@@goldenretriever6261 yup, because an American (US person) would only say America instead of North America, because Americans are so self centric that they didn’t even know Canada exist and that there is a continent called North America which they belong in
I don’t think the urban designers are usually the problem, it’s the politicians and departments of transportation that should really try to use what they allowed to be created.
Concise, lots of info and opinion, I wish all creators would adhere to this standard (most just make it uselessly longer, wasting viewers time). Thank you. Big cities in Canada actually are somehow bike friendly by design, with vast neighborhoods of single family homes and sidewalks nobody walks on (in general). My 20km one way bike commute in Toronto was a zig zag of parks, neighborhoods, industrial areas, sidewalks on major streets. It had a few complicated crossings, but overall quite enjoyable, 25 years ago when there was almost no bike infrastructure. It was maybe longer than it could have been, but I did it once or twice every week, even in (not deep) snow. Today it would be much faster, and on an electric bike I would do it 3 or 4 times a week.
Something I don’t hear people mention often is how more people walking and cycling makes our public spaces safer. Especially in cities, streets where the only other people are in giant boxes racing to their destination means there is no safety in numbers. Normal people being out and about often allows people to feel safer going around their city (especially at night).
I was not expecting my first video to get this much attention, thanks for the support everyone! 💜 I will fix the audio levels going forward as the background music was too loud. 😅 Thanks!
As an Ottawa citizen, i was excited to finally have some great mayoral candidates... And we got Sutcliffe.🤦 Thankfully we voted in more future forward environmentally aware city counselors than the last council.
I have voted countless times but this was probably the most disappointing election I have participated in. Ottawa missed out on a generational mayor in Mckenney.
Time will come. In Toronto, we had Rob Ford just a decade ago, but now it is Olivia Chow. And it is with all the suburbs outside the old city. Don't stop fighting.
3:21 Guides like these are a must!!! Rather than just telling everyone they ought to build bike lanes, cities should work to create coherent networks with design standards! Great video!
I agree! As someone who is currently working on a new bike lane in Montreal, I have noticed how incoherent guidelines and design standards are between provinces and cities.
Once you get used to biking in a city it’s hard to go back to driving. Driving always came with this level of stress because of traffic and parking. I really would love more people to at least try biking but I find that it’s incredibly hard to get people to change their habits. Safer bike infrastructure is a huge step in the right direction. I’m happily car free for a year now 😊 my only regret is not doing this sooner
There are so many places that I'd love to go to by biking, but it's always miserable because I have to babysit all of the petulant toddlers that somehow got drivers licenses.
The issue is not just induced demand. Even worse are choke points like intersection or merge lanes often they can allow as many cars as some might which. Combined with a huge number of cars going to and from shops and Businesses traffic is always getting stopped anyway. This is often less of an issue for bike traffic. Because they don't take as much space and cut trough.
When I visited the Netherlands and saw some intersections with hundreds of bikes flowing through all at once, you see how easily they flow with and around each other, the size and maneuverability is just so efficient. Their road system for properly differentiating thoroughfare roads and destination streets also does great work for traffic flow - versus here where we have roads full of destinations act as thoroughfares 😅 Making it worse at both
Great video! As an Ottawa resident it’s great to see a focus specifically on my city while also looking at the issue as a whole. Let’s continue “The War on Cars”!
Good video. Personally I prefer calling bike infrastructure that's off road bike 'paths' rather than the non-infrastructure of painted bike 'lanes'. Just a clean way to distinguish the two.
I am glad that the algorithm decided to provide me with the video because it was very informative and also well-made video. Love the music. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for people with bikes like myself. Thanks.
Having the option to walk or bike safely also makes me feel less like I have a virtual gun to my head. We've went from a two car household to a one car household with very minimum effort. And this has helped a ton with money since we don't have to have a car to go pretty much anywhere. I do also argue that having alternate means of transportation gives both the youth and the elderly more freedom. Youth can learn to navigate the world around them better and not be so isolated. The elderly can feel free to hang up the car keys when they are ready without a fear of losing all independence- so long as they have alternate means of transportation.
Good video! I’d also add that small businesses and other commercial areas like increased cyclists because you can have more customers use the same space that a single car could take up in a parking space
Exactly! Toronto did some extensive research on the Bloor St bikeway extension and found that more people visited and spent more money at the local businesses. Hornby St in Vancouver is also a great example where there was a lot of opposition to the bike lanes - but after they were installed, the business association were huge supporters!
bullshit! alot of businesses hate bike lanes bc it erases parking spaces for potential customers and it makes is alot more difficult for trucks to deliver supplies to the business.
Thank you! Yeah, it’s a shame as we really had a chance to make a lot of progress. At least some progress will be made through renewal projects through this next term, and hopefully we get another chance for change next election.
This is such a high quality video. I clicked on your channel to watch 10 more but saw that this was your first one?? Keep up the great work, I bet you are going to grow really fast.
Glad to hear it 🙏I will try and make content for anyone in North America, but being in Ottawa will definitely have specific content for us living here!
Great video, really happy to see more Ottawa urbanists, maybe I'm just following the right type of people on Twitter and RU-vid, but it feels like the tide is really changing in the city, despite the current mayor lol One building criticism of the video: the music is too loud when you're talking over it. But otherwise, great video, really looking forward to more, I've subbed and turned on notifications!
You do not have to be an urbanist to ride a bike. In my country The Netherlands, almost everybody rides a bike. To school, in the weekend, to their job like our Prime Minister, or just for a small shopping in the city centre or where ever. We are with 17 million. So when we go to work with our car, we might do a bicycle tour in the weekend just to stay fit and relax. Some kids drive 20km from their farm or so to school in weather or no weather.
@@gerhard6105 Where I am (in the US) car culture dominates and bike lanes are seen as suspect by half the population, sadly. Also there are many towns and cities here with hills, including my own. Ebikes are going to be a game changer in that regard, as are *protected* bike lanes.
Thanks! And sorry to hear 😅, maybe try seeing if your city has a cycling/progressive advocacy group that you can help get the word out! Or reaching out to your city councillor to let them know! All change has to start somewhere, even a small action can lead to change 🙌
Thank you so much for being one of the few cycling youtubers to actually have sources in their description! You're really helping me out with my own research.
Thanks for the reference to the City of Ottawa design Guide. I did not know we had domestic design guides of this sort. I'm reviewing it with a view to promoting its use to our local municipal engineering departments through 'Capital Bike' here on the South Island (Vancouver Island).
Exactly! It’s also a thing for transit and cycling, but these are good cases of demand - if a transit route is busy, you have justification to run more frequent service (making the service better for everyone!)
(I'm from Ottawa and I'm new to your channel) I saw the O-Train snuck into your footage then you started talking more and more about Ottawa and I'm really excited to check out your channel! edit: aw this is your first video. looking forward to the future! hi :)
🎉 This really is well done, and especially for your first video as someone said. Nice editing, and I love the content and your points. Please keep 'em coming! My little town (on the Canadian border) is getting more *protected* bike lanes, and they'll be a game-changer for people like me who want to substitute a bicycle or ebike for errands (esp. in sub-optimal biking weather). A couple of bits of feedback: Consider slightly *lowering the volume of the music* , as well as adjusting your mic input so that you have *more bass in your voice* . Check with others, but as it is now your voice is a bit unnecessarily difficult to decipher, especially on devices with poor speakers. You of course want to make it as easy as possible for people to get what you're saying. Also, consider practicing *speaking* your script, as opposed to reading it. Aim to speak it in a natural, conversational voice. You have salient things to point out--say them directly and people will hear them better. For an example, listen to the tone and cadence of the "Not Just Bikes" channel. Let me know if I'm not being clear.
Thank you for your comment! I heard from a few people about the audio levels, will definitely fix that for the next one. The voice over was also I struggled with - I went through a few versions, but they each had their issues (too soft, to many inflections, etc), it's like forgetting how to talk normally once the mic starts recording 😅. Will try out some new strategies to improve this
I saw the video about a month ago and thought should be another suberbian with their SUV annoyed from the less space and speeds. Now that I actually show your channel I feel so lucky! Usually I am the one finding the intelligent people to speak with them and share ideas but I really never thought someone would come to comment to my videos. Thanks 🙏
great job, lots of great points in a clear and concise video! i am gushing with Edmonton pride seeing us featured in the video, i hope we do see a bright future, the pockets we have are getting more and more use, a reliable network just makes it more inviting. I love the shots of Ottawa's network and that has got design standards for intersections. I see that is the next great leap for cycling networks now that we are starting to see acceptance and willingness to invest. it's gone from decades of put some paint or signs up as a passion project for someone at the city to actual real infrastructure and we need some standards and options for cities to make it as brain dead simple to add in as those infrastructure refurb projects come due. Lots of old thinking and design needs to be updated to reflect how streets are being used now.
It's genuinely exciting to be see all this change happening! And so many people getting excited and on board with improving our cities- if you compare how things are today to even 5 years ago, the change in thinking and infrastructure is immense!
Great video! Small suggestion for future work would be to lower the volume of the music like what started at 2:41. It's hard for me to hear properly during that part because of it. I think it was a good song to use, just needs to be more in the background.
Thanks! And great call out-totally missed this when exporting. Will definitely lower the audio for next time-and in the future maybe get better monitoring headphones 😅
@@CasualCommuter_I came to say the same thing but danthonywalker beat me to it 😂 Great video, even before considering it's your first attempt. I've subscribed, and I'm looking forward to your future content.
Heard a lot of great changes coming from New York so I believe it! I picked up a copy of “Street Fight” by the former commissioner of transport for NYC, Janette Sadik-Khan which talks about a lot of the progress. Will try and learn more about some of the changes and make the trip to check it out!
It's a "War on cars" if you allow other modes to exist apparently. No need to get upset about these people any longer. The economics are clearly on the side of adding alternative modes for transit. Cities just happen to be competitive with one another, the ones that do the smart things will reap the benefits. The ones that don't will just have to live with the consequences.
@scartoons8639And in the case of creating more bike lanes you are literally making your cities driving conditions better by reducing car traffic, since people can take bikes for shorter trips. Not sure what kind of war on cars entails actively making it more pleasant to use a car
Great video. Every infrastructure redo that doesn't finally incorporate safety for pedestrians and cyclists adds decades more of danger to active living. PS: In your video edit, the music background level could be a lot lower. Just a thought. Great work, though.
I appreciate the idea of biking to work. I am interested to know how often you bike to work or anywhere else, and if you actually live in Ottawa or in a suburb of the city. I don't need to know your address cause that would be weird. For me I am a 30min car ride from a suburb of Vancouver BC to the office I work at. It rains in Vancouver 9-10 months of the year, and actually riding my bike to say a skytrain and then from the station in Vancouver to my work would take over an hour. I don't see myself riding my bike to work anytime soon, and I definately can not afford to live in Vancouver where a bachelor suite is $2000.00 a month. How would you suggest Vancouver improve the transit options that would make riding a bike from a suburb to the downtown core viable.(Which would mean making the time it takes to commute less than the time it takes to drive)?
Obviously biking isn't a solution for everyone and every trip and can't by itself solve all our problems. Fundamentally suburban commuting is extremely inefficient for society - pollution, wasted time, stress, lateness b/c of traffic, accidents from tired or distracted drivers, costs to workers of owning a car, parking for workers downtown etc.. - public transit and "park-and-rides" can help when suburbs are sufficiently large, though we really need to reform our building standards so that more people can afford to live nearer to where they work. But consider all the other trips you make that aren't commuting - shopping, church, dentist, taking the kids to school, hockey practice, or swimming lessons - if all of those trips for everyone in your neighbourhood could be done without a car that would greatly decrease the number of cars on the road and make your commute a better experience.
Thanks for your comment! For suburban commuting, IMO improving mass transit is the biggest piece - with mid-high density transit-oriented development around the stations to offset that cost and let more people live close to the station (removing the last-mile part of the trip). This gives lower-rent options in the suburbs with efficient connections into the city. Montreal's new REM train is doing this really well. As @agilemind6241 also mentioned, you can still drive to work, but use your bike for other local trips too. The Netherlands has a pretty high car ownership rate, but most of those people are cycling for their shorter trips.
@@CasualCommuter_I can agree to that. I live in The Netherlands and commute by car to work in 30minutes. Public transport will take me 90minutes and 2 transfers (regional bus-train-city bus). By regular bike it will take me about 75minutes and by e-bike about 50minutes. But during weekends and evenings I do my shopping on foot (20minutes) or by bike (just under 10minutes) to the town center where all the shops are. I do almost all errands and visits on foot or by bike. If I go out to a cafe or restaurant, I can drink a few beers or glasses of wine, and don’t have to worry, I don’t have to drive. And if I go to the city, I take the nightbus (drives only in weekends) home. Sometimes it is the cheaper option, because parking fees in town and city centers are immensely high. There is another option, parking cheaper, at the city outskirts, in what we call a transferium, a big 24h parking facility with frequent public transport to the city center. You pay about half the parking fees you pay in the city center and get up to 4 free PT tickets per car.
@@agilemind6241 Taking someone else somewhere needs a car, shopping needs a car to carry the shopping home except for checkups if going to the doctor or dentist I would not want to try riding a bike
where i live, biking isn't represented enough, nor walking..we need bicycles protected from distracted speeding drivers, we need wider sidewalks and we need street tram's..i also think an overhead ski lift ride could move people to areas in a fun way..i even begged my city for more bike racks to lock up at, and was ignored
yeah, it's an uphill struggle. My little town has good a great planning staff, and they've gotten Federal money for protected lanes over the last few years. It's very exciting. Good luck with your town :-)
I cant really go anywhere in my town because it has what I need. Trying to get anywhere in my state is a nightmare via public transportation. I literally can get to work no problem in the morning. But GOD FORBID I try to get back the fuck home. The buses take FOREVER
Intersections @2:02 are still the wrong way around for safety. Bikes shouldn't drop down to car-level, cars should have to climb to bike level. So happy we have it that way around in the Netherlands.
Yeah raised crossings/intersections are very rare here. I’ve asked city staff and they usually say that emergency vehicles and buses as reasons to avoid them. Not sure how that makes sense as raised crossings seem to work in Dutch cities 🤷
Yeah, cities need to have good enforcement or physical barriers to keep cars out of them. Even one car in a bike lane forces cyclists to merge into traffic to get around it, putting them at risk of a crash from a distracted motorist.
Absolutely- I always avoid Rochester for going North/South trips- Kent is similarly bad as well. If you're looking for a safer detour, you can try Percy (south) and Bay (North).
@@CasualCommuter_ I was also a bit disappointed to hear the the project to put bike lanes on Billings bridge wouldn't all the way to the Bank street bridge
Great video. Didn't need the music. Don't underestimate how entertaining your voice is, especially when speaking about a topic we all care about. Or just lower the music volume.
My kinda content and style of video. New sub from Nairobi, where we’re making some effort towards the same. I stopped cycling in my city primarily because of air pollution and safety. Driver culture is our biggest challenge. Pedestrian/zebra crossings are the easiest way to die here.
2:56, here in the fore ground you see shark teeth in front of a zebra. But that is not correct: shark teeth are ment to give drivers way. Pedestrians are not drivers and the zebra stripes already mean that the pedestrians go first. Regards from the Netherlands. P.S.: The shark teeth are actually small yield signs.
Interesting! Yeah I remember learning about the shark teeth when I visited NL last year, they used them on cycle tracks too, but only to indicate which had right of way. Agree that the Ottawa standards maybe overuse them by placing them before the zebra stripes, but maybe that’s not a bad thing 😅 One weird oddity here is that we put backwards shark teeth triangles on our speed bumps 😂 never understood that one
As American who bikes, I’m pretty sure many Americans are anti-biking because they’re just straight up impatient and/or always exhausted. I definitely see people bike more in health conscious cities. Even rural and suburban cities could have bike infrastructure integrated. I used to bike from one end of Bloomington, mn to the other - and that’s a fairly big suburb. I can only imagine how much easier it would’ve been with proper bike infrastructure.
Freedom is riding on my bike wherever I want and overtake all the cars that are waiting in line. My country made it possible and I’m grateful. Can’t imagine how it must be for children under the age of 16 to be depended on their parents to drive them around. They are prisoners of your crazy car designed infrastructure. Here children walk or cycle to their schools, friends or sportsclub by themselves. Now that is freedom.
@@amvds1275 agree. it would be so nice to just walk around and bike around. its good tho that america is starting to change slowly for the better. my country too but its still way far behind sadly
Awesome! I was also watching all the urbanist activity and really wanted to contribute as well. I would recommend start writing down ideas for videos (and think about how you can record footage locally) and try and keep the script/topic on something simple (I wanted originally to start with a video on housing affordability, but it's so much research that I scaled it down to something a bit simpler). I also was very scared to record in public, but realized that no one really cares if you just act like you're a professional photographer (I'm not 😅) on a shoot. For the script making, I personally just talk the script out loud then write down the parts I want to keep. You can also just write it out instead. I also cut out any parts that were too complex or unrelated to the main topic. Feel free to reach out to a more experienced RU-vidr as they will probably know a lot more than me, but I'm also happy to help with any questions as well!
Come to Florida, where they are also popping up...on every state arterial road and highway with 40+ mph (65+ kph) speed limits! Sidewalks are the bike "infrastructure" here
will enough people use them our town made bike lanes on the main road only one person uses it but have seem so many almost wreck going from 2 lanes to 1 lane
Bike lanes r a good alternative but the problem is a lot of city streets do not have the width to accommodate moving vehicles plus on-street parking and a bike lane. And if the road has a bus route that just adds to the conflict and capacity issue whenever the bus needs to make a stop. Cities will not get rid of paid parking to accommodate bike lanes because that is a revenue stream. They would also need bike lane signals at major intersections because I see too many bikers just ignoring red lights and riding through whenever they feel like it. Bike lanes must overcome these things to become a truly viable and most importantly safe option. I’m all for it they just need to be integrated properly.
At the same time as better bike infrastructure is being built, there is a thing the market has to do, to provide North Americans more Europe like Bikes. Here in Sweden, and even more in the Netherlands, we have lots of bikes with an upright sit position, often equipped with fenders, footbrakes and framelocks and it has become more and more okay to see men use bikes with step through frame. The European bike isn't built for only fit men in their 20s but for every ages, genders and interrest groups and they are built to last. They are better for getting you from point A to point B.
Even if you don't like the aesthetic of a step through frame you can't deny how useful they are for day to day riding. They make it a lot easier to carry a child on the back without needing to awkwardly lift your leg over the frame so you don't kick your kick in the head 😂
No way in hell a regular person can travel three miles in a city in 15 minutes - not without needing to change afterwards. More like double that considering that there are intersections and other people using the infrastructure. I'm all for cycling infrastructure, but let's not present unrealistic numbers.
roads are already the perfect infrastructure for bikes the problem is cars going fast and/or taking all the space on the road that makes it dangerous for bikes (and pedestrians) to use roads
True, streets with shops/homes should not be used for thoroughfare traffic and should be heavily traffic calmed to limit vehicle speed - in those cases you don't need a dedicate bike lane at all.
