard with trees, were all implemented by hygienism witch started the modernism thinking. before, the cathedral were all stuck into a way to dense urban fabric that didn't allow anyone to even see the sculpture. The modernism have had one major flow witch was the car. but without this movement, nobody would have ever cared about the quality of spaces. The so call "modernism" typology is now part of the past, and post modernism took his place in the 80's and bringed up a new shape to comply with modernism objectives of places making. In that topic the best example is 'La Villette" in Paris, witch is a 80's new park. In the bid, a new single object building were supposed to be build to accommodate a lot of function, but the architect, Bernard Tschumi, choose to explode it and sparse the function in the park to create a sens of places. the pavilion created were called "les follies de la Villettes" and look like a pure modernism shapes. Architecture is not a linear process and the way we see the street today is due to modernism, world just moved past this particular shape =)
It's a cost thing. Back in the day if you wanted to build a large structure you needed a good deal of money, so you put in more care to how it looks etc, then building techniques improved, costs came down and more and more people could afford to build larger buildings for less than in the past, so less effort was put into their aesthetics. Modularity played a big part in design homogenisation, standardisation to a degree, and especially after the war with the massive economic boom and need for new infrastructure (and the literal rebuilding of many countries) it was all done quickly AND cheaply. So we ended up with what we have now. It's down to a bunch of factors that conspired. Death by a thousand paper cuts kind of thing.
I once had a video call via phone to a friend in Canada, who lives in a village. They took me for a walk around, and I couldn't believe that this village is basically….non-existent to traffic. They got out of their house and stood on a 4 Lane Stroad cutting right through the housing areas. No side walks, just walking close to the guardrail and hoping you won't get run over on your way to the next store. As a German, I couldn't believe people actually live like this. Social things happened only once "we" made it to the forest and met other people walking their dog. The village is an absolute wasteland for human activity. This call really opened my eyes to the things going on if we keep pushing the car Agenda. Before this, i always thought "it's not that bad" because I mostly had my point of view.
I felt the same way when I went to Italy like... 20ish years ago. The only things kept clean were where tourists went. Beaches with trash buried in the sand, rivers with dead animals floating in them.
I like how you recorded "urban hellscape" on relatively short section of infamous Magistrála in Prague. But note - even this is somewhat hellscape we locals are still using (some of) these streets and they are not as dead as they look sometimes.
The dude intentionally took very choice skewed views and presented them as the norm for the whole city. And then had the gall to say cities like Barcelona of all places are better lol.
Growing food in urban spaces isn't really gonna produce any meaningful amount of food though 🤔 We need Industrial agriculture to feed 10 billion people. Which we already can do If we stopped eating so much meat feed on grain and soy.
I visited Rome recently and I couldn't believe how nice it was to just explore the city through all the pedestrianised backstreets. It's basically as you describe, every corner and street is full of character and I filled the whole week just randomly wondering around and enjoying wherever I ended up. No tourist attractions needed. I live in London which I thought was great for having loads of bustling pedestrian areas, but Rome is abolutely beautiful.
Thanks from Rome, sometimes I go to the city center at night and just wander, I would need a life to know every history that happened there, I love getting lost there
@@jshowao-rw1dh Yeah it is very scammer heavy, which I guess is a side effect of the pedestrianisation. I went in spring so it wasn't very busy at all for me, except maybe hot spots like the Trevi fountain as you said. Every city has that though, like in London I always avoid the part of the river around the London Eye and Shrek world, or the houses of parliment because it's always just crammed full of tourists.
I came back from a holiday in Riga this week, and although there were definitly some cases of what you described here, a lot of the streets there were not as car-centric as elsewhere in Europe. The layout was the same (sidewalk - street - sidewalk), but quite often, you had people walking on the streets and the car drivers driving accordingly. It made for an interesting experience.
In my home city of Edinburgh, the council refuse to make the New Town area (a UNESCO world heritage site) greener because the original 18th Century architect didn't design the streets to have trees. Instead, the streets are lined with cars. It's crazy.
Seeing you walk through Prague like that made me want to watch a collab video with you and the Honest Guides. I don't know what you'd collab *about* so I doubt it's gonna happen, but fun thought.
@@Ignatiusussy [not american] There's a sidewalk here in my hometown of Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil that has a stretch that is literally unwalkable because someone built a wall over it. This wouldn't be a problem if it was on a normal residential road, since you can just go around without any problems (traffic on residential streets are usually friendly here), however, this specific sidewalk I'm talking about is literally on a ring road like highway, so if you want to go around it you'll have to walk along high speeding cars.
Traveling abroad is not necessary for anyone (maybe excepting family and business travel), but it is certainly enriching. That said, enrichment can be found in many other things.
@@vergildispardaHow is using your legs and body to get somewhere as has been done since the beginning of time more lazy than sitting down and pressing your foot down on the gas and break?
well put. I had intense discussions with people in my community about traffic policies. So many people think the current staus quo is the one and only natural state. It's so hard to make them imagine something else even though the present is so disfunctional.
Same here. Every time I bring this topic up to my brother all I get is "things are too far away" or "we were built for the car" and stuff like that. Things were NOT built for the car, cities were never built this way before the 1960s for a reason, because car dependent cities these days are so lifeless and boring and that is never going to change. Cities were not built for the car, they were bulldozed for the car. He also says that change is not possible because "you'd have to close down the roads to make bike lanes" and how "changing it will take centuries" (The Netherlands only turned from car dependent to Cycling Capital of the world in about 40 years, not 100 btw). Car dependency is an addiction, too much of something is a problem and we well past that point in the US and Canada
This has led to it being incredibly hard for “Mom & Pop” shops to survive anywhere besides in the city center! This is unfortunate, because in my mind, those are the establishments that actually end up giving a neighborhood it’s character. I have high hopes that California getting rid of single family home zoning will lead to a surge of mixed use development which will bring with it lots of Mom and Pop shops. And our neighborhoods will finally have character again :-)
@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty Now, it's just a matter of whether they make it affordable for the average citizen, or make it yet another for-profit scheme to turn public opinion against the concept, since such transportation is not usually very profitable, by design. After all, California may technically be "left-wing," certainly compared to many other American states, but it is still more left-leaning liberal than even social democratic, let alone socialist. They may try to make it another money-making scheme if y'all aren't careful. That said, I really hope it turns out great. It would be awesome to traverse the state by rail.
One day Adam will fall asleep in a comfortable train, rushing to the destination at blazing speeds, only to wake up again, in sweat, realizing, that he's in a car
Man, imagine Adam Something walking around his European city with footage like this and making the critiques he is...which I agree with... ...then imagine coming to a US strip mall/parking lot city...it barely even qualifies as a city or even human settlement.
I've found a website that has postcard pictures of the "normal" (not Berlin or Frankfurt) German cities, which show that even those cities once looked interesting. I've found a picture of my school (yes it's old) and even that looks more interesting than today. Edit: There are cities like Berlin that are somehow interesting even outside of those classical tourist centers. Even big streets can be interesting if laid out as avenues where you have broad sidewalks (interestingly translated to "Bürgersteig" or "citizen path") and a lot of trees reducing the stress introduced by cars. One example for that is the Karl-Marx-Allee/avenue, which, to be fair, was always more like a big project for the last regimes. Edit 2: Of course I totally agree with "car bad". I will move to big city planned around cars (not humans) soon, lets see, how mad I will get there.
@@fw--kx6sk I will move to Frankfurt am Main, around 760k people in a really dense area. I don't know if it was Adam who talked about it, but as far as I know large parts in the center of the city were teared down in order to build large streets and avenues, which are there to this day. Adding the skyscrapers you get bad static hot air. Additionally, Frankfurt, like all the big cities, has a big problem with people addicted to drugs, so the central station and a huge area around it are rather unpopular. I myself had some... interesting... experiences when I was waiting for my job interview.
@@thebread1034 Always sad to hear city center being torn down... I also heard they plan to build some new skyscrapers as high as 300m. But congrats on getting the job, i guess?
@@fw--kx6sk Yes, although it was already destroyed in the war, although I believe cities like cologne have been at least partially rebuilt to a pre-war state. Oh ok, didnt know that. Seems to be for a museum. Thanks :). I'll be working for a railway company, I hope I'll be of some use there.
Last week i was in Prage and in Barcelona and my impression between them was just the inverse. I enjoyed walking around lots of empty streets in prage, parks, the river banks. In Barcelona I experimented a large avenue with 4 car lines and lots of traffic. But it depends on the area of Prague and Barcelona, not the city itself. I live in Spain, and as i said, I visited Wien and Prague last week and I first pick to live in prague or wien than in Barcelona if i must to choose.
@@FilipMoncrief Not OP but I was in Barcelona last month, and the one big thing that hit me was the sheer amount of homeless and the smell of piss that hits you the moment you go outside. Barcelona also had basically no parks, compared to Prague or Vienna which have lots of parks dispersed everywhere with lots of water features and access. Barcelona is primarily a city for night-life, Prague and Vienna are cities of day-life. They have many spaces where you can simply sit and relax for however long you want. Prague and Vienna also currently seem much better kept and engaged than Barcelona. Compared to when I visited it in 2015, Barcelona has very evidently gotten poorer.
all the points you made are spot on but you know what I love most about this video? That you use footage of European cities! Usually these videos go like: America bad, Europe good. And while the current state is definitley better in Europe, we still have a loooot of problems when it comes to making our cities more liveable. In almost all cities in Europe you can get around with public transport fairly well, but you'll always feel that you are using second-class transportation, inferior to the car, and that is not acceptable.
I think this is too much of a blanket statement. It certainly is true for a lot of cities, but as an Austrian I have to say that I absolutely refuse to go to Vienna by car, that just seems like unnecessary stress, I always take public transport because this is actually the more reliable and I would also say more comfortable option. Going by car would seem like the second class option to me.
I can't thank enough to every single citizen of Prague who choose to not use cars in their everyday life. If you don't have a car or borrow one if you need it then I love you.
@@youtubestudiosucks978 Don't worry, when Master Musk finally releses your race from the shackles of mankind, you will be free to cruise the streets however you want, without hurting each other!
@@steemlenn8797 it'll be a win-win situation too, the sentient cars will roam the distant motorways and deserts, forever free, far away from cities and suburbs, finally returned to walkable status. Of course when humans start hunting the wild cars for raw materials, there will be war, but the intermediate period will be heaven for all
@@soleenzo893 How poetic! Ah yes, in the postacopalypse, when they are hunted to make armor out of tires. (No joke, tire armor is fantasic! At least for non-gun weapons.)
This is so radical it makes my head explode - in a good way. I cant even imagine a politician winning even a small local election outside of Berkeley with these views - at least here in the US. Yet, I think you're right. Little by little we'll take it back.
this idea is becoming increasingly popular amongst americans, many people would favor this in san francisco, new york, and chicago, maybe not in dallas or whatever, but houston is making the change!
I'm living in Toronto. I want to say that even living among towers of glass and steel is not bad at all. On weekends, when our streets in the Financial District are empty from car-commuters, the city becomes unbelivably quiet and nice. Suddenly, even big towers become part of city magic and vibrancy, with thousands of people walking around. Toronto downtown(!) has not perfect, but very cool public transit system and perfect walkability with nearly zero street-level parking and thousands of small businesses on the streets. Riding on streetcar (as we name it there) among skyscrappers is surrealistic experience at the first time, but it is worth it. Cars are destroying our cities. The noise pollution is even worse than air pollution. Space taken to cars is ridiculous. And on top of that, the thing people often talk about, but even then, don't realize how bad it is in reality - is car "accidents" deaths and injuries. A made a short investigation on this topic - in developed countries, the number of deaths (only deaths, not injuries) caused by "car traffic accidents" exceeds the number of violent deaths (murders) in 2-3 times. The more people die from cars than from fireafms and stabbings. Random people, most of them just mind their own business and have done nothing wrong seconds before a sudden end of life. How many become severely injured, and then disabled, with broken life? And car-propagandist and lobbists taught us to name it "accidents". It is the silent mass massacre in favor of profits of car manufacturers and those who build all this enormous infrastructure for the cars - on OUR taxes. @AdamSomething - it is needed to talk more on this particular topic.
The postcard pictures were painted specifically to capture the rare beautiful a parts of a city and sell postcards. Throughout history most parts of cities were….horrible. Read Dickens. Look at early architecture treatises. They routinely complained about slums and streets packed with horse manure.
The postcard argument left me facepalming... as if all postcards, even modern ones, aren't designed to show the best parts of any place. As you said, old cities had absolutely terrible places as well.
Im actually really glad the way my city has made investment's in more neighborhoods than just the center. Should still be less car dependent, but i appreciate what i can get.
I live in a city built on a grid with numbered streets and all I want is some tiny percentage of those streets to be for walking or biking or transit. Just anything at all at this point instead of 100% of them turned over to cars. From 1st to 70th not one is a bike-way or a bus-way or a pedestrian only area even for a block.
I live in Tbilisi, Georgia. On June, I went to see Strasbourg in France. The change was incredible. As a city that became what it is during the soviet era, Tbilisi is highly centered around cars. It is not as bad as the US cities, but apart from it's 'centers', walking from one place to another is not just unpleasant, but downright impossible in some cases. However, in Strasbourg, even walking in the outer parts of the city gives you the idea city planners had. More focus on people, less focus on cars. Combined area of the pedestrian and cyclist lanes exceed the car roads in the entire city. In my entire stay, never have I wanted to ride a car, but rather wished to have brought my bicycle with me. Most of the center is closed to car access, the biggest public transport is trams which perfectly blends in with the city. I am hoping to move there next to my girlfriend sometime next year.
You really should visit Warsaw: maybe it’s not the MOST walkable city, but you can get everywhere using public transit and there’s a lot of greenery and a car is far from essential here
Still plenty of main streets have 6 lanes of car traffic and a narrow bikepath only on the one side of the streets or no bikepath at all. Those streets are extremely loud and unpleasant to be around. Though there are actually nice, car free places being built recently (such as "Plac Pięciu Rogów" square opened in 2022). But yeah, trams and metro are top quality.
Prague shouldn't be highlighted as some car-riddled hellscape.. Come on, you've lived here, you know that our tram network is legit one of the best in the world and the metro system is no slouch. Plenty of pedestrian areas including most of Staré Město. It's even arguable that Prague is more pedestrian-friendly than America's "gold-standard", i.e. New York. That said, keep up the good fight. You're one of our best warriors in this "war on cars" :D
It's amazing how turning a big parking lot or a busy road into a pedestrian zone can improve the quality of life in your city. Such a simple measure.. such a huge difference.
I was always asking why you were so lenient about banning cars and never ought to mention how it would effect short distance delivery and such. Glad that you finally mentioned it
@@jannetteberends8730 yeah that’s kinda what I thought of about short distance delivery. You always need a little bit of cars in The world, no matter how bad they are
You can't even look properly at architecture because you're so close to the building and if you cross the street to try to take a picture or just admire it your view will be blocked by cars.
I know it's not exactly the theme of the video (it was great btw) but the car on the left trying to leave the arc de triomphe roundabout between 5:20 and 5:27 is absolutely crazy. They do a 90°turn through at least 3 lanes to get out at their desired exit. This place should 100% be redesigned, they can keep cars, but not a 7 lanes trafic light-regulated roundabout. Especially with one of the most well known monuments of the city in the middle of it.
when I was in Bucharest this year, there was a giant block of academic buildings and student dorms on a nice park-like space and you could walk into it but you couldn't walk to the other side, I had to walk 10 minutes around it instead
But isn't that already happening? Most cities I know in Europe, have a city center that has no or very limited access for cars. When you are talking about "back then", what are we talking about? 30 years ago? 50 years ago? 100 years ago? Because travelling has also changed throughout human history. Tourism as we know it today, was non existent up until the second half of the 20th century. Other cities were much harder to reach, meaning it took you a great deal of time to travel from lets say Cologne to Berlin. Before the first trainlines were build, this trip would have taken several days. Today its just a couple of hours, regardless whether you are taking the train, a flight, or go by car. This means, we have much bigger masses of people, coming and going as tourists, than ever before. Cities have adapted to that. Cities from 1920 didn't have tourist designated hotspots and areas, or holiday resorts, which have really peaked in the 21st century. These tourist masses also bring their own sets of issues with them, especially for local residents. This isn't just a car issue and when we are speaking about improving cities and car traffic, then first and foremost, it needs to be for the residents of that city, not for a couple of tourists that want to admire the architecture of a random building on a somewhat residential street.
The non-car city center is not because the street was taken back, it was because it was never a street for cars. And (mass!)tourism came to birth in the middle of the 19th century. We can actually put a date on it: 5. July 1841. That was the day when Thomas Cook organized a mass train travel (food inclusive) to the sea for workers.
@@steemlenn8797 Yes, tourism exists since the 19th century. However, in those days, you had a couple of thousands people visiting the city. Nowadays, its several millions (speaking of touristic cities). To accommodate and supply such amounts of people, requires cities to adapt to it, including its infrastructure. Its not just cars, its also buildings, stores and businesses. People used to reside in the city centers. Nowadays, most people reside on the outskirts and commute to work to the city center. So how we live in modern day cities, has changed greatly and its not just because of cars. Btw. yes, streets that are pleasant and fancies up, are cool to walk through and spend time in. But I wonder if the residents of that street like it, because it will hike up rent/housing prices. We see that in the US as well. The most desired and car free places in the city center, are unaffordable for the average resident of that city. I don't think the solutions are always as easy as portrayed in these videos, and there is not that one solution that can be applied in every city.
Yes and no. Selection and survival biases also play a key role here. Pre-industrial cities were not exactly 100% human-friendly vibrant spaces either, with their loads of boring, run-down and hazardous areas. Better urban planning is possible, yes, but it's not as if beautiful rococo facades and narrow streets were replaced with concrete and highways. The modern nice-looking "old towns" are out of reach for 95% of the population, but that was already the case when those houses were built.
I remember when I went to Europe for the first time, and couldn't believe how easy it was to get around. You could walk literally ANYWHERE, the metros were well-maintained and ran on time, and I was able to take a train from Munich to Budapest (across three entire countries) in less time than it would've taken to fly there, and much cheaper. I think the main reason why many Americans don't want to invest in public transit is because the media has convinced them that "public transit is for the POORS", when literally all social classes and all walks of life use it. Beats spending an hour in rush hour traffic.
And we're still far too car dependant 🤔 I now live in a tiny city in France (Chateauroux, 40k inhabitants. Here buses have been operating free since 2001 - it's one of the few in the country). I struggle with people around me (my parents, my friends) buying bigger and bigger vehicles, that consume more oil than their previous one just because it's trendy to acquire those bulky SUV... they also buy their house farther from town to "have silent nights" (and then drive to town and make noise under my windows 😆) In a country thar produces its own oil and gas, like the US, I understand the addiction. In a country 100% dependant on imports like France, it's a fiscal and economic disaster to give in to such way of life (not to mention the urban, environmental, public health effects but those aren't convincing to right wingers so why even try to point to it 🤔). Ah... We're digging our own economic car dependant grave. It's painful to watch from the side...walk.
I can just barely imagine being able to choose a mode of transportation. You should see people’s faces when I talk about a world without **need** of cars. I can often tell it’s something that has never crossed their mind until that moment.
This is the reason why I moved to Paris, it's a big city with perks of walkability and an awesome public transit network that covers the entire region and even further. Sadly, not everyone has this opportunity. Thankfully, our current mayor is doing everything she can to gut cars out of ouf city.
In Berlin 2022, around only 18% of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg owned a car. Yet, when you try to find parking space anywhere in the center, it is a task in futility. I feel better options for transit from the outskirts to inside of the city - and a more reliable public transport system - would help a lot.
As a petrolhead, I agree with all the sentiments expressed. By bettering public transport and making it as inconvenient to drive a car as possible, you'll get rid of all the commuters, all the fat SUVs, etc... so only the people who love to drive will go through the hustle, driving will be spirited and fun. I like to think about this issue in this kind of selfish manner, because I have conflicting interests, on the one hand I built my entire life around cars, but on the other hand I understand the damage they bring to the common benefit of society. So yeah bettering our cities is beneficial to us car guys too, especially if all this push for efuels comes to fruition, there will be less restrictions on running the fun cars in dedicated places, moutain lanes, tracks, etc.
I’m currently in Europe and the cities here are much more pleasant than American cities. Far less car centric, but still there are a lot of cars. However, I am pleased with how easy it is to get around with public transit and walking. I prefer walking for the exercise, but getting to Dachau from Munich, for example, was very easy. Getting from Vienna’s city center to the military museum on the periphery was also simple without a car. Finally, if you’re confused at first, you can use google maps and it’ll tell you which train/bus you should take to get to your destination.
The only reason we don’t see individual motorised transport as totally insane is because we are so used to it. The streets belong to humans get the cars out!
The city of Groningen, The Netherlands has banned motorized traffic in the city center and so far the difference has been huge! The city center was kinda divided in two by a paved, at parts wide, street for busses, taxis and bicycles (and regular cars before that). Now it's been converted back into a walkable area for pedestrians and cyclists. The center is a way nicer place to be now and feels much safer. It's one of the many projects in the city center they've worked on in the last couple of years. One of the other projects was the construction and opening of the new cultural center, The Groninger Forum. It has a library, a cinema, galleries/events, work spaces, restaurants, a free publicly available rooftop and more. They have also build multiple new large underground bicycle storages, which were really needed.
To say nothing of how much it will improve our health. We'll all lose a ton of weight from walking and biking, preventing millions of deaths from obesity, we'll all breatya lot better from cleaner air, and we'll all retain our hearing. Modern cities are damagingly loud.
How do I know I live in a car focused hellscape? Every time Adam or NotJustBikes shows a street with "LOOK AT HOW LOUD AND TERRIBLE THIS IS" my gut reaction is always "Oh! what a pleasantly quiet and nice street he's standing next to!"
Dear Adam, This video, as yours usually are, is very inspiring and shoves known problem in front of faces of those interested in non-trivial, interesting way. Thank you for that, always appreciate your work. That being said, I have one specific question in mind: urban fabric of (specifically) european city centres was build, quite a while ago, when people needed to live near various amenities and, consequently, - near to each other. How do you think it would be possible to form vibrant neighborhoods throughout entire cities with: 1) current, technology-centered lifestyles, 2) cities being spread-out to suburbs (either in dethached houses or blocks-of-flats - still keeping european context in mind), 3) in connection with 2): city centres and older buildings being less inhabited by people, and more by services/trade facilities, which suburb-dwellers and tourist sometimes use while being in centre? Tl;dr: are vibrant neighborhoods in cities' urban fabric feasible with people so spread among suburbs and/or priced out from attractive areas by services/airbnbs? Regards - Maciej
Oh yea Magistrála at Prague´s main station. Most loudest place to be, and don´t forget to mention those four glass cupolas whichs leads to parking lot. Back in a days it smelled like piss there and i presume it smells same. And in front of the station there is a park called Sherwood or Prague´s Sherwood. It´s a very dangerous place at any hour. My advice is to go fast and don´t look at anyone. Btw thanks to that highway they had to demolish one of the most beautiful train stations in Prague called Praha-Těšnov.
@@Snoop_Dugg The main problem with Dublin is that it’s public transport is terrible, so either walk or drive, but the roads are always clogged, and the streets aren’t the safest, especially at night, an American tourist got attacked just this week
@@ElysiumCreator ah okay, yeah I went there like 5 years ago. There was defo traffic jams in and out of the city, and the airport shuttles were always delayed. But it felt nice to walk around to random pubs and take in the vibe.
@@Snoop_Dugg Dublin is great for visiting, terrible for living, I ended up moving out of the city to one of the neighboring towns in the south for a few years.
As a Monnemer I really appreciate your pictures and videos showing Monnem in all its glory :D jokes aside. Havent been living in Mannheim for over 8 years now and but its my home town so I really love every scene you show. Its funny that I know all the places, even if its only a 5 sec clip from you standing under the bridge im Jungbusch which leads to Ludwigshafen. Which is a disgrace for Germany btw.... all they have is the nice view to Mannheim
In a weird kind of way, I feel like Adam is wheel spinning. There's not as much new information in his new videos as there was before. They all seem to say the same things over and over now. Oh, well.
@@04cassiusphanthanhbinhjake That's true. I just feel like most of Adam's videos now are just: cars bad, public transport good. It's not wrong, just feels like something is missing. Maybe it's just me.
Tbf I live in Edinburgh and you don’t want a city where tourists go everywhere. It’s nice to have cozy areas with a few pubs, corner shops and cafés where people just live.
In polish city Katowice they transformed Mariacka street into pedestrian street and now this place is known for bars and night life. Some people who live there complain about the noise but still it is a very nice place to be.
Much of Tokyo has been rebuilt for cars, especially in the outer areas, but there is also a heavy emphasis on affordable public transport. The point is that it's not an either/or situation - either car or no car.
Just imagine seeing a video like this, getting angry and commenting something about leftist eco-agenda 😤 I will never be able to understand what has to go wrong in someone's life to get to that standpoint...
Because the media has made everyone mad at each other instead of the ones they should be mad at. 15 minute cities: Good 15 minute cities without cars: Bad Media: We want 15 minute cities, it will be so lovely to have a city without cars.
Loved this video. Half the content shot in km area from where I live. Even when used as a bad example. Ending with that zobie faced Svoboda (Prague current not so great mayor). My thoughts exactly. Seen Barcelona recently and have to agree, there is a goal to look forward. Even though Prague has a tons and tons of good places not just in the center, there is lots to change.
@@1zebbe3 bruh who said literally anything about rural areas, plus i live in freaking maine and i still hate cars… tho its not because of cars themselves, just the kind of cars the places they are and the infrastructure around them, wish we had more trails and tractors
It's sad that in the UK labour lost a recent by-election because of a de-congestion, pro-air-quality policy that would only affect old diesel bangers that should have been banned 10 years ago, making them cost more money to run in London than just, yaknow, buying a car that won't cause respiratory problems for hundreds of (mostly young) people across the city
It tops all the urbanism lists in the us, but to me it's a city of failed potential. Still way too car dependent, downtown is a complete nowhere place, and the surrounding nice neighborhoods are awfully congested. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact Pittsburgh has the largest disused local railway in the usa
@@liamtahaney713 There's definitely worse places to be, but what I think the city really lacks is good, reliable public transit and mixed-use zoning that would allow more people to live downtown.
@@fbyi2940 It's fine if you have a car and are used to driving in the city, but that learning curve is a steep one. One plus is that the local drivers are overtly nice, and usually just assume that you're lost (or are lost themselves... all it takes is one wrong turn or road closure to put you in a completely different neighborhood).
In Odense (in Denmark) they cleared out part of the city centre to make space for a motorway. A similar idea was to be used in Aarhus. The latter was dropped, the first turned out to be a bad idea. It is said that Polish architects thought that the Luftwaffe had done that. Now it has become a major problem to find a place to park the cars or they congest the streets. So ... collective transport or bicycles have become objects of hate. Collective/public transport is being cut back and is a Hell to be dependent of. So don't by into all "green talk" from Denmark. Some of it is good, a lot is hypocritical.
