5 Minute Urbanism - Bucharest - with Mikael Colville-Andersen from The Life-Sized City

Mikael tackles an asphalt tundra wasteland in Bucharest, Romania with his 5 minute urbanism fix.
Thanks to Vlad for sending us the location.
Podcast! The Life-Sized City : / the-life-sized-city-se... - or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Music by Phil Creamer: hereonout.ca

[@IoanaDarh]

Actually, I can see people in Bucharest wanting to use alternative transport more & more, however, as the city is divided into 6 district, each with it's own mayor, none of those mayors are willing to sacrifice their political career and impose some very uncomfortable (at first) policies for lowering trafic. All they do is take chunks out of the sidewalks or other interstitial spaces and turn them into parking. However, all the green in the middle of Victory Square might not be a solution - this was the only open space big enough for protests and we need a big open pedestrian square, correctly designed.

[@alexandru5847]

I am born and raised in Bucharest. I think the problem, not only in the Victory Square - it's not the cars. It's the mentality of the residents, people here hop in their car even to the local street shop, everything is done by car. Victory Square has a bad traffic lights system, some lasting only 10 sec. on the green light. There are many parts in the city where there is no green area for 1 km, summer here is a nightmare, the pollution, dust, create a greenhouse effect. I am sure people would like to lay their cars off but the alternatives are bad, the public transport is slow and overcrowded, the bicycle lanes are under 30 km total surface, the metro is good, it's what saves this city on a daily basis. Also, the nearby Bucharest commune residents all travel inside Bucharest for work, thus making it very crowded the whole entire day. The solution is to change people's minds and approach to mobility, there are many people here still living under the communism brain, there is a big area of corruption in the infrastructure area that still guts the expansion and modern approach to a better, sustainable daily traffic.

[@dobrina9130]

You had some good ideas, but a little bit of research would have given you some perspective about how that plaza works. The two arteries on the right that go south are some of the main pipelines that connect North - South. Also the street that runs through underneath is the inner ring of the central area. The tramway was replaced by subway on the boulevard on the right, where the bus was, so it will be a little redundant. Also the big building on the south side is a monument of ugliness, a national socialist architecture, which replaced some nice old buildings. And beneath the whole plaza there are two subway stations, so it will be a little tricky with redevelopment (which is really necessary).

[@user-kx7jw6gx3o]

Dude, that's our protesting square you've just planted trees into.

[@alanfrost75]

Romanians have the same relationship to cars as Danes do to bicycles. You have to have a car, and you have the same abundance of cars in Bucharest as you have bikes in Copenhagen. So even though you have all that parking space, it's mostly used up. It is unfortunately one of the most car-centric cities on earth, at least that I am aware of. Oh, and while I know that your fake accent there was some sort of generic Eastern European slavic/Russian thing... I do feel the need to point out that Romanian is a latin language and sounds nothing like that :D Just for the record. Oh, and just caught the end of the video - YES! Great bars :)

[@magnushmann]

He did indeed say "when i go to eastern Europe", which predominately speaks Slavic languages, but interesting to hear the input of Romania, a non Slavic speaking country, maybe actually being even more car-centric as it stands now.

[@kalle911]

It seems to be pretty much eastern european thing. Eastern Europe meets USA. Out of old traditions public transport still serves commie era routes well, but nowadays people move where ever and jobs move where ever and the city officials can't keep up. "the number of cars increases every year, better build more roads!"

[@distroe]

Alan, in what you say about Ro language your are needlessly mean. I really doubt you have the linguistic training to judge the latinity of Romanian language. You should keep that to yourself. However, regarding cars you are right. Having a car in Romania it's not about utility it's about status. Not having a car, regardless how old or broken, is a sign of being very poor or a loser. Even if you daily use a bike, you at least should have a car at home in order to check a point on a checklist of being a "made man".

[@distroe]

@@kalle911 It's not about mimicking the US. Eastern Europe ,as all Europe, does not share the US problem of large distances and far suburbs which make owing a car a must. The problem is about status and about the fact that in communism, even if at that time a large number of people did have cars, they had to wait 2 years to get one.

[@alanfrost75]

@@distroe Mean? What are you on about? I said nothing mean. I wonder if perhaps you might lack the English skills to judge what I said. As to my ability to judge Romanian, I think I can do so quite well considering I speak Romanian and both my parents are Romanian - not that any judging was involved. I just said it was Latin and does not sound like a Slavic language. But please do let me know which part of what I wrote was mean.

[@OgreLaur]

Love it! Thank you Mikael!

[@TheSec09]

As a Romanian citizen who lives in Bucharest, I enjoyed this video but I have to make a few amendments: - you can't create a park in the West side of the square (near the building with the Romanian flag) because is the Romanian Government Head Quarters, so it's considered a strategic location. - the name of the place is Victory Square; its name originates from Victory Road (to the south of the square) where the triumphant army entered the city after winning the Independence War. - the are of the Victory Square (together with the tunnel edges) is about 30.000 m2 (322.917 ft2) - aside from a few roads, most are small and have occupied the first lane by parked cars. Otherwise, Bucharest is a nice city to visit. Before the WW2 was named "Little Paris". And yes, the drinks are great.

[@woutervanr]

I that case just switch the green there with the purple. It's not that difficult.

[@QuentinWatt]

I'm really interested to see how you'd fit bicycle lanes in Cape Town, specifically Green Point, Moulle Point, and Sea Point which are all fairly flat and high income. Also, Urbanism in the Cape flats. Implementing a bicycle solution for people who currently can't afford cars, but the state hasn't really provided a decent solution for them yet.

[@richardsilverwings]

17 City hall employees disliked this video.

[@ArielConstantinof]

great video and great suggestions! this comes from someone who loves and hates bucharest in the same time. i've been living here for the past 22 years of my life and we need you as a mayor :)))) ps: that big building on the right, with the romanian flag on it, is the government and on the european flag we had some huge protests throughout the last 3-4 years (i think the flag was painted by protestors, nothing is left out of it nowadays - but glad to still see it captured in your picture)

[@andumad]

Piata Victoriei also represents an established ground for civilian protests, for which a big open space is needed. Although it could use an improvement, changing it drastically could be seen by the public as a way to meddle with protests. Plus, it’s not the worst square in the world, it’s an exaggeration, I am sure enough squares or intersections in the west look like this or have looked like this until a couple years ago.

[@LocnavLivoc]

Hi, i live in Bucharest and let me just tell you, your words were kind. The reality is the city is shit. You see so many parking spaces, but there is still a problem with parking. The palace you mentinoned bis where the government do their job and it some underground parking as well. The big boulevard going up is sometimes closed off for some marathons and stuff like that. i don't mind that, but the problem is that access to the north of the city is heavily encumbered when such events are happening and the alternatives are poor. The underpass train you mentioned is also a tram line, it's just a different style of tracks. And with that much space could you believe it that that is one of the bussiest intersections in the city? The picture was taken in a flattering moment, the rest of the time is hell!

[@gavrilapaul]

The priority of things in Bucharest is the following: cars, cars, real estate business, cars, cars, real estate, cars, cars. People are not on the list. Unfortunately. :(

[@catalinpetrescu8488]

you forgot shopping malls and office buildings

[@amm95]

Would be great to see your thoughts on Melbourne when you can. We have a ton of enthusiasm for cycling here but pretty terrible implementation lol. The car is definitely still king here

[@Lindonedhel]

Hi! I don't know if you have already done this, but can you recommend us some books to lear about urbanism? :D

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

Have you ever seen cities changing the design to be worse than when it was deigned for the car age? In one of your favorite cities, Montreal, Atwater avenue, very problematic when it turns suddenly between Notre-Dame and the tunnel. It's very car friendly, forget biking, forget walking. Unless you want to spend some time on an island car divider. Dangerous too.

[@mossmoss2019]

id keep the place in front of the main building as mainly public space with some green aspects given that it's used mainly for protests. it would be wasteful to make it simply a park given the foot traffic it'd see but it could be a nice mix. i wish someone would do something about this place, im so tired to have to either walk around just to cross it or have to get lost in the underneath subway corridors (which btw i still mess up when navigating after 22 years of living there!!!)

[@dominikjakaj1999]

man you need to make more 5 Minute Urbanism for Balkans, that would be fun

[@akbk2505]

Yes, victory place. That was not hard to guess! // Tram depot - the place where the trams go to sleep

[@MrEmanuelPop]

Yes! Such a good solution. I've visited the city 2 times in my life, and the traffic was atrocious. Had to drive through at 5pm and people would simply not follow any traffic rules, speed up to over 120km/h and we had to drive either extremely cautious or aggressive like them. Making the infrastructure support only 30-40km/h speeds would be amazing, as well as reducing the overall cars. Believe it or not, most of my friends in school had 2 cars per family and some richer families, had one per person!! Even my smaller town I'm from is so ridiculous they started charging parking fees for parking outside my own house..

[@kemosite]

...That was an intersection?

[@pauldumitrescu1955]

Bucurestiule, este o urgenta sa intri in mileniul 3! Mr Colville we are waiting for you to come with a project for Gara de Nord or for Herastrau, Cismigiu Parks.

[@Mihai-eg6ux]

Bucharest had the potential to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, unfortunately it was raped by Ceausescu and communism and then by the communists painted democrats that followed him, and then by the mobsters painted comunists painted democrats that came after those. Fortunately we still have islands of what used to be the old city with beautiful architecture, a lot of Art Nuveau, Art Deco, 30s Modernism and the beautiful Neo Romanian style that is unique to this country. So those are some good reasons to come and visit before it all gets turned into parking lots by our idiot mayors and by real estate sharks who bribe those idiot mayors to build condos and office blocks in the middle of historical areas. If you'd like to learn more about the beautiful architecture of old Bucharest check out Valentin Mandache's youtube channel.

[@distroe]

That's the fake mythology of "Little Paris". Even before communism, Bucharest lacked the legacy of an old capital, being only several centuries old, lacking any antiquity tradition and being a second hand city. Art Nouveau is scarce, Neo Romanian is debatable and the 30's Modernism, while of good quality, is no way better than in Prague, Budapest or Belgrade. Bucharest owes a lot to Balcanism, being close to Bulgarian and Turkish cities, however lacking their charm mostly due to flat land and the absence of macro-relief. Bucharest is not a beautiful city. It never has been.

[@knjiggaofficial7733]

Congratulations, you just gridlocked half the city with your solution...

[@omarmyia]

Bucharestian here, I'm just at 0:11 and so ready to be roasted.

[@bennmurhaaya8518]

I'd send you some places from Prague, Czech republic but I don't want to spoil your vacation. We have a 4+4 lane highway cut through the very heart of the city, Venceslav square (Václavké náměstí) is just an abomination. One example for all... National Opera house in Prague, cutout from everything on an island, lost between cars... ( goo.gl/maps/c9YPdB1Ps4UZvZSJ8 )

[@dyawr]

I don't think you realise, but Buhcarest's traffic is very congested. 😂 It's in the top 10 worst city-traffic in the world... literally. So narrowing the streets *and* clogging it with trams, would make it a nightmare... that's a very busy intersection. 🤷‍♀️

[@MrTheWaterbear]

This re-greenery-ing reminded me of the fact that we used to have an additional vold-park in Copenhagen called Abborreparken between Botanisk Have and Oerstedsparken, which was removed to make way for railroad (which has since been moved into tunnels). Would love to see the space used for park again since the metro and trains now run way down below~

[@horatiuslavescu]

It is Victory Place. The big green roof building is Government Palace and the building in the middle with some trees around is Antipa Museum - a museum for nature, life, biology and nature. While your project looks good it can't be actually a solution, sadly. There are thousands of cars crossing that place every hour and you can't reroute that traffic from this place. It is a crossing of main roads from North to South and the boulevard with the tunnel is an in-city ring road. And yes, the tracks are for trams. You need to understand more that place before trying to improve it. I'm very sure there is a better way for thar place. Another sad thing is that public transport is bad too, mainly because of high traffic levels.

[@Stefanism]

Bucharest has a lot of problems and the traffic issue is by far the most severe. The authorities should do more radical reforms and create a proper transportation system around the city. Otherwise, they will never convince the people of Bucharest to abandon their comfortable cars, in favor of a metro, a tram, a trolleybus, a bus or a bicycle. You should do more videos about videos, as it’s a city with a lot potential, and with a never ending list of issues that need practical solutions.

[@dyawr]

11:46 Wow, it actually does look better, ngl.. 🤔

[@meceneurbandesign5105]

Kia car add is attached to this post. They have no idea.

[@erdazin]

LOL, russian accent for an East European is so rude man. :D I know we were occupied by USSR but still. Everything else is nice in this video, keep up the content!

[@tobiashaurum3611]

Take a joke!

[@LocnavLivoc]

i live in romania, and i wasn't offended by the accent. it's the truth. that is the accent of eastern europeans speaking poor english.

[@MGA99MASTER]

Romania was never occupied by the USSR

[@MGA99MASTER]

BannedIP never colonized Romania; instated a puppet government for a few years and then in 1965 Ceausescu came to power (who was opposed to the USSR)

[@coasteringkid]

I'm civil engineering student and you scare me

[@oscaraleksanderhalvorsen921]

why?

[@matteograssadonia7536]

Is this a good or a bad thing?

[@coasteringkid]

@@matteograssadonia7536 I'm scared that in future profession I could make decisions that this guy is gonna roast

[@kalle911]

@@coasteringkid in eastern Europe, politicians will make decisions for you

[@matteograssadonia7536]

@@coasteringkid I see your point, but it easy to avoid this kind of thing, just don't sell your soul to the "might car's god" ahah

[@catalinpetrescu8488]

While this might be a solution, there are some comments that I have (some were also mentioned in the previous comments): 1. The building in the right is actually the government building and while extending the green area from there might seem like a cool idea, you really can't do much about it as a mayor since it is the state property and they basically require a special security area then (because we're the state and we can have it, right?); also, as someone else said in another comment, having a green area which could also be designed as a said secure area around the Victoria Palace (the name for the HQ of the Government located there) would be a boon to suppress future protests so in my opinion there's really not a great idea at all :) 2. The one you called a train line is not a train line, it is an exclusively tram line. Only that it goes through the passageway and it is just built differently. There is some space in that passageway though where a tram station has been set up, so now there is actually an easier way to get to Piața Victoriei by getting on a tram that goes round the Bucharest pretty much (lines 1 and 10 form a sort of an inner belt). 3. There are plans for that tram station to connect to the metro line below, as there are 2 metro lines intersecting there at Piața Victoriei 1 and 2 respectively (connected by an underground pedestrian passageway of course). In your plans however you also have to keep those in mind, as one of the lines goes along with the passageway where lines 1 and 10 have a stop and another one goes from north to the south, so setting a green space up there might seem a bit tricky. Also, as someone said, the main north south axis goes through there, as well as the inner ring road (where 1 and 10 go). So any sort of intervention would have to be done along the axes of these roads in order to prove viable, and again, it's quite tricky for the traffic. You cannot just redraw roads there and call it a day. Maybe having bus/bike lanes and reducing the number of lanes for cars could be a solution though, as there is enough space for it (as there are some bus lines going through these roads). 4. Now on a bit of history: there is no person called „Victoria” after which the square was named :) likely it is named after the Victoria Avenue (the second road in the south of your map), and you can rather call them „The Victory Square” and „The Victory Avenue” if you want their meaning. If I am not mistaken, before communism it was called „The Ferdinand Square” after King Ferdinand, under which all the historic regions inhabited by romanians were united after WW1. In the past there was also a nice beautiful building called the Sturdza Palace (google „Palatul Sturdza” for images), located in the front of the nowadays Victoria Palace, in the whole bottom half. Built in the early 1900s, it lastly served as an HQ for the Foreign Affairs Minister. The Victoria Palace, although has a seemingly brutalist architecture, was actually started under the far-right Antonescu regime and was pretty much stuck to the back of the Sturdza Palace. When communists came to power they just finished the job and demolished what was left of the Sturdza Palace, after the Allied bombing tore much of it. Keep up the good work! cheers! :)

[@ComedyJakob]

5 minute urbanism? That seems a bit short. *looks at the run time* Oh, 12 minutes.

[@NekoIzMase94]

In urban design you can NEVER approach a problem with just "oh i don't care where that street goes" . You job is literally to take in consideration where it goes and find a solution that works. In this case a street that you so casually dismissed happens to lead to a densely populated urban area and later the airport, just cutting that route or diverting it is not the right way in fact that route is the only thing that has to remain the same. You really need to pay more attention to the surrounding area BEFORE you start making plans.The tramway maintenance hub which you described is STILL THERE literally 150 m to the right,you would have known this if you bothered to even check the google maps for 30 seconds before starting . The final solution you've shown at the end is fine except the street that I mentioned , you bothered to dig up old maps of Bucharest but you couldn't zoom out on gmaps? It has become way too easy to get praise and accolades for being an urban planner when the extent of your solutions is more parks,more bike lanes,more walk spaces; everybody can make wishes like that. Making city plans means making compromises and that sometimes means you don't get things the way you want.

[@cosminrusea970]

I live in Bucharest. The compromise you are talking about is all for cars, nothing for someone else. He is right about the piata Victoriei, You can land a plane in that shit hole.

[@piros100]

I think you could be great pals with the new Mayor of Budapest, he shares your passion for green spaces and prefers bikes over cars. Unfortunately he faces incredible political pressure as he's supported by the opposition and the government is trying really hard to work against him.

[@CartoonDrama44]

Do Zagreb please - there's plenty to fix thanks to 20 years of neglecting pedestrians, cyclists and public transit by the current city government.

[@thebogdan900]

People want more car lines, more parking EVERYWHERE!

[@dyawr]

Are you in the Marmorosch Blank hotel, in the pfp? 🤔

[@AC-id5ow]

Great solution and shame to see they got it right in the past. "Progress" can also be negative. Please add your podcast to Spotify, if you can. Thanks.

[@omarmyia]

Yes, this solution would gridlock the city and no, I cannot give a shit anymore because it is already gridlocked and people won't change their behavior unless something radical is done, and deep inside we know that's about to happen sooner or later. The level of aggression by motorists towards pedestrians is extreme in Bucharest. All of that huge parking space is not enough for them, they also have to park on the fucking sidewalks everywhere if they are not physically blocked by fences or poles. And did I mention it is all free parking? The good news is that since 2020 we have a Paris-schooled, mathematics Olympian new mayor who is willing to tackle these structural problems by listening to professionals. One year has passed since this video was posted and nothing described in it was addressed yet, but that is because we were basically bankrupt. In the next years, I'm sure that Piata Victoriei will be subject to an international design competition, because plans for its transformation exist from the 1930s at least. Thank you for sharing your views on this matter! It's very important that people get a glimpse of the actual solution from someone who isn't stuck within a 20th century mindset.

[@leisuretime4756]

You can’t make order in a way like you make, just looking on a picture without some strategy/statistics. In your video you close the most major boulevard which is the exit from Bucharest from south to north. It is not professional al this video, it is another amator bla bla of another guy,.

[@dyawr]

Wow, what an interesting profile banner. Where was it taken?

[@TorneHeichou]

this video is 12 minutes wtf

[@vladimir5935]

Tldr: car evil, bike holy

[@pauldumitrescu1955]

They simply wanna copy Paris

[@ElectricityTaster]

Joe Rogan is going to be sad I filled up my podcast schedule.

[@razetheraven7240]

Yeah, sepaking from eastern/central europe perspective - people governing during sociallist/communist times cared more about building something big with lots of concrete and asphalt, rather than making sure it will be practical in the long run. And why would they care about traffic? People couldn't afford a car or couldn't get it anywhere anyway. But building huge project could give them a chance to grab nice ammount out of public money for themselves and achieve political goals in the communist party at the same time! Very good video.

[@ElectricityTaster]

It's also to make people feel small so they don't revolt.

[@alanfrost75]

With respect to communist Romania, I can say that people certainly could afford cars. There was local production of the Romanian Dacia (the main model back then was a copy of the Renualt 12), and pretty much everyone had one. Money in general was not really the issue back then, it was more having something to actually buy lol. That's why bribing people back then was better done with foreign goods (if you had them) than actually money. Shit like foreign booze, cigarettes, coffee, scented soaps, etc. :D So yeah, no shortage of cars in Romania during those days. Big shortage of car variety... but no shortage of cars.

[@distroe]

@@alanfrost75 : You are right. Nevertheless, the car was a prized posession and, while cars were not a rarity from '70's on, one should wait 2 years in line to get one ( or to buy an used car at a higher price than a new car, it happened!). Also, the price of car was prohibitive: the list price of a Dacia was around 80.000 lei in the '80's, while a standard salary for an university graduade was around 2500 lei and a "good" salary of a well-payed employee was 5000 lei.

[@dyawr]

@@distroe More like 7 or 5 years, from what my parents told. 🤔

[@gilgameshthekingofweebs5924]

No offense, I love your videos, but these ideas were really bad. The traffic in Bucharest is pure cancer, especially at rush hour, and you just deleted a lot of roads and others you combined them into one. This will just create traffic jams on top of traffic jams. And no, you can't just tell people to not use their cars, that is stupid. Public transport can't cover everyone's needs. Plus there is a big lack of parking space in Bucharest and you just deleted a lot of parking space just to add some trees? There are literally trees everywhere in Bucharest. What you did was making it better to look at, not more practical.

[@OneTireFire]

Precisely and some of his commentary is quite ignorant. I liked parts of the video, and some of the ideas were good, but overall, Mikael, you actually solved nothing other than to piss off some Romanians... I mean, why be ironic when you say the thing about harboring a desire since childhood to visit Bucharest? That is just rude and ignorant, as is your so-called eastern European accent that is about as Russian as accents get. It's a wonderful city that has been mismanaged, especially when it comes to traffic. And I'm happy you made up your mind about not ever visiting after seeing one (the biggest and busiest) intersection in the city, that also crossed by an underground road and is also a public transit hub where bus, tram and metro lines meet.

[@UlmoLOTR]

That's the point, to get rid of the cars and use public transportation. We shouldn't encourage horrifying traffic.

[@RomaniaDeAzi]

you cannot ever make ppl do things differently in Romania. the ppl that dictate how things work are politicians interested in making money. and the ppl, the majority of ppl in Bucharest and Romania are simply approaching single digit IQ scores, no kidding. they think that if you take their cars they cannot exist anymore. and this is stupid bc many many ppl buy cars that are more expensive than their apartments. they live in a 60.000 apartment and they buy a 100.000 car. anyway, without bringing intelligent engineers and urban planers, you will never make this city great... btw in the summer temperatures go even to 40C in the shade at 2m above ground(standar meteorological measurements) and 82C at ground(asphalt)level. you could literally cook an egg, with no problems.

[@kilowagmagnusson4590]

Such a poor and backwards country with a history of corrupt and poor leadership-so sad. Oh, and Mikael, please go see a barber.