Roads In America Are Actually Public Transportation 

This is the hottest take on planet earth

in LA, the roads USED to be public transport. they knocked down train lines and walkable parts of the city to build freeways when they got bought up by general motors. they are now very much private transport.

To quote Not Just Bikes (or as near as I remember it) "American cities weren't built for the car. They were demolished for it." Yes we utilize some of the similar terms to where other places use for public transport because it's all we have.

Los Angeles used to have a tram network that could take you anywhere without needing to own a car, be old enough to have a licence or to be legally sober

Los Angeles' highways aren't efficient and Los Angeles wasn't built for the car. It was built with trams and public transportation in mind (Pacific electric railways) but it was demolished for the car and highways. Entire neighborhoods were demolished for highways and they wanted to do the same in London. They just didn't manage to finish the plan until public opposition got in the way, like in the Netherlands *cough* plan jokinen

As a former resident of Beckton and Canning town i am profusely offended and totally agree with your analysis

I grew up in Las Vegas and was in London yesterday, weird hearing a British person describe streets I grew up near. Even weirder to imagine anyone would willingly live in Las Vegas of all places

i can’t believe you chose the one freeway in LA that does indeed have a bus corridor

Tourist: "I think I might check out Canning Town." Londoner: "You HAVE to see the KFC there. It's amazing."

I guess roads are public transport with a much much higher subscription fee

That large highway he talks about is real small compared to some stuff I've seen in California

In LA, you say "there is not a bus corridor that goes along I-110 or I-105, I can safely assume without looking into it" Wrong, there is a busway on the 110 that shares a lane with the express toll lanes, carrying a bus rapid transit line and several commuter buses. Also, the 105 has a light rail line in its median, as well as several bus lines. Sure, transit in LA is not great, but you chose the two worst examples for this point. If all freeways in LA county had this level of transit, it would actually be a quite popular option for getting around.

The thing is pretty much any mode of transport that's widely used induces demand. Homes businesses and public services pop up around the major roads and subway lines and highway exits. So given long enough, that mode of transport will be an efficient way to get where you want to go

I've lived in both. It's definitely an easier life for the individual if you're capable rich enough to afford a car in a car centric city. However, a city with good public transport is wayyyyy better if you're a child, physically disabled, old, poor, enjoy drinking. It saves the environment, it makes people healthier, it creates fun, pedestrianised cities, there is a smaller lifestyle divide between the rich and poor. I grew up relying on my mum to drive me everywhere. If I wanted to visit a friend, I needed to ask her. She was usually busy or tired so I never socialised upside if school until I was old enough to buy a car. I could quickly visit, go home at any hour etc. I couldn't drink though. In a city with public transport, kids are wayyy more independent because they can go to friends house and come home anytime. They're not reliant on another person.

I love that this channel increasingly becomes more and more of an elaborate shitpost. Never stop, Toycat

I recently immigrated from South Africa to the UK and man... The UK's road network is a complete and utter joke, I'd honestly be suprised if there's anywhere else on earth with a less effficient road network. I was so taken aback that I calculated my average distance traveled vs time spent traveling from South Africa to the UK and I shit you not, I am able to travel twice as far in South Africa in almost half the time as I am in the UK... Job opportunities, public services and living standards here in the UK are significantly better than that of SA so I can't complain that much but good fucking lord it's so painful trying to get around anywhere in this little island.

From southwest of Chicago, finding streets is very easy here because Chicago is a grid city and all the east-west streets are numbered in ascending order the further south you go. In the proper city every street has a general name but also a number below it for how far it is from the center, for example the intersection of Armitage & Halsted is 2000 N & 800 W, which makes navigating a lot easier

as someone from vegas, boulder city is definitely the place we go if we want to see some sheep in a mountain

The phrase that is used in America is "Take the # exit and then turn..." The most important detail is what exit and then which direction to turn.

I live in Seattle without a car luckily we have good buses

Question : Why have you been living in Vegas? Long term trips or business related?

ibx2cat, the Google Public Transit layer appears to only show rail lines. If it were configured to show bus lines as well, the whole city of Los Angeles would be covered in public transit. As far as I-110, there is actually both a light rail line and a bus line that goes down that area. 🙂 (bus 81, light rail J line.)

We build bus only highways in the US where I live. The roads ARE public transport. They also have been extending subway tunnels and adding bike paths.

“Kockfosters”- I can’t believe that is an actual train name. 😂

I'd like to see your reaction to how the US numbers their highways and also the small off shoots they have for them.

Honestly such a good and well-thought out take /genuine The Beckton comment “go on the DLR until you want to die, you leave the station and then you actually die” I fucking LOST IT,,, one of the best jokes on yt ever

"In the UK". You mean in London. The rest of the UK's cities were originally built around pedestrians and public transport, but they scrapped all that and now rely on cars instead. So you get the worst of both culminating to make the most inefficient way of travelling possible.

7:40, we drive 18 miles per hour above the speed limit because we all are Doc Brown and Marty McFly.

1:41 Actually LA has a BRT route that operates on the 110. LA and its suburbs use highways as public transport to some extent

12:01 These lines are almost highways them self. that's mind blowing.

Actually there is a bus corridor along i-110, in l.a at least - I used it for a month - the metro silver line bus (Now called J line I think)

1:36 Oh no... the 110 has the amazing J Line BRT, and the 105 was famously built to accommodate the C Line light rail.

Vegas locals mostly aren't used to talking about the I-11 yet, since it's only been designated that way for a few years. Eventually I-11 is going to be complete from Vegas to Phoenix and Tuscon, but Arizona doesn't seem to be in any hurry to do it. But most of the part of I-11 you'd have driven going to Hemenway Park to see bighorn sheep, existed as I-515/US-95/US-93 beforehand, and continues to be called "the 95" by locals. The junction between I-15 and US-95 is called "the Spaghetti Bowl" by locals, but it's not even close to the most ridiculous interchange in the country.

However for the cost of a full-flow interchange you can build an a cross platform interchange with trains being timed to be at the same time.

Drunk driving isn't the issue, it's the drunk crashing that gets you.

Hearing toycat talk about places in my city is so surreal

Well, it is mostly a myth that American cities were built for cars. The suburbs were, and the traditionally walkable downtowns were changed and/or bulldozed for cars. Most American cities before the 30's were pretty well served by public transport, with tons of tram lines (LA was once the city in the world with the most extensive tram network). But then all of those tram lines and a lot of train lines were closed. Entire neighborhoods of pretty dense city centers were bulldozed. You actually mentioned it when in the video. I mean, many new areas of cities which were built after cars were the norm were planned with the highways and interchanges designed in. But those stretches of highways that cut through older parts of the cities (many cross right through or right next to downtown) are there because a lot of bulldozing and displacement happened. There's a pretty great Instagram page (called "segregation by design") that posts aerial views of American cities comparing the 50's (before massive freeway construction started) and later from the 80's and now. It is just insane how some cities were destroyed to give way to highways.

I realize it’s more tongue in the cheek but highways in the US absolutely can be forms of public transit. In the Seattle area for instance I can take the 512 express bus from its own dedicated freeway offramp/station in south Everett (Seattle suburb) and travel to Northgate station (about 20 miles away) in 30 minutes. That’s not super impressive but it also isn’t terrible considering that driving depending on the traffic may only vary in time by 10 minutes or so

i remember watching your mc vids in 2017 from a warehouse in vegas and now im watching your geography vids while u live in vegas xD. Also yeah I agree with giving street names

Calling a road public transport is misleadingly dishonest given it requires a great deal of personal investment to utilise

Diabolical supervillain takes the tube and coughs on you , far superior method of causing mass misery than the inefficient method of loud noise explosives or the superslow method of watching people get fat in their person autos being too lazy to take a 5 minute walk after the super delicious fast fatty food they got thru the drive thru .

You need to remember that the U.S. interstate system was initially built as a civil defense measure, so that troops and supplies could be moved around the country if ever needed in order to defend the mainland from invasion. Moving civilians around efficiently was a secondary objective at best.

Highways aren't public transport, dude.

I never noticed the colour thing in the tube tunnels! I'll keep my eyes peeled the next time.

Fun fact, NYC has a higher transportation budget than London 16 billion to 10 billion

LA wasn't built for the car, it was bulldozed for the car

is it me or is the webcam getting worse and worse every video?

the part about identifying with the subway station closest to you is also true here in Moscow

I mean, yeah roads are public transit but the use of roads in many American cities simply are the less safe, less environmentally friendly, less efficient, and more personally costly option that was chosen over building an efficient or extensive transit network.

People take these videos too seriously lol

Wait did you go up to Oatman? That's pretty cool

Kockfosters would become a lewd remark in the USA.

0:55 I recommend the youtuber Nandert for videos overviewing+critiquing plans for LA's public transit

I live in vegas and the only investment in public transportation they invested in besides roads is the crappy monorail that's always broken, spans 3 or 4 blocks, and is a 1 way line, embarrassing

I hereby christen you a honorary American, due to your vast knowledge of the place and your time spent there. Keep up the good work.

A better comparison would be London vs NYC or at least LA. Las Vegas has less than 1/6 London's population.

US: public transit is either neglected or requires paying for a car to use. Big fat L

Last 3 minutes of this video are absoloutely hilarious 😂

Even if you can argue roads are public transport, they still aren't very good at it, generally.

Happy albanian independent day 🇦🇱🥳🇦🇱

13:07 when you don’t know about existence of traffic light

Every morning I get to work by stepping outside, and telling the nearest person that I work in a shop right by [x] street!

"Angel is a really rough sounding place"

“They can’t turn off the tube lines” tube strikes: I’m about to end this man’s WHOLE CAREER

Well, puplic transportation shouldnt require a privat vehicle.

mans moses pilled

Lol in Perth Australia there a cannington. But agree Australia is bad with public transport compared to London. For me to get to work it's a 12 min drive or I can take 2 buses which is 45 mins according to the transport website but now i can catch a train to the airport from the cbd

You are missing a key part of the American system. Addresses begin at one central point, and the addresses grow outward. They then start over at the next street. So your Las Vegas example of the corner of Sahara and Cimarron, Cimarron is the 82nd block. So after crossing Cimarron going west, the addresses are 82xx (like 8206, or 8251, etc). Any east-west street that crosses Cimarron separates the 81xx block from the 82xx block. Addresses make it easy to find anyplace.

I can't speak for bigger cities like LA, LV, SF, etc, but here in Kansas City the highway is a very efficient way to travel. It's nice being able to hop in the car and get to work on my own schedule. Not a trains, or bus schedule.

I am a Floridian and to describe someone where we are or where something is we typically say it is off and Exit of a highway. For example its off exit 60 of I-4.

10:28 if people got off that train if it pulled into the station so full, then that's not inefficient, as long as the train wasn't stopped long and good train frequency was maintained

Londners or Londoners

There are parts of the UK where there is public transit but it's slower than driving or even cycling. The middle between villages and cities. Somewhere like Warrington where there are trains passing through but they're expensive inter-city trains that are only accessible to a minority of the borough, so financially or physically it may only make sense to use the bus, which is also expensive and takes an indirect route trying to service as many bus stops as possible.

In Denmark we have good public transportation in cities from where you can reach most towns by train or highway :-). Sure, still missing some but still, you can do both.

While they are publicly funded, they cannot be used by all of the public. To be able to use a highway (in most states) you must first have a car to be in. Even just a taxi or rideshare can be far more expensive than a bus or train.

new videos have next level quality

Toycat, as an Urban Planning student, this video is a miss. Please do better than this.

there is a public transport line down the 110. It's called the silver line

The villagers in stone could pop into stoke for their daily commutes

Getting thrown up on is only worse than murder if im the one killed, because if im thrown up on i have to live with that stench for a decent amount of time until i can get a new pare of clothes whereas if i die i experience pain for maybe a minute or 2

Not sure if taking the car in the US is even much faster than taking the car in the UK. Just because the roads in the US are so crowded because everyone takes the car for the lack of an alternative. Edit: judging from the comments of people's experience it seems like driving is indeed faster in the US. Whether all of those lanes and focusing on only car is worth it is another question, but at least it does actually create a fast option.

Why do I enjoy these videos 🤦‍♂️

1:40 depends on the area, some states or even just cities have dedicated lanes for buses and public transit as well as some having car pooling lanes. Fun fact some American cities had trolleys and the like, but Americans chose the car because they enjoyed the freedom and privacy, not some corporate conspiracy. To answer your question, no, adding more lanes technically doesn't help. Usually in America you don't say "the" in regards to highways, you say "state" or "interstate (or i)" then the number. It isn't a big deal, but saying i-90 for example just adds clarification. The roads are actually quite cheap to build in comparison to subways and the like (5 to 10 million per lane mile compared to 50 million per line per mile both ways of subway).

I always love that you use my hometown of Las Vegas

this was a topic designed by AI to drive comment engagement

Bro, I’m going to battle blast laser tag on Friday

it is not public transit since you need to own a car to use it and you can't just get into someone else car. also, it is bad for the environment and highways have destroyed our cities

Do Americans just never drink alcohol, or are they constantly drunk driving? (Genuine question - having seen American versions of drinking I imagine it’s the former).

Yesterday I no joke watched a 2cat video while driving home from work 🤔

I don’t think I would cope in America

I think the one of the issues is that you still need efficient road system in a city to transport goods.

I can say I live on the 66, and there is no 66 for the last forty years, but everyone knows where the 66 is.

Yes 10 above the speed limit is the way to go😂

Actually in LA... there are bus routes on the freeway and the stops are... on the freeway!! LOL You have to see it to believe it.

Funny enough, distracted driving (cell phone use) is actually illegal in my state.

This video have to be sarcastic.

17:31 It wasn't bulldozed at all. Remember, before 1930 this was all just desert.

LA wasn't built around þe car, it was demolished for þe car. Þat is þe story for most cities in Norþ America.

Andrew is over here promoting weight loss through cutting off limbs which seems pretty legit, while all these other RU-vidrs are in hot water for promoting Established Titles.

15:25 WinCo Foods is the bomb.