notjustbikes

notjustbikes , 4 hours ago

@kytkosaurus @CargoBikeDaddy congrats! I hope you love your cargo bike as much as we do!

notjustbikes , 4 hours ago

@GhostOnTheHalfShell holy crap, about time!

I will be so happy when this finally gets completed. North America needs a win.

notjustbikes , 11 hours ago

@hayify surprisingly that didn't come up in any of my research on 30kmph cities, but it's great to see!

I think like most thing urban planning, switching to 30kmph speed limits gets a lot of pushback, but when it's actually implemented things go fine and the majority of people like it.

notjustbikes , 5 days ago

@erikh I have no interest in that. I know the US sucks.

Honestly, I'm tired of even talking about it. Online urbanist content is way too oversaturated by American content.

notjustbikes , 5 days ago

@erikh I'm happy to see more content, I'm just totally sick of hearing about the US.

notjustbikes OP , 5 days ago

@tomoya that's amazing

notjustbikes OP , 4 days ago

@petrescatraian I don't have any plans to visit the Balkans at this time, but if I do, I need to have a reason to visit.

Nobody wants to watch a video where I complain about all the things wrong with a place they've never been to. I would prefer to focus on something that is done well, and then mention some of the things they could do better.

notjustbikes OP , 7 days ago

@Takuto yes, we know.

It was basically "free" to turn on after the work was done to implement iDEAL.

It's still a functioning payment system so It would've been stupid not to enable it. Why would we not?

notjustbikes OP , 7 days ago

@danielquinn use this link:

https://go.nebula.tv/gift?ref=notjustbikes

notjustbikes OP , 7 days ago

@BoukevanderSpoel lol what a ridiculous overreaction. 🤣

there was a type-o in the URL. I've updated it to this one:

https://gift.nebula.tv/notjustbikes

This now links to the correct page.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

None of the following is critical of City Beautiful: he is a great guy and his video is completely accurate, as usual.

In fact, there are several things in his video that are just too accurate.

When redesigning a stroad, you can't take space from cars (except in rare situations), you can't change intersections, and you can't move any utilities.

You need to plan around the scraps left over from a stroad designed for drivers.

So the ultimately, the solution will be a big compromise.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

Dave mentions some typical improvements that can be made to a stroad like this, given the political constraints.

The end result of this kind of redesign looks something like this photo.

This is Wonderland Road in Fake London.

Is this better than the stroad in the post above? Yes.

Is it good? Absolutely not.

And the problem is, streets and roads are only redesigned about every 30 years.

So this is it. This is all you're getting for at least a generation.

Lipstick on a pig.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

This is why Strong Towns does NOT advocate for redesigning stroads like this. There's no point.

It will cost a bunch of money and political capital and those "bike lanes" will be used by only a handful of people (just like on Wonderland Road), which will only serve as something to point to and say, "see? nobody bikes here!"

Chuck's article, "How do you actually fix a stroad?" is useful here.

The answer: you shouldn't.

So what should you do?

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/12/2/how-do-you-actually-fix-a-stroad

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

Strong Towns advocates for incremental improvements.

Fundamentally, it makes more sense to focus on "downtown", or whatever traditional development still exists in your town.

Making a small change to rejuvenate a traditional walkable neighbourhood will always result in better payoffs than any stroad repair.

See Dundas Street in Fake London.

This cost less than any stroad repair, but will do way more to improve your city than adding bike lanes to 5 lane stroad.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

Do this to every traditional neighbourhood that hasn't been bulldozed.

Relaxing zoning laws in these places to allow mixed-use development.

Add protected bicycle lanes connecting these places.

Increase transit service (even buses) to every 10 minutes between these neighbourhoods and to popular office parks.

Turn old malls into mixed-use developments with high-quality transit connections to those traditional neighbourhoods.

Build great places where people actually want to be.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

Let the suburban stroads rot away!

Sidewalks and bike lanes are pointless without better land use. Smaller parking lots. Slower speeds. Dedicated transit lanes. Retail near the street.

These can't be fixed except at extreme financial cost, opportunity cost, and political capital.

Focus on resuscitating the traditional neighbourhoods (as mentioned above) and maybe, if you're successful, your grandkids can redesign the stroads. Or better yet, turn them back to farmland!

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

None of this will be easy. It will take decades of hard work and political will.

I've been branded a "doomer" for saying this, but it's just cold hard facts. Any city can be repaired, but it will require a LOT of work.

Most US and Canadian cities will take generations to repair.

Meanwhile, other cities are farther ahead, and improving faster, so if you are able to move somewhere better, you should.

If not, join Strong Towns today. Your grandkids will thank you.

https://notjustbikes.com/strongtowns

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

@meena small incremental changes.

In particular, nobody lives there anymore due to decades of exclusionary zoning prohibiting residential. It would be foolish to pedestrianize a street that nobody lives near.

They implement what they can and they don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@Judeet88 https://youtu.be/ORzNZUeUHAM

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@yudderick yeah, that sounds about right.

Any city can be fixed, given enough money and political will.

I just believe that most American cities will take generations before they are significantly improved.

Although, I'm also not totally convinced that all American cities are actually improving.

If it takes you 10 years to get a few bike lanes, but in that time, 10,000 acres of new car-dependent suburbia is built on the periphery, is that really considered "moving forward?"

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

@MrLee there's a book called The Sprawl Repair Manual that I always wanted to make a video about, but I couldn't get the copyrights to the images.

https://sprawlrepair.com/home/

In part of it, the author talks about how to turn suburban malls into town centres, and then connect them together (and to downtown) by transit.

I think this is the best hope that suburbia has got.

Trying to urbanise the giant stroads of suburbia is basically a non-starter. There are so many other low-hanging fruits.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@triddles
so true about people being blind to it. I've seen some ignorant assholes online claiming that I just "gave up" on Canada without trying. Meanwhile, I was an advocate for years.

Congratulation on getting that bike lane extension! That took a while, but less time than the original Bloor bike lane (since the 70s)!

My wife and I were deeply in involved in the advocacy to make the Danforth portion happen.

These things do have a habit of picking up momentum. I hope you can keep it up!

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@danbrotherston @MrLee yes, I know that, but unless the stroad is right downtown (and clearly doesn't belong) then your limited funds and political capital would be better spent elsewhere.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@danbrotherston yes, if a stroad is going to be redesigned anyway, better to improve the design while you have the chance, but outside of that, you probably shouldn't burn resources trying to improve stroads.

Someone else just posted a relevant Strong Towns screenshot:

https://mstdn.ca/@dunks/112644849571922324

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@dunks yep, exactly. There's no use throwing good money at bad investments. Better to improve everything else and let the stroads die a natural death (unless they go through the middle of the city, of course).

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@mcv yes, I showed this location in Nieuwleusen as an example if that in my "stroads" video:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/SYe5MqVrcpmbgCLK9?g_st=ac

But this requires a lot of space and it's expensive. The real truth is that the US and Canada are massively overbuilt. The tax base is too thin and everything is too sprawled.

Not all of it can survive, which is why Strong Towns recommends letting most stroads die a natural death. They're lined with disposable buildings. They never should have been built in the first place.

notjustbikes OP , 9 days ago

@otte_homan @dunks https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/12/2/how-do-you-actually-fix-a-stroad