How to Fix America's Worst Streets

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Suburban arterial roads, sometimes known as "stroads," are some of the most dangerous streets in a city's network. Cars drive on them fast, and there is often limited facilities for those walking and on bikes. But they can be fixed!
Streetmix: streetmix.net/
Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

[@CityBeautiful]

I'm not even contractually obligated to do this, but I really do like my Bellroy backpacks. I bought them way before I got sponsored. Here's a link for 10% off: bit.ly/3LYgYNh

[@SathyaswamyS]

Could you make a video on how to fix city planning in India? It will be useful for other 3rd world countries with poor city planning as well. 🇮🇳 🤡

[@franklinclinton8744]

It would be great if you can make videos about city planning in the Middle East, Latin America, SEA and Africa as well. It will appeal a wider audience.

[@elizabethdavis1696]

Please do a video on Japanese train stations that double as grocery, malls, offices and hotels!!!!!!

[@carstarsarstenstesenn]

@@SathyaswamyS ​ That would be very interesting but one of the things that makes these videos so good is his knowledge & experience with planning and traffic engineering in North America. I'm not saying he's a bad candidate for a video about Indian urban planning in general, he just probably doesn't have the knowledge to figure out how to "fix" issues in a country on the other side of the world.

[@SathyaswamyS]

@@carstarsarstenstesenn He can give a try. Indian city planning is a mess and can make a North American city planner faint.

[@TDaltonCombs]

Now I'm going to spend all weekend on Streetmix fixing streets in my neighborhood.

[@barryrobbins7694]

What are you going to do? Play Minecraft?

[@kingofbengland]

Same here.

[@dlazo32696]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Kaede-Sasaki]

Streetmix has no app and the website is specifically stated it will not function on mobile. I even tried but had no function except looking at things...this is the 2024, not 1994. 😢

[@Gfayeadfvsthhfs]

Just did that

[@plangineer1375]

As my handle indicates, I do this for a living. Yes, right-of-way width matters... but more important is the location of the curb lines. Moving curbs means moving drainage structures and buried utilities. That is extremely expensive - even with adequate right-of-way. Unless the locals get significant state or federal funds, they are typically cost-constrained to stay within the curb lines.

[@Trey-bien]

Ok, tbat might answer some of my "why don't they just" questions for my city gov

[@javierpowell4705]

this should be much higher in the comment section! That's an important factor to keep in mind that really should be mentioned more. I didn't even think about this until this comment.

[@KirkWestphal]

Which thankfully still allows you to do all kinds of traffic calming and bike infra!

[@plangineer1375]

@KirkWestphal Correct. Most of the implemented redesigns keep the curb lines static and reallocate pavement to bike and/or transit use. The "4 to 3 Road Diet" the Professor showed is a common example.

[@plangineer1375]

@@javierpowell4705 HT to you

[@rwrunning1813]

By the way, the city actually applied this exact kind of "Road Diet" to the downtown portion of College Avenue! I think they made the change around a year and a half ago, and as far as I know, the bike lanes are still there. There are also several new apartment buildings in the downtown area!

[@roosevelt_dogg6154]

They are! Expensive apartments but housing nonetheless!

[@martylawson1638]

@@roosevelt_dogg6154 Presumably expensive because they're near a rare pedestrian friendly area and new. Hopefully they open up vacancies in other more affordable locations as they fill up.

[@WorldwideHistoryProductions]

People in positions of power prefer opening up new infrastructure over maintaining existing infrastructure. No glory in the latter.

[@drlauch2256]

well this would be new infastrucutre (just not for Cars ;)

[@Radi0he4d1]

This still counts, no?

[@Trey-bien]

​@Radi0he4d1 it all depends on how you pitch the plan, right?

[@tjs200]

except they dont build new infrastructure either

[@ph11p3540]

They also prefer to rip up sidewalks and crosswalks wherever possible.

[@LeonidJP92]

-Not Just Bikes- Just trees

[@joao84704]

agreed

[@kjh23gk]

Presumably you've never watched NJB's first video. In context: "... there's lots of good reasons why Dutch cities are great, and it's not just bikes."

[@LeonidJP92]

@@kjh23gk Of course i didn't. But for history i need to do it. 🫡🚋

[@davidfouts1939]

This is such a coincidence! I developed this exact methodology for stroad retrofits at my job and have been using it for months now. One thing I like to add is raised medians where there are left turn lanes, so that when people try to sprint across the stroad (rather than going an extra half mile out of their way to use the crosswalk) they are less exposed to traffic.

[@mrmaniac3]

Do you happen to have any use for protected intersections? If so, please do use them :)

[@Trey-bien]

Any online resources you can recommend to a lay person trying to learn best practices? I'm making advocating for changes in my city, and I want to talk competently and effectively with city officials.

[@davidfouts1939]

​@@Trey-bien I start by looking at the most dangerous stretches of surface streets using the CRIS (Crash Records Information System) from the Texas Department of Transportation. I only work in Texas, but assume that other states also have their own CRIS systems. I use the map feature to see which stroad (it's always a stroad) has the highest concentration of fatalities and serious injuries. I filter for both vulnerable road users (bike/ped) and all road users to see how much of the harm each group bears. Beyond that, I just do what this video describes.

[@Trey-bien]

@@davidfouts1939 ok, this is SUPER- helpful! Thanks! I'm going to check out the CRIS for my town.

[@martylawson1638]

@@Trey-bien Netherlands publishes the CROW road design manual in English too. While the designs use different materials than the USA and may be a bit "idealistic" vs what America is ready for, it's packed full of proven ideas.

[@anthonycampagnola]

I actually moved from Appleton to Seattle mostly because I was sick of running/biking along that particular stroad. This video hits home.

[@nebuloushammer8773]

I don't think the focus should be on remaking Stroads for bike infrastructure. I think the emphasis should be on the smaller parallel paths that are within a few hundred yards of the Stroads. As a bike rider, I will always take a less busy street than bike lane on a busy road. For example one of the greatest pieces of bike infrastructure in Dallas is Edgefield Avenue. It has lights across major intersections and its own bridge over interstate 30. On this one street you can go from Kiest Park to Commerce which has bike lanes into downtown with minimal noise and minimal issues with traffic.

[@josephfisher426]

Yes, I wish they would focus on streets like that too, if only because it will be less of a lightning rod. Most of our cities are grids and a "complete street" is only REALLY necessary in spots.

[@Trey-bien]

You're comment is really interesting. Oh hi, I'm Mesquite. Looks like Garland and Mesquite are maybe inspired by Dallas' White Rock Trails. Looks like both Garland and Mesquite are adding their trails off the main roads, and usually under the powerline arteries - which I think I prefer over road bike-lanes. It's nice when you're nowhere near the road and you can have a quiet fun ride with you family, but the paths as connected up well enough that you can actually use them to go to real places.

[@scopie49]

I like this idea a lot for one big reason: Even the best curb protected bike lanes still put you near cars and no matter how safe an intersection is there will always be potential for collisions. Cars are also loud as hell. There's a nice long cycle path next to the highway I rode on a few days ago and especially when you go under bridges it is almost painfully loud since I wasn't wearing headphones. Miserable experience and 45 mph roads aren't any better. Before we even bother with stroads I think we could focus on getting our current path networks more connected. Within like 15 miles of me I've only managed to find 4 or 5 bike underpasses that avoid huge 4+ lane roads and one of those has been closed off for a couple months which cuts off access for me from half of the trail network I can get to. I took a picture yesterday of a bike route where the trail ended at a main road, forces you to go a quarter mile down crossing two small side streets, cross the main road through an underpass, loop around back north cross both side streets again, backtrack riding on another side street, and then finally connecting back to the original trail. It's like a half mile detour to the underpass instead of the underpass just keeping the trail as a straight line. A lot of the trails also cross small neighborhood streets which is fine except it's really hard to cruise along and enjoy a ride when every 3 minutes you're having to slow down and check both ways because the trail often has blind corners where you can't see the street until you're ~50 feet from having to stop completely. Even though it is law for drivers to yield many of them don't. So you're always prepared to stop. Just really breaks being in the zone. From Google maps I can see paths all over the place but they ALL eventually end at some giant stroad. I literally can't even get out of my own neighborhood without crossing a 40+ mph stroad within .5 miles in any direction.

[@Trey-bien]

@@scopie49 I appreciate the specifics you mention. That's interesting about the blind spots going into neighborhood areas. That's not something I'd really thought about before but sounds like a really obvious thing cities should avoid now that I know to think about it.

[@alexsmith-ob3lu]

Fixing a stroad can also mean rezoning the land use around the area, increase the reliability of public transit buses, etc.

[@ReinZ_96]

The Fox River Mall showing up 20 seconds into this video threw me for a loop. lol. Wasn't expecting to see my local mall from when I grew up on KZbin today.

[@spybloom]

Ditto lol

[@Game_Hero]

what did you do interesting in that mall

[@josephcarreon2341]

My city officials already use Streetmix. They used it to approve a stroad-to-boulevard conversion, which takes our 5 lane stroad to a 2 lane boulevard. This is a single step of our 2050 goal of pedestrianizing our city. It helps that we're a college town. Having to meet the needs of the younger generations makes the fight against NIMBYs that much easier.

[@masonbuck1130]

My undergrad capstone was proposing a suburban arterial retrofit! I'm glad to see the same concepts and techniques my team used in our proposal were explained in a way better way than I ever could. Great video as always!

[@barryrobbins7694]

2:37 When a community is based on a grid of stroads, there will always be too much traffic to add a proper curb separated bike lane.😭

[@poweroutage93]

As a Madison resident, I love seeing more suggestions for other WI cities.

[@ph11p3540]

A lot of Edmonton stroads do have bikeways and sidewalks and let me tell you, the business owners and car drivers absolutely despise them. They are constantly lobbying to have them all torn up. Also they want to make damn sure their business signage is easily seen from the stroad so trees are a big no no.

[@Knightmessenger]

Business owners should check their customer base. Usually making a street more pedestrian friendly helps businesses, especially non mega chain fast food ones.

[@Pystro]

Ah capitalism, where advertisements make a place more popular than trees do.

[@critiqueofthegothgf]

@@Knightmessenger they're too short sighted to see it. it always confuses me when I hear them make arguments about how car centric infrastructure=profit when most major cities outside of the US have huge amounts of foot traffic, with a lot of it leading to businesses located within outdoor malls and walkable plazas/city centers. Tokyo, is practically the land of consumption and no one is driving to go to the Nintendo store; they're walking or taking the train

[@Knightmessenger]

@@critiqueofthegothgf the fact Tokyo has so many physical retailers while so many places in North America operate online only, or are downsizing their physical store presence, should be very telling. I wouldn't be surprised if physical media is more popular in Japan now, even with the same access to streaming we have.

[@AimlessJourney]

Whenever I see all that empty ashphalt on the parking lots, I always think how much better it would be if they were converted into mix-use superblocks with a mix of small stores and residential buildings. Those eight-lane stroads are so straight they would be perfect for a streetcar lane that connects these superblocks and eliminate the need to drive. American suburbs can be saved! but laws and car culture have to be changed first...

[@cityrippers9445]

Where do you expect me to park my car? Public transit is not realistic for me as an adult with a full time job.

[@AimlessJourney]

@@cityrippers9445 in its current state public transit is nowhere near realistic. but if america had a transit system as efficient as non-car centric first world countries, it's certainly realistic. if we built our cities more efficiently people could live right next to work opportunities, instead of sprawling, space-inefficient fast food joints and big box stores that make driving compulsory

[@logicalfundy]

@@cityrippers9445 Maybe we just make the parking lot smaller, or set aside space at the side of the road for parking. If cars still need a place, they can certainly have one. But I think we should be open to making these places more friendly to forms of transportation that aren't cars.

[@SovietWinnieThePoo]

@@AimlessJourneyYou are correct, but there still needs to be some space for vehicles. The Netherlands is known for its cyclists, but stats show that still majority of Dutch people travel via private vehicle, even with excellent public transit and bike infrastructure. You still need a place for cars or people will leave the area and move to a place where they can own a car if they want. Then you go bankrupt. It has to be a balance

[@AimlessJourney]

@@SovietWinnieThePoo My point isnt to remove all parking spaces. there will always be a need for car infrastructure because of emergency vehicles and dellveries. the point is to optimize land use and turn car-centric urban spaces like fast food islands, big box stores and all the empty parking lots into denser, mix-use people-friendly places. car-centric developments are the type of places are financially inefficient and are what will truly bankrupt a city.

[@DIBZ111]

Thanks for including Appleton on your video. I used to live there and I really enjoyed and had a lot of good memories from the fox valley

[@spybloom]

1:13 The sattelite view of College Ave is outdated. A year or two ago, they reduced it to one lane each way and put bike lanes on both sides from (I think) Drew St to State St. It's added infrastructure to only one road, but it's still something, and they added it to the biggest downtown street. Also, it's wild to me thinking we lived in Appleton at the same time lol

[@unclebob1o1]

Now these are just stroads with bike paths. You're still gonna get run over by someone flooring it to pull out of one of the hundreds of drive thrus or parking lots and merge into 50 mph traffic.

[@czechvirusS]

well. yeah. but change doesn't happen in an instant. people dont expect bikes because the infrastructure was made so they wouldn't be there. as the road fabric change (and you prosecute drivers for this) people will expect it and learn to drive in it. the only other thing to do would be completely seperated bike infrustructure. and noone will risk building that in this climate. change has to start slowly and carefully

[@cmdrls212]

Yup. Typical "one more bike lane ought to fix it" lol

[@my0p1n10nst1nks]

Unfortunately, this video is completely missing the point.

[@Batteri000]

Also how sad it is to walk/bike next to a really busy road. Even if it would be really safe.

[@Flk0217]

@@Batteri000on a similar note, rail stops in freeway medians are absolutely terrifying. We went to a White Sox game a few weeks ago and got off at the 35th St stop on the Red Line. The speeds on the Dan Ryan were nuts.

[@shpurk]

Is there a reason we have to assume that vehicular traffic will remain unchanged after introducing/improving multi-modal access to the street? If a bike lane can support 7k people per hour is introduced, that capacity can come off of the roads. These massively wide stroads are so dangerous to cross as a pedestrian and sidewalks on both sides isn't enough.

[@rianfelis3156]

Because of the history of bad cycle routes, you need to make huge improvements to a large area before you see payoff that way. like 90% plus good infrastructure along the entire route before you start getting low confidence riders to try using a bike for a commute or store run. and even that last 10% needs to be decent, like low speed limit streets, where even residential surface streets often see traffic going at least 30mph, which really discourages new bicycle riders.

[@Trey-bien]

​@@rianfelis3156any ideas for how cities can support increased activity on mixed-use "trail" networks? I ask because my city doesn't have bike lanes, but they're building nice wide mixed-use paths under the powerline arteries and connecting most of the city. Only, I feel like city officials mostly see and advertise the paths as recreational and miss the wonderful transit potential.

[@scopie49]

@@Trey-bien It's a sort of build it and they will come thing. I do agree with rian about connectivity. Doesn't do much good to have a Netherlands quality bike lane if it only goes 750 feet down a block and dumps you at a stroad. Working on single corridors might be the best option. Fixing main roads first with the most capacity for protecting and moving people, followed by then branching and connecting those main routes to each other via the side streets/paths. Alternatively work on the smaller stuff first that already have low traffic volume so that when you finally do upgrade the main roads everything will just fall into place and bam your network is complete. If the trail networks are safe to begin with for recreation, people will naturally want to use them more for other purposes. But the trails have to be connected and actually GO somewhere. I have a nice trail that can actually get me all the way to work but it's about 5 miles out of my way compared to the highway, crosses two busy roads, and then the last mile crosses even bigger 6+ lane roads. If the city could fix that network to avoid traffic at all costs, I'd be much more inclined to use it.

[@Trey-bien]

@@scopie49 thanks for that perspective! That interestingly maps on pretty well with what my City's Master Plan says should be happening. I think our Planning & Zoning and Traffic Engineering departments are actually pretty urbanist and are putting out great ideas..... but then for a while our council seemed to be about sticking to the bullet points of the plan without actually trying to implement it in a meaningful way. So progress has been slow, but I'm hopeful and active

[@logicalfundy]

If the plan has any opposition, they will undoubtedly take the stance that traffic will remain the same and rant about how the plan will make traffic worse.

[@DavidsTravelWorld]

I really enjoy your videos, but looking at all those stroads can really make one depressed.

[@horribleIRUKANDJI]

My mistake was to imagine myself walking there, under the bright sun...

[@danrobrish3664]

What was Harry Houdini's greatest escape? Appleton, Wisconsin.

[@ashaman8567]

It doesn't start with streets, it starts with building places that make sense and connecting them. Right now, current zoning laws and design practices separate everything and discourage places made for people. First Build parks, mixed use areas, dense housing, and community spaces, and then connect them with sidewalks, paths, trains, ziplines, waterslides, trolleys, streets, and roads.

[@cmdrls212]

How are you paying for that? Bulldoze the nation and start over like in simcity? Nah bro. That's fantasy land. Retrofits are plausible. Changes like what you speak of are just KZbin click juice

[@mindstalk]

We already have lots of existing places, many of them in good locations; starting from scratch is a fantasy. Upzoning, infill, and redesign of existing roads.

[@poisonpotato1]

Nah i dont want to live above a restaurant with 50 people in 500 sf

[@mindstalk]

@@poisonpotato1 No one's trying to force you to do so. We're just asking for the freedom to build such things on our own property, rather than people like you using the government to tell us we can't.

[@Westlander857]

Broadway in Tucson is a good example of a revitalized stroad. It used to be a nightmarish and lifeless stretch of asphalt. Now it’s lined with desert plants, wide sidewalks, bus pullouts, bike lanes, and plenty of pedestrian crossings with HAWK lights. The city also purchased some of the strip malls and old houses along it, and are now renovating them to make them more pedestrian-friendly and appealing to businesses. It’s not a finished product just yet, but it’s already remarkably improved over what is used to be.

[@Gigaamped]

This is fascinating. I recently moved here and was just thinking while driving on Broadway today how the city really shot themselves in the foot by not extending the area built for pedestrians across the train tracks (like they do on 4th ave) by making it immediately known that this is a place for cars on the other side of the tracks on Broadway a mere 100's of feet from downtown. I sighed for the wasted potential *however*, I did not know the history of it and how it's a big improvement from what it was so I'm grateful for that. Thanks for sharing it!

[@Maxime_K-G]

While redesigning the right-of-way is a slight improvement, you can't achieve much without transforming the land-use and reality of how people use the space. It might be interesting to look at French ideas on how to better things, where this discussion is actually pretty topical at the moment! Over there, places like this are referred to as "Ugly France" ("France moche") and you better believe that despite all the online propaganda, most of France is just as ugly and car-oriented as America. One solution would be to completely rebuild the arterials with the same amount of floor area for businesses, but in a new mixed-use context with energy-efficient buildings, apartments, greenery, public space, and extra transit and bike infrastructure to accommodate the new development. Personally, while maybe a bit drastic, this seems like the best way to cause real change in these places. It would for sure take some courage, but the payoff would be massive.

[@bobbycrosby9765]

Our main stroad roughly follows the path of a creek, but offset by about 1,000 feet. The creek is a natural park but the paths through it don't go the full length - the creek goes through 2 counties, and the paths in one county stop when it enters another. There's several desire paths through it that lets you pop out at the local mini mall. It would be lovely if they could connect all this up and they added a back entrance to the minimall (you have to jump a fence or walk back around to the stroad to access it). I would imagine people might fight it though. There's several backyards you have to walk close to that don't have solid fences. But anytime I've been there with the kids the people living there have been friendly. Talked to one person who setup a swing on one of the trees 50 years ago that my kids still use today.

[@TrickiVicBB71]

You should come to Edmonton, Alberta. Lover of stroads and parking hellscape. South Edmonton Common being a fine example.

[@dchevron77]

That street design tool is pretty cool!

[@JeffreyW67]

A very interesting tool, but not all utilities are above ground. Water, electrical, natural gas can complicate things. You can't just move curbs around without impacting the drainage and sewer lines. One of our local roads was widened from two lanes to four, which also included the addition of sidewalks and a multi-use path. Much needed as the road was designed back when this was mainly farm land and now suburbia crept in. The project cost millions as the gas mains needed to be relocated. Things to consider.

[@elizabethdavis1696]

There are so many new city planning and transit KZbin channels please consider doing a video on channels you recommend for us to follow!

[@GerrySebastian]

I’ve been watching your videos!! Thank you for the new knowledge in every video🙏🏻 Also I’m a Cities Skylines player, thank you for the inspiration😄

[@Azeurrez1]

Your video gave me inspiration to design a city in SimCity. Thank you very much!

[@CityBeautiful]

That's awesome! Sim City 4 is still my favorite city building game.

[@NawDawgTheRazor]

@@CityBeautifulSC4 was my childhood.

[@timogul]

I wish someone would make a city builder game in which the public actually responded realistically to the chaos you cause by moving things around all the time, and if you tore out one road to build another, it would disrupt the economy for years and people would riot, so you would need to move more carefully.

[@Kaede-Sasaki]

Sim city 4 is nice, but the smallest roads are too d**n wide and the home easements too far away from street. Trying to make my hometown in Tokyo. Even the mods on other city builders don't accommodate. One had asian style buildings and signage that could be manually placed, but the building easement and d**n wide streets were blasting reality. Also the other thing I liked sim city for was pre-made cities so I could launch earthquakes and such. Think they stopped that at 3 though 😂

[@ericsemrow231]

I remember being a kid in Appleton and trying to cross Wisconsin to get from the Mall to Best Buy. Unbelievably dangerous.

[@studio.leonardo]

This is a topic I have been noodling for a while. Really appreciate you putting a visual on it and giving people stepped-solutions!

[@IWouldLikeToRemainAnonymous]

Well you can justify decreasing car capacity on a road for a couple of reasons; * local trips can be replaced with walking, cycling and local transit, all of which will add more capacity to the road than an all-purpose road lane does * longer trips can be replaced with longer transit routes, LRT/MRT/long-distance buses, which will add more capacity to the road than an all-purpose road lane does * cars are moved over to legitimate highways rather than stroads, such that the roads are better utilized than the current over-building of streets into stroads

[@SurrealNonsense]

Easy, just add one more lane. Please, bro. This one will fix it for sure!

[@Vahlee-A]

Hell no, no bro, eighteen lanes have got to go

[@starlites529]

just one more lane bro

[@drlauch2256]

yep 1 more Bike lane

[@arctix4518]

Pls bro

[@AndreasLarsson-vo3om]

I cant get over the fact that the US has above ground electrical distribution. really makes it look like a developing country.

[@Coffeepanda294]

In a whole lot of ways, it really is.

[@Cyrus992]

Roundabouts? Carmel, IN successfully made their streets and planning more traditional with it.

[@KirkWestphal]

Sadly another big miss in this video. Dieting stroads give you room to install roundabouts, which further calm traffic, save lives, and dramatically improve car throughput

[@davidty2006]

for a 4 lane road (which they often are if not bigger) roundabouts are pretty much needed they just simply better heck if traffic conditions are light enough one doesn't even need to stop.

[@Cyrus992]

@@davidty2006 yup

[@ethanmagnuson2988]

I loved loved LOVED this video. Not only was it inspirational and thought-provoking to see how specific roads might be redesigned, it really showcased your expertise as a planner. The little details like “putting the powerlines underground would be too expensive” or “adding a center turning lane gets rid of the traffic problem caused with left turns)” are probably mundane to you, but for an outsider they’re pure gold. Really helpful in understanding what is and isn’t practically possible. Please make more of this kind of redesign video! Maybe

[@MICUTO]

Do you want some street with your pothole, sir?

[@alecity4877]

I loved the nod to Geoguessers there at the beggining lol.

[@deivclayton]

Great video! I love to see these kinds of upgrades that make cities more bikable. Especially since e-bikes are making bike transport so attractive. I'd love to see you cover how to integrate bike friendly urban planning with round-abouts. I love roundabouts for how well they keep traffice flowing, but bigger roundabouts seem at adds with bikes.

[@thetacokawaii5708]

Hi

[@frtr9276]

imagine a game like city skylines but with real world data and everyone can compete to improve the regions they like , best propositions get actually realized , and people who won get a streetname or a building named after them ,,

[@SPR8364-0]

I just spent a month in Japan and am looking forward to your Japan transit videos. Bon voyage!

[@beautifulflorida]

Thank you very much for sharing! Great video!

[@rgriscom]

Another important point to consider when choosing between two one-way bike lanes and a single two-way cycle track is the connectivity to urban space. A single two-way cycle track is really only best used when access to/from the opposite side of the street is a relatively low priority.

[@bearcubdaycare]

An alternative to a turn lane is a grass raised median, and a roundabout at each end of the block. Less asphalt, more room for a median between the traffic and the cyclists and pedestrians.

[@Dan-1031]

2:57 bruh “stream east” popping out as a suggestion 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@thijmstickman8349]

College avenue should probably have bus lanes or even a LRT going down the middle considering it goes right into the main street, and traffic is very backed up.

[@Joao-pl6db]

If you don't fix land use all these bikes lines kinda useless.

[@seth_deegan]

100%

[@KirkWestphal]

True! And if you don't fix the actual stroad, nobody's gonna build residential on it anyway.

[@WaffleAbuser]

Chicken and the egg?

[@czechvirusS]

mix use and missing middle is sooo needed. but it's gonna happen. there's already issues with the land prices on edges of cities. that's why newer suburbs have smaller land plots and garages. once cities allow it mid density developement will happen because it's more profitable. and people wanting to spend less on gas will start to wanna live closer to centers. mix use will make neighbourhoods more atractive. ffs there are literal themepark atractions calles 'street' where it's a simulated pedastrian only mixed use mid density development. people wan't that as their third place. it's just almost nowhere to be found

[@tristanridley1601]

Depends how bad it is. Here in suburban Toronto, bikes can get us to most places, and for most places easily to a transit station.

[@luizfelipelourenco6790]

As a brazillian urbanist student, i são, thank you, tô spred the information, questions and policies

[@mikkelandersen2328]

I will admit that I like that you broaden the idea of redesigning major roads for a more bike and pedestrian friendly mode of transportation, in the USA or otherwise. In the video you breifly mention how biking could have their own signal - which is fine, especially if you have either dangerous traffic or a lot of bikes/pedestrians. An alternative, that I have found that I enjoy more (as a bike-user, here in Denmark) is to make lights green for bikes and pedestrians for a few seconds before allowing other traffic. The benefit is that cars easily become aware that there are bikes, and that they should pay attention.

[@ichifish]

As a long-term resident of Japan I'm looking forward to seeing your videos from here!

[@mdhazeldine]

Great video and thanks for the heads up about Streetmix. Very cool tool! I find your example of Wisconsin Ave interesting. Despite being an urban planner who appears to be quite well travelled, I find it curious how "America brained" some of your comments were. The idea that you didn't have much space to work with is wild to me, as someone from the UK. That road is like double the width of many of our arterial roads! Also you said you could just about accomodate the traffic on two lanes, but with a little bit of "car delay" left over, which is a very "throughput" minded way to think. You appear to have forgotten that induce demand works in reverse. If you reduced it to 2 lanes, that leftover traffic would probably evaporate and be absorbed by the better biking and walking infrastructure. The Dutch have proved that this is the case (see a recent video by Build the Lanes of an example in Amsterdam of reducing a 4 lane road to 2 lanes). Also, in Europe we always bury power lines underground, so the notion that it's "too expensive" is another thing that seems like a very American point of view. So, while your design is probably an improvement from a U.S. perspective, I think it could be even better.

[@petervaughan6854]

3:00 I can’t get over how wide that turn lane is! Our minimum for a 2 way street for cars (no trucks or buses) is only 18’ rising to 22’ for two way all vehicles!

[@ianhomerpura8937]

Most stroads once had streetcar tracks in the middle.

[@SplyBox]

Never forget what was robbed from us

[@Game_Hero]

even the one in randomburbia in Arkansas?

[@daprovocateur]

I wish road diets were that easy. Local leaders installed a temporary road treatment here in Santa Cruz including 4 to 3 lanes, buffered bike lanes and curb bump-outs. Vocal neighbors complained when a stop sign at one end backed up with traffic and folks tore down the temporary bollards. It was text book road improvement. I hope they try again

[@benhartman4]

Hey! I lived in Appleton too, more recently, and college Ave now has a single lane in each direction and a shared left turn, with bike lanes on either side. Baby steps!

[@iyncity]

You should really research on Fargo ND just moved here and I’m just utterly surprised by the multi path trails here, off street and wide sidewalks along the strolls for walking and bikes, very basic and minimum and people actually use them when it’s warm out! I’m quite amazed that people haven’t been talking about it.

[@bgezal]

By replacing all the intersections into parking lots with roundabouts you can eliminate the turn lanes. Roundabouts also removes the dangers of unprotected left turns.

[@joelyons3713]

I live in Windsor ON. We have implemented the road diet on many streets. They work wonderfully and are an absolute must!

[@SloMoMonday]

This exercise and tools would make for a really good puzzle game. City skylines congestion problems are interesting but don't ever count for real world politics, regulations and existing infrastructure. Redesign a city one road at a time, put it through some simulated traffic patterns and get scored on commuter throughput (not vehicle), emissions reduction and anesthetics. And we get to play with bike/bus lanes, pedestrian paths, trams, elevation and all the other cool infrastructure you don't see in car centric places.

[@GirtonOramsay]

I had that exact Memorial Drive road diet applied to my arterial residential street during repavement but they added painted buffer bike lanes. Overall, it was a great improvement and can reasonably bike across the city on it now, but I still need to dodge the occasional parked car slightly blocking the lane. Even wider sidewalks or taking away one car lane for a protected two-way bike path on a stroad does wonders

[@Knightmessenger]

Detroit has recently done this on Kercheval near Indian Village, on Grand River near Rosedale Park & the historic Redford Theatre, McNichols near Marygrove College and Livernois near 7 & 8 Mile. The before and after improvememts are pretty remarkable.

[@curiousfirely]

oh, it's so adorable to see a Californian be excited about sidewalk plows. Where I live we absolutely have sidewalk plows. However, bike lanes are also where the snowbanks go in the winter. ☃️

[@everydayengineering]

I also very much enjoy using the tactic of taking large multilane stroads with existing planted medians and putting all the two-way vehicle lanes on one side of the median with a road diet. Then, the whole road space on the other side of the median is free to use for bike/ped. We are doing this in New Haven CT with State Street, Provincetown MA is doing this to Route 6, and Hartford CT did something similar to Jewell Street a few years ago. Also, let's not be scared of existing vehicle volumes dictating what we can or can't do to a road! We have to design for the future we want, not the one we have. Designing to existing vehicle volumes perpetuates car-dominance in cities. Just as widening roads induces traffic, removing lanes causes traffic to vanish, when other underused parallel routes exist and drivers redistribute themselves.

[@Sevenfold120]

Add some roundabouts too.

[@davidty2006]

alot of roundabouts. Also adds the option of getting rid of vehicles having to cross oncoming lanes since vehicle can well just loop back around.

[@Sevenfold120]

@@davidty2006 yeah roundabouts solve all kinds of problems. I dont think the terrain really limits them in the US at all the roads are wide enough to put in everywhere.

[@PaulBrower-bw4jw]

Roundabouts reduce collisions and reduce their severity. They also slow traffic, which is actually good for street-abutting businesses. Insurance companies seem to love them.

[@Sevenfold120]

@@PaulBrower-bw4jw Good points. I would like to add to that. They slow down the speed of individual cars when entering roundabouts but they do not necessarily slow down traffic and create bottlenecks. Id wager overall transit times are faster because you are not stuck at a light for 10 minutes.

[@PaulBrower-bw4jw]

@@Sevenfold120 People get through faster, but at lower road speeds. There is no red light to rush, and red-light violations are the ones most likely to result in the worst collisions. It's a win-win or all.

[@jgray2718]

I went to Cal Poly so I love all the B-roll shots from SLO. I used to walk to school on the street at 7:57, so it's always a nice nostalgia boost :-)

[@TheZabbiemaster]

I can't wait for city skylines 2 to get their shit together, that game with some mods could just be this video as a gamemode

[@MAASamador]

Love this concept for a video!

[@buckeyeguy82]

In the city I live in they have made some of the roads narrower and put in bike lanes & made crosswalks safer for pedestrians. Yesterday I read that they're working on one of our main roads to take out the middle turn lane, planting grass there and putting in some roundabouts and better pedestrian crosswalks along that road.

[@wanglelife]

I'm totally doing this for my city of Memphis!

[@shadeblackwolf1508]

On a street that has 3 lanes in each direction, i find that often, a good strategy is to remove the middle lane in each direction, turnging it into a high volume 1 lane with no interactions other than at the intersection, and a low speed accessor street. you can then allow the trimmed lane to resurface as a right turn lane at intersections.

[@kide81]

It sounds weird that removing power lines isn’t even an option. I live in Helsinki and apart from very few high voltage lines there really aren’t any visible power lines anywhere.

[@darklelouchg8505]

That would be because Helsinki uses underground power lines to curb the risk of ice effects. So too does it help regarding fires, but I am sure on the whole it is also more costly to unbury them and move them then America's posts.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

I showed this to my partner. He got to 0:13 before he exclaimed, "Oh! I know exactly where that is!" lol 1:00 "Oh! I love this place! I've spent hundreds of hours there watching birds! Badger, I want to go there!" lol

[@downix]

My uncle and cousins live in Appleton. Neat to see it being covered.

[@TheNisgi]

I’ve spent lots of time in the Fox cities area and thankfully they do have sidewalk plows, they don’t do the best job of clearing the cycle paths immediately after snowing, but it sure is better than nothing.

[@samsungsmarttv9307]

Can we do an updated list of the best metropolitan areas/cities to live in the US? I'm still stuck dreaming of Richmond, Omaha, Boise and Virginia Beach

[@quagengineer1877]

One of the best videos so far!

[@jakobthomsen1595]

Thanks for pointing out this interesting tool! Would be interesting to know more about the background of streetmix...

[@jaredk6428]

I walked downtown to the airport in Appleton. Walking down College after the railroad overpass was a huge pain. This would have been great.

[@pux0rb]

I'm not an urban planner or a road designer, but I've been wanting to redesign the roads in my neighborhood.I didn't know that website existed. I was just going to sketch stuff out on graph paper. I'm going to have a lot of fun on that website now!

[@lachlansmart2373]

Logan Rd in Brisbane is an interesting case. It's a stroad certainly. But in some places it's very road-ish. In other places it's very street-ish. I used to have trams on large parts of it until Brisbane (foolishly) got rid of their trams. It varies wildly in width and speed limit, and traffic volumes along it's length. It would be interesting to see hypotheticals of what could be done to improve it.

[@scunekt]

Wasn't expecting to see the place I'm currently living ever get covered by an urbanist/transit youtuber like you, that was a surprise lol. The heavy implication that Appleton has (some of) "America's Worst Streets" certainly isn't a surprise though, unfortunately. When I lived in a rural town and would come into Appleton for appointments or whatever, I couldn't help but think about how unwelcoming the city felt due to all the major car-dependency based infrastructure here, like the massive empty parking lots and huge stroads. Being further in the city, in the historical downtown suburbs, its a fair bit nicer here, though I don't believe there's much, if any, real bike infrastructure here. Cars are certainly king here, unfortunately.

[@stuartwilkinson172]

As it sits right now, there's construction galore going on right now widening 41 and redoing the ramps to college and Wisconsin Avenue. During the construction, everything is messed up due to so many closures everywhere. I do feel they should add bike lanes to both Wisconsin and college Avenue there due to numerous restaurants, arcades, the mall, skating rinks, etc...

[@seantroy3172]

great example of some much needed improvements!

[@JackKell100]

This demo is extremely interesting. I have never seen street mix before or the public daily car volumes. I would be very useful for making proposals to local councils.

[@Likeomgitznich]

It’s crazy how badly some roads are designed. We have a pretty major road where I live that basically cuts across the state and for some reason it will randomly change for 1 to 2 lanes and back to 1 lane for maybe like half a mile, if that. It’s insane.

[@SL420-]

Low key one of the best ways to fix this is a drastic redesign of the way we build things. Specifically, we need to reconsider the development cost of individual uses compared to the societal cost of wasteful and abusive piecemeal development.

[@Gigaamped]

Great to see one of our assignments from class be featured in one of your videos! ♥

[@Leblribrbrrq]

Population of 75000? Why did it need a highway (“stroad”) in the first place? This is unbelievable car-centric.

[@spencer4732]

what an awesome tool !! i have been wanting to propose a protected bike line to my community and city council but lack the software and experience to make a proper engineering visual. i'll definitely be using this to help share ideas on how to make street better

[@SuperRat420]

SO fucking weird what people outside the North East consider a suburb. That doesn't look like a suburb. Suburbs are quiet with no big roads, that's the point of em

[@RipCityBassWorks]

But, but how are we going to maximize drive through traffic at McDonald's without big roads and even bigger trucks????

[@SuperRat420]

@@RipCityBassWorks like my hometown in NJ is one square mile, grided. Granted public transportation is what it is except PATCO but like this looks nothing like a suburb to me. Older suburbs aren't the plague modern ones are

[@SovietWinnieThePoo]

The East Coast was the first area to industrialize. You all became dense before the advent of private automobiles. That’s a big reason people left and moved West. Lots of opportunity and the ability not to be so dense. Of course that itself has created issues

[@ricferr2]

Very modest improvements for such disgusting stroads. So much more could/should be done there... And the goal shouldn't be to have more bikes but rather to have less cars.

[@KirkWestphal]

IMO what's even better is to start with "injuries are a policy choice" (aka Vision Zero) and everything else falls into place. (You can't really mandate fewer cars, but you can make them go slower.) This video does not have that philosophy, it tweaks around the margins.

[@cdw2468]

sure, but more bikes in some ways necessitates less cars

[@euanduthie2333]

Shared use paths are not the way to go. Pedestrians have already had 90% of the street space stolen from them by vehicles, "Just share the rest" is an absolutely hostile outcome for the most vulnerable road users.

[@somerandomguy___]

I think another big oppertunity with these wide and plentiful lanes is that you can replace the car lane with a bus lane or a tram lane, and bam! You have not only reduced car traffic but also made way for a form of public transport that cuts through traffic :)

[@okzoomers]

Heyo! I went to school in Appleton. My favourite part was that crosswalks on College Ave had buttons that would shut down the traffic on command to allow pedestrian crossing.

[@thetacokawaii5708]

Hi

[@Game_Hero]

as someone in Québec I'm really shocked something so ordinary, so normal and everywhere is seen as some amazing oddity

[@okzoomers]

@@Game_Hero In the US, pressing those buttons normally doesn't instantly interrupt traffic - normally, if they even do anything at all, they take a minute or more to change the traffic lights. I didn't know other countries had traffic-stopping-buttons instead of the American placebo-buttons.

[@Game_Hero]

@@okzoomers Ah, no, I finally got what you were talking about, no it's not buttons of those kinds sadly. It is around 30 seconds and enough for my driver mom to rant about, lol.

[@majorfallacy5926]

I'm not even American but I like urbanist youtubers giving people the tools to improve their communities instead of just complaining (though i get that too)

[@mentalproteinCC]

I think my hometown of Chippewa Falls has more bike infrastructure than Appleton,based on this video. Perhaps we rely on tourism here and the image of a nice little town and therefore work towards pedestrian-friendliness. There are definitely some challenging streets though, in part due to Seymour Cray Sr's one-ways. Also the tourists can't figure out where to stop sometimes.

[@2day4tomorrow]

this is pretty cool. one of the issues our city runs into is lots of our roads aren’t owned by the city, but by the county or state. in fact our city doesnt control any of the stop lights. any tips on working across governmental entities?

[@yomammaspoodle]

Man I hate car centric American roads.