The 10 Surprising (?) US Cities Where People Drive the Least

[@CityNerd]

Don't forget -- if you found my sales pitch incredibly convincing (and who wouldn't), make sure you use my link to get an additional month (and help the channel!) 🌏 Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/CityNerd It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌

[@AMPProf]

SUGESSTION: VIDEO ON " building a better flighttram (Flying busses/tram)network !" Or now "What is Flixbus-train" Sidenote!: WTF WALKED INTO northern Mexico.. Thats the boonies

[@MikeWheeler]

More like NerdVPN, am I right?

[@elmichaelz]

That should be your thing: "Got a great city topic? Put a nerd on it!" (in the style of Portlandia)

[@CurlyQ340]

yes! would like to hear a video about land use. CA and OR in particular. a comparison between various cities would be interesting! ty!

[@thisishow551]

I heard an idea recently that you might be into, or maybe you've talked about it and I just missed it. We have tax credits for buying an electric car, but what about a tax credit for not owning a car at all?

[@dwaynerichardson5380]

Retired lifelong New Yorker, I've used your videos to help choose what city to move to. My criteria is good public transportation, walkability, diversity and affordable housing. My choices are narrowed down to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the outskirts of DC. Thank you for the information you provided. It helped me immensely.

[@jacobwood1707]

I would personally say that Philly is going to be the best option if you want to maintain a semblance of the lifestyle you've always had. Philly doesn't have anywhere near the volume of people that NY has, but both cities are set up in a surprisingly similar way. If you want to change up the way you've been living while still being able to live without a car, then I would say DC is better because it has VERY quiet neighborhoods and the Metro is never too crowded and much cleaner than NY's (and Philly's) subways. I probably wouldn't live in Pittsburgh without a car, honestly

[@jacobwood1707]

Also, I would like to add that DC has excellent diversity, but is not affordable at all. Pittsburgh is very affordable, but doesn't have much diversity. Philly has great diversity AND has much more affordable housing than what you would ever find in a big city

[@snowless456]

⁠@@jacobwood1707as a New Yorker, you’re spot on with the NY-PHI comparison. Walking in Philly felt so much like walking in NY, plus it’s so much closer than DC is to NY and Amtrak isn’t your only rail option to the city. Housing is also much better there and I’m definitely considering renting in Philly for a few years

[@jacobwood1707]

@scottydude456 I live in Philly now and I'm from Syracuse and have a ton of friends from college who are from NY so I've been to the city plenty of times. Both NY and Philly are made up of neighborhoods that almost feel like cities in their own right (like Flatbush in BK and Point Breeze in Philly)

[@stephentomaszewski8501]

My friends in Philly don’t own cars and get around just fine.

[@Kaigotitright]

I live in providence! It’s small in size and I bike everywhere. The neighborhoods are super walkable and downtown is especially human scaled. Definitely one of the big benefits of it is the northeast corridor and MBTA access to boston at the rail station, which sits just next to the Kennedy plaza bus hub.

[@KevnFsk]

I would also like to add it has A LOT of young people: college students, who literally do not need cars

[@jasonreed7522]

I will also contribute low speed limits. I had to Visit Rhode Island twice for work and opted to avoid I-95 and instead take the 2 lane state highways, i never saw a speed limit sign over 45mph which was frustrating as someone used to Upstate NY and now lives in CT because a lot of the rural sections could have been 60mph. This doesn't necessarily change the density of the cities as city/village speed limits are usually 30mph, but it probably does discourage sprawl as getting out into the "rural" parts will have a significant time cost.

[@SteelerFanInRI]

I also live in Providence; I love using those e-bikes/e-scooters we've had around here for the past few years, too; definitely a convenient option for those of us in the city.

[@kacamac]

Another Prov resident here. Been car free 10 years here. Really easy to do tbh.

[@SteelerFanInRI]

@@kacamac It really is; in fact I bought a car last year and it made my life much more difficult; I never thought I'd be so happy to be car-free again.

[@alialiyev6168]

13. Seattle 12. Washington 11. Los Angeles 10. Sacramento 3:53 9. San Jose 4:45 8. Chicago 5:15 7. Providence 5:45 6. Pittsburgh 6:23 5. San Francisco 6:55 4. Portland 7:31 3. Philadelphia 8:27 2. New York 10:31 1. San Juan 11:11

[@matopo]

ty

[@claudiahansen4938]

Thanks! Pittsburgh's my hometown, and went to school in NY. Surprised at San Juan, which I've visited ten times, and love. The last time we were there, we waited hours for a bus from Old San Juan to Isla Verde or Condado. There are parts which are delightfully walkable.

[@marcoalejandrocruz]

@@claudiahansen4938I just moved from there. It’s very car dependent! What lowers the VMT is that everything is very close in comparison to the mainland. You might need car to move efficiently (traffic is awful), but it will be a relatively short distance. Numbers don’t always paint the real picture…

[@claudiahansen4938]

@@marcoalejandrocruz that's a really great point! Where did you move to? We just moved to Florida. Car dependent.

[@doctork1708]

Thank you. This guy is so booooooring. No energy, talks too much.

[@JeremyLu]

I like the part where you said Houston 10 times

[@LosPalms]

Houston

[@LegitVids36]

Houston

[@coolsnail58]

Houston

[@bruhbutwhytho]

Houston

[@09LonghornsRule]

H town 😎

[@FAKETV96]

I personally think providence is such a gem of a city because it has the street design of hundreds of years ago. They messed it up with the freeways and other roads for sure but the bones are still there

[@TomWalsh1]

And they killed the streetcars 😢

[@letitiajeavons6333]

Colonial cities are very walkable.

[@jeffbowser5896]

Yup. Providence was considered the beehive of industry. The entire city was built for people to be able to walk or take street cars wherever they needed. Even some suburbs were built this way (Pawtucket, EP, eastern Cranston). Really a whole chunk of providence metro could be very well served by light rail as 2/3 of the state population lives within a 10 mile radius of providence

[@brian1to1]

Providence, RI is lovely. I lived in College Hill. I met my wife there, my brother moved there in 1985 at my invitation and he never left. I truly enjoyed living there. I also lived in Philadelphia and loved the Chestnut Hill neighborhood. I'm moving back to NYC where I grew up.

[@GraniteJet]

I've lived in Pittsburgh the past five years. I think it's criminally underrated when it comes to urbanism. The area between the two rivers is one where it feels so much easier and convenient to walk, bus, or bike than drive. It's a city that showed me the potential that buses have.

[@jacksonshook1097]

I think one of the things from Sacramento is that they had been overlooked for several years by many people meaning they avoided sprawling development, however now they are growing due to the exodus of the Bay Area and have been placed in a position where they can grow much more sustainably than other cities in California did in the 70s and 80s

[@Mike__B]

Yeah Sacramento has long been an exodus for Bay Area people for probably the past 20 years, where you could get really good value for your money as far as housing getting mini mansions for way cheaper than a small house costs in SF it was so good (bad?) that people deciding commuting to the Bay Area from out there was actually something to worth doing... then that went south as more and more people did it. Now these days it's a bit less of a bargain but still good deal compared to Bay Area prices for housing, just not worth the commute. Something the video got wrong though is that agricultural land doesn't prevent surburban sprawl it is actually the reason for it because you get farmers wanting to get out and selling their land to developers and you get huge areas for relatively cheap hence the cheap housing of the time.

[@barryrobbins7694]

The older more walkable neighborhoods area expense, plus one has to budget for additional maintenance costs & repairs. They are generally smaller too, if that is important. The opening flyover in the movie _American Beauty_ was Sacramento.

[@blogdesign7126]

@@Mike__B Also You gotta consider another one Solano County, CA has to respond to both Bay Area and Sacramento Commuters at the same time. This is a factor why both Sacramento and San Francisco rank at the bottom part on the top 10 list. Places like Vacaville and Fairfield have to respond to suburban sprawl from two major cities here.

[@V45194]

@@Mike__B If you need to commute between Sacto and the Bay, the Capitol Corridor is a pretty decent alternative to driving!

[@Mike__B]

@@V45194 True enough, although still cheaper than the Bay Area I don't think Sacramento housing prices are quite so low that people want to deal with that level of commute every day. Maybe if they had a Bay Area job that was unique to the area and paid very handsomely. That still will be roughly 3 hours of your day commuting plus whatever time it takes going from the train stations.

[@seanmobb]

Providence: the local saying is that "anything further than 15 minutes away is a day trip, you better pack a lunch!" It's a very compact, walkable and bike able town (more so than Boston). If it were not for the large amount of commuters to the large metro to the north, I bet the VMT numbers would actually look way better and may even push the town to the top 3

[@mathyeti]

I lived in RI for 25 years. There is so much variety in such a small place, you don't need to take long trips.

[@2736492821]

on the other hand, for residents in Phoenix, a car trip of 30 minutes or so can be a daily affair (which is bad)

[@forenamesurname4674]

Providence is a real hidden gem. Surprised I never see it mentioned on this channel.

[@mormardet]

Current Brown University student, I feel like it's a combination of the age of the city and its surrounding suburbs like you said, but also the fact that the city itself is very compact. Many people also commute to Boston for work via MBTA and Amtrak. RIPTA is pretty good for what it does, too; buses go where people want to go with an alright schedule, so most of the buses I've been on have been pretty full. Glad to see Providence on here and hope it appears on more lists as it's really a great, unique city!

[@Mibnelius]

Providence is a gem. I've been in NYC for the past almost-decade after my own stint at Brown, but the combination of the compact and generally great (especially if you're a foodie thanks to JWU and the local culture) offerings around downtown are something I miss terribly (and damn the interchanges blowing the whole thing up!). Federal Hill needs no introduction, but local spots like Olneyville NY System (short order), pop-ups downtown (s/o to The Dean for their guests in the past), and the obvious campus standby are all godsends. Providence is a beautiful city with great infrastructural bones. I hope you and your compatriots take full advantage of it, whether you're there temporarily or permanently. If you're there this time of year (summer), take the RIPTA down to Narragansett and enjoy a day out. If you're the type, grab some stuffies or fried clams at Iggy's. I wish I had spent more time off the hill; there's so much to do and it keeps me coming back.

[@petervanderwaart1138]

My Providence experience was back in 1971-72. A couple of ideas come to mind. The river on the east side has few crossings, and not much commerce on the east side. Also, the city had lost its great financial engines like the port, jewelry industry, etc. It was getting more growth from the universities and from immigrants taking advantage of the relatively cheap housing. (Similar could be said of Pittsburgh.) Still, one of the great matriarchal cities of New England.

[@havok9001]

i live in Canada north of Edmonton.... I dont drive at all & im in my late 30's cuz my older brother drive so i ride with him if i have to see my doctor or go to the city sometime.. i dont work & on government assistance per mouth so i pay rent, bills & food shopping that it........ i live in the city of Calgary over 20 years i take public transit if i dont have bus fare i walk alot im use to it

[@BlakeAveryProductions]

What do you think about none of the ripta signs having what route they belong to?

[@hoffnung1651]

Do you have a video on the top 10 public transit projects you are the most optimistic about? IT would be great to see what to look forward and what cities might improve.

[@davidabramovitch4289]

I would like to see this

[@person3070]

Brightline West

[@o_oo_o1812]

oh god sweetie, public transit in the usa? maybe when people start riding unicorns

[@CityNerd]

I think I have an idea like this, but I'd definitely watch an RM Transit video on it

[@hoffnung1651]

@@CityNerd Wow, it's so cool you replied. I and many others here will happily watch both of you. Keep up the good fight.

[@BobbyT.]

As a lifelong Pittsburgher I’m always happy to see my city on these lists. Pittsburgh definitely gets overlooked by many especially by the locals here, there’s two kinds of people here you either bleed black and gold and love the city or you’re the kind of person who hates it here and is always complaining about the city. I love it here and always defend it, Pittsburgh has so much to offer in my opinion especially for its size. Anyways just appreciate to see that some people actually do give it recognition for some of its best qualities.

[@darkwoodmovies]

I lived in the Pitt for a little while, it was actually surprisingly nice and walkable. I did find it a little sketchy in a few too many areas, but I guess that's just the rust belt in general.

[@linuxman7777]

For me, if I had to leave the Pittsburgh area, I would be leaving the US, I have seen what other parts of the country offer, and I am not too impressed. The only major city I liked more than Pittsburgh that I have been to is Tokyo, and their skyline is really lame compared to ours.

[@TheRealE.B.]

​@@linuxman7777 I've actually liked almost every foreign city I've visited more than Pittsburgh... but very few U.S. cities. I characterize it as "Relatively good by default."

[@dantecasali9821]

We lived in Pgh for several years, and while i did drive less miles there…it would take an hour to commute 8 miles. I rode my bike or took the bus, but still an hour each way.

[@Cherrysmith2809]

I visited Pitt once years ago and thought it was great!

[@guitardude412]

Geography is definitely a contributing factor in Pittsburgh as well! Our rivers, hills and mountains did a great job of keeping us very dense and contained

[@TheSlizzap]

Thanks for another installment of PittsburghNerd. Always a pleasure.

[@marissaswinghammer3149]

Lived in Boston from 2002-2015 as a low car household. That is we had one car as a family and often it sat parked a fair bit. Coming from the car dependant Midwest this was pretty life changing.

[@pmclaughlin4111]

No car household in Boston. We had one when the kids were young but no more

[@RacksonRacksonRibss]

How was Boston not on this list

[@gabmaye]

@@RacksonRacksonRibss I'm wondering the same thing! Even LA was mentioned.

[@eamonnca1]

San José has a lot of medium-density housing, 3 to 7-story apartment buildings that are trying to fill in the missing middle. A lot more of it is going in too. Plus the much-maligned VTA light rail has two routes where it's grade-separated, runs at a speed that's competitive with driving times, and was standing room only pre-pandemic. San José State University is a pretty big trip generator and is accessible by light rail. Diridon station is a pretty significant regional passenger rail hub.

[@uzin0s256]

finally someone not criticizing san joses transportation.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@uzin0s256 Hey, San Jose really did try to urbanize and improve its transit. I think what most terminally online American "urbanists" don't recognize/ignore is that San Jose did not exist 50-60 years ago. San Jose was formed from one village in the South Bay Deciding that it will become a city. That village, San Jose, gobbled up almost all the adjacent villages and embarked on a campaign of urbanization. They have actually made great strides in that regard. There's a functional SJ downtown now. There's dense housing. They have a massive light rail system. They have three high-quality commuter rail lines. They have a regional metro (BART) and are getting a second one from Caltrain electrifying and upgrading to near-BART levels of service. There's a lot more work to do for San Jose to become a world class city, but they are firmly on their way to rival SF and Oakland as truly dense cities. In a sane world, the progress that California cities like San Jose have achieved over the last 40-50 years would be commended as a model for reversing sprawl. Instead, all these people just want to bash it. It's a little weird that we're disparaging the very jurisdictions that are doing everything right and are on their way to improve things. Meanwhile, the places that had good bones and are squandering them are still getting the nod. This is just another reason why fixing US land US is so hard. We can't even pick our winners correctly!

[@seanfraser8325]

I heard VTA light rail is relatively slow and curvy, also not enough ridership (30 mins headway in the weekend pre-pandemic). Was that true?

[@TohaBgood2]

@@seanfraser8325 VTA light rail is not slow at all. It's actually a bit faster than your average light rail, and some lines are so grade separated that they're closer in speed to a light metro. The problem is that San Jose is absolutely massive. So even though the light rail reaches almost BART-level average speeds on some sections, it's still far slower than driving on San Jose's many many urban highways. So it's not slow at all, but given San Jose's urban form driving still wins. The weekend headways make sense because this is primarily a tech commuter service. San Jose took a veeeeeery long time to densify around the stations. This has had an impact on non-commuter ridership. They're adding a ton of TOD now, but the transformation is taking a while. The pandemic and resulting work from home didn't help either by nuking the main commuter market.

[@uzin0s256]

@@seanfraser8325 No

[@Chosen1Drums]

I’m actually from San Juan and let me tell you, you still need a car for basically everything. But because everything is closer, you end up driving fewer miles. Lots of people live in apartments and condos and even the SFHs are on smaller lots and packed closer together, which leads to denser cities and everything being conveniently close.

[@OCDGeek128]

I was gonna say the same thing. Not just San Juan, the rest of PR is very car-oriented, you're screwed without a car there.

[@kuni2330]

My theories on Providence and LA: Providence: A lot of people living here are just commuters to the Boston area who can't afford to live there. Since rail access between providence and Boston is pretty good that makes the VMT very low since otherwise Providence is pretty compact. LA: People actually living in and traveling within LA actually have alright options to get around their city besides driving, and it's slowly getting better and better. Since your list didn't count people from nearby metro areas driving in, LA's VMT ends up lower than expected.

[@TohaBgood2]

Yep. I think people's preconceptions about the car-dominated LA of the 80s simply need an adjustment. LA, and all of California really, has done a lot of both legislative and organizing work to reverse the damage of the 50s-80s car era. 30 years later, you can see the results. The Bay Area, LA, Sacramento metro now all have strong transit and vibrant downtown cores. More rail transit is on its way. More dense development is coming in the already densified downtowns. The rest of the country needs to start catching up to _us_ now. The sooner they realize that and start competing the better for everyone.

[@blores95]

LA definitely has issues and could be better, but it really is underrated for not driving, especially certain areas within LA (like Long Beach). Especially after the pandemic, it's not unusual for me to see either a few commuters in full get-up or a person casually riding with some bags on the handlebars. Buses are pretty decently filled too, just need more frequency. It can definitely use some more work and there's a large segment of people who have probably never taken transit in their life, but LA definitely isn't as bad as people make it out, at least in most areas.

[@tony_5156]

Huh? I thought that’s what the rotting state of CT existed for Besides money laundering from NY and having a lot of pensioners

[@manireik]

I don't think a very large portion of the Providence (city or metro) is commuting to Boston for work--would be curious to see the numbers. Not large enough a number to move the city to the top 10 of this list. I'd say it's more down to being just quite compact, majority pre-WWII fabric, and fairly dense (certainly by US standards). Far, far too many people here own and use cars, given how walkable and bikeable it is, and how good its mass transit should be given its intrinsic compactness (though the bus system is hampered by having to serve the entire state, not just the metro region). But, I think a great many of those car owners still only travel for fairly short distances because, again, compactness as an urban area.

[@stephentomaszewski8501]

I live in LA. La does not have great rail and does not have a vibrant downtown. The light rail from Santa Monica to culver is decent but I’ve never used it because the last mile is what kills it. I rarely need to go from Santa Monica to a location exactly close to the rail in culver. The line from the airport to SOFI is useless for daily commuters and is only being built for the Olympics. The rail line that follows the 405 has been struck down by NIMBYs in the hills. Downtown has a 30% vacancy rate and is infested with homeless. There is nothing downtown besides the crypto arena.

[@SparerCheese]

I live in Atlanta and try to drive as little as possible taking MARTA and my bike anywhere I can but it amazes me on my maybe one drive a week where i can manage to rack up over 100 miles in a day. considering the amount of the metro population that lives 20+ miles out but still commute into town daily I'm honestly surprised we didn't do worse than Charlotte. Great video!

[@MasterChaoko]

We may not have the *most* freeways, but we certainly have one of the least efficient layouts. Back when I lived in Norcross, I spent 10+ miles of my daily commute driving in the wrong direction! It's such a cursed situation and it only ever seems to get worse because GDOT won't consider trying new solutions despite being one of the most well funded departments in the state 🤷

[@omarrolle3842]

@@MasterChaokoi absolutely agree that ATL is designed for you to get around as inefficiently as possible

[@JoshKablack]

I have family in Atlanta. It amazes me how great the Marta is and how much getting anywhere not on those lines is terrifying

[@stevendelavaux1426]

The surface street traffic is horrible in Atlanta.

[@bartmix8994]

My brother has lived in the northern Atlanta suburbs for 30 years, and traveling anywhere in the area is a giant pain in the a$$. It is a beautiful area, but the traffic is just awful.

[@kyleshipley3738]

Sacramento planner here, happy to make this list! Yolo county has UGB which is part of the metro area though Sacramento County does not. Reducing VMT per capita is actually a state law in CA and it’s very difficult to achieve in Sacramento where there is a lot of land capacity for additional development compared to coastal CA cities and still a desire to develop outward. Thanks for the content interesting as always

[@ryanmiller6605]

I also have to imagine Davis helps the numbers a bit (lots of bike commuters!)

[@itmightbeciaran]

Providence is one of those cities that looks way more carved up on a map than it actually feels in real life. It has quite a vibrant downtown which is well connected to nearby neighborhoods, and a lot of the major highways are sunken, which makes them feel like less of a barrier when you're actually out in the city. All that said, I'm kind of surprised that Boston didn't make the list, given how physically compact it is. It could be a difference in how the urbanized area is measured, but for how notoriously congested Boston's roads are, most of the trips aren't actually that long in terms of distance.

[@wrenromero6392]

boston has some weirdness with commutes and demographics, like it's hard to tell if this is the greater boston area or not, and it's probably counting the absolutely criminal number of miles people drive on their commutes to work. skyrocketing rent means that it's almost impossible for normal people to live in the actual city bounds, or even in range of a commuter rail stop. if you add to that issues like shipping, and allston being essentially a throughfare for brooklynites going to cambridge, you get some extremely scuffed urban planning, despite the fact that driving has like, less than 50% rideshare. in allston-brighton in particular, less than a third of residents even have access to a car, yet the streets are bumper every hour of the week. it's probably not a coincidence that the cost of living is dramatically higher than any city on this list, and slightly higher than new york, even

[@rachel_mt_phl]

Philly Center City is linear with long stretches of residential to the north and south. The configuration makes it really easy for many to walk or bike to work

[@dunchtimesnack]

Other than Manayunk and the Northeast, Philly is the only city where I truly walk everywhere. Work, bars, dinners, markets, parks…I rarely even use SEPTA.

[@PETER394100]

@@dunchtimesnack…..seriously considering Center City, Philly for a walkable retirement soon. Would you consider it fairly safe? (crime)

[@o_oo_o1812]

@@PETER394100 no

[@hudson5112]

​​​@@PETER394100I'm retired and have lived in Center City Philadelphia for 21 years and feel perfectly safe here. I don't have a car and walk everywhere. Like any big city, Philly has some bad neighborhoods but those are easily avoidable. Center City Philadelphia is the best urban value in America--I love it here!

[@ongogablogian8568]

​@@PETER394100I'm 62, not yet retired and live in Fishtown. In the past I've lived in Center City (Washington West) and Passyunk Square and I feel it's reasonably safe, I or my neighbors don't have problems other than nuisance issues which come with any densely urban area. All three neighborhoods are great, each with their own character and there are dozens of other terrific neighborhoods to choose from.

[@wolfythewolf4457]

I'm glad you mentioned Philly's suburbs because I adore them lol. There's just so many in close proximity that have pretty good walkability and transit (usually just SEPTA).

[@joewithagopro416]

I live car lite in providence. despite the fact that we have no metro, the bus system will get you anywhere in the state. we have lots of walkable neighborhoods with all sorts of amenities and they have really been pushing for mixed use development as of late. Providence is also a satellite of Boston, I'm sure one of the big reasons we made this list is all the people who utilize Amtrak or commuter rail service to Boston. Scooter/ bike rental is also very popular.

[@emi1e]

This is a super cool video and San Juan was a very surprising #1, if obvious in hindsight given the geography. Have you considered doing a video about where people drive the least (or most) by hours spent in a vehicle, rather than miles traveled, to factor in traffic?

[@CityNerd]

I could -- that's in the census data.

[@kacamac]

Providence resident here, lived car free here 10 years now. The city is very walkable and dense, good bus system, great access to Boston, CT and NYC via train right downtown. I feel like we need some light rail or trams cause some of the buses get super packed but other than that idk, it just feels so easy to live here carfree. Lots of stuff in walking distance, the city is mostly pleasant to walk around with plenty of urban trees. At least in the better neighborhoods. Idk, I mostly walk and take the bus. Don't own a bike and don't really use the rentable bikes or scooters.

[@seanedging6543]

Hey Ray, I'd definitely be interested in a UGB episode! If you want to chat through it at all, I have been at the forefront of the policy controversy on the UGB in Oregon this legislative session.

[@CityNerd]

Ha, do we know each other? Send me a connection request on LinkedIn! (I know, yuck)

[@jimpern]

San Juan! I lived there for 9 years when I was a kid. When my dad didn't drive me to school, the synagogue or the beach, I got around by metro bus ("guagua"). But I never imagined that it would rank above New York City (my hometown).

[@MrMasterprocrastinat]

Please do an in-depth dive on Oregon's UGB system! I don't hear people talk about it enough, and I've heard a worryingly large number of people in Oregon actually try to blame UGBs for housing unaffordability here. In a sense the criticism has a point - if towns aren't allowed to sprawl but they simultaneously try to limit urban infill, there's really nowhere for new supply to be added - but the whole point of a UGB is to incentivize infill as the easier and cheaper option! Oregon's UGB rules and statewide planning goals are awesome for promoting infill and preserving our farms and natural areas. They don't get near the love they should.

[@CityNerd]

There's so much to say about this, so I'll save it for the video

[@markb3786]

@@CityNerd I am looking forward to your video about Oregon's Urban Growth Boundary

[@JohnFromAccounting]

There are more options for cities than exclusively sprawling or exclusively becoming Manhattan.

[@MrMasterprocrastinat]

@JohnFromAccounting Oregon's land use laws don't do this? The nuances of Oregon's UGB rules still allow sprawl to occur. It's just more organized and requires cities to bring land into their UGB deliberately before developing (different from annexing). It preserves our limited resource lands while encouraging what sprawl is built to be denser. There's a reason we don't build or expand highways very often here! By the same token, removing infill limits and encouraging dense development doesn't turn everywhere into Manhattan? Orenco Station out near Hillsboro is often used as a great example of the sort of dense transit-oriented development Oregon land use is intended to promote on the urban periphery. But this isn't gleaming supertall skyscraper sort of stuff - you get plenty of efficient housing and services from simply promoting 3-6 level mixed use buildings instead of single level ranch home subdivisions.

[@NickCBax]

1:55 As a Seattlite I had to stop the video and ponder where that stop was… low and behold I’ve actually gotten on the bus at that stop.. though it’s been years.

[@cdsaylor2]

After living in Providence for a bit its all about density around the central core. There's no South to the city as that's just water, so all the main areas you want to get to are very bikeable distance. Its even less spread out than Pittsburgh that way. In addition the suburbs are super suburban so if you live in the city proper you have little reason to need to go to them. There's very ample transit and the train to Boston is still very doable at 45 min on the Acela. Which means you still have big city access at times that would make sense for any suburb. On top of all that Rhode Island being so small means the state public bus routes actually make good sense. You can get a bus from Providence to Newport and the ocean for instance for about a 1 hour and change trip. For all these reasons and ample rideshare when needed you can live car free in providence very easily (but more likely just find yourself just leaving the car at home often).

[@michaelpepe105]

A city with a rail system like MARTA already in place should not be performing as poorly as my home city of Atlanta. The suburbs are getting denser in response to rapid growth. The county where I grew up, Gwinnett, could be well-served by a major MARTA expansion. The winding country lanes of old Gwinnett County are not built to serve the new influx of residents. Atlanta is modernizing in so many ways, why do they leave transit behind? (Rhetorical question)

[@bishoptatum8737]

I think a big reason Atlanta is so low is due to their sprawl making no sense. If the metro of Atlanta was just the city of Atlanta and some suburbs within 25 to 35 mins of downtown it wouldn’t be so low. But when you factor in far flung burbs like McDonough, Newnan or Griffin then you can see why Atlanta scores so low. Like how is Newnan apart of Atlanta MSA?

[@Sacto1654]

You also have race as a factor, too. Note that MARTA does not travel to white-dominated neighborhoods, especially the northern suburbs.

[@wwsciffsww3748]

Metro Atlanta really is a land of contradictions. Midtown and pretty much everywhere on the Beltline is rapidly urbanizing and getting more transit, but downtown, though encircled by said areas, has barely anyone living there (seems to be on the upswing though). We have the best airport-downtown transit connection in the USA, but 3x more people ride the train between airport terminals than the entire MARTA rail system (yes, really). Suburban town centers are popping up everywhere, even 30-40 miles out, and people love them. But in between, vast swaths of land are seemingly random combinations of 1+ acre SFH lots, dense hilly wilderness-like forests, and 5+ lane stroads (each direction). There are less freeways than you probably think, but the ones that exist are very wide. 🤷‍♂

[@pablovivant9089]

From my (limited) visits to Atlanta, I was struck both that MARTA, more than similar systems in other cities, really does just serve a severely underprivileged population, and that passenger behavior is strikingly worse than in other U.S. cities (Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix...). In August 2021, on trips from the airport in the early evening, and back at midday, I encountered people openly smoking, extremely out of it seemingly due to drugs, and aggressively begging for money and cigarettes. One man was wandering around shirtless. Lots of other passengers were trying to keep their heads down to avoid attracting some of this craziness. And there were lots of signs instructing people on proper passenger etiquette. Coming from D.C., where nearly everyone rides the Metro and the normal vibe is calm and feels safe, I'm not sure what Atlanta will need to do to reclaim MARTA as a place where people can have a comfortable ride. For visitors, it can feel like a big mistake to take it.

[@bishoptatum8737]

@@pablovivant9089 hmm, I rode the Marta from Sandy Springs to the Airport several times when I lived there from 2015-2017 and I never experienced any of that. I would actually say my experiences in NYC, Chicago and Philly were a lot more intense than anything I ever experienced riding Marta. Granted I’ve heard that public transportation in a lot of major cities has gotten significant worse after the pandemic so maybe that has something to do with it. But it was generally safe to me Pre pandemic.

[@abbyc6983]

I live in Los Angeles (near Glassell Park/Cypress Park area) and have been considering getting rid of my car, which led me to watch a bunch of your videos. I would love to see a video about LA comparing neighborhood rent prices to walkability to grocery stores etc. Rent prices are pretty nightmarish almost everywhere in LA, but for those who can’t yet leave, I’d be interested to see what relatively-okay options there are. This may be a niche interest only to LA people, but whatever. As a side note, I’d love to see LA-based influencers using public transit as much as NYC influencers do to kind of romanticize the concept for wealthy-ish young Californians.

[@smgoodreau]

Providence native and frequent visitor here. Not at all surprised to see it on this list. It really is very dense and compact, and many suburbs are themselves built around 200-300 year old settlements with dense mixed use cores. So, even though it rates lower on transit usage than it should, the trips that do exist are generally short on average. Sadly they just can’t seem to shake the late 20th century stigma among some suburbanites that buses are for poor people only, plus college students. That incudes my family, to my endless chagrin. BTW my great grand father was a trolley driver.

[@diegogonzalez7279]

Thank you for mentioning San Juan PR , it’s funny I was wondering when I click your video , why nobody includes or talks about PR , and when you did I was blown away lol it was phenomenal. Thank you sir!

[@jameskennedy7093]

I lived in Providence, RI as a Philly native and found it confoundingly car oriented but I think my bias is obvious. I do recall, humorously, giving a coworker who’d moved there from Iowa a dirty look when he said the RIPTA service “was sooo good” but again… The hatchet job with the urban highways is real. When we were organizing to remove the 6/10 Connector I discovered that Patrick Kennedy (no relation) puts Providence as number 8 for freeway miles per capita. I think you’re right that a lot of the suburbs are pretty good though. I’m a fan of Central Falls, Warren, Bristol, and Woonsocket, and of course Newport is the only thing that ever made me feel remotely at home as a Philly native.

[@Kaigotitright]

Providence is really strange to me sometimes. I moved here from Boston and it was super bizzare to see just how little public transit access there was. Yes, there’s the bus system, but it’s not remotely as reliable as the MBTA bus network. Its also strange that the city is insanely car oriented, while also benefitting from being very walkable in certain areas. I think the city could remove a highway or two out of the center and still be fine (god forbid Rhode Islanders do that though)

[@kacamac]

its all relative isnt it? I moved to Providence from FL and was blown away how good it is in comparison to what I grew up with. Living car free here is really easy. Still really bitter about the 6/10 rebuild the DOT went with tho... what a wasted opportunity sigh.

[@CityNerd]

I would actually have to look at what they consider part of the Providence "urbanized are" (as opposed to metro area). I'm pretty sure it does NOT include New Bedford, but I think it does include Fall River. I do think the UA is pretty compact.

[@johnchambers8528]

I was glad to see how high Philadelphia ranked. I grew up in west Philadelphia and we had both trolley and bus service to various parts of the city within two blocks of were I lived. We also had a big shopping center that we could walk to so we could get our food and other items within walking distance. I now live in a close in suburb and still have a bus that stops on the corner and can get me to the El to Philadelphia or outbound to several shopping centers or malls. Again it gives me the option to not drive to many areas.

[@richardtaylor8862]

I love Providence, but where is Boston on the list? In my opinion, Boston is much more walkable and easy to get SO MANY places without a car. Heck, the Providence and Rhode Island train system is the MBTA from Boston! This list just seems weird without Boston. Boston also has many compact walkable suburbs concentrated around rail transit.

[@mark99k]

Was really surprised to not see Boston on this list. It's quite easy to live car-free in the city and many of its inner suburbs.

[@adamritton5820]

Same. I thought it was going to be #1.

[@Lupy314]

I think they include people commuting in from NH and central MA on this, which drives up the VMT a lot. Boston and the suburbs inside 128 are great, but beyond there be dragons

[@maxpowr90]

I95 through northern RI is so bad. Those Ralph Nader S-curves cause so many problems, not to mention I95 cuts so many of those cities in half.

[@kuni2330]

I'm hoping one day there's political will to relocate 95 outside of the urbanized areas of RI. There are enough highways around the less populated areas that I think this could be possible.

[@josephvh3244]

Re-sign 295 and we’re good

[@liamhodgson]

Next Pittsburgh centric topic: bikeshare use, station density, non profit vs for profit ownership, share of e bikes, etc

[@Floccini]

I grew up in Providence RI and I am not surprised at all. It is a city where driving is not so bad but it's dense enough to walk places and the transit was good.

[@JBthePAdashC]

Atlanta native here… I struggle constantly with living here and knowing just how bad it is. The sprawl is strong in this one.

[@sharennyberg7795]

I lived in the San Francisco bay Area for most of my life and am not surprised by it's ranking. Having BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) has made driving less necessary. Thanks I always enjoy your videos

[@birbluv9595]

Ray, I enjoyed this video. My mother grew up in Pittsburgh and took the streetcar everywhere. Yet her father was a car salesman. When he died, my mother (an only child) got his stuff, and when my parents died, my brother and I ended up with it. We found all kinds of cool promotional material for 1940s and 1950s cars. So apparently, despite the streetcar culture, there was a “cool” factor to owning a car in Pittsburgh.

[@kennj321]

I think you mean a massive publicity scheme to make it appear cool.

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

Then they killed most of the street cars just like in every other street car city, sadly

[@birbluv9595]

@@thedapperdolphin1590 yup. I know General Motors bought up all the streetcar lines in Los Angeles so that they could destroy them and force people to depend on cars.

[@roblywobly]

@@thedapperdolphin1590 Pittsburgh's streetcar system was overbuilt, in no small part because it started as a patchwork that was slowly consolidated by the richest operator. Back when they had like 100 routes the PRCo was going bankrupt every decade, and had to beg the city to let them reduce or end service on some of their worst loss routes. Kinda had the Amtrak problem where the city demanded that they provide a high level of service coverage, but would do very little to help them actually do so financially. There was no way for the city to save the whole system when they took over control, and the few lines they retained got a whole new fleet of good modern articulated tram cars. The city did their best with a very problematic system they inherited.

[@MadDakka]

Providence - the city is small coupled with a bus system that actually connects the city to all but two areas of the state/ (It is a bad bus system by world standards, but its good by American standards regardless of what the people of RI would say. (it also has MBTA rail to Boston and is on the Eastern Corridor). It maintains a lot of the pre-car structuring of neighborhoods and things. So you can easily walk from one end of the city to another, or bus to other cities as needed. The shock I find as someone new to the area - is how addicted they are to the car. The people of RI drive EVERYWHERE, when in the majority of cities, towns, and districts they don't really have a need to -everything is so close Its a great city for size. I am surprised more urbanist KZbinrs don't talk about it. It could very easily make a shift away from car dependent planning in a way most American cities would struggle with.

[@machtmann2881]

I had a friend move to Providence recently and she told me that the mindset there is very provincial and less open to getting around without a car than you would think. It probably does have good bones but car addiction is hard to overcome.

[@tomtrask_YT]

Happy to hear San Jose made the cut. Less happy to see you showing a panning view of the Apple campus in Cupertino and never quiiiiiite getting far enough south to get past Bollinger where San Jose starts.

[@davidsixtwo]

If only any of it were affordable

[@eamonnca1]

Yeah, I noticed that too

[@barryrobbins7694]

@@davidsixtwo It is affordable if you are a tech bro like in a previous episode.😀

[@Urbanhandyman]

He was mentioning Santa Clara county at that point.

[@bakert7000]

I am surprised that Boston didn’t make the list. I took a train there and got around with public transportation. I even took a bus to New Bedford and Providence RI. The Peter Pan bus system is great there. It is a way to go to New York City from Boston but I took Amtrak and got a delay. I enjoyed the video and makes me want to go to San Juan.

[@gcvrsa]

The more I watch this channel, the more I feel what a privilege it has been to have been born in NYC and have lived in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Seattle, plus a short stint in the DC area that unfortunately didn't turn into something longer term.

[@Cherrysmith2809]

Yes, I would say you were top notch in your choices!

[@Roma_eterna]

DC resident here, and it’s been fantastic for me walkability wise. Plus we have quite an expansive metro/subway system. Yet the Beltway still has some of the worst traffic lol!

[@hank9th]

I'd love to see a top 10 list of your favorite data sources for urbanist topics. It'd be cool as a reference for folks looking to create similar, data-informed urbanist content.

[@davidsixtwo]

I'd love to see the list for urbanized areas 250,000 to 1m, I feel like there are some interesting stories there.

[@kuni2330]

Lots of college towns and suburbs connected to heavy rail I bet.

[@sunny1992s]

The list would primarily be of college towns.

[@LucasDimoveo]

You would also have to exclude college towns or the list will be dominated by places like Boulder, Davis, etc

[@charliesullivan4304]

Would also be interesting to see what size (in population) area does best - I imagine there is a sweet spot between urban and rural.

[@CityNerd]

It's all Puerto Rico and Hawaii

[@jayski9410]

I've noticed that here in L.A. the traffic acts as a damper on my driving. There are places which I haven't been to in years because I know how bad the traffic will be on my way there. It's sort of like when I lived in Las Vegas, I only went to the casinos when I had out-of-town visitors. Same here in L.A., I only go to downtown, or the La Brea Tar Pits, or Disneyland when my guests force me to. Otherwise, I live only about 5 miles from where I work and don't go much beyond 10 miles further on any regular basis. So does that mean traffic is actually good for me?

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

I remmeber when Pittsburg finished #1 2 videos in a row. Most walkable and the Bridge City!!

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

As a lifelong, Pittsburgh resident, I appreciate your begrudging recognition. I love the city, and it and other rust belt cities are really underrated. We also need a population boost. We stopped bleeding population last decade, but there was still less than a percentage of loss. The city is just over 300,000 people, and if we drop below 300,000 in the 2030 census then we’ll be recategorized as a smaller city and screwed over in terms of funding. The city used to have 675,000 people, so it would be nice to see that size in my lifetime. As long as we don’t just get gentrified to shit.

[@Cleath78]

New pittsburgher here! Came for school, and I'll be staying after graduation. Here's hoping more people take a similar path to me and, like you said, don't gentrify everything

[@cournt99]

I’m a new Pittsburgher, too! It’s perfect for young professionals, I would hate to see it regress when it’s come such a long way

[@stevengordon3271]

Might be a win-win to incorporate an adjacent town to keep that from happening.

[@Cleath78]

@@stevengordon3271 I've heard a little bit here and there about Pittsburgh's ongoing difficulty in annexing neighboring municipalities. From what I've heard, I agree that they should be incorporated

[@tonylee1103]

The term rust belt is old very 1990s

[@Droidman1231]

I would be interested in a video about Urban Growth boundaries. They sound like a good idea but I can also see there are probably lots of tradeoffs and politics involved as well, not making them a silver bullet/perfect solution.

[@barryrobbins7694]

Yes, I previously suggested the he do a video on “island cities” or cities with geographical limitations.

[@szurketaltos2693]

I'd be particularly interested in a comparison of, say, Portland to Seattle in this sense. Or for that matter, London and Paris.

[@jmlinden7]

While urban growth boundaries do reduce the number of miles driven, they don't necessarily force public transit usage on their own - even within a denser metro area, driving can still be a faster option at the individual level than public transit (think San Francisco, which is super dense but an Uber is gonna be faster than transit 90% of the time).

[@winterwatson6811]

san francisco is a perfect example of how you create a situation where driving is faster than transit: remove most of the historical rail lines and replace them with busses, few of which get a dedicated right of way and so they spend their time stuck in traffic. when i worked in the city the fastest way for me to get the two miles to work was easily by bike, followed by car, walking, then transit, all roughly twice as slow as the bike

[@loganbryck]

Paige Saunders has some fantastic commentary on urban growth boundaries ("greenbelts" in Canada) in his housing playlist. His videos are really high quality but the algorithm has not blessed him as it has some other urbanist creators, probably just because his release schedule is not super consistent.

[@stencil_ized]

would love to hear more about portland/PNW, especially any region specific insights you got from your days as a planner there!

[@michaeltravers3095]

I work in Providence,RI. They do have buses, MBTA and Amtrack. The problem with the MBTA in Providence is that commuter rail doesn’t go south of Providence. I like about 35 minutes away by car but live in MA. There is a train station I could take to Providence but isn’t open 24/7. I work 2nd shift. The gas stations and grocery stores in the Providence area is too expensive. As a result of that, the closest Bj”s to Providence is busy. But I get to avoid those weekend lines and can get my shopping done before work.

[@diegoanimations9504]

Me, the stereotypical urbanist online with the caveat that I'm Puerto Rican currently living in PR - the Joy I get from hearing any type of acknowledgement whether good or bad of any Puerto Rican city is unexplainable

[@andrewdiamond2697]

In my teens and 20s, I lived or spent significant time in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston and NYC. When I turned 30 I moved to Atlanta, and then moved to Charlotte at age 40. Yes, it's all 100% true.

[@wwsciffsww3748]

Atlanta is great for car-free living if you live and work around/within the Beltline or in select other places (Decatur, Chamblee, Buckhead). Beyond those areas, good luck

[@evdorn]

@@wwsciffsww3748 We often didn't use our car in Dunwoody but we were within walking distance to the Marta station. They really need to bring Marta farther out to the suburbs.

[@miguelcontreras3953]

As a native of Puerto Rico but relocated to the mainland many years ago but traveling back and forth through the years it’s hard to believe the low VMT for San Juan. Even there is metro system (tren urbano) thanks to federal largesse, ridership is pretty low unless there is a big event at the local arena forcing having a car is necessity to go anywhere within San Juan since the metro is one line. Back in the 70s there was a route network of private cars/vans (carros públicos) that could reach any place in the island for an affordable fare. Unfortunately, they went away due to urban sprawl and depopulation of local towns forcing people to buy cars which is a big source of revenue for the local government with the excise taxes.

[@john-ic9vj]

Pittsburgh definitely has more transit infrastructure than most us cities near its size. The problem is the frequency and reliability has gone down the drain big time. Particularly since 2020, but has been getting worse for a good decade. Without good frequent service, what's the point?

[@Nobilitism]

I'm more surprised by what city was not mentioned, Boston. You would think that it has a good urbanist character and good public transportation, which would put it on the list, but nope. Wonder why that is?

[@burstintotreats6654]

My guess is because there's still a shitton of people commuting into the city via car. The big dig was all about raising the maximum capacity for that, and people seem to use these highways to maximum capacity generally speaking... Plus the outsized expense of living close to the city and also the commuter rail for like, no reason.

[@falconshock3677]

@@burstintotreats6654Boston lower on the list than places like Seattle still surprises me

[@pjkerrigan20]

This video was about metro areas as a whole. Sure Boston itself probably scores pretty well, but a lot of those suburbs probably rank pretty poorly. It doesn’t help that the whole metro area is so chopped up by a million different municipal borders and several confusing county lines. Even the urban core of Boston is split into different cities and counties, it makes for very inefficient transit planning (among many other things). That’s my take on it anyways.

[@Demopans5990]

​@@pjkerrigan20 Boston could make itself as an administration above counties like how NYC proper is 5 separate counties and county specific services simply don't exist in favor of plain city services. Sure this would make counties themselves a bit less important, but Boston is pretty cohesive as is.

[@pjkerrigan20]

@@Demopans5990 I agree with everything u said except that it’s pretty cohesive as is. There’s no excuse for Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville not bein part of the city. In fact, between those three and Boston, you’re talking about 3 different counties, but all of those areas are within the urban core of Boston. Overall tho I think we’re on the same page, a more New Yorky model might work. I’ve always personally preferred a bit more of a London model, but I understand that that one is messy in its own way.

[@theturtle13]

Wow! First time Providence made one of these lists. Usually we’re just below the 200k threshold or lumped in with Boston in the combined MSA. The bottom line: lots of remote work, rail commuters. Driving here is very slow. My commute is roughly 2.5 miles but takes 15-20 by car. Unfortunately public transport is not good. It is bikeable tho, and the big employers (brown, Risd, hospitals) all located centrally.

[@kacamac]

I live in Providence carfree for about a decade now. Idk I think our RIPTA buses are fine. For US standards anyway. I use it and walking as my main modes of transit. If you live in Providence proper ie not Cranston etc, often times you'll have 2-4 buses really close by to get you downtown. Looking at my transit app I'm seeing a bus in 9 min, 13 min, 25 min and 26 min to downtown. Basically 8 buses an hour.. that feels pretty good to me for a city of our size. Although I'd love to see even more or even lightrail or streetcars for busier routes.

[@theturtle13]

@@kacamac I’m glad to hear it works well for you! I would love some light rail too. In convos with a few friends I think the problem with RIPTA is more of an image issue - busses aren’t a very exciting form of transport, especially if you already own a car. Good on you going car free… more people like you and we can get rid of all that surface parking downtown haha!

[@kacamac]

@@theturtle13 oh yeah I definitely agree buses have an image issue. I know a lot of transit activists want to pretend or wish they didn't but people are picky and sometimes shallow lol. I wish they wouldn't have killed the streetcar project a few years back, maybe a shiny new modern streetcar would have encouraged some folk to try transit. I don't think it was the best or most compelling route but as you say buses have an image problem, I don't think we can rely on solely on them to fix our transit problems when many people feel gross even thinking about using a bus. Sometimes we gotta be realistic and appeal to people's shallow nature for new or shiny.

[@bobzelley5100]

The air photo 44 seconds demonstrates how tiny Pittsburgh is. I see why Philadelphia refers to Pittsburgh as a large hamlet . Was Pittsburgh alway Mico or was there a great fire or sinkhole ?

[@bradleyschmidt7190]

The downtown is located on a triangle, surrounded by three rivers. It simply has very limited space to grow and the view of downtown from Mt Washington is very picturesque and iconic. Any new building would destroy the iconic look. They did finally build one new high rise a few yrs ago and were very careful about its height and placement, such that the "classic" Mt Washington view was not changed. But you have to remember that Pittsburgh proper is only 300,000. How.many other cities of that size in the country have skylines that dynamic? And for a real treat, drive from the airport into downtown. You come through the Fort Pitt tunnels and bam! There's the city! It's awesome. You have to physically come to understand and enjoy it's beauty. Now if only we could replace the people with more cosmopolitan types🤣

[@zachperkins688]

I hate to rain on Pittsburgh's parade, but as someone from the area, to be honest I don't get how it keeps showing up so well on these lists. Sure, it has lots of walkable *neighborhoods* but because of the hills and rivers, walkability between neighborhoods is actually really difficult. Like geographically, the South Side and Lawrenceville aren't far, but there's a river and a massive hill in the way that breaks up the flow of the neighborhoods. Not to mention the sheer insanity of having to cycle up and down hills all the time. It's a great city that's doing a lot right, but I just don't think it's this walkable paradise people claim it is. I do have to give them insane credit for their busways though.

[@liamhodgson]

You are right on all these counts. We need just a couple more neighborhood circulating busses (squirrel hill to east liberty for example). I will say the hills become a breeze with an e bike, and the POGOH bikeshare has them easy enough to find

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

The hills make things a challenge, but walking between most neighborhoods is pretty doable. You get used to it if you walk a lot in a hilly neighborhood. Besides, I don’t think most people in any city are walking that far out of their neighborhood. For most people, it’s about being able to walk between points of interest in their own neighborhood and access transportation of need be. And it’s not hard to take a bus from south side and then transfer downtown to a bus that takes you to lawrenceville. Depending on where in Southside you are, you could also walk downtown and then get to Lawrenceville through the strip without ever going up a hill. Also, if you live in the central/eastern parts of the city or the power north side, it’s pretty flat

[@danielkelly2210]

It needs better transit. Like, more of those things that look like large buses with steel wheels that run on rails.

[@manireik]

I think Providence largely comes down to good bones. It's a US city that was "built out" entirely pre-war (with several contiguous cities and towns also largely pre-war). So while there is sprawl, it doesn't predominate like most mid-sized US cities (i.e. my home town of Little Rock, AR, smaller metro population in a vastly larger area, with a fraction of the density and city amenities). Most parts of town aren't far from a mixed-use/commercial street (or many such streets within 15 minutes walk). Far too many people here own cars, given that compactness, walkability and bikeability. The transit system should be excellent, but is nevertheless treated mostly as a "those who must" option--I don't know many voluntarily 100% car-free people, though I've always found it easy here to be car-free. But I get the sense even all those people who insist they must own cars still don't take very long trips with them--again, the compactness and relative mixed use fabric just doesn't require it. In fact, I've met plenty of locals who drive, but consider anything above a few miles to be a "day trip". It all gives me hope that one day it could embrace its urban identity, fill in all the urban renewal-ed areas wiped off the earth with good density mixed-use, start to fund transit properly, and become even better than it is (already, IMO, the best mid-sized city in the US). I moved to Providence from Portland, OR (with a stop over in South Bend for grad school, talk about contrast...). Despite there already being an actual "Portland of the East Coast," I still think of Providence as having the potential to be the Portland, OR of the east coast--affordable compared to other East Coast/Northeast cities, punches above its weight class in terms of culture, food, walkability, and general city-quality of life. Just needs to be more discovered (and locals have to appreciate what they've got and quit thinking "oh, we can't do [progressive policy x], maybe in Boston". As more people who love city living get priced out of Boston and New York, I hope cities like Providence, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh will benefit.

[@pablovivant9089]

Agree completely, but shh!!! Obscurity is what's keeping Providence comparatively affordable.

[@manireik]

@@pablovivant9089 Ha! I'm of mixed minds about it. Outsiders bring optimism and recognize how great it is, unburdened by a lifetime of learned defeatism re: RI. But yeah, too much Boston/NY money without commensurate addition of a *lot* more housing would not be good...

[@machtmann2881]

@@manireik A friend of mine who moved to Providence mentioned that learned defeatism of RI of the people she meets there. They just assume nothing can or should change. More outsiders would help shift that mindset but Boston/NY money would probably work against that

[@OhiChicken]

Most people I know say Providence was better when the mob ran it xD I wouldn't know, I've only lived here for 7 years. Gosh has it really been that long? I might not be in the right social circles but sometimes it feels like RI is a state on the decline. All the construction sure is tiring, I work in Pawtucket and live in Cranston so I deal with it every day. I don't spend much time in the Downtown walkable area unless it's to take Gano st. To 195 to avoid the standstill traffic further east xD 2 of my good friends are also therapists who specialize in helping drug addicts get clean and get the mental health help they need (one in the jail and one in a hospital) and my father is a cop and likes cop-y things so I only ever really see the underbelly and never the fun cool things that college kids see.

[@StupidStuff135]

I don't know if saying deliveries just push the driving off to someone else is a great point. My non specific corporate delivery truck drives 40 miles in a day and brings deliveries to 250-300 households...saving 250-300 "quick trips" Even in a car free area emergency services and commercial delivery still use the roads. 1 delivery vehicle or repairman or utility truck on a residential street isn't having the same anti urbanism effect that 200 personal vehicles are Big fan love the channel 💛✨

[@daveharrison84]

After what I saw in the Not Just Bikes video about Grand Bahama, I'd like to know how it compares to San Juan. Grand Bahama is an even smaller island but it's sprawling and car dependent.

[@marcoalejandrocruz]

Saw that episode. Puerto Rico fares worse than Grand Bahama (there’s no public transportation outside the metro area). Owning a car is a must; most middle class families own several vehicles.

[@AndrejPodzimek]

10:50 On a per capita basis, New York has by far the highest frequency of honking for no reason.

[@een_schildpad]

I'd love to here more about UGBs, how they work, how they're enforced, are they effective, etc. In they I'd thought that something setting the boundaries of an urbanized area would be helpful in building compact places but I had no idea UGBs existed, so now my interest is peaked :⁠-⁠) Thanks for all the awesome content you've shared with us!

[@Nemonurwingy]

I can’t believe San Juan is that high, I call shenanigans. Other than Old San Juan, I see basically nobody walking, they have their train, but it doesn’t go useful places, and they have very little bus service. More to the point, if you get outside Old San Juan, you will note most neighborhoods are gated communities. When I first started going there I told my in laws I was going for a walk, and they asked me around the neighborhood, and I said , no down the street outside. I have never taken that walk after almost 20 years, because of the warnings. My wife lived there before the walls and gates went up, and she got held up at gunpoint as a 7 year old. Pretty much every day somebody drives down that street and fires guns in the air as they crest the hill, for fun, and as practice for their future crimes. It’s not safely walkable. I’d chalk up the low car ownership to relatively high poverty and the fact the Jones Act keeps cars very expensive there. It’s a terrible locale to not have access to a car in most places. Crime is much better out of the San Juan area, but it’s mostly rural or small towns there, so not dense enough to walk.

[@briansalt4755]

As of late Sacramento state is trying to shed its “commuter school” tittle. They’ve been going crazy building new student housing like the one shown in the video. That specific apartment complex is so close to the school that it’s more inconvenient to drive to school than to just walk. Living here is also really cool to see people walking more and biking more. We’re even getting new light rail cars soon!

[@GhostATW]

Growing up in the sun belt it was always so frustrating trying to explain to people that I would like to live in a big city where I dont need a car. Glad to find I'm not alone here! I moved to a decent town in the midwest and while I cant live car-free the downtown area has an alright urban vibe to it. Hopefully soon I can get my finances in order and move to Pittsburgh or Chicago, those seem like my best bet

[@Demopans5990]

Show them a footage of bumper to bumper NYC traffic next time they ask, and say that's why you'd walk everywhere

[@412StepUp]

Pittsburgh is your best bet.

[@GhostATW]

@@412StepUp Yeah I'd like to visit Pitt to feel it's vibes out. I enjoyed my times in Chicago. I know the rustbelt gets a lot of flack and sometimes rightfully so but I've enjoyed my times there so far

[@KiranMachiraju]

3:00 - Cycling and using the taxi services is almost considered car-free

[@FloatingWeeds2]

I live in Puerto Rico and my friends think I'm super far away deep in the suburbs just because i live 20 minutes away by car from the old city. 12 from the airport and 15 from the beach. It's super compact and even the suburbs are walkable. I live in a master planned community less than 3 minutes walk from 3 big box stores and a 12+store strip mall. Probably the most walkable form of American style suburban land use until the advent of 5 over 1s!

[@m.talley1660]

This list really puts the Charlotte video into context. The earlier comment on trucking impacting the VMT might be valid. Long before becoming a sprawling banking city, Charlotte was known for being a trucking center (depots, bonded warehouses, etc). Perhaps no more-so than other cities on this list but all of that is within the city limits.

[@Danielle_1234]

Everyone drives in Sacramento. The public transit there sucks and the weather in the summer makes it dangerous to not drive. Sacramento has two things going for it in this metric: 1) The Sacramento Area is tons of little suburbian cities. Sacramento proper is quite small and poor, so you're going to get less driving in the downtown proper. 2) The Freeway doesn't tend to go where you want to go, except maybe to work, so people will regularly drive 20-30 minutes on surface streets just to go to dinner. This reduces miles driven but not time driven. Downtown San Jose is awesome. It was the happiest I've ever been living anywhere. There is okay public transit and everything is in walkable distance so even when you own a car you tend to prefer walking. They also have a Friday bike culture. However, there are a few things going against it in this metric keeping it from being higher on the list: 1) While most cities have a neighboring city with suburban sprawl (like Sacramento) San Jose has a lot of square feet encompassing both downtown and tons of suburbia. If you live in the burbs there is little to no public transit options and you have to drive. It's a completely different universe than downtown san jose. If we were talking about only downtown San Jose would nearly top this list.

[@kms1.62]

Another similarity they all have is that they are seaport cities (except San Jose, interestingly) even Sacramento and Pittsburgh although these are not focused on container traffic. All of the mainland areas have higher multi-modal freight volumes moving from points within them. In the case of LA, I wonder if the combined statistical area with rest of the actual contiguous urbanized area would still score so high. They all have highly specialized freight infrastructure and distribution networks. Some freight makes short local moves, and longer range freight (that in other cities would have to move only by highway) can move intermodally very well in these cities? I am curious about Houston? It has container ports too? How far off from Charlotte was it?

[@helenbrennan6576]

Love these videos! Thanks for making them. I stayed in that exact Airbnb on C/Valle in Seville for a month earlier this year. So weird to see it in this video. I thought the trains in Spain were fantastic and the buses, light rail and bike share in Seville to be wonderful. Didn’t ride in a car even once.

[@willis7404]

Atlanta does have a couple pockets of walkability. The Midtown and Avondale neighborhoods are great. Hopefully the developments on the Westside will give us another walkable community. Then we have our professional baseball team that is 15miles away from the city lol

[@saratemp790]

I call the cool areas of Atlanta, a name I made up, Midtown Heights. It needs a name.

[@willis7404]

@@saratemp790 "Midtown Heights" I like it! I'm all for naming neighborhoods. Need something for my unincorporated Dekalb community haha

[@saratemp790]

@@willis7404 Yeah it's actually closer to downtown, starting from Piedmont Park back, so maybe it should be Downtown Heights, but Midtown Heights sounds better.

[@susannaharget509]

Great stuff-thank you! Would love to see a top 10 cities with fair weather year round, please pretty please! So many of your picks have harsh winters--brrr!

[@rudinah8547]

I really want this list for international cities!! I've been trying to find good vehicle use data for global cities to genuinely decide where I want to live

[@kennj321]

It sounds like a complex calculation. It could be comparing apples and oranges

[@michaelscott5155]

Thanks!

[@CityNerd]

Welcome!

[@Clementinee]

10. Sacramento 9. San Jose, CA 8. Chicago 7. Providence 6. Pittsburgh 5. San Francisco 4. Portland 3. Philadelphia 2. New York 1. San Juan, PR

[@muszynskifamily2629]

I never expected to see Hillsboro on your channel. It’s far from perfect but it gets a lot of things right considering it’s a suburb at its heart.

[@Yogkog]

Tfw Pittsburgh has such good bones that CityNerd is bored of talking about it

[@jeretso]

OLD Town San Juan is walkable. Streets are narrow and even small cars scrape their rims. Parking is for residents only and tourists have to use a parking garage like a theme park. Bring hiking shoes because most of the 500 year old streets are cobblestone with narrow sidewalks. Uber in greater San Juan is usually under $10. Going in and out of the SJU airport will cost more than $20. San Juan Ferry and buses cost less than a dollar. I just posted some of my Puerto Rico vacation videos lol

[@salemite]

I would love more UGBs. It and the public beach laws are some of my favorite aspects of Oregon. not sure you could make a whole video about public land usage for beaches/waterways but it is a fun aspect of urbanism. Hell, Lake Oswego has been fighting it for years to keep their stupid lake private. :D

[@CityNerd]

Oh man there are SO many interesting aspect to Oregon land use law -- the Beach Bill is like the graddaddy!

[@torw5610]

Awesome video! I used urbanized area DVMT per capita as my dependent variable as part of my grad school research.

[@PrimeRib1408]

Growing up in Charlotte, it’s wild how many people there hate urban planning. Too many people criticize grid formatted cities because they’re “boring” and prefer getting to drive on winding roads that go all over the place.

[@linuxman7777]

Both Dendritic and Grids are the result of urban planning. If you want to see what an unplanned city or development looks like, see any small European Village or Japanese Town, or a 3rd world slum. Suburbia is a product of heavy planning, as humans would not make Dendritic street networks naturally because they are very inefficient, the people tend to make organic connected streets that connect important places together.

[@linuxman7777]

I consider myself an Urbanist that hates urban planning, I think that if you let the common man build a place they will build something great that better serves their needs than a bureaucratic urban planner could.

[@danielkelly2210]

If they love sprawl and high-speed stroads, I'd say they love urban planning, but they love sh*tty urban planning.

[@linuxman7777]

@@danielkelly2210 It is planning nonetheless. I had someone joke once to me when I made a comment like this, saying that of course I would love urbanism by the hands of the people and not central planning because my username is linuxman, and that the operating system's many parts were made by many people and not really centrally planned except for a few very small sections

[@Mtsplash]

Hi City Nerd, would you consider ranking the best Transit connections to ski areas? There's some interesting examples, such as in Salt Lake City where the city bus takes you to the slopes. Or, consider the bus rapid transit system in Aspen, CO. The geography is often beneficial to Transit because the mountain valleys naturally encourage high density along a single corridor.

[@chuck2453]

It would be interesting to see how much the truck traffic skews ATL vs. CLT (of course the sprawl of the metro stands on its own, but would be an interesting data point)

[@markcangila1613]

As someone living in Atlanta, I wonder how this applies for solely the urban area itself? Like the city limits. Because a lot of midtown and downtown are getting much better

[@matosmatt]

As someone from San Jose CA, I assure you we should not be on this list or any other list about driving the least, transit or walkability. We only have one option in San Jose: driving 😢

[@hectorquinones5579]

Never would I have ever thought San Juan to make it on the list, and so high up. I don't consider San Juan to be walkable at all (except Old San Juan and Condado), especially compared to NYC. But I guess the factors you mentioned are responisble for skewing the results.

[@Puppy_sisters]

You should do a whole video on Pittsburgh! Feed the beast!

[@Ben-jj4pl]

I think another large part of how providence manages to be on this list is the connection to boston through the mbta’s commuter rail. I know plenty of people who make that commute and avoid that dreadful drive when possible.

[@DanBlondell]

Package deliveries are more like buses than outsourced driving since it’s dozens or hundreds of deliveries per trip