You Don’t Need to Move to Amsterdam to be Happy

We visited the Netherlands recently and had a lot of fun. It’s a cool country that lines up well with our interests in cycling and urbanism, and if you regularly watch our channel, you’d probably enjoy visiting too. But while we took home some lessons and inspiration, we did not return home completely depressed about where we live and desperate to uproot and move to the Netherlands. In this video we’re going to explain why we’re happily staying in North America instead of moving to Europe.
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References
“The deadliest states for pedestrians” (Axios): www.axios.com/2023/06/27/pede...
“How Hoboken Eliminated Traffic Deaths and What DC Can Learn” (NBC4 Washington): • How Hoboken Eliminated...
Sound Transit (Seattle) Future Service: www.soundtransit.org/sites/de...
“Exploring Bike Share Growth in Toronto” (Michael Liu & Jeff Allen, UofT School of Cities): schoolofcities.github.io/bike...
“Why All New Apartment Buildings Look Identical” (Cheddar): • Why All New Apartment ...
Parking Mandates Map (Parking Reform Network): parkingreform.org/resources/m...
“Urban Meltdown” (Clive Doucet): www.amazon.ca/Urban-Meltdown-...
“The Rise of Suburbs” (CItiesX): • The Rise of Suburbs
“1978 mob hits across the New York City area” (FOX 5 New York): • 1978 mob hits across t...
“Millennials in Motion: Changing Travel Habits of Young Americans and the Implications for Public Policy”: publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-...
“Survey: Buyers May Pay More to Live in Walkable Communities” (Realtor Magazine): www.nar.realtor/magazine/real...
“Daily Survey: Attitudes Toward Development” (YouGov): docs.cdn.yougov.com/pj671pokv...
“Fewer young, but more elderly, have driver’s license”: news.umich.edu/fewer-young-bu...
“Are Millennials Really the Generation That Bikes?”: trec.pdx.edu/blog/are-millenn...
Le Monde à bicyclette: ici.radio-canada.ca/info/vide...

[@OhTheUrbanity]

If you want to see more about progress happening in North America, with a focus on active transportation, we have two channel recommendations, Streetfilms and Active Towns: www.youtube.com/@StreetfilmsCommunity and www.youtube.com/@ActiveTowns

[@shahrokhnaqvi9613]

If Canada gets gentle density and frequent, on-time, everywhere to everywhere public transit, it will be the greatest country on earth with no close second.

[@BoBandits]

Those links don’t seem to work? There’s a bracket/Parenthesis in the address..

[@BoBandits]

www.youtube.com/@ActiveTowns

[@rumilb]

NJB fuming rn

[@shsd4130]

@@rumilb Good, let him fume. LOL

[@CityNerd]

What if I need to move to Montreal to be happy, though? WHAT THEN?!?!?!

[@hjlawrence1006]

@@tristanridley1601That’s false, you can’t speak French and be happy

[@markhemsworth2670]

Sounds good to me

[@mdhazeldine]

Don't be silly Ray. You only need to move next to a Cheesecake Factory to be happy.

[@NelsonBrown]

​@@mdhazeldineare there any Cheesecake Factories on the ground floor of a 5-over-1?

[@evezina96]

Bienvenue!

[@TheRealE.B.]

I think that a person losing hope for North America is usually based not just on the physical state of infrastructure, but also on the political dysfunction that makes even modest improvements difficult.

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

@@kookoo275Well, I’m sure they’re referring specifically to people who want to move exclusively for better urbanism. Of course there are many other reasons to leave the U.S., (Idk about Canada) even if it had excellent urbanism. (Although I find the rise of fascism to be by far the biggest concern)

[@AwesomeHairo]

Exactly

[@carstarsarstenstesenn]

Well said

[@urbanaj4472]

Vote Trump and u will get urbanism.

[@smileyp4535]

Yeah it's the politics not the fact that it would take some time to do

[@alanthefisher]

A reminder to some that moving to another country for urbanism will not fix the fact that you might just need therapy 😅 fantastic video

[@commonomics]

Yea, when I was younger I really thought geography would fix my life. Shocker, it didn’t. Leaving my family and support system only made things worse.

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

True, but moving to a country where my kind aren't at risk of being genocided by increasingly radical rightist demagogues would make me just a *bit* happier.

[@jlpack62]

Raleigh, a city that is often lamented for sprawl, has implemented zoning changes that allows missing middle housing in formerly single family zoned areas, reduced its speed limit to 25 MPH throughout its downtown, is requiring wide sidewalks for all development in the core, has implemented a bike share program and continues to expand bike infrastructure. It has put in roundabouts in key locations around the state's largest university to make the street safer for the students, residents and businesses. It is building a BRT system, built a new union train station for current and future rail requirements including connecting the HSR along the east coast northward, and it's done all of this in the last decade or so. It's built and continues to build thousands upon thousands of housing units in the city's core, and walkable communities are emerging. There is a lot of positive change happening, even in those areas that are often ignored or derided by urbanists.

[@jakegolding8388]

Wow! Austin could learn a thing or two from Raleigh!

[@alialiyev6168]

Where is this city? I must now

[@wsams]

That's great to hear. I visited the campus in Raleigh about 10 years ago and absolutely loved that city. I've always wanted to move there since.

[@jlpack62]

@@alialiyev6168 Raleigh is the capital city of North Carolina.

[@alialiyev6168]

thanks @@jlpack62

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

I recently moved back to Canada after living in the Netherlands for four years. Although I did really enjoy living there and I did learn Dutch and integrate into society, I felt that I could accomplish more as a transportation planner here in Canada than I could in the Netherlands, since Dutch transport planning is already pretty good regardless of my contribution. In Canada I know I can bring about much more significant change, since there is so many cities are currently re-learning how to think about streets and cities. I am also guilty of producing videos which only focus on the good aspects of the Netherlands, but that's because those are the things I want Canadians to learn from. There are many ways Canadian urban transport systems are actually superior to their Dutch counterparts, but sharing those hasn't been my priority, since they wouldn't provide as much for Canadians to learn from.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

By the way, Dutch is one of the easiest languages to learn as a native English speaker, especially if you also know another European language such as French or German. It's very closely related to English, so you can skip over many of the complicated grammar that others struggle with when learning Dutch, because it's basically the same as the complicated grammar in English, albeit with a different word order. The one thing that you probably will never master is grammatical gender. Like French, there is very little logic to it, so you just have to memorize the gender of most words, which will take a literal lifetime. But since gender doesn't actually affect comprehension, you can start having converstations in Dutch surprisingly quickly after you start learning the language.

[@AshleyBromiley]

That's kinda my thinking as well. I would love to move to the Netherlands, but I think my time would be better spent (and more fulfilling) if I use my knowledge to make the place I already live better. I would love to study abroad in the Netherlands and then work back in the US.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

@@AshleyBromiley I think studying/working abroad in the Netherlands for a few years then returning is a great option. That's what I did and I regret nothing.

[@arturobianco848]

Plenty of things wrong with our public transport here in the Netherlands but overall its pretty decent. Also the Netherlands isn't the shining example of innovation as some people on the net seem to think. What we do have is no shame of accepting that other might have a better idee and incorperating into our own system wich makes our overall transportation system and citys/urban centres one of the best livable places in the world. Nice thing about it the fundamentals can be applied everywhere and since you don't have to go through all the mistakes we made can be done faster and better. All it takes is the politcal will to do it and some knowledgal people who know what works and doesn't and can tailore it to the needs of that specfic place. So i wish you the best of luck and hopfully we can "steal" some of your stuff in a couple of years.

[@pendlera2959]

"There are many ways Canadian urban transport systems are actually superior to their Dutch counterparts" Could you give some examples? A lot of urbanist channels really do make North American cities seem hopeless, so I am very curious about what they're doing right.

[@jonoghue]

This video seriously needed to be made. While I'm thrilled about the rapid increase in videos on this topic on youtube, I know that being "orange-pilled" is causing a lot of depression among the viewers, myself included, about the state of most North American cities. We need this reminder that there's more to life than bike lanes and metros.

[@barryrobbins7694]

This video rightly points out that one needs to find a balance in one’s life. So find the the place that makes you happy, and spend some time to improve that place. There is no need to be “orange pilled”. If someone is getting depressed watching a sarcastic urbanist KZbin channel, they have deeper issues than bad urban planning in their area of the world. They certainly deserve sympathy though.

[@RealConstructor]

I never understood the orange pill thingie. North American cities can make bigger steps forward than Amsterdam (or any other Dutch city), so progress is more visible. That is a great thing because immediate progress is more excepted and generates more money. We make small steps forward, often for the same money that you make big steps for. A new protected bike lane in North America is significantly more visible than a much needed 1 meter wider cycle path in The Netherlands. And about the cost of public transport in the city, it is expensive in The Netherlands, but is the comparison honest? Zone tickets in North America against hour tickets in The Netherlands. Service and frequency are deteriorating in The Netherlands because of staff shortages and covid losses that still need replenished, it are semi-commercial companies after all. True, house prices are highest in Amsterdam (with the exception of the millionaires towns), but are expensive in almost the whole country.

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

Yes, because eventhough I love living in the Netherlands (and I l do love the 'orange pill ' stuff ,;) it's also a bit silly . It's not as if the whole country is filled with postcard picture quality cities . It's just as in the rest of the world .Most neighborhoods are just 'ok ' a lot are 'meh ' and some are 'Sigh'. You need to have a LOT of money AND be lucky to even find a few small rooms in a nice 17th century house at a canal .

[@jonatanwestholm]

Orange-pilling is just Phase 1

[@von1477]

the whole country is filled with postcard picture quality cities...@@spiritualanarchist8162

[@SuperNovaJinckUFO]

I've been saying this shit for years! I'm an American living in Germany, since I'm doing my degree here. There are quite a lot of people that put Germany and Europe as a whole on a pedestal for many reasons, including urbanism. And I always say "moving to Germany will not automatically make you happy". I've dealt with a lot of shit since coming here; it turns out being a foreigner anywhere is kinda hard and depressing. You really gotta be the right kind of person in order to be able to stomach this

[@nicktankard1244]

i moved to Germany from my home country 5 years ago. It was rough but mostly because of the language. But then I moved to Vancouver Canada last year and it's a bit easier but I miss good urbanism from Germany and my homecountry.

[@davo1822]

My exact experience in Montreal. I love biking and bixi but I can’t change the fact that moving to a different country is hard and there’s much more to life than biking

[@machtmann2881]

Did the same move and you're right. It's not automatic happiness, it's just switching out one set of problems for another. But if you are someone who can handle it and can actually do the move, I think you should consider it as a real option anyway. I find myself much better mentally here than in America even with all the BS this country holds. I'm glad I took a chance and even if it doesn't work out in the end, I'll know that I tried to change my life. Others will have a horrible experience but it's such a different experience each time that I can't say one way or the other how it will turn out. Unknown chance for happiness >> known unhappiness to me though.

[@gazzy9136]

Germans are some of the most rude people out there. They are literally renowned for being a bunch of dickheads lol

[@ScramJett]

Focusing on “being happy” I think is missing the point. If you’re looking for somewhere that will make you happy, then you’re going to be disappointed no matter where you go. For me, it’s not about being happy, its about having the freedom to not have to drive. It’s about reaching an age where I cannot safely drive anymore but still have a trivially easy way of getting around when I am unable to safely drive anymore. Btw, those of you saying the Netherlands is “expensive” probably don’t live in California. Talk to me when your definition of expensive is a 3 bed, 2 bath house for $2 million and a 2 bed, 1 bath “condo” for $1 million. That is roughly the cost of housing in the SF Bay Area.

[@CitiesSkyGay]

Even in Los Angeles, there's a major push by LA Metro to fast trask our public transit improvements, whether it's building new rail lines, modernizing our stations, dedicated bus lanes, and more 5 over 1s.

[@JackBalfour]

It's a nice place to get stoked by but it's still pretty piss pour on the ground. I agree the momentum is there. But not nearly like the momentum in places much further in the virtuous cycle (think Paris 5 years into Anne Hidalgos radical plan, or Amsterdam where the best bike infrastructure on earth isn't enough) , urbanism is too disconnected and incomplete in LA ATM (though that will change). but infrastructure takes time and there's so so so so much work to be done to reach a very basic level of livable design. At least in my experience, the only way to really experience any urbanism in LA is to seek it out (ie drive) or moving to one of the handful of walkable neighborhoods. In both Paris and Amsterdam you can literally see the progress and benefit immensely from the infrastructure. Both are absent in the LA that I've experienced source: OC guy who's had a fair share of LA (all driving tho because we've all done the Google maps math how much time ud waste trying to take a train anywhere except on the metro corridors)

[@nimeshinlosangeles]

And just like the point being made in the video, there's always more than one side to the story. LA just completed the K Line, but most of the stops having no housing or jobs nearby. The buses going down the Venice Blvd bus lanes come at a frequency of only every 10 minutes (why would you dedicate an entire lane to buses, only to have 6 come every hour for only 2-3 hours a day??), and all those 5 over 1s are luxury units causing displacement of lower income people in Hollywood, downtown, and Koreatown. So much is being done, but so much more needs to happen.

[@uzin0s256]

@@nimeshinlosangeles Look on the bright side at least the money isnt going into some stupid freeway widening project. Love your videos btw.

[@Kas-tle]

@@uzin0s256 well... tons of it still is comparatively. LA is pretty bottom of the barrel as someone who lives without a car here. You loose quite a bit of time just because of how spread out everything is combined with the stark lack of viable mid-range transit. Even where such infrastructure exists (e.g. Metrolink) the frequency is so poor that it's hourly during commute times and as much as two and a half hours at others. Then you have Metro's light rail projects that often play second fiddle to cars because there's never money to invest in grade separation and actually make them faster than driving... or even comparable really. There are so many transit trips in LA where 20 minutes by car is 2 hours by transit because the infrastructure is infrequent and painfully slow by design. How do you convince a normal person to put up with this? (Answer: you can't) And we still can't even get something basic like a viable connection to the airport right... having to build yet another people mover boondoggle instead of just making the "radical" decision of building an actual train to the airport. Because at the end of the day in LA spending on transit infrastructure is pretty much always second class. The political will to actually spend to do things right just isn't there and I have a hard time believing it will in my lifetime. Even compared to somewhere like the Bay Area, it is just so far. There are places in North America I definitely have hope for, but LA is not one of them in any reasonable timeframe. What's so sad about it is the red car ran basically everywhere (more track than LA metro has to this day) and we just let it all be torn up because the private company that owned the infrastructure stopped being profitable with the huge subsidization of car infrastructure. Had that system continued to exist we'd basically have right-aways for transit through the whole metro area where people actually live and the system would have likely continued to modernize and heavily encourage TOD. But whoops. LA is the epitome of "they paved paradise and built a parking lot".

[@nimeshinlosangeles]

@@uzin0s256 very true! thanks!

[@hickory654]

As somebody living in Florida, who has traveled all across Florida... It's pretty hopeless. The default image you think of when you imagine poorly designed suburban development... Outside of the tiny downtown in Jacksonville, some areas of Miami and the Palm Beaches, and maybe a sliver of Tampa... Those are the images you should be imagining. We are talking of hundreds of square miles of desolate food desert and anti-human construction backed against nearly year-round hundred-degree Fahrenheit heat. I drive an hour to work every day. The primary color of this journey is gray - in the one subtropical climate in the contiguous United States. It should be lush, but often you'll find 10-30 lane four-way road intersections. Highway, sad square one-story buildings. A dozen miles of suburban sprawl sometimes broken by a strip mall or a gas station. There are two walkable city center neighborhoods within 30 miles, and they are both boasting prices of an average of 3,000 dollars USD for rent. Two thousand dollars for a one bedroom apartment in a slum. When you speak about change, there are massive problems with the market, governance, zoning, infrastructure, the political climate. Many Republicans down here sniffed blue on the edges of urbanism and have already decided that anything Liberal is the enemy. When you whisper that it isn't so bad, you're missing a lot of the cost of urbanist living. Here, urbanism is an expensive luxury for the ultra wealthy coming down from the Northern States. I have been fighting for years to afford a house, and the one I've purchased is still double or triple what it would be in other states. It's a modest sized house, and it's five miles off from anything of real value. It's so expensive that I would not be able to afford it alone unless I made double of what I do. All of my direct neighbors are from out of state. These are the problems we need to fix. I cannot uproot my entire family and restart from the ground in my industry just to move to another state where it's less miserable. It just isn't possible. I, we, have to fix it here. It may take decades of fighting. It does feel hopeless, but that doesn't mean I'm not hopeful.

[@Kas-tle]

Florida to me seems like if they just took Orange County (California) and made it a whole state. But yeah you guys have the extra issue of conservatives (mainly the ones in power, not your average person) generally not being so friendly to any of these ideas... at least other places pay lip service to transit, but I imagine if you walked into a city council meeting spouting the ideas from a channel like this you'd be labeled a crazy or a communist :/

[@linuxman7777]

advocate for Japanese style small town-ism into your neighborhoods, advocate for some convenience stores to be opened up within the subdivisions, it would reduce car dependency immensely. You just have to temper what you expect out of life if you want to live car free, or have a walkable place nowadays.

[@Telesam]

‘Some parts of Miami’ though is putting it rather mildly in my opinion. As someone who lives here, Miami has a lot of potential, and its city core has some really great urbanism. In particular, watching all the infill develop that’s been happening in the city in just the past five years has been amazing to witness. Even in some of the suburbs such as where I live, the surprisingly impressive bus and bike networks have, despite their several flaws, allowed me to live my life (mostly) car free for years. (Sorry, but with all the negativity surrounding Florida, I thought I had to inject at least some positivity in there.)

[@stephaniefrost9720]

Honestly I feel the same way. I'm from suburban Midwest, but honestly suburban Florida is SO BAD. Like ....really bad. I want to be hopeful, but at least with Florida it's better to get out. It's hard to have hope here. When I lived in Madison, WI, I was much more hopeful since the bike infrastructure there is fantastic. Madison is far from perfect, but I felt more hopeful things would get better. Tampa, absolutely not. Florida isn't worth saving (imo)

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

Shove conservatives' rhetoric back down their own throats. Conservatives talk ONLY about THEMSELVES being victims of big unjust government. The fact that nothing could be further from the truth is irrelevant. The fact is that it is TRUE for liberals. Only leftists suffer unjustified persecution from Big Government. So SHOVE that down THEIR throats when you take a stand against Big Auto, Big Oil, Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), the status quo.

[@alfredogajardo521]

As a suggestion, I think it's possible to talk about urbanism including South America as an example. We are making efforts to be better in many aspects,including mobility and public transport. Greetings From Santiago, Chile (A city with a pretty good subway system network btw).

[@zmojofoot76]

Que envidia Santiago Chile 😣😣 but yeah Trueee and Bogotá también aunque el tráfico es horrible si tiene buen transporte público solo falta que le den un metro.

[@robertcartwright4374]

I saw RM Transit's coverage of the Santiago metro. You have an impressive system, and your city is interesting and beautiful. I hadn't realized what a blind spot I had for Chile, and South America more generally. There are some very impressive cities there!

[@amg1591]

Spent a month working in Santiago and loved it! That was the first truly big city id lived in, and first time commuting on a subway. Only a brief time, but my real intro to city life ❤ Any recommendations for channels that talk about urbanism in South America more?

[@alfredogajardo521]

@@amg1591 Awesome that you enjoy your stay in my city and I can recommend you the YT channel “mati en la ciudad” if you want know about public transport but now he lives in Germany and he make the videos in Spanish though.

[@Littleweenaman]

Every time I see videos from South America I usually see nice bike lanes it looks like things are turning around there

[@MATT-qu7pl]

It's honestly kind of fun to watch and experience a city improving itself over the past few years. It's definitely happening where I live in the twin cities, with a lot of reason for optimism that it will continue.

[@NAUM1]

Yeah I'm south of you in Des Moines and if I were to move, the Twin Cities would be my next choice. Close enough to family in Iowa, I already have friends living there. And the amount of park space would be a draw fo me. But like the reasons mentioned in the video I don't need to move.

[@Yvolve]

I agree, and fortunately, the Netherlands hasn't stopped improving either. I lived in Amsterdam for about 10 years and so much changed in that time. It was impressive to see how fast it can be done sometimes. I hope North America keeps up this pace, from experience I can tell you it is very nice to live in a city that is walkable and has good cycling infrastructure.

[@Littleweenaman]

Hell yes

[@hydromic2518]

Yes even here in Cape Town, South Africa we are seeing the government building new bike lanes and better walking and road intersection infrastructure. As well as expanding the current bus services!

[@amg1591]

Totally agree. Being part of a movement is fun, and makes you appreciate the hard-won gains from the people who came before you

[@markuserikssen]

Interesting video. It definitely puts things into perspective. As a Dutch person, I often hear people hyping about our country and Amsterdam in particular. But, as the video shows, our country is not perfect at all. We do have some serious problems here that need to be fixed. No country is perfect. I've lived abroad and each country has its challenges. Amsterdam isn't the best city for biking either, despite high rankings (which usually doesn't include smaller towns). As someone who was born and raised in a small Dutch town, I didn't really enjoy living in Amsterdam, despite all the positive aspects of it. I definitely prefer smaller cities, as they are usually more quiet and green. Here, we say thank you to the bus driver, greet strangers on the streets, we don't have traffic jams or serious pollution issues. But we do have other issues for sure. No place is perfect! We've been fighting for a fast-speed rail connection for over 70 (!!!) years. Things move slowly.

[@enjoyslearningandtravel7957]

I was walking in Amsterdam to get around as a tourist when I visited and I noticed that many people that were on moped or maybe some were motorcycles also, sometimes use the sidewalks to get around, so it’s sometimes made it dangerous for the walkers

[@chefnyc]

I live in NYC and love walkability and public transit. However I am not a fan of living with 10MM other people. I wish there was a compact city like NY but with half million people. You don’t find that in US. I guess that is my bigger complaint. As you mentioned, you can find “mini Amsterdam”s in Netherlands.

[@markuserikssen]

I forgot to add, but in The Netherlands we also measure broad prosperity (brede welvaart) for each region in the country. It shows which aspects of each region are good or not good, and what it might look like in the future. It includes many aspects like safety, pollution, services nearby, infrastructure, social cohesion, health, education, housing, etc. It turns out that many mid-sized or smaller cities and rural areas are doing better than the bigger cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague. The big cities are economically stronger, that's one of their main advantages, but most other aspects are better in smaller towns. As someone who has lived in Amsterdam and smaller towns, I can understand why it is like that. The main reason why Amsterdam's population is increasing is immigrants and expats. Dutch people actually move away from Amsterdam to smaller towns around it or even further away. Houses are much cheaper outside the city and hybrid/remote working also makes it possible to work from home.

[@markuserikssen]

@@chefnyc Interesting perspectives! There are indeed many smaller towns in The Netherlands that are similar to Amsterdam, but without the tourists, drugs, and crowdedness. Utrecht and Haarlem are very close to Amsterdam and are quite similar, but more pleasant, if you ask me.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

@@markuserikssen Utrecht, Haarlem, and Delft definitely stood out to us as the places we'd prefer to live if we did ever move to the Netherlands.

[@tymiller176]

Although some things are getting better across the board, most pedestrian-friendly cities are also expensive. Most working class people can't afford to move to Toronto, Halifax, San Franciso, Berkely, San Diego, NYC, Vancouver, Seattle, etc. Some cheaper cities are getting better, but it's slow. And we just have to watch as the expensive cities are getting better, faster.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Not to take away from the problem of housing affordability, which we talk about a lot on this channel, but places like Amsterdam and Paris aren't particularly affordable either.

[@tymiller176]

@@OhTheUrbanity Very true! As a European-American, I know European cities are facing the same issues. It's unfortunate.

[@shauncameron8390]

Thanks to people who got priced out of Toronto moving in.

[@tymiller176]

@@shauncameron8390 Oh trust me, I know!

[@mitchries6339]

Denver, CO is making great strides, and more importantly, has good plans for complete streets and future construction guidelines. They have several BRT upgrades down the pipeline for the busiest bus lines that will also act as a road diet for the dangerous stroads they run on. Additionally, they are doubling down on neighborhood bikeways, protected bike lanes, dense TOD, shared streets, and so much more. Denver is moving in the right direction!!!

[@JohnstonRobare]

Make sure to attend the community engagement meetings for the proposed changes. I recently went to one regarding new bike infrastructure on E Yale Ave and was happy to be a voice in support. There were a lot of confused folks saying we shouldn't be riding our bikes on the road anyway because it's too dangerous. And clutching their pearls about the driving lanes being narrowed from their current million feet wide. And why don't you all just go ride bikes in a park 😄

[@alexhaowenwong6122]

Kind of unfortunate Park Hill didn't get redeveloped, though.

[@StreetfilmsCommunity]

Denver! kzbin.info/www/bejne/omiZgJKAaN6Em68

[@tramse11]

I was quite impressed with Denver the past two times I went. I have family in the area so I visit quite a bit. The train to downtown from the airport is great. I saw quite a few bike lanes.

[@KevinBauman]

We lived in Denver for almost 12 years. There was progress made in that time, but it was slow. It still has a long way to go. Living in City Park, I mostly rode my bike, though that felt less safe every year, even though Denver tried to make it safer. Also, the prices were getting more expensive, but the frequency of rides was not great. In inclement weather the bus was always late. Sometimes almost an hour late, which seems impossible given the bus was supposed to arrive every 18 minutes. City Park also was too far from light rail to make daily use of it. Even getting to the airport would have required two bus lines and lots of walking, just to get to the train to the airport. We recommended that friends with a long layover in Denver take the train into town for a few hours, but the round trip cost on the train was close to $100 for the family. I love Denver, and it's way better than most cities in the U.S., but sadly the bar is set very low in this country.

[@Hawxxfan]

This channel is always so rational

[@RMProjects785]

Yeah people need to realise there's a healthy middle ground between horrible car-centric sprawl and "ban all cars, moving to the netherlands is the only hope, we live in a dystopia".

[@sammymarrco47]

I know, compared to some other ones

[@TohaBgood2]

Probably the best urbanist channel on KZbin.

[@QemeH]

@@buddy1155 Your argument works the other way around as well: It took the Netherlands only 10 years - so the US could catch up in around that time. It's not a fundamental geographical or soci-economic problem that is holding the US back - it's the political will. Or put another way: If enough people start fighting instead of "voting with their feet" (i.e. moving away) the US may turn just as quickly.

[@RMProjects785]

@@buddy1155 The Netherlands didn't completely demolish Amsterdam to make way for huge urban sprawl and car-centric development first, though. Unfortunately this is the situation we have in NA. These cities and suburbs have been built, and we have to work with that. It will be a much, much more difficult process.

[@ThisisDevaan]

The Netherlands is always the first example when people talk about urbanism, but there are many other great cities. Copenhagen, Oslo, Shenzhen, Osaka, and even places in North America like Guadalajara and Boston have good urbanism in them. If everywhere looked exactly like Amsterdam, then the world would lack certain aspects that other cities do well. Not every city needs to be as bike friendly as Amsterdam, but it is still a necessity to have bike infrastructure in the city and even the suburbs.

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

Hell yeah, Boston mentioned!

[@minecraftcuber4760]

Shenzhen!!! My favorite one!!

[@memunist5765]

Being Dutch and having recently gone to Japan. I must say that Japanese public transport much better than the Netherlands, with the exception of busses. The sidewalks were also much wider along roads than in the Netherlands, except for small roads which did not have any. Though Japanese cycling infrastructure however, was quite literally something to point and laugh at. Most of what is there would be seen from a Dutch perspective as suggestions. I could count the total amount of seperate cycle lanes on one hand. I totally get why most cyclists there choose to cycle over the sidewalk. To complete my civil duty I have to dunk on Amsterdam now. It is a very mediocre city to cycle in, the center is very dangerous, more than is normal in Dutch cities. Amsterdam's cyclists are also the most entitled kind I have seen anywhere. In no other Dutch city would you be yelled at for walking on a cycle lane. Especially if you can be avoided. From experience Rotterdam is a better city to cycle in and if Rotterdam beats you in anything urbanism related then you have a problem.

[@PantherU]

Milwaukee is getting there too. I make my 6-mile commute to work by bike. I’m lucky enough that my home and work are both close to the Oak Leaf Trail, but the city and county are expanding trails everywhere. The mixed use neighborhoods are getting built as well. We still have work to do but I’m excited for the future.

[@wsams]

Mainly on these urbanism channels like NotJustBikes. Holland is nice but I'll take PDX any day.

[@kapoioBCS]

You don’t move to Europe for the Urbanism alone.. The most important things are the work life balance, public services etc…

[@ScramJett]

This is a great point. There is more good things to European countries than just the Urbanism. I have more faith that other European countries will get closer to the Netherlands than Canada and certainly the United States (the latter of which has a political class with its head firmly planted up the rear end of the 20th century).

[@xerxesau1308]

@@kookoo275you can get that stuff in Canada

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

Not having your right to exist be stripped away by fascists.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

Lol butthurt much?

[@kapoioBCS]

@@crowmob-yo6ry lol butthurt about what

[@adori1762]

Mexico not part of north america? :c Mexico city has some great metros, and some of the biggest cities are adding more bike lanes and new metro lines. Id love to see mexico be included more in your videos. My city is going to double the lenght of km of metro available (if construction goes well) and this video does has me reconsidering maybe holding out moving away from my city to go to a city that has more established public transport.

[@nmx0014]

Mexico is always sadly ignored in these conversations about urbanism in North America. Another urbanist channel CityNerd often includes Mexico City in his lists even when comparing data proves to be difficult (since usually Canada and the US have similar measures but Mexico doesn't) so I really would recommend to watch him since the city gets brought up from time to time.

[@blackberryjam2]

I'd love to see videos on Mexico City! Might be an opportunity for you or others familiar with the area to collab with an existing urbanist channel?

[@LucasDimoveo]

I want more content exploring Mexico City

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

Mexico is usually either considered "South America" (lmao) or "Central America." Sometimes it's considered part of North America.

[@merel882]

I completely agree! I am Dutch and find the singular focus on my country in urbanist spaces unproductive. I visited your city years ago and absolutely loved it, you could make an entire urbanist channel and post for years without running out of things to talk about. So walkable, parks everywhere, there is a lake in the city :D And it was both very historic and very modern. Urbanism doesn't mean "becoming like Amsterdam", there are ways for a city to be urbanist that are more in line with local culture and history. Therefore we have to take examples from all over the world.

[@erikpl6402]

I'm Dutch and I've lived in 5 different countries over the years. I've been very puzzled by the hype surrounding Dutch infrastructure. The Netherlands, too, is predominantly car-centric and many post-war developments consist of sprawling suburbs. They're less sprawling than North-American suburbs, sure, but sprawling nonetheless. Car ownership is among the highest in Europe. Public transit really only thrives in the largest of cities (and is expensive). In smaller towns and in rural areas, public transit is often killed off by cars and (electric) bikes. Rural bus lines have low frequencies, so people prefer to drive or cycle. This then reduces ridership, which forces transit companies to reduce frequencies and so on in a downward spiral. Living in a Dutch village requires owning a car, you really can't go without one unless you enjoy being stuck in one place. Furthermore, the conservative governments of prime minister Mark Rutte (2010 to present) have consistently invested more in car infrastructure than in public transit, cutting budgets in several rounds of austerity. If anything, the Netherlands has become more car-centric over the past decade, not less. Many highways have been widened but investment in railway lines has fallen sharply. And finally; the Netherlands is currently suffering the worst housing crisis in Europe with no sign of improvement anywhere on the horizon. Prospective migrants have been forced to turn down job offers and cancel their university registration simply because they couldn't find a home. Any home. Many of these problems have been caused by the government's decision to eliminate the Ministry of Spatial Planning. It had been the driving force behind all major infrastructure and spatial planning improvements in the Netherlands for decades but, in an attempt to score some easily achievable budget cuts, the government first reduced it (in 2010) and then essentially eliminated it completely (in 2017). The effects are already being felt in the housing crisis and the country is going backwards in terms of infrastructure and urbanism development. The future looks rather grim.

[@mushroomsteve]

Your comment made me realize something else about living in the US. We cannot be stuck with the same president for more than 2 4-year terms, because of term limits set in the constitution. When you mentioned that your prime minster has been in power since 2010, it made me realize that I hadn't even considered that aspect of living in The Netherlands. There are no executive term limits there. Imagine being stuck with Trump since 2010. What a horror show that would have been.

[@catherinepeele5217]

​@@mushroomstevewhile that's true at the federal level, a lot of us are seemingly stuck with super majorities at the state level that are highly antagonistic to sensible multimodal transportation design. My state's government constantly undermines my city's efforts at implementing better infrastructure, and I would imagine that's true for many states.

[@tijllll]

I agree the Netherlands is stagnant on some topics (indeed mostly due to regressive politics) but saying stuff like "The Netherlands has the worst housing crisis in Europe" is just insular. That's not to say you're not touching on a real subject here. The dutch ideal (roughly) used to be that anyone with an average (family) income can buy a house in any city, and that people with a lower income can get public housing in any city. While that ideal was never realized fully we're now further from it than we've been in a long time. In many other European countries not just being able to live where you want has been the normal situation, even taking things into consideration that are (or perhaps were) alien to most dutch people (e.g. flat shares beyond going to college). Of course it's amazing that most Dutch people want to reverse this situation, but don't seem to have a clue how to go about this politically.

[@Conclusius68]

Thank you for reminding me of the reasons to vote against the Swamp Tories over here. I do need to mention that on the municipal level, infrastructure in the Netherlands is still improving though. Who knows what will happen if a more center left leaning coalition can be formed.

[@mushroomsteve]

@@catherinepeele5217 Vote for your state supreme court so that the maps can be challenged and hopefully thrown out. They just did that in Wisconsin, and the Republicans there are absolutely losing their marbles over it. Their supermajority is no longer safe.

[@da80]

I think there is something we should call "Amsterdam syndrome" for those who visit it for the first time and get so impressed by its bike infrastructure that they want to move there. And I am one of them.

[@ScramJett]

I think it already got beat out by “getting orange pilled.” The people here who are defending North American cities kind of forget that the “good” places are few and far between, and locked behind a very expensive paywall.

[@anxylum]

@@ScramJettVERY expensive. Anywhere I’d actually want to live is completely out of my reach.

[@spaghettiisyummy.3623]

There is a Florence Syndrome, a Paris Syndrome, and a Stockholm syndrome. Why do People name Mental things after European Cities?

[@da80]

@@spaghettiisyummy.3623 because of the Europe syndrome

[@linuxman7777]

I had Tokyo Syndrome, but for my next trip, I am exploring small town Japan.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

As a non-native Long Islander, I never thought I'd see an urbanist channel bring up Long Island as a good example, but here we are and I'm loving it. I'm glad you're showing suburbs that have taken steps to become denser, because bashing suburbanites like others do, isn't gonna lead to progress. It's just gonna lead to more division. These suburbs are still car-oriented, but that doesn't mean they've done nothing. Suffolk County has increased the frequency of their buses from every hour to every half-hour under the Reimagine Transit plan. Nassau County suburbs are denser because quite simply, they're closer to NYC and thus there's more demand and not to mention a LIRR ticket from Nassau County is cheaper than from Suffolk County. Patchogue's in Suffolk County but it's a prime example for positive change there with participating in the county's bikeshare program, nice housing next to the station, and phenomenal walkability with a lively Main Street. Hicksville's a major station on the LIRR in Nassau County, and Hicksville literally became a thing because its founder wanted to build a LIRR station and a depot for a Heinz cucumber plant. The LIRR is the main reason Long Island has grown so much in population, and communities with LIRR stations should take advantage of convenience by building denser housing, whether it's apartments or multi-family homes next to stations instead of opposing new housing.

[@linuxman7777]

I really don't think density really matters that much for walkablity, as much as mixed use does. That is one thing I can respect about dollar general as they often build stores in rural areas where people formerly had to drive 20mi to walmart, now they can walk or cycle to a smaller store now.

[@moosesandmeese969]

@@linuxman7777 Density definitely matters for walkability, mixed use is just another form of density. You can't have 90% of homes be single family homes on large plots of land and expect the town to be walkable, it's just not physically possible. Your town is inevitably going to sprawl beyond what's a reasonable walking distance.

[@linuxman7777]

@@moosesandmeese969 it is walkable if you put a store there, that people can walk to. If people can get their daily needs by walking, the place is walkable, period. The problem is that walmart killed off so many of our great walkable towns across America.

[@moosesandmeese969]

@@linuxman7777 Firstly, no a store needs enough people to make it financially feasible. Second, you can blame Walmart all you want but local and state governments deliberately forced out local businesses by implemented zoning ordinances that favored companies like Walmart, on top of outright demolishing their historic cities so that rich white people could park their cars on top of it. It is just as much the fault of your own people

[@taranjk1]

I live in the uk and literally every city that’s not London is deeply forgotten in modern infrastructure, councils just don’t do anything.😢 I don’t see any future for the city I live in if they keep on letting everything become ugly, recently they just approved another multi story parking lot in the centre of town, but not a single secure bike rack to stop people’s bikes being stolen immediately. They have a cheap bus service that gets mostly everywhere but I would drastically prefer to cycle into town and not pay a fare. Bournemouth and the area used to be beautiful (apparently) but every where you go in the main centre it’s just bricks with no trees flowers or endearing features that makes it’s high street nice.

[@vanderquast]

Allmost all the cities in The Netherlands are better to live in than Amsterdam 😂 Greetings from The Netherlands 🇳🇱

[@JamarfromAfar]

my reasons for deciding to move to europe, while quality urban design is a huge part of that, its not the only reason. Working in a skilled healthcare position, I don't make enough to afford rent, the basics of living, and the transportation I need to get to work. I've been forced to live at home for the last few years and its creating a strain with my family. when a studio apartment costs 1500 a month, and I have to have a car payment, its just not realistic. I want to move out so I can try and normalize my relationship with my family, but I want an ocean between us because if it doesn't work out, I want it to be easier to, well, cut them out of my life.\

[@hansonel]

This. Also American and am working towards moving out of the US to the EU for reasons beyond city design and bike lanes. Namely mass/ school shootings, healthcare costs and work culture & work/life balance are making me look at Nordic countries vs Spain (The Netherlands has a worsening housing crisis which made me cross it off my list despite binge watching Not Just Bikes videos last year). There's others reasons I'm leaving the US and I realize fully nowhere on Earth is perfect and that Europe isn't some magical perfect utopia but for some it's a better "fit".

[@prashnaveetprasad8339]

@@hansonel exactly, portland is crazy where I live and car ownership is still high here and less Portlanders bike US dose has its crime problem, its in other state unfortunately

[@ThizzyMan]

Dont go to the Netherlands if affordable housing is anywhere on your list. The housing crisis is insane. You could make an entire channel just off of bashing the housing planning in the Netherlands.

[@JamarfromAfar]

@@ThizzyMan I know that Amsterdam has extremely high housing prices. I have other options in the Netherlands but also living car free is something worth higher housing prices as I would have more money I’d be willing to spend over there for that.

[@ThizzyMan]

@@JamarfromAfar Amsterdam isnt the only place with high prices. Its literally unaffordable there. You will be easily paying 1 Million Euro or more in cities like Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, etc for a decent place. In the suburbs prices go down to 650-900k depending on how close you want to live to a city. Outside of the randstad it is cheaper but you will still need at least 600k to not have any trouble and you probably need 50k extra for overbidding, which is standard these days. Rent is around 1300-2100 euros per month which means that youll need to earn atleast more than like 2500 netto a month to viably move and live here. Besides, if you want to live car free, you need to live in the big cities. It isnt viable to live without a car when you get more than 10km away from the city. Even most places outside the main city have bad or irregular transport. Aalsmeer for example is only around 15km from Amsterdam yet everybody there still needs a car since busses are not viable as a main transport. If you have the money more power to you but Im just warning you that if you arent financially set or have a good paying job then it will be very very difficult.

[@aerob1033]

Aside from cycling infrastructure, I'd also like to add that it's very difficult to find affordable family-sized housing in neighborhoods with good urbanism in North America. Fire codes in most places discourage developers from building new units larger than 2 bedrooms, and missing middle housing is still forbidden in most places (although it's getting better), which makes existing units with 3+ bedrooms scarce and expensive. This pushes families out to the largely car-dependent suburbs, which in turn makes urban neighborhoods feel like they're not "family-friendly". I think the simple fact that he has kids is a lot of the reason for NJB's controversial attitude that has prompted so much commentary online.

[@ScramJett]

Yes, thank you for this great point. There are so few walkable places or places with good transit (by North American standards), and most of the ones that do exist are locked behind a very expensive paywall.

[@moosesandmeese969]

Yeah like god forbid he would want to live somewhere that's safe for his children.

[@shuttsteven]

The criticism comes from the fact he said that North America is a lost cause for everyone and dogmatically refuses to consider the progress happening in the US. The more sober and balanced "there's tradeoffs everywhere and some things are worth fighting for" from this channel will work for significantly more people. @@moosesandmeese969

[@emilie4058]

@@moosesandmeese969 He explicitly said that it's hopeless to try to do anything in the US, though, and that anyone who was serious about wanting change should just leave. He didn't limit to his needs and desires-he also said that anyone watching his videos with any hope for change in the US or most of Canada was misguided.

[@moosesandmeese969]

@@emilie4058 Where's your source for that because I dont think that's what he said. Either way he'd be right, *especially* if you have children. Traffic violence is the deadliest killer in the US, twice as deadly as its gun violence. I suspect the same is true for Canada. There is never going to be any meaningful change for the majority of people for at least 30 years. I wish I was wrong about that but unfortunately it's true. The political hurdles are simply virtually impossible to over come.

[@llmagei]

I completely agree, there are even parts of Houston where they are very urbanist oriented and the city has plans improve the cycling/public transit in those areas that are wanting it

[@stateraskate11231]

I live in Houston and unfortunately the heat makes it far difficult to walk or bike far.

[@nickaguirre2196]

Yeah Midtown downtown and the Heights are pretty decent but still much more work to be done.

[@szurketaltos2693]

@@stateraskate11231 yeah tbh I think heat and humidity is a lot worse for cycling than a cold winter is

[@discocycle]

@@stateraskate11231 a lot of that is due to urban heat sink! too much asphalt and not enough trees makes a city MUCH hotter.

[@a_boat93]

@@discocycle true but even despite that it’s frickin hot in Texas. I live in the western part of the state and we’re grateful we have a dry heat compared to the eastern/gulf side of the state. So I agree with the above comment when they say sometimes it’s just too hot. Even where I live….it may be a dry heat but 110* is 110* idc if it’s dry or not it’s still not comfortable to bike in the summer at least if you’re trying to commute or do errands by bike 😂

[@KevinBauman]

Cycling and urbanism are not the only reasons to move to Amsterdam, or other cities with good cycling. There's also healthcare and education. Those are also sorely lacking in the U.S. Unfortunately, I can't move to Canada either.

[@dullvoicereader]

I feel like you're calling me out specifically. My wife and I got to visit Utrecht last April, and I've been learning Dutch online since. I had always known about the better urbanism elsewhere, but somehow visiting Europe made it so much more crushing to experience the disparity. As I sit in traffic in Orange County, CA, it feels like the major changes in the myriad laws that affect positive urbanism are just too far away from being realized in my lifetime. That crushing disparity and the feeling of hopelessness that things would ever change have really got me trying to decide whether or not I value my rich friend and family relationships more than I value my commute or trips to the grocery store.

[@samranda]

visiting the netherlands honestly made me so happy for the things i have in my city!! it made me feel comfortable for the relationship i have with cars here-taking the car for trips i can't reasonably use other modes of transport, and biking or walking for the ones i can. it made me grateful that i can bike around my neighborhood and around the park near my house. it made me grateful that i have access to a small but rapidly developing downtown. i am happy here! i love the attitude that this channel has.

[@zonderafspraak]

Thank you for cutting through the bias in what has become a contentious topic and making such a level-headed video. I lived car-free in the Netherlands for two years, and I really enjoyed it, for the most part, but I missed my family and my friends. I now own and live in the home I grew up in, and am the fifth generation of my family to do so. It has a big grassy yard for my kids to play in, and huge garden for me to grow a metric ton of tomatoes. I'm close to my family and friends, and while I wouldn't say my neighborhood is walkable compared to Nederland, it's better than most in the US. So yeah, there's more to life than urbanism.

[@julianvergeldedios]

I agree with the overall point of the video, but there’s an odd blind spot in how you define North America. Mexico is definitely part of North America and in parts has very admirable urbanism that could be showcased, particularly Mexico City.

[@ScramJett]

Hah, yes, it’s kind of amazing how often Mexico gets left out of discussions about “North America.” I’ve been guilty of that too. Imperial indoctrination perhaps? Or maybe we’re all just thick.

[@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920]

@@ScramJett The distinctions between North South and Central America are rather arbitrary and most ppl mentally classify Mexico as part of Central America because it shares a lot more with that region culturally. There aren't any lines on the ground when you fly over the American continent.

[@davidfouts1939]

I moved to Austin, Texas in part to be a part of its urbanization. There are amazing urbanist groups here doing wonderful things to improve the city. It's deeply car-centric and unaffordable but the city recognizes that those are problems and is tackling them head-on. Being a part of a movement to make my city better is at least as thrilling as being in a city that's already pretty good.

[@alexhaowenwong6122]

Austin benefits from high job density, which is even more powerful than residential density in driving ridership. And Project Connect wisely runs down surface streets rather than along freeways or freight corridors.

[@uzin0s256]

Sincce whe? Project connect hasnt even started. Austin is litterally expanding its city for the subrubs. Not only that but they litterally spend so much money trying to expand roads in the suburbs. Thank god i left for San francisco in 2021

[@machtmann2881]

@@uzin0s256 Anything positive the city tries to do in terms of urbanism is going to get steamrolled by the state, especially with new laws passed that override the city's decisions to govern itself.

[@davidfouts1939]

It's true that urban sprawl is ongoing, but there are also a lot of positive things happening. It started with the mobility bonds in 2016 (maybe earlier) that dedicated money to ped and bike infrastructure. They passed another in 2020. In terms of housing, city council just passed resolutions to cut minimum lot sizes in half, reduce compatibility from over 400 ft to 100 (maybe less), end parking mandates, and boost its density bonus program. The city is currently working on cutting red tape for missing middle infill housing. I understand how frustrating things are in the city. What's happening now won't make a visible difference for quite some time, but we are making great strides to prepare for a more urbanist future. If you're in Austin and want to get involved, let me know.@@uzin0s256

[@doom-generation4109]

Could you please share the names (or some links) to these urbanist groups in Austin? I've been to the city a couple of times and would love to know!

[@evilgenius919]

NEW JERSEY IS MENTIONED! I know it's less of a secret now but NJ really has a lot going for it in terms of walkable communities with transit access. Also making a lot of improvements for cycling with plans for a 9 mile greenway.

[@Programmer7]

One thing that shocked me about New Jersey was learning that they have a statewide transit authority that actually connects the whole state with rail and commuter buses, intra and intercity, even across state lines. My state has nothing like that; we do highways at the state level and have two distant metro areas, each with an independent agency, that provides urban and--barely--suburban transit access within their own regional border only.

[@mushroomsteve]

I grew up in South Jersey, and when I finally left in the 1990's, it had a lot to do with just how awful South Jersey was for urbanism. I hope it has gotten better now with towns like Haddonfield moving in a more urbanist direction. But I have many a memory of dealing with the 6-hour long "rush hour", navigating Marlton Circle, route 70, route 130, etc. at any time within 2 hours of 9 AM and 5 PM being an absolute nightmare.

[@averagejoe6031]

Thanks Alan Fisher for blowing New Jersey’s and Philadelphia’s cover

[@salakast]

​@@mushroomsteveThe River Line is pretty great and goes along the Delaware, but the local highways like 130 are still pretty congested.

[@evilgenius919]

@@mushroomsteve on the good side NJT is working on the Glassboro-Camden line to bring LRT like the river line to the region. Hopefully that signals future service extensions to Vineland and Millville. And I think they want to turn a rail trail back into actual rail somewhere in Monmouth county but I'd have to check where it actually is and what it's connecting to. So all that should spur more TOD That said I don't really know how many towns that weren't already walkable are trending in that direction. I don't know as much about goings on.

[@eostyrwinn5018]

As an American who desperately wants to move to another country (possibly including Canada) for many reason other than the urbanism, I really appreciate this video because periodic things like this help me enjoy where I live more right now. I grew up in classic American suburbia in the northeast. After I finished college, I moved to the Seattle area. I am constantly frustrated by traffic, poor bike infrastructure, and unreliable public transit, but it is still so much better than what I grew up knowing. Despite this I walk or bike to most things day to day. I use my car maybe once or twice a week and whenever I go back to visit my parents, I am reminded of just how stranded you are without a car in the suburbs. I may not like that I still need to own a car, but I love that I live somewhere where I can not only take public transit to the airport, but they are currently expanding that transit network to make it easier to do that

[@linuxman7777]

I moved from a sprawlburb of Pittsburgh to a walkable town outside of Pittsburgh and I can tell you it hasn't made me any happier, I like the biking and all that, and how much easier life is here, much less work, but the surrounding environment is kinda ugly, while my sprawlburb was near the mountains and quite beautiful. Even though it is walkable, I still have to take a car to do most of my major shopping because the stores that you can walk to are much more expensive, so few people shop at them.

[@randomname5696]

Avoid canada trudeau is so bad

[@annalisemeder8894]

Living in Seoul as an English teacher ~10 years ago was the thing that turned me on to urbanism- that and having travelled around Europe after college. I'm glad to see these idea are spreading, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to move to Europe (or back to Korea) for a whole variety of reasons. The financial reality is that living in a quality urban space in North America is prohibitively expensive, even though I make good money for my low COL city. Hopefully, cities are catching on to the fact that people WANT these types of places, and when there are more to choose from, it might get easier. I just hope that happens while I'm still young enough to enjoy it.

[@linuxman7777]

There is the Rust Belt and Small Town America you know, many of which are quite walkable. Just like how not everyone in Korea lives in Seoul or not everyone in Japan lives in Tokyo. If you actually wanted walkability you would be looking at the affordable small cities across the continents.

[@Zedprice]

I really appreciate you pointing out how those big European plazas aren't actually particularly pedestrian friendly. Yes, there aren't cars in them, but the lack of shade, particularly trees, makes them barren and inhospitable.

[@Richard24Blair]

I'm actually in the middle of uprooting my life and moving... from New Brunswick to Halifax. It's a city with good bones, with aspects moving in the right direction - no urbanist paradise, but as a compromise between all the things important to me, a place I can comfortably live.

[@albatrose1001]

Halifax is great. It’s the up and coming city. They are doing a lot of redevelopments, converting streets into pedestrian streets, and upgrading their waterfront, so many cranes in halifax now, it’s definitely a boom town now

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

2:33 "You don't need to save the whole continent to find a place you enjoy living." MOST IMPORTANT POINT EVER!

[@janAlekantuwa]

I moved to Boston from rural Maine explicitly because Boston is a walkable European-style city that is only a 3 hour train ride from where I grew up. I love it here (even if the summers are a little hot for my liking, and the winters aren’t snowy enough), and I'm glad the city is continuing to become more urbanist

[@luneta3081]

This channel and city beautiful are the most pragmatic, and at times, optimistic channels when it comes to urbanism. That's how you get people to get on board with the message

[@TheTroyc1982]

Don't forget RM transit

[@doom-generation4109]

@@TheTroyc1982 Eh, I had to give up on RM Transit. Reece knows his stuff, no doubt about that, but I just can't with how often he says "at the same time". That might sound silly, but I once counted seven instances of it in one video. Drove me nuts, ahah.

[@ScramJett]

I watch City Beautiful more often than this channel, but I wouldn’t call them pragmatic. More like optimistic to the point of wishful thinking or hopium. Dave of City Beautiful knows his stuff and has a lot of great ideas for how NA cities can improve. But, that’s all they are, ideas. There has been no shortage of those over the last few decades. The one area there has been a clear shortage of is political leadership and political will. No politician is willing to go against their donors and implementing most of his ideas would anger political donors to the point that they’d be out of a job. At least, that’s how most politicians see it. Everyone here who fails to realize where things stand have the same attitude of the hopeless baseball fan that thinks “it’s the bottom of the ninth and we’re down by 10 runs, but we can still win this!!!”

[@wavestoronto6]

I'm originally from Toronto, and I've got to admit, I have a real soft spot for this place. But you know what? Lately, I've been pondering the idea of giving Montreal a shot, all in the name of cost of living. Right now, I'm dishing out $1800 for an 800 sqft spot in midtown Toronto, and let me tell you, that's a pretty darn good deal considering the city's standards. But here's the kicker - when I run the numbers, Montreal seems like a friendlier option for my wallet. Now, Montreal - I'm quite familiar with the city. I make pretty frequent visits, and I always have an awesome time. I'm a big fan of neighbourhoods like Griffintown, Little Burgundy, Mile End, and Plateau. Oh, and let's not forget about the Montreal metro system - I absolutely love getting around on it. But, truth be told, there's a part of me that leans towards Toronto. It's got its own flair, especially with the variety of cool, walkable neighbourhoods. You see, Toronto's neighbourhoods are like deep dives into food and culture, and there's just so much more to explore in Toronto's neighbourhoods, considering how massive the city is. The fact that these neighbourhoods are intricately connected by streetcar lines and subways is a major plus for me. That being said, I've got to give Montreal some credit for its old-school cost of living vibe that feels like a throwback to 2015 - it's pretty darn impressive! Even though Toronto is where I call home, Montreal's affordability and that charming metro system are definitely enticing. Now, here's where things get interesting - my French skills are nothing to write home about. I work as a mixing/mastering engineer, which gives me the flexibility to work from pretty much anywhere. But I'd be fibbing if I said I'm not a bit anxious about diving into French and navigating that learning curve. So, if any of you have cracked the code on learning French, maybe through government programs or just by hanging out with locals, I'd be all ears for your advice! And oh, before anyone says "you can get away with English in Montreal," please don't. My experience in Montreal has taught me that they tolerate English to a certain degree, but if you truly want to be part of the city, French is a must. And you know what? That's okay. That's actually why I'm excited about the prospect of being a part of the culture.

[@madisonwolfe777]

yeah but nearly all the nice places are too expensive for most people due to the lack of affordable housing 😭😭😭

[@Name-bg9jd]

It's already very expensive to move across the atlantic tbf

[@madisonwolfe777]

@@Name-bg9jd yeah, moving across the Atlantic is really expensive, but once you do you have WAY more variety in terms of where you'll be able to live, with MUCH MUCH more affordable options

[@Name-bg9jd]

@@madisonwolfe777 certainly can't argue with that

[@linuxman7777]

Nice places are always expensive to live, walkable or not. You can find plenty of ugly, dangerous, small or boring walkable places all across North America for affordable prices.

[@oliv3691]

I definitely needed this video! Helps give me hope and want to try to find ways to support urbanism where I live. I will say, my friends and I were expressing frustration yesterday about the Seattle light rail expansion, which we all want so badly. Some of the lines aren’t scheduled to be completed till 2038! Just feels a little bit too late for those of us that might not even be living here then. But it is definitely still great, and we all support any improvement in public transit and bike infrastructure. A new bike lane went in this summer that finally allows my husband to be able to bike to work safely. There is progress being made!

[@StreetfilmsCommunity]

I think we all did.

[@ScramJett]

I’m a pragmatist and never found it particularly useful or constructive to get high on hopium.

[@cristoforestman]

There is progress. And with current speed, how fast NA will reach NL level? NL took several decades to reverse their 'light' car centric mistakes, how many decades will most NA need to reverse it's full blown car centric design? Are ppl willing to wait those decades? Or maybe they should move in Montreal, one of the most expensive cities in NA and worldwide

[@KrishnaAdettiwar]

I share the same sentiment about Seattle! I want those new Stride busses and the light rail to Bellevue and Redmond to open so badly. Just a couple more years and we’ll get there. As for the Ballard and West Seattle expansions…it’s just a depressingly long way away 😅😭

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

On top of the fact European cities aren't perfect either, Europeans tend to ignore Asian urbanism. Asian cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shenzhen, Seoul, and even Pyongyang have phenomenal urbanism. If a city like Pyongyang can have a bikeshare program, a trolleybus system with over 35 miles in length, a tram system with 33 miles in length, AND two subway lines, then other cities have zero excuses. Japanese high-speed rail is effective because of the way Japanese cities are lined up, similar to the East Coast of the US. Thus, it should motivate Americans on the East Coast to keep pushing for HSR improvements to better unify the coast. While of course, North American transit systems are by no means perfect, they're still doing something and addressing the needs of its citizens and that's the point! East Side Access/Grand Central Madison in NYC for example, as long as it took and as overbudget as it was, the project helps so many people who live and work on the east side of Manhattan, and it's about time that this crucial connection exists. Things are getting better, and it's very obvious that there are many people focused on making NA's built environment get better too. It's not happening overnight, we have to remember the classic phrase that Rome wasn't built in a day!

[@aarons3008]

Really appreciate the great perspective your channel brings to the urbanist community

[@paku_dc]

Très bonne analyse. J'aime votre pragmatisme et optimisme. Continuez le bon travail.

[@YoungThos]

à qui la rue? à nous la rue! ✊

[@deldarel]

People who say America is doomed are stuck in the 2010's. The difference between before the epidemic and after are night and dawn. So much is done, so much needs to be done, but it's in the right direction.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

??? I am American and a hardcore optimist, Green Party voter/member, pro-war for Green causes. But what does any of this have to do with the 2010s and the pandemic?

[@linuxman7777]

At the local level, yes. America is becoming more Kuntslerist or Mahronist than Richard Floridaist in terms of its urbanism though.

[@toastsandwich2862]

As someone who moved to the netherlands for one year from Canada, I can assure you that urbanism has a much smaller role in your happiness than you think. I miss Canada A LOT, even though the urbanism here is so much better. I didn't move here specifically for the urban design, I actually came here on a working holiday visa with the intention to learn Dutch (I have dutch heritage) and just BE in Europe for a year. But it has been rough. Finding housing is a real nightmare. Huge waitlist for getting into Dutch language course. A very tough job market unless you want to work in a factory or restaurant for low pay. Another thing that I miss about Toronto and Montréal is they are large, métropolitan cities. Utrecht is much smaller, and its public transit system is nowhere near as good as those two cities despite European transit being overall better than Canada's. Other things that you might not consider if you only focus on urbanism: cultural events. I have seen countless bands and comedians performing in Montréal and Toronto that I would have killed to see. They are almost certainly not coming to the Netherlands. Anyway, my advice to those planning to move: If you have a comfortable job and affordable appartement in your current city, think hard before giving that up and moving somewhere else temporarily. It will be hard to replicate what you have again when you eventually move back home, as there is a hosuing and affordable rent crisis in Canada too.

[@machtmann2881]

I moved to Europe from the U.S. and can definitely vouch that specific circumstances override urbanist considerations. It's really hard to do that on your own and being on a visa vs being a natural citizen definitely makes things harder. Granted, I've been around for more than a year and I've got a stable job with a field in demand and already taking language classes. I'm in a stable enough position to stay longer but that doesn't mean that's true for everyone. Also, I had...other considerations coming from the U.S. Namely that I feel like I can't trust Americans so much anymore. Many of them would rather be in a conspiracy-fueled alternate reality than put on a mask for me (not all, but too many). I get seen more as an American in Europe than in America itself (being non-white). And everyone I knew in my last American city left so my roots were weak enough for me to leave too. But that's my situation. I'd like to see how long I can stay out here or if it's long-term for me but the chances of doing that get much smaller as you get older so I had to think about that and make a decision.

[@toastsandwich2862]

@@machtmann2881 Which country did you move to? I am considering going to France now instead because I already speak French and I think it will open up more job opportunities for me.

[@Friend-]

I think how much of a difference urbanism makes to your happiness will vary widely from person to person. I live in a smaller city in the US, can't drive because of chronic anxiety, and crossing stroads as a pedestrian causes me so much stress, not to mention the effect walking past a sea of crumbling parking lots has on my mood, that I rarely leave my house unless I have to. Bad urbanism is absolutely miserable for someone like me.

[@simonliao5303]

I moved from Toronto to Amsterdam this year for an internship. I feel very relatable to this comment. Before I moved, boy I was hyped and thought I was gonna live my best life ever. After living here for a few months, damn I miss Canada I need to move back. Things that keep me away from the Netherlands: 1. Housing crisis 2. The language - I paid hundreds of Euro to take Dutch courses, even though I could get by just speaking English. But there's always a barrier between you and your Dutch coworkers, or when you try to make local friends. 3. Cost of living - food, grocery, eating out are a lot more expansive than Canada. 4. Biking - not for everyone. Especially in Amsterdam, biking is a race. 5. Multiculturalism

[@Sushi227]

@@tristanridley1601 Honestly if Toronto could sort out its housing crisis it wouldn't be in a bad place. The recent decision by city council to allow duplexes on all residential zoning is a step in the right direction and hopefully just the start of zoning reform that could play a big role in fixing this mess.

[@50gramsof]

But healthcare, childcare, paid leave, not just urbanism

[@Kay77798]

Bingo!

[@linuxman7777]

If you have a decent degree those things are usually better for you in the US. Except maybe the paid leave it is better than Japan and Korea but not as good as western Europe. I am fortune to have a job that gives me 1mo vacation and I have top tier health insurance but I know others aren't as fortunate

[@roz9318]

Looks like you live in one of the few bastions of walkability in NA! Looks like an awesome place to live, but sadly for us stuck in endless suburbia, other countries may offer the same level of urbanism to Montreal but actually be cheaper as its more common

[@linuxman7777]

I watched a video about a guy who lives in small town Kansas that is walkable. The thing that killed walkability was big box stores undercutting the walkable stores.

[@Efebur]

"They have loud cars" - plays a sound of motorbikes

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

This video is why you are more respected than NotJustBikes, and deserve to be.

[@beththomas6514]

There are more reasons why many people in the US are considering a move abroad beyond car-free transportation infrastructure, including the lack of an effective federal low-income housing program and high homelessness, lack of common sense gun regulations, and health care unaffordability.

[@jphjphjph]

Boom. Thank you. Everyone around me thinks I'm crazy for my disdain of the US. I think they're crazy if they don't have disdain of the US. The entire country is based on selfishness and individualism, with Republicans leading that front, but closely followed by the Democrats. I hate the "me me me" attitude.

[@xuyouj1e]

"You don't need to live in Europe to be happy..." Currently lives in one of the best cities for biking/walking in NA lol...

[@isoscelestriangle]

Yeah, a city they're not from and they moved to. So what the difference here? They're all up on their high horse because they moved to Montréal instead of Amsterdam? Seems deeply hypocritical to me.

[@Kizarat]

They didn't leave the country / North America is the point.

[@LeafHuntress]

@@Kizarat But they did spend an awful lot of money that most people simply don't have. The option they used is simply not feasible for many & this video positively reeks of that privilege.

[@xuyouj1e]

@@Kizarat The logic they used is "Don't give up on an area, instead work to make it better." There are two main issues here. 1. This only works if you're in a decent area (Montreal) to begin with. If they were stuck in a car dependent suburb in the middle of Arkansas will they be consistent in their position? Not everyone is privileged enough to be living in Montreal vs a car dependent suburb 2. If the poster above you is right that they moved to Montreal, then they too are not consistent. I don't see that big a difference between moving from one area A to area B in a country vs moving from country A to country B. The logic is still the same, you move from an area that is less urbanized to an area that is more urbanized.

[@Kizarat]

@@LeafHuntress I think not owning a car helps them save a lot of money that then goes towards making their life in Montreal possible. Car ownership isn't cheap and costs the average person 10 to 15 thousand dollars per year. That's a lot of money that could be put to use in other ways such as living in more dense urban areas.

[@genosreviews252]

As somebody who lives in Houston, I can confirm that our zoning laws are pretty good, there are so many new townhome & super narrow lot developments going up, especially in areas like The Heights. Now all we need is better public transit, more bike infrastructure, and a demolition of I-10.

[@aidanmccarthy9249]

I live in fake London. Our rapid transit keeps getting nerfed. The original plan was light rail, which got changed to BRT. Then the city cut out the north and west routes because of alluential NIMBYs. And a few months ago, they nerfed the east route by putting the bus lane next to the curb and adding more stops. They're building a protected bike lane kind of close to my job, but it doesn't connect to any other bike lanes. Not even the painted bicycle gutters on a street less than 500m away. Maybe things will change for the better but I'm almost 40. I don't want to wait until my 60s or 70s to live in a city that's not a car centric shithole. I also hate the work culture here.

[@kibbee890]

You don't have to move across the pond though. Plenty of variety even if you stick to southern Ontario. If you are so pessimistic, then there are less extreme moves you could make to change your life for the better.

[@aidanmccarthy9249]

@@kibbee890 it's not just that though. I hate the work culture here too. Moving to a more walkable city in Ontario isn't going to fix that.

[@linuxman7777]

Why focusing so much on transit? your city would make more progress if they focused on actually making the city walkable through introducing more mixed use into neighborhoods. I live in a town where I don't need to drive, and I take transit 3x a year, and I drive only 1x a month to see my brother 2 counties over. I can do everything I need with walking, that is what your town should focus on.

[@mcsomeone2681]

I don't think people have realized how big of an achievement Hoboken has accomplished, even urbansist European cities can't say that.

[@krazyknux8746]

A very much needed video. Love the positivity, optimism, and also realism in this video (and many others). I'm excited to see what NA has in store over the next few decades, as I've started seeing improvements popping up in US all over (even in very car-centric areas).

[@trishsaunders4296]

Am appreciating how easy Montreal is to get around while on holiday here. You've made lots of good relatable points. Thank you for your work 😊

[@neckenwiler]

How do you do it? How do you two so consistently churn out such good content? Whatever the answer, kudos! And thank you!

[@Ralore]

I originally came over here after I sent an email to not just bikes about his doomer attitude. He reply to me if I wanted people that hadn't give up come here but his channel wasn't the right place. Honestly this has become my favorite urbanist channel please continue being a light to the space

[@Arjay404]

His channel is pretty much why Amsterdam/The Netherlands is great and why you should want to live there. This channel is more about how you improve where you live, specifically North America. Neither is wrong, NJB can be seen like a tourism department, trying to convince you to take your vacation there, whereas this is like a local group telling you why you should spend your vacation locally. His whole channel was about, "we decided we didn't want to raise our children in NA and this is why we choose Amsterdam.". They had already made the decision to not want to be in NA. So if you are going to his channel to find out IF you should move somewhere else/Amsterdam you have skipped a step.

[@MateusChristopher]

Wow that honesty is great 😂 but yeh give up 🙃

[@TrickiVicBB71]

This channel and City Beautiful are much more friendly to present to anti-car people or people with little knowledge of urban planning. NJB is all "Amsterdam is the greatest place and fuck North America and everyone that drives a car."

[@pdfbanana]

i'm a lil doubtful of the phrasing lol i feel like he didn't say he'd "given up." that said, there's a large handful of cities that have the potential for rapid, moderate positive change. but sadly so many more mid-sized cities where the situation is much more entrenched and will require several decades at minimum

[@jakegolding8388]

Not Just Bikes' anger is grating. I can't watch his videos anymore.

[@stevenyee2236]

Thank you for making this. It really put things into perspective and gives us hope in our own cities. "The grass is always greener on the other side." But we ought to appreciate what we have and the progress were making.

[@DanielBrotherston]

I think the idea that "urbanism isn't your whole life" is a bit mistaken. Yes, even for us, the hobby of studying urbanism is only a small portion of our lives, and for most people they do not even think of it at all. But the REASON we study is because it is pervasive. Virtually everything we do every day is affected by the places we live. How we live, where we go, how we feel doing it. I feel this, I used to be so angry because every time I went out (driving or biking) I encountered conflict and antagonism on the roads. This is reflected in mental health problems, anger, divorce, etc. correlating with time spent driving. So yeah, it's not something you focus on 100% of the time, but even when we aren't focused on it, it affects us. I'm not saying that it is everything in life, but it affects us more than we know. As for urbanism in Canada, you're right, there are many great places in Canada. They're all in Montreal :P...nah, but seriously, there are. The problem *I* had with Canada was that, sure, I could live downtown in a dense area, but even then, it was still overrun with cars. But most of my experience with this was Toronto...which is probably especially bad. If I'd lived in other Canadian cities, maybe I wouldn't have moved. But given that I was already planning on moving, uprooting my whole social life, etc. I figured I should go for broke, not have to move again.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

Well stated!

[@Michael154]

You can't judge a city or even a larger country based on one week spent in the most overtouristed cities in the Netherlands. Many Dutch people don't visit Amsterdam, Den Haag, or Rotterdam unless they have family or work in the city. There are many smaller cities, including Delft, Leiden, Utrecht, etc. that you should have visited, plus the towns here are very charming, all providing in many cases better bike infrastructure than in parts of Amsterdam. People give up on North America, the U.S. in particular, for reasons well beyond urban infrastructure. I moved to the Netherlands after living in cities across the U.S., including some cited on your list, after events including a mass shooting at my local grocery store, work/life balance (here I can work 32 hours, as do many people), college tuition/student debt (here you can go to university for a few thousand dollars a year), lack of affordable healthcare, lack of vacation and parental leave, and lack of places to visit with a quick train ride.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We spent two weeks there and in addition to The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, we also visited Delft, Utrecht, and Haarlem.

[@LeafHuntress]

@@OhTheUrbanity In other words, besides Utrecht you haven't even been outside of the provinces of Holland & including Utrecht, you haven't been outside the Randstad. The only proper cities on that list are Delft & Utrecht. Why haven't you been to Groningen, Zwolle, Enschede, Apeldoorn or Nijmegen? What was that horrid noise? Did Morocco win or loose the worldcup, because that was NOT normal! BTW while you provide links in the description, you didn't reference the UN rapport there. I did find it, but it's difficult to navigate. The easier webbased navigation is which you seem to have drawn the figures from, but in neither case was it clear what those figures actually meant. If, as the UN declares, a migrant is born in one country & lives in another, then it's no wonder more people migrated from NL to CA than the other way. The Dutch government was almost kicking people out of the country in the late 40s & 50s. Many went to Canada, the liberators. So a Dutch boy born in 1963 & taken by his parents to Canada will still count towards that figure. What was it with the picture of the boarded up home? For those who live in the Netherlands, but have Urbex as a hobby, life is difficult. Because of the high prices for land, buildings aren't abandoned but pretty quickly redeveloped. Unlike say the UK where a shop can shut in 2002 & the property remains vacant to this day. So old drafty homes get torn down & news ones get built. Of course they're boarded up, do you _want_ glass everywhere? Don't mistake my meaning though, i agree with people NOT moving to the Netherlands, they simply wouldn't all fit & THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH! ;-) I WANT people to stay where they are & fight for better infra. Because if others update theirs, we can kick our developers on their smug behinds & tell them to make things even better. But just as people raving about Amsterdam isn't fair.(it really is an annoying city) The extra negativity isn't fair either. Take that car noise for example, in NA the noise is pretty much constant, often even at night if you have the bad luck to be near some motorways. Yet that short clip of Rotterdam is a couple of people behaving badly. See the difference? Even in the most car-centric city in the Netherlands you have to behave badly to create the same amount of noise that's "normal" in many places in NA. Same with the motorways. Yes of course there are motorways, otherwise the country wouldn't have been voted best country to drive in 7 times in a row. But housing etc. is shielded from those motorways, to keep (noise)pollution down. No, the Netherlands isn't perfect. But claiming that there are nice walkeable neighbourhoods in the US, when those are basically outside of most people's price range isn't helping either. Please do better, i know you can.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

@LeafHuntress Have you visited more than six Canadian cities? How many Dutch cities and provinces do we need to visit before we can decide that, while it's a cool country that we're happy to feature on this channel, we don't feel a massive urge to move and we don't think it's productive or healthy for North American urbanism to be fixated on moving to Europe? Are Groningen, Zwolle, Enschede, Apeldoorn, and Nijmegen going to blow our mind and radically change our perspective? To focus on your point about car noise, it's not actually constant in North America. Most people don't live on arterial roads or highways. Our place in Ottawa was fairly noisy, but places we've lived in Toronto and Montreal haven't been. (Granted, some places like Toronto definitely have a problem concentrating new condo developments near busier roads.) Finally, highway noise barriers aren't unique to the Netherlands.

[@delftfietser]

It's always easy to hate a person, society, or culture who's faults are not the same as one's own.

[@Michael154]

​@@OhTheUrbanity Oh, great, two weeks. So you are now experts after spending approximately 2 days per city without ever leaving the Randstad? That would be the equivalent of visiting Montreal and Ontario then making assumptions about the rest of Canada. Did you even travel to villages and rural areas? No, because you were rushed on your North American 2-week holiday to visit the most touristed areas. Next time, be a little less arrogant and actually live in a place before shedding light on your perceived negatives of a place. I spent my weekend cycling in the Netherlands. I rode through hundreds of cycling highways and rarely did I share a road with a car. I went between two major cities. I also enjoyed the quietness of the Dutch countryside, saw a few castles, windmills, lakes, the sea, and a meal at a cafe all by bike. Let me know once I can bike on cycling highways across North America and I'll consider visiting again.

[@NoirMorter]

This is one of the best videos on this channel I have seen! I agree completely that looking to other countries as examples can be very useful to test what works in your home city!

[@EverAfterHL]

I moved to a very very walkable, very very bike friendly city with great public transport and regional trains, Strasbourg, France a couple of years ago for multiple reasons and even if that city was almost perfect from an urbanistic perspective, I still found myself not feeling at home there because my family and friends were far, I didn't like what I was studying and because I didn't resonate with the particular culture there, and that really showed me that I need more than walkability and great public transit to be happy somewhere. I spent three great years in Strasbourg and I'm happy I went and got inspired to see what cities in my country could look like one day, and discovered a beautiful city and region of France, but ultimately It was still not made for me.

[@linuxman7777]

You can be happy in Suburbia too, when I moved from Suburbia to a walkable town, it made no difference in my happiness.

[@TheMarshallCraft]

Your videos always give me hope. While I am soon moving to Vienna for a job, I know in my heart that I will come back to Seattle to fight for better urbanism, community building, and connection in our incredible city. Thank you for your hopeful message!

[@Ladadadada]

Pretty much all of this applies to Australia too. We also have the same low density suburban sprawl and a car-centric mindset as North America, and like North America it is not universal. There are already good walkable parts of towns and cities and density, walkability, public transport and bikeability are all improving in many places. These improvements take time and it can feel like nothing at all has been achieved until the bike lanes form a coherent network, even after many years of effort. So finding, joining and supporting your local urbanists and cycling advocates is always worthwhile.

[@discocycle]

Nobody is better poised to help improve and grow your home city/region/country than YOU! Home is never perfect. My home (Providence, Rhode Island, USA) certainly is not perfect. but things have improved a lot. I have gotten involved in local politics and am proud to be part of the change.

[@jgreenie3778]

Hey another Rhode Islander on the internet! I love when this happens!

[@discocycle]

@@jgreenie3778 There are hundreds of thousands of us!

[@EingefrorenesEisen]

Boston is an often-mentioned-Barely-discussed city that I'd like to see get more attention. I moved here two years ago, and for anyone thinking about moving to another country, I'd recommend trying out here, first. There's a ton of cultures and languages I hear spoken every day at work, wages are good, it's a very tolerant city, and there's lots of bike lanes, pedestrian streets, multi-family homes, busses that come frequently, and a train system (granted, it needs some updating, but there have been recent line extensions that make me hopeful that the maintenence will happen soon). The most difficult thing is finding affordable housing, but I think that's a problem everywhere. We're also one of the oldest US cities, and, for good or bad, it's intertwined with our history. If you want a place where you can advocate for change, experience something better, but also feel at home and make a difference in your home country (as opposed to leaving and "ignoring" the problem) I recommend Boston a lot!

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We visited Boston a few years ago and liked it a lot. We'd talk about it more but we don't have footage.

[@starzing9043]

This video is just what I needed to feel a little better about where I live. It gives me a little hope about the progress that we’ve made ❤

[@SoybeanAK]

Bravo to you guys, for another reality check, comprehensive review, and breath of fresh air in one! Far better that people work on improving where it makes sense to live, than give up and go live where things are slightly better out of doom and spite!

[@kjh23gk]

But... Patrick and Jasmine did "go live where things are slightly better". They moved to Montreal. Are you saying they should have stayed where they were originally and worked to make it better? If it's OK for them to give up on their hometown to move to Montreal why isn't it OK for someone to give up on their hometown to move to Amsterdam? Seems like a double standard.

[@SoybeanAK]

@@kjh23gk Fair point. But, the focus of the video wasn't "Don't do A" or "Do B" but "A is tempting, here's why B is also a good and respectable option." Lots of work to be done, and it won't happen if everyone gives up. But they can still work on improving all of Quebec from Montreal! Also there's a considerable difference between leaving one's hometown for a bigger city nearby with more amenities, and abandoning a continent to start a whole new life based on how urbanism works in another place. I think it really comes down to attitude, and theirs seems to be one of "Let's work on things and keep a view of moderation" rather than being spiteful doomers fleeing a whole civilization. Just my view.

[@kjh23gk]

@@SoybeanAK I do think it's great that Patrick and Jasmine are working towards improving Canadian towns/cities, but I think it's a little unfair of them to criticise Jason for not doing so (which lets face it this video is all about). He frequently admits he's neither a town planner nor an activist, and he started his channel with the sole purpose of explaining to people why he chose the Netherlands as a place to raise his family ("There are a lot of reasons why Dutch cities are so great; it's not just bikes...").

[@SoybeanAK]

@@kjh23gk Honestly, I didn't see it as direct criticism. More an explanation of how/why one can/should work for change instead of being a doomer. And Jason very much is an activist, same as P&J except with much more reach. (They're not town planners either, btw.) He's been on NPR and other venues, he constantly rails on about how things should be. And regardless why he started NJB, it mostly serves now to rile up the base by bashing people living their lives, without changing anyone's mind.

[@kjh23gk]

@@SoybeanAK Oh come on, we all know who it's aimed at. I would have more respect if they had just been more honest, like Reece (RMTransit) was when he made the "Why GO Transit is Actually Great" video (that was how I discovered his wonderful channel). And Jason has also been critical of The Netherlands: the trains are worse than in Switzerland and the way they handle snow is worse than Finland (well, Oulu). I think many people want Jason to be a leader in the "urbanist movement" but I get the impression he just doesn't have that desire. He's really good at making videos but his life is elsewhere. I think that's why P&J's obvious animosity just comes across as weird. They shouldn't be 'enemies'.

[@alistairlee7604]

What's interesting is that I moved to Washington DC for college and stayed and fell in love with DC. The urban landscape is quite interesting and most of DC area is a 15 min neighborhood. Like the video mentioned, it has decent transportation, walkable streets, and healthy urban landscape. It could be built better and DC sure could use some foreign lessons in mitigating costs but no city is incapable of making mistakes. Amsterdam may be nice but no one knows about the cost of living issues and housing prices. Same as in Seoul, where my folks live who feel the social pressure and rising living costs. Personally, my female relatives feel more safe when they come to DC because they would not be sexually harassed by men on the subway, which is a problem over there. However, DC is walkable and livable as any other city in the world as at least 700k live in DC alone. Plus, the suburbs are quite urban as well from Arlington to Silver Spring to Bethesda to Alexandria or most of where the metro stations at. Hell, even the Europeans who live and/or study/work say that DC is something quite nice for urbanism.

[@m.l.861]

Lol damn. Here I am watching this video in my NYC apartment literally 200 steps from a subway stop, 15-minute walk from one of the largest public parks in the city, 5-minute bike ride from a car-free avenue, in the middle of one of the densest and most vibrant, interesting, and diverse neighborhoods in Queens with a fairly lucrative, fulfilling, and flexible job--and I still needed convincing that I don't need to move to the Netherlands 😅 Thanks for the reminder that things may not be "perfect," but what we have here isn't too shabby at all.

[@TheKnightXavier]

Fantastic video! Such a balanced, thoughtful approach to urban design and urbanism! Thanks!

[@Pedro-A-88]

Thank you so much for this video! I am a foreigner living in Germany for 10 years now, so I know the realities of living in „urbanism heaven Europe“ pretty well. The circle jerk around Amsterdam always seemed bonkers to me, considering all the issues around the city, good mobility isn’t the be all and end all of urbanism. This video was a breath of fresh air for me!

[@nicktankard1244]

I lived in Berlin for 3 years and I think it's a better city than Amsterdam lol. I actually don't like Amsterdamn that much. There are nicer cities in the Netherlands.

[@ChristiaanHW]

@@nicktankard1244 if you would ask the Dutch people a big majority would tell you that Amsterdam is one of the worst cities in the Netherlands. a few of the downsides of Amsterdam: full of cars, not enough space for bikes/pedestrians in the old center (because you can't make the space between the buildings bigger without destroying the (17th century) buildings), to loud (cars, mopeds (what we call scooters), etc), crowded and lots and lots of tourists (that to often don't know how to behave in a normal way). as for cycling Amsterdam is one of the worst places in the Netherlands for that to. but unfortunately Amsterdam is (one of the few/) only place from the Netherlands international people know. so when talking about the Netherlands to someone from outside the country we are limited to mentioning Amsterdam because that's the only Dutch city most have heard of.

[@Who-vt9oh]

So, I don't need to move to Amsterdam but I do need to move. Nothing pisses me off more than someone who doesn't live in my city telling me it's not that bad. It's bad enough. So, basically what you're saying is you don't care because it doesn't effect you. Great video.

[@AnimilesYT]

Thank you for being honest and realistic about the Netherlands!

[@josephcarreon2341]

This video almost seems like a direct response to the NotJustBikes drama. lol Aside from that, I guess I never realized how bike infrastructure is the missing middle equivalent for transportation in certain cities. I think it's because most of North America doesn't have any reliable alternatives to the car. Yes, there are many cities with trains and walkability, but most North Americans won't ever see that in their lifetime still as those cities are still so few. I love how this channel is optimistic, but it's easy to be optimistic when you're already located in one of the best cities for non car-centric infrastructure. This feels like a slap in the face to the many that cannot move to these cities.

[@sammymarrco47]

There was drama ?

[@EricaGamet]

What drama with NJB?

[@salakast]

@@sammymarrco47 NJB came out to say that his videos weren't meant to induce change in North America, but to get people to move elsewhere that serves their interests better. He also said it's useless to try to fight for better cities in North America because you'd be fighting a losing fight every time. Essentially, his videos are aimed towards expats.

[@littlekirby6]

To add on, NJB is also extremely cynical about the future of urbanism in the US or Canada. He specifically said his goal is to help people to move to the Netherlands, despite a lack of videos about helping people to move to the Netherlands lol

[@salakast]

@@tristanridley1601 If that's what he actually said then I would've been fine with it, but he very blatantly encouraged his followers to stop fighting for change in North America and move elsewhere that better serves their interests.

[@andysalcedo1067]

While some cities here and there are improving, the anti-urban and selfish attitudes towards progressive change don't seem to go away. I've been continuously contemplating if North America is worth staying in mainly since I don't want to feel like I'm living in a bubble and that my feelings towards wanting to bike to work aren't seen as "impossible" or "not realistic." It's not the existing bike infrastructure that leads me to believe North America is hopeless, it's the consistent attitude of other Americans telling me they don't care and that they will fight any improvement towards sustainability. I would love to fight for the city I want to live in, but if the residents don't want it, want much else is there to do?

[@emu5088]

Such a refreshing take. Loved this video, thank you!

[@abdullahrizwan592]

Man that was a really good and inspiring video! Great job guys!

[@Lildizzle420]

I live in Phoenix where its taking 30 years to buy shade for bus stops and they practically just banned rail in our county, plus they're still not reforming housing. I'm 100% ready to move, people tell me "WhY DoNt YoU MoVE?" open them borders and I'm gone.

[@mushroomsteve]

Even if you moved to Tucson or Flagstaff, you'd be way better off. You don't even have to leave Arizona to get to more urbanist locations.

[@ash3972]

the urbanist locations being where onlt the rich people live@@mushroomsteve

[@Lildizzle420]

@@mushroomsteve Tempe is considered the most urbanist and transit friendly in the state but the bar is really, really low

[@mushroomsteve]

@@Lildizzle420 That's right, Tempe is really cool. But it is surrounded by urban sprawl, so that is the major downside.

[@Lildizzle420]

@@mushroomsteve I rarely leave city borders lmao that's kind of a flex but also reallly depressing

[@Whatsername868]

Lol, down here stuck in Florida drowning in the opposite of the positivity of this video :(

[@geokyle6646]

I just got back from my first trip to Netherlands yesterday (it was great). Thanks for making this video. I love my life in San Francisco, and I'm still happy to live here for a long time.

[@lateve6243]

Thank you very much for acknowledging Le Monde à Bicyclette's Claire and Bob. They did an immense service to Montrealers by kick-starting our city's bicycle culture.

[@alexullrich5694]

I think this is my favorite urbanism video to date (and I’ve seen a LOT of urbanism videos)

[@TheRealAThom]

I really appreciate this video.

[@peterdodds2694]

Came here just after NJB new video about never returning to Canada hahaha

[@Galactico42]

I feel a lot of folks new to urbanism as a concept are pretty young and are overwhelmed by their "convert zeal." For those of us who have been paying attention to these issues for 20 years or more, we've been able to witness a lot of progress and see the positive trajectory.

[@linuxman7777]

I agree, you can usually tell an early convert as someone who defends urban planning. While those of us who have been around a while know the truth that Urban Planning got us into this mess, and that economic forces are exacerbating it, and the solution isn't more planning.

[@nightpups5835]

The problem is finding walkability, transit in affordable locals

[@fauzirahman3285]

As someone growing up in Asia watching the David Letterman show when I was young, I always saw New York City as the ideal American city with its tall buildings and its subway networks, so that's been my benchmark even though most of the USA doesn't look like it. It was later on that I realised Houston was a whole different meme.

[@codehawkfalcon]

What a wonderful video. Thank you!

[@DJSMedicate]

I have watched a lot of NJB. Probably every single video he uploaded and some interviews with him. I never got the idea that I HAD to move to Amsterdam from his videos. He obviously talks a lot about that place because it was his personal circumstances, just like your channel talks a lot about Montreal. And for me that palce was my local city, just away from the suburbs that i grew up in (and hated), to a place more welcoming to people. He got me interested in the urbanism of my city that I would've never cared about before.

[@cinnanyan]

NJB made a post on the website "Bluesky" where he said that people should give up on North America and leave, and when challenged on this, he said the point of his channel was to convince people to move to Europe. Obviously his videos have been very high quality, but he has been coming off as bitter even on those lately.

[@prashnaveetprasad8339]

@@cinnanyan well USA is a country to make profit out of almost everything, not sure about canada but houses in canada are 2x higher than US. Also Dutch has bike culture in them or using bike as utility while US sees bicycle has for very very poor people . US still has its crime problem and gun violence Its more of about the mentality and views.

[@cinnanyan]

@@prashnaveetprasad8339 there are good reasons why people move to a different country, but many people would rather make their community better

[@soundscape26]

@@cinnanyan There was always a layer of bitterness and smugness to him, it's nothing new even though it might be more prevalent now.

[@mateoquiles3469]

Thank you for always being actually rational. Refreshing to see a video that genuinely describes the complexity of the situation.

[@gabmaye]

I love your channel! You guys have such a great perspective.

[@jnsnj1]

I literally did the opposite. I went from one part of the US that was already becoming more multimodal to one that needs help. Fight the fight.

[@alexlight1157]

My tiny city in Canada is building about 4km of bikelanes through the downtown core :)

[@eahiv]

God bless you guys, what a wonderful video that is filling me with hope and encouraging me to not give up and reconnect with my passion for urbanism. I work for a State department of transportation and we build highways almost exclusively for cars, I have become quite cynical and hopeless, but this video is filling me with hope.

[@Littleweenaman]

its just taking small steps and spreading awareness that's what its all about