What Happened When They Banned Cars
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Streets like Market Street in San Francisco, State Street in Madison, and 14th Street in New York City all banned cars and saw their streets become quieter and more efficient for all other modes.
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Resource on this topic:
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This video on Nebula:
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European Tram Streets video on Nebula:
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Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Standard Studios.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Video of Madison, WI via TierZoo
Video of New York via Dave Wiskus
Black Lives Matter.
What's your favorite car-free street?
I would say Faneuil Hall or Church street in Burlington, Vermont.
Cars were banned from the historical center of São Paulo decades ago. It doesn’t even have buses or trams, it’s just a network of pedestrian streets. Somewhat remarkable for a city so dependent on cars and plagued by bad traffic, with a nice subway, but too small for the size of the city (23 million). In Europe this is very common in small historical towns, but not so much in big ones.
would you make a video about Land Value Tax and it's effects on urban areas?
Kensington Market neighbourhood in Toronto isn't car free but it's close and a very interesting neighbourhood
You should make a video on urban cosmopolitanism and/or the role that urban economics/economic geography plays in cities and the wider national/international economy. There's a reason why there are a select few urban economic powerhouses around the world that are responsible for a disproportionate amount of GDP output in the world and why some cities have a disproportionate cultural influence.
I wish people wouldn't be so opposed to car free centres.
sadly cars are very deeply embedded in american culture
I love cars
@@stueyphone Because of codes, loans and lobbyists
So do I. Can't stand driving and they are so dang dangerius.
@@filipzatka8212 ??
I remember biking on Market Street many times during rush hour before they removed cars and added better bike lanes it was so hectic and scary. I live a couple blocks off of Market Street now and whenever I walk down there its so much easier to get around there without a car now.
And crossing it before recently was hell
Me too. Just moved to West Soma. Two blocks from Market Street
Nice to bicycle into the city from Oakland I would take the ferry, I quickly learned to stay with the "pack" for more safety when leaving the ferry building. The most dangerous thing about bicycling down market Street are the pedestrians stepping off the sidewalk 5ft in front of you. (That and the trolley tracks near 2nd Street)
Sadly, I can see them electing some insane R-thug who will rip out all the improvements, make it trucks rolling coal only, and ban the cyclists soon :(
@@ashishdev5151 I used to work in SoMa. How is the area doing? Best wishes with the move :)
I work in the financial district in San Francisco and I remember the city transiting banning cars on Market street. One day it was busy with traffic. The next day, it became very quiet on Market. Only buses and bikes were on the streets. It was strange at first but I gotten use to it. I feel safer walking across Market now without heavy traffic. So I think San Francisco made a good move.
Now if only it wasn't a massive dumpster-fire of a city. Baby steps I suppose.
@@jeffmorris5802 wanna hear of a dumpster fire city? Check out Miami lol. Elephants have killed this state
@@jeffmorris5802 austerity combined with late stage capitalism and entrenched neoliberal city council members = bad
@zorblin7190 "Late stage capitalism" has to be the most hilarious outing of people who have no clue what economics is. How many people flee the US for Venezuela every year?
@@St4rTr3v1Ut10n how many people in the US die every year from lack of healthcare?
I live in a small provincial capital in the northwest of Spain, Pontevedra, Galicia. More than 20 years ago, a left-wing nationalist party won the mayoral elections. Its star proposal was to pedestrianize the city. At first, it had a lot of opposition from merchants to the neighbors themselves, who did not understand that it was possible to live without cars. Nowadays merchants are the greatest defenders of pedestrianization, the city has become a shopping place for all the surrounding areas, where before there were cars, now there are terraces, parks, people walking, the city has won some awards, the number of tourists has increased, perhaps more than would be advisable. The mayor remains the same and when people come from outside, they always ask how such a conservative city has a nationalist and left-wing mayor... the answer is people walking on the street, children playing in the squares, there are no cars, There is no noise and the only fumes there are in autumn and winter from the chestnut roasting stands.
You can show people thousands of these examples and they will still go "but that will NEVER work in [city]"
@@dpsdps01 indeed, it's really sad. The mayors that oppose these ideas (who don't want to invest in pedestrianization either becasue they themselves don't believe it or want more money to invest into their own pockets or their own ego boost projects) successfully convince people that pedestrianization means that no one will be able to own and ride their own cars and that they will be forced to take public transportation among homeless people. And sadly, many people buy this.
Yeah, better air quality because they use Uighur children to do house heating I suppose, or do you freeze in winter? No noise because your tramways use magnetic levitation, or because 10 billions of public money have been invested into a subway? To make pedestrian areas in the downtown is OK, especially in a small town. To ban the private cars from all urban area just destroys the city in short term. Leftist administrations always mean a flow of illegal immigration, crime, drug dealing, city invaded by cyclist lanes making impossible to park, business bankrupt, prices in the downtown skyrocket, population collapes, city collapse. Of course, leftist propaganda says the contrary. And that women have penises. And some believe it.
Hey, might move to spain when I’m older, what’s it like there? Are the people there nice?
People are the same everywhere in the world, only circumstances change. If you live in a city designed for pedestrians, where social life takes place in the streets and squares, people will relate differently than if you live in a city built for cars and where to go buy bread, vegetables or You have to go to the post office by car. The climate also has its importance but I think it is not fundamental. I live in a city in the NW of Spain with a type of oceanic climate (Csb) and we spend more time on the street socializing than, for example, in cities in California with a less rainy Mediterranean climate. In the Nordic countries, when the good weather arrives, people go out to the parks, the terraces appear, the shopping streets fill up..., the cities and towns are designed for the enjoyment of their inhabitants, not for cars.@@grumpoggo2636
Have you ever thought about a series taking cities with massive transit problems and suggesting steps to make them more efficient and pedestrian friendly?
Yes to this! And not just the usual cities everyone talks about, I'd be nice to hear about cities in Africa, Asia, South America because that's where the population will have the most growth so better, efficient cities are needed there the most but talked about the least, I'd love to see someone tackle Lagos, Kinshasa, Manilla, Jakarta, Dar el Salam
This's a fantastic idea, hope it becomes a series
I suspect, no matter the best of intentions, that would just result in all kinds of inappropriate conclusions. There are lessons to be learned from all over the world, but each city has many unique elements. You can't just drop a model from someplace quite different and expect it to work. We've seen that time and again, as cities bring in people from outside who get many things wrong.
@victoria thats an excellent point!
Would love this
My favorite street in the world is called none other than "Walking Street" in Pattaya, Thailand. It's a one mile stretch full of nightclubs, bars, street food vendors cooking up food, people dancing and enjoying themselves and drinking beers on the streets purchased from 711, etc. During the daytime it is open to traffic but at night it's closed and it is full of people until 6 am, Also there is Khao San Road in Bangkok, very similar and is a hub of backpacker travelers. Right now both streets are a shell of their former selves due to the pandemic but they are fun places to hang out all night. In America there is Bourbon Street in New Orleans which is very similar to these streets. City streets are not meant to be places of just "transit" which seems to be the only consideration of urban planners, but can also be a place to enjoy ones self, to do business and commerce, to cook up food like a street barbecue, to play sports or exercise, to hang out, etc.
Favorite place Pattaya ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) well well well
Sex tourists are insufferable.
It is the best place in the world its what you want it to be, Pattaya and Jomtien love ❤ em
@@HollisPresnell Nearly as insufferable as people who just think of Thailand as a brothel
Bangkok is definitely brilliant for this, the night markets are great.
I recall my grandmother talking about how nice the cable car system was when she lived in Denver back in the day. Now light-rail is here and moving about the city is a lot easier. I do think that how a city is layed out plays a huge part in how efficient a city can move people around.
Market St is definitely improved without cars, and I can’t wait for the raised bike lanes. I’m also hoping the redesign includes smart signals - it’s very frustrating to see buses and light rail waiting for cross traffic.
Wait there's going to be a raised bike path? I use this path weekly and because of the buses they have destroyed the asphalt and made it difficult to ride your bicycle in certain parts it's extremely bumpy.
@@KristenM613the plan got shelved
@@user-zv5it1by5q that's so lame. Especially when it's such an excellent plan
Most, if not all, Norwegian cities have walking-only streets, where old streets have been turned into walking streets only. Often connected to a local farmer-marked area and/or outside the church/cathedral or other public areas. They're just called "gågate" which directly translates to "walking street". Even riding your bicycle there is illegal (but not enforced) since a bicycle is a vehicle. There are of course some exceptions like delivery vehicles are allowed in certain timezones (usually before stores open or after stores close), and emergency vehicles are allowed.
Fußgängerzone in German, pedestrian area. usually cafes with tables on the street, farmer's markets and a nice place to walk through.
Same in Denmark gågade
in denmark in the big town we also have gågate well in danish gågade
In the Netherlands bikes are more important than people.
@@fakedoorsfordinner1677 On the contrary, they changed the infrastructure to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians, which is caring about the people
One thing US streets lacking compared to ones in Europe and especially Asia is STREET VENDORS AND FOODS!!! There are some but no where enough, especially on these ex-arterial where it is super wide. Having more open-air shops and stores (no door or walls separating the sidewalk from the interior space) and more food carts or outdoor seating for restaurants would be a fantastic move. It creates a livelier atmosphere and encourage people to be outside in the public space enjoying the weather and not hidden inside buildings. This create a far more welcoming space. The example in Madison feels dead with the lack o people there. Of course denser housing would help, but you still need to create a lively street space. First step is banning cars, but that space still need to be filled with amenities.
I grew up in a neighborhood (in the US) with a high Latino population so there are often elote carts. Something I dearly miss whenever I'm not in a neighborhood with a significant Latino population.
All the brick and mortar establishments would be at city hall complaining about the street vendors are not paying their fair share in taxes. A vendor could set up shop outside a brick and mortar selling the same service/items. Brick and mortar cannot compete and closes down. That is a loss of revenue for the city and building owner. Some cities have areas where food trucks cannot park.
@@moosepasshippie There tends to be rules involving street vendors, forget the exact wording but it has something to do with type of food sold and distance from a brick and mortar place selling food of that same type. Which is why setting up a hotdog/pretzel cart is largely ok because no one has a hot dog/pretzel store, but that food truck selling burritos can't park outside of a brick and mortar taqueria
it'll be much easier to do that with cars off the street. So hopefully, going forward, we'll get that
In Madison and many northern American cities, winter would prevent open-air shops 6 months of the year. Who wants their plumbing to freeze because the front of the shop is open to -25°C?
Decades ago Chicago banned cars but allowed buses on State St and business plummeted. "...many people felt that removing car traffic and widening the sidewalks made the street feel deserted and unsafe. During the seventeen years the mall was open, seven major department stores closed, including Montgomery Ward, Baskin, Wieboldts, Bond’s and Goldblatt’s." There's more to it but there's no guarantee of success.
Look at Europe. Nothing will happen if you ban cars. Just have to improve public transit and start incorporating more biking. Watch how populated the streets will become.
@@rgonzalo511 keep dreaming
@@leespence6885 We will
@@rgonzalo511 You can't expect people who have gotten used to the luxury of having a car to suddenly open up to the idea of having to share a space on a crowded bus with complete and total strangers, then have to walk half an hour in a crowded downtown area.
@@rgonzalo511 they already banned cars
As a car lover, I still have to admit your street and car vision feel calming and very attractive.
these sorts of changes mean that theres less traffic on the roads, so it actually can benefit car lovers too :D
Interestingly, during the pandemic, in Birmingham, MI (iirc. Maybe throughout Metro Detroit too) there was a temporary lift on selling/serving alcohol outdoors and some streets were closed to allow people to eat outside while socially distanced. When the spring and vaccine came and numbers started to come down, the city talked about restoring the streets to normal, but people and restaurants fought against it. I haven't seen how that turned out
Here in Ferndale, a few miles south on Woodward from Birmingham, many of the restaurants still have their outdoor seating areas (with igloos or tents and heating), and the 'social districts' are still in full effect across many Metro Detroit communities, even now in the cold of winter!
Interesting!
In downtown Bay City, MI they have closed some of the side streets for restaurants as well. It's quite nice, though the traffic in surrounding areas is pretty awful still.
Wait, there’s another Birmingham in the US? As someone who grew up in Birmingham, UK, the idea that more than one city is named after mine is kinda funny. Birmingham is the butt of every British joke.
@@user-ed7et3pb4o yup it's in Metro Detroit. Pop about 20k. Just looked it up
Super video. I wish we had more pedestrian zones in the US. While I love your argument, your footage of State street in Madison looked like A post apocalyptic Ghost-town. I realize it was probably cold the day your shot it (and during a pandemic) but at least show some photos of the “bustling” pedestrian zone to convince people. Seeing is believing. Hopefully SF’s downtown revives after the pandemic and Market Street will be an inspiration to urban developers.
A lot of college towns look like that during a cold day, lol. I lived in Iowa City, with their ped mall, and the downtown is deserted during the winter breaks. It's busier during the summer and at night when the bars are allowed to sell liquor again. Combine that with holidays or longer breaks, and the campus areas are dead zones unless you work there or live off campus... I tell people, "expect the population to double when school starts again."
An IKEA and a Whole Foods will soon open on Market St.
Yes, those Madison shots were not the best for the cause... it looked like a ghost town.
My thoughts exactly! 🤔
Yeah it definitely has more trafic in the summer also Covid-19 hit Madison it usually looks so much better
The new design for Market Street looks good. One issue that I haven't heard discussed is its overall width. It is a wide street that may need to introduce elements that create a sense of reduced flank and make it more visually welcoming to pedestrians.
Width is not impossible. The city has done well with that already with the trees.
@@unconventionalideas5683 Yes, great idea. Trees are an excellent way to create a sense of reduced flank. Not to mention how vital a good tree canopy is for cooling streets and improving the pedestrian experience.
Yes. Always trees. More cities (and suburbs) need more trees. Unfortunately the take so long to grow so returning an urbanized forest back into something resembling more how it used to be would take a while. I've also heard that the roots from trees can actually cause problems with water lines and fire hydrants.
The broad walk on Hollywood beach in Hollywood Florida was a great experience. Sure, it was a tourist spot mostly. But it was such a great experience. If every city had dedicated strips like that where no cars were allowed (one running north south, and another east west) it would change things so much. Being able to walk or bike in an extremely busy city and actually enjoy it is an experience everyone should have.
They're proposing something similar in my neighbourhood in a Canadian city. Except they're doing it on the wrong street. Instead of banning cars on the main street, with street-fronting businesses and no driveways, they're proposing it a block over, where there are essentially no businesses and tons of residential driveways. SMH.
What city is this?
Maybe it will become the new main street? :)
@@FlightRecorder1 kitchener
@@thewhitefalcon8539 oh God I hope not
Have you considered the effect of banning cars on the main street?
I went to school in Madison. It always struck me as so odd that State Street had so few vehicles, but I loved it. Not mentioned in the video is the prime student real estate above State St and just outside State St because of its walkability and access. The benefits extend a bit beyond the walkable street. They don't do much for bicycles as school is in session during relatively poor weather conditions for bikes. Pretty much foot traffic only.
Big thumbs down. Untrue. State Street is a major biking route. The city of Madison has over 200 miles of dedicated bike paths. You must have went to MATC or went to college during the 80's or early 90's. The city plows the dedicated bike paths during the winter and the weather is actually perfect year-round for biking. Downtown access is faster and more reliable on bicycle in Madison. The city has more bikes than cars. As I am typing this, the city currently building six more miles of dedicated bike paths along Lake Monona near Olbrich Park. Madison does more for bicycles than any city in the Midwest. At UW, school is actually only out of session during the coldest parts of December and January. Sorry guy, you don't know what you are talking about.
If you don't live in Madison WI it's terrible don't move here. Let me buy a house first before the prices keep skyrocketing. Maybe after that you can move here.
Im just here for the Car-brain comments.
I don't want to ban cars, I love them myself. I hate traffic and wouldn't mind public transit and even pedestrian focused infrastructure. It would likely make it better for people who actually like driving. Just don't go to the other extreme and not make enjoyers and enthusiasts give up their cars. You can't stop enjoyment.
People should look at the Dutch masterpiece of infrastructure for this one
I don't think anyone wants to ban cars completely. There's plenty of situations where private cars can be very useful and not problematic at all. Cars and cities sometimes are a bad mix but that doesn't mean we should get rid of the cars. We should just be making sure the cars aren't getting rid of the cities, as has happened in some places.
@@laurelwillowbrit monkey has joined the chat
I think banning cars on Market Street is one of the best decisions SF has made in a while. Before that, I'd be waiting for my streetcar or bus to arrive and hated watching it get stuck behind traffic jams in the distance. Now, since it's all transit vehicles, that doesn't happen as much anymore. One improvement I'd like to see is the streetcar platforms widened. Right now they're really narrow and are jammed between two lanes of traffic. I hate standing there on a tiny concrete island while buses zoom past on either side of me. I suppose this could either be done by slightly widening the road surface near streetcar stops or entirely relocating the tracks to be closer to the curb.
A better decision would be getting rid of the poop and needles all over the streets.
@@johnathin0061892 What is this whataboutism you're pulling? Are you really that staunch with cars or you just taking a piss?
@@johnathin0061892 A better decision would be to get rid of single family zoning.
@@johnathin0061892 So then we must be in agreement that exclusive single-family zoning needs to go and that housing social programs need expansion to eliminate homelessness. Not sure how that fine thought is relevant to the video though
@@Curtistopsidae San Fran needs more dense housing, but good luck getting the elite who run the town to agree to it. They are worried about spoiling the view and other such nonsense. Cutting off the incentives (generous welfare, social tolerance) for out of state homeless to migrate to California would help too.
In my experience, when Times Square in NYC removed much of the car traffic, it made going to and from certain stores and locations in the area more enjoyable instead of being delayed by cars. Although cars still pass by the area it is not obstructing as before.
They did this in Brussels with the area around the Anspachlaan (near the historic city center). The mayor received death treats, was banned in some restaurants in the area and "the city would be doomed". Almost 10 years later it is the liviest area of Brussels...
This is a transition that could make city living more inviting by reducing the heavy car traffic. I would like see this expanded everywhere in this country. Europe has understood this for years. Glad to the US is finally regaining some common sense albeit very gradually which of course is better than none at all.
8:12 It's easy to get the illusion that Europeans have some smug sense of superiority about their urban planning, but the reality is simply that since all our city layouts go back hundreds or thousands of years, trying to retrofit them with the American model of modernity and freedom based around the automobile, that was idolised by everyone back in the 50's simply didn't work, because it necessarily requires constantly sacrificing something, somewhere, somehow, adding an additional burden of compromise. The Netherlands was really the first European country to outright reject the changes that were happening, and gradually and grudgingly other countries and individual cities started to realise that they might be on to something, that people generally prefer to be in spaces where they feel they actually belong, and started to edge toward returning cities to how they always were before they were carved up. It sounds dumb when you spell it out like that, doesn't it. Like really, so dumb.
Y is it dumb u not spittin non💀😂
Netherlands being the first is a useless baseless claim. I like my country being praised in urban planning and transportation circles, but only when it's backed up by actual facts.
@@MrAronymous its not baseless, activism from the 50's against problems caused by the car centric planning model actually led to reforms in the coming decade, and organisations like "ENBW (de fietsersbond)" who are still representing cycling interests to this day. So if not first, the Netherlands was definitely early.
The thing is, Europeans DO have a smug sense of superiority about literally everything. You see it in everything that's critical of America, from politics to healthcare to science, all these Europeans coming out of the woodwork going like "In my country, we....". I know it's all born from insecurity about being completely irrelevant in everything that matters, but its still annoying.
@@karenwang313 Anime pfp = invalid opinion
Wish you’d have shown some footage further West on State Street! The areas near the capitol suffered as a result of the pandemic as is seen in the video, but nearer the University, State Street is filled almost all the time all hours of the day with loads of people. There’s at least 6 legendary bars within like a block on Western State and the surrounding blocks.
The footage of State St shows it as a desolate street with boarded up frontages. The images are not selling the idea at all.
We don’t need more bars, beer gardens, Starbucks and “dispensaries” in society.
Where exactly ?
You neglect to mention that this ban went into place during covid lockdown and over half the storefronts on market street are now out of business and shuttered.
If the storefronts require people to walk in, banning cars wouldn't make it worse for small businesses.
just give it a couple years, businesses will be back. like he said, it’s the opposite of induced demand so it’ll take some time for people to recognize and adapt to the new market street
@@sheepketchup9059 the customers still have to make their way to the business tho, without cars you would absolutely lose customers who usually drove in from out of town or whatever
@@dopaminedreams1122 These customers are almost always in the minority even in historic rural downtowns. In a place like Market Street they would have been almost zero even before the ban went into effect.
@@weirdfish1216 two more weeks?
One thing that made the Spui (downtown) area in the Netherlands where I lived much better was that car traffic on cross streets was not allowed downtown either. In fact, there were gate arms which protected the downtown area from cars. You needed a transmitter in vehicles like buses, taxis, delivery vehicles, etc. to even drive onto the protected roads downtown. Also, bike lanes in the Netherlands are almost always separated from the traffic lanes with a separate bike path in between the street and the sidewalk (not just painted lines) and is colored red. Everyone knows what it is.
4:30 that is a pretty cool crest not gonna lie. One problem that I have with streets that ban cars is that in my city, we've done this on one street, we call it the landing. The landing is pretty awesome, but it's an island in an ocean of non walkable urbanism. No one lives close enough to be able to walk/bike to it. So it's effectively an outdoor mall.
This!! These things need to come with more AFFORDABLE residential buildings and parking adequate parking spaces.
Yeah, that's the biggest problem I see. You can't just create an island and expect it to work. People need to actually be able to get there without cars for it to even be effective.
I believe sufficient public transport could solve a problem like this? As shown in the video, many inner cities in Europe banned cars but there are lots of trams etc.. of course things are not perfect in Europe, too, since public transport (at least in Germany) is often quite expensive
That is actually a pretty accurate way to look at things. I'm living in rural area, with no public transport. It's not a suburb, more like a few main-roads with gravel driveways up to the plot. It makes it pretty difficult for me if I'd want use any kind of public transport. It's pretty cool to see that cities have a few streets with banned cars, that sure makes a city much more livable and comfortable for the residents. But just like this video most youtube channels never mention the rural areas and how bad it is to live there without a car.
@@Kikiplur11 the people pushing this carless street are against cars so they do not want free easy park near them. they are out to get rid of all private cars. if you listen to the guying making this video and see the other videos he bad talks about private cars in his videos I would like to talk about having more roads with sidewalks that make it safe for people to walk but he does not feel safe if one private car used a road that he walks next to
Only just discovered your channel but watched so many videos of yours the last few days I've lost count. I'm from the UK and I'm finding all of your content fascinating and informative. Car free streets, or pedestrianised streets as we call them, are a common thing over here so I've never really thought of of myself having a favourite as it's something we expect to see in our cities and town centres. I guess we take it for granted.
i hate that most Americans are opposed to making streets less car centric because it would actually alleviate congestion and the streets more walkable.
we're not opposed to it because it makes streets more walkable, we opose it because we don't need to
@@cowfat8547 can you back up that claim?
@@cowfat8547having been in NY 1 time Uh yeah. Ya do.
During the Salt Lake City Olympics, they banned cars for like a 10-mike radius around downtown, where most of the festivities/medals ceremonies were. Instead, you drove to designated parking lots all around the perimeter. It did wonders for traffic. We went from downtown Park City to downtown Salt Lake in less than 20 minutes. It was unreal. Plus, the had senior citizens direct parking lot traffic, help us get to the right bus, and then give directions on the other side. The entire downtown became one big pedestrian plaza. It was wonderful.
Thanks for shouting out my undergrad! State Street was such a cool place especially since Madison has amazing bike infrastructure. There were deals that local businesses would give you if you got a sticker on your helmet.
really hoping that our new mayor and his administration look at pedestrianization initiatives in downtown Pittsburgh
Write 'em a letter
Walking through downtown Pittsburgh in January sounds fun.
For what city? I'm confused
Pittsburgh already is very pedestrian friendly by US standards, The problem is that because of the Rivers and Hills there are so many chokepoints, and places that aren't viable to walk to, that transit is necessary. We should pedestrianize more spaces, but to compensate we need to increase street connectivity, or Pittsburgh's traffic will be even more unbearable, unfortunately geography isn't on our side, and connecting places often requires a Bridge, Tunnel, or both.
@@9HighFlyer9 one of my favorite times to go for a walk in the city is during a snowfall. it's beautiful, the bars and storefronts are warm and inviting, people are out milling around, traffic is nonexistent or slowed to a crawl. It's amazing.
In Melbourne Australia we have the Burke Street mall. It's one of our cities most iconic shopping strips. That an Swanston street is also pedestrian only and a few more have been proposed to limit dangerous traffic and pedestrian related accidents.
Did you notice...no foot traffic...no one going into businesses
Wow, awesome to hear about Market Street! I've been to a number of concerts at the Warfield venue, and it was always such a terrible experience getting there-whether I was driving or taking transit.
Love love that you highlighted Madison... Growing up in the midwest (Michigan), I always enjoyed visiting Madison and the ease and beauty of the lay out of downtown, capital, and UW areas. Hope you enjoy a weekend summer evening with a beer at UW Union on the lake with live music someday, if you haven't already!
It sadly doesn't work out everywhere. I live in small town/village in Europe few years years ago they made major and sadly unfortunate changes in street designs around town center including banning private cars from several major streets leading straight to town center (as well as banning the cars from entering city center). One of the affected streets was old town "business hub" ware major shops and restaurants ware. There is bus lane going through that street but apparently it wasn't enough because the immediate effect of change was that all the businesses on that street pretty much imminently started to struggle financially.... but well big ass mall with huge parking space few streets down was happy they got like twice the amount of customers they had before. Though to be honest The mall was driving away the customers from those businesses before so i guess that traffic changes ware pretty much just the last nail in the coffin.... but i find it sad to be honest. It was a lovely street now its like a ghost town. Sadly that street is still closed and few businesses including my favorite cafe bar went under.....
This ^^
I can't be sure but I think the guy in the video is being a little misleading about the consequences of banning cars on these streets too.
That makes sense. Big corporations easily thrive when small businesses are made to suffer.
We attempted this in a major city in Alberta, Canada. They hacked up our transit system trying to push for a walk through downtown and to get us to use tge LRT. Downtown is a ghost town. The elderly, disabled, students and single moms/young families use the transit system. But the made it next to impossible to access transit unless you HAD a car and did the park and ride thing. Also, what about large purchases, too small to deliver, to large to take on the transit and LRT. They put in fancy designated bike lanes on the parallel streets from the major routes. All fancy with dividers and other special infrastructure about around 2015 at the cost of millions. Now they are spending millions to remove 90% of the bike lanes. Why? do you ask... We Live In Northern Alberta!!! Freezing winters with unpredictable snow storms, freezing rain spring and fall, and hot summers with fast-moving thunderstorms with hail. In order to use out transit whether by bus, LRT or both, you need a car to get to the transit centers!!! As I said, downtown shops, malls, restaurants died out. Next the malls died out because if you don't own a car, then it is huge pain to coordinate the busses Plus, you can only carry so much at a time. Then there are ALL of the people who live in rural or small cities/towns. None have transit. Way back there where highway busses like Greyhound and Greygoose. But in time they started closing post offices in smaller towns and Greyhound/Greygoose stop going into the smaller towns. They also ripped out tonnes of railway track and except for vacation packages, passenger train travel doesn't exist in most areas anymore. Our economy sucks, we can't afford our car insurance or gas. We can't afford to go to the deep suburb big box stores for cheap groceries. I would loved to have seen a new model for traffic but it is built on a model that assumes everyone works in the areas the directly live. This isn't the case. Most people work in industrial parks on the edge of the city or in offices and businesses scattered throughout the city. Work is hard to find, but it is even harder to find ,if you literally have no way to get there. Many European cities developed much different than cities and towns in North America. I am all for change, positive change, but impractical change that just adds a whole new level of obstacles in a shitty economy in a country with shitty weather and a government that is going to put the cost burden on us for impractical infrastructure. No way. People are sick and tired of struggling , in survival mode and being asked to bicycle everywhere or walk. FYI I did do that into my mid 30s...I am 43 and my joints are shot from riding back and forth in freezing temperatures. It wreaks your health. And then how are you doing to get around?
Yeah, I'll be driving somewhere else to shop.
It is interesting that you use George St in Sydney as an example. This has only recently changed from a congested street full of private cars to only having the tram and very limited car access.
I think Swanstom St and Bourke St would have been better examples (not just for Melbourne supremacy...)
@@andrew7955 As a Sydneysider, I kinda have to agree. Bicycles are banned outright on George Street. The problem is that that's the only really main north-south route from the inner suburbs from the south so you now have to take substantial detours around. Never understood why they didn't allow bike lanes...
Rundle Mall in Adelaide works well as pedestrian exclusive street.
@@HenryMidfields Banning bikes? Seriously?
Swanston St in Melbourne had been like that since 1992.
What I saw were streets congested with public service vehicles instead of cars, and in other places streets with no traffic but also virtually no pedestrians either. They looked like ghost towns.
SF now IS a ghost town. Retail downtown has closed, especially after the DA refused to prosecute criminals. No big conferences are being scheduled at Moscone because the crime and homeless problem is so bad. Oh well. Karma.
ghost town syndrome as I call it is more like a combination of issues that won't resolve just by removing cars. And the other streets? can you imagine how much worse it would be WITH personal vehicles mixed in?
They have tried that in Utah and most the businesses lost massive amounts of money. They reverted back to letting cars on the street. There is just not enough people looking to carry all their shopping around to make that feasible. If the shops are tiny and dont sell much then they may survive. But existing businesses will suffer making that street a no go for new retailers for a long time.
The same thing happened on market street as well. The video just ignores it altogether. The economic activity in the surrounding area dropped as a consequence. The car ban made it harder for older people, who have more disposal income, to traverse the street.
Yeah but muh "I walk/bike everywhere because I live in the middle of an urban hell paying 6x the rent and groceries with nothing else to my name, but can't pay back my worthless student loans and SOCIALISE ME DADDYYYYYY!!!" Checkmate, boomer
@@CLove511 if it was legal to build apartments and other types of housing in suburbs like most civilized european and asian countries, housing would be a lot less expansive. Why shouldnt we allow denser development and public transit?
@@aliquewilliams3080 this isnt even true lmaoo. U realize that there was a pandemic, right? After they banned cars, it became a lot easier for elder people to traverse the city because the buses ran faster, and the street became safer.
@@aliquewilliams3080 usually these aren’t done to well. They need denser housing, bike lanes, good transit into the area, and many other things. Usually cities don’t do this and it fails.
University Ave in Madison is also an interesting case study. Cars are still allowed (westbound only) but there are separate lanes for bikes and buses.
Great video...., however, as a wheelchair user, we are often overlooked, even when planners thing they have looked out for us. Example. Here in Houston, a city street once had traffic and parking, and thus, every block had at least one handicap parking spot. Once the road was closed to traffic, planners never increased handicap spots on nearby streets or nearby parking lots. Now the wheelchair users that were parking in those on-street handicap spots are now fighting for spots on the existing nearby street and parking lot spots. The end result is wheelchair users like myself stop going to those places because the distance we have to roll from the spot we can eventually find to the "upgraded" street is just too much. Making sure curbs have cutouts and things like that don't help use access these new traffic free streets if we can't even get close enough to them to park and then use them. It's indirect and unintentional handicap discrimination. As more and more streets are converted, we have less and less places we can go out to to enjoy with out friends. It pushes us to the suburb traffic congested areas.
Good point, we’ll have to consider such instances when designating pedestrian streets in the future and push for such improvements on existing pedestrian streets.
Here in Denmark to allow people good access to these kind of walking streets / shopping streets there are usually multiple multistorey car parks close by. In the city i live there are 3 main walking streets which are connected and there are 4 different multistorey car parks. One connected to a museum, two in connection with malls on the street and one in the middel of the street build underground. Changing the city infrastructure to have more walkability require quite a bit of auxiliary infrastructure.
Again, just move your wheelchair (like you do in your house) to get to places. You don't need to drive everywhere, period.
@@Anonymous-df8it First, why are you anonymous? are you afraid of owning your comments? Second, as a quadriplegic (you may need to loo up what that actually means as oppose to your bias opinion), I am unable to push/roll more than 3 blocks without suffering substantial problems. Third, when's the last time you tried to go shopping and balance everything on your legs as you roll up and down ramps, bumpy sidewalks and bumpy curb-cutouts? I know, you'll say just put things in bags or boxes or baskets. Well it's not that simple. Bags, boxes and baskets fall off laps very easy even on smooth rolling surfaces. Most people who are paralyzed from a spinal cord injury have spasms which limit how far they can push/roll and those spasms would also knock anything in our laps to the ground. If you put a bag on the back of the wheelchair, many of use lack the range of motion and strength to reach the bag ourselves and if the bag is too heavy, it will affect the center of gravity of how the wheelchair is balanced. Fourth, you didn't even take the time to educate yourself about my disability and what it might be, you didn't reach out and ask me questions to educate yourself, you just "knew" anyone can do you whatever it is you think they should be able to do... and you do that being anonymous. I think there's a reason you make these kinds of comments being anonymous.
@@TexMexTraveler If you are actually quadriplegic, you wouldn't even be able to type your troll comments. I support walkable cities, and you can't change my mind on that. If you want to live in a car-infested he11h01e, you do you, but don't call me when you get run over by a car.
as a sf driver myself....drivers get confused, drive in the bus/bike lane and then the busses honk at them and then the drivers do even more illegal stuff to get out of there fast.... i see this happen every day lol
I think that speaks more to the lack of driver education than the design of the street… the United States has a huge problem with driver education.
oh i completely agree.... i hope for more car free street, they really do make things go more smoothly.... but people are dumb...
@@greentree211 There's a fairly profitable way to educate people quickly, in a city near me here in the Netherlands they changed a street over to only be for bicycles, buses and emergency services. Initially they had a pole that could lower and then would be raised again once the allowed vehicle had passed, but uh it got broken a few times in the process of wrecking some vehicles that tried to sneakily get in behind a bus or miss a very obvious pole sticking out in the middle of the road. Expensive and forcing detour routes so they eventually just settled for the clear signage they already had and a camera, combine that with number plate recognition and a few unwelcome things coming in the mail. Drivers caught on quickly quickly to avoid that street. It was cheaper for the municipality than repairing the pole that would occasionally get damaged in the process of breaking a car. However I do realise it might be a bit harder over there with such streets being more of a rarity inside cities, here it's kinda to be expected to find a few here and there in cities and to have to pay close attention to the signs.
th thing is they do not widen roads to add these bus and bike only lanes so mak more congesstion by squeezing cars into fwwer lanes
SF drivers are terrible and dangerous. But anyone in CA with a pulse can now get a drivers license/"state ID" so there should be no surprises there. I would love to rewrite the DMV test to reflect real driving questions instead of " Is the speed limit 20 or 25 in a hospital zone?".
Swanston St in Melbourne’s CBD is my favourite. It’s been decades in the making (since 1992) and it’s still evolving. It went through several iterations of it, including when they had the tour busses originating from there, near Bourke St. In fact a young cyclist died there because of the busses. It had made the City Center a more lively place. Though we Melburnians tend to like our hidden bars etc so night life tends to be away from it. They put in a lot of infrastructure to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. The team stops are all elevated right through the line, making it obvious for cyclists and service vehicles.
All fine well and good if you're mobile and can walk. Public transportation? Ask me about my last mugging on a public bus. I no longer shop local or anyplace where my physical presence is needed. I order online. Safer, no walking, no muggers.
And that's the thing, isn't it? Nobody EVER says: "I wish we had the cars back. I miss them."
I'll bet the businesses do.
What lol
I really love your videos. Thank you for making these and informing us about the achievable and beneficial changes we can make to our built environment to make our cities better.
Car enthusaist are typing..........
Market Street is now dead. Empty store fronts, restaurants and even entire buildings is what is left and it has become a haven for homeless people and drug addicts.
Was patiently waiting for you to mention Madison’s State Street, and was not disappointed. Just moved to Madison.
The new light rail on George St, Sydney opened about a year before the pandemic. It initially had more sections open to cars. However, when the pandemic hit more sections were closed. These sections are now being permanently made pedestrian only. For example the traffic lanes between Bathurst and Liverpool St have now been removed and the footpath extended to the light rail. It used to be a traffic sewer clogged with slow moving buses. The change has been amazing.
I agree. The vibe of the street has totally changed. From a noisy, smelly, overcrowded street to a very beautiful strip with wide footpaths and a very chilled vibe. Love walking past seeing all the people using the street furniture, watching the street artists/musicians entertain the masses.
slow-moving busses clogged the road not cars
So buses are the problem now lol. Glad it cleared up for you but where did all those people go or were the buses usually running empty?
Speaking about trams...suddenly I'm curious about their evolution. How they are made, different technologies that made it fast, efficient, saftey and how/where they were applied or removed.
Still blows my mind that we haven't implemented fully autonomous trams and railways yet. There are so many fewer things the vehicle can do that training AI to stop if something is in the way should be quite easy compared to a self-driving car.
@@chasemartin4450 old infrastructure. Apparently it’s really hard to make some old infrastructure for metros autonomous and would take decades. Trains are meant to last about 40 years anyways. It’s new systems that are usually about to just be built with autonomy in mind. Another thing, I’m not an expert but we don’t usually see computers or ai highly functionally operating in the real world environment with all the 6 senses that we have to use so massive computing tech still has a way to go until it’s autonomous.
@@PeteS_1994 Blame the difficulty of that conversion on bureaucracy, not technology. Three things are needed to create an autonomous metro system - digital interface to control the trains' functions (motors, brakes, doors, etc.), sensors and AI to detect track obstructions and equipment failures, and signaling / control systems to maintain schedules, blocking, and switching. Many automated metros currently in existence operate without the AI in fully grade-separated rights-of-way, in my opinion this is negligent engineering but it has worked for decades without significant safety issues. The biggest obstacle to creating AI for these tasks would likely be resistance from railroad engineers afraid of losing their jobs, as systems like Openpilot and Tesla Autopilot have shown that simply observing enough human operation of a vehicle can train an AI to operate it *very* well (the situations in which these systems work poorly are very rare in rail applications). Digital interfaces to control the trains themselves could be built for any electric trains in history by a handful of engineering interns in a few months - there is just not that much to control and off-the-shelf parts can be used for much of it (e.g., electronic metering valves for operating air brakes). CBTC signaling and control systems exist but have historically had problems, especially with radio connectivity in tunnels. There are cheap-and-dirty solutions to this which trade reliability for simplicity (which is not *necessarily* a problem if the track blocks are large in a low-capacity system) but reliable, affordable means of allowing a central control computer to communicate with trains need more development work. It's certainly a challenge but shouldn't take anywhere near several decades, at least if it's done by a for-profit company rather than an array of consultants for a public transit agency. Don't get me wrong - bureaucracy is a major problem (at least in the United States) which would need to be overcome for autonomous metros to become the norm. That said, I think it does the potential of these systems a disservice to assume that their lack of adoption is the result of technological challenges alone.
I really like this concept! It opens room not just literally, but also for photographers and artists!
this isn't car-free, but Davis, CA is a bike-first city, and its great
Now if only SF can fix its homeless/drug/crime problem…
I don't think it's a simple fix. These days, the mentally ill are regarded as having rights of self determination. When I was young, the Reagan administration ended federal funding of treatment facilities for the mentally ill. The rationale, was that it wasn't a legitimate function of the federal government. The problem is that the private institutions, state & local governments, didn't pick up that expensive ball. Instead, they 'redefined" it as a non-problem.
@@DEAR7340 ...and now the city of SF has encouraged homelessness, which is criminal. Why? Because if left on the street at least 75% of all homeless develop mental illness. Gav owns that. Difi and Pelosi own that. The past 20 years have turned SF into a flaming dumpster fire that is no surprise to anyone. The homeless have taken over downtown and aren't leaving. Once the software companies and developers leave, the tide goes out leaving all the rubbish behind.
Interesting to see how this works out for San Francisco. Chicago tried this in the 80's and early 90's along State Street and it was a disaster. It ended up hurting stores.
It's actually hurting stores here as well, and in many places. People don't want to walk on average more than a mile, or bike more than 3.
@@XDXMusic welp nobody to blame but ourselves for that. Cities spent years building infrastructure around cars, making us grow accustomed to car travel, and now that they've realized it really isn't the best idea in the long-term theyre struggling 😭😭 Personally I hate driving so I would love to live in a pedestrian friendly area. My legs are strong af
@@brucenadeau2172 Cars have more pros than cons. They are fast and good for long distance, but they are also big, expensive, and to be quiet frank, not the most eco friendly. Walking is free. Biking is free. A car is thousands of dollars. And then you have insurance, and gas, and repairs, and if you get into a crash that's even more insurance and repairs. It is NOT a good idea to make an entire country rely on an incredibly expensive machine, when in reality, a lot of the people in it CANNOT AFFORD said machine. Do you understand how terrifying it is to not ve able to afford a car in a country where you NEED one? Do you understand the feeling that comes with wrecking or losing your car, and desperately needing to get to work and feed your kids, but not being able to because it's 30 minutes away and your city has NO pedestrian friendly streets? No sidewalks, no busses? Fixing the problem is as simply as... you know.... building stores and entertainment within a walking distance of where people live. You can't refuse to build stores within a mile or two of a neighborhood and then complain that people aren't willing to walk 2 hours to reach it. Personally, I don't want to drive, and I don't want to waste millions of my hard earned money on a clunky machine, and I don't want to watch my country turn into a mass of concrete and cluttered parking spaces. It's ugly and it's miserable and it's depressing. How are people supposed to be able to go outside and have a good time of cities don't build sidewalks? If stores are an hour away? If parks are near nonexistent? How do you think that impacts the children and elderly, who cant drive or walk long distances? Do you just expect them to stay inside and be depressed for years upon years? Because surprise we don't have public transport, either.
@@brucenadeau2172 like tbfh if you posess the inability to walk 10 minutes to a store because of the weather you are weak af
@@peepawfart i agree that we need sidewalk but that is not what this video is about is about closing road to cars to make everyone live like the video producer h may like to walk but not ever one like to walk or use crowded uncomfortable busses yes car are expansive but would they so expansive if popl did not use goverment to tell car companies how many mile per gallon of gas car had to get
I just read about all the empty buildings on Market St. now that there is no traffic. It. doesn't work. I don't care what you say.
this guy has never been outside the US
@@alangeerts9124 you've never been outside US.
Coming from the netherlands, this still looks so absurd. We have tons of pedestrian streets, and those are really, really busy. We started the transition in the 70s, and it has really paid off.
I really enjoy seeing this, I love cars, race tracks, high hp and I celebrate car culture, but I walk to get groceries, am building an e-bike to get to work and love alternative transportation when it comes to utility tasks. To me, cars are toys to be enjoyed on road trips, out of cities and in motorsports events, but they are awful to use for mass transportation and in cities just because of how space inefficient they are. So I am all for cities finding better combinations of less traffic-filled streets making driving nicer, and less car-filled interior streets making being out of a car more enjoyable as well! Either way, great video! I greatly enjoy watching!
As a lifelong motorsports fan I've really grappled with how it conflicts with my fresh passion for good urban design. Cool to see someone else in the same boat as me.
@@trevorlongman3783 Nice! I'm also happy to hear I'm not alone in that thought aha And the other benefit i see is the more I don't have to rely on my car for practical purposes or getting to work then more interesting my car could be, since I don't rely on my cars on a daily basis, the only thing I had insured last summer was a 1992 VW Cabriolet, and I never worried because getting around wasn't dependant on the car.
Hit the nail right on the head here.
So, where and how do you celebrate your car culture?
There would be fewer dull cars if driving almost everywhere wasn't such a requirement and driving wasn't a chore to be endured over roads that make it so. The stroad and the silver automatic CUV were made for each other.
This video was awesome! George Street is Sydney is such and excellent example!
Something you notice with these "car-free roads" is that they are also "people free" and entirely empty.
That’s because they need more density and better zoning, also people need to learn about walking.
Market street was built to accommodate both cars, pedestrians, bikes and buses. The reason they made it car free was because MUNI can never get their act together and instead of fixing MUNI, they just decided to give them 1/4 of the city streets. And they STILL are not on time! And i beg to differ about it not hurting businesses on Market st. and it not putting more traffic in off streets. Now days all in all downtown is a nightmare to have to deal with no matter what mode of transportation you are trying to use due to the entire area being congested and generally a mess. The blocks on Market are extremely long as well which pretty much eliminates them to be used by the disabled or elderly due to the long long walk it takes just to get to Market St. from being dropped off in a car. No one ever talks about this issue. But the city is not being scored on how well the residents like these changes, only how efficient MUNI tries to be and how much tourist revenue they can make. This city used to be such a great little city. The last 20 years decisions have been made to the detriment of the town if you ask me. The city gets more and more expensive and less and less livable. It sucks!
Someone who knows
I am fascinated by your commentary regarding Madison, particularly the aspect of braving conditions to make a car free street work. I would be interested to hear more about means to promoting good urban design in places where extreme weather is a concern. I've visited Toronto before, and there are those underground pedestrian paths, but I would be interested in knowing more about solutions that might scale better in smaller urban environments. I've always been interested in transit, but your work has truly made me contemplate some of the bigger social issues involved in urban planning.
Minneapolis has a lot of elevated heated walkways!
Underground or elevated walkways are extremely costly compared to road level walkways. Denmark or Sweden would probably be good places to take inspiration from for cold weather design. Public transportation with more stops would most likely be the easiest solution to keep people out of the cold.
San Francisco also badly needs a more widespread subway system than BART and MUNI metro, The whole north side of the city is not connected.
I honestly think a nice tram network, like the one in Toronto or Melbourne could work quite nicely. It would also be substantially cheaper. SF is quite compact in the core of the city so you don’t need the speed of complete grade separations
I'm no expert on San Francisco, but don't they have a lot of cable cars in the north end of the peninsula?
@@jimzecca3961 No. There's two north-south cable car paths in the city, but they are more for tourist than practical transportation.
I was so excited when you mentioned State Street in Madison! I love visiting there
Melbourne’s Swanson St has heavy tram use and has been car free for many years. The southern end has common take-away food and cheap retail in it and, while very pleasant for pedestrians, is not exactly a retail heaven. The northern end, on the otherhand, is near a university and is much more interesting from a shopping and eatery perspective. The key I think is lots of urban residential and university student traffic. Swanson St is neighboured by numerous streets with widened pedestrian access and priority tram stops that are still open to cars. I’d argue these streets surpass Swanson St for beauty, retail and business. However, thus was the case even well before Swanson St was transformed.
I was looking for a comment about my own home town, especially so since the YT guy mentioned Australia. Car free works for some areas, and not in others. In Melbourne we have areas that have greatly restricted car parking, to reduce outside car use in their area, that have been worse off for it. Areas such as Chapel St and Lygon St. Unless you are a local to those areas you are faced with parking a car for 1 hr to either go shopping or have a meal with friends, very off putting. Alternatively Acland St in St Kilda has been a benefit for closed car travel.
That's State Street here in Madison! 😀
i was looking for your comment on this one!
Not only can retail survive without cars, but retail thrives and literally does better without cars - turns out you’re more likely to spend money in a business if you can freely make the impulse choice to go inside on a whim and without friction rather than worrying about parking (no matter how convenient) and making a connecting trip on foot
Maybe in some cases, but for me it means I am limited to whatever I can carry by myself on foot or on my bicycle. If I didn't bring several enormous bags and make a dedicated trip where I don't have to carry anything else, then I can't buy much.
When the map of San Fran was being shown, I noticed this little, narrow park that looked like a miniature version of Golden Gate Park. Curious, I decided to check it out, but couldn't find it on standard map view. Then I switched to satellite. Its a building with a four block long roof top garden called Salesforce park, which sits atop a transit center. With cafes in the park itself and gondolas that bring people up directly from the ground. It looks beautiful, if I visit San Fran anytime soon, I want to check it out.
As someone who managed a fleet of vehicles well into this transition in SF, which means we had commercial access to market, I can say it made the traffic aspect vastly easier and safer. Introduction of bike lanes in lieu of former commercial pullouts created some challenges, but on the commerce side, ultimately a positive change
Dude, I walk here every day and Market street has completely and utterly collapsed. There is no anyone there anymore, no cars, not people, no stores. Its completely and utterly dead. There are no lessons you can take from this -- SF is on the verge of a commercial real estate collapse that completely and utterly overshadows any of these conclusions.
As a long term SF resident, city employee, working in Civic Center, a car-free Market Street is 💄on a 🐷! The decline, squalor, depravation prevails PRE pandemic over decades. Priority must be for effective solutions and programs by the HIC of social issues on its sidewalks and doorways moreso than speeding along Muni and bike traffic along its street for there ever to be a Better Market Street
Do it like Amsterdam, seperate streets for walking, biking, driving and public transport. A layout like Barcelonas Superblocks could also be an option. But Banning cars if people need them will never be accepted. Smaller cities in my area often have the problem that town centers dont have alot of shops left because everybody buys online. So they want a nice quit street but also need those last customers that have to travel in by car and want to park near the shops. If the street " needs" cars its hard to ban them.
that's where public transport comes into place. I'm sure paying for transport is cheaper overall than maintaining a vehicle and refueling it for its whole lifetime
I live in Madison, and love the shout-out! State street looks so dead in these photos though. There are so many days where it's full of life and pedestrians!
The overhead view at 8:00 is "chef kiss* ! Love the curbed bike lane at the very least. Treat bike riders as equals and more people will bike.
Love your content! Would love to see/hear your thoughts on NYC suburbs and the relationship between city priorities/culture and their suburban priorities/culture. I know basically every video covers that, but I’m putting in a shameless plug for Westchester county (mainly because I desperately want it to be more bike and pedestrian friendly by drawing some attention to it).
I lived in San Francisco for 5 years until the pandemic. I never recall the Market being overly busy unless it was early morning. At night, it was pretty empty. I do remember however, past 4th street it became a homeless filled, pee smelling mess. I tried to avoid walking past 4th as much as I could down market.
You're not missing much. Now the tenderloin has enveloped market, south of market. This video claims that a less-dense market street is a good thing. All that's occurred is the hobos have taken over Market. People don't go downtown now as it's not safe.
@@r2dad282 Bingo! The car ban led to a substantial decrease in economic activity on the street overall. There was less congestion in adjacent roads because there were simply less people traversing the area, other than the homeless.
@@aliquewilliams3080 car bans can be good if done right and clearly whatever happened in San Francisco didn’t go right although it is California so I’m not surprised.
Why does everything Sf related always have to come back to the homeless issue? come on people theres more to the city than that issue💀
I like downtown Louisville, I can drive everywhere, traffic is fine, and I can park more or less right in front of where I'm trying to go.
Yeah, one thing I do see in these video clips is that almost all of the pedestrians are young people who are fit and active. As a “woman of a certain age” myself now, with parents who have developed “mobility/balance” issues recently, I’m starting to think about this. Okay, maybe you could argue that the elderly wouldn’t go there even if it was more “elder-friendly,” but I think it’s kind of thoughtless to ASSUME they won’t and then create barriers so they can’t.
I live in a neighborhood that is very pedestrian friendly. I see many elderly people going on their walks. I compare that too the old folks homes on the side of a 50mph street and wonder how those people “of a certain age” get their exercise
Pedestrian friendly streets are usually more wheelchair and scooter friendly, given they’re usually on the level. Personally, the idea of removing the kerb is heavenly to me - no more searching for dropped kerbs that haven’t been blocked by a parked car! Although there have certainly been cases where that wasn’t taken into consideration at all, and needless obstacles were placed in the way of realising that possibility. Which absolutely sucks. Ensure there’s enough disabled parking spaces on the periphery of the pedestrian zones, and ensure there’s at least a handful of different types of disabled people involved in consultation for the design, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t work. (Of course, bad weather can still be more of an impediment, and a street certainly won’t fix that!)
The fact of the matter is, even if you could drive directly up to these businesses, there's no where for you to park your car nearby. Most street parking on these busy corridor streets is already restricted and none of these businesses have their own parking lots. The cars on the road are simply using the road as a means to get from one side of town to another and have no intention of stopping because there literally is no where for them to stop and park. Accessibility only matters in regards to planning out where cars can park and how accessible the businesses are from that parking space. Simple being allowed to drive on the road does nothing for accessibility. If you're already dealing with an area that has no space for adequate parking (let alone handicap parking) it makes sense to limit private cars.
@@Vannabee13 yep. In Europe where there’s parking maximums instead of minimums, often the only 1-3 space(s) are disabled parking spots. (Of course plenty of people park in them without showing the blue badge but… hey.)
The major downtown area of Salt Lake City is literally on the verge of making an incredible downtown experience. It's light rail service is free in the major retail and business area. If they banned all cars along the free fare area and the surrounding blocks of the rail service it would do so well.
I would love to see San Antonio turn Alamo Street/Broadway into a transit mall! We’re way too big to not have any light rail
This is beautiful!
when they ban cars lots of customers take their business elsewhere... main street businesses have also had a decline in business due to malls...
3:30 Bulbasaur is an Urban Street and a Suburban Stroad is a Koffing or a weezing. Now you don't have to make cute bulbasaur a symbol of bad planning.
Woah random forward Madison shout. Best looking jerseys along with their crest
Spring Garden Road in Halifax piloted going bus only earlier this summer. It only lasted a couple of days. The drivers ignored the tiny signs. The city dabbled with having vision, but quickly abandoned it. As usual.
it killed George St in Sydney alot of the busnesses had to close due to the lack of foot traffic
There is literally nobody on State street and a boatload of empty storefronts. It looks like a ghost town in your video. What are you talking about?
They're starting to do this in Boston now as well, with the North End as a test subject. Those straights are so narrow that they honestly shouldn't have cars on them.
I completely agree about Boston. In the summer at least during this virus time they allowed some of the restaurants in the north end to have outdoor tables on the streets. The Italian Cafés even put flowers around the border and it looked like it was in Europe instead. It’s so nice to stroll by and see that.
I love that Denver did the 16th Street Mall and made it buses only. It makes walking down or riding down 16th St so pleasant.
Denver's 16th street mall is awesome. It has a free bus along it, so if you walk down to the far end and then don't feel like you can make it back to where you parked on the other end, you can do it.
I really love how cities all over the world build more bike lanes and (very slowly) make the cities greener. Of course all of this should have started years ago and isn't nearly going as fast as it should, but it's fast enough change to make a noticable difference.
car community is typing..............................
im a car enthusaist but i also care abt the environment but Bruh
Buffalo NY did this some time ago and I lived on that ‘street’ for a while. I concluded at the time that it didn’t increase traffic elsewhere but a dead city is a dead city and it did nothing to help that imo.
In fact the the pedestrian mall concept helped kill what was left of downtown. They finally brought cars back in an attempt to save it, but it may be too late.
Very beautiful city and nice video!
Another street that reduced or prohibited private vehicles. Van Ness Ave, which also runs across Market street has a BRT and has had it for over a year. Did really well
I don’t know what other San Franciscans think about the Market St. issue, but I found the banning of cars an interesting decision. A lot of streets in SF have temporarily or permanently restricted through traffic. Although inconvenient for drivers, I guess it doesn’t really effect local traffic.
the great highway closure is the best example of this. it has so few entrances/exits its not useful at all for getting around locally but closing it pissed off all the peninsula commuters
I've been downtown during business hours a total of 5 days since St Patrick's Day 2020, and tbh I'd like to keep it that way. (Though I was very happy indeed to find out last night that the J-Church is running downtown again, at least sometimes!) So I don't have much experience with how Market Street has been since then. But I've been for a car-free Market Street - and downtown in general - since forever, and am glad to see it finally happening. I have very much enjoyed having Sanchez in Noe Valley as a "Slow Street" and hope that the "Slow Street" pilot program expands into pedestrianized Superblocks. I've seen one online petition on Facebook trying to get rid of the "Slow Street" in their neighborhood, I think the Pacific Heights/Marina area, complaining that pedestrians and bicycles "are acting like they own the road" and those cager tears give me joy. One thing about Market Street - there used to be a tram rail loop through the Transbay Terminal on Mission between 1st and 2nd, where the F-Market turned around before heading back to Castro (or, on its last run of the night, turning around at Castro to head down Church Street to the barn, and taking me home along the way 🙂). Those tracks got removed when the F-Market was rerouted along with the redesign of The Embarcadero to become the F-Market and Wharves. I want to see that tram loop restored and reincorporated into the F-Market's route and/or a new modern surface-level tram that just goes back and forth on Market from The Embarcadero to Van Ness during business hours, express-style, to feed what was always meant to be (and hopefully will yet become) the new terminus for both electrified Caltrain and CAHSR.
San Francisco already has better transit than a lot of American cities, they should work on improving it even more.
Banning cars is a technique to increase value of properties. A street without cars is as wonderful as it is expensive (from a RE standpoint), especially in the center of a city.
@@chemicalfrankie1030 only expensive because there’s so few that demand skyrocketed for the limited supply
It's so frustrating to argue car lane reduction. The success stories like these prove that it's worth the try, but pro-car enthusiasts will use the "don't fix what's not broken" card. Problem is the 'what's not broken' here is just hanging on by a thread and it's not going to keep working.
Just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s not broken.
As our small city has completed sections of freeway bypassing the old highway that ran through downtown, the city has overhauled the old main street by reducing lanes, slowing speed limits, widening sidewalks, and adding bike lanes. All of the businesses downtown fought it but downtown was always dead in the evening because the street was so loud and busy that walking around sucked. Some sections even had fencing to keep people from walking off the narrow sidewalk and into traffic. Now there are lots of cafes and bars and the main street is actually a nice place to visit instead of just a way to get somewhere else.
It's not even car enthusiasts, it's people who've grown up only using cars.
The people who don’t know it’s broken haven’t tried to walk on those streets.
Being a car enthusiast my self i can better understand the view of most other car enthusiast. most of them see it as an attack on their right to drive a car. But I do think that city centres are better with out cars. I dont live in a city. and the citys around me are mostly small and quite car friendly by UK standards. But a few times I have driven in Manchester which is a much bigger city than the ones I live near and I hated driving in it. It is more fun to drive my car on Rural roads than cramped UK city roads.
Sydney has banned cars from its busiest and original high street, George Street. George Street is a 3-kilometre/1.9-mile road that runs right through the Sydney CBD. The new Sydney Light Rail allowed Sydney almost completely to remove vehicles from this street. During construction of the light rail works, Sydney pedestrianised a critical section of George Street. The southern end of the road remained open to vehicles, but there was no traffic. So in May 2020, the City of Sydney proposed to convert the southern end of George Street into a pedestrian-only boulevard. The result is that Sydney now has a world-class boulevard; it attracts tourists and shoppers and is a great place to relax. Sydney is now doing a similar scenario in its second CBD, Parramatta. The new Parramatta Light Rail is currently being constructed, and a major section will be car-free once construction is finished. Sydney's third CBD, North Sydney, is turning a key road into a car-free as part of a new Metro line rollout. Sydney is turning into a poly city with mini-CBDs scattered around its vast train/metro network. Most of these mini-CBDs want to turn a significant street into a car-free zone. The NSW State government encourages every local government authority in NSW to turn a road/street into a car-free zone and will help fund the project. Residents have been some pushback, but these car-free zones are getting approved.