Bad Suburbs Are Destroying Cities.

[@FlyingOverTr0ut]

Urbanist and cyclist in Los Angeles here who really supports your videos. Keep up the great work. Trying to get any small measure of improvement in our built environment, like a mile of bike lanes, bus lanes, or allowing for the building of additional dwelling units is such a big win for us. I think urbanists around the world need to unite in educating people to create a mass movement of people who fight for thriving, healthy cities.

[@kailahmann1823]

The picture at 0:57 is really worth a longer look - there is a huge car _sideways_ on a single lane and you could still go around it ON THE SAME LANE. This road must be something like 20 meters wide, only for car lanes…

[@kaitozu]

I moved to Vienna and I am still amazed, how they manage to get a good public transit service even to the most remote places of the city. If a good connection to the center is a given, I think suburbs aren't that bad of a concept and have a place in urban planning. Espacially as the never ending urban fabric can be quite a drag. Just a bit more akin to a village with all amenities inside walking/biking distance and nature and fields between the suburbs. Unfortunately we let developers decide on how to build them, at least in Germany.

[@TheTramly]

100%, im not advocating for the complete abolisment of suburbs, otherwise we'd get the thing that happens in North America, but the inverse there, you have low rise suburbia, and then BOOM, 50 story skyscrapers if we banned suburbs, we'd have urban fabric, and suddenly BOOM, fields I don't think anyone is seriously advocating for that suburbs built in a sustainable, walkable/transit accessible way can be amazing places to live

[@kaitozu]

@@TheTramly At least in Germany the main problem is a stark city - county difference. While the cities plan comprehensively and future oriented, in the surrounding area property developers can build the suburbs with no regards for longterm viability.

[@GAJake]

As someone in the US who studied urban planning I believe the suburb is the worst part of the city and worst parts or rural living. You live too far away from everything, but your garden is too small to really do anything with and have additional rules, you have to landscape a certain way, you cannot have farm animals, etc. Also as a young adult with very little savings, the middle class is dying out here. I live in an apartment near my parent's suburban home, but it's not walkable because everything around us is suburban.

[@TheTramly]

I agree, you get piss poor density, AKA there's nothing to do around you, and you don't even get the freedom to do whatever the fuck you want like you do in rural areas, so no farming, no, idk, shooting guns on your ranch, whatever it's truly the worst of both worlds

[@bobi7152]

Important to also mention is that communist city planning was also quite lacking in many places. Many new dense developments were made in the middle of nowhere with no transportation to speak of, together with giant stroads (but no highways, because they cost money). So there is a lot to fix in our cities too, it is not only the US. At least the mountains around the cities were mostly spared, so they can become our new suburbs in the 2000s.

[@TheTramly]

Definitely, communist city planning wasn't perfect by a LONG shot, but I do have to commend them for building overall more sustainable cities

[@jaredg4519]

We know that cities in the USSR's zone were'nt and aren't perfect. Planning in the USA is by far worse in all ways. At least Soviet planned cities considered People, Buses, Rail, Trams, and Metros, along with cars and freight trucks. Here we've only considered the needs of motorists and "traffic flow" for the past 80 years. Only now is that trend starting to change.

[@MrToradragon]

@@jaredg4519 I am not sure whether the Corbusier inspired planning really considers people, I have lived in one such small development and it took over 30 years, out of which 20 under free market and democracy, to transform it into something pleasant as quality of public space was quite low. Also quality of soundproofing in those building is terrible and I am not sure whether the population density in those areas exceeds the density of comparable traditional development (standard European town blocks, which were replaced by that in town in which I grew up)

[@mach2223]

The 90s were wild here. The privatisation was a huge mess and the fierce competition between newly private businessmen often resulted in gang violence, or even murders. It was not nearly as bad as in Russia, which was pretty much the same, except WAY worse, like literal anarchy in a lot of places, with an actual small intragovernmental civil war between the parliament and the president briefly breaking out, which resulted in a lot of the criminal gangs from russia and other post soviet countries coming here to CZ, as it was safer and the business opportunities were better. There was a massive wave of crime, not just violent, but also arms trafficking. Drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin were considered epicemics even before the revolution, and it only got worse after. The chaos of a changing political regime and economic shift from a planned economy to a free market one meant that the criminals found a lot of opportunity to make a quick buck. Thankfully it started to go back to normal by the late 90s, and by the time we joined the EU. We are one of the safest countries on Earth today, thankfully, but the 90s were absolute chaos in most eastern block countries, by today's standard.

[@TheTramly]

The 90s were absolutely fucking INSANE here, on one hand, it makes me glad that I was born in the somewhat calmer 2000s

[@jonaskosak6766]

The "Utečte z města" campaign by střední Čechy is not about moving to Středočeský kraj, it's about tourism. The whole campaign is about day trips to the region. I don't know about anyone incentivising moving to the region. Anyway, since I assume you have watched the Not Just Bikes videos about suburbia being paid for by tax revenue from downtown, it would actually be really interesting to see them applied to Czechia. I've always wondered if Pha-západ a Pha-východ are a drag on public finances, though I don't think they are and can support that with some arguments. Also it would be interesting to study quarters like Řepy, since those seem like most closely corresponding to American suburbia, which as a rule are very different from Czechia's.

[@wojtdid4700]

I had no idea that Czechia had that problem as well, your suburbia doesn't even look that bad compared to the one in Poland. Like, I'm not saying that your poorly designed suburbia is somehow better because the poor urban planning and transit problem is what makes it poorly designed suburbia, but just check out what's happening at the outskirts of Warsaw Fields in Poland (or at least Masovia and Lesser Poland) are usually divided into those long and narrow plots (check out satelite images of Krężce, for instance). And it's not bad until it gets near Warsaw. Warsaw suburbs of Białołęka and Chrzanów are the most notable examples of so called "budownictwo łanowe" which is not only bad in terms of urban planning (or a lack of it) and transport exclusion, but it's just so ugly and the estates are often fenced and closed to the public. Imagine being a traditional farmer in Powsin, Warsaw (village recently incorporated into Warsaw with some cool local culture and tradition) and seeing all the new housing estates making your village look like a ghetto or a concentration camp. Truly depressing

[@peepa47]

People escaping from Prague is mainly due to cost, a house in prague is 40 million, in outskirts 20 million, and 25 minutes car drive is 10 million. And of course the nature, if you want to visit a forest from prague,you have to drive for almost an hour. Plus the parking, congestion..If you dont work in the city center, living in big city is stupid. Maybe for young people, for university and partying. Czech suburbs will never be as the american ones, because we have walkability and mixed use - the two main things lacking in the US. Of course, some suburbs are bad, but mostly they have a small town center in the middle with shops, school, restaurants, post office etc.. And as for the car congestion, the only solution is more trains, faster high capacity trains. The rail lines around prague are waay outdated, we need straight lines to all directions running frequent service like, every 10-20 minutes (like to Říčany). If commuting by car is 25 minutes, and by bus, train or combination of both is 90 minutes plus walking and 3 transfers, people would be crazy not to chose cars. Its not that people like spending time in traffic. The trains should be built soon, but considering line for the airport has been in the planning for 35 years and still isnt finished, situation will get worse in the future.

[@Knackebrot]

Incentivize the use of dormant buildings Upper boundary for rents in cities Reduce secondary residences in cities Lower interest rates for the land they build on Lower speed limits Stop building roads Stop subsidizing building single family homes City toll for cars Declare non-develoment green belts It would help a lot, if only some of these would be implemented partially.

[@MrToradragon]

Upper limit on rents would most likely damage the market, or at least that happens almost every time some city or country tries to do that.

[@gabrielebianchi8976]

I was thinking going to the suburbs to escape the city sounds to me like a Dante's inferno punishments, where damned people are punished with the consequences of their sin. Suburbanites abandon the city to escape cars and traffic and in the suburbs become the traffic dependent on their own car.

[@TheTramly]

Exactly. Some of my family lives in a suburb like that, and I've been there a few times. It's so depressingly empty, there is barely anything to do, nowhere to go, and the only public transport link was an once per hour bus to the bigger town nearby perhaps there's something in not getting, but I couldn't fathom living in a place like that

[@mach2223]

There are a lot of issues that could be solved by just building more housing. If the government was still building housing like before the revolution, it would provide competition both in availability and price to private development companies. It would also be nice to maybe make it a little easier to actually get the permission to build anything, the company has to fumble around with paperwork for 10 god damn years before even getting permission to start work on the foundations. There are projects that have been in limbo since 2014 and still have not even began work. It's insane.

[@TheTramly]

Absolutely, like I said in the video, trying to build something in this country is like trying to avoid getting wet in the rain by dodging all the rain drops 💀💀

[@poalima6527]

I love your voice and passion for city planning❤

[@treinspotter_alkmaar7491]

Ah! Something to watch on my EC102🔥

[@TheTramly]

Enjoy!

[@treinspotter_alkmaar7491]

@@TheTramly Thanks for yet another quality video! I really love your work!

[@petrhajduk9955]

Speaking of park and ride, it is not something saint that saves the city form congestion. Many times it just takes people from buses to cars for the last leg of their journey. On top of that, it sits on prime real estate next to an important metro station, so you face the dilemma of housing 1K people or building garage for 1K cars.

[@TheTramly]

True, a balance between p+r and new housing should be struck, however, Prague is barely building either one of those💀💀💀

[@UncleJoeLITE]

Australian cities are a mix of awful traffic & a few big new mass transit builds. Canberra is a car city of 500k, but we don't really have traffic problems as the city is split into planned neighbourhoods. We are the exception. Thanks 🇦🇺

[@DiamondKingStudios]

“Entrepreneur Baroque” they basically made their own McMansions (ours are still worse)

[@TheTramly]

Yeah, pretty much 💀💀

[@DiamondKingStudios]

@@TheTramly Though the architectural styles employed in “Entrepreneur Baroque” seem a bit eclectic, I think they’re of better taste and composed with more sincere intent than what you’d find in a gated suburban neighborhood in Florida or Cobb/Gwinnett County, GA. And probably somehow half as expensive. I only know vaguely that housing in Europe is expensive, but some American neighborhoods are rather out there in cost.

[@mozeskertesz6398]

They still have nothing on the roma pagodas of Romania

[@maitrilazaroff138]

This is a very interesting and well-written video, but I think you focus too much on the US. Watching the first half of this video, I didn't hear much about Czechia, just problems in my country and the history of car-dependency here. In the future, maybe try and see the history of car-dependent planning in Czechia.

[@naser_si]

Já třeba neznám člověka, co by měl tady s auty problémy. Ani v Praze ne, máme *téměř* největší automobiloví průmysl z celé evropy, a auto je prostě nejlepší dopravní prostředek, můžeš si kdykoli dojed kamkoli, chceš jet ve 3 ráno do žitavy? jasně proč ne! je silvestr a ty se během 3 hodin musíš dostat na chatu kde chceš kalit? proč ne! chceš si dojed na nákup a nemuset tahat zpátky PĚŠKY tunu věcí? proč ne! chtěl bych vidět jak mhd potáhnete kočičí granule, kočkolit, basu piv a 2 tašky nákupu. Auta jsou prostě top a vždy budou, USA je extrém ale omezování sut není cesta!

[@Windsekt1177GD]

Vás do parlamentu ihned 😂

[@TheTramly]

na to bych fakt neměl, + pozice "hej možná bychom neměli stavět města kolem aut" opravdu není populární volební program💀

[@naser_si]

I live in north czechia, and i hate the commie blocks! we call them "Concrete Hutches" here, and they are the worst! Were going out drinking with the buddys and then when the pubs close we go to a home from eighter friend in the group... once we went to a friends place that lived in a commie block and my god... "turn the music down youll wake up the neighbours" "the what?" "the neighbours, im gona get in trouble" My god how much would it suck to live in a place you cant do what you want in, you dont want to pay for gas that much? so you turn down the heat in winter, nope. "Excuse me, my apartment is getting cold through the floor because you live below me, turn up youre heat" or another karen complaing that she has to get up at 5 am the next day! (bltch i dont care i want to have fun!) I am happy in my single family home, with a giant garden a moped for getting place and a car for further distance (further being (5km +) and a space to park as many cars and things as i want, with the ability to do almost anything anytime because the neighbours cant here it! do dont you dare take a depressing communist piece of crap architectural failiure and call it a savior for the US! it doesnt work, its depressing anoying and million other things but it definitely isnt good!

[@TheTramly]

it's possible to build other things than massive car dependent only single family house suburbs, you know we have alien technology like ✨abolishing minimum parking requirements✨ ✨actual soundproofing✨ ✨building along transit lines✨ no one wants to ban single family houses, but we'd like to avoid stuff like kilometers upon kilometers of single family house deserts, like they build in the us

[@MAL1GNANT]

You are a sad human. You don't realize how much havoc the single family suburbs have wreaked on us. You are using a bad example of an apartment to degrade all urban living spaces.