The Unstoppable Rise of Urban Planning Content 

NotJustBikes convinced me to try and bike more in the US and even in this anti-biking hellhole I've found a TON of benefits from biking and transit. My mental and physical health is better, I spend less on transportation, and there's been a surprising number of experiences I have biking that I wouldn't have had driving. I still have my car that I use maybe 2-3 times a month because access to a car share service is tough (and its an old efficient car that's all paid off) but there's nothing like actually trying these things to break out of the car-propaganda.

I discovered Orange pill RU-vid when I looked for a video that would explain to me how traffic light algorithms worked (or didn't work, as was the case in my city). Turns out that I was driving on a stroad and my eyes were opened

The irony is urban planning has a severe labour shortage and has done for as long as I can remember, so much so at my university for people that studied transport planning before the end of the first semester in their masters degree they'd all got jobs for after the degree had finished. And at the council I worked at they gave bonuses to people to retrain as a planner from different council departments, like accountants and lawyers. It's probably why a lot of the people who talked about Urban Planning on RU-vid are not quilifed Urban Planners.

One of the most interesting things I have felt living in the Netherlands for the last 6ish years is that there are huge health benefits to the health. Easier mobility makes independent travel more accessible to older people. E-bikes and mobility scooters can also use bike lanes. This gives a sort of auto exercise for all.

the point about trains is spot on. i’ve traveled between countries in Europe - e.g. fairly close range route from Brussels to Amsterdam. in those cases i can’t imagine voluntarily choosing to take a flight over a train. you just literally walk into a train with no passport control, baggage offload and stuff, then pleasantly sit for a couple of hours and get out straight to the city centre with no cabs from countryside, etc. it’s just so much less disturbing in every possible way. i can understand the necessity of business trips by plane for longer distances however, of course.

Not just bikes is an awsome channel. So many people I know watch it. Me and my siblings watch him, my parents watch him and I have even had a friend randomly talk about stroads to me.

A big reason as to why I'm orange pilled is because of a selfish reason, tbh. I don't have a driving license yet, I just never got around to getting one, not even a drivers permit, and I don't want to go through all the hassle of getting one and then the hassle of getting a car. I can't live anywhere where you can't get to work by commuter rail on time

Public transit should be free within municipalities. Or at be extremely inexpensive. Far more people would utilize it, thus less cars filling roads.

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Living in small Aotearoa, all this talk of good infrastructure and easy train travel is making me envious lol

I think a lot of the interest in urban planning has come from the rise in knowledge about climate change. One of the best ways to improve our environment is moving away from cars and towards walkable cities and better public transport. I suspect Greta Thunberg and the climate marches has a lot to do with the rise of the Not Just Bikes.

very good podcast. the audio volume is much too low however. when an advertisment comes it blows you away, because i need to put it so loud.

Great discussion! I totally agree with the stigma of public transportation used by lower class people. Here in LA its definitely the stigma

I direct anyone who will listen to Not Just Bikes, loved this episode.

One thing I wish more people understood is that urban planning is not just cool it's also a consent issue. When our fundamental right to autonomy ( the right to decide what is best for our mind, body, spirit, information, data, story, personal property etc) is the foundation of consent and why consent is a part of every situation it becomes clear that car-centric planning negatively impacts autonomy. We paywall so much of life via the need for a car, but we also reduce our ability to make truly consensual decisions about things across the lifespan.

We stan trains. We stan trains. We stan trains. We stan trains.

39:25 the bloody Dawlish track. Btw Tom the other route (north of Dartmoor) is currently a cycle path and there’s multiple major viaducts that would need rebuilding if they were to redo it all and make the line useable. It’s between Tavistock and Okehampton, it’s the only bit of track that’s isn’t usable yet.

Urban Planning is especially interesting because the current structure of our geographic spaces is almost purely a physical manifestation of the nature of Capital and it’s interests. Zoning laws, for example, are a perfect example of the role Capital has in dictating the structure of our State, our social relations and lives, and so on, with geographic development under capitalism being in service of uneven and combined development and the the metabolic rift. I find that there are few better physical examples I can point to of things like the Base and Superstructure and their dialectical relationship than urbanism. In addition, while we are talking about Urbanism and the example of how Mode of Production dictates the materio-social construction of society, it also is a very easy way to describe life under a new Mode of Production wherein our spaces are not created by the interests of Capital and in its image, by by the interests of human needs and in humanity’s image. We can all imagine walkable cities, an end to traffic and the need for cars to get access to basic necessity, greenery and an end to lawn, and we can grasp the content of collective housing, socialized domestic labor and spaces built around community building and ending the loneliness many of us feel as a result of the hyper-individualist consumer identity forced upon us by capital’s interests like single-family zoning and the like. Urbanism lets us see a physical demonstration of Capitalism and it’s degradations, and Left Urbanism lets us imagine living in a world without Capitalism (though many who talk about left urbanism don’t actually understand that). This is why there is such backlash to it.

😭 I wish I could afford travel by train, but mobility is just not in the budget when you're living at the poverty line. Not even by train.

This NEEDS a part 2

At least in Canada, Jason rode the wave of interest in Urban Planning caused by the affordability crisis. Housing and transportation are the two largest costs for Canadian households and after decades of stagnant wages and economic crises, most young people can't comfortably afford the sprawling suburban lifestyles their parents did. They are priced out of the real estate market or forced to drive 'til you qualify and spend huge sums of money to be stuck in traffic in a car they can't afford. Zoning was already a hot topic before Jason came on the scene, but his big contribution to the space was highlighting the political choices involved in planning and giving people the vocabulary they needed to explain why they hate the suburbs. Before NJB, I knew housing was expensive and cars were expensive, but transit and cycling were subpar options. After NJB, I was aware that it doesn't have to be this way, these are choices made by politicians, engineers, and urban planners. Bonus points for pointing out how hostile our cities have become to children and being sarcastic.

The train travel in Canada mentioned here is the Rocky Mountaineer in the west. It's a tourist experience, not a regular everyday transit service. It's indeed horrendously expensive and doesn't make many stops. Even compared to Eastern Canada, passenger train service in the west is almost non-existent. This is a pity, since Canada was formed in It's modern shape largely by the railroads

52:55 Bus route being like "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way"

I like trains.

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I really enjoy the content both of you produce. A lot of the discussion seemed to revolve around social devolution/evolution and atomization of human societies, despite, and often because of, technological advances. It is reflected in how we label ourselves (Boomer, Gen-X, Millennial, etc.). In the not too distant past, more of us lived in multigenerational housing. This provided continuity and connectedness. Because of how rapidly societies are now changing, it is more difficult for each generation to understand the other generations. Perhaps the increasing interest in urban and regional planning will lead to a better future that draws from the best that each generation has to offer, with wise use of technology. You two are a positive forces in this direction!

"I know what you want. I know what you came here for. That thing you crave more than anything else. It's a primal urge, it drives men to absurd distances and to engage in ruthless and inhuman acts. It's a high unlike any other, known only to those who have indulged in it's infinite pleasures. An addiction stronger than any known narcotic, yet whose health effects are limited to mild bouts of smoke inhalation. Do you know of that of which I speak? It's *_TRAINS."_* - Justin Roczniak, a.k.a donoteat01

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I think the equivalent of the Stroad in the UK are the main highstreets which are also a thoroughfare with cars going down it at 32mph. Especially because they have parked cars along the sides the people are all crammed in.

Norway's switch from electric vehicles to public transportation is important lesson for Americans. It amazes me how little Americans understand the scale of damage cars do. This includes land use

I blame Adam Something! Perhaps you mention him - I've only just started watching. ;-)

Western Canada is severely lacking in train service, and the Greyhound bus service shutting down has had a huge impact on small towns. There have been smaller services that have opened up to fill the niche that Greyhound left, but it's not the same.

I keep seeing Jason out of the corner of my eye and thinking it's Nick Kroll

The Citibus hopper network in Plymouth used to be fantastic when I lived there or visited regularly. Lots of small buses running to every corner of the city - if you missed one or it was full, there would be another within 5 minutes. I haven't been to Plymouth for years, but I can imagine the homogenised Stagecoach service doesn't suit the place very well at all.

Being Dutch, the cool thing about our infrastructure is having DIFFERENT OPTIONS. I can walk to the nearest supermarket, cycle or drive to my job, other shops. City center is best reached by bike of on foot (paid parking if I pick up bigger items). Now that my bicycle broke down, I really miss that option. It's so easy to get anywhere when you can choose. I have a car now, but before that, I rarely needed it (could borrow parents's car when necessary). When I have the time, I like to just walk it. No problem here. I wish the same for all societies.

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Tom! I would like to politely request that you look at the master levels on the podcast. The last episode could scarcely be cranked up enough to hear it - we gotta slap a compressor/limiter or something on that bad boy.

In Brisbane, Australia there is the J.C. Slaughter Falls picnic area. This may be of interest to Jason's messiah complex. Enjoyed the talk.

What's going on with this edit? The intro audio is out of sync, the podcast clips over the intro at the beginning, the mix is quiet. Do you need another editor to help out? I can help you, duder.

I do believe that there's an over use of traffic lights, and not enough use of road markings and signage, not just lines and info on the roads, but filled in, COLOURFUL markings that draw the eye, road/lane widths that help control speed through psychology and sociology... Traffic lights have a purpose, sure, but people often end up just trusting the signal lights, and not paying attention to the road and other road users. Pedestrians will often still cross after the lights have changed, they do have the right of way here, and if overly reliant on the lights... Another is the lack of mirrors on many junctions that plainly need them, they often have to be petitioned for, and are not a natural tool of planners, automatically being used when the situation requires, but waiting till after multiple incidents have proven their neccessity.

As a resident of south wales I would never take the train now. That “niceness” of the trains doesnt exist in most of uk routes where trains are overpriced, crowded and dirty. The stress of not knowing if your train journey will have some sort of issue ruins any benefit it would have over a car.

If you took right on red away from Americans, there would be riots. Personally it's been one of the biggest changes moving back to my hometown of Las Vegas, nv after spending almost 20yrs in rural nc where there is literally no infrastructure whatsoever for walking outside of one's neighborhood. If you want to walk just a few miles down the street to the grocery store, the only options are to walk down the side of a winding 2 to 4 lane road with maybe 3 inches away from passing cars or hike thru the dense forested bush, infested with ticks, feral dogs, tons of stinging/biting insects and my biggest fear cottonmouth and copperhead both extremely venomous and copperheads especially are known for their bad tempers. Considering a single treatment of copperhead antivenom will run you over 150k alone, just one encounter would probably ruin you economically for the rest if your life. So obviously no one walks anywhere and I got out of the habit of looking for pedestrians when turning right on red, at least outside neighborhoods. Coming back to Vegas, with it's long straight, well lit roads, almost all with sidewalks, it's been a big adjustment

Imagine if every small town in the U.S. spent its bloated police budget on running a bus service.

Its funny how there's so few photos of Jason that you had to use the one from the tom scott podcast, and if I hadn't seen that one clip I would have no idea who that's supposed to be, it interesting how notjustbikes is a channel that's really big right now, and he doesn't hide his face but no one know what he looks like, it's kind of a best of both worlds

No subtitles?

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Casually sipping from a Nachos Bikes mug.

Great podcast

I loved this format and episode, thank you Tom.

Try crossing a multi-lane road in China! They have done huge development work, with little thought to people who actually live in the towns and cities. Beijing isn't too bad, but there are cities (Changsha sticks out in my mind) where zero thought has been put into how anyone should cross the road. There are few pedestrian crossings - you have to wait at traffic lights. But that doesn't work if some lanes get the green light, but others (turning right or left) are on red, and vice-versa. I have a system though - when I'm faced with crossing roads like that, I make sure there is a little old lady crossing at the same time, and I keep her on the oncoming traffic side. I'm banking on the fact that a Chinese driver will be reluctant to run over a little old Chinese lady, when they wouldn't give a damn about running over a middle-aged Western guy! ;-)

Was that the TTC = Take The Car? Ontario Canada.

I mean, have you played SimCity?

Nice thing about orange: it's the Dutch national color (because of the royal family "Van Oranje", "Of Orange"). While living in Israel, great country, I remember thinking: it needs more Dutch infrastructure. And now I think that everywhere 😊

I got obsessed with urban development and how polities change through time thanks to sim city 2k to 4 and later city builders when I realized slow deliberate planning worked a lot better than slapping out a bunch of development. My philosophy was a city should be grown like a bonsai tree. Then I started to learn some more history and had to reconcile some ideology with how the real world works. The real competing factors that go into urban planning. This is why 'city planner plays cities skylines' is one of the best. He drops some details that crop up in planning an existing city. Always felt weird I was so into this stuff. The rise of these channels makes me feel vindicated in my weirdness.

Sidenote: what I saw now multiple times: No curiosity stream sponsorships anymore but nebula directly. What I ask myself, is the collaboration ending? Will I loose access in the future via my curiosity stream subscription? Would be nice if you (nebula creators) communicate this more openly.

I want this to succeed! Please turn the audio up on the next one! Too quiet at max volume.

There's also been a small rise of cockney accented channels with critical thought and reason that advocates for the material conditions of regular people.

Strange how Cities Skylines was not mentioned once. I can't be the only one who was introduced to urban planning that way

Now i hate living in Tennessee

I started watching not just bikes 2 years ago, fell in love with urban planning, and now I’m in Europe 🥲

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Fookin TRAINS!!

Jason looks like a less sociopathic version of the Thought Emporium channel guy

Trains

Honk.

Wow, that's an anti-nebula add if I ever hear one:P

Trains 🚂🚄🚅🚉

7:00 Wait what? Diary and calendar are two completely different things. Brits say that?

Greetings from The Tarka Trail 🦦👋 😁 imagine if everyone who appreciates this content moved to the same town, the momentum of change would be awesome...

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