Grid Cities are Fine, and OBF is a Copycat

The difference between you and me is that I don't hide zero creativity with editing skills, I know that my editing sucks.
The Armchair Urbanist Series:
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0:00 Intro
0:35 Why Grid bad?
4:27 Why are the Roads Wide?
5:49 but hills tho
6:39 muh heat
8:28 Let the Smackdown Begin
11:28 All of the Known Copies
11:47 Dad Lecture
13:10 Outro
Intro Song:
• Sonic Mania OST - Stud...
Other Music: Mostly Vulfpeck

[@OBFYT]

Hi Alan, first of all thank you for this video. I’ll do my best to explain everything in this comment to clear some of the stuff up that you mention. The first thing is that you disagree with the video, obviously you’re quite knowledgeable about this topic and I think you presented all the points well. I’ll definitely take the criticisms to heart. I haven’t really thought much about including the sources but it makes a lot of sense to do. I’ll go back and add those. Hopefully they will bring some clarity to my points in the video. I will say though that it was an opinion piece but I could probably have done a better job making that more clear. The second thing is plagiarism. The section of my video you show where I used Vox’s words instead of my own is 100% plagiarism and I’ve cut that part out of the video. It should have never been in the video in the first place, I don't know what I was thinking and I’m truly ashamed of myself for this. I’ve always looked to Vox for inspiration because to me they are the gold standard on KZbin. I’ve developed a lot of my skills by imitating what they’ve made both in editing, animations, and scriptwriting in order to eventually figure out my own style, and I went too far. In regards to the rest of the video, it wasn't copied or plagiarised from anywhere. And I truly mean that. I should point out that the footage I used from Not Just Bikes was done so correctly and falls under fair use. I still wanted to compensate him though because I felt bad after he expressed concern over it on his Twitter even though it was fair use. The third thing is you say that I’ve copied/plagiarised 60% of my videos. This is not true. You apparently had your Discord community find the videos they believed to be copied/plagiarised from other creators. But I’m honest when I say, I haven’t even seen most of the videos you show. Nor have I copied any of them. Sometimes I do make a video on a topic that other creators have covered before, that's inevitable, but why would that make it a copy? If making a video on the same topic as another creator is considered “copying/plagiarising” we wouldn’t have many videos left on this platform that weren’t exactly that. I truly don’t wish to copy or plagiarise anyone, and since the instance with Vox I’ve made a point not to watch any other creator's video on a topic I’m going to cover until the video is finished and uploaded. (Sometimes it is unavoidable though as I might have watched a video on the topic in the past). It’s disheartening to see that you didn’t care to dig a little deeper and actually compare these videos yourself before making such a bold and hurtful claim. Lastly, the reason I deleted my community post. I must admit I was frustrated the day I deleted that post. I had just found out that some of the creators mentioned in it had instead of expressing their concerns to me, done shady things to hurt my channel. It had to do with sponsors and it had to do with their agency, you can figure the rest out for yourself. I can’t elaborate further on that. I should have just kept it up regardless but I hope actions speak louder than words. Thank you, Oliver

[@alanthefisher]

I appreciate you removing that section of the video. But I disagree with you that its hard to not have overlap in videos. Clearly you like covering alot of topics that are already talked about and it does not take long to figure out that many of your talking points come from the same places. Like I said in the video, even if this isn't copycatting someone, I'm incredibly disappointed that you waste your time and skills making videos that have essentially already been made before. I'd really wish to see you cover topics or nuances that haven't been covered before that deserve attention. Yes, that does take more time and effort to research, but I think that someone with your abilities should be able capable of that. Anyway, thanks for the response.

[@rorysparshott4223]

I don't like it when daddy and mummy fight

[@HankM56]

I appreciate you all being so kind in speech despite the arguement

[@OBFYT]

@@alanthefisher Talking about the same things when covering a very specific topic is inevitable to happen. I know that my trustworthiness is damaged and you would have no reason to agree with or believe me but I mean it when I say that I do not copy other creators and I always do my own research. I like covering a lot of topics that have already been covered because I myself am interested in them, I don't see why people should have exclusivity over a specific topic. If that's the case even RealLifeLore has "Copied/plagiarised" my videos. It's just part of KZbin and I think having multiple perspectives on a topic on the same platform is a great thing. But I appreciate you covering this and the kind words.

[@PutsOnSneakers]

@@rorysparshott4223 Honestly I've made popcorn so I can watch this thread grow back and forth between mum and dad. Ah yes... you humans never cease to amuse me.

[@JBBrickman]

This is amazing, there’s actually drama in the city planning KZbin community

[@fhirvhdyg5gjyefhitzaphgbiu748]

The best comment lol, thank you, you made my day

[@trippybruh1592]

This is what KZbin is meant for.

[@polygonalfortress]

even better it's far more civilized judging by this video and another one i saw a while ago

[@xwm.]

Ong I thought geopolitics community are all chills lmao

[@r0bz0rly]

that's what happens when you have a bunch of militant anti-american city design videos. i don't even come from america, and I love european city design, but fuck people like OBF and notjustbikes are just obnoxious and myopic in their arguments.

[@crazeelazee7524]

99% of arguments against grid designs are actually arguments against stupid zoning laws

[@8kokorika8]

Most arguments against grid designes are arguments against car heavy traffic AND bad zoning.

[@cam4636]

The GOOD arguments against grid designs are against stupid zoning laws; a big part of internet arguments against grid designs is 'bwuh bwuh I don't know anything about urban planning but I think it's ugly & I've never been outside my own city bwuh'

[@rendomstranger8698]

@@cam4636 Nope, plenty of good arguments against grid design that don't involve zoning. Improper traffic calming being the main one. Even without stupid zoning laws, a grid design results in people taking the shortest route by default instead of the route that is best designed for high density traffic. It is why we have so many one way roads, noisy street surfaces, dead end streets, traffic bumps and low speed streets here in Europe. You cannot build a functional grid design without correctly regulating every single detail. And at that point, a grid layout only takes away flexibility without giving any benefits.

[@CHMichael]

It's laziness. Zoning is ok if you alternate. ( I'm personally a friend of common sense. But we have too many people ( lawyer) that will abuse flexibility.

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

@@rendomstranger8698 only problem with your statement: most european cities dont have grid designes. And instead of complaining so much why dont you come up with a better design? Because thats apparently all that people these days can do: complain and seek attention instead of providing solutions. Thats why we have so many activists: its just politics for lazy people. Where people would start revolutions in the past you will now just have a few angry kids complain a lot about a certain subject and then wait for it to turn into a cringy trend that the establishment can then exploit. Anyone who believes that the system will just magically change because ✨democracy✨ is a fool who deserves to be locked up by an ✨oppressive✨ regime.

[@goldengep]

I like how he conveniently leaves Vancouver out of "most liveable" and "grid". Vancouver's been ranked among the most liveable cities in the world for years.

[@Rebelgoose]

No idea why Vancouver is there tbh. It’s so incredibly expensive and the homelessness is out of control

[@daudimasinde6280]

@@Rebelgoose What??? Compared to most other cities the homelessness isn't that bad . And at least most of them reside in East Hastings.

[@Brent-jj6qi]

@@Rebelgoose I just don’t get it cause they’re Canadian

[@greem1245]

@@Rebelgoose same can be said with sydney too

[@DonnaChamberson]

@@daudimasinde6280 um have you even been to the us? I’ve been all 50 states, 5 provinces, and 2 Canadian territories. Vancouver has horrible homelessness.

[@rilke3266]

As someone that lives in Chicago, I have never once thought to myself "this city is unlivable." The city has probably the second best public transportation (after NYC) and has zoning that is mixed, meaning you can go get groceries, something to eat, and walk your kids to school without having to drive 20 mins.

[@Nazuiko]

I know exactly one thing about Chicago and thats its mass transit system is insanely well developed, namely the El train(s) and subway systems.

[@EastGermany-pc2lw]

honestly there are two places i would want to live in america and its nyc (which i temporarily moved out because landlords are dicks) and chicago. Chicago seems like a paradice compared to literally any other city in america.

[@PradedaCech]

"The city has probably the second best public transportation (after NYC)" Because you don't even need to mention the country, the world basically consists of the US only. :D

[@Wall3Wapter]

Chicago may be the best city you've lived in but that doesn't mean it's any good. it might be a case of the rest being absolute disasters. but, atleast you're living in a place where you seem to like it. thats all that matters. there's always going to be some place that's better ;)

[@carolederent7638]

@@PradedaCechAre you brain damaged? The Op is lambasting Chicago and mostly just US cities

[@invention64]

Damn, he really copied that shit word for word. And he literally gave the best argument for why his statements were bullshit right at the beginning.

[@seamusmckeon9109]

Classic example of someone who thinks acknowledging the opposing argument cancels it out

[@saosaqii5807]

@@seamusmckeon9109 at least he acknowledged a counter point. Could be worse like some thick skulls who never admit they're wrong and believe they're always right

[@XMysticHerox]

@@saosaqii5807 Well he didn't really acknowledge it he just mentioned it. Thats not the same thing.

[@Nyx_2142]

@@seamusmckeon9109 When your argument is bullshit to begin with, it does.

[@janmelantu7490]

OBF: “The Perpendicular streets of the grid disrupt airflow” Chicago Winters: “I’m about to end this man’s whole career”

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

The irony being that grid cities are well known for NOT disrupting airflow, hence why Chicago is the Windy City.

[@lazergurka-smerlin6561]

Holy shit, even my dad knows grid cities are windy. He complains about it because it makes the cities cold! (We live in sweden)

[@janmelantu7490]

@@isaiahc8390 Sir, this is a transit video

[@Rale881]

@@isaiahc8390 that's actually really unconvincing dude.

[@BaronVonSTFU]

I was walking with some friends in downtown Chicago in the winter and as usual it was windy as shit. I asked my friend why she was wearing snow pants when there is no snow and she said it sucks to have ice cold wind blowing on your lady bits. I learned something that day that should have probably been obvious. Wouldn't have happened if the grid had broken up air flow

[@corbinpeacock8722]

There's drama in the city planning KZbin community

[@TheWizardGamez]

Can’t wait for a year from now when v2sunny makes a vid explaining it all

[@ASLUHLUHCE]

That a hole ain't part of the community. He just picked a content niche, and started copying videos

[@richpryor9650]

I would keep my eye on this dude, he seems like the kind of person that gets away with shit by being nice and non-confrontational as a defense when people call him out, but goes right back to the usual schedule after the heat dies down.

[@52andattitude48]

Exactly, glad it’s not just me

[@GreyMaria]

Gosh, it's almost as if _people don't change._

[@Nyx_2142]

@@GreyMaria Some people do, most don't. Why? Because change takes active effort and introspection/reflection, something most people don't care to do because it can't be done overnight.

[@GreyMaria]

@@Nyx_2142 People don't change. They simply learn how to hide what they are.

[@VestedUTuber]

@@GreyMaria Have you ever stopped to wonder that maybe in some cases that's a self-fulfilling prophecy? That the reason why some people don't change is because assholes like you would reject any attempt they made to do so?

[@aegisrevr7254]

Hey, freshly graduated city planner here. Grid cities were somewhat vilified in the studies, but most arguments against them aren't so much arguments against grid cities as they are arguments against the way that we fill our cities. Keep up the work!

[@Jytami]

City planning student here. Grid Cities were somewhat presented as fine. The problem was that it was too dense like, say, in the Hobrecht Plan of Berlin. Basically put arterials into Berlin and made property stuff. It was very economical to just put as many houses into that one block as possible and there was no consideration for sunlight, fresh air cycles and basic amenities. U can still see the extremely dense blocks in Berlin today. But we are going back to semi-grids today.

[@thebabbler8867]

Grid cities are simply the best. The problem is: they are the worst when cars are included.

[@AlexSchwartzATV]

@@thebabbler8867 That generally what i concluded from the info in this video and what i felt like was mostly the point.

[@bengoacher4455]

@@Jytami It's difficult to balance the need for housing with the need for open spaces. We don't want our cities to look like Hong Kong with thousands of hundred meter tall apartment blocks. But we also don't want them to look like Dallas with sprawling suburbs stretching for miles. In europe we do med/high density separated by public parks and green spaces. Which seems to work well. But there is a widespread housing crisis. In America they do no public spaces but each house has it's own green space in the form of front and back yards. But they also have a housing crisis. Truthfully there is no good way to build cities, but the layout of the roads are irrelevant either way.

[@Spido68_the_spectator]

@@thebabbler8867 which is why cars shouldn't be welcomed on every dang street. Also, have you learned that other things than sidewalks promote walking?

[@PrinceJayReal]

Videos like this are really necessary. In the world of music or film or television there are critics who serve a historically important role to call out the bullshit. On KZbin you can't even see a dislike bar anymore let alone the fact that the average person wouldn't know to click it on a bad OBF video. There generally is no moderation or critiques of KZbin content. It just floats around as if it were fact.

[@BB_Sebring]

Well yeah, do you think Alphabet cares about factuality? No, they just want the ad revenue. Sure they put Wikipedia links for "controversial topics", but then they promote establishment media like CNN and Fox News that aren't exactly known for reliable news. It's also why KZbin Kids videos are still such a problem. The videos make too much money, they're untouchable meanwhile adult videos on current events get taken down to protect establishment media. Go fucking figure

[@FalconsEye58094]

How many vids has me made now just correcting other youtubers, Wendover, RLL, OBF

[@FlymanMS]

@@FalconsEye58094 Bendover amirite

[@MrRellic]

@@FalconsEye58094 RLL was a video that did need severe correction...this is exactly why people are afraid to respond to others videos because they'll get told they just want attention from the other channel. The people who say that have (correctly?) internalized that KZbin and most media is just shallow attention grabbing content and critiquing any of it is also shallow attention grabbing content. But that just shows the need of some form of content like this.

[@scpatl4now]

@@MrRellic As for the RLL video, I watched it and thought there were some things that didn't seem right, but it wasn't until this channel pointed it out that I realized just how bad it was. If not for this channel, I probably would have accepted many of RLL's arguments. I also think RLL then admitting that he was wrong and re-editing the video was a very good thing to do. That helps you get back some of the integrity you lose in the first place.

[@crabbo_5265]

As someone from Chicago, thank you. The way the city is planned as a grid system is fucking amazing, it made it easy to get around and navigate the city, only problem was crappy public transport and dispersion of stores and residential buildings, but even then Chicago was way better than so many other places in the USA.

[@aruce9]

I totally agree! I lived in the city for my college years and the city is very easy to get around. You don’t really need a car to traverse the city but I do agree the CTA is a bit of a problem. There have been times when I got off of work at 10:30 and there were no trains period

[@cthulhuthedarklord5231]

Fellow Chicagoan here! So true the one time I went to Rome I nearly got hit by so many cars because the stop lights don’t make sense and we spent half our time lost trying to get back to our hotel. European streets are fine for those who lived there for years but if you are a visitor, just moved there, or are even just in a new part of town it is so incredibly easy to get lost.

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

I live in Chicago. The grid system is amazing. The only major problem is the trains only run to and from downtown. Much of Chicago is also very walkable. I’ve been to nyc and Manhattan is a grid system and is really nice to navigate as a result.

[@victuz]

I'm not from the United States but I heard Chicago is infamous right now for being dangerous, I mean is that true?

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

@@victuz Chicago only has the 12th highest murder rate among US cities over 250k people. Far more deadly places. And the violence in Chicago is almost entirely concentrated in the poor areas that most people who aren't poor will almost never step in those neighborhoods.

[@tspoon772]

Just wanted to point out that Melbourne was most liveable city for a while, and I think there’s probably a total of 5 diagonal roads in that town, probably the most gridded city to ever exist

[@spacegrass6632]

as a queenslander melbourne seems like heaven on earth to me, brisbane is an unnavigable fuckhole of a city

[@tspoon772]

@@spacegrass6632 “Brisvegas” - shithole from what I’ve seen

[@SeanA099]

Holy shit. I didn’t expect him to copy a video word for word

[@aditya_raina_]

Yeah atleast do the bare minimum and switch up the words or something idk

[@chengmatthew1435]

honestly OBF to me always feels like a waste of potential as his content just feels like 15 year old me who knows some random facts about urban planning and geography by watching other channels, then rearrange them to fit the clickbait title. His editing skills makes his content more accessible and he should do better on researching in-depth topics edit: just realized that Alan also talked about this in the video and I completely missed it, guess I am the OBF now :/

[@kralle98]

I mean ive caught him on several occasions just uploading a video the day after asking the community what topic they wanna see

[@somebonehead]

@@kralle98 Of all the legitimate criticisms you can make of OBF you picked that?

[@christapunt]

@@somebonehead Well that's honest criticism though. You can't just make an actual good educational video about a topic with only a day's worth of research. Not about the topics OBF posts about. The only way to churn out content so quickly is to copy and paste from others.

[@somebonehead]

@@christapunt Yes but that's different from simply inquiring with your audience about the content they wish to watch. Oh wait no I'm wrong, the point of the criticism was short time between when OBF asks and when he uploads his videos, not the fact that he asks his audience what they want him to make. My apologies.

[@aturchomicz821]

Didnt he make a video about Nordic Prison Rehabilitation from a Center-Right perspective? Wtf😬

[@danielconnell1331]

THANK YOU! Melbourne is a very good gridded city. And it's very livable because it's gridded. It has an excellent tram network which utilises Melbourne's linear roads. And it's easy to transverse because it's gridded. I agree that gridded cities can be bad, but ungridded cities can also be bad. It's much more complicated than that.

[@themellowpea]

the topography argument is literally only a problem in cities skylines lmao

[@ecologion9445]

How do cities like San Francisco manage hilly grids better? It is almost impossible to build hilly grids in CS, so what differs from CS to reality. I am fully aware CS is just a game btw.

[@timchikun]

? not really lol

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

Plagiarism is one of the ongoing issues on KZbin which seem to be worsened by the algorithm. I allegedly blame the algorithm because I feel that the algorithm right now is probably trying to read my mind and guess what other channels I might like based on what I have already subscribed to. For example, there are a few channels about disasters or accidents that I have subscribed to because they have done quite decent jobs. However, I am then recommended several disaster/true crime/supernatural/true event channels which, well, I don't think I would check them out because they would just cover the same stories. The same goes for other genres as well. (No, I don't want any more videos on Elizabeth Holmes or Theranos, thanks.) I think it is also a problem even before KZbin exists. When someone has successfully sell something (contents), there are newcomers and some copycats joining in until eventually the market saturates. Deep inside, I believe that if a site has too many users (billions, let's say), the site will be eventually too big to manage. Problems will inevitably erupt, and there is no way to practically control anymore.

[@ramr7051]

The Theranos one hits close to home for me haha. I constantly get those recommended, even though I've already watched three or four different ones...

[@RealEngineering]

Thanks for making this Alan. I wasn't even aware OBF plagiarized one of my videos too. It's a really frustrating problem, and he's not the only channel guilty of it. My scripts take anywhere from 1-4 weeks of research, and rely a lot on my education as an engineer. I see channels copy my explanations frequently, and they often just completely butcher them in their attempts to mask their plagiarism. OBF is just one in a long list of content farms that just copy and riff other channels. Uploading at the frequency he does is impossible without plagiarism. Research and writing is the longest part of the process for any self respecting EDU channel. He's not even the worst of the lot though. Bright Side has 44 million subs and constantly plagiarizes other creators. It's not a new problem. I have been pushing KZbin internally to have some sort of appeal system to flag channels that do it frequently, but that's obviously a very tricky problem to solve. I don't own the information I share.

[@alanthefisher]

Exactly, and yup research takes forever and half the problem with making a video is scheduling around that research for multiple projects. I appreciate the comment ✌️

[@hyperspeed1313]

Does the copyright claim system not allow you to claim plagiarized content?

[@MedlifeCrisis]

@@hyperspeed1313 the copyright claim system on KZbin is for direct use of audio or video, if someone re-narrates a script word for word with stock footage, there’s precious little that can be done without manual human review that KZbin simply can’t do. Even more challenging is if a creator rehashes something slightly, changes the grammar and words etc. Which is of course a problem central to all published work and has been a challenge for book writers for generations. But to be clear, as Brian says, none of us own knowledge. And as the old saying goes, copy from one person is plagiarism, copy from manny and its research. We all get ideas from others and that’s fine. It’s just upsetting when someone piggy backs off your work without adding to it. I’ve been ripped off a few times too and there was nothing I could do (nor really wanted to do), but did get an apology from one at least.

[@soundscape26]

Bright Side... 🤢

[@teemo8247]

"Research and writing is the longest part of the process for any self respecting EDU channel. " I believe you when you say this, because Kurzgezagt mentions in every video of theirs that they spend thousands of hours on research lol

[@curious5887]

Really like that you called Adam Something a “smug guy”, because majority of his video are at best, just him complaining without any thoughts and factchecking the sources he use

[@curious5887]

The only thing I agree with Adam is his video about EV, Gravel Institute and Elon Musk Hyperloop, plus that Neom city of Saudi Arabia

[@FlawdaFootball]

Adam Something is also a fascist who openly advocated nuclear war with Russia to further NATO foreign policy goals

[@curious5887]

@@FlawdaFootball while i do agree he isn't a great person, but calling him fascist seem to be a bit of a stretch

[@akshatgupta4817]

@@curious5887 Isn't Adam something basically a socialist lol.

[@curious5887]

@@akshatgupta4817 maybe, but i think he is a moderate leftist socialist, as he debunked the leftist version of PragerU, the Gravel Institute, about their inaccurate video about Ukraine

[@clownfromclowntown]

I live in Chicago without any car, and the grid system is great for me personally. I’m autistic so having very straightforward instructions of just “up ___, over ____” makes walking around a lot easier and less stressful than the cities I’ve been to with much wigglier design :)

[@WindowsDrawer]

Lol yeah i hate checking if i rode off at wrong road bc there are so many

[@jamsstats1700]

I’m from a city that nobody cares about (Hint: It’s in Northern California, close to Sacramento) My city looks like a maze. I often have to use Google Maps to know where I’m going

[@ncubesays]

Ironically he has a "Why London is Terribly Designed" video and that city is not a grid. He gets seriously panned in the comments section for just being wrong in his reasoning. Actually had the gall to say London's public transport system is bad, when it's one of the best in the western world.

[@davidty2006]

hmmmm. London has the tube. Ontop of the overground, Ontop of the busses, ontop of national rail, ontop of idk how many other ways heck you can walk to downtown if you fucking wanted to. And i don't get anyone who drives in central london.

[@Lemonaitor]

@@davidty2006 Precisely, literally the only thing london doesn't have are trolley buses (which they easily could because they fucking well used to.) and an extensive tram network, which same as my last point.

[@mingpingxie3563]

@@davidty2006 An add on from a Londoner. -People 11 and under travel free -Zip cards for 11-17 that are easy to obtain which allows you travel by bus for free -Over 60 travel free -Frequent buses, even in E A S T London. I live next to the A12, next to a bus line which doesn’t actually get many passengers. Yet, yet, you have to wait at the maximum 15m. Less usually. Plus, there’s a schedule on the triangular prism post thing -Delay are almost never over 3 minutes -One bus ride with an oyster card is £1.60 but if there’s 2 in a hour, it’s still £1.60

[@DilutedDante]

That was the first of his videos I saw, and I was cracking up laughing throughout. Almost all of it was just flat out wrong. The straight up copy paste of the Vox video is pretty jaw dropping as well.

[@sora64444]

@@davidty2006 you could drive in London, but then again you would get to wherever you were going faster by dragging yourself through the floor like a worm

[@TheSpecialJ11]

4:30 Not only is the DOT a culprit here, but these grids were legitimately laid out wrong when cities were platted. They should have made every fifth street an artery and the other four narrower. This is not a fault of grids, this is a fault of poorly designed grids, just like how Salt Lake City's blocks are too large but Portland's are nice and small.

[@Spido68_the_spectator]

@@tomassakalauskas2856 no left turns? That would make really annoying and... like a highway. Instead, have fewer intersections on arteries. That's when they work best.

[@jamalgibson8139]

​@@Spido68_the_spectator I think what Tomas is saying is that the arteries should be actual Roads and not Stroads with a bunch of conflict points. That makes travel through the city easy and more convenient, not to mention much safer. Maybe I misunderstood, but just felt like offering that perspective.

[@cmmartti]

@@Spido68_the_spectator No left turns, but the mid-blocks could be small enough that turning right and going around the block effectively operates as a roundabout. Or just use the roundabout at arterial intetsections.

[@TessHKM]

@@Spido68_the_spectator as a general principle, left turns should be avoided when possible.

[@statelyelms]

I love how you've made this video. Usually, when a creator makes a callout video, it's mostly villifying because there's a lot of emotion and they've begun to see this person as just completely rotten. Meanwhile, your video is mostly just a callout of their actions, and not themselves. Hell, you've gone into depth trying to figure out why they do it, and how much talent they have. It's like a wake-up call by a calm but increasingly disappointed father.

[@clan741]

You can design a city like a grid, like a circle, hell go all trapeze, but where you place residential and commercial areas and how you connect them will always be the determining factor of a cities ease of travel.

[@Otome_chan311]

I literally cannot think of a more efficient design than a square grid. The shortest path from A to B is a straight line. You want something that tiles well, and so you've really got three options: square grids, triangle grids, or hexagon grids. Of those, square grids allow for straight lines which make public transit systems easy to navigate and predict (ie, they go straight down the line). Directions with a square grid are also stupid easy, just straight lines and sharp 90 degree turns. Anything else needlessly complicates things.

[@adamevans1989]

His London video gave me a bloody aneurism. Kept banging on about how bad it is for cars... Mate, jog on, cars can naff off. TfL is one of the world's best public transport providers and all he drones on about is 'muh car traffic bad'.

[@lordgemini2376]

Probably the worst video I've entirely watched on KZbin without hyperbole. It was horrendously inaccurate

[@SilhouetteLifter]

@@lordgemini2376 yeah that was the video that made me go "yeah uhhh I don't think I'll be watching this channel anymore"

[@HallsofAsgard96]

Can u imagine if everyone in London drove? The car traffic would b a lot worse.

[@erininstereo47]

Wait, so in one video, he says grids are bad, but then in another, that cars need to be accommodated... WTF?

[@ncubesays]

That video should be deleted. It's bad. That said, pissed off Londoners came for him in the comments section. They don't let that shit slide!

[@jayayebee]

The most important things for me personally are that streets should connect and be human-scaled. You can have winding roads or gridded streets. Just spare me the stroads, culs-de-sac, and private drive nonsense.

[@Doddibot]

I'd argue the connectivity is important mostly for modes we want to encourage (walking, cycling, transit). Streets for cars don't have to be that well connected. A cul-de-sac that lets pedestrians or even buses/trams through isn't bad.

[@josephfisher426]

@@Doddibot But if you don't connect the streets for cars, then you have to create preferential routes for collectors and arterials, which then have to be widened because their intersections gum up due to volume. And over time that forcing leads to longer average trips (both in length and time).

[@a_pet_rock]

@@josephfisher426 Nah, widening roads make the traffic worse. If traffic gets bad, the only solution is more transit and fewer cars.

[@MattMcIrvin]

I kind of hate that the approach to my local commuter-rail station is a few hundred feet from my house but I have to walk about a mile to actually get there because there is no walkable connection. That's a consequence of quasi-suburban cul-de-sac design, and the fact that the station is designed as a park-and-ride and is separated from the neighborhood by the train tracks themselves with a single underpass acting as a choke point.

[@Purplesquigglystripe]

@@josephfisher426 if traveling by car takes longer than other methods, then people will start choosing those other methods until the car traffic reduces enough to make traveling by car comparable to those other methods. It’s a stable equilibrium.

[@rylie8989]

me: * watching from my home in San Francisco * "let's move on to something really easy to debunk" "grid cities need to be flat" me: "hey they're about to mention us!!"

[@mr.fantastic7756]

Bay area and California mentioned 🥺

[@Kevbot6000]

Salt Lake City resident here and you using it as a bad example hit close to home LMAO. I remember telling a tourist a restaurant he was looking for was 4 blocks away and when he started walking towards it I felt bad 😭. However the streets you showed as examples (State Street and 900 South) are arterial roads meant to get people in and out of the city, they show up about every 3-4 blocks. The majority of the streets are a lot thinner and more walkable, but still suffer from the big city block issue.

[@justaguy5384]

Weren’t the grids in Salt Lake originally meant to accommodate garden green space in the center so that the city and its residents could be self sustainable?

[@brick6347]

​@@justaguy5384 there were a lot of things they considered that we wouldn't! Like being able to turn ox wagons, irrigation ditches for farms, and fire prevention. It also allowed for easier defence of the city, allowing troops to move around the city rapidly. Not a consideration to modern planners, but very much on the mind of the settlers when conflicts with native Americans and other colonial powers like Britain were still commonplace. What most people don't realise is that this same idea is also seen in the urban planning of Paris. Those huge boulevards were constructed with the same idea: move troops rapidly. If there's any connection between the two cities I can't find one, and it's likely just convergent ideas, but Salt Lake City does actually predate the Haussmann plan by a few decades.

[@midnightflare9879]

I love how the "grid bad" argument only makes sense if you can't imagine your city being anything but car dependent.

[@mytimetravellingdog]

nah, pre-car european cities either aren't grid based or tend to be grid based in a very different way to the US. It also makes just walking around them far less interesting.

[@connorisme5084]

@@mytimetravellingdog Sure, but getting lost is a lot less likely in a city with a grid compared to one without a grid.

[@nonegone7170]

@@connorisme5084 If you still get lost in a city (place with signage everywhere) in the age of instantly knowing your location (GPS and such), then there's something wrong with you...

[@yossarian6799]

@@nonegone7170 oooooh, good response. What's next? "I know you are, but what am I?"

[@spacegrass6632]

@@yossarian6799 but he has a point, anyone who has the resources to watch this video shouldn't be getting lost in their own city grid or not, you can open a map on your phone at any point

[@sporkafife]

I understand the gripes, andas a European, videos like "Why Europe is Extremely Well Designed" miss out on one very important fact: most European cities weren't "designed", they are the result of an almost organic growth, often over centuries.

[@juliusbeutler7090]

That's true in some sense, especially when talking about the inner cities. But if you take Berlin as an example, a huge part of the city was planned in the 1860s by a man named James Hobrecht. The interesting thing is that he planned it in a radial way, that still had blocks resembling a grid. Personally I love this design and I would like it discussed by Alan sometime.

[@raphdaily9546]

Most European cities were often not the result of pure organic growth, that is a false statement to make.

[@sporkafife]

@@raphdaily9546 Okay, I get what you're saying. Most expansions to almost every city wouldn't have been "organic" in that every addition would have been knowingly designed by with an intended purpose, I know that. The thing is with many cities that have been around for centuries (and some for millennia!) These expansions would have been undertaken by people with vastly differing priorities that are usually incompatible with one another, sometimes bodging and adapting previously built sections of city. This leads to something approximating organic growth in that on the whole there is no identifiable uniform design philosophy

[@indfnt5590]

@@raphdaily9546 most Americans don’t know about WW2 apparently. The right wing is now pushing for teaching “both sides” of the Holocaust. 💀

[@Maxzatlin]

Not really haussman in Paris

[@fauzirahman3285]

Melbourne's known for its Hoddle Grid, and a view on the maps or from above doesn't do it justice. It's built over 4 hills and former swamps, so it actually has peaks and troughs. When there's a huge downpour, some streets become some sort of rivers, you can see the water flow down the hill through the tram tracks and end up with water pooling in some intersections.

[@TomBruhh]

It seems a lot of urban design youtubers talk less about street design and more about road layout design, with the exceptions being the better urban design youtubers like Not Just Bikes. Street design (width of drivable surface, barriers, medians, trees, etc.) make a much bigger difference than virtually any road layout does.

[@TheHothead101]

"Perpendicular streets disrupt airflow" seems just outright false based on elementary physics. It literally creates multiple avenues for wind to blow into regardless of direction, and allows it to flow without being disrupted. Cul-de-sacs, for example, obstruct airflow due to the fact that there are no channels FOR air to flow. The Urban Heat Island isn't about grid streets, it's about pavement stovetops and glass building magnifying glasses heating them up.

[@penskepc2374]

I know, that sounded wrong to me too

[@blinded6502]

I mean, aerodynamics are a lot more complicated than that, but sure, saying that they "disrupt" airflow is too loud of a statement.

[@mrbaja-jc9vc]

Chicago's literally known as "The Windy City"

[@PronatorTendon]

Cul-de-sac-de-sac

[@penskepc2374]

@@PronatorTendon im the king of the sac!

[@zachryder3150]

First RealLifeLore and now OBF? No one is safe!

[@NS-xo6qe]

All of these hacks need to be called out

[@atruv2089]

And that final shade at Adam Something? Truly, no one can escape.

[@mar07in]

Real Life Lore uploaded a redone version. It's good that at least he recognised his own BS.

[@lordgemini2376]

OBF is orders of magnitude worse than RealLifeLore and that's saying something

[@Racko.]

RLL simply didnt do research on the Cali HSR video, OBF is just a shill At least RLL owes up to his mistakes and his videos are ENJOYABLE to watch because pretty much all of his videos are actually informative and makes sense because he makes them to his own taste

[@JoshDoingLinux]

I’m in the process of writing my first videos for a KZbin channel that I’m starting and I had no idea that like 4 creators I’ve watched were actually just copying others. One more thing I’ll need to watch out for especially if I’m smaller in the community since my voice won’t really carry as well as urs. Thanks for the info sir!

[@danielmalinen6337]

The concept of grid cities was born in Mesopotamia long before cars, and Alexander the Great brought the idea to Europe. During the Renaissance, this urban planning concept that was once favored by ancient people was reintroduced and it is still in use in different variations and the latest of which has been to bend and stretch the grid city into different shapes instead of straight streets. And since the concept has been working for thousands of years, I believe it will last for thousands more years.

[@robertopoblete7876]

Id also add that hundreds of mass produced roman cities across europe, asia and africa were built in grids too. Some of europes biggest cities stated off as grids, london paris, trier.

[@principalmcvicker6530]

These urban planning/logistics/geopolitical wannabe know-it-all channels really annoy me but I can't quit watching them lol. Thanks for making these videos

[@imalittlejuicebox7367]

Idk how to word it but there's really just something off about them like they did some research but not enough

[@roseroserose588]

@@imalittlejuicebox7367 Almost feels as though they're reading off wikipedia/similar and cherry picking sentences that make the point they want, rather than investigating the issue at hand?

[@Project2457official]

@@imalittlejuicebox7367 no exactly I remember watching an OBF video on LNG for maritime use and it struck me as poorly research considering its trivial environmental advantage of diesel and furthermore the amount of methane emissions in contrast to diesel. These essays are much too poorly researched as said and lack nuance. I saw one on biofuels and it just made me cringe, mans barely dived into the incentivization for deforestation, peatland and peatbog biodiversity loss etc.

[@andrei19238]

The thumbnails always look better than the videos

[@macgobhann8712]

I actually like a lot of them and agree with them but yeah some of them are so snobby and off-putting. Not Just Bikes can sometimes get that way but I understand that it's because people who get angry at him and what he says can be so annoying sometimes. Adamsomething however, is the worst with it. Dude is a such a know-it-all asshole that loves to shame people in his videos and community posts for not knowing as much as him and agreeing with exactly what he has to say. It sucks.

[@RectifyingTCovenant]

I have my issues with that liveable cities list, but it's really funny that OBF didn't include Melbourne, Australia, a grid city that always features on that list.

[@jondabon6522]

And Vancouver! And it’s forgetting all of the non grid cities with a horrible qol!!! It’s not the grids, it’s just American cities :(

[@HavokTheorem]

And he put Auckland on that list. Auckland is the Los Angeles of New Zealand. I hate it lol.

[@JelliThePilot]

as a chicagoan i think it rocks when some random australian who plays favorites for ad rev just constantly dunks on a city they've never been to

[@TrebleSketch]

Same with Adelaide! The first planned city in the southern hemisphere too! And was liveable no.3 in 2021 before I guess we fell down to no. 30 this year. Probs due to the more car-heavy policies in the past few years kinda just made a lot of things bad xD

[@anderpodd2677]

The dude has a massive hate boner for the USA why would he ever acknowledge that it’s not a uniquely American problem

[@fifthgear93]

12:46 The smug guy actually has extremely good insight into politics and economics. His videos on city plannings are also great.

[@curious5887]

Maybe in politics, as he debunked Gravel Institute inaccuracy about Ukraine, but on economics and urban planning, he is not that great, like his video about skyscraper is a bad idea, in which he failed to understand that some cities has a limited space like Hong Kong and Singapore, but of course, he just complain about it in the most cliche way possible, plus, i rather trust economics degree over socialist over-complaining using cliche argument

[@mechanomics2649]

@@curious5887 Did he insult your political views or something? Going through the comments and responding to everyone who says anything about them with superficial criticism you pull out of your ass ain't it, Chief.

[@curious5887]

@@mechanomics2649 at the same time, you are being defensive of OBF, and also toxic, just fuck off

[@sandybell4913]

That may be true, but he still comes off as a prick to me.

[@KasabianFan44]

@@sandybell4913 Well yeah, that’s part of his shtick. Making videos about bad urbanism from the perspective of a grumpy arse.

[@ryanthoms]

Why is the city planning channel drama the best thing I’ve seen today lmao, to this OBF guy I hope you watched the end of this video, Alan makes several good points that you’d probably benefit from hearing but either way good luck, I hope your KZbin journey goes well and I hope you use those editing skills for good

[@MedlifeCrisis]

Enjoyed this video a lot. I’ve been a peripheral observer to the whole OBF thing for a while (actually didn’t know about a couple of the ones you highlighted) and I totally echo your sentiment at the end, the chap is clearly talented and it just seems like he’s not learning, or doesn’t care, judging by his responses on twitter or on his community tab. He alleges shady goings on, but I think it’s more simple than that - creators chat to each other about other creators.

[@koraptd6085]

Among the "educational creators" on KZbin his thumbnails stand out really clearly as exemplary clickbaits. As long as he was a beginner it didn't really bothered me that much but as he progressed something should have changed.

[@FabianEason]

Please do a pair of swap interview videos like you did with Sabine 🙏

[@seankilburn7200]

Yes let’s encourage name calling in videos. How very civilised

[@ledgeri]

I do not know if i am in an algorithmic bubble, or youtube really a big village, but seing you 2 days in a row as a commentator on a channel's - what i like - new wideo, and respect.... feels cosy :)

[@AaronSmith-sx4ez]

It's not about OBF caring or not...or even copyright issues...it's his YT manipulation that matters. He's found a way to get free ads to his channel. It's a simple recipe...provide a script with similar keywords/phrases of another popular video and YT will send you free referrals. Once this idea catches fire, we're going to see these types of videos everywhere on YT.

[@th5841]

The point about large blocks isn't that straight forward. I lived in Beijing, where the blocks are really big. The plus was that inside each block there were big space for green area, playgrounds and space for people to interact. Outside in the streets, the sidewalks were wide, there were wide cycle paths, often seperated from the street. It was still walkable. Not far to go for groceries.

[@RickJaeger]

Block Pedestrian Permeability, you might say, in combination with block size.

[@maean7410]

this sounds a bit like russian microrayons, where you have large walkable blocks with all the necessities separated by car roads

[@Fidel_cashflo]

In Salt Lake we fill our mega blocks with parking lots and car dealerships!! We’re taking baby steps in the right direction tho and at least we have a good transit system

[@pedrob3953]

It’s the “superblocks” design, common in communist countries. In China in particular it’s implemented with a grid, and every building is oriented north-south.

[@penguinpingu3807]

@@pedrob3953 traditional Chinese city planning does rely on grids and most cities are rectangular. According to my tour guide when I was traveling the country. So, maybe some aspect of traditional planning made it into modern planning.

[@emlel1948]

Saying that more intersections are the reason drivers are slower is like saying that smoking is the reason less people die on trafic Corelation, not causation.

[@jandroniol]

I have to admit that I have come to this channel bounced from the obf channel. Precisely the one that made the grids left me stunned, even more so when most of the large European cities have all or part of their grid network (perhaps not so perfect like the ones they do in America but grid after all). Thanks, now I know which channel I have to subscribe to (plus you have an exquisite sense of humor)

[@Hyjaxaru]

The fact that the OBF video is word for word for the VOX video is absolutely crazy and disappointing. I fail to see why someone would do that?

[@lugi25]

True, I was wondering why I thought I've already seen that video, from obf.

[@misosoppa3279]

Because research is hard and creating content takes so much more time than people are aware of. Even an OBF video probably takes 1-2 weeks just to put together, so imagine how long it would take if you do the research too... Not justifying it, just saying that very few people know the insane effort it takes to create a KZbin video

[@connorisme5084]

IKR? And i can’t believe he stole the video from VOX, a pretty large company which surely has a legal team.

[@modalmixture]

Not Just Bikes, City Beautiful, Alan Fisher, City Nerd, Oh the Urbanity… these are the urban planning channels I trust.

[@stefanoraffo5096]

Adam something is pretty fun too if you want more light hearted videos

[@SilverMe2004]

@@stefanoraffo5096 12:49

[@enduser8410]

Not Just Bikes is extremely anti-Canadian/anti-American.

[@Jaguarkralle1]

@@enduser8410 Good

[@FirstnameLastname-cw8ok]

@@enduser8410 I’m American, and it’s easy to see that he’s not against us, he just hates sprawling car infrastructure, which is not a personal attack.

[@CrazyC1456]

Grids are also more efficient for utility infrastructure because they facilitate good connectivity, redundancy and density. More efficient utility infrastructure is easier to modernize and maintain (Quality over quantity). Some things I can think of based on my experience working as a utility engineer: - You can serve more people with less infrastructure on a grid. - Planning routes for water/sewage, gas, electric, and communication is very straight forward as you don't have to take overly circuitous routes or arrange for easements to avoid/navigate private land. - If you need to maintain a particular utility line, the road you close isn't going to have as much of an impact on transit routes because there are plenty of alternatives nearby. Additionally, utilities don't have to coordinate as much with private entities to get access to infrastructure for maintenance or emergency response. They can generally just coordinate with DOT to set up a traffic plan and get to work. - It's safer to have utility mains located in easements that are clearly demarcated as public (along roads, or in alleys) rather than have them located in easements that cross private property because a private property owner could, for example, decide to dig on their property without consulting an underground locating service first and hit a main. It's easier and cheaper to have mains located almost entirely in public spaces on grids because of their good connectivity. - Dense utility infrastructure makes it easier to have redundancy via multiple independent routes that are close enough to back each other up in the case of outages/issues.

[@sardu55]

I have a friend who is an actuary for a 'major American insurance company'. I brought this topic up with him and he noted that when planning accident probabilities, they calculate the distance between 'intersections or traffic adjustors.' Or grids. Cities with longer distance grids have higher traffic issues (jams), accident rates (all kinds both parked and moving vehicles), people being hit by vehicles. That contributes to higher insurance rates.

[@eliasurrell7445]

As someone from Barcelona I was constantly thinking about my city when watching this video. Literally everything that you urbanism youtubers say about Barcelona is how awesome the grid is (and it is). Then this guy goes and starts trashing grids because US cities are grids and they suck. Glad you mentioned my city at the end :P

[@spilledmilk4801]

Double standard.

[@BlackGateofMordor]

I found it funny that OBF directly correlates livability indices and grid cities, when my own very-gridded city has topped that list multiple times in a row. Barcelona was on my mind the whole time on top of that.

[@pmlb7715]

Not just Barcelona, Turin is another European grid city.

[@frankzivkovic6071]

i dont think its about grids. more like that you have ecverything that you need in walkable distance in barcelonas grids. In US in most cases you need a car to go buy food or anything esential. Barcelona also has dedicated zones for walking without cars, and limited in withc ways cars can go ( one way streets) so that part of city is liek big roundabout of sorts.

[@nathanvalle6997]

@@frankzivkovic6071 "i dont think its about grids. more like that you have everything that you need in walkable distance in barcelonas grids. In US in most cases you need a car to go buy food or anything essential." Correct. And every American city planners will tell you that even though American cities are famous for being built in grid, ALL the infrastructure built since ww2 HAS NOT BEEN BUILT IN A GRID. Its all winding suburban streets and cul-de-sacs. OBF is an idiot, because he conflates how American cities are built now (stroads, freeways, and cul-de-sacs) with the way they were built in the decades before cars dominated American streets (in grids).

[@SidenoteChannel]

Video editors and graphic designers can be hired; writing a good script is a whole different game, it comes from lifelong learning. If writing didn't matter then every editor/designer would have been a celebrated KZbinr like NotJustBikes or RealLifeLore. OBF is copying the part that takes the most time & effort. Furthermore, plagiarising an already successful video means that you've got a greater chance of going viral on KZbin. It's good content, if it went viral once, it can go again under your channel's name. Making videos on new novel topics is risky and come with many uncertainties. OBF will apologize, delete those parts and vouch for never doing this again but his channel stands on the back of those practices. He has still got those subs and views. This is wrong precedence being set. We'll increasingly more people doing this to get successful on KZbin.

[@amadeosendiulo2137]

Oh, it's a side note.

[@RK-cj4oc]

His videos are good. You guys really cry to much. If his vids take hits in quality he gets less views. That how youtube works. You dont own showing knowledge. Or should math inventors be able to sue people for explaining math in videos.

[@SidenoteChannel]

@@RK-cj4oc no one owns showing knowledge but people sure own their work, books, papers, scripts and the style of "showing knowledge". By your logic, every book, magazine, scholarly article, research work, school's homework is free to copy-paste, publish and profit. My most popular video is not published on my channel. It's translated word-for-word into a different language and posted by someone else. It has got over 15 Million views. Someone profited from my work and didn't even give me credit, let alone a share in profit. I can't do anything about it because I don't have the means (or it's not worth it) to fight a case of copyright infringement. Tell me how's it "crying" if I complain about it.

[@RK-cj4oc]

@@SidenoteChannel "people sure own their work, books, papers, scripts and the style of knowledge" So in my country there are 2 dofferent companies. They both sell math books from 2 different authors. Surely 1 of the autors can sue the other, because they sure do look alike. They must have copied him. Owh wait. You cannot sue. Because it is knowledge everyone can gather. It gets more complex if you include actual self made up topics like for example Game Of Thrones books. But your vids are not a imagination. They are just like math books about things that are out there. Thus its not really for you to own it. I do disagree with the other person. Just full on stealing your vid, because they also took the editing and artstyle. Which IS stealing.

[@OsedayCan]

Did you just call NotJustBikes and RealLifeLore bad?

[@s.a.m.francis]

Omg Thank you! I remember when I first noticed this with OBF’s Dubai Islands video. It was such an obvious copy of Neo’s video. Not only was the content super similar, the original thumbnail was the same and the logo was incredibly similar too. Essentially if you were a Neo subscriber or looking for one of his videos, it would have been really easy to accidentally click on OBF’s. I feel like this had to have been more than just a coincidence and more like a channel building strategy.

[@IlliaIsCooking]

7:20 Finally some recognition for how good Bilbao`s urbanism is!

[@JordanPeace]

The copying thing is hilariously bad, but for me his videos always felt like “nothing” topics that just say the same point over and over without actually forming a sensible argument and bringing in random (somewhat misleading) statistics. It’s like he had an argument in mind and then brings in statistics to support it rather than looking at the statistics and using them to form an argument, and it’s so poorly done that it doesn’t end up really saying anything meaningful at all

[@penskepc2374]

"American hating America" is a big money audience right now. Europeans are rejoicing.

[@shawnpitman876]

The reason his videos seem like that is because he doesn't do anything to make them himself, he just takes other peoples work and very poorly(information wise) mashes them together.

[@samaraisnt]

this is sooo many pop yt videos now. Then all the comments are like "This is genius. I never thought of this!" like noooo 😭

[@spaghettiisyummy.3623]

This..... SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT!

[@mondto]

>Grid cities are bad because heat > Let look at an example > *florida*

[@KasabianFan44]

Yeah, wait until he discovers the grid city of Kinshasa! It’s always so hot there, and it’s definitely because of the grid system! LMAO

[@Ratsos12]

The absolute worst city shape I’ve personally had to deal with was Canberra, it’s a bloody circle, in multiple areas you have to cross crazy amounts of oncoming cars, roads are poorly marked for the direction of traffic in some places, gps will lie about how to get places. Grids are fine, just burn all circular cities to the ground.

[@Super-JD]

Ha! First thing I thought was" but Barcelona is a wonderful grid city. It can work", glad to see you mentioned it! You could have mentioned Montreal too the grid is bad for cars but great for pedestrians and bikes.

[@TheFlameofIcarus]

Another note about "Grids require you to flatten the entire terrain" is you can just gesture broadly at every city in Massachusetts and say: "Are you sure about that"

[@CThyran]

San Francisco doesn't exist apparently.

[@rainbowrailroadcrossing7798]

Haverhill MA or Nancy France doesn’t exist apparently

[@TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs]

9:57 Wow they didn’t even bother to change any words. Bruh 🤣

[@CatonsvilleCentralRwy]

Good video with a lot of great perspective. As an American transportation engineer, I can say there's currently a lot of push to learn from past mistakes. For example, "road diets" are a common approach to improving urban streets. By widening sidewalks, planting more trees and gardens, striping off dedicated bus/transit lanes and bike lanes, narrowing auto travel lanes, and moving parking off the street, a lot can be done to make existing streets safer for drivers, bikers, and pedestrians, make streets more pleasant and walkable, and actually (believe it or not) reduce auto congestion. Also great point about why streets were built wide in the past. I'm so sick of hearing "because white, cisgender racists" as the reasoning for big fat streets in cities. They did this because they thought making roads super wide would improve safety because there's more room for cars to drive (read about the clear zone concept to learn more about this). While this is absolutely true for high-speed, high-volume facilities such as freeways, the exact opposite is true for city streets as they encourage higher speeds and more aggressive driving.

[@IIAOPSW]

Thank you so much Alan. I watched an OBF video once and thought it was extremely grating and unoriginal. The basic thesis of that video was just "American cities bad, Euro cities good", but it was riddled with mistakes that really showed off how little research he had done before trying to make that case. There's plenty of fair game to criticize about American cities, but criticizing American cities without know what you're talking about is just the most obnoxious form of condescending Euro-elitism. Its superficially intellectual, but really just punch-able. You're completely right, his editing and presenting style completely covered up for the lack of substance considering how many likes and views and agreeable comments he was getting. So thanks again Alan. You really reminded everyone what an actually researched video essay looks like. Air tight case, with evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt. Real community service.

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

yeah. i'd rather be criticizing actual problems with american cities, not from a "LOOK HOW MUCH BETTER WE DO THINGS IN EUROPE LOOK HOW STUPID AMERICA DOES THINGS" perspective but to actually make improvements in american society. i'd rather not just copy europe, there's plenty about america that's worth keeping distinct and independent from europe, but all too often people just go ahead and take the "europe good america bad" route, which really grinds my gears. stop being an elitist doorknob and just make the argument already.

[@AlexanderSkinnerVids]

Babe wake up, new Armchair Urbanist

[@MrTestrak]

fr

[@alexanderlenssen5948]

I stopped watching his videos after I felt strongly insulted by his video about coal in Germany. I'm from the region where they mine the coal, and there are certainly problems, but he portrayed us like we are mentally retarded or something. The way he presents his videos really feels like a 15 year old having a presentation in school and his language reflects that.

[@lordgemini2376]

I felt the same way on his video about London. It was the most inaccurate thing I'd ever seen on KZbin

[@somebonehead]

It wouldn't be the first time blue collar workers were looked down upon like they were stupid, and it won't be the last.

[@dejomrsic6093]

I mean hes sort of a jack of all trades channel, he makes videos about literally anything, and an insane amount too. There is no way someone can have experience in that many topics so his only option is to copy or mislead due to his shallow research

[@michael1857]

I felt the same way about his video with Chicago. Like you said, we obviously don't have a perfect urban plan, but he makes it out to seem like we live in some sort of hellscape.

[@davidegaruti2582]

But honestly damn the nerves of the governament , to shut down nuclear power plant , open coal mines and coal power plants , And then comment "harsh but fair" basically ... When i heard that it just made me go nuts , the unspoken contract was don't shut down working power plants , and they broke it ...

[@Yort781]

Its interesting you point this out because I basically follow most of the people he has copied and because he gets recommended to me alot I often feel like I've watched his videos before and just forgot without it ever occuring to me that he straight up plagarized. I'm glad you pointed this out though so I can spend less time on him and continue giving support to the people that actually did the work.

[@danteeightsix9069]

I used to live in a major city in Florida. Most of the streets followed a grid pattern. It was fairly easy to get around. Now whenever I come back to visit, they've added a ton of roads that don't follow the grid pattern, and it has gotten very difficult to get around. Often, I don't know where I am and have to stop to figure it out or turn on my GPS.

[@lovemykids570mommyvlogger]

The urban planning community these days seem to just watch and take in the big urban planning channels without generating their own ideas and conclusions. It's kind of a sadly a big circlejerk for big urban planning youtubers. Please use critical thinking skills people and do research instead of just watching educational youtube videos because not every youtube creator knows what their talking about.

[@MelGibsonFan]

To be honest that’s a big problem on KZbin in general I think. A lot of left channels (progressive, DemSoc, Marxist etc) do this too. It feels almost parasitic on the community. Time and money is siphoned away from irl activists and advocacy groups into the pockets of popular KZbinrs who just sit on their ass pushing out this shitty content.

[@blancavelasquez9859]

you really summarized it perfectly with that circle jerk comment lmao

[@ramr7051]

The KZbinrs who don't know what they're talking about are sadly all too common. Well-produced videos with nice infographics and script that sadly completely miss the point or omit/misinterpret key facts. Especially those jack-of-all-trades channel where a single person tries to cover cancer in one video and geopolitics on the next. You can only be a true expert in so many things.

[@KRYMauL]

Strongtowns actually has really good ideas.

[@zhuofanzhang9974]

Tip 1: Always use critical thinking skills Tip 2: If the visual and editing is good, use more critical thinking skills to fight against your mind's instinctive tendency to believe in them

[@punchy8033]

This guy is why the phrase “correlation doesn’t equal causation” exists

[@APS1350]

I love how this niche of, I'd describe it as city design/ infrastructure channels present genuine criticisms towards each other, allowing each channel to grow in their skills and video production quality, thus giving us, the viewers the best videos possible. No pointless drama, just genuinely good criticisms mixed in with witty jabs for ADHD retention.

[@cloudscript]

i am close to choked up just looking at that neighborhood at the end... i keep expecting the street/road to pop out at the next partial turn... it's amazing. wonderful. closer to the heart...

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

If anyone knows how to design the perfect city, it's my grandpa and father. Building a new city from ruins wasn't easy, but with some Soviet help, never giving up, and keep pushing their goals, they made it happen. And now, I carry on their legacy to make Pyongyang even more modern. The people are happy and that's what matters

[@SpartanChief2277]

Hahahahaha 😶

[@octopus_72]

I don't know whether to put 😂 or 💀

[@conroads2626]

🎉 yes

[@MrCrunch808]

Besides the first sentence, this joke comment is fully true. NK built their cities back from the literal rubble that America, in its deliberate attempt to commit genocide against North Koreans who didn't submit to American dominion by bombing their cities, and is now a surprisingly functional nation. Another thing that America likes to blame on North Korea is brainwashing of citizens, which was America's justification for MKUltra as American soldiers left the American side and joined the Korean side as they realized that America joined the war purely to kill and exploit Korea and America needed a way to make it look like those soldiers were actually the bad guys.

[@conroads2626]

@@MrCrunch808 North Korea?

[@tilongatao]

Made me think about Mannheim, where they have even their addresses in their grid scheme (with letters and numbers) - and the have great transit (with enormously ugly, however spacious trams operating in a large network with neighbouring cities) - and humour, which, in contrast to transit, is not totally common in Germany: there is an institution in block C4 (which you would pronounce like "Zephyr", which would be "zephyr" in English) having a lot of fun with this special pun. Fond of your work, looking forward to more to come.

[@MadisonRamanamabangbang]

It reminds me of when I was trying to practice art as a kid and so would trace pictures and say I made them and try to copy the style until I developed my own, not realizing that I was just hampering myself

[@herethererainbows]

I have more respect for real life lore because they did do the re-upload.

[@xjing800]

Alan fisher is going on his joker vigilante arc

[@FlymanMS]

We live in a KZbin society

[@Heldarion]

Whenever I copied stuff from anywhere, even when citing passages, I made an effort to rephrase the content at least somewhat. It always bewilders me how actual plagiarists never seem to make the bare minimum effort to hide the fact that they're plagiarising other people's content.

[@Daniel-de2jh]

LMAO " the smug guy with the minute ad in it" damnnn didnt have to do adam something like that haha

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

I live in a fairly small european town, mostly built on a grid, and I find it much more liveable than the neighbouring city which has streets from the 1500s. If the city planners do their job, it doesn't matter the layout.

[@LaVaZ000]

What town do you live in?

[@lemonade4181]

@@LaVaZ000 probably the small European town of BARCELONA.

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

@@LaVaZ000 Near to Västerås, Sweden.

[@KRYMauL]

These are type of places I point to when I say walkable neighborhoods.

[@Nionix123]

10:00 it's not even plagiarism, it's worse

[@cluelesskanna9178]

i opening this video expecting it to be about city planning and this is so much more than what i expected

[@legosbyjacob]

I gotta love the fact that I saw OBF's original video next to this one at the same time in my recommended.

[@LittleGuyer]

I waited the whole video for you to mention Barcelona. I was just there and that, my friends, is how you build a grid.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Oh yeah, OBF makes WAY too many mistakes (I especially noticed this in his ghost town vid about Myanmar). Like in a vid where he talks about Japanese geography and why it's terrible, he included a clip of Hong Kong double decker trams as if they're in Tokyo, he brought up lack of resources but didn't acknowledge that's what led Japan to expand and invade its neighbors historically, failed to mention typhoons which you know stopped the Mongols from invading, and used an outdated map of the Shinkansen network without the Hokkaido Shinkansen, Hokuriku Shinkansen, and the Kyushu extension of the San'yō Shinkansen to Kagoshima. OBF is just a Dollar Store Vox. That being said, I love grid cities, I find it so much easier to work my way through a grid city than one that isn't. Maybe because I've been to NYC so many times, but I've never had a problem figuring out where I was. And if I didn't, I'd go to the nearest subway station and then find the way to my correct destination

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

yeah, i just think sometimes some of these people just try to prove that europe is better than america or something. while i think there are definitely a lot of aspects that europe is better than america at i think the extent of that gets overstated. in any case, i think grid cities are better, as long as it's not infected by cars like many cities in the united states are and as long as the blocks aren't too long. but yeah, i don't know, man, they obviously have a chip on their shoulder and a point to prove.

[@dunnowy123]

I like grid cities more too., I find them way easier to get around. Also, the "European who thinks he knows everything" and thinks Europe has a (secular) duty to inform the unenlightened world about how to run society, government, and cities is easily the most annoying type of content creator I see nowadays. It's like the White Man's Burden but a more gentle version of it lmao

[@aditya_raina_]

@@dunnowy123 True, enlightening the world after Europe stole everything from the rest of the world and then being very self righteous about it.

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

@@dunnowy123 yeah kindof, except their main target of ire is americans [who often get stereotyped as being ignorant, foolish, short-sighted, conceited, or bigoted] rather than africans or indians or native americans or such. it's a type of white man's burden except aimed at americans, who are perceived as being the "top dog" and therefore a more acceptable target for ire and derision and general smugness. same shit, different day, really.

[@richpryor9650]

@@dunnowy123 I hate it when it's some American doing it, like Johnny Harris who gives off a lot of "I spent one semester in Spain and I literally hate everything about America now. Literally", energy.

[@agent_soshi]

In uni I was talking to an urban designer, who was a judge for a design exercise we were doing, and we were talking about how my city used to be very “griddy” before cars. Working class neighbourhoods were focused on lot numbers and not car access so they were walkable and relatively dense. Now those old suburbs are valuable and have narrow streets, street trees, and lots of intersections, so they’re quite pleasant and walkable.

[@nathancox1529]

Living in Philly too there's so many ups and downs in the actual city like waking to my school or when I lived in West Philly like a lot of visible elevation changes

[@FlymanMS]

I'm kinda wary of that trend when people make videos with impressive editing and very know-it-all tone while not taking care of fact and logic checking what they're saying. They are going to rise in views because they are pretty and well made visually and narratively but they are going to spread half-truths and misconceptions.

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

PragerU would like to know your location.

[@narata1541]

The Cheddar KZbin channel is sweating. Seriously, watch their video on city grids, and try not to roll your eyes so far that you'll be blind.

[@Deefoh]

Thank you for this video! Sad i watched half of ODMs video before noticing/switching to yours. Grids are dope when done right. Coming from someone living in SF

[@sealine8717]

Your choice of intro soundtrack has already convinced me the rest of the video will be better thought out and argued than anything that other channel has ever put together.

[@DW_25]

Melbourne is quite literally a grid city and it's one of the best cities to live in. You can have great grid cities, and Melbourne is peak design (mixing wider streets with narrower ones, running trams through the bigger streets, having very wide pedestrian areas even on major roads)

[@stopsallmelb]

Very high pedestrian if you're within a few km of the city, otherwise everyone wants to fucking drive.

[@geosophik9369]

Those criticizing the grid system seem to not have lived in a city without it. When it comes to getting from point A to B, the grid system is by far the best for both pedestrians and cars, because you can intuitively reach your destination without a map. In a non-grid city however, you'll need to ask for directions because you'll head one way thinking a street will take you to your destination, only to find yourself lost.

[@shaylenpatel6904]

Same with Vancouver. Excellent public transit, bike infrastructure, and walk ability by English speaking countries standards. And is almost a perfect grid

[@Lankpants]

@@geosophik9369 Once you're used to a non-grid city getting around isn't hard honestly. Same with anywhere. I've gotten lost in Melbourne because the streets look too samey when I first moved here. And also grids are not the most efficient way to move people around, pedestrians or cars. The most efficient method is concentric circles. It mathematically produces the shortest average trip. Grids are abysmal if you want to move in any direction that isn't one of the grid directions. For example moving between Flinders and Flagstaff on the Melbourne grid is actually quite a long trip compared to straight line distance, not a trip most people would make by foot, but it highlights the issue. Concentric circles always keep trips more reasonable. To make this clear I've no issue with either kind of city really, although I do think rigid grids can be a little problematic. It never hurts to have a few streets that break the grid up.

[@geosophik9369]

@@Lankpants Oh, it seems you've never been to some countries in Asia and Europe where they have what I call "Maze cities" 😄

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

Back when I was in the UK, I once went to Milton Keynes, which is one of the newly designed towns. Milton Keynes is pretty much grid-like, unlike majority of cities or towns in the UK. I recalled getting lost in Milton Keynes because in non-grid-like settlements, there are curves or different gaps I can use as landmarks. However, it was hard for me to navigate in Milton Keynes in the same way I used to do in other places. That's it. That's my problem with grid cities.

[@deezychesse]

why the hell would you be walking in milton keynes

[@timmystwin]

But on the flip side, I went to central London once, walked to Lords cricket ground, and my phone died. But just by knowing it's a rough grid system I walked down the streets in the direction I felt I needed to be going and got back to where I needed to be. They can make landmarks harder to find if the buildings on them all look the same, but on the flip side it makes it incredibly easy to navigate.

[@tomer4566]

the original planners thought they were making milton keynes walkable - but the issue is their cycling/walking paths are completely separate from the roads, poorly signed and confusing, and sometimes too indirect. even though the paths are green, the road noise is still there.

[@brandonm1708]

In grids, you can just find your way around by either looking at street signs, or by paying attention to the look of buildings. If you’re used to looking at the shape of the street, I can see why it would become problematic, but it’s really more because of a different mindset needed

[@untitled9229]

My problem with Milton Keynes is that it's a car-centric city with a ton of sprawl. It feels like you took any other large UK town, rearranged it to fit a grid, stretched it out, and then slammed a grid road layout on top of everything. Not necessarily a fault of grid layouts in general, just a bad implementation of one. Although it's still much much better than many other places.

[@fenderman6127]

I just added his grid video to my watch later and then I saw this. I’m glad I watched this one first

[@DaCombatDude]

I was watching his "Why Tokyo is so well designed" video and I was wondering why it felt so familiar like I had watched it before. Turns out I had watched the b1m video about that topic earlier in the year and it was much more well done.

[@FalconsEye58094]

WOW, that was pretty damning with the Vox video comparison

[@ralphanator4]

That Adam Something call out at the end is savage. I love his videos but yeah its very smug sometimes

[@mrsteamie4196]

Damn bro same. I quite like that channel but it's sad to see that one of his videos is scraped :/

[@RandomOperativeRightWing]

I liked his videos until he started showong his trash politics

[@mrsteamie4196]

@@RandomOperativeRightWing booooo. Ruski.

[@writershard5065]

@@RandomOperativeRightWing Nah, his politics are good. He's just smug about things, which is an easy turn off and pointless for if you wanna actually help other people learn from you.

[@rkaratimus1]

Glad your video came up in my feed.

[@Ikbeneengeit]

Presenting possible objections and then dealing with them is actually a great way of making a convincing argument.

[@MrBaskins2010]

wow that kind of plagiarism was so dirty that i now have to shower in bleach

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

I was actually thinking about your Street Width Video the whole time while watching OBF! It’s weird to make the assumption that grid = wide streets. Just build streets around multi use traffic and grids work great! I’ll also mention that grids make it extremely easy to find your way around a new city or to a new point in your current city.

[@Lankpants]

As OBF himself said in his own damn video "you wouldn't watch the decrease in the number of pirates and blame climate change on it". It's just that a whole lot of cities in countries with shitty infrastructure happen to build grids and a whole lot in countries with better infrastructure don't. And even then there's outliers. Canberra isn't a grid and it's a car-centric hellhole. Tokyo is a grid and has one of the lowest rates of car ownership on earth.

[@johnweimer3249]

I actually love them both combined. I love the grids of Greenwich Village in Manhattan combined with the meandering alleyways. I loved getting lost in Venice with its total chaos. I wouldn’t want to have to travel to work in Venice, but to just wander was wonderful. Overall I’d prefer old European style cities , there is nothing like the surprises around every corner and picturesque beauty in the difference every turn can make. I understand the practicality of a grid but to me there’s nothing more special than the unknown and the follow the yellow brick road feeling of fanciful exploration.

[@moshdee456]

That little neighborhood at the outro was gorgeous!