Not completely car-centric (but nearly)

[@th60of]

12:38 "Somehow it works." I think I can see reasons why: Make it narrow for motorized traffic, make it obvious by street design that there might be pedestrians, make it look dangerous - it's often really that easy.

[@SturmZebra13]

A lot of traffic design is simple psychology Talking about continuous sidewalks There is one I saw here in Aachen, we had to let a car cross on a normal crossing, but it yielded to us on a continuous sidewalk, even though the streets itself were very similar. It was so obvious to me, but this guy probably wasn't even thinking about it.

[@idromano]

And the asphalt is painted white! So it gives the message to the car that it's crossing a pedestrian area, not the other way around. I find it rare to see painted crossings like that and props for that town for doing so!

[@0106johnny]

@@SturmZebra13 What exactly do you mean by a continuous sidewalk? Because if it has a continuous curb (abgesenkter Bordstein) the car legally HAS to yield to all traffic including pedestrians.

[@SturmZebra13]

@@0106johnny a car even has to do that if they yield to another street without curb, but they sometimes don't What I mean is that a car leaves the asphalt, has to drive up onto pavement level, over cobblestone or whatever is being used and then back down in an intersection. It's a common design in most progressive cities, even Mönchengladbach has some of them

[@freezombie]

The great paradox of car-friendly traffic policy is that the most car-friendly policy, meaning the best policy for the individual motorist, would be one that reduces the number of other people choosing to drive a car and clog up the road (by making driving less attractive and alternative methods of transport more attractive).

[@peter1062]

"Hell is other people"

[@praeceptor]

It is not about optimizing traffic concepts, it is about 'selling a dream' - i.e. a dependency. It is a wicked game of creating cognitive dissonance and play with the effects. The car: your freedom! Your independence! Whilst in reality modern streets have become prisons for motorists and car owners are in denial to the fact that their beloved objects of ... have become a nuisance to everybody else.

[@JMiskovsky]

Welcome to Singapur where you pay to use roads. Surprise not traffic Jams.

[@tehsiewdai]

@@JMiskovsky there are still traffic jams around, lol!

[@blanco7726]

No the most car-friendly policy would be one that reduces traffic without making driving less attractive

[@derWeltraumaffe]

german city planning is actually pretty interesting. They are either historical cities that underwent a lot of changes during industrialisation or industrial cities in the first place. Then there was a lot of destruction during WWII and a lot was rebuild and redesigned, oftentimes leading to these car-centric cities. Then the german economy shifted heavily towards a tertiary economy during the second half of the 20th century, which once again lead to the cities having to adapt to that. The result is the mess that you see in this video^^

[@albussr1589]

I´m German, I have to deal with said Mess daily, but I still wouldn´t trade messy, chaotic, hazardous Hamburg for San Francisco. Even though Berlin Trafic is Survival of the Fittest bzw. most recless.

[@kulupona]

@@albussr1589 I like the beziehungsweise you mixed in there :)

[@Dani004able]

Yes, i mean its a large investment to change all these tings and will not be done quickly. But i hope we will see more City planning soon that orients it self on our Dutch neighbors. And more "Umgehungsstraßen" that direct traffic around small villages and not right trough it.

[@SturmZebra13]

@@Dani004able Yes, those are important, but as long as those don't exist for trains, it says that you're supposed to drive and that it is preferred by the infrastructure, not exactly an effect you want

[@colinmacdonald5732]

Indeed, a lot of arial remodeling of German cities was carried out during WW2.

[@fie1329]

The most important part is towards the end of the video: If you want a street to be good for cyclists and walking, you don't just put up a sign to regulate that. You design the whole street that way. You set a low speed limit, you install visual and physical elements to make the drivers slow down and you direct main traffic around the area. People will be more than happy to walk and cycle in that street and noone will complain. However, if you just install a P+R somewhere and expect people to use it, it won't work. Because all streets from the P+R to the destination have to be walkable which is not the case. Nothing against P+R if done right. But a P+R as an added option "for those who want to walk" with the rest still driving to the center is the wrong idea. The P+R has to be the main option, not the added option. Then it will work.

[@DrJams]

So make cars slower and get to places slower?

[@fie1329]

@@DrJams The only people that are always late are the ones who were stuck in traffic. So reducing traffic actually makes things faster. Also, faster driving is not equal to faster arrival. If you drive in a speed limit zone with no traffic lights, you often times arrive faster than in a higher speed limit with traffic lights. There are many similar examples and situations where faster driving just is not the solution but rather more efficient driving. Another upside: It reduces your rage level if you are the driver. So not only the others drive safer, but you do too if traffic is slower. (With the current gas prices, it's probably a lot cheaper too, but that changes at every point in time and space)

[@BangOlafson]

This paints a very dire picture of transport in general in cities. Well... on one hand cities need the people to conduct their business on the other hand they don't want the people to come inside the city and clog it up :) Went to Milan a couple of years back... The missus wanted to see the dome and she had some spare cash for the Luis Vuitton shop :D We did not make it even into town.. We got directed to a P+R facility outside of the city, took the metro into the city centre (air conditioned while 38º outside) for ONE Euro. Later we went back (for another Euro). I was expecting to be completely ripped off when trying to "purchase my car back" but the car park charge for the whole day was just another EUR. If I had known before I would not even have considered to go anywhere close to the city centre by car. This was super convenient. Guess the right way to do this is to offer proper choices and make this in the end the natural choice for motorists.. Still want to go to city centre by car? Sure... Congestion charge and 5 EUR per hour will sort that out...

[@Pseudynom]

I think it would be cheaper for cities to offer cheap P+R than letting cars into the city.

[@Soonjai]

We had a somewhat similar experience with Rome a couple of years ago, but we decided in advance to not even try to enter the city by car. Instead we went to a train station in a town outside of Rome, park our car there for free, bought a ticket for 7€ per person that allowed us to use the regional trains in and out of Rome and all Metro, Tram and Bus line inside the side. That Ticket was good for 24 Hours that began not with the purchase of the ticket, but with the first ride we did. It was a great experience to be able to just get into any public transport and explore the city by just riding a stop or two and see what is there.

[@BluesyBor]

Yeah, it's all nice and dandy until you have to have a few hundred kgs of tools and materials on you to do your business. Then suddenly modern cities start to literally suck. But I do enjoy all of that on my free time - not that cars bother me in any way, but not having to worry about finding the place for my car is a huge relief. And that's why cities today suck overall.

[@blanco7726]

Very practical for commuters, but shopping for an hour, coming as a tourist or having dinner in town, no one will waste 20 minutes each way to park for 5€ more

[@blanco7726]

Less* is what I mean, for 5€ less

[@SomePotato]

There should absolutely not be any through traffic in the city centre, and almost no curbside parking expect for disabled people and deliveries. It's not that hard. Why do our cities still look like this?

[@bit0159]

And as always we're held back by the attitude of local politicians saying we need cars to get around town.

[@varana]

And at least in part, they have that attitude because they represent citizens who want to continue driving like they've always done. "The politicians" is a convenient scapegoat, but sometimes, it's just us.

[@martinn.6082]

@@varana don't underestimate the power of the auto industry.

[@wohlhabendermanager]

Not only local politicians. Laschet just recently said "we don't want to have empty city centers" in regards to ban cars from city centers. What an absolute knobhead.

[@albussr1589]

We need Cars to get around THE TOWNS would be correct

[@tinzi4x4]

@@martinn.6082 Don't underestimate greed. Have a look at Rezo's videos. It is time that politicians govern for the poeple that have elected them and not for the rich and large corporations. When politicians rule for the rich and their own enrichment, the they will not shy away from manipulating the 'democratic elections' and this means that democracy is becoming a farce!

[@Toepferle]

This is the kind of content I subscribed to this channel for. Sure, your funny shorter videos are great as well, but these informative videos, displaying your view on German things that need debating, are just awesome! Keep it up. :)

[@bicycles-as-far-as-im-aliv5725]

I like how KZbin is recommending these vids about car-centric towns & cities and their short comings so future generations know not to make mistakes like putting cars before ppl when designing future places to live in

[@horchan1216]

I would say even some UK towns/cities has done better than Aschaffenburg... Take Canterbury as example, by pricing town centre parking to be unreasonably high and having a P&R at each main road going into the town, it makes driver to rethink whether driving straight in is really the better option for them.

[@amiddled]

That’s not typical of the UK though. I’d say most medium sized towns and cities in the UK look worse for walkability and car dependency than this German city to my eyes. There are stand outs like Cambridge, Canterbury and maybe York. But they are more of an exception.

[@seprishere]

@@amiddled Actually not sure about that. I do wonder if Aschaffenberg is actually worse than say Preston or Newport, because my impression from this video is that it is (even though both are still very car dependent).

[@ohjumpa]

Yeah, it works because of the British love for the rich. We in Germany don't think that mobility should be a privilege for the wealthy

[@shaungordon9737]

@@ohjumpa I don't think most British people would think that anymore either....

[@Krieghandt]

@@shaungordon9737 REALLY? Then why all the winging over the 7 euro passport fee? And it wasn't an underprivileged MP doing the crying either 😉

[@kelimo7193]

As someone living in Aschaffenburg: I can totally agree to everything. Inside A'burg and in all towns around it, the street/traffic system is quite frustrating.

[@ThePixel1983]

Yes, please do a cooperation! People often claim that cycling is just for the cities, because distances are short. When I lived in Germany (near Würzburg) I once counted the yields I encountered on my way to work (20 km) by car and by bike. It was roughly quadruple I think.

[@DrJams]

must of taken a while...

[@5GTower1000Percent]

5:47 "Nazis Töten" a sticker from our Satire Party "die Partei" which means "the Party". Nazis töten has two meanings in german "Kill Nazis" and "Nazis kill". So they get away with something that could be considered as telling others to kill nazis, because a judge ruled that it can also mean that "nazis kill others" which would be a statement which is true.

[@Dr_Himanshu]

A nice fun fact I learnt today!!

[@gwaptiva]

You could just call to "hang the Greens", you get away with that as well... at least in Saxony

[@theprodigal72]

I think the reasoning was, that it ends with a period not an exclamation mark and therefore is a statement not a command

[@AbhijeetBorkar]

Seems to be like there's a policing problem as much as a traffic and planning problem.

[@dnocturn84]

That's actually interesting to hear and see. The closest city to me, 175km north-east of Aschaffenburg, is very different when it comes to policing. I thought this is always the case in Germany. Everyone parking their car at a wrong spot, cars, that drive illegaly through closed streets or into pedestrian areas, will get fined. Even their own speeding radars are used regularly and move around the city (and most spots do make sense, like school areas, Kindergarten areas, etc.; some don't). The city has a massive labor force to be always there, when people do the wrong things and to fine you. And it's not a secret, that they do this to make money through this. The average citizen has adepted to this and avoid getting fined by doing it according to the rules. I'm impressed to see, that other German cities don't do that and instead live with the chaos this is causing.

[@tmnvanderberg]

Fines are very low in Germany.

[@eier5472]

That's the same, maybe even worse, in Berlin. There are people who park on your bicycle lane, and all you get for reminding them or calling the police is a "fuck you" and leave at best, and try to run you over at worst. These idiots are long gone before any kind of police arrives, even if you call them.

[@buddy1155]

Lot of the "policing" problem can be solved with retractable bollards, so cars can't drive in the pedestrian areas. Only police, fire fighters, ambulances, busses, taxi's and suppliers (between certain hours)

[@Krieghandt]

@@buddy1155 Or the tire destroying ones like in parking garages, with a dashboard emitter to open it by appropriate vehicles at appropriate times. Or even regulated by how many vehicles are in the city center at that moment. We have the technology.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

The regulations not being enforced is a common problem in german cities it seems. In Bonn, where I live it is absolutely the same. On my drive to work (by bike) I pass a street where stopping and parking is not allowed during the day. Guess what I see cars do there daily, without ever getting a ticket?

[@justwitti]

there’s always weg.li ;)

[@barvdw]

that's a bit counter-intuitive, Germans have a reputation for being sticklers to rules. But I can see why traffic infractions are not prioritised. Unfortunately, it's mostly the same in Belgium (and France). And probably most other countries. If you dare make a remark about it, it's quickly 'but where are people supposed to park then?' So yeah, it's not just a problem with politics and the police, but with society, with us all.

[@simonkraemer3725]

Oh, you have to ride your bike here in Berlin

[@wohlhabendermanager]

@@barvdw "that's a bit counter-intuitive, Germans have a reputation for being sticklers to rules." Yes, and we also have a reputation for being in love with cars.

[@ZoeJoneLove]

Ganz tolles Video! Sehr aufschlussreich. Da steckt bestimmt eine Menge Recherchearbeit drin oder?

[@SturmZebra13]

Sehr viele Punkte finden sich auch in den Videos von NotJustBikes wieder, wenn dir dieses Video gefallen hat findest du dort auch sehr viele coole Videos

[@muellerhans]

Ich denke er arbeitet seit etwas mehr als zwei Wochen an dem Video, da da die Kollaboration vorgeschlagen wurde. Allerdings ist das hier eines der besten Videos, das er je veröffentlicht hat. Es spricht halt eher Probleme an und zeigt weniger Lösungen (für Vergleiche mit den Niederlanden und Lösungsansätze wäre die Kollaboration gut gewesen), aber es ist wirklich nicht schlecht und bringt vielleicht die eine oder andere Person zum Nachdenken.

[@pooki-dooki]

Yes!! Please more content like this! I love learning more about pedestrian-friendly urban planning and it would be nice to have content about German rather than just the Netherlands. Cheers!

[@HansFranke]

It might be helpful to consider that Aschaffenburg is a hub in a rural region. Anyone coming in from the Umland is commign by car for shopping and whatever errant.

[@KaiHenningsen]

Well, Rewboss himself was coming in from the Umland ... but presumably not by car. He seems to mostly use combinations of bus and train.

[@HansFranke]

@@KaiHenningsen Can't argue for him (can you?) but it may have to do with the fact that doing a youtube video requires walking and not carrying much beside the camera - unlike the average 9 to 5 worker hurrying to shop for a family.

[@pixoontube2912]

@@KaiHenningsen Rewboss is incredibly lucky, because Schöllkrippen actually has a train station, which is not the standard for most rural towns in Germany.

[@barvdw]

@@HansFranke sure, but that doesn't mean they have to enter the city centre itself with their car. That's why you make parking in the centre more expensive, and build cheap and convenient P&R car parks at the edge of town from where you can walk, bike or take transit. Better, even, let people park near a smaller station, where space isn't as expensive as in the city. Besides, most office workers hardly carry a thing, perhaps a packed lunch and a laptop of sorts, you don't need a car to transport that. By reducing car traffic, you can actually increase overall speed in a city (I can't tell for Aschaffenburg, but average speed in the centre of Brussels was 11.3 km/h in 2018. Even without shortcuts, you're much faster by bike)

[@Renault_75-34MX]

The thing with people preferring to drive over cycling is something i saw also on Jay Forman's Unfinished London series. I think he said "We don't just have to get people onto bike, but also out of their cars." with Stevenage as a example for a town build for the bike and car

[@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938]

We also have an aging population...less and less likely to bike long distances...

[@andyleighton3616]

@@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938 Although ebikes makes biking in from the outskirts into the city centre (maybe about 5 km) much easier - especially if there were good car free routes.

[@MarioFanGamer659]

@@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938 Though to be fair, age also is detrimental to driving a car; there is a reason why many countries require you to renew your driving license after a certain age.

[@PianistStefanBoetel]

I love your smart insides. Through your videos I see my country through a realistic but still appreciative perspective.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

ROFL, "smart insides" what about his outsides? ;-P - the word you were looking for is insights. But it's pronounced very similarly....

[@shaungordon9737]

@@Seegalgalguntijak Yup, but although "smart insides" sounds weird, I can see how sometime would think that. Think about the term "inside information", or someone who's an "insider".

[@shaungordon9737]

I like watching foreign KZbinrs opinions on my country, cause it's interesting to see how an outsider sees things. You learn a lot about your country by these videos. It's also interesting hearing the things that they think are weird, but that I thought was normal my whole life.

[@liamtahaney713]

Uh oh he mentioned Amsterdam and good bike infrastructure in the same sentence. Angry Dutch people yelling about how its the worst city to bike in the Netherlands incoming

[@DaneeBound]

Just like how Germans always like to talk shit about Deutsche Bahn. Some things never change.

[@WardancerHB]

still better then any german city imo (maaaaaaybe except Bremen and Münster)

[@crytocc]

@@DaneeBound How about being Dutch and complaining about DB? :P It's quite telling how the delays and train cancellations on my trips to/from Germany always start on the German side of the border...

[@gymnasiast90]

@@crytocc Or being Dutch and complain about NS. That seems to be our favourite national pastime ;-)

[@weetikissa]

Eh, better than Copenhagen

[@gerryphilly53]

Your closing comment is spot on! I do wonder whether commuters recognize that the supposed convenience and freedom associated with auto travel is actually a myth. The amount of added stress that one experiences having to navigate to and from work can’t help one’s mental and emotional well-being.

[@ingovb6155]

Interesting coverage of Aschaffenburg. I hear 'Not Just Bikes' is one of the channels you also are aware of - and who indeed has a very detailed and well-founded idea on how urban planning can work (better).

[@ljr6490]

He was literally mentioned in the beginng of the video

[@aaronwhite1786]

Great video! I'm glad I found this channel. I guess it's nice to see that living in the Midwest US, I'm not the only person seeing Not Just Bikes videos and thinking "Goddamnit, they get THAT!?". I just moved to Lexington, KY, and while I admittedly haven't explored a ton to find them, most everywhere around me is definitely very much unfriendly towards bikes. The only bike lanes I've managed to see in my area are painted lanes added onto the shoulder of a 45mph, 4-lane roadway where people regularly go 55mph+, and more than once I have watched someone spend at least a mile of their journey half in said bike lane, which fortunately stays empty. It would be great to live somewhere like parts of the Netherlands that would realistically allow you to just live a car-free existence, because I am sick of having to drive.

[@InformaticFreakTutorials]

6:00 I also noticed this when I was on holiday in the "West of Germany". Cars everywhere, even in the pedestrian zones and in the middle of the old town, was practically no different to the street. In the "East of Germany" pedestrian zones (at least where I live, an 100k Inhabitants City) are really car-free, without parking cars.

[@swanpride]

Now I wonder were you were...I am living in the Ruhr Area, and all our cities have some sort of pedestrian zone which yes, are car-free (unless naturally during delivery hours, but those are so early, there aren't many pedestrians on the street). Naturally there is parking near those areas, and there is an area which is somewhat half-pedestrian at the edges, but there is also an absolute car-free area. I can't think of any city in the Ruhr area which doesn't have such a no-car zone....

[@anindrapratama]

i wonder if communism played a role?

[@simonkraemer3725]

The GDR put (naturally) more emphasis on public transit and pedestrian friendliness, city planning was supposed to be a counter design to the car centric west. So east cities didn’t caught the bad car-centric decades west cities did

[@kosinusify]

@@simonkraemer3725 Also: what's the point of having a car-friendly city when your only "cars" are Trabants? :D

[@dnocturn84]

I noticed to same thing. In the city close to me (East Germany), pedestrian areas are free of cars. Some of them are even impossible to drive in by car through barriers that only move for police or ambulance. And you will get fined by the Ordnungsamt there. They are very quick and everywhere, in order to make money for the city. You have to have to be really lucky to park your car at the wrong spot to do some quick business and not get fined. Last city meeting stated, that they have a frequency of < 8 minutes. The whole urban planning (including bycicle lanes) is also much better than this in Aschaffenburg and was never build around cars as much as in the West.

[@anon0815de]

11:23: This bike counter was put up in summer this year, so the total is very low.

[@barvdw]

That's good to know, still, only a few 1000 cyclists since this Summer is not exactly great. The bike counter near the main station in my city (Brussels, far from the most bike-friendly city, and definitely not the most bike-friendly area) has a 1000 cyclists a day passing through. But let's stay hopeful, and the numbers go up in the future.

[@7081_H]

Yes, it's just two months old and has an average of 600 cyclists a day.

[@drivers99]

Great video. I’m a big fan of Not Just Bikes and Shifter and all the related channels like that. I started taking my e-bike on all errands and I love to evaluate the positives and negatives of where I go for bike and pedestrian friendliness. The nearest grocery (if you count Target, which sells groceries) is across a 11 lane (12 lane if you count where they added a turn off to 7-Eleven) road. When you push the button (the beg button, because it’s how you beg for a chance to cross the street) and wait and wait to cross, it gives pedestrians 45 seconds to cross because it’s so wide. On a parallel road (one block East) from me there is a bike lane (painted bicycle gutter) that is so narrow that half of it is just the gutter itself. The next two intersections West of there have no access for pedestrians at all, and 12 lanes of Interstate highway pass overhead, plus 10 more lanes for on and off ramps. (I-25 and E Arapahoe Rd in Greenwood Village, CO if you’re curious)

[@letthetunesflow]

NotJustBikes is a channel I wasn’t expecting to hear in the same breath as yours TBH, but I’m here for it! I really do thoroughly enjoy both of your channels, so keep up the amazing work, the both of you always have some top notch information to share, and always delivered with your perfect sense of dry humour, that is just *chefs kiss*. I might be a bit of a strange anomaly though, especially considering that I live neither in Germany, nor the Netherlands, yet I thoroughly enjoy both of your channels immensely. I do very much enjoy your style, it makes whatever topic you’re covering quite enjoyable, and entertaining as well as very informative. I really enjoy learning all the very niche information about a country like Germany through the eyes of local, especially one who is living and filming in a region seldom covered by an English language KZbinr such as yourself! Keep on crushing it! I thoroughly enjoying your work!!!

[@minski76]

5:44 Ein sehr gutes Schild.

[@SturmZebra13]

Ist ja auch von der PARTEI, sie ist sehr gut.

[@gunterification]

Haven't heard about nazis killing people since the last world war. There are lots of knife attacks in germany each year though from a certain group of people.

[@minski76]

@@gunterification Haven't heard of Nazis killing people, have you? You haven't been listening very careful, then, I'd assume... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Walter_L%C3%BCbcke en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halle_synagogue_shooting

[@gunterification]

@Tagedieb Read and learn something. islam is a religion of peace lol. It's much worse in africa and the middle east. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_terrorism_in_Europe#2020

[@thetobe49]

I've been watching rewboss almost from the very beginning of the channel, the videos were always nice and entertaining but lately, his videos got extremely interesting and thoroughly researched. Großartig!

[@nicolasblume1046]

I think the city with the biggest road construction mistake is Cologne: The Nord-Süd Fahrt cuts right through the heart of the city, even through the Roman parts, with only 2 short tunnels. And it's mostly 4-6 Lanes...

[@SomePotato]

Add the lack of safe cycling infrastructure and you know why Cologne is regularly ranked the least bike-friendly big city in Germany.

[@nlpnt]

That's almost every large city in America.

[@SomePotato]

@@nlpnt Oh, no. It's not that bad.

[@freaki0734]

@@SomePotato ye I had the option of riding my bike along the 18 line on the luxemburger to university and allthough I could make it faster than taking the 18 and had nice infrastructure for a part of the way they could really put a bike lane there. public transportation is pretty great in cologne tho I feel sadly I won't have free acess to that anymore this year

[@SomePotato]

@@freaki0734 True, public transport is pretty good.

[@hawkmoon3312]

The really sad thing is, that Aschaffenburg used to be a really, really green city. I live here, too, and am very interested in History. So naturally, I hunted for old maps of my hometown and got lucky. I have two plans of Aschaffenburg, one from 1910, one from 1914. Both show the original way the City was planned in Antike before cars. The most surprising thing was, what I call the „green belt“. Roughly following what today is the ring road you described, back then used to be a connected ring of parks and green areas, all around the city center. It went from the castle to the Schöntal, round to the Grossmutterwiese up to the Fasanerie and following what today is the ring road and railway back to the river Main and up to the castle again. The places I mentioned are remnants of that green belt. Oh how I would love to have a look at the way the city looked back then. Imagine strolling all around the city, while never leaving a park. Unfortunately, as you might know, Aschaffenburg was bombed heavily in 1944 and then saw about 10 days of heavy fighting at the end of march 45. much of the city center was destroyed in those two years. About 10 years later, when the last rubble was finally gone, that unfortunately left a lot of room for the shiny new thing… cars. I wish they had tried and just restored the city to the way it was. Instead of building large roads, restore the parks. Well. Maybe one day…

[@WurstCase]

@rewboss First off, I completely agree with you on the honking driver in the pedestrian zone. Actually, it should be made a special offense to honk at pedestrians without valid reason (which is only if they are in immediate danger). He should have stepped out of his car and asked you if you could let him through. Regardless of whether he was really allowed to be there that day or not. That said, here are few more thoughts on some of the topics in the video: 5:56 Actually™, in those calmed zones or "play streets" (official German term: Verkehrsberuhigter Bereich), pedestrians *have* priority over other road users. They shall not hinder cars or bicycles unecessarily, though. But since verhicles may only drive at walking speed there (max. 10 km/h according to well-established case-law), that would only be the case if pedestrians would intentionally block the road. Child's play is allowed everywhere. (Source: Annex 3 seq. no. 12 to sign no. 325.1 Straßenverkehrsordnung) 12:37 The sign ("Tempo-20-Zone") alone only means that all vehicles must not exceed 20 km/h until there is the correspending sign that ends the zone even if they turn into another street. Cars and other vehicles *do* have priority over pedestrians wanting to cross the road. However, if the part of the road where vehicles drive (Fahrbahn) is interrupted by some other form of road structure then that implies that cars have to yield to other road users on that other part of the road becaus their part of the road ends before it. That can also often be observed on junctions where the sidewalks of a main road continue through the branch of a side road. Whether that is also the situation on the crossing in front of the shopping centre in the video is not entirely clear to me but could well be. It seems to be an edge case which could have been made more clear by raising the level of the crossing, for example. Then again, it could have been let unclear on purpose so that everyone will be more cautious but still, a foot crossing ("zebra crossing") would have been the preferable solution there in my opinion. Any road user should ideally be able to recognize at first glance who has priority and how to behave in any given place open to public road traffic. Constructions like this could lead to situations in which one of them could stubbornly insist on their supposed priority which can lead to accidents. Additionally, I also absolutely agree on the pointlessness of rules and signs if there are nearly no controls by the authorities. Cars everywhere they don't belong (sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian zones) are still painfully common in Germany. And most people seem to regard that as minor infractions at most if at all. Even the people who are affected, even endangered by it (pedestrians and cyclists) don't really care most of the time because they have already been indoctrinated when there where children that cars have priority anytime, anywhere and everything else has to step back behind it. You have a good chance to be called a squealer if you report a car that has been parked illegally and dangerously. It's completely twisted. The victims are being called the bad guys by the actual wrongdoers and many politicians still support them. One indication for that are the ridiculously low fines for certain infractions compared to most other countries. Germany still is Europe's bargain-basement for speeders and parking offenders.

[@HotelPapa100]

How did you get that Citroën DS on video? (A cookie to the first viewer who spots it.)

[@misterflibble9799]

1:20 and I claim my cookie :)

[@HotelPapa100]

@@misterflibble9799 Sure, have a cookie: 🍪

[@chrismcgarry2840]

At 11:51, the German equivalent of a sharrow! Which have been shown to be more dangerous than nothing if I remember correctly...

[@ronalddevine9587]

There is much to be said for the grid pattern. I realize these cities are over a thousand years old. I live in Connecticut, just north of New Haven. It was founded in the early 1600s, and was mapped out to a grid pattern. Hartford, our state capital is a few years older and a spider's web. Nice video

[@shaungordon9737]

Yuck. I HATE American city design (the new grid ones, not the older ones). Worst exanple of urban planning that no one should follow.

[@beerenmusli8220]

No, cause a grid pattern creates much more problems that it solves, and creates bigger problems that it solves too.

[@edenviews]

Extremely well delivered report about a very serious problem. I like the quality and would like to see more.

[@arnofleck]

Absolutely agree with everything you said. Sadly, the same video could be done about most German cities, particularly the middle-sized ones. The best bicycle infrastructure (besides Münster) that I've seen so far is in Bremen, but even that doesn't always make you feel welcome. Large cities like München try really hard, but it's hit or miss, depending on where you are (Böhmermann's "Warum hört der Fahrradweg einfach hier auf?" perfectly describes the situation). Medium-sized cities all tend to have okay public transportation and somewhat okay bicycle infrastructure, but they are clearly designed around getting around (and particularly into them) by car. I think the main reason is that large cities are really feeling the pain of having too many cars with everyone unhappy while in small cities, the car-centric design still mostly works - so the reasons for shifting away from that aren't nearly as obvious to the general population, so it's hard to get city planners behind that idea.

[@TheNasaDude]

Where I live a completely new underground light railway was built about 15 years ago. The planners did it right: huge free parking lots at the ends of the line, and the one line passes through all the important parts: university, city center, main hospital, train station... Trains are also very frequent. Traffic is still heavy, but it's hard to find a flaw in the project itself. The only oversight is that bus routes haven't been updated to carry people to and from the various stations. They stop nearby, but they remain as an independent system

[@CmdrFirewalker]

Thanks to my viewers and patreons, who pay me to stand in the street, and argue with German drivers Missed a chance there ;)

[@prometnetegobeljubljana4913]

Awesome to see someone dealing with more central european approach to city design. I see a lot of similarities with Ljubljana, Slovenia, the green capital of europe in the past and the Velo-city city of 2022. A bicycle friendly city with bad inconsistent infrastructure.

[@vaged2aj]

Yep. That amazing developed Germany (western part) has exactly the same or worse traffic situation as we have in the Czech rep. Including bad parking with no fines.

[@felixw19]

Great analysis. Absolutely love the video

[@ErikNordlicht]

In Hamburg I hate driving into the city center, but when you already have car... It's more convenient to drive and local Transport for two people cost minimum 11-12€(Group Day Ticket after 9am). Parking isn't cheap there but I never paid above 10€.

[@rewboss]

You can get monthly tickets that are much cheaper, and if you're driving you have to pay for fuel or electricity on top of your parking costs.

[@mtnsolutions]

"There's no point in having regulations if they are not enforced!" -- Love it and couldn't agree more. Come to Seoul and be frustrated all the more with that same thought process. I've given up

[@PixelSchmiede]

This is so true! Living in Darmstadt for a few months has shown me how horrible Aschaffenburgs traffic really is. As a city with more than double the population, Darmstadt is much less congested, has less heavy traffic roads and is generally more cyclist and pedestrian friendly. Even though, unlike Aschaffenburg, Darmstadt has no ring-road and all the traffic on B26 has to go right through the heart of the city, the city managed to cut one of three lanes and convert it into a bicycle path. Better yet, through traffic is continuing to decline, which makes other street downgrades and traffic calming measures possible. Aschaffenburg, get your sh*t together!

[@stroke_of_luck]

City planners have it tough. People want their cars. There have to plan around actual traffic. The problem remains that every single person sees what they do is rational, but in the aggregate is colossally stupid. A with a single car takes up 3 meters by 1 ½ meters of space. 200 cars takes up an incredible amount of pace. A person walking takes up 1/6 x 1/6 of a meter. Obviously people should walk. Other people. I need to get to somewhere quickly and I need to use that car. And suddenly we have a mess of people in cars. Bikes should be encouraged. But getting people to use them..... I am sort of weird because I prefer bikes. I can't drive so I am dependent on mass transit. I have to use bikes, so I use them. People use cars to drive short distances. They just do. Even a city like Corvallis full of environmentally conscious (Ha!) college students 90% of trips are by car for ridiculously short trips. Holland has riguloulsy urban planning around bikes. They still have people taking cars short distance. The cops in your town should be more aggressive about passing out tickets for people illegally parked cars like that. I don't see that happening.

[@holger_p]

No people don't want their cars, they are just used to it. It takes generations to change, but this process has started. As bigger the city, as better it works, cause public transport works best in dense populated areas. They learn it's impossible to get anywhere quickly by using the car.

[@stroke_of_luck]

@@holger_p the only way to get people to use bikes is to price gasoline prohibitively high and to redesign streets so they are 30kph or slower in the downtown core. Most bikes go faster than that. People just prefer driving. Even in the parking lots that are called freeways. I was the only person at my bank department who took the bike out of 30 people. People would pay $10 to park. I drove a couple of times. It took 20 minutes more to go the same distance and find a place to park the car. People just loved their cars.

[@IntyMichael]

Over here in Koblenz we had a part of a street that was only open for buses and taxis. So many private cars still were passing through that the city council changed it back to open for all.

[@gottfriedneuner3721]

it's always fascinating to see how similar Aschaffenburg and its issues are to my area of Franconia.

[@ianp727]

"Ein Ring, sie zu knechten [...]" - Another great example for car-centric infrastructure like this is the city of Bayreuth. While construction of the "Stadtkernring" did give space for the pedestrian zone in the city center, its impacts nowadays are devastating. Not one, but THREE Bundesstraßen (B2, B22 and B85) are led via the ring, and the ring doesn't go around Bayreuth, but only around its "Stadtkern", the "city core" - it is right in the heart of the city. For the construction of this 4-lane-road, more than 400-year old buildings were demolished. Due to the ridiculous size of the road, cars usually go faster than 50. There are creepy ped-underpasses as well. During nights, it is sometimes (illegally) used as a racetrack. Some parts of the ring are forbidden (!!) for cycles. The ring also forms a barrier: You can only cross it at designated places, else it is way too dangerous. P+R facilities? Don't exist in Bayreuth.

[@muellerhans]

When a (nearly) car-free city is discussed many people are against it. But then when politicans finally decide to give it a try people change their mind after they experienced a car-free city for some time. They see that everything they were worried about did not become reality and that their city actually benefitted from less cars.

[@vlt96]

This is incredibly hard for small cities. I grew up in a ~20k town, very low density, but I got used to either walking for 10-50 minutes depending on the destination, or taking a car for 2-10 minutes + parking. What I didn't realise was that biking takes 5-15 minutes, and they recently started building ok biking infrastructure, but some roads are still covered by parked cars. The problem with policing parked cars on previous taxi parking spots turned into bike lanes (in small cities) is that both the reporter and the policemen doing the policing will get (more or less passive aggressively) harassed forever for taking away their parking spot... even though that's making 5 people slightly happier (and everyone around unhappy because of the atmosphere they create) instead of "basically no one" (which even at 2 bikes per hour would still be 20-30 people over a day)

[@HeatherLandon227]

I live in the semi-rural US and we have very weird intersections where state borders go through. It's a big triangle, with a T- intersection really close by. It'd be better off as a roundabout.

[@uliuchu4318]

Thanks rewboss! This is an important issue in almost every midsized and even some bigger sized city in germany... Jan Böhmermann, a famous TV satirist just recently made a video about it as well. I think we've come to a point where we have to inconvenience car usage in cities even if we don't get a net win immediately for cyclists...

[@bikequestwithmikewest]

Great video! Those pedestrian streets and bus lanes could benefit from enforcement through design. Removable bollards or other feature could be used to stop cars from accessing the pedestrian streets but would allow for delivery and maintenance vehicles to get in when allowed. Paint alone is a terrible feature to keep cars out of bus and bike lanes, something physical needs to be in there. Thanks for sharing!

[@fhs7838]

Ahh, P+R.... I am so missed about it since Beijing literally stopped building anymore P+R near metro stations since 2011. Beijing does a step forward: neglecting both cars and public transport (and pedestrian+bikes). There isnt any newly build urban express or any main roads in city center for a decade. Making rush hour road average speed down to 18kph. While bus service is keep shrinking. Also metro build cost has skyrocket from 0.5B/km to 1.6B/km, and still keep only investigating 30B per year since 2010. And forcing shared bikes to have strict service area, and ignoring that shared bikes' ridership already overtake bus and dont give any place for them to park.

[@AlfonsJQuack]

Great video, everyone involved in Komunalpolitik and urban planning in Germany should watch. I live in a tiny town (5.000 residents) not far from where you live and the medieval "city center" is almost inaccessible for cars, pedestrians and cyclists despite the "city center" being traversable in 5 minutes on foot, so there is no reason to allow cars to rattle over cobbled stone, scrape and shake 800 year old buildings and make street cafes impossible.

[@RundeKatze]

I live in Goslar. Nobody (me included) would ever think about taking the bus when having a car. You are faster walking through the town than waiting for the next bus. So what do you do? Taking the car. Why I should pay 80€ extra per month added to the existinc costs of my car for a bus ticket when I can simply walk into the town center or take the car when there is less time and the jurney needs to be quicker. My landlord even removed the bike pollars in front of my door because they were rusty and we do not have a room in the basement for it. So I had to leave it somewhere else. At the moment it is 2 streets away in a friends basement. It takes me longer to walk to my bike attach the lights etc. than just jump into my car and turn the key. You can not leave a bike unattendet over months otherwise your lights are stolen or something else.

[@AlexanderGoeres]

as to cars this is the base of the problem: if the breaking the rules is not sanctioned then no amount of planning, appealing to common sense or even rising the fines will change anything.

[@wobblybobengland]

People who travel 100m in a car.

[@aviationclub2637]

Please do a video about Wuppertal

[@-haclong2366]

As a Dutchman that went both by bicycle and by car to Germany, yeah, Germany is very car-centric, there's parking everywhere for cars.

[@TimwiTerby]

This was amazing. Mit diesem Video hast du dich selbst übertroffen

[@workaholica]

In certain cities, bicycle counters are for demonstrating there isn't any demand for actually improving anything.

[@frankszanto]

I like those devices for counting bikes. It reminds of Heinrich Boll's Die Ungezaehlte Geliebte.

[@WardancerHB]

Great vid. Informative, entertaining and as a german I especially appreciate the opportunity to curse incompetent city planners!

[@cameronallan5624]

Also look at Guildford or Dorking. Guildford has a gyratory splitting the town centre and the other side of the city in half. Council has plans to try and half heartedly fix it but has no money. Dorking has its main through traffic route straight down the high street.

[@PlittHD]

8:19 kinda funny having DEKRA advertisement (federal vehicle inspection like UK MOT) on a ~15 year old bus

[@UserName-ts3sp]

that town of 70,000 probably has more public transit than my city of 900,000 in the states

[@rewboss]

There are some notable exceptions. I was pleasantly surprised by San Francisco, for example, with its trams and trolleybuses.

[@HaploidCell]

So, I live in Cologne and we, too, have the problem of the "disappearing cycling lane". This is because in some stretches of the route it becomes apparent that the bicycle lane was added as an afterthought, and in some places there simply isn't enough room to accomodate them correctly because of the already existing, limiting infrastructure. So we'd need a complete re-build of that stretch of road which is not happening any time soon because a) expensive! and b) you would need to re-route traffic through somewhere else and that's either not possible because there is no easy alternative route, or those roads are already congested by traffic as well. This, incidentally, also accounts for a lot of inner-city road damage. Sure, money and personel to fix it are available, it's just that for whatever reason we cannot shut down those roads. And certainly not for any lenght of time that eclipses a long weekend. I totally agree with rewboss: for these reasons, cycle lanes are usually the poorer option and cars still reign surpreme. A kind of a chicken-and-the-egg problem: too many cars keep us from changing the infrastructure that we have, and so we have to keep the old, crumbling infrastructure and things keep getting worse because of too many cars. Not even public transportation like buses are a solution because that's just adding more motor vehicles to roads already congested with them. And if you're stuck in traffic in a bus, it's not really helping anyone. More recently, the big national elections happened, and cars are always at the forefront of many political programs and voting decisions. We're Germans. We manufacture a ton of cars each year, and the political influence of those industry sectors has always been felt in politics. You need to keep those jobs and companies in Germany. So topics like a 130 km/h tempo limit on the autobahn, combined with decisions on when to phase out combustion engines due to CO2 emissions are always tricky. There is further a societal "problem": many grown-ups simply don't see a reason NOT to own a car. And it's not about public transport being bad, or bike lanes being unsafe - it's simply a feeling that "I am an adult, I go to work each day, I pay my taxes, I own a car". It's an un-questioned assumption that adulthood has always meant that you'll get your driver's license and go buy a (cheap) car. It's a halmark of independance, freedom, adulthood, responsibility and also capability. Financial decisions almost do not enter into it, because everyone just sort of .... figures it out, right? I had a collegue who had a bad, old car that needed constant repairs. However, the only residence they could afford was so out of the way that they needed the car. Commute with car - 20 minutes. Commute without car and bad public transport - 1.5 hours. The car was a money-sink they couldn't afford, but not only did they feel they needed that car anyways, they felt downright attacked when I suggested to sell it and use bikes or the bus. Like I had scolded them and tried to take away their "adulthood" or something. Now, I don't care, because public transport is very good in Cologne. As long as you live IN the city, that is. German public transportation has a funding problem because it's usually your local government who either provides it or hires an external company to take over those duties. Meaning that big cities are better off, and smaller communities lack funds to afford themselves good coverage. So the further out and more rural you get, the loser your public transport connections are going to be. Big city? 5-10 minutes wait time for a bus. Rural township or village? 30 minutes wait time, minimum. And it gets very spotty. I know of 3 tiny villages in BW that are all connected by only one bus lane. And it just comes through there 3 times a day.

[@jamesbedford7327]

Aschaffenburg seems like it would be the perfect place to implement multiple Low Traffic Zones withing the ring road. There is that ring road with can be used to push traffic out of the centre. For example: Split the centre into 5 different areas. The very centre is fully pedestrianised (Excluding buses). Block zones off from each other, either via physical barrier or camera enforcement This would mean that traffic wouldn't be going through the centre, and instead in/out Over time, parking should also be moved further out from the centre (preferably to the edge of the pedestrian zone

[@CarlosIsDown]

You make some great points about a place I've never been (or thought about until I came up on your video) and I agree with your criticisms based on what you've shown but I live ~1.2 hours from Down Town LA and your city still seems miles ahead better than ours. though, I do hope your town council can get its act together and fix the stuff you pointed out.

[@lemmingsgopop]

From the US and this is infrastructure we could only dream of. Imagine if busses came every 15 minutes. Amazing.

[@rogermichaelwillis6425]

I'm an American living in Istanbul. You can catch a ferry from the European to the Asian side every 20 minutes.

[@nlpnt]

Burlington, Vermont has a pedestrianized street with gates at the ends (really every block since there's car traffic on the cross streets). They're opened in the morning for deliveries to the businesses along it. OTOH they're *still trying to build* an urban parkway that was first planned in the 1960s. The Interstate exit it starts at is the busiest in the state and has no park-and-ride, something the already-built, never-used stub of the connector would be great as.

[@thecockerel86]

This appeared on my page, probably because I watch the other channel you're not collaborating with. It is strangely satisfying to find out that Germans are not always efficient and law abiding.

[@wohlhabendermanager]

I used to live in Hamburg for quite some time. Now I live in a very small village south of Hamburg. And while I can still hear the Autobahn traffic noise is considerably less. The funny thing about this is that I never realized this until I visited Malente earlier this year. I was walking through the town center and traffic noise was SO LOUD, with all the cars squeezing through and big trucks driving right through the city that I wondered why on earth we ever considered this to be normal and acceptable. Anyone who's not sitting in a car (or truck) is pushed to the side on narrow walkways that hardly are wide enough to allow two people walking next to each other, while car traffic takes up the majority of space. This is really insane. EDIT: Construction works with badly designed Umleitungen are another problem. On our way home my wife and I stopped in a small town, got some snacks, had a lovely walk through the town and then wanted to head to the motorway. It took us 20 minutes and several alternative routes on google maps to navigate back to the highway because apparently all access roads were closed due to construction. In the end we took quite a big detour. This could have been prevented if the town officals had bothered to put up those nice little "Umleitung" signs.

[@demyandanyluk7399]

What a Masterpiece! One of the best videos on KZbin on such theme! Everyday situation allover the world (except 2 countries) on German city example! Who could imagine! Thanks! And please continue

[@RobertTeague]

Sad, the city has changed so much. The last time I was in Aschaffenburg was probably 1980 and it was very much a pedestrian town then.

[@Pyrazahn]

With a city layout like that, it's probably easier to just delete your savegame and start a new game.

[@michaelbeiyt]

At least it is clear now, that cars destroy the cities. Lots of work is needed to change the infrastructure. Will be hard in Germany with the strong car industry.

[@updatedotexe]

Awesome video. Also love for NotJustBikes from Germany

[@luigipiuattivo3316]

Sehr schön aufbereitet. Sachlich, aber mit Meinung, aber ohne Hysterie, Problembeschreibung, Analyse + Lösungsvorschlägen... Mehr davon *thumbsUp*

[@jamesharrison2374]

Like the video, though it look posted a while back. Spent a while Aschaffenburg, and lived near by in Darmstadt. Most of my time there was in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Loved walking downtown, along the Main, and the visit to the Schloß.

[@TheHylianBatman]

A wonderful video, thank you. As an American, my city is not navigable on foot. At ALL. This is why I resent our history; German cities (and indeed, many, many cities) have had their same design for foot traffic and horses for thousands of years, whereas most American metropolises have only popped up in the last 150. I feel like the situation in Aschaffenburg is solvable. I feel like the one in the USA is not, or at least, insanely more difficult. I had never considered a parking lot on the edge of town with public transport links. That's very, very clever.

[@MarioFanGamer659]

I'd actually argue that this mostly came through the creation of car-dependent suburbs and it's mostly towns and cities from 1950s onward, though many older cities were also remodelled for cars (there is a saying called "The US wasn't built for cars, it has was bulldozed for cars" or something like). In fact, the reason why Europe isn't as car centric as NA are various, but protest by its citizens and lack of a white flight hindered the spread of car centric structure despite the advantageous situation at that time.

[@TalasDD]

i think you very much made a perfect colab video

[@webchimp]

In my town we have two park and rides and some people do use them, but we also have plenty of town centre parking. One of those PnR goes past a college so I think more students use it than drivers.

[@frankhooper7871]

"There's no point in having regulations if they're not enforced" - kudos for pointing out what should be patently obvious. Here in the UK, I regularly see cars parked where only loading is allowed (hint: nipping into the shop to buy a packet of cigarettes does *not* constitute loading), cycles using pavements which have not been designated for shared usage (usually a bad idea, IMHO), electric scooters being ridden both on the pavements and on the roads (electric scooters are completely illegal in the town I live in, and can only be legally used on private land with the owners permission - yeah, like that's going to happen), cyclists running red lights, cars exceeding the speed limit.

[@RobinRense]

7:54 I was in Brühl a couple weeks ago and went by bus to Phantasialand. Apparently bus-priority at traffic lights doesn't exist. It took ages to get through all the traffic.

[@ninjaz5736]

Obviously there are plenty of cities with terrible traffic, but my pet peeve is unnecessarily large / disruptive construction work. Example: here in Nürnberg, the main ring road around the city centre, which runs right in front of the Central Station, and all major roads feed into, is usually 3 lanes, splitting into 2 2-lane roads going north and east. This is (due to major roadworks) currently constricted to 1 singular lane, for about 100m until shortly before everything splits off. This causes tailbacks across the city, not helped by the fact that 3 of the tram lines are partially running as replacement bus services, directly because of said roadworks (which have been in the area since at least the spring, it now being October). And don't get me started on the Autobahn that becomes a city street for about 800m... with no less than 3 at-grade crossings (and for some reason there's only a singular roundabout in the south of the city and it's in the middle of a residential area, barely used... couldn't they at least have used it for one of the major junctions?? Surely German drivers can be trusted to figure out how to use a 3 lane roundabout!)

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

odd layouts like the highway turning into an urban street and then again proceeding as highway often came with the decades of urban development. Take highway 8 for example which is interrupted by the Bavarian capital city of Munich: the highway comes all the way from the west and technically ends in Munich, and on the other side of the city highway 8 proceeds and goes all the way further east to the Austrian border. In between there's the Middle Ring Road and other arterial roads. Technically traffic going west to east will not be directed right through the city but on the outer ring road which is highway 99 connecting both "ends" of highway 8 with another

[@DiogenesOfCa]

Me living in North America looking at this city in complete envy. I WISH we only had these few complaints about how our cities are set up.

[@ontheroadagain731]

The most effective way to stop cars parking in bus and cycle lanes is sustained vandalism. A ResQMe or similar tool is effective as is a valve core remover.

[@rewboss]

I cannot condone criminal vandalism. It's also counter-productive: you render the offending vehicle immobile until a tow truck arrives.

[@fattymcbutterpants.]

Maybe the most effective way to stop people from promtoting vandalism is to get them investigated by police for unsolved acts of vandalism? :)

[@tilmanahr]

It’s actually possible that the driver who came out of the pedestrian zone was either a resident, or making an urgent delivery (medication to a pharmacy would be the typical example), and in fact was permitted to go through there at that time, while regular delivery traffic would typically only be allowed at specific times in the early morning or late evening. I would expect someone in that situation to mention the specific reason for their being allowed to drive there, though. So, while it’s possible, I don’t think it’s particularly likely.

[@albussr1589]

06:00 Nope, that looks like a Funnel of Death. One recless Driver in there will turn that Street into a Deathtrap. Also, Cycelist are required to keep one Metre Distance from parking Cars, to avoid crashing into opening Doors. First, how do you know, every second while focussing on Traffic, what one Metre is, and second, that´s not always possible because it would mean cyceling in the Middle of the Road where Cars will be Rude until you´re frightend for your Life. Also, Berlin Trafic is a Hazard like a Video Game trying to kill you. The Drivers treat Pedestrians as non-existing and the Cycelist act like Kamikaze. Glad I made it out of there alive

[@edwardcollins741]

The thing is, in Detroit this would be considered a public transit riders and cyclists paradise.

[@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest]

I live in Hagen which back in the car centric days had no pedestrian zone in the centre (according to my parents). At least that got hot fixed, but that's about it. City centre is highly surrounded by two agressive federal routes. And the main station got misplaced (Idk why they didn't simply destroy buildings like every other city back in the 19th centure to make space). It's 700m from the actual centre and one of the ways leads through a 4 lane car haven. If you are new here, yoi probably can't even find the centre.

[@agaistin]

Thanks for posting. Won't be visiting your town any time soon.

[@ChiaraVet]

I have to say, I lived in the Bavarian( und Baden Württemberg) countryside for a while and since about 2016 live in Munich. I come from a small village in the North-East of Italy so you could say I´ve seen a lot of different situations. Oh, and I went to Amsterdam on many occasions so I also had the chance to see how it´s up there. Everywhere when possible I try to avoid the car. Near the small village I come from, there is a small town of about 50.000 people (plus neighboring smaller centers). There the concept of not using your car is… simply unfathomable. Or, wait: it is possible to go to some places by bike, or by foot NOW since they have finally built some bike/pedestrian track outside of the town center, but public transportation is basically non existent, despite the obvious need for it, since the traffic gets worse every time I visit. Oh, and the bike/pedestrian areas have all the same issue you indicated of cars not respecting it (and not just because of an accident-it´s always like that). What´s more disturbing fro me however, is that those areas and tracks do not directly benefit a person living there: mostly are just "touristic" ones, or very incomplete ones. And the traffic... oh boy. All in all, I like that in Munich, even though the process started out slowly in the 70s-80s, they are trying do transform the city center so that it can get more and more pedestrian and bike friendly. Besides of course implementing the public transportation, that despite people´s complaints, IMHO it´s just trying to get the job done, but since there has been years in which it was underfunded(because cars are more important, especially in the 80s-90s), it is to be expected that it is hitting his limits. We have to ask the politicians to upgrade those infrastructures. We don´t need a bigger highway, we need more modern rail tracks/rail tech! Some of the same solutions I saw in Amsterdam, I see they have adopted them here too or are at least starting to. In any case, that is the direction here. Also, I think that more than the government, maybe the local administrations could do something more effectively about the planning?

[@braincytox7314]

It would be interesting to see videos of other cities. Frankfurt, Hanau or perhaps even Würzburg? For Würzburg a lot is changing right know because the greens have got more than 30% in the Stadtrat.

[@PascalGienger]

The problem is that federal routes (Bundesstrasse) in Germany always have to be signed as main route. So when a city builds a road bypassing the city or a ring road like here it will not be on signs for a long distance destination unless the federal administration actually declassifies the old road from the Bundesstrasse status and reassigns it to the bypass or ring..... Many cities failed with that and so trucks still go through the city as the federal road is also in navigation systems... And for the cars: The voters don't want to change it. Nearly every city council blocks proposals to prioritize bikes, public transit and pedestrians in fear of their majority voters who want to drive into the City. There are some exceptions like Freiburg.

[@fribby]

Solution to 90% of car traffic: Parkhaus Degerloch. It's at the edge of Stuttgart. You park your car there (no news so far), but your park ticket is also your train ticket. When you exit the car park, there is a street car stop right there. You can use it to get around in all of central Stuttgart. It keeps cars out and makes it easy to use public transport. I live in a rather small town, the next train station is 20min by foot, trains go once or twice an hour, and only til about 22:30, so no going out late, no visiting clubs if you don't plan to stay there until 5 o'clock. So, I need to get to the next bigger city by car. If it's easy to use public transport, I will always do so. I hate driving in busy cities; it's stressful and unpleasant. Yes, public transport is also stressful, but a lot less so. If we built such car parks, more people would be inclined to use public transport, making it more logical to improve it, making it more pleasant. Car centric doesn't seem to make driving less stressful. We've been trying for a couple of decades now. Maybe we need to try something else.

[@heisennoob6446]

The ending part summarized what annoys the most. Everytime the car isnt given absolute priority, there are massive protests and outcry so,almost no city is brave enough to try much at all. Only a few big ones are actually doing a little bit and then you have an election like in Berlin, where the canidate wins who says that cars are „misstreated“ and that we need to be more car friendly…

[@nlpnt]

And city planners are developing a nasty habit of removing car capacity as a first step, because it's a helluva lot cheaper to put a few planters in what was once a right-turn-only lane and paint a few sharrows than it is to double bus frequency. That'll only make the backlash worse.

[@tudororza]

Hello from Darmstadt. No problem getting to Aschaffenburg I see :))))))

[@KiraFriede]

Sadly, I feel like many of the middle cities and small big cities are exceptionally bad at providing bike lanes. It only gets better around 300.000/ 500.000, especially when there is a student dominated area. (Coming from someone who lives in a "big city" with essentially 2 bike lanes, but used to live in Munich, with bike lanes everywhere)

[@Pseudynom]

Leipzig has a population of 600k and our biking infrastructure is a joke.