Why are North American Suburbs So Bad? - with Not Just Bikes

[@sebastianhuvenaars6537]

Nice guest! Jason taught me that the childhood freedoms I enjoyed are not a global given. Being Dutch puts you in a pretty big blind spot on how much a progressive stance towards urban design can affect your health and enjoyment of live. Heading out with friends exploring the neighborhoods and countryside on our little bmx bikes is something I won't ever forget 🙂

[@tompang5296]

I visited my Dutch family for the first time last year. You guys do have it best growing up. The first thing my elderly wheel-runner uncle did was to take me on a tour of the rural countryside surrounding Rotterdam. In an alternate timeline, my childhood best friend and I wouldn't get cycling banned in our neighbourhood for zooming past people on our little bmx bikes, and instead would accompany each other on cross-city travel, building each other's friendship and independence.

[@huddledthoughts]

As a born and raised Detroiter, I started driving at 16 and I originally wanted to go into automotive design. Before owning a car, in high school, I started taking the bus, which was painfully late most of the time but it was the only way to have freedom as a teen without a car. I was orange pilled with my first trip to Amsterdam. Taking that train from Schiphol to Amsterdam Central and then hoping on the tram or a bike felt so relaxing, and really made me realize how much time and energy driving a car EVERYWHERE actually takes out of you. Currently in the DC/DMV area and I’m so in love with the Amtrak North East corridor and the DC Metro and how they connect. Unfortunately still have to drive to work during the week but I use the Metro as much as possible. Keep spreading the word. Orange pill the world.

[@PeaceToAll-sl1db]

Michigan for Trump!

[@HusseinHashi]

Oh, looking forward to listening to this podcast! Great guest, NotJustBikes!!

[@gregbillette9129]

I live in the Rosemont neighbourhood of Montreal. It was a blue collar neighbourhood when it was developed. A lot of buildings were built by these blue collar workers. It is a walkable neighbourhood because these people were not rich enough to own cars. It boggles the mind that i can only live here as a renter now. Every home is near one million in value so there is no way I could ever buy here. If I ever buy, I need to go out of the city far away and get stuck in traffic for hours. This kind of neighbourhood would never be built in this city even though people like to live here.

[@GirtonOramsay]

Same problem with trying to live in any walkable California beach town. Could only ever rent a shack. Only affordable housing is far inland in the usual suburban hell.

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

In contrast: I'm living in a village in Europe with 6000 inhabitants. One hour train ride from the center of the capital, I suppose it's still counts as the metro area in the US. We got 3 small grocery stores in walking distance, where you can still buy 97% what you need daily. We got also 2 bakeries and a butcher shop, 2 hardware store, a car mechanic, etc. Yes, if you want to by TV set or clothes, you have to drive 25-30 minutes (or take a bus of course, but it could take an hour).

[@timeslip8246]

Affordable even when you factor in gas? If I move from where I am (high rent yes, but a walkable town with access to great public transportation.) my fuel bill will go up by at least 500 bucks a month. For me the total cost would be higher if I move from where I am now. And people don't understand that

[@guillaume1973]

1M is for multiple units

[@sspoonless]

Growing up in a wealthy suburb of Houston, all my highschool friends had cars or rode a school bus. I had no car, & hated catching the bus so early, so I rode a bike -- everywhere. I'm so glad now.

[@rogerwilco2]

"This is how we've always done things" North America seems really conservative and resistant to change. One of the things the Dutch do, is try to continuously improve. Every project should be better than the last one.

[@renekuipers4563]

Yes .For me as a Dutch men.somethimes i drive an look .What.s going on ..Now i know that we are a extreem rich country .That invest in doing things better an better..

[@cmdrls212]

@@rogerwilco2 Generalized statement. America gave the world some of the greatest technological breakthroughs of the last two decades. From rockets that land themselves in reverse to the most advanced artificial intelligence in history. We're likely on the verge of the next technology revolution to match industrialization and America is at the very center. Simply put, America doesn't prioritize urbanism. But that doesn't mean America isn't constantly improving. KZbin wasn't made by the Dutch was it 😜

[@RobRoordink]

⁠​⁠@@cmdrls212 KZbin is American, but the extreme fast chips used by KZbin are most probably made on Dutch ASML machines. Daily live of ordinary people in the US seems much more influenced by commercial interest, car industries, building industry, pharmaceutical industries etc. In Europe politicians work much more for the people than for commercial interests. For instance public healthcare in Europe is organized to provide public health for all citizens. In the US it seems organized to make a few individuals and firms extremely rich. In the design and development of suburbs and the organization of transport other than people’s needs seems predominant.

[@Zzywywyw]

@@cmdrls212technology != progress. And actually. The technology Utopianism or techno progressivism ideologu in America is quite old and has showed its drawback significantly in the past twenty years. It is not a strong argument to say because Americans are at the top when it comes to inventing new technologies therefore it is not conservative. To use different argument, technological work is itself apolitical, yet conversations or progressivism are describing changes on cultural and political spectrums.

[@cmdrls212]

@@Zzywywyw all humans progress is literally technology. agriculture, industrialization, computers, the Internet and now AI. you're literally alive and able to ramble about bikes because technology 😜

[@philplasma]

Great episode, great guest, I've been following NJB for years. I was entertained to discover that him, like me, we were both keen at the youngest possible age to get our driver's license as neither of us knew better, but now both of us are keen to advance the walkable neighbourhood idea.

[@BuildNewTowns]

Same here!

[@karinturkington2455]

Great interview. I love European towns for their architecture, walkability and bikability. Canada has never felt like home to me despite my having lived here for most of my life. My parents immigrated here from Northern Ireland when I was age 7. Canada has always felt too big for me - too expansive. In Ireland the sea was just minutes away. I only stay here because my children and grandchildren are here, but I'm far from happy or content. I live in Montreal because I like getting around using my body on my bicycle - great for good weather, not so great in winter.

[@bikebudha01]

There are places in Canada by the Ocean...

[@qjtvaddict]

Be happy

[@JesterFace9]

I REALLY enjoyed this episode. This podcast has great potential for growth. Would be great to see other guests in the urbanist space. E.g. Reece from RM Transit would be a great guest.

[@rogerwilco2]

10:14 You should not just change your regulations once. You really need to keep improving and changing your regulations. What really seems to hold the USA back is how hard it is to change things once a first version of the rules has been created. This is even true of the Constitution. Things in the USA are just hard to improve.

[@JewishMusicToronto]

Ooh! This is a collaboration I'm very excited to watch.

[@NoNotThatPaul]

You mentioned Mississauga where the Bloor st redesign will turn a 4 car lanes into 3 car lanes and add bike lanes, there are signs on lawns on Bloor st that say 'save Bloor street' keep car lanes. Suburban people are Car-brained and can't fathom a city from not inside a car. Lots of big pickup trucks in driveways too.

[@user-lj4xq4hm3k]

The funny thing is if they put in way more bike lanes around the while area then those complainers would actually have less traffic to deal with. Bike lanes can handle more volume than car lanes, and if you make a city bikeable more people will choose that over driving. But no, people want to complain and stop things from ever getting better.

[@BillSmith1]

I escaped Suburbia for north Toronto, and I don't miss it one bit.

[@larrycanada2100]

I live very close to Main Street Unionville. Semi walkable community but dozens of condos are being built just south of us. Lots of retail and it’s only getting more dense. Some places are fixable.

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

I see Not Just Bikes and I automatically like.

[@aphextwin5712]

Minimum parking requirements do exist in Europe as well. I can only speak for Germany and Switzerland with certainty, but in residential areas they are usually implemented by turning front yards into driveways with single family homes or underground parking garages with multi-family homes. Though in more densely built-up areas, where buildings form continuous blocks, they are, I think, less stringent.

[@hadleyxdurmom]

I live in Oxnard California. I personally live in one of the many 50's style neighborhoods but Oxnard has made great strides to invest in walkable neighborhoods. Bike lanes, traffic circles, public transportion, higher density with shops on the bottom or near by. It is cool that you highlight this type of building and my city is already on it.

[@timk7073]

I live in an inner ring suburb (former streetcar suburb) of Cincinnati, and the non-car infrastructure is not great. But it is much better than many of the newer suburbs in our area. We have well-maintained sidewalks, a walkable small business district nearby, and a few nice parks. My kids walk or bike to school every day, which is nice. Even with this decent pedestrian infrastructure, many parents drive their kids to school (though many live only a few blocks away). Another issue is that, once you leave our little "bubble," the surrounding area is pretty hostile to cyclists/pedestrians (and is downright dangerous). We are slowly adding bike paths that connect to other bike paths in our area. As far as public transportation, the only option is Metro buses.

[@NoNotThatPaul]

You're going to love Doug Ford's concept of a plan to put another 401 under the 401

[@TriAngles3D]

As someone who is south Asian, north European and mid western American... You can not change the way things work with reason and common sense as the sense that you are instilling tends not to be common reasoning. There is a reason why things are as they are in north America. The economics and politics of yesteryear that resulted in a particular infrastructure have penetrated into the culture, identity and even the DNA of people. The qualification of one (valid) thing through the disqualification of another (valid) thing tends to be the approach to most matters in north America. But this tends to only polarize matters. Debate winners rather than informed decision makers. A recursive thing. I can not blame north Americans for viewing Europe from a north American cultural perspective. But it gets really silly when north Americans attempt to install European systems in north America without taking their own culture into account to make that change.

[@davidbee9563]

I have lived in fake London all my life. A new C---o was recently built bigger than the old one next to the 401 exit. It is around the corner on the side road. The bike path from Byron to downtown was originally a trolley line. I used to live on Baseline west of Wharncliffe. Single family homes are being replaced with med density apartment buildings on a main bus line. Most of the main services are within a short walk. Some things better but many of the old properties are being replaced giant homes on tiny lots. I am a life long cyclist who has adapted to mobile combat... However using the bike paths I can get to Western in less time than it takes to drive from Victoria Hospital near my house.

[@janeroberts1546]

Great call out for Wortley Village. The first walkable neighborhood I moved to in my 20s.

[@johnnyboyvan]

Great guest.

[@bikebudha01]

he's a moron..

[@2S7PION]

Great conversation, it's so frustrating that we keep tripling down on these poor urban design decisions.

[@BuildNewTowns]

"In the United States, car companies literally bought up public transit, and destroyed it"! I didn't know that, but doesn't surprise me!!

[@andrewkerr5296]

Because it's a lie lol

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

@@andrewkerr5296 Check what happened with the former tram capital of the world: Los Angeles. Spoiler: GM bought it and destroyed it, and replaced it with buses. Buses get stuck in the traffic, they are less efficient and GM made a huge profit.

[@andrewkerr5296]

@@NapiRockAndRoll Lol who sold it to them? GM didn't take it by force

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

@@andrewkerr5296 The private companies sold the tram network to the GM. Then GM closed the networks, making demand for buses. Capitalism at the peak.

[@andrewkerr5296]

@@NapiRockAndRoll Yea so what It was Private Property

[@Recluse336]

At least here in the US, to fix the suburbs one major issue that you would need to deal with is overriding many of the existing HOAs to allow complete structural changes to the neighborhood.

[@kennj321]

I'm in New Jersey and talking to my town reducing vehicle traffic. Its a really uphill battle. I'm boiling it down to a couple simple units that I want. first is access to supermarkets. I have 3 close by but all are fortified so there is only 2 entrances and exits that all the cars are funneled through. there is even back entrances that would be great for walking and biking but they are gated and fenced. another is a distributed group of community gardens with no space wasted for car parking, access is only via walking or bike. that way they can be closer to where people live and given high cost of land in the area its unrealistic to be able to have car parking there.

[@Floccini]

In gainesville FL, where I live, we have 2 new developments that have retail, apartments and single family homes and they get a premium for the housing there.

[@Alan-lv9rw]

I’m 62. I’ve spent my entire life in the suburbs of NYC, Chicago, and Dallas. I’ve loved every minute of it. Suburbia is heaven compared to the inner city.

[@danielkelly2210]

Eh, not really.

[@rogerwilco2]

I would really like it if some people went and dug into the reasons behind the designs, regulations and laws. Like the example you gave at the end that car lanes can never be turned into bike lanes. Where does that come from, who lobbied the major for that, how? It would also be interesting to interview city managers, city designers, traffic engineers, politicians, etc. To explain what would need to change to make changing things easier.

[@jooproos6559]

I think,as a person who lives in the Netherlands,that you have to demolish a lot off homes to make a round or squire place with shops.And not small shops,but also not to big shops.Precisely for the things to buy for a week.And not just a big Mall who can deliver anything,but smaller shops too.That don't sell the same things as the big shops.Then you get that people go from one shop to another shop and in the meantime see their neighbors.Etc.etc..

[@sevenofzach]

I would really like to understand better how gas and infrastructure is subsidized for the suburbs, wonder if they have something going into more detail on the nuts and bolts of that part

[@Nozizaki]

I'd recommend NotJustBikes' videos on Strong Towns for that

[@zachweyrauch2988]

The videos on this subject are great. The short answer, though, is that they're not. Suburbs were designed by profiteers. They already made their money. The designers and builders don't need to maintain the neighbourhoods they were allowed to build and sell. We maintain suburbs through abuse of tax revenue and procrastinating expensive issues unrelated to roads and cars.

[@sovereigndonation4217]

In short, he means the elevated costs of both infrastructure and fuel that is used by suburbanites are actually paid by people who live in cities. Fuel part is simple. Fuel in the US is very cheap, the $0.50 federal tax per gallon hasn't changed since the 80s or 90ties I think, and the revenues from this tax don't even come close to expenditures to grow and sustain the road network in the US. Now keep in mind that a good number of suburbanites will commute to the cities daily using their cars without actually paying their fair share whereas people in cities will either walk/cycle or use public transit but will pay the same amount of taxes. The story is more or less the same with infrastructure and public services, suburbanites receive the same level of public services and infrastructure for similar prices, when in reality the costs of providing these services to the suburbs are a lot more expensive, because of sprawl. Hope this helps! Edit: I've just rechecked and the federal tax is less than 20 cents per gallon, so suburbanites are even more subsidized lol

[@SuperRobertByrne]

Every time you don't need to pay a toll to use a piece of road you are enjoying everyone's tax dollars. And suburbs have a lot of road per house.

[@diametheuslambda]

The money cities can realistically take in is a function of how many people and how many businesses it has. A lot of the costs for a city are a function of distance and area; things like roads and lights and sewer pipes and patrol routes. Thus, mixed dense places make a city a lot more money. For every city people have looked at, downtowns and even ghettos make a city money, while suburbs are net negative. Then there's second order effects where suburbs generate an abnormal number of car trips because no work, social space or shop is there and because they are hard to service with transport, by intention. This generates a need for more roads, more lanes, more parking, all things that are costs and dilute the useful things in the near city making it less economically productive. Cities borrow and tax their productive businesses more to cope, making them more fragile. This model is subsidized at state and federal levels. It's a lot harder to get direct or indirect state support for an apartment compared to a house. Massive amounts of money are thrown at ever more highways constantly, while more productive transport like rail (huge volumes, high speed, low land use) or bike trails (really cheap, low maintenance) doesn't get a look in. This development pattern only makes sense for suburbs, and it routinely demolishes swathes of city. And of course fuel in the US context is kept dirt cheap due to very low taxation: Gas in Brussels costs like 135% more than Baltimore, and the difference is almost entirely tax. Energy cost for other modes of transport roughly matches.

[@EdwardM-t8p]

US American here. I don't think most US suburbs are at all fixable or redeemable due to their low density and street layout that dumps alk the traffic on the great arterial stroads. What's going to happen to them is what happened to the neighborhoods of Detroit: they're going to become blighted and abandoned, allowed to rot, and revert back to nature.

[@druxpack8531]

i don't see that at all in the Northeast...i see the suburbs having much better infrastructure than the nearby cities. the comments here are the complete opposite of what my two eyes see.

[@michaelplunkett5124]

In Chicago our suburbs are highly sought after places to live. The city, through mismanagement and crime, is only for the young and foolish. And if you do venture in you’ll fall prey to traffic camera traps. Suburban schools 10 times better than Chicago. Any young urban pioneers send their children to private schools.

[@fredbergotte]

Great analysis!

[@Jeff-1337]

If only you guys could have recorded after the premier musing about the 401 tunnel

[@bryanwilson8535]

Wow! A 🔥 Collab!! 😃

[@davidjames4915]

I suspect one of the reasons we don't pre-build rapid transit into undeveloped areas is because we're so far behind in actually building it out to what already exists. If your rapid transit line has only so far reached the suburbs of the 1980s, you've still got those of the 90s, 00s, 10s and 20s to build through before you can push it on out into yet-to-be-developed areas. Then on top of that is of course cost: if your city didn't plan for having rapid transit through all those decades, then it probably doesn't have a reserved corridor for it either (somewhat ironically, Alberta's two major cities along with Ottawa to some degree actually seem to be ahead of the larger Canadian city-regions in reserving corridors). With no reserved corridor, and unless there's a handy old railway line lying around that hasn't been converted into a path, you've got to try to hack it out of the suburban fabric somehow, which most of the time means using one of those infamous stroads - and Toronto's Eglington LRT is giving us a good indication of how much a costly pain that can be. But even when we have an available corridor, we still seem to manage to find ways to make construction prohibitively expensive. Interestingly, Ottawa currently *IS* building a line into largely undeveloped suburbia south of the city. In this case, it actually does have a reserved corridor that's part old railway line and part new reserved corridor through suburbia - and to be clear, this RoW is NOT within the confines of a road RoW; it's its own dedicated, separate RoW with minimal interference (i.e. local neighbourhood streets don't cross it). But instead of building a low cost line with grade crossings and relatively simple, easy-to-access stations, Ottawa is building that line with overpasses and elevated stations, the primary beneficiary of which (apart from the builders, of course) are drivers who will be spared having to occasionally stop for a train and wait 15" for it to pass. Also interestingly though, a number of Ottawa's developers with land immediately adjacent to these stations are determined to build classic suburban retail-pad plazas with acres of parking.

[@daveassanowicz186]

Please come visit Lehigh Acres, Florida. You will have content for years!

[@MaiAolei]

So this is what Jason looks like!

[@UzairW]

Hold on! The Not Just Bikes guy has A FACE? LOL good to see him and this interview is awesome!

[@dutchman7623]

But they sell! Well yes, they do, but if people had to pay the true costs of a plot, the size of half a football field, it would cost three times that price. And if you pay such a price, you do not put a house out of wood framing with plastic cladding and dry wall on it, but a nice decent house that's going to last generations. We do have those neighborhoods in the Netherlands as well, but only the filthy rich can effort to live there. Money is made in city centers, and dense areas, people who live there should stop the steal, and demand their tax is invested where they live, and not used as a subsidy for unsustainable subs, let them pay for the consequences!

[@halleradam]

I can confirm from the front lines of mortgage banking that underwriters and official loan guidelines make any sort of mixed use or multi unit co ownership buildings very difficult to finance. Want to get a single family house in a suburb with an HOA? Step right up, you are pre-approved!

[@user-64962]

I wish more people would put dollar values on the 'suburbs are subsidized' idea. Trying to contain expansion in places like (say) Kitchener-Waterloo has increased the prices of suburban homes by hundreds of thousands of dollars. If some people are paying that, could they really not pay for infrastructure if they were not also paying for artificial scarcity? Building costs for high-density housing are also higher (per square foot), so there's a trade-off with infrastructure costs even if the homeowner is paying both. I'm fine with the idea there's some kind of goldilocks level of density here, but I'm less convinced it's obvious you wouldn't get suburbs if you were just relying on price. Transit is (heavily) subsidized too. People don't seem to have very consistent views on subsidy being bad, and it nearly seems like hypocrisy when you see it sometimes from people who are wealthy enough to get the best of both worlds (e.g., single-family housing or townhouses in mixed-density central neighbourhoods) to complain about other people being 'subsidized' to get the same kind of housing in the places they can afford, especially because for most public services we consider some level of cross-subsidy the default. Good point about many places now having less desirable housing without any of the benefits of neighbourhood density, though.

[@NotJustBikes]

This differs wildly by province, state, and even city due to differing policies and exact numbers requires the help of the municipality. Check out StrongTowns.org though: they routinely publish exact numbers for several different regions they've worked with.

[@user-64962]

@@NotJustBikes Thanks for the link. I've seen some the Strong Towns numbers, but mostly they don't seem all that transparent to me about how they are allocating *costs* to individual neighbourhoods (vs implicitly assuming those costs scale with area). I get some of these things are tricky. But given some of the estimates on the order of a few thousand dollars a year, I still don't personally see how this would be tipping the scales for most people or adds up to 'unsustainability' vs taxes just being a little too low.

[@KevinJDildonik]

​@@user-64962Have you never met an American single detached homeowner? These people are in debt up their eyeballs. My neighborhood needs to levy a $500 fee because some homes in the neighborhood are refusing to contribute to maintain public spaces. Meaning for example, every body of water is full of mosquitoes right now. There was such outrage, the association has tried to compromise to spread the payments out over 6 months. And again, this is affecting people presently. The mosquito situation is awful. And $500 to take care of the mosquitoes is causing an absolute riot. Charging "a few thousand" for sewer and blacktop would cause literal riots. Suburban NIMBYs are something.

[@user-64962]

@@KevinJDildonik Do you understand that the US is not the whole world? I think you are misunderstanding what the current situation in Canada is, which is that 60% of new builds in the Canadian province in which 2/3 of the people this podcast (and me) live are apartments, and average houses cost a million dollars because they have been made artificially scarce. There is a totally reasonable question about whether that is a false economy just to save some infrastructure costs. Most suburbs here are also a little denser than American suburbs, so again, I just don't think it's that comparable or even that 'single-family suburbs' are meaningfully one thing.

[@walawala-fo7ds]

@@user-64962 Everything paid by taxes is subsidized. It's how society works. There is nothing wrong with it. If you want different allocations win elections.

[@jonatanwestholm]

$1 million for a house in suburbia may sound like a lot, but a 3-4 story house in a mixed use neighbourhood has a much higher value per m^2 footprint. Not to mention how many more people such a house would provide housing for.

[@thewatcher8758]

I prefer the American suburb. The quieter and more isolated the better.

[@yerrie1908]

It’s funny as a Dutchy that I had to learn from not just bikes that the bicycle thing was not always there and actually started around the time I was born

[@glennred4830]

While most problems or issues are true in the USA and parts of Canada, here in Metro Vancouver and 31+ of the connected communities, Cities, towns through the greater region; ALL is very (bike, walk, transit) mobile and accessible using bikes, transit and shopping services Transit is serving a great distance and more places with access from the BC Ferry terminals to downtown centers connected via buses at all hours. A single bus fare can allow travel for over 100 kms distance, from suburbs in the valley to the Ferry terminal on the coast. The combination of the Skytrain, Buses and a train rail service tp DT Vancouver is uniquely effective. The many many bike pathways are well marked and used all year round.

[@noseboop4354]

Enjoy throwing all the money saved from not buying a car into the highest rents in Canada, in the second most unaffordable city in the world.

[@bearcubdaycare]

Oddly, as a teenager I wasn't in a rush to get a driver's license. I walked to school most of my youth, except a few year period in which the powers that be decided that a certain road was too busy to cross.

[@bmgmusa07]

Laws, bureaucracy, tradition, history, and culture. It shapes our lives and the way things are today. So its not just a problem of political will, or financial sustainability, or ignorance of the world outside USA. It will take a lot to change the transportation system drastically.

[@thedutchhuman]

They should start working against that lobbying, cities and designers should stand up and put the PEOPLE first instead of building those horrible MEGA brick cars. If people start walking and can do a lot within walking distance, like here in Europe, I dare to bet that obesity will also decrease a lot. It all influences each other, and why make big 6 or 8 cylinders when it can also be done with a 4 cylinder that can do just as much as what an American car promises.......status. If you have a CONSTRUCTION company I CAN imagine it, but someone who buys a gigantic pickup or a mega suv and only sits in it with 2 people....that's like a pig on a stick, and then they also want to park with that brick car which might just work...oh, then the parking spaces have to be bigger....and that's how you go from one problem to another

[@michaelplunkett5124]

Suburbs of Chicago are the best communities in which to live. Great schools-compare with CPS and even CPS teachers won’t send their kids there. No crime. No speed traps, excellent city services. Walkable European cities are very nice but the whole continent is totally different from America and their experiences aren’t’t interchangeable. Our roads are so good and our public transit so bad and so expensive that no one can emulate a city like Vienna. There the Ubahn runs every 6 or 8 minutes. Why wouldn’t you take it? And it criss crosses the city. We have trains to downtown but nowhere else and no connections once you get downtown.

[@mix3k818]

Hello, new viewer here! Mike reminds me a bit of John Oliver

[@bikebudha01]

except without the humor, or accuracy...

[@sevenofzach]

​@@bikebudha01or you could not be a douche canoe?

[@christopherthomson7860]

Not just Bikes, first let me say I thoroughly enjoy your content, but there is one thing you guys have never talked about. And that is North America's LOVE of the Automobile, Muscle cars, Performance cars, Jeeps, Pick ups, like just about everything. I can see the two sides for sure, I grew up at Young and Eglington in the 80's and get it, but People LOVE their cars, I for example Cannot Wait to get in my car and Drive!.....See there is the Nugget rite there!!!!!!!! and I hope you don't take offence but, virtually no one I know, want to live in a densely populated area Like Riverdale, like no one................. for most, that's a hellscape.......I certainly don't want a neighbor that close to me ever. Most Actually even want to get the heck outta the City, be near anyone and do what they want, when thay want whenever they want with anyone telling them what to do,..... the second is where consumerism has gone........honestly no one I know would ever want to walk to shop at a local shop, and I know that's super hurtful, but even for me, they are WAY to expensive and don't have even remotely one thing I want, it's simple economics, sorry man Walmart and Costco have it NAILED...........I know that hurt's, but it's literally the truth.........I will always enjoy your thoughtful Content, PS were in Barrie, and Can't stand taking transit, like ever, any transit for that matter, would rather drive my performance car, cruise and enjoy.......again peace man

[@danielkelly2210]

No one lives in dense areas... they're too crowded.

[@tonyclemens4213]

Didn't Doug Ford say no fourplexes, one of the solutions to the missing middle.

[@MissingMiddlePodcast]

He said no to 4-plexes province-wise, but the federal government tied a bunch of infrastructure money to upzoning, and went directly to municipalities. Many in Ontario have agreed to allow them to access that money.

[@noseboop4354]

​​@@MissingMiddlePodcastFord wants to pass a law that bans municipalities from making deals directly with the federal government, like Quebec did.

[@touwenwaterman1229]

You have a Belgian licence plate in your house. I always knew you secretly can't miss our country even though you hate it 🙂

[@dimrrider9133]

Jason is Dutch now he dont hate Belgium we are brothers.

[@SianMason]

Thankfully I went to university in Victoria BC in the 1980's. Everyone I know biked to school, work,parties, shopping. Having a car was out of the question. Now I live in a suburb of vancouver, and my husband bikes downtown van 5 times a week. He takes bile lanes all the way. I can't relate to your conversation. Sounds so dismal.

[@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh]

In the US, right now there is such a hunger for new housing to get the prices of real estate down but I think even the more progressive party seems to be happy to build car dependent single family homes in non-walkable neighborhoods. Renovating old homes or bulldozing and replacing does seem either more expensive or risky from a financing point of view. Its so funny that 40 minutes down the road in Washington DC there are apartment buildings everywhere. Not here. All the rowhomes that are here are always so luxurious and expensive not for normal people..

[@itsnesee]

The suburbs of ontario are horribly depressing.

[@ReasonableRadio]

The reason ford would even bother with such a rediculous policy is because it's genuinely popular somehow... people in the gta are genuinely stupid enough to think that the traffic downtown is related to bike lanes when the gardener is under perpetual construction 😂

[@Isaac-ul8yz]

I have more faith in Canada to fix their infrastructure than the US. 😢

[@LS-Moto]

Its definitely a lot easier for Canada, because they are not populated all over the country like the US.

[@TohaBgood2]

Why?

[@LS-Moto]

@@TohaBgood2 They have a bit of a bigger political landscape, so they are more likely to have to compromise on things. The US is a two party state, not really compromising on anything. Especially the reds are absolutely unwilling to change or even just question the status quo.

[@Beautiful_Doors_of_Sweden]

Canada doesnt seem as stubborn as USA. Canada is also more like Europe.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@Beautiful_Doors_of_Sweden Lol, in what way?

[@Viennery]

After travelling all over the US and Canada and then getting the chance to visit the Netherlands, I too wish I could leave North America behind and become Dutch. People here are simply too ignorant to know any better. It’s something you actually have to experience to understand

[@gregorysouthworth783]

I do think many suburbs can be transformed into something more sustainable, but gathering the political will to do so may take some effort. In the U.S., we have areas of the country with large suburbs. I think of places like Mesa, AZ, Arlington, TX, and Aurora, CO just to name a few. While these were places technically built as traditional suburbs, they have far surpassed the "suburban" role. How do places such as these which have almost become cities in their own right become sustainable and escape the Ponzi scheme type of growth? Increase density in its building rules and regulations, or something else?

[@dazpatreg]

He really looks like Tim Robinson

[@bluband2]

As a cynical communist i say the Dutch avoided the car centric trap, due to a few good political decisions, but we are more lucky then smart to be in this position, or we should thank the protesters and not politics. The slowness and liberal capitalistic pampering stance of the government, allows for some smears on "our" nice bike infrastructure. Meet the fatbike, there is a lot to do about these vehicles, but politics is sooo slow to actually respond. Maybe when there wil be enough outcry, like with the cars in the past, politics will act. Politics here has a tendency to hear the loudest groups, not always bad but dangerous, and a overall tendency to follow the money. An examples is that companies here are allowed to sell rigged mopeds that are too fast, but people using them get a fine when caught. Also like in the US rights are not basic but something buyable, and punishments not hurting all incomes the same. All for the sake of money and personal possesion, always finally based on violence and not work. We don't live in a car dependent country but we do live in an overly glorified free market dependent country. So we are basically a moral heap of..., as in the US but still a bit milder, Buuuut with a nice bike infrastructure 🎉

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

As somebody from the former eastern block I can tell you that communism is very-very bad. It is as bad as capitalism, it just make you life hell in other ways. :D

[@ebrothen]

The Dutch were plenty car-centric in the 1960s. They managed to change course.

[@noseboop4354]

Congratulations on electing the most right wing anti-immigration government since WW2.

[@KaranBhatt-fu2gp]

I always thought that Not Just Bike was some 30 year old hippie 😂😂

[@renekuipers4563]

Regulation usa need .government power .isn.t socialism .but smart..The Dutch are the founder off capitalism .we vote for politic .not compagnys .

[@apolloxiii5574]

First thing Canadians should do is get rid of Trudeau and his cronies.

[@druxpack8531]

Grew up in the 2nd largest city in Massachusetts during the 70s and 80s...until crime and rent became too much and my parents moved us to a Suburb. My personal experience has been the complete opposite of everything in this video. In the city, i lived on the public transit schedule not my own, no green spaces unless you went to a park about a mile away, we had to deal with crime when a drug dealing family with a live in prostitute moved in above us (we lived on the first floor of a three decker) and overall, life was depressing. In the suburb, we experienced things we had never known; over an acre of a backyard to play in, almost non existent crime rates, met my wife at a summer job that i could walk to, built a house with a pool and now get to watch my kids grow up with all the things i didn't. Urban life is for people without kids, who crave to be controlled and like living in conditions that are substandard. I weep for people that live in the city.

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

This is rarely happening in Europe. Sometimes it does, but because the wealthy families did not left the city center, and the local businesses are generating way more tax, and the local businesses are also generating way more workplaces the things are under control in European cities. The police are frequently involved in similar situations. In the last years it changed a bit, especially in western Europe when the migrants are arrived from the middle east. It seems despite all the efforts they don't want to integrate to the society, and start ruining the cities.

[@ivanalexandrovichchernyshe7126]

Personally, this is why I think we should fix the suburbs rather than trying to make everything a city. Keep the white picket fences, single family homes, and large back yards; community watches and functional police; and community spaces and sense of community. But: allow coffee shops, corner stores, and other small businesses to be opened right in the middle of these single family homes. And make sure to design walking and biking paths so that you can walk and bike in as close to a straight line as possible to anything within 3 miles or so.

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

@@ivanalexandrovichchernyshe7126 Currently I'm living in a village with 6000 inhabitants. It's 50m train ride from the city center of the capital, I would say it counts as metro area in the US. But if I could I would move back to the city center. It can offer so much more that I would happily give up my family home and move to a flat in the cit center. City centers are not that ***** in Europe, they are not bulldozed for highways and parking lots. And the crime rate is acceptable. And yes, they are walkable. :) I even haven't got a car before 31, and honestly I didn't needed that at that time. :)

[@rbesfe]

There are plenty of north American cities that are nothing like what you describe. I think most of your experience can be attributed to the manufacturing drought of that time rather than something universally wrong with cities.

[@sevenofzach]

No one is saying end single family homes, large yards, etc just update the regulations to allow more diverse housing along with allowing mixed zoning. Plus stop subsidizing car only transport. IMO It's about more options not less ​@@ivanalexandrovichchernyshe7126

[@walawala-fo7ds]

uh, why listen to the guy that left? he's basically the poster of a ivory tower preacher. An ivory tower other people build and he had no part of.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

No, he's seen how it can be done better.

[@walawala-fo7ds]

@@rmyikzelf5604 so literally no use for him then. He achieved no results, so he left to live where others had done the hard work for him. And now he is preaching others to change without actually having succeeded at it himself or having any idea about the work it takes. He just quit and moved! wow. It's like those kids that inherit the parent's wealth then go preaching to poor people that the reason they are poor is because they didn't "invest" most of their income like they did with dad's money....

[@rmyikzelf5604]

@@walawala-fo7ds sure bro. Keep your mind closed, it's safer that way.

[@walawala-fo7ds]

@@rmyikzelf5604 Yeah, maybe bring a real urban activist that has actual solutions and an actual rep of enacting change. not the click bait KZbinr that moved to Amsterdam because he couldn't get anything done and pretends he's got solutions. If you had to move, your solutions failed. that simple.

[@arnodobler1096]

@walawala-fo7ds Maybe he wanted to give his kids a better life. When is something going to change in the US?

[@olanderdecastro52]

North American suburbs aren’t awful. I live in a wonderful suburban neighborhood in South Florida and it is just positively Grand. I love having my car as well as my wife having one and my 17-year-old son. We really enjoy driving. We can get to anywhere anytime within about 30 minutes, including cultural venues, fairs, offices, shopping, etc. I get it at the lifestyle isn’t for everybody, but it’s for us and millions of other people.

[@AardvarkDK]

It must be nice having other people pay for your wasteful lifestyle.

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

Soviet Microdistrict vs American suburbs

[@th5841]

A good joke, pretending to be an ignorant American…

[@arnodobler1096]

what???

[@APs_Rosary]

I think suburbs are great, especially for raising a family…

[@MAL1GNANT]

It's not all suburbs, it's current suburbs. Did you watch the video?

[@arnodobler1096]

As a European, single-family housing developments in the US look like a nightmare, especially for children and teenagers. But also for the elderly and disabled who cannot drive themselves.

[@arnodobler1096]

@@kakadorez11 rather hide

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

Millions of Americans chose to leave cities to live a better life in the suburbs. And were happy they did.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

And bankrupted the cities.

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

@@rmyikzelf5604 So people have a responsibility to live where they don't want to in the interest of abstract concepts - 'cities'? My friend, cities are not entities that have rights to be supported - they're just the sum total of whoever lives there. I see no reason why the people who live in cities today can't finance them - we did in our time, and we weren't drowning in money.

[@larrycanada2100]

North America is different than Europe, Japan or Korea. So many different cultures, religions and values. You need space to keep your sanity. We will always want single family and put up with traffic. Especially women who have to deal with aggressive and idiot behaviour a lot more than men.

[@nikhilsrl]

No it's not different. Same old ignorant excuse that's been proven wrong.

[@RafTheDude]

Forgive my indiscretion, but it almost sounds like bait. And if not it, then it almost sounds like you've been fear-mongered to hate your neighbors.

[@KeesBoons]

Hope you're prepared to pay for it as well, as there will be a moment in time that the society (you know, the people you apparently want to escape from), will stop paying for the services and infrastructure you receive.

[@NapiRockAndRoll]

I'm waiting for the moment when cities starting to increase taxes of suburban home owners to truly cover the maintenance expenses of their neighborhood. Suddenly many people will change their mind about dense housing.

[@user-64962]

@@NapiRockAndRoll And transit users can pay full fare recovery, and suburbanites can stop funding the social services made necessary by expensive housing in cities. This idea that suburbs are losing money or heavily subsidized is not really consistent with cities throwing tantrums when suburbs are their own municipalities and not paying taxes to cities. (If the suburbs were really a money pit, the added liabilities should outweigh the added tax base.) It's also not consistent with actual spending patterns between high- and low-density municipalities either. If they can actually allocate costs reliably, fine. But it might not be the results you think.