THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT... AMERICAN REACTS TO Why Europe Is Insanely Well Designed!

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[@u3pog4o]

A strange paradox to me is that you said "the US has a lot of houses and a lot of empty land", but it's the country with most homeless people per capita. I think that's disturbing. Especially taking the fact that it's the richest country in the world.

[@MayC23]

Thats not paradox. The problem is not that there are no houses but ppl who can't afford it. Then the rich argument. Its calculated by the whole income divided by number of ppl. A few ppl with a shitton of money have a huge impact on this.

[@sidious8524]

@@chrisOnYT Explain it to him, then. Or just shut it next time. Both are totally acceptable.

[@thomaselwood12]

How can it be the richest in the world when it has debt thats growing faster than their economy and is already 35% more than the GDP.

[@lordmiraak8991]

@@thomaselwood12 because the debt really doesnt matter all that much. I suggest looking further into what that debt actually is.

[@lethfuil]

It's not the richest country in the world though. That is: Luxembourg. Followed by: Singapore, Ireland, Qatar, Switzerland, Arabic Emirates, Macau, Norway. NOW comes the US.

[@NicolaiCzempin]

Fascinating that James assumes that supermarkets need road networks. I have 4 supermarkets within easy walking distance. When I was in the US (San Jose, CA) and wanted to walk to the nearest Wal-Mart, 1) people looked at me funny/suspicious 2) I probably had to break a number of traffic laws, getting to the supermarket on foot just wasn't a concept.

[@poulwinther]

I feel like a moron having to take a car in the US just to get some groceries. Plus it takes forever.

[@rayquaza1245]

The US is like 20x the size of European countries at minimum. Of course you can't walk everywhere

[@poulwinther]

@@rayquaza1245 Seriously hope that's an attempt of a joke.

[@runeberntsen5890]

Trucks still need roads to bring stuff to the supermarket even if you do not

[@rayquaza1245]

@@poulwinther Mainland US is over 3.1 million square miles. France is 210,000 square miles, and is one of the biggest european countries. So in reality I should've said the US is around 100x the size of European countries at minimum

[@michelaushamburg6766]

"We have a lot of *empty* land." (12:18) Land is never *empty*. It is stuffed with nature. You can carelessly destroy the nature and turn the land into soulless parking lots, but ... that is not very sensible.

[@anouk6644]

They paved paradise and put op a parking lot

[@Euroreissu]

Yes, they have a lot of empty land, but it's not where people live and whre they want to build a parking lot.

[@dayko.]

@@Euroreissu The point was that if there were not as many parking lots (8 spaces per car) there would still be more nature right now. Are 3 or even 4 spaces per car not enough?

[@penskepc2374]

@@dayko. I love when Europeans act like their lack of cars is a choice and not an inability to afford gas 🤣

[@page8301]

@@anouk6644 I love this sentiment. I hope you won't mind me borrowing it.

[@azertyuiopqsdfghjklm]

I dont think you _really_ realized what the video is actually talking about when the narrator says you dont even need a passeport or a visa to go from a country to another in the EU (around 13:30). Especially with your comparison with what could be a stronger bond between Canada, the US and Mexico. What the video is talking about is the Schengen area. It's not only "cheap" and "easy" to go from a country to another, it's actually _as_ easy as going from a city to another. There is virtually NO border at all, that's what it means. No check up, no one controlling your ID when you cross the border, no nothing. If you live in a city at the border, you can litterally walk to another country to buy your grosseries. As easy as that. Many people litterally cross the border each and every day just to go to work or buy cheaper cigarettes. Can you imagine? That's why it's so revolutionary. I can't see the US do the same thing with Mexico, even with a hundred year.

[@twinmama42]

After WW2, a village was split between Germany (Palatinate) and France (Alsace). There was a hard border with ID controls, customs, and all that crap. Today the two villages function almost as one again. In one village is the Kindergarten, in the other one the elementary school. You get the idea.

[@mary-janereallynotsarah684]

Yeah when we lived in Germany we took a bus to Poland to go hang out there for the day.

[@toniivanova9360]

Yea, as a truck driver who worked Germany-France-Spain route I can confirm that. I've bought my groceries from Germany (Lidl), because is cheaper, I've showered in France (I'm grateful for the great people of France for the conveniences they made for truck drivers and made them free, you're the best), every country has its perks.

[@Judith_Remkes]

There's a road sign where the border is. If you blink, you've missed that you've left the country.

[@jfrancobelge]

I live in Eastern Belgium, close to the border with Luxembourg, and a 30-minute drive to the border with Germany. And yes, cross-country shopping is normal everyday life. Being so close to Luxembourg I haven't bought gasoline or booze in Belgium for years. And clothes and hygiene products are cheaper in Germany. And yes, I happen not to really pay attention which country I'm in. I love Schengen's Europe.

[@Citrusbranold]

I was born and still live in Europe and am physically not allowed to drive due to my sight issues and I am forever feeling lucky at how accessible this continent is via public transport and most of our cities are very walkable. I could never live in most places in the US because I simply wouldn't be able to get anywhere

[@lizzieburgess674]

I agree. I spent several years with very severe visual impairment (recent developments in technology have restored my eyesight wonderfully well) and I cannot even imagine how much more limited and less independent my life would have been in the USA. Here, people with many, even most, visual, neurological or mobility problems are still generally able to move around their neighbourhoods safely and function, work and socialise as the perfectly normal person they actually are. And we are *by no means* the best or most generous country in Europe in this respect.

[@i.m.2377]

@@lizzieburgess674 We're lucky to be European for two reasons: - Having public transportation. - Having a National Healthcare System so you won't have a huge debt for life, like yankees do. Proud to be European!

[@i.m.2377]

@@ImadZeryouh That sounds horrible! Isn't there another way out? Like asking for money to some relatives or friends? Sorry for my ignorance about how to deal in your country with that kind of problems. I don't know what I would do...maybe moving to Canada and try to pay off the debt from there. I honestly wish you good luck, because I can't imagine the hell you're being through.

[@bakersmileyface]

My sister has epilepsy and isn't allowed to drive. She can function perfectly fine as an adult on her own without being able to drive. A relief for her and a relief for us as her family that we don't need to babysit her.

[@Warentester]

The absurd consequence of having too many parking spaces is that they increase the distance between points of interest and making car journeys and therefore more parking spaces a necessity.

[@wWvwvV]

There is a simple solution. Build parkade or underground carparks. But US is so profit oriented, they build massive parking lots as cheap as possible. Spreading out in all direction. It's impossible to finance the sprawl in the end and it was clear on from the beginning US citizen argue it's because their country is so huge ... but no, it's lobbyism (bribing) for profit.

[@magni5648]

@@wWvwvV Building massive udnergorund parking lots has it's own construction and price issues, though.

[@KekusMagnus]

​@@wWvwvV parking towers are massively cost inefficient and an eyesore. There is already not enough funding to maintain the road infrastructure, and you want to add thousands of towers too? It's simply a ludicrous idea that completely falls apart upon slight reflection. The problem is car-dependency, there shouldn't be this many goddamn cars in the first place, especially in urban areas

[@wWvwvV]

@@KekusMagnus there is a huge problem with car-dependency in US for sure. A first step would be to get rid of the sprawl. It should be forbidden to have huge parking lots in front of stores or "restaurants". But the opposite is the case, even in downtowns it's mandatory to have a lot of parking lots at each public building. The rules should be changed to that parking is only underneath or above of businesses. It's more expensive than to build huge cheap ugly sprawling parking lots, but it is neccessary. That should be the first step. After that, because of so much regained space, it should be possible to establish good local public transport. This will be much more expensive than parking towers but it would make a city more effective and liveable. Car traffic is by far the most ineffective way of transportation in a city. It needs way too much space and energy. Cars needs an extra lane for not moving vehicles. It could be used much better. And Cars are inefficient anyways compared to other transports. Compare it to pedestrians, cyclist, busses and so on. 50 People in cars will easily cause a traffic jam, 50 people on a bus, not so likely.

[@MaticTheProto]

@@KekusMagnus Europe does it. Also car parks are equally shit

[@kavelab699]

The problem with the absurd amount of parking spaces in the USA isn't related to space, it's related to the environment. Parking lots are made out of tar, which pollutes the environment a lot, and thus promote climate change. They also attract heat in the summer, which is an issue in big cities. And because there are many parking lots in America, people don't get encouraged to search for greener alternatives, such as riding the train, bus and of course biking. In Switzerland, we have a huge network of railroads and many busses (including trolleys), so many people don't need a car or only use it rarely. Car = pollution = bad.

[@mayyoufindlove702]

Don't forget that America additionally waste a whole of electricity on having to cool down their areas through air conditioners. For decades it has been the no. 1 polluter in the world. Only recently it has been overthrown by China. Yet one has to understand that they used to be a farming state not too long ago, besides being a massive country. If you go by pollution per citizen it is more than likely that Americans are still no. 1.

[@kavelab699]

@@mayyoufindlove702 Since you are talking about air conditioners, yeah, America pretty surely has the highest amount of A/C's per capita. Not to mention, the sources of electricity in the US are also not great. The vast majority of the electricity is still produced with natural gas or coal. Nuclear also makes up a sizeable portion, but that has almost no Co2 emissions. Anyway, the US still has a long way to go in terms of renewable electricity production.

[@poulwinther]

It's also that everything is layed out to be completely car dependent. I recently stayed in Crystal Lake, IL for a conference and while there were plenty of stores and restaurants around, not a single sidewalk to make it possible to walk there.

[@wWvwvV]

You seem to be very young @KAVELAB US citizen mostly don't have the option to go by train, tram, bus, bike or on food (they're very independent).

[@penskepc2374]

@@kavelab699 there is nothing wrong with natural gas, stop pushing garbage, 🤡.

[@RicassoST]

The thing that I can stay in any country in the EU for up to three months is kinda wrong. You can go and settle wherever you want in the EU as an EU citizen. I could just move to Spain if I want. All I have to do is go to the country’s immigration office and tell them where I live. These three months are just the timespan to when I have to do this. My brother lives in France and never had to get a visa or some sort of documents. He actually still has his German passport with the French address on it.

[@jfrancobelge]

Just a normal situation for millions of EU citizens who live in other EU countries. For one I'm a Frenchman who's been living in Belgium for 21 years, nothing special.

[@penskepc2374]

It's such a stupid comparison to America though as Europe as a whole is about the same size, so the need international travel is much more common in Europe. Some of the "Europe is so much better!" Garbage is hilarious and brakes down with tiniest bit of critical thinking.

[@Suztvfan]

@@penskepc2374 Some of it, yes but not all of it. And while international travel is abit more needed in a lot of cases it isn't. Working an office jobs. Chance is small that you need to travel international. I wouldn't say Europe is better overall but I would say that Europe is better in a lot of things like public transport, health insurance and worker rights.

[@danielmatheis9600]

When I was a small child we often went to Italy. was always very cumbersome (passports, money exchange etc pp). There is nothing better than visiting the neighbors and getting to know their culture better and knowing "We are Europeans". Yes, of course you are still a guest, but you feel quite welcome :) I love it

[@girlsurfingtheinternet8195]

@@penskepc2374 EU is not a nation honey. Its not about size. EVERYTHING is not about being bigger. We dont share the same language, laws, culture. Im sorry we dont spend every waking hour multiplying like rabbits and bombing the world. The people are bigger, the cars are bigger, the houses are bigger, the homeless problem is bigger, crime is bigger, jails are bigger, wars are bigger in the USA. Its so great that the rich live in gated communities afraid of other americans. I means my God the USA is at peek obesity.

[@idkhowchangename1161]

The problem that he speaks of isnt that there are too many parking spaces and not enought houses. He wanted to say that the places used for parking spaces could be used for better things like parks or to use the space to build walkable cities. Theres a great video from NotJustBikes about this topic

[@emsiwa3422]

NotJustBikes is great in comparing north america and europe. Especially when it comes to public transportation and cycable/walkable cities

[@CordeliaWagner]

I love NotJustBikes! Great informative and entertaining content.

[@MrLowbob]

notjustbikes is a fantastic channel about city design

[@idkhowchangename1161]

@@emsiwa3422 True, but I wanna point out that the channel OBF or how it was called copies a lot of content from other youtubers and he sometimes puts his own opinion over the facts or mixes it up a bit. So I wouldnt trust him everything. NJB said it too.

[@ChiaraVet]

@@idkhowchangename1161 yeah, NJB always tries to be very objective and supports his affirmations with data. I appreciate it a lot. Another great channel on this matter that I absolutely recommend because the guy is an actual climate scientist is Climate Town: very well done, with science based data behind everything they do, but also very funny videos.

[@irgendwerausdeminternet7177]

Spain alone has a bigger railway Track system than the US. PS: You said that europe is significantly smaller than the US. That's not true, Europe is bigger than the US.

[@Dragon-mv6vy]

yea, continental eu is 6.2mln(no russia), continental usa is 7.2mln, usa + alaska is 9.8mln, eu + greenland is 8.2mln, idk where they see that much difference, they look at shitty maps with distortions.

[@FourOfClubs]

Europe is much more densely populated. Railways are a massive investment, and they don't make as much sense in the case of Americans.

[@lethfuil]

@@FourOfClubs Americans literally burn down their whole west coast now every year, because they won't invest in proper public transportation and instead keep driving their many gas gobbling cars. Also, if you're blind, paralysed, have severe epilepsy, etc, you're trapped without public transportation. Even in the US.

[@FourOfClubs]

@@lethfuil Gas guzzling cars are a problem, but in general for the longer distances Americans are used to drive they really do need cars with bigger engines. They just have those wasteful cars because until now gas prices rarely had been an issue. And I would disagree w/ the problem disabled people have. That may have been true in the past, but now that services like UBER exist, those people can move around if the need arises. That's one more reason public transportation isn't that necessary anymore, UBER has BECOME the public transportation.

[@lethfuil]

@@FourOfClubs (GUZZLING was the word I was looking for! 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♀️) Why would you new a bigger engine for longer distances? O.o You're not allowed to go faster than maybe ...100 anyway? And you don't need insane horsepowers (which big american cars mostly don't even have anyway) for distance traveling. Also, if the car is heavier, it pulls slower (because it's more weight). So a 150 PS car that weighs 1100kg is still way faster then a 250 PS one with 2000kg. I see how Uber is very useful for that! Still, I don't know what it costs in comparison. I could drive around the capital, the whole day, wherever I want, for about 9€. And if I just want to go one way and back (for doctors visit, grocery shopping, etc) it's maybe 3€ (to the next town, because i live very rural). For daily commute in a city, you'd pay about 150€ a month, but you can use that In your free time too.

[@TheEasterRabbit1]

If you dont really need the space for housing, then use it for either public transportation or build community centers, playgrounds for kids, parks, ponds etc... like aint that much better than some "unused" parking lots..?

[@lillm6874]

Or let the nature be nature 😉

[@davemccage7918]

I don’t know where these unused lots are hiding at. Other than abandon buildings I’ve never seen one.

[@Ju_lee137]

I've read that besides many other problems the insane amount of parking space in US cities contributes to extreme heat building up within the cities and hightens the risk of floodings significally especially if the city doesn't compensate with a lot of 'green' areas like parks or innercity forests who can absorb a majority of the rain. And I think what the guy from the video was trying to say is that this absurd amount of parking space further insentivises the usage of cars instead of other more efficient transportation methods, this combined with shitty public transportation makes US cities enviornmentally unfriendly concrete deserts. And I highly recommend to watch a comparison of housing in the US and housing in european cities like vienna next :)

[@Psi-Storm]

Yes, the parking spaces spread out the city so much that public transportation and walkability gets impractical. You then have to drive everywhere which means you need more parking spaces. It's also bad for the municipalities because the tax/expenses ratio is significantly better in high population areas. The suburbs bleed the cities dry.

[@Bassalicious]

Exactly. "Unused" space is very important for the micro climate of a city and helps mitigate small natural disasters like flash floods for instance.

[@realist3314]

Although vienna isn't an example of European housing, hence even the rest of Europe isn't where Vienna is. It's more of a role model for affordable housing which isn't transferable to other cities just like that.

[@dus1213]

From a geographs point of you, I can highly agree with you! Everything you said is right. And this guy from Vienna: Fuck You xD No one in Europe wants to hear about this. Just kidding, but Austrians could use a little bit of restrainment when it comes to self-glorification

[@lethfuil]

@@realist3314 Vienna is what now? O.o I've lived there (for a short time) and in other cities. Forget Paris and London, they suck. But Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Helsinki, Prague, Tallin, etc are just as good, if not better (depending on needs/preferrences).

[@lizzieburgess674]

The absolute 'need' for a car in the US is one of the things that makes that country so UNfree for some people. A not-insignificant number of people are *unable* to drive a car for reasons entirely out of their control; these people are simply, and very effectively, *trapped* wherever they happen to be. Journeys beyond walking distance are impossible, as is attaining any sort of independence, and opportunities for education, employment and health care are simply out of reach when there is no accessible public transport and a person is unable to drive.

[@wolf1066]

I am thoroughly convinced that the reason why the USA rams "land of the free" and "everyone's jealous of our freedoms" down the throats of its citizens is so they never stop to realise they're not remotely free and they're being royally fucked at every turn.

[@positive8498]

Yes im always thinking why do americans think theyre the most free while: 1. Hardly being able to go anywhere without a car while most jobs and education are mostly far from your own home. There is public transportation but its really bad and takes a long time. And you dont have stops everywhere. 2. Not being able to get healthcare because people think it might put them to dept so theyre waiting til it gets so bad its untreatable, having an operation that def puts you in dept or just die. 3. Not having paid vacation / sick days determined by law 4. Having to work so many hours because so many have such a low income that 1 job isnt enough to pay for rent. 5. Getting sick can get you fired and lose healthcare if you have it 6. giving birth to a child cost you around 10.000 dollars and they even charge you to a hold your baby after a c section. That one maybe even shocks me the most 7. you cant attend better schools without being in huge depths 8. More people are in prison than (almost) anywhere 9. you can get homeless because of medical dept or needing to choose to pay for your insuline or food 10.children go to school with a bulletproof backpack 11. a child can hardly play anywhere safe outside except for your own garden 12. you get pressured/cohersed into working more hours than 40 because otherwise you might get fired 13. you only get benefits like healthcare when you work fulltime and even though 40 hours is considered fulltime it can actually be decided by your boss how much they consider fulltime so a lot of people work up to 60/70 hours a week. 14. you cant attend classes to get a higher income job because youre either at work or on the road til late. 15. Where daycare is so expensive that its useless to work while having a child or especially children 16. there have been at least 314 mass shootings this year.... And i can think of so many more but I am really wondering why do people keep telling that their country is the most free. The only "people" who are free are companies and the rich but the majority of people are neither. It seems to me that the companies also own the government, because its capitalism at his best. I have to say one thing though I can imagine people are scared that they have to pay more tax like in Europe because theres both no conspiracy and most people get so little in return for that money. Here youll see it all around you.

[@pennyxrp]

@@positive8498 what year is this? These are all old not true talking points from 1998. My nigga get with the times

[@Warentester]

Journeys within walking distance are also often impossible as there is no pedestrian infrastructure (sidewalks, crossings) outside city centers. Walking is very difficult at best and often outright dangerous.

[@wolf1066]

@@Warentester That's so alien. There are few places in our towns where there aren't footpaths (sidewalks).

[@lillm6874]

As an European I’m chocked by this reaction video 😳 You don’t need extra houses? Dude, you have a LOT of homeless people! Here in Norway nobody needs to be homeless, they get help and are given an apartment from the government. The USA is so FU!

[@jokekopter2509]

Yea,they dont have middle rises,in US it goes from skyscrapers Imidiatly to 1 family homes,look at Phoenix,for exsampel

[@thomasbrutting8046]

It has to be added that the railroad map only shows the backbone lines of the railroad system. The actual networks is a lot more dense with smqll regional lines even connect towns and villages.

[@xxyes8879]

I agree, those maps are a bit misleading.

[@HelmetmanTheSwede]

Yeah we have railway basically everywhere in Sweden, there are small cities that were basically built around the railway.

[@agut.3263]

that is so true. I suspect an accurate map of every railway would look a lot more like the bike map. Where I am from, the smallest village in the area is so tiny that they don't even have a bakery. They do have a train station.

[@hermanubis7046]

In Germany, unless you live in a very remote village or something, you don't really need a car, public transportation is very effective. The gas is expensive, but so are parking spots in cities, around € 7 per day if you rent a spot you can pay monthly or for the year. The gas is expensive also because of taxes, which in turn pay for the maintenance of the roads, for instance.

[@lordkabal2010]

The tax on petrol and diesel is high in europe as that tax pays for a lot of things like you said maintenance on roads but also allows the govts to invest in public transport.....hell if the american govt want more money just increase the tax on petrol etc lol

[@victorchristophersen3601]

Most eu countrys have a high car tax. In germany it's in the gas price. Im from denmark and if you buy a new car you will pay over 100% in tax. Gas is cheaper if you compare purchasing power

[@lethfuil]

What Americans often forget when they're talking about high gas prices in Europe is, that we don't have to drive as much as they do and that our cars usually need way less gas than theirs. So, overall we're not even really paying more for it.

[@ricardomadleno564]

Thats basically the all of Europe

[@blenderpanzi]

The many large parking spaces make everything far apart, which then basically requires a car to get around. Also having those large parking spaces instead of dense commercial buildings reduces the tax income of a municipality and thus they have less money to keep up public infrastructure.

[@antonymash9586]

Another fan of notjustbikes I see

[@AriesT1]

But James, think about the alternatives: The only thing that keeps you guys from using property and land more efficiently is zoning restrictions and bad city planners. Imagine the amount of additional space for public transport, parks and other stuff for the people if, for example, they built stores and mid-sized multi-level housing _above_ the huge parking lots, connected with elevators, etc. More people close to the city centers who might not need cars. :)

[@spugelo359]

My city rebuilt our market square (at the center of the city) basically completely. They dug and built an underground garage connected to the surface by stairs, ramps and elevators. Now that is 1 way to give more parking space where it's needed, but without littering the streets with more cars. It's expensive, I know... but it was necessary expense to improve the city. Edit: Finland btw, so in Europe if wonder.

[@jts2561]

The Same was done in an old place in the inner city of Vienna. It is not totally finished, the old baroque fountain is not yet completed. I wonder what the prices for parking there are going to be!

[@Vlad-bs1js]

True, but the car and fuel industry probably doesn't want more efficient transportation and we all know how bribery (lobbying) is legal in the US. The only thing that's really keeping them from having efficient transportation, among many other things, is the greed of big business. After all, their entire economy is based on consuming more, not consuming efficiently.

[@tatianaferreira5998]

Europe is bigger than the US (remember Russia is in Europe as well as Asia). Has more people too (more than double the US).

[@Dragon-mv6vy]

they probably refer to the european union, i always shake my head when they say the us is much bigger than europe... Nope? The continental us is about 8mln km2, if we include alaska which only 600k people lives, then it's, 9.8mln, europe withous russia is 6.2mln, but we shoudl also include greenland which is a part of the kingdom of denmark, then you have as well 8.1mln km2, idk where they get it, russians should be excluded since it's not european civilization, they are much closer to the chinease than to us.

[@Chameleon-wq4ul]

Russia at this moment definitely has no right to be called a European country. And with Hitler nr.2 leading it.

[@tramper42]

16:37 „Paris and Amsterdam are right next door“ … yes, Paris, capital of France and Amsterdam capital of Netherlands are about 500 km (311 miles) away, are „right next door“ oh wait, this little country Belgium might be in the door way 😂

[@lillm6874]

Good one 😂😂

[@swanpride]

While it is no fun to search for a parking space, the parking spaces in the US are nevertheless a problem, because they create more problems than they solve. They have a huge impact on the environment, and since the design basically forces people to use the car, no matter what, you are basically forced to do an extended stroll over a gigantic parking lot, while in Europe, you just would pick up what you need by foot or bike or public transport. Granted, it is not just a matter of parking spaces, but the whole infrastructure.

[@Asa...S]

2:43 When it says that Europe is smaller the American reaction is (with a raised voice): "Europe is SIGNIFICALLY smaller than the US"! Repeats "Europe is significally smaller than the US" 3:10 When the narrators shows the evidence that isn't true, that Europe isn't SIGNIFICALLY smaller. It's not smaller at all, but infact *larger* than the US the American reaction is a silent "Hrm..."

[@thomasersosi4595]

"Nobody ever complained about too many parking lots" a moment ago you complained about not having enough public transportation. But what's the point of let's say a bus stop, if there is nothing but parking lots around that? And I have to cross like half a mile of tar just to get to the nearest entry. How many people would (like to) use that bus stop? Not many. And if basically nobody uses it, what's the point of putting it there in the first place? What's the point of investing in public transportation if at the end of your ride you're in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, these parking lots cost the city money (indirectly). Parking lots don't pay taxes; they don't create revenue. But for every 10 meters of parking lot that a business has, there need to be 10m of street passing by that parking lot. And the city needs to build and maintain it. There also need to be 10m of power lines and water and sewage pipes, all paid for by the tax payer. The Issue with all these parking lots is that the drag everything apart. No-one would walk or bike along a street where all you see is parking lot after parking lot. The only reasonable thing to do is to drive right to the store you want to go to, and back home. That's how these huge parking lots make everything but driving pointless. I'd suggest you take a look at these 3 NotJustBikes Videos: - How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIe4lqSujdx2d5I - Why American Cities Are Broke - The Growth Ponzi Scheme kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXrWfpiBoZKGrJI - Suburbia is Subsidized: Here's the Math kzbin.info/www/bejne/bX_aZ6SvrteHm6s

[@TheRealRedAce]

I met a guy from Texas who travels 80 miles to Amarillo for his weekly grocery shopping trip. That seems incredible to me here in England, my weekly shop is in my home town, and there are many cities within 80 miles!

[@NicolaiCzempin]

James seeing European cities: "so beautiful". Also James, looking at a car park: "this is fine"

[@Pixel_Higitsune]

5:50 Schools dont cause congestions mostly. Im from Vienna and at the time where i was a kid there was not much more traffic around schools cause mostly the kids walked to school, get brought by the parents with the car and just get kicked out in a short stop or take puplic transportation. I think thats not possible in america cause of the long distances they need to walk cause everything is spaced out by parking spots.

[@Bassalicious]

I feel like even if kids in the US could walk the distance their parents wouldn't let them just because of how unsafe it apparently is.

[@ChiaraVet]

@@Bassalicious I think you are talking about the US-idea that as soon as you let your kid outside of your 4 walls, they´ll get kidnapped... and what´s absurd is that it´s actually more fear mongering than real threat according to data. The biggest threat, surprise surprise!, are the cars and the accident they provoke!

[@Bassalicious]

@@ChiaraVet Right. I've just heard a lot of US citizens repeat it, James too for what it's worth. Hearing about kidnappings in the US way more often than in my home country could certainly be confirmation bias. I haven't looked at any real data tbh. On the other hand overprotective US parents lower the threat in comparison to other countries too, so the data might not be directly comparable either.

[@Pixel_Higitsune]

Oh good point.

[@ricolync]

There's one more point to be made with parking lots. First to make a parking lot you need to level the ground - cut trees, kill all living things off - so it means carbon emissions. Second, you need to use oil to make pavement, for the mass pouring, machines, etc. Third the parking lots are most of the time empty. Fourth, pavement REFLECTS the SUN! - it means more effin up the climate! ...Fifth, a large parking lot and driving around from house to shops is waste of a human life!

[@dirkbaldorad3634]

Agree with all points except the fourth. To my understanding, pavement absorbs the sun, emitting heat. Compared to the (now melting) glaciers that reflected the sun and sent the energy back into space mostly. Other than that you're totally right and more people should understand how bad parking lots are. (Even though I'm one of the people who complain about the bad parking conditions in my next city, but that's more due to the bad public transportation to where I am housed.)

[@damiandorhoff719]

Yeah Country Size isn´t really an argument considering that china has a far better railway system than the USA. As for the Parking Spots. It should be mentioned that Europe has a far higher Population compared to the USA Check out the Trains and the Railway System in Japan. That is insane. The European Railway System might be well conected but the trains aren´t always on Time to say it lightly. But the Trains are on Time in Japan.

[@DontUputThatEvilOnMe]

Yes but China has 5 times more people that are all packed on the eastern 3rd of the country. The rail system is mostly in this area.

[@Apokalypse456]

@@DontUputThatEvilOnMe and 30% of america lives along the east coast, which is comparably densely populated as France or England. and somehows those places are not entirely car dependent.

[@God_Save_The_King]

(About the parking spaces.) So you basically complained about what he said because "you don't believe him" without having done any research... How American of you... Stop criticising people, who know what they are talking about when you yourself don't know what you are talking about! The point was, that people want a house in or near a city and THAT space is used for parking instead. Nobody cares about how much free space you have in the desert because THAT isn't the area anyone is trying to build a house in... And no, I'm pretty sure you definitely could not make a counter video to that... (Not a remotely good one at least.)

[@Michael_Bonn]

2:42 Europe is significantly smaller...😂 3:14 No appropriate response to the error! 🤔 All the potholes in America's roads together almost make up a second Grand Canyon.🗽

[@Hackattack7]

The issue with that argument he brought up is that the whole of Europe, which includes the vast expanses of Russia, which is not integrated into the system that he is talking about, the EU, which was a far better comparison, which he even mentioned was about half the size of the US

[@Michael_Bonn]

@@Hackattack7 He clearly says EUROPE. If he doesn't know that Europe isn't just the EU, we could also unknowingly divide the US into northern and southern states and other things.

[@Hackattack7]

@@Michael_Bonn I'm referring to the videos argument, but you can tell he hasn't studied much about Europe

[@Michael_Bonn]

@@Hackattack7 He's been doing the thing with Europe and Germany for a few years. I recently memorized the capitals of all 50 states in America and can now allocate them all. It was done in 2 weeks.That's why I keep getting annoyed about his alleged knowledge.

[@Dragon-mv6vy]

@@Hackattack7 he look at the distorted map, and that's why

[@poketilli4846]

I would suggest watching some videos from KZbin channel: Not Just Bikes. He explains pretty well in his videos what exactly is the difference between European cities and American cities and what the problems in urban design are. Here is a very interesting video of him: The Gym of Life.

[@madkiss8017]

Usa : where is parking Europ : green space and housing Usa: what about cars Europ: we have best public transportion most people do not own car

[@johannsanchocuevas7854]

Europe*

[@riesjart1000]

I live in the Netherlands and I am very happy with the cycling infrastructure in our country. You can cycle, enjoy the environment and you're much more able to enjoy it then when you're in a car. On a bicycle you see a lot more and you can hear everything a lot better. And you don't have to pay attention to the road that much. Cycling is far more fulfilling then driving a car because cycling is a lot healthier too. It's far better for the environment to cycle and you stay in shape. You also don't need a lot of parking space and you're never stuck in a traffick jam. Space we don't use to park cars is being used for beautiful parks with bicycle lanes. The air in our cities smells great because there aren't too many cars, you're be able to enjoy that much more on a bike too. You're also able to interact with other people a lot easier when on a bike.

[@davemccage7918]

How does that work out for you in the snow?

[@eblita3698]

I get a bit confused watching his first maps. As he starts out describing rail tracks, he must mean high speed rail tracks. Denmark has trail racks all over the country, but on this map hardly one......

[@wozzablog]

Seemed to be the InterRail network. Including every piece of rail track across 30 countries would be difficult, comparing it to the American interstate/cross country rail network seemed sensible

[@magdajarco478]

I've observed the NIMBY vs YIMBY arguments on various social media, and from what I've gathered there seems to be a housing shortage in the US - especially in big cities. I agree simply swapping parking lots for houses woldn't solve that, bc this is connected to your insane zoning laws. Like, why you build your houses in one place, your grocery stores in another and your schools in yet another? No wonder you have to drive everywhere, when all those places are so far apart. Would love to see your reaction to a yt vid about differebces in zoning laws between Europe and USA. I think CityBeautiful and NotJustBikes have a few of those.

[@penskepc2374]

You guys can't even carry pocket knives, but consider yourselves free, worry about your own irrelevant country.

[@XxDarkManaxX]

I was in the netherlands multible times and especially in Amsterdam it feels like, there are more bikes than people and the public transportation was so much more chill than in Germany. The public transportation here in Germany is pretty good aswell, but sometimes you get really weird excuses for why the trains are not running on time.

[@Wolfe1966]

It not just feels like there are more bikes then people, there actualy are more bikes then people in the Netherlands.😎 About 17 million inhabitans and 22,7 million bikes. That's 1,3 bike per person

[@cayreet5992]

Yeah, we have nice excuses here in Germany. Most of the time, the truth behind them is 'we just fucked up somewhere, but we're not admitting to it.'

[@lizzieburgess674]

I think the train operators in Germany and the UK just translate each other's weird excuses - 'the wrong sort of snow' is one instance ...

[@XxDarkManaxX]

@@lizzieburgess674 what the hell is "wrong sort of snow?" The yellow one? xD

[@lizzieburgess674]

@@XxDarkManaxX I have no idea what it is, it is typical of the excuses provided by UK and German train operators for why their services are late or cancelled in winter. They have different excuses for each season/change of weather. Whatever sort of snow it it - powdery and dry, wet and slushy, drifted, icy - it is the 'wrong sort'.

[@distomos8118]

I learned about gridlock in NYC, something I’ve never experienced in Europe. For those which aren’t familiar with it „Gridlock is a form of traffic congestion where continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill". (Wikipedia) And everybody honks their horns as if it’s any help. Beware of the daredevil cyclists which dash through the gridlocks. I almost got hit by one of them, but I’ll say he was very polite while being sorry in a hurry.

[@glassooy1]

Dear James , I'm from the Netherlands and if the word Humancentric has no or a vague meaning for you , and you find that irritating , there is a American KZbin "Not Just Bikes" and he will fill you in . I have been several times in the states and I like it over there , but there is a totally different way to build , design , values , travel and ways to live your life. greetings Phaeton

[@rmyikzelf5604]

He is Canadian. From Fake-London (Ontario, if I am not mistaken)

[@Mizuki__sama]

I'm a Belgian student and I take the train and metro and tramway everyday to go to university for only 280€ the year. And this is the Student price👍

[@ololadin91]

14:26 the problem is, that your neighbour in the south is sick and tired of being bullied by the US and your neighbour in the north feels deep cringe if they think about you guys 😅

[@HerrMeier007]

Having more spaces for parking spots than for housing simply makes you dependent on the car, because you’re not taking any advantage of the space you have. In Europe can walk through an entire big city in like 1 1/2 hours. American cities are ridiculously big because of all the space needed for parking spots, which makes it simply impossible to walk to certain places and leaves out a big quality of life

[@deckard1970]

Actually as EU citizen you have NO time restriction (90 days limit only apply to non-EU citizens) while moving or staying in other EU member states. Every EU citizen can move, live and work in any EU member states without restrictions.

[@OlkaOve]

New subscriber. No stomping, no looting, no herds, havnt seen random twerkin, no repeating of one sentence over and over. Pure brain and usable thoughts. I like this.

[@gloofisearch]

Well, you got to know that gasoline in Germany used to be 4 times more expensive 10-20 years ago, whereas now, it's not even half any more. What I am saying is, that the US citizens are being ripped off by the gas companies way more than the Europeans. Also, when it comes to Interstates, there are no new miles of interstates built in a long time. The last stretch was a couple of years ago in Las Vegas towards the Arizona border, whereas in Germany they build new parts of Autobahn every year.

[@Brinta3]

“Ripped off by gas companies” Isn’t it because the government puts lots of taxes on gasoline?

[@martinaklee-webster1276]

I come from a small village in the Black forrest in Germany. Tiere is a bus ranking toward the next bigger City Event houer arround the clock. I also think, it is good that our Gas is expensive, the is the only way to be forced to find solutions for a better Environment. In Germany you ca buy a 9 Euro Ticket,that gibt's you a ride through the whole country for a month, exept using high speed trains.

[@martinaklee-webster1276]

Excause my miserable text, that sellphone hast it's ohne life

[@jonashofler590]

I'm assuming auto correction is messing with you trying to write in english. You could try adding english as a second keyboard language. Depending on your brand, it accounts for both languages at the same time or you can switch by swiping your spacebar. If you plan on writing more in english i would give it a try.

[@SamuelFrei99]

Or just turn it off

[@thedarkfox9851]

You pay 8$ per gallon and are cool with that? ... Who said we were cool with it lol But the gas prices just exploded recently anyway so I'm mainly relying on public transportation or my bike :)

[@CordeliaWagner]

You can rent a car or join one of the many car sharing communities. You still pay taxes and insurance and else.

[@Puntonghua]

As an EU citizen you can stay up to 3 months “without” registration, but you can live and work for as long as you want once you register.

[@felantian9661]

I love how he paused the video to elaborate on how the United States are supposedly SIGNIFICANTLY bigger than Europe, only to immediately be proven wrong and he just stayed quiet after that lmao

[@TooGumbica]

"Parking spaces dont reduce housing areas" To some extent they do, You cant just buld houses out side of the cities and expect ppl to go there with no malls, post office, doctors, public transport and so. So you only have a limited area in the and around thr city to build stuff. If you build a parking space in one plane and make it large, you take away that space for other uses. One of those being housing. Housing becames scares in the cities and it goes up in price. Germany is limiting parking spaces inside of smaller cities so that ppl have to use other means of transport. Leaving the area for other uses, and here where i am, i have seen in the last year 4 apartment complex 10/20 min walk from the city center.

[@patrickholzer6415]

the biggest problem with too many parking spaces which didn't get mentioned in this video is that due to these many spaces, the whole space between buildings gets stretched out by a lot. This means that everything is less centralized, and its less convenient to just walk in between buildings. Because of that people will use their cars even more, which in turn requires more parking spaces, which again increases the space in between places etc. etc. etc. It's a downright spiral. havin that many parking spaces is absolutely a bad thing, and will only get worse with time.

[@akyhne]

I'm sure you know, that in European countries, there are taxes on the gas (petrol) prices, to also pay for the infrastructure, like roads. This is not the case in the US, where maintenance of roads are paid via other taxes. In other words, you are not paying the true cost of gasoline in the US.

[@speeduwagun9778]

Jo James, I am from Germany and I for some reason never see actual parking houses or underground parking lots in videos about the US or something, so i was also supprised that it was not brought up in the video. We tend to build like 4 stocks of parking above each other or maybe more. This way you can get a whole lot more of parking space in a smaller area. Since you build upwards/downwards instead of to the sides. Also makes having big amounts of parking space even inside the city's a whole lot easier.

[@flex5377]

In Germany or more specific here in bavaria students from the age of 6 ( from first to 13th grade) get a ticket that lets them use any traffic transportation completely for free as long as your way to school is longer than 4km which is in my case

[@tomastorheim7283]

In consideration to parking in the US, as you so adamantly claim as being a non-issue. Try taking a map of say, Chicago, and mark every parking area in the city, and you will see that these parking areas actually increases travel distance between places. The one thing you need to have in mind is that a lot of parking spaces in the US seems to be parking lots, hence they cover a large area of land, many cities in Europe have parking buildings instead, hence a parking lot that covers a block, could be a tall building situated in the corner of that lot, hence freeing up space for parks, businesses and housing (if not for your far from flexible zoning rules). The other is that with parking space, as done in the US, the demand for cars actually increases, and makes public transport even less of an option. On top of that, you actually do not plan for public transport in the US, or if you do, it is, at best, a tertiary concern. So in short, that comment by you, that parking is a non-issue in the US (and is as it should be), is actually one of the main reasons you do not have a well operated, well connected public transit system. Gets a bit weird hearing you say that, when you start off with stating that public transport in the US should be better. That you do not see the problem with parking lots, and how they are built and distributed, is actually a great example of why the US does not take public transport, on a macro level, seriously.

[@jurgenseehase6500]

I don't think, that James reads a lot of comments but here regarding parking spaces: Big Cities in the USA got rid of Living Areas to construct parking spaces. You increase the time for travel towards your work and back, while at the same time inflating the prices for living close by. What it does, it pushes people outside of their area of work. Which leads to higher costs, worse Air conditions in cities etc ... so yeah, around 7 parking spaces PER PERSON in generell is quite to much of wasted space.

[@Kingofportals]

Our big car manufacturers would not allow us to change into a more public transportation friendly society, they depend on 91% of Americans owning cars.

[@kyla3361]

i´m 28 y.o and never had a driver´s license and never owned a car.... don´t need one ^^

[@henrikawolters7649]

I'm from Germany and the train system isn't that good. I live in a little town and the bus drive 3 times a day. Everything is built for cars

[@benfischer6303]

Yes but most people nowadays live in cities or near by bigger cities and the situation there is alright. And if you compare it with the US it's almost amazing. But of course there is still much room for improvement.

[@nikolah.8472]

Well germany is very devided by that, but most germans dont know other countrys train system. The german trains are a bit drained out because the CEOs cut cost at all sectors and invested heavily in the english train system(not their job as GERMAN traincompany). The big problem is that many trainsystems are affected by our Cities because it is dense build area, new rails are not possible sometimes(also european cities often have very old buildings that are protected cultureobjects by law, you cant destroy them for infrastructure). The train tickets are much too expensiv, you pay 4 times more sometimes for a train compared to plane(like longroutes Berlin- Vienna). Also the different states dont care for themselfs most of the time, thats why many states are horrible connected, because they not communicate well were to build and what to build. But overall compared to the US system you have a choice, many i spoke to said it was impossible to go somewhere without car in the US. In the big cities in germany, you can go anywhere with train or Bus every 5-15 minutes there comes a train/bus. Germany has many parts that are not heavily dense in population and their is the flaw, they dont have so good connections other then cars. Mostly school busses take the kids to school if they have no connection but otherwise you take car. Sure not the best system, austrias and swiss train companys are far better. Compared to the US it is worldclass.

[@GeeShocker]

Yes, still three times a day is more than none. The problem is that the ministry of transport in germany basically was a ministry of car companies. It's yet to be proven that this changed with our new government.

[@Bianca268]

James, the issue of parking lots is not that building parking lots somehow precludes from building houses. Car traffic and housing development are two mostly separate issues. The issue is this, and it is general for all car infrastructure: if you build gynormous parking lots, highways with n lanes, and all the car infrastructure you can imagine, that only makes car traffic to be increasinly desirable for more people. If that is the case, than more people will be forced to own cars, because if they don't, they will be "left behind" everyone else that does. When that happens and more people own cars, city, county (and state, in the case of your America) administrations are pressured to build even more car infrastructure, and neglect public transport, because fewer of their constituents use public tranzit and lots use cars. Then more people use cars, and more and more. This is called "induced demand", this phenomenon whereby by expanding car infrastructure, more people are made to use cars. The good news is it works both ways: reduce the infrastructure, you reduce the car demand too (but with the big caveat that affordable and decent public transport does need to be built to replace cars). Now, why is this bad, you may ask, and it's a fair question. The reason is that cars as a means of transportation are extremely inefficient. Think about it: - you're supposed to buy a hunk of metal and plastic, with a weight of 1.5 tons or more, costing at least when brand new some 15000 USD or more, that realistically simply sits outside on the street for 95% of the time. - what happens when all those millions of cars converge in a small area, such as the downtown of a city? It's great to have parking lots, but you can't transform the entire city center into a gigantic parking mall, can you? Or perhaps you can, but who would want to visit that, or just simply... be there? - even an average small sized EU petrol car still emits some 100 mg or carbon dioxide per kilometer. That's 1 kilogram for every 10 kilometers. Say you have a 10 kilometer commute every day to work - that means 10 km one way, 10 km to return home at night the other way - that means 2 kilos of CO2 every single workday. There are about 260 work days in a year, which means 520 kilograms of CO2 per year for EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. Take a city of relatively modest size, like Atlanta, Ga, of 500000 inhabitants, and you'll emit some 260000000 kg of CO2 (260000 tons!), per year just to commute to work! This does not even include any other trips that you might do, and assumes that every single person just commutes a relatively short distance, of only 10 km (6.2 miles). This also does not include what other harmful chemicals cars emit, such as NOx. And then we wonder why the planet is dying, right? :) - you end up with massive amounts of noise pollution as well, and generally with areas which are not actually pleasant to humans to be in. - concrete jungles like parking lots, urban highways and the likes, all make for cities with very unpleasant temperatures in summer, especially those that are built somewhere where summer temperatures are relatively high, and most of the US is like that. By comparison, trams not only are electric so do not cause emissions in the city itself (doesn't mean that electric vehicles like trams don't have a CO2 footprint - they do, and it varies based on the sources of your electricity generation), but the tram tracks are also cheaper to maintain than tires, and a lot less harmful to the environment. Even when taking into account the power generation for a tram, they still emit up to 75% less CO2 than cars. There are more things to be said about this, and how having good public transport rather than forcing every person to own a car actually contribute to a better society, but lets leave this for now. :)

[@rkw2917]

In the EU most people live in areas with walking access to amenities Much less need for cars

[@randomdude8877]

You should give "not just bikes" a watch if you are interested in those kind of things. The video i would recommend is about Stroads and how vastly different the living in the US is compared to the netherlands for example.

[@johannesheiner8485]

the problem with the tons of parking space is that you guys dont have enought houses were you need them or why do you think that you have to pay about 50% of your income to rent a small flat?(its not because there are too many homes) (there were the tons of parking spaces are) and that these tons and ton of parking spaces contribute to floods and other weater events beceuse the water cant seep into the ground and runs of in the rivers wich are also badly designed edit no you are not working on desgning your citys smarter

[@monicacarolina6480]

We love bikes in Holland. Kids ride bikes to school, we ride bikes to work, supermarket etc. It is faster in the city than with car. AND we are less obese than Americans.

[@blob0000]

It shouns like he is proud of having well developed ROADS and stuff around CARS lol

[@firnagon7395]

Try to get from one side of america to another without car or send your kids to school by themselves cca 7 y.o. (without car) :D BTW there are better videos comparing US and EU just spend some time looking for them... The main problem is usage of space for parking because it can be used for things like parks, bike trails and making cities more campact => making them much easier to get around and much more simple to adjust for public transport

[@KilianGosewisch]

I would love to see your counter video because i can image very few real arguments

[@JamesBray3]

I have 3 strong points! I’ll pump that video out soon enough 👌🏽🔥

[@FreeToPlayer98]

There's a thing I wish he mentioned in the Video. Think of living in Belgium cause housing is cheap there, while working in Netherlands cause wages are pretty good and all that while shopping in Germany cause food ist pretty cheap. There is still a thing with taxes, when working in a different country of European Union than living in. But overall its incredibly convenient to be living in such a constellation.

[@spinfrog2528]

Hi I'm Joe from Berlin. Think about the space the parkinglots take in the cities. Put housing into that space and you have more people not driving for hours to their work or they could go by bike and so on. I think it's a valid point.

[@sumekozo3346]

if you liked that maybe check out the spacefrogs they are german comedy/satire duo and they made a video about a similar topic

[@robinmaurer2645]

Oh boi :D I don't think he will understand Rick's intentions xD

[@nothisistoni]

Also they don't have english subtitles, right?

[@arnodobler1096]

Is there anything uglier than a parking lot? I haven't had a car for many years and very rarely miss it.

[@owenfitzgerald5928]

Someone correct me if i am wrong but the europe train/rail maps isn't correct it shows rail going from Britian to Dublin Ireland but there is only a ferry or plane right?

[@computercrack]

Gas prices in Europe aren't such a big deal, because in Europe you don't need to take a car for EVERYTHING. I can walk to the local supermarket. I can take my child by foot to the school/kindergarten. I can take the bike to work (12miles one way) and so on. In the US you have to take the car for basically any activity you might want to do. So my car is barely moving 4000miles a year.

[@Overwijn01]

Also, cars in Europe are more economical, which means less filling up 😉

[@danielraue9640]

It isnt that good as told. But the streets in the US sucks. Its more like ridin' a mole than drivin' a car. By the way, the energiesystem is like in 1900. Overland for real? No doubt why thousands of homes cant get energie. A little Storm and all is gone.

[@Soulfly-xm7rf]

At the moment we have the possibility to travel by train or bus. with a ticket that costs 9 euros a month, for example from Munich to Hamburg.

[@tsurugi12]

Yeah, but that is just for a few months. I can't really agree with the statement of this video. Before the rise of the gas Prices it wasn't necessarily cheaper to go by train than by car. Hell, I even sometimes rented a car and paid the expensive extra miles to get somewhere. And when I had just one person who was driving with me, I paid a significant amount less, than I would have to pay for the Deutsche Bahn. Also the frequency of transportation (bus and trains) for more "rural" areas is so low and still expensive that it's not really usable. From my experiences

[@nothisistoni]

@@tsurugi12 okay, so the fact that some people are dependent on a car is true, so it's not about that. But even with pretty high ticket prices I'd argue it can still be cheaper. Let's say you finance a car. You've got insurance. You've got inspections. You've got gas. You've got taxes. You've got to fix it sometimes. It adds up. For me living in a big city for example public transport is wayyyy cheaper than owning a car and driving around. So in the end it really depends on the use case and since those Videos tall a lot about cities and urban areas those statements make sense

[@marcelx174]

"We have a lot of empty land" So lets cover it with concrete 😂😂😂

[@juliushauck3981]

The problem with all the parking lots is, in my opinion, that an insanely large area of soil is compacted for it, which has a negative impact on the environment. On a parking lot nothing grows, water can not seep and overall there is no nature possible. If you use less space through intellectual design and still get along well I think that is desirable.

[@robeleco1]

PLEASE, PLEASE watch the channel NOT JUST BIKES. It will show you in clear language why you are soooo wrong assuming you are on the right track.

[@terenceskill9526]

I had to laugh about the road congestions argument that came up twice in the video, as in Germany, we prefer to have our roads congested by turning half of the available space into bike lanes^^ They´re going absolutely crazy with this, at the moment.

[@johannageisel5390]

As somebody who cannot afford a car and is therefor dependent on biking, I welcome this development. The cars are actually the ones that take away all the space. I have lots of streets here where a row of cars is parked on each side and the remaining space is too narrow for a car to pass me (on by bike) by without undercutting the safety distance. Too many cars, too fat. Get rid of them and we'll all have more space.

[@nothisistoni]

Too bad that exactly this kinda developments prove to solve congestion problems. Check the "Not Just Bikes" channel, he's got a lot of videos about this topic and what the Netherlands for example to better than us

[@nothisistoni]

Not forgetting the fact that riding a bike is really difficult ans dangerous in a lot of parts of big cities. So giving people more options to go by bike can solve congestion. More people on bikes (or on public transport) means less people in cars taking up less space on the road. That's the mistake the US made: "we've got congestions, so let's add another lane to the highway" which in the end only led to more people using the car which ended up with the same problem after all. There's a reason why more and more cities in the US are building back their highways

[@terenceskill9526]

To everybody who has responded to my comment, so far: Even though there might be a snippet of the truth in all your answers, the problem at the moment is, doubtlessly, that you just can´t cut the space for the existing traffic (which IS mainly cars, talking about the available roadspace) in half and then argument like "we gotta get rid of the cars -> problem solved." That´s kinda one-sided, isn´t it? Most part of the traffic doesn´t consist of people taking a ride in their cars for fun, it´s out there for work - & delivery purposes. I´m with James - you gotta have public transportation and alternative forms of individual transportation improved, so that less people are IN NEED of going by car. What we do instead, at the moment, is worsening a more or less functionable traffic system for ecological and ideological (and, therefore, political) reasons, often enough without taking care of the reality. Countries like the Netherlands or environments like the Copenhagen area have been working on their traffic mix for decades and built up their infrastructure around this idea. It´s simply impossible to keep up to those examples within the blink of an eye. In German cities, you find yourself in a completely different situation and for my own hometown (which is Leipzig, but this also goes for Berlin and other cities), I have tosay that they´re doing this re-build with force, but in the wrong chronological order. You gotta improve public transportation FIRST to move away from heavy car traffic. What we´re having, instead, is everybody - no matter by what type of vehicle they´re getting their asses to work every day - constantly being slapped in the face with what I´ve described up there, while PT still won´t be able to carry even a split of the suggested load, at all. Appreciate all your comments, anyway ;) Let´s work together, folks! This is a giant project and what´s really disturbing is the war on the streets between drivers, riders and pedestrians.

[@osamaaru]

you defnitly need more houses. more houses too live in = more affordable = more oppertuneties in other citys and so on

[@see3655]

The problem with too many parking spaces is rain, and it's a huge deal in Europe. Soil acts like a sponge for water, able to soak up huge amounts at once before slowly releasing it again over time. Parking lots, buildings, roads, etc. are essentially sealing off the soil they're sitting on, and any rain falling onto them will have to be drained into rivers. Which can't carry all the water a heavy rainstorm may bring at once without causing devastating damage to homes and infrastructure or even taking lives. The solution to that is to try and minimize the area we seal with asphalt and concrete, especially in cities.

[@xxSydneyFox]

I've been to Florida and I found it a nightmare to walk anywhere. Although everyone has a car and drives, it's actually not cheap, even with the cheaper petrol prices in the US. Most Americans have brand new cars which they need with the amount of miles they drive, you don't want breaking down. In Europe, you can have a 10 year old car (cheap, no debt etc) and because you don't drive so far away to get to anything and everything, the car can last longer, thereby you pay less overall. The well designed public transport in Europe means convenience because whenever you need something, it's just a short walk or drive away, you save time, it's environmentally friendlier and it's good for you (if you walk). I bought a house and my very specific criteria was to be close to a supermarket so that I don't have to waste my time traveling too far when I need something lol

[@Miguel-wt3bs]

You´re a really nice guy, found your videos 3-4 days ago and cant stop binge watching :D Would love to catch one of your streams, are you still active on twitch? If so, at which times?

[@calvinvestros4489]

Great video

[@axeman3d]

I think the parking space issue is that you have massive concrete slabs sitting mostly empty most of the time. It's helped turn your towns and cities into concrete wastelands that are roasting hot, expensive to maintain and difficult to walk around. The sprawl means you MUST have a car, you can't walk anywhere and in hot areas it gets crazy warm. It also means your cities are going bust trying to maintain the massive infrastructure dedicated to your cars. Would you rather have your town filled with car parks or actual parks and you didn't need a car?

[@alistairbolden6340]

The reason your trains and buss services suck is because the housing in the USA is far to spread out. If everything were compact it would mean people could walk to places, and be in range of a train station or buss stop. It would also mean much cheaper food and better quality food. Instead of European dense shopping streets, you have massive car parks.

[@AurelAvramescu]

Regarding to gas prices, you have to take into account that in Europe people are buying cars which have a lower gas consumption. In EU the target it is 56.8 mpg for 2021 and in USA it is 44.8 mpg.

[@germaniatv1870]

10.530.000 km² Europe. 9.834.000 km² USA. - I know a guy from Chicago,Bray. He is straight from the Hood. A Girl from my town went on vacation in Chicago and met him, made a baby and thats how he ended up in my town in Germany. Yo...Chicago is crazy 😄 Pete is a very cool (black) dude. According to him ge is doing very well in Germany and he also is saying that he has a feeling that over all , Germany is much much more less racist as the USA and he didnt just mean the "Whites". He tells allot of storys so thats why im saying: Dude, Chicago is crazy 😄

[@ImperatorSomnium]

Yes....you beat us in the EU with your "insanely well designed" health care system and education system 🙃🍻

[@Catalin207]

It is obvious that Europe is based on intelligent and efficient issues at the same time. It is obvious that the price of gasoline or diesel is more expensive in Europe, the reason is obvious. The Europeans have not stolen oil from the Middle East and from wherever they can, but that is not a problem, the price is very affordable considering that in most of Europe the salaries are very good. I have traveled a lot, but I would not give Europe on any country or continent in the world, and that's because I really think that Europe is the best continent you can live on.

16:38 Paris and Amsterdam are right next to each other 😂 sure dude, sure they are. You just need to cross north east France, entire Belgium and most of Netherlands lmao

[@Illuminat-ve5ue]

The roadmap the person showed in the video of europe, is not the entire network of roads as depicted in the us map

[@jamesbutler5570]

Where i live every 6 minutes a tram or bus is comming. In the town, every 6 minutes 10 or more trams and busses are comming

[@fb55255]

The point the video was trying to make with the parking spaces is that because large areas of cities are dedicated to parking, people are forced to live outside the city. Of course there is enough land to build as many houses as you want but by living far from a city centre you are forced to constantly commute, take your car every time even for shopping. Whether if you live in the city centre you can just walk/cycle/bus to your destination as it is much closer. Therefore having more parking spaces not only incentives the use of the car but kind of forces it as well.

[@xiaolan1369]

I dare you to make a video about how well designed America is lmaO

[@JamesBray3]

Challenge accepted 😎👌🏽

[@haberdashery148]

I live in Denmark and had cars since 1987. Sold the last in the autum. I am not rich, but could still afford it: Using it to drive to work, I would get much refunded from the state. Though I really feel great without it as I now live in a walkable city and have both trains, busses and supermarkets within 5 min walk of my home. Maybe I can't save the climate, but I feel better by making my contribution. And getting back to ride a bike again getting fresh air and using my body this way is priceless for my mood and health

[@hakandelabiarritz6750]

its shocking how little americans know. europe is bigger,better planned and of course many decades ahead they started to electrified railway un 1920:s usa have still not done it. its just to accept, usa is at least 50-60 year behind europe

[@theatlas4509]

The problem isn't that america is badly designed, it's just only designed for using cars which also shows in gas prices. I mean, if you live in the middle of nowhere of course you are gonna need a car but if you live in or next to a city it should not be a necessity.

[@TrangDB9]

The parking spot problem is a big issues in Swiss towns. And usually you gotta pay and it's not cheap. But what's cheap in Switzerland? 😂

[@meryemdekiert5172]

In Germany the overall cost for a drivers license is about 3000€. And your car have to be inspected every 2 years wich costs between 105 -127€ for cars who weights up to 3,5 tons. For cars who weight more it's more expensive.

[@meryemdekiert5172]

@Nigel Mcgiver yes, most of the money is for driving school lessons. The actual driving test costs just about 150€

[@craftyclaira]

Many Europeans commute daily/weekly across borders for their normal work pattern. Paris to Brussels is just one example. Many Brits live in Spain/France and commute by cheqp airlines (costing only £30 return) or using the Eurostar channel tunnel back to their UK jobs doing a 3 or 4 day stay and returningtothe continent for the remainder. I have friends who live in France and commute to Switzerland by ferry across Lake GENEVA daily (45minutes) for the higher paid salaries (x3 or4). I mean imagine being surrounded by mountains/blue waters and sunshine everyday whilst being driven to work! Idyllic! When I lived in Northern France many colleagues would be visiting bordering countries fir weekly business meetings too. Europeans are good travellers...distances aee relatively short so often people will pop across borders for shopping trips or even a night out! This very common....I knew many Swiss students who would return to England to do a mass shop twice a year at Primark (cheap clothing store) until that is a few years later they got one over there! This was to beat exorbitant Swiss prices and make use of cheap air tickets.