Sneaky Good Transit in Places You Won’t Expect

[@CityNerd]

You guys, I don't know your personal financial situation, but if you switch to a Henson razor it might save you enough money to be able to live at The National in downtown Dallas TX. Just saying. Make sure you use "CITY" at checkout to get the free shave cream at hensonshaving.com/CITY - and honestly, I've heard from a LOT of viewers that are very happy they made this purchase. It's a great product, seriously.

[@slowwerthensnot]

I bought a Henson razor nearly 3 years ago from a recommendation from another KZbin channel, probably has saved for $200-300 in that time

[@emma70707]

Has anyone tried them on armpits by chance? Curious how they do with the floppier skin there.

[@nikhilsrl]

@@CityNerd I like the idea of less waste, but safety razors have a bit of learning curve, don't they?

[@pdblouin]

@@emma70707 I've done legs, armpits, underwear, areola, face...basically everything except my scalp. Works great.

[@julietardos5044]

@@emma70707 I'm wondering the same.

[@JordanPeace]

3:53 “It is possible to get on a bus” might the single most accurate description of public transit access across most of the US that I’ve ever heard

[@dbclass2969]

And there’s a ton of places where that’s not even possible

[@Acidlib]

A more accurate descriptor for a lot of American cities would be “it is (theoretically) possible to get on a bus” imo

[@NickCombs]

There used to be a once-a-day stop within 20 minutes of me, but I had to call ahead to make sure they'd stop. Now it's twice the walk distance. Mostly no sidewalk either.

[@Tjgtjgtjg]

When i lived in Mesa AZ, i could "technically" make it to a bus connection that would take me somewhere. It was only a 6 mile bike ride there! (that i would often do since I wanted to explore and didn't have a car)

[@CityNerd]

I love it so much

[@SashArovot]

The commentary right at the beginning about living car-free anywhere you can get where you're going is exactly what I've done in my life and I love it. I'm the only adult I know that's car-free because I live in a sprawling town with far more stroads than buses. But there's one bus I can use day-to-day, one BRT into the next town over, and one train into the state capital. And it's enough! I've done everything by bus or bike for three years now and I just love it.

[@planetarysolidarity]

💯

[@gabe6646]

The worst part about not having a car, is people constantly asking me "when are you going to get a car?"

[@sunmethods]

smh when i’m this early i can’t browse the comments and silently judge people’s opinions while i watch

[@chiefenumclaw7960]

Please judge silently or he'll block you. Dude hates dissenting opinions and loves to swing the ban hammer.

[@sunmethods]

i use “judge” as a value-neutral term here. fortunately i agree with most of the takes i see in citynerd comments

[@DoomPlague]

@@chiefenumclaw7960 Dude straight up shows those opinions on his videos, albeit to mock them. That's basically the opposite as swinging the ban hammer. Have you been personally banned from commenting here? Doesn't seem like it. But some people deserve to be banned: those that really, really take offense to his videos and act like complete clowns instead of offering constructive, civil debate.

[@Will140f]

@@chiefenumclaw7960it’s not the opinion itself but the manner in which it is expressed, with which he takes exception

[@bradfordwebster3181]

@sunmethods DCI profile pic jumpscare

[@lyledal]

I grew up in OKC, and I'm here to tell you that there are NO stunning views in that city.

[@joseph_M]

😂

[@massiminitrains]

Across the river from the Boathouse District with downtown in the background is a pretty nice shot, especially at night when the the boathouses and Devon Tower are all lit up.

[@sorenolsen9281]

@@lyledal OKC: it ain't Tulsa...

[@lyledal]

@@sorenolsen9281 Exactly!

[@PrairieKass]

​@@sorenolsen9281what views do you got in Tulsa??? I remember driving through there in a semi truck at night and the Hard Rock Casino absolutely blinding me, it was so bright I feel like it's a safety hazard lmfao

[@JordanPeace]

Judging by the median price of the listings shown in this video, I am now undeniably convinced that Mr. Nerd’s numerous urbanism panel appearances and shaving product ad reads have afforded him enough disposable income to be considering a $4 million office-conversion condo in Kentucky. Congrats on moving up in the world!

[@spatialfeelings]

Goated comment

[@cathrynm]

This kind of content, reviews of luxury transit-free condos might be his ticket to middle-class lifestyle. More money in pitching deluxe apartments to rich people than entertaining impoverished transit geeks.

[@CityNerd]

I only live in the finest office building penthouses

[@MrAtom55]

Colorado Springs is a city that has grown massively over the past 60 years, from a population of 70K in 1960 to 500k in 2020. And it's a city that's doing it dead wrong. They simply keep annexing old ranch land east of town and build single family homes on them. It's city transit score sits at 19. I live in almost the exact center of town near a major education center. To get from my home to downtown, per Google, would be a 37 minute bike ride, a 1 HR 20 minute walk, or *1.5 hours via bus* with at least one transfer. And the buses only run once every 60 minutes at our nearest stop. It's expected to pass Denver as the largest city in Colorado with the next two decades (obviously, Denver will have a much more highly populated metro area), but there seems to be absolutely no plans to deal with extended sprawl, addressing transit issues, or build more condensed housing. It seems like the cities plan is to keep buying up old ranch land to the east and selling it to developers for mass built single-family homes until it sprawls out into Kansas. Just wanted to bring this up as a possible option for discussion on your channel. I'm sure there are many more cities in the west doing the exact same (stupid) thing.

[@ayazpalekar1575]

“Sounds like we need more lanes, and another highway going east-west…. And maybe more lanes going north south”

[@MikeP2055]

I can't speak to the situation in Colorado Springs, as I've never been that far south, but having driven from Cheyenne to Denver (technically SLC to Denver) every year for the last eight or nine years I can DEFINITELY imagine it. The single family suburban sprawl along the Front Range is bananas. Heading southbound on I-25, you cross the WY/CO border, enjoy a few leisurely miles of cruise control, with the beautiful Rockies over there on the horizon, then BLAM!-suburban hellscape all the way to Denver. On top of that, I'm always doing this just as Labor Day Weekend gets rolling, so the traffic is extra spicy (which, admittedly, is my own dumb fault). It's very similar here in the Salt Lake Valley, with houses being built farther and farther west and south of the city, but instead of stretching to Nevada, they'll eventually run into the Oquirrh Mountains, so that's . . . good, I guess? Miraculously, the state started laying light rail prior to hosting the Olympics in 2002, with more and more lines stretching out into the valley ever since. There's also a pretty solid 90-mile commuter train connecting the cities of the greater SLC metro region along the Wasatch Front, so that's cool. I happen to be sitting on it right this second! (Hence, the longwinded reply, ha!) If we could just get more people to use the damn things! Anyhow, I scoped out Denver's light rail during this year's Labor Day Weekend and decided I'm taking the friggin Amtrak in 2025, haha. Its route is stunningly beautiful, which, of course it is! Utah and Colorado are my two favorite states, but I'm a little biased. If you made it this far, I appreciate you indulging me. Four huge cups of coffee for lunch may have been a poor decision. ✌️✌️ Edit: Oh, for hellsakes, I got yapping about SLC and forgot the whole point of my reply: WATER SCARCITY! All of these big new single family sprawls mean more goddamn lawns. According to another urbanism creator I follow, lawns require more pesticides and water per year than any other "crop." We average about 14" of precipitation PER YEAR in SLC. It's a bloody desert, people! When I see sprinklers on at noon on a windy 100° day I want to scream.

[@Banom7a]

@@MikeP2055 Timnath, East of Loveland and Windsor are some of the most insane sprawl lol, and Fort Collins are horrible at building density (height cap to protect the "foothills aesthetic") which make them sprawl to the aforementioned places, like instead of building density very near to downtown, instead they opened an autozone instead.

[@jorymil]

For a state that is nominally ecologically-minded, there are some facepalm-level urban planning decisions.

[@MikeP2055]

@Banom7a Oof! Looking at it on GoogyMaps is kinda bumming me out. The fake ponds and golf courses. And those neighborhoods! Good lord. I immediately started singing "Little Houses" from the show Weeds. I mean, at least they're crammed in there snuggly . . . ? I don't know if you saw the edit to my original reply where I mentioned water scarcity, but looking at all of the lawns-even if they're quite small-is something that really boils my piss. I have to constantly remind myself, "Easy for you to say, dingus." I'm a 47-year-old guy who never wanted to get married and certainly never wanted kids. I'm perfectly content in my little condo in a 70 year old building in downtown SLC. My sisters, on the other hand; one has three kids, the other has four. I dunno . . . I'm just a damn dirty hippie, I guess, haha!

[@thomasmcroy1756]

All this is fine and swell but CLEVELAND's transit gets me the most randy. Heavy rail from the airport to downtown on a 40 year old Japanese subway car in OHIO?? Someone get me a towel.

[@audreykupetsky8989]

Hi! I'm living car-free in downtown OKC. It's... fine lol. I'm right near the transit center, which is a bit west of Maywood, and I can get most places I need to (if not very conveniently). I'm also right near the RAPID BRT(ish) line that opened last year, which has definitely made things easier. I'd say if you're considering moving here without a car, look into some of the projects being planned through MAPS 4 and RTA-Oklahoma and keep an eye on their progress. I think the city will be much more accessible via public transit in the next 5 years. If you need to move here immediately, you can make it work- just live downtown at all costs lol

[@BigFemto1]

@@audreykupetsky8989 wow I live in Paseo and try my best to be car lite like, taking the BRT to work but car free in Oklahoma would be so hard to me lol. Props to you!

[@tod2450]

Now do the opposite - Bad Transit locations in High Transit cities!

[@elisezheng3611]

I guess a lot of deep Queens & Staten Island places are going to be there sadly

[@aykutylmaz2745]

Second this. I think you might need to filter out suburbs in some way, but it would be interesting to see what trends there are for close-in neighborhoods with poor transit. Are they wealthy, disadvantaged communities, etc.?

[@handlemonium]

Baltimore Area suburbia transit sucks compared to DC

[@Sebasstiano]

@@elisezheng3611SI and eastern Queens aren’t Manhattan but their transit options are still excellent compared to the rest of the country. They both have 24 hour rail service (SIR and LIRR Port Washington branch) with 30 minute or better headways at all times. There are tons of buses that feed to rail stations or the Staten Island Ferry, and most of those buses are pretty frequent on weekdays.

[@kierannelson2581]

I was thinking differently. The best transit locations in the the US and Canada (max 1 per city) where the highest scoring suburb and the cities transit about are added together and the highest scores win!

[@jijitters]

Basically, "if you're rich you can still experience decent transit options in these cities by picking the most expensive neighborhood" cool cool. Poor people need public transit more but are consistently priced out of it 😭

[@wtfareperfectplaces]

The fact that every apartment is called "The Lofts at Blank" is killing me

[@CityNerd]

Or "The X Flats"

[@POP7QWIZ]

As a Nashville native that watched us throw away our first chance at improving transit years ago. Thank God we passed this plan. It's not flashy but it's loaded with high impact stuff that can help

[@CityNerd]

Yeah, it's good to see!

[@RuthlessNate2]

I've lived in the Oklahoma City metro area for 27 years now. The city has changed A LOT in that time, for the better. The area located on the map has better transit in that there's access to our streetcar service (which only services downtown) and is near our new BRT line that goes from downtown OKC up the Classen corridor and onto NW Expressway, which are both high traffic roads. One thing that makes OKC stand out when it comes to our progress is our Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPs) Plan. It's a $0.01 sales tax that voters approved in the early 1990s and have continued to renew since then. It's gone toward redeveloping and improving a lot of areas in the city. A lot for the better, some for the worse (gentrification is definitely an issue in areas). The city is wrapping up MAPS 4 now. Recently, voters redirected what would have been MAPS 5 toward a new arena to keep the Thunder. Personally, I voted against it, because I wanted that money to go to projects that benefited the city's citizen's more directly rather than vague promises of continuing our economic trajectory. However, I have a good friend who works in the city planning department who has been telling us of plans that were made before the vote to earmark some of the near-$1 Billion that will likely be raised toward trying to fast track a light rail system that runs north-south from Edmond, on the northside of the metro, through OKC, and down to Norman in the south, as well as an expansion of our BRT lines to other parts of the city. A transportation hub connecting these services is supposed to be established near the new arena. Supposedly, the city wants to get a lot of this established in time for the events we are hosting as part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, but I doubt a project of that magnitude could be finished in time. The BRT line will probably be up and running though. I'd love to see this kind of change for our city. I actually really like Oklahoma City overall. Cost of living is low, and there's a lot of forward momentum in the city. But Oklahoma is a state that keeps getting worse and worse. My family and I may very well leave the state here in the next few years for a state that isn't trying to become a theocracy.

[@CarolRiseBell]

I'm glad you made this video, it reminds me of my transformation from a nobody to good home, $80k bi weekly and a good daughter full of of love

[@FlavinRobert]

Hello!! how do you make such bi-weekly , sometimes I feel so down of myself because of low finance but I still believe God

[@CarolRiseBell]

This is what Daisy Clara does, she has changed my life.

[@FrankRobert-l4n]

Wow! I know Daisy Clara, and I have also had success...

[@LauraParks-x9q]

Absolutely! I have heard stories of people who started with little or no knowledge but managed to emerge victorious thanks to Daisy Clara.

[@FlavinRobert]

Please what’s her contact information?

[@andrewbassett617]

Can confirm it is pretty darn easy to live car-free or car-light in downtown Raleigh. Bus service is good. Intercity rail also pretty good. And 1 of 4 BRTs under construction!

[@aly5321]

Which neighborhoods do you recommend? I may have to move to Raleigh/triangle area at some point

[@andrewbassett617]

@aly5321 I live in Glenwood South which has IMO the best mix of urban amenities. But it's also where all the nightlife is so it can get a little noisy if you aren't into that. Warehouse District is where the train station is and anywhere around there is solid. West End is a new/quickly growing neighborhood right across the tracks which has lots of character. But anywhere downtown will be IMO a decent place to live. Otherwise, there are pockets of other walkable neighborhoods outside of downtown if you know where to look. Five points, Oakwood, North Hills, Hillsborough St. area near NCSU. Then if you look further out in the Triangle you have plenty of other options. Downtown Cary, Downtown Durham have tons to offer in their own right.

[@DrSeaLionMD]

I’ve grown up in Cary, went to NCSU for undergrad, went to UNC for med school, and currently live in Raleigh, I feel like it’s not very easy to live in Raleigh without a car. It was only recently that downtown received a grocery store and downtown isn’t a job center like it is in most cities, where businesses seem to be pretty dispersed between Cary, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and RTP. I’ve used the CRX to get from downtown Raleigh to Chapel Hill, which works well, but it’s only during rush hour and taking the 100/800 takes forever to get around. I think it heavily depends on what you do for work to determine if Raleigh is easily car free for you because of the way Raleigh is set up

[@andrewbassett617]

@@DrSeaLionMD 100% agree, it works out for me but I live a few blocks from my office. Definitely wouldn't for everyone. Just depends. Overall things are on a huge upward trend though. Heck even the 100 as you mentioned is about to get a huge service improvement next year! There have been several of those recently.

[@theosiris4179]

@@DrSeaLionMD Exactly. I'm based in Cary and the closest bus stop is a whopping 8-mile hike. Bus frequency is also, at the minimum, 30 minutes. The BRTs will help people who already live close to downtown, but doesn't help everyone else.

[@GraniteJet]

Really glad you made this video. I think having a Walk Score for an entire city is just as inaccurate as using FBI crime statistics for an entire city. Suburban sprawl often drags down scores for cities that might have decent downtowns.

[@spatialfeelings]

In the most astute way, you've managed to highlight how walkable urban places are actually very highly valued according to our economy (seen in high rent/property prices across all these cities). Aka- can only the rich afford walkability in American cities? People claim that Americans- on a cultural level- prefer space and freedom to build whatever and THAT'S why we don't have walkability on the massive scale you see in other societies. But these numbers beg to differ. Perhaps a lot of people DO want it, especially in cities- but walkable urban fabric is hidden behind a large price tag. Then WHO is controlling that narrative? Walkability. Will it always be gatekept by those who only benefit from keeping it a limited (and therefore expensive) resource? Will it always be shuffled to the back burner by policymakers who do not live within and understand the needs of these urban environments? How do we as individuals attempt to make walkability more accessible? Food for thought...

[@kjhuang]

I suspect that the high value of downtown residences has more to do with proximity to high end job offices and cultural amenities than walkability and transit access. Rich people don't want to be stuck in traffic but they're not clamoring to be walking and taking the bus everywhere either.

[@julietardos5044]

I'm convinced that car dependence is part of the plan to keep the masses down. If you can't get ahead financially because of your car expenses, you're less of a threat to the .01%.

[@julietardos5044]

P.S. To answer your last question, attend city council meetings. Listen, observe, then speak your piece.

[@nimrod06]

The causality is driven by a common cause, for downdowns at least. It is where the jobs are, and that creates huge demand and hence drives up the price and density. Then the density drives the demand for transit services.

[@colinneagle4495]

This argument is exactly why I laugh whenever I hear conservative types describe my hometown of San Francisco as some sort of crumbling dystopia. Because if this city is a liberal failure while still having some of the highest home prices in the entire nation, then either they're wrong about the city being a post-apocalyptic disaster or they're wrong that capitalism is an effective means of ascertaining value. Either way, the more they argue, the more they prove their own belief systems to be incorrect.

[@brettrichardson4881]

What about the best urban transit areas that have good rated schools? That's the problem - white flight destroyed downtowns and as things attempted to recover through *gentrification* creating larger revenue bases, schools never recovered

[@frederickheard2022]

Why would we need schools?

[@critiqueofthegothgf]

@@frederickheard2022 hell yea, down with the DOE!

[@kathrynstemler6331]

I went to a downtown high school with a rough reputation in my mid-sized Canadian city. I thought it was great. The teachers were excellent. I took AP. And no cliquey bullshit I have heard happens at other schools.

[@sympathetic_crustacean]

@@frederickheard2022 No need for schools, or children either. When we're old, robots and AI will look after us.

[@laurenappa7233]

Wait, if you have a kid that means you need a giant SUV, right?? Forget transit and school locations and just drive there in your required giant SUV (j/k)

[@meowtherainbowx4163]

Former Lexington resident here! I always love hearing it mentioned, and I'd say both scores make sense. When I first lived on the UK campus, I didn't have a car, and I had a job at a supermarket several miles outside of downtown (the Meijer on Meijer Way), so I took the Nicholasville Road bus to get there. It came every 20 minutes, which was *almost* frequent enough. Either I'd be slightly late, or I'd have to try to catch the earlier bus by not dropping off my school supplies and changing clothes in my dorm. One time, when I missed the earlier bus after trying to bike there, I tried biking the rest of the way. DO NOT do that. I had to give up when I realized there was no way to cross the big ring road without mixing with 40 mph traffic. Still, Lexington's transit was more robust than that of my current city, and it has a bigger and nicer downtown proportional to its size. I miss it.

[@avibarr2751]

Last summer I spent a week solo-travelling around the DFW. I hit 20+ neighborhoods in Dallas proper and 7 different cities across the metro area, all only by rail with good enough frequencies that I never checked a schedule

[@IsaacOrtizEsteban]

DART is underrated tbh. DART + bike is the best combo ever.

[@carlathattranscomrade5267]

Dart user here (North Dallas), it is actually kinda easy to get most places via dart train or bus + bike, just gotta avoid getting ran over by a car

[@matthewshultz8762]

I lived in fort worth for awhile, the light rail from downtown to the airport is great, and TRE is ok too if a little slow. Fort worth has a decent bus service but everything is so spread out once you leave the downtown/w 7th/medical area it's hard to get to specific neighborhoods. Biking on the trinity trail was cool too but not super useful at connecting locations.

[@JJR93]

Yeah, but it will take you about 3 hours to get from Denton to DFW Airport on DART, which is a tad ridiculous.

[@massiminitrains]

Aviare Arts District Apartments in OKC has a transit score of 73, beating out the score of 70 that you managed to find. It is one of the places that I looked into living when moving to OKC, but I ended up choosing a more walkable area with a 12 minute walk to the nearest grocery store and a 10-15 minute walk to a bunch of restaurants. The best area for transit in the city currently is anywhere along the RAPID corridor, the new BRT line which goes from downtown with all its music halls, museums, and memorials, by a number of grocery stores, through the Asian District for tons of Asian grocers and restaurants, out to Penn Square Mall, the home of the only fine dining purveyor of cheesecake in the city, and finally runs along the NW Expressway for its final few miles, a high commercial volume stroad with tons of chains and also local favorites, before turning around for the return trip downtown.

[@nishitgarg1894]

From OKC, do not be fooled into thinking you can be anywhere in this city without a car. The streetcar isn’t fully adopted by the city yet although I certainly think it will be somewhere in the coming years. Biggest problem with downtown OKC is the sheer lack of good grocery stores in the area which will almost definitely need you to have a car. The city has so much potential though. If the interstate didn’t literally cut the downtown off from access to the river I think there was enormous potential for OKC to be like Austin and have stunning views.

[@mid10outdoors]

Davidson Co resident here. Very excited our transit referendum passed. Hope to see you here soon!

[@ProSandlin]

Love how often Charlotte comes up, kinda sad it’s alway in a “not as garbage as you think (in some parts) context lol. I live in the Fourth Ward and there really is a divide between living along the blue line (Uptown, South End, NoDa, etc) and the rest of the city. Every time I have company that aren’t along the blue line, they say they didn’t know this part of Charlotte existed lol. I’ve had locals who were born here say it, kinda wild. You really can pretend you live in a city if you’re not too picky though. You can get pretty much everything you need in a reasonable walk/bike but you just can’t be too picky.

[@530mnorman]

I live in NoDa, I was thinking the same as you. I can take the blue line to my office in Uptown, and then we can walk to stuff around NoDa or train to South End. We still have cars and drive fair bit but not every day. The development up and down the Blue Line is amazing. Shame we can't hurry up and get the Silver line built or at least make the Gold Line more functional.

[@poochyenarulez]

Thanks for doing this. I have to explain this a lot to people. Parts of my city are completely car dependent, but some parts, like the part I live in, I'm a ~15 minute walk to 4 grocery stores and several restaurants. I can bike to downtown and get nearly everywhere I want to. The specific neighborhoods matter a LOT.

[@HowardThompson-ux7kf]

The snark in this one is excellent, even by your standards. I'm here for it.

[@ecurewitz]

Totally on brand for City Nerds

[@RodMesa-e2t]

Dude. San Diego CA has Walk-Transit-Bike scores of 53-37-43, but the Core Columbia district has WTB scores of 98-82-86. Just North of there the charming Little Italy neighborhood scores 98-76-71. I'd love to live there, but I'd have to win the California Lottery first. Such is San Diego, the 11th most expensive city to live in, according to US News & World Report and Kiplinger. Also, I've used my grandfather's 1952 Gillette Super Speed since he passed away in 1972. Built to last at least two lifetimes. I use Henson's blades, which are truly superior.

[@rocknrao]

I used to live in Banker’s Hill in SD. It was a great walkable area next to Balboa Park. But it was right under the flight path into San Diego airport. It would be one of the best neighborhoods in CA if not for that.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

I know you have a particular hatred for Dallas, but I'm happy to see you finally realise it has some good pockets of transit and walkability. Can't wait for the new Silver rail transit line!

[@sweetteaindahouse]

Not only does Jax have the unused skyway, we are now building an autonomous vehicle center that will use small vehicles along one road and not be able to function in the rain. It’s a shame cities can’t revive the streetcars that created our streetcar suburbs in the first place.

[@pdlkmusic]

Seeing the now-closed Sun Ray Cinema at 6:10 made me so sad. Legendary historic movie theater in Jacksonville that also put on concerts. I saw Sunn O))) there in 2016. One of the best shows I've ever been to. Sadly they seemingly got forced out by some shiesty landlord activity. Good news is they announced they're relocating their operation to Tampa.

[@kurtinfl]

Think you're sad; I lost my job.

[@terriellis3697]

Jacksonville finally makes a list! Park street and 5 points are both really cute, as well as San Marco across the river. One aspect of both JAX and OKC that drives these low scores are their humungous physical size. JAX the entire county is officially the city, which means that rural outskirts are considered part of the "city". That has to skew the numbers.

[@ICULooking]

I really hope you can dedicate a little time to talk about the travesty of an equivalent of a governor ordering its biggest city (Toronto) to remove its successful main road biking lanes.

[@botks894]

toronto would be so much better if the ford brothers never existed 😭

[@nikhilsrl]

​@@botks894Well, we are free of one. Maybe there is hope.

[@manmasher]

Yeah,he’s a terrible Premier along with his bunch of grifting Tories.

[@nikhilsrl]

@manmasher Couldn't believe it when he was elected for a second term.

[@manmasher]

⁠@@nikhilsrlDefinitely disappointing but If it’s any consolation look at south of the border - that’s sheer madness!

[@BigFemto1]

Ah Oklahoma City in #1 baby wouldn’t have thought that. But I live in the Paseo neighborhood, considered the number 1 most walkable neighborhood in this lovely city, and let me tell you this city has lots of work to go lol. Currently the bus system is rough mainly regarding frequency and distances between stops. I’m lucky enough to take the new NW Rapid BRT line on Classen Blvd. to work downtown. It truly is a great comfortable ride and very quiet ride at night so worth the money to me. The city as a whole I think tries there best to turn things with new BRT routes, bike lanes starting to get built out away from downtown, and a new commuter rail line in the works to be voted on in 2025 but too bad on the state level and even here, in the city, it can be hard at times to get people to get aboard with these things unfortunately.

[@AudryConsol]

How far out does the BRT run on NW Expressway?

[@BigFemto1]

@As far as I know it runs all the run way to Expressway and Meridian. There’s a parking lot they turned into a park and ride at the southern end of the lake by the spotlight.

[@Roundbrow]

Shoutout to Salt Lake City as well. I lived there for years during grad school and never expected to be able to get around using TRAX as much as I did. Punches well above its weight, even if I wish they would expand it.

[@bearcubdaycare]

My Mom and I enjoyed riding it from the airport. It's wild the contrast with the stroad and parking lots feel of the city.

[@Assistotle]

From experience of living in the outskirts of Raleigh for 2 years, it’s a great city to visit, but not to live in, unless you’re upper middle class lol. The transit and low rate of pay disqualifies most people from living comfortably unless you have a solid community to support you. I grew up interacting with cities like DC, Philly, and Baltimore. DC obviously has an insane wage gap regardless of its fantastic transit, but you really can’t make it in southern cities unless you have a reliable car and are willing to grind all day every day. That’s most of the themes I’ve seen on this channel. I love the data to back up my experience. I’ve since moved 45 min out and still commute in just to cut on my cost of living since I spend life driving around anyways lol. I do see why people keep moving from NYC, California, and other higher paying areas because the cost of living allows for upper middle class individuals/families to feel very well off in the southern cities. Just not great places to try to build up wealth unless you are lucky. It’s who you know. But that’s most places nowadays. Will be moving back up north in the next year to be more comfortable being lower middle class at least and have family around 😂 Will miss the weather. North Carolina nature is beautiful ❤️

[@MTNRanger]

Sadly, you're right. The home pricing inside the beltline is insane - I lucked out buying in late 2018 before the real estate boom. In my neighborhood, homes have doubled in value in five years. That said, there aren't many alternatives in the South. I'm not moving to FL, it's going to be underwater sooner than later! Not moving further north due to the weather. NC is a sweet spot.

[@MRey-t9u]

Hey city nerd. A resident of Denver here. I heard in a previous video that you were possibly coming to Denver sometime soon. I was going to give you a couple of recommendations on cool places on a bike or transit. Some of my favorites on the train are olde town Arvada, Littleton, Washington park and south pearl street nearby, sloans lake area, university of Denver, park meadows mall, Lincoln park, the entire L line, and even the rino area at 38th and Blake. Also, Denver has a great bike network but probably the best trail is the cherry creek trail. Also you could check out the colfax brt project that is under construction currently.

[@rwrynerson]

And Denver is often an example of how citywide scores are diluted by including DIA. The airport alone is bigger than the city of San Francisco. It has its own internal bus and train systems. Denver's main weakness now is that service levels cut for the pandemic are only gradually being restored. The system as of this writing is still short of operators.

[@MRey-t9u]

@ it’s a good point. I know Denver has had some struggles recently because of Covid but they are doing a good job preparing and expanding their system with brt.

[@MTNRanger]

Raleigh resident here (inside the beltline). Look forward to your thoughts on your upcoming visit. Make sure to check out the second "downtown" North Hills. My favorite neighborhood is Hayes Barton.

[@tiagow95]

I get the idea of the video, but if I live in a transit score=90 location and the average rest of the city is 20, I'd still have to go to destinations with terrible transit. If that's the case, it defeats the whole purpose of relying on good transit to not own a car and just use transit to go everywhere within your city...

[@tiagow95]

Also, I see the good transit scores in those central areas, but the amount of car lanes everywhere around the apartment's location gives the chills. Imagine having to walk through these streets full of cars every day.

[@charthepirate]

I want to shout out a lot of local bus operators who have been doing hard work, and getting yelled at a lot to improve bus routes and schedules to help make stuff like this happen. Houston especially is well known for the work they put into their bus system to get there.

[@joelyons3713]

Detroit has always been a part of my life, as a Windsorite, with family and connections in the States. Glad to see Detroit getting some appreciation.

[@critiqueofthegothgf]

what the hell is going on in Kentucky that would ever warrant paying 4 million dollars to live there??

[@F4URGranted]

Bourbon?

[@MarkV007]

Not woke

[@MrBblhed]

I have found that access to solid transit lands you either in really expensive housing, or government housing. Middle income housing with great access to transit is rare, if your willing to step down to good or alright access you have a better chance at very affordable. You kind of proved that here.

[@Zalis116]

That's the conundrum of the US housing market -- when it comes to safety, walkability, and affordability, you get to pick 2 out of 3. Safe and walkable = highly-expensive luxury apartments. Walkable and affordable = ghettos and dilapidated inner-ring neighborhoods. Safe and affordable = car-centric suburbia.

[@F4URGranted]

In many of these US cities there is another option where you can get a studio apartment which is heavily discounted from the most expensive units. It might be a smaller space but you'll have the ability to access cheaper housing in a Transit Rich area. I lived in Charlotte North Carolina, and there I lived in a affordable studio apartment where I had decent Blue line light rail frequency, Good bus service, and the ability to walk a barber shop, multiple grocery stores and local convenience stores where I can get all of my daily activities done without driving. I didn't even use my car more than once a week. That value is still available

[@danielab535]

I want to see his take on New Orleans - a very walkable city in some parts but that has to be balanced against safety/real “livability” (ie not just tourist destinations)

[@karlrambo2987]

I just got back from Mexico City and rode on a brand new cablebus route, the fourth such public transit line using 10 seat gondola car on lines that go up to 10 km. A fabulous option when the street grid gets totally overwhelmed and where building rail is prohibitively expensive……and the views are spectacular. You should check that out!

[@BaermarketingnetworkGO]

Another great video Ray! When you mentioned visiting Raleigh, I thought... hey, you have to visit Cary as part of your Raleigh trip. Cary is becoming the next Carmel, Indiana. Cary is 10-15 years or so into a a major effort to urbanize the core of the city, when there basically was no core before. Today it's full of restaurants, new condos and apartment buildings, a great walkable city center, and the urbanization is just getting better and better. It has excellent bus service in the town and has connectivity with Raleigh and Apex. It also has an Amtrak station right downtown to connect with Raleigh, Washington DC, etc. and Charlotte and beyond in that direction, and down to Florida as well. There is even a new route, albeit temporary, that can take you from Cary to Chicago via Washington DC. Cary also has one of the best greenway trail systems anywhere, which are connected to the Raleigh greenways and to Durham via the American Tobacco trail. Please visit Cary NC!

[@danielgriffin8566]

Love that you added Raleigh to the list! Downtown, Glenwood south, and even Hillsborough street are very walkable and there are many bike lanes throughout. Also if you go to Raleigh, please check out the Little Rock and Walnut Creek greenways which connect downtown with all the surrounding trails.

[@MTNRanger]

I live right next to House Creek Trail - which I found out is the OG trail in the city. One of the great things about Raleigh is the greenway system.

[@marcusrose5943]

Dart is doing lots of TOD around stations so in a few years it'll be not so bad with parking lot to parking lot

[@wabbasMEpern]

CityNerd is so nice and relaxing compared to you know who. Great video as always.

[@sorenolsen9281]

Just talked to a Nashville metro council member about our newly passed transportation proposal. She said that the key to getting the majority vote that had failed in the last two transportation ballot initiatives was to scale back large projects like light rail and start small (expanding sidewalks, updating traffic signals and control centers, decentralizing bus system so not every route loops through downtown). She said that in order to get the public on board with big public transpo changes, you have to build their trust through smaller changes. What are your thoughts on this approach, and the general idea of transportation policy through direct democracy vs legislative/bureaucratic action?

[@AubreyBarnard]

I would say that moving slower with more trust is good, but it is probably insufficient in the sense that a lot of the car-centric development (e.g., the interstate system) was done undemocratically on a large scale, and so it would take similar unilateral, large-scale action to change things quickly (within decades). Ultimately, I think there has to be a balance between large- and small-scale concerns. You can't get certain efficiencies without the large-scale action, but, at the same time, you can't get certain people-centric features without small-scale action.

[@Zalis116]

Didn't outside interests like the Koch Brothers spend heavily against the previous initiatives? Maybe doing more small-scale stuff is a way to stay below the enemy's radar.

[@BnaBreaker]

@@Zalis116 That's a good point. And yes, they came out and funded a group called "No Tax for Trax" that spread disinformation and killed the previous plan, which is a shame because it included LRT, including subterranean tunnels through downtown. It had widespread support until they got involved. Ugh.

[@Ponchoed]

Also its smart to let downtown densify with extensive private development built in an urban form which has been happening for 15 years. Eventually the traffic will get so bad and overrun with car congestion, transit will be the only solution. This applies to Miami too (when Metrorail will get used and appreciated).

[@a2son2]

I know Detroit quite well and the Venn diagram of people who can afford Book Tower and people who would even consider going near the bus station would just be 2 circles.

[@kjhuang]

That's the problem with all the neighborhoods featured in this video. If you're rich enough to live there you're rich enough to not have to take the bus.

[@Ponchoed]

Detroit has a good express bus to the airport from the Book Tower. Detroit bus service in general is abysmal despite the city having a street grid ideal for transit (radials converging on downtown overlaid on a standard grid). I tried DDOT on my last trip to Detroit and regretted it, so infrequent and unreliable. It has a number of infrequent crosstowns and miss your connections. Hopefully as Detroit improves they put more emphasis on transit with the increased tax base.

[@dianethulin1700]

See that Sean Duffy has been tapped for the new Sec of Transportation. God help us all!

[@manmasher]

I wouldn’t put him in charge of a two car parade!

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

Never heard of him.

[@dianethulin1700]

@@crowmob-yo6ry That’s a good reflection on you. MTV Real World alumni

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

@@dianethulin1700 wow😑

[@kjhuang]

The last time I was in Oklahoma City, in June 2023, I was there three days and I didn't have a car. It wasn't great. Pretty much all the bus routes require you to go through downtown and coverage is really slim. I had to use Lyft multiple times and my last night I walked 30+ minutes to my motel cuz that was the closest the bus could get me to it.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

I question how they do transit score if portland is some how only a 49? I don't own a car here because public transit is so good and I live no where near down town. Perhaps they're including vancouver as well? That's the only thing I can think of.

[@rwrynerson]

IF 7 miles of Forest Park and wetlands are included, they'll drag down the citywide score.

[@blindpanthervlogs]

You would love Raleigh. Whatever you do do not leave town without seeing Glenwood Avenue on a Saturday night. Is completely close to vehicle traffic and inundated with people and bars on both sides and restaurants too. I even mentioned you in a video I filmed of myself walking it that I know you didn’t watch.

[@ConorBTarHeelLucky]

HOLY HECK RALEIGH MENTIONED POSITIVELY LETS GOOOOOO!!!! Thanks for giving my beloved hometown some love Ray!!

[@hunteralford14]

Dallas, Texas mentioned!!!

[@andrewdiamond2697]

9:05 - ok, guessing the top 3....I'm going to go with Salt Lake City, Atlanta, and St. Louis...with Tampa, Miami, Kansas City, and Denver also in the running....fingers crossed. And I missed across the boards. Fun Fact: I grew up in Bradenton/Sarasota and used the municipal buses quite a bit...until I was 15 and got a motorcycle.

[@balancedpadawan]

Yay!! I’ve been waiting for you to mention my hometown of Jacksonville!! awful citywide transit score but they’re trying to make things better so maybe one day, decades from now (lol), as the city population grows we’ll get there 🥲

[@bradwilliams7198]

Kind of off on a tangent, but I think it's cool that Detroit named a bus terminal after Rosa Parks.

[@pannoni8449]

As well as a boulevard on the city's west side.

[@dmike3507]

Your options in most cities are either spend a fortune on luxury apartments/condos and not need a car, or buy a cheap house in a partially dilapidated suburb and need a car. Transit seems almost intentionally to be built in areas where the fewest people need it.

[@tristanridley1601]

Cause and effect. Transit drives up activity and destinations and population density, then trendy people are willing to live there, so builders target those areas.

[@jmhern]

Saw DART on the thumbnail and instantly clicked

[@jordanhamann9123]

I've got a video idea: The Largest Cities that DIDN'T Destroy their Downtowns for Urban Freeways. I am looking at Lexington, Kentucky, on the map and I am fairly shocked that it looks like they made a ring freeway rather than a bisection freeway!

[@tristanridley1601]

Did Manhattan wreck itself? Toronto managed to avoid it, by the smallest margins.

[@pannoni8449]

@@tristanridley1601 It mostly avoided it. The Lower and Mid-Manhattan Expressways never got off the ground, while the West Side Highway was converted to a boulevard and has been redeveloping nicely since the teardown. The FDR was built in away so that it didn't harm the South Street corridor and goes under tunnels in some of the most important riverfront districts. Even that short I-95 section way uptown has a major bus terminal and apartment buildings on top of it. It DID wreck the portion of the Bronx it passed through.

[@aaronbecker102]

Hi citynerd. I think an analysis of the efficiency of walking / biking / driving within a city similar to your videos about driving / training / flying between cities would be interesting. Would be cool to see what circumstances make walking or biking more time efficient than driving. Thanks

[@ElCamionero]

My place in Lexington had a 75 walk score/37 transit score - my bus commute to the other side of town was less maddening for its duration than for LexTran’s continued reliance on spoke and hub routing. A couple more non-hub routes to improve transfer efficieny would’ve been a blessing but I made do with a nifty brewery a few blocks one way and a top-notch fried food haven a coupla blocks the other way. 😊

[@barryrobbins7694]

Lausanne, Switzerland has a metro. Lausanne’s metropolitan area has about the same population as Oaklhoma City’s metropolitan area, but completely different priorities.

[@jamiecinder9412]

Oh hey, I'm glad to see my former hometown of San Antonio on this list. Via was actually pretty good for what it was. I rarely needed to drive because of it.

[@Michael-x9y-c8n]

If you (or someone else) haven't done something like this, I'd love to see a comparison of accessibility in different cities, especially focusing on the accessibility of their public transit systems.

[@TheSamuelBob]

You should do a video on cities with medium density in between downtown and suburbia!

[@karlrambo2987]

Regarding Oklahoma City, I live in the area and was able to take public transit to DFW airport (walked to the Amtrak station then TexRail from Fort Worth to the airport - about 180miles) but I can’t get to the OKC airport via public transit, nor can one get to the intercity bus station (there is not even a sidewalk on the street where the bus station is!). The NE 4th and Harrison location you picked is only good for walking to OKC Thunder games and the National Banjo Museum - did we steal that one from Seattle?? I don’t know, but if so, they can’t have that back either.

[@alexanderhancock525]

This is a fun exercise! I checked the differential of my city (way too small to appear on this list, a little college town). Literally no transit score, but a citywide walk score of 35. My location within it, though, has a walk score of 80!

[@ZackScriven]

+1 for not mentioning the presidential election this video. Thank you.

[@vex3963]

I’d like to see a list of good urbanist cities where you can live off of the minimum wage, was hoping that’d sorta show up in this video but even in dirt cheap cities walkability and transit is gated off for the rich

[@katrinabryce]

I tried walk score for where I live. It gives me a score of 49 - Most errands require a car. The bus stop is about 250 metres away. There is a half-hourly bus service that takes me to the town centre and an Elizabeth Line station, and it runs between 5:00 and 23:30 every day. I can walk to our neighbourhood town centre in about 20 minutes where I can get most basic things, or the main town centre in about 30 minutes where I can get pretty much everything. I do have a car, but I hardly ever use it and buy about 1 tank of petrol per year.

[@forrestihler504]

What I would love to see a video on is Intermountain West’s city’s and towns with great potential for public transit. Since the west has a much smaller population, you’d probably need to search for towns as small as 5,000 or 10,000 residents.

[@KevinFeeley_KHF]

I love the obviousness of "I don't have any use for this sponsor's product" present in your ad read and personal appearance. It's golden.

[@FameyFamous]

His beard doesn't go very far up his cheeks or down his neck. He shaved those areas before shooting this.

[@KevinFeeley_KHF]

@@FameyFamous Nice try Mr. Big Razor. We're wise to your nefarious plans to make us all smooth.

[@AGas1521]

OKC has the WORST transit. But the actual problem is that the destinations you would want to get to are so far apart that transit isn’t super viable. The whole city is a food desert and the streets are nightmares for walking. A bus could take you from the downtown apartments to a grocery store 5 miles away, but to get anywhere else you’re walking miles through parking lots or down stroads. Heck, the closest actual grocery store to the lofts at maywood is a Homeland is a 10 minute drive. To catch a bus there, you’re walking at least half a mile to take the bus the next mile and a half.

[@BobFirth]

OK Ray, I live in downtown Sarasota, so I would like to give you some local insight. First, we just have busses and likely will never have anything else. I live 8 blocks from the downtown transit center and between 2 routes, the 2 which goes between DT and the UTC mall via SRQ airport and the 99, which goes between DT Bradenton and DT Sarasota. We have three shuttle services from DT to both Siesta and Lido keys plus a very underutilized Airport bus between SRQ and DT hotels. The issue with it that people staying in a $400 per night room don't get on a $2 bus no matter how frequent it is. We have 3 downtown grocery stores and at least 75 restaurants, we live next to a Publix. We have many theaters and public parks like "The Bay". We basically just use our car to shop or visit friends. We live as urban lifestyle as on can in car centric Florida. We have tried some on demand services over the years (my favorite was I-Ride) and we have high usage of an electric scooter/bike service. The one big issue is while the city of Sarasota is supportive of transit, the country that runs the busses is not.

[@letsgoOs1002]

The skyway in Jacksonville is being shut down soon and being replaced with automated cars. That's not a joke

[@gompye1834]

OH MY GOD LEXINGTON KY MENTIONED!!!!!! I LIVE THERE LEXTRAN KINDA SUCKS BUT ITS BETTER THAN NOTHING. (Fr tho the 35 min headways turn into 65 min headways after about 6pm)

[@MIRobin22]

Oof opening with a shot of Town of Mount Royal is a cheap shot at Montreal

[@tristanridley1601]

We all have our Mount Royal. We just have a slightly easier time ignoring it.

[@saddestchord7622]

I live in Dallas. Not too many years ago I lived downtown, not far at all from where that apartment building is. Despite what the numbers say, actually living there was not good. The problem is the bus system in Dallas is horrible. You can live right on top of a train line but when you need a bus to take you from the station to somewhere close to your destination, good luck. Especially when it's a humid 100 degrees out. And if you live downtown you will need to go to other parts of the city frequently because there's really not much down there.

[@orthrus4490]

How long ago was this? Downtown has been getting massive revitalization and the bus network is in phase 2 of being completely reworked. Plus, uptown is now a thing. Dont get me wrong its not perfect by any means but its better now than it was before covid and its becoming better at a much faster rate as well.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

Some bus routes are good, especially #1-99.

[@IsaacOrtizEsteban]

I would also like to know how long ago you lived downtown. Nowadays it feels so much better and walkable. I find DART to be underrated.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

@@IsaacOrtizEsteban exactly. CityNerd and his fans have an irrational hatred for Dallas. Still less insane than NJB and his fanbase and their hatred for all of North America though.

[@CurtisGreen]

The buses are better than the rail in some cases now. Partly the bus network being reconfigured, partly the trains getting old

[@scottalbrecht3578]

The down side of living at the best transit location of an otherwise poorly-served city is that when you want to go somewhere, the destination might not have great (or any workable) service. Your friends, certain jobs, and particular recreation facilities may be inaccessible by transit. That said, it is surprising how most of the interesting locations are closer in and near transit, and car-share options tend to cluster in those locations, too.

[@ttopero]

This is one of those topics where the next generation of personal technology that provides useful & accessible analysis of our personal behavior data will greatly increase our ability to understand the generic nature of these indexes. They’re better than nothing, but they don’t tell you how useful & accessible it is for YOUR personal needs.

[@lpi6608]

Toronto was told by premier Freeway Doug Ford to remove bike ways to allow more cars.

[@JJR93]

Yeah that's coo-coo for coco puffs.....sorry to hear.

[@DuncanEllis]

disappointing to see Portland even in the HMs, but it checks out. Where I live in SW the busses are highly specific (eg one service only runs during high school travel times) and generally not very useful. Pull your socks up, PDX!

[@Lucas-jb8ur]

For context for Raleigh, I just visited the Edison lofts yesterday and they are very walkable!

[@tunneltrain96]

Regular homes for $1 mil.+ isn't unheard of in Lexington lol. Most of the places that are sold in a ~5-15 minute ride of downtown are very expensive since they're either old or brand new. There's probably a reason why everything is still sprawling out into the edge of the farmlands, but there's still a lot of money that is spent near or within downtown. I wish the transit was better though, a hub-and-spoke type of system is alright, but I wish we had more connector outer suburban routes (we currently only have 2).

[@halleradam]

Yes! Please come visit Raleigh! We’ll show you around.

[@johnlabus7359]

Spot on about where you live in a city matters most. I'm a resident of downtown Raleigh and my experience is very different from those who live in the SFH, car dependent suburbia. Right now the city is building yet another bus station adjacent to Raleigh Union Station.

[@adithyaramachandran7427]

Surprised San Jose didn’t make the list. Citywide transit score of 40 but if you live near diridon I’m pretty sure that number is close to 100. My neighborhood scores in the mid 60’s which isn’t too bad.

[@GregoryMurphyIsNotYou]

That is my lived experience. I'm just West of Diridon, easy access to most everything I need by foot or bike. And Diridon is a 10-minute walk, which gives me access to the entire Peninsula up to San Francisco. I bring my bike on board for the extra mile.

[@bobbybecker6435]

The timing of this video is perfect! You're amazing!

[@Default78334]

Oklahoma City: When Mom says "We have Dallas at home."

[@1986-e3s]

I've always said ... Dallas and okc are twin cities. Okc will build more buildings downtown and it'll be like dallas. Same landscape

[@mokegabXD]

San Antonio Mentioned! The thing you noticed where the walk score is also really high where the transit score is high is pretty consistent. We are also getting a rapid transit bus line soo, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the plan because it seems pretty lackluster once it gets downtown

[@patpat8727]

Walk/Bike/Transit Score can change pretty dramatically in a small space. The exact address in the small midwestern town in which I currently live has a Bike Score of 36 and a Walk Score of 78. 1 1/2 blocks away the Bike Score is 57 and the Walk Score 84. To me this is unnecessarily finicky. The only difference is an intersection of two fairly busy but only 2-lane roads with 25 mph speed limit. But exactly where I live is actually more convenient to the nearest grocery store, Dollar General, smoke shop, etc. than the one with the higher score. I would have to guess this was one of the more labor intensive, low-automation workups you've done, and I think it was pretty great, as someone who lives in a place that probably many would not think of as urbanist but has a pretty high walk and bike score (we won't talk about transit score, it's a town of 10-15k that is 2 hours from the nearest major airport, so forget it). I say all of this to say that there may be other places in the downtowns of these cities that have a lower score on paper but may actually score higher for the way you individually live.

[@slayersmurfable]

Jacksonville! I move over 2,000 miles away but still it manages to rear it's ugly head all the time! I was one of the few souls brave enough to actually use their transit. A score of 21 I think is potentially a bit kind. Anyways I'm just glad I managed to escape.

[@pauljm4159]

I love Henson Shaving. I love what you do too.

[@LiteBulb88]

I never thought CityNerd would show off his bougie side like this.

[@Krommandant]

Please include Mexican and Canadian cities more often in your analysis when possible ❤

[@JJR93]

Re: DFW, while you CAN take the train all the way from Denton, Texas to DFW Airport, if you plan that route out on Google Maps, it will take you nearly 3 hours to get there, coming or going. You'd just be better off taking an Uber or just driving there yourself.