[Discussion] What are your opinions on this Not Just Bikes comments on "fixing" North America?
[Discussion] What are your opinions on this Not Just Bikes comments on "fixing" North America?
He's probably not wrong. Makes sense to push for improvement regardless.
Yeah, best we can do is try. Make incremental progress. It has gotten better, at least in my small slide of the world. It still sucks for a lot pf the areas around me, but it's not as bad as it could be.
Dutch here:
US should "fix" itself.
- It is all about your "zoning laws" (change them first)
- Weakest traffic participants in traffic (pedestrians and bicycle riders) are protected by law
We had 2 "situations in the 70ties that helped"
- OPEC oil crisis => (car-free Sunday)
- "Stop de kindermoord action" => Stop killing of children (at least a few 100/year were killed)
We didn't change overnight, but the first things were done mid 80ties.
My 2cts.
This is my take as well. Jason's got a bitter pill for me to swallow here, but he's right. I will not live to see an unfucked America. There's too many people attached to (and making money off) the status quo. But my kids just might if we work hard and consistently.
I felt exactly the same and is why I left. It's not just transportation that's wrong, just overall I don't have the power to change it myself and I don't think there's enough or a push for it to change in my lifetime.
I just got tired of spending so much money on my car. Don't get me wrong, I loved that thing, and I babied the shit out of it. That being said, I don't want it in my life, it's like having a dependent and I don't miss having to wake up in the morning and bus across town to pick up my car because I decided to have two or three beers the night before.
Agreed. I left just shy of 7 years ago. It's got to the point where American problems don't feel like my problems anymore. To say I have given up would be a stretch.. I still follow the news and vote because I want to do whatever little I can to help the people I care about who still live there. It's otherwise hard to stay engaged when it feels so bleak.
Talking to the girlfriend, we kinda both agree that we would never move there full time.. At most maybe a 1 month vacation. Even from "third world" countries I feel like I live a better life than most of the people I have left behind. It kinda breaks my heart knowing they could do so much better. Oh well.
Even if you move away, not following American news is like not looking at the crocodile living in your apartment. It's a country whose influence affects the entire world. Likewise goes for China and to a much lesser extent, Russia.
I can't believe he said his channel is for the people who can afford to move out of North America. There is absolutely no way he would have been as successful if his channel was only viewed by the less than 1% who can legally and financially move to Amsterdam.
He's not wrong about NA, but he's being a privileged rich dick. Car centric infrastructure isn't hurting the rich anywhere near as badly as the poor.
I haven’t see the discussion previous to this snapshot, however his channel definitely isn’t a „how to change x country“ type channel, strong towns might indeed be better for that. What his channel is doing is providing insight into a different way to do things, a push for people to questions the status quo.
But don’t be under the illusion you could change a place like the US or even other European countries like Germany to turn into the Netherlands, that won’t happen in a few decades.
So he isn’t totally wrong about that. Doesn’t mean his channel is worthless for us, just that it isn’t a howto fix this instruction.
I actually do think he's wrong about North America, we can see real significant change in our lifetimes on transit and already are. It really just depends on what area we're talking about. Obviously a place like Omaha, Nebraska is going to look different from NYC.
He seems really angry and I think people should give him some space. Being the #1 advocate for walkability and transit in the world isn't easy. He must get so much hate from carbrains.
I read that as carbarians
That terms also works. Lol
Babe, wake up, new urbanism vocab just dropped
As an American who immigrated to the Netherlands, it’s very relatable.
When you look at how big of a struggle car dominance still is here it’s hard to see NA as anything other than a lost cause.
I find it unfortunate that NJB frames it in such a discouraging way but agree with the sentiment.
There are places in the U.S. that give a shit about biking and pedestrian infrastructure. They're tearing up a major road a block from my house and are adding a separate mixed-use lane for pedestrians.
In 2024 another major roadway is going down a lane to add a bike lane and a third is in development design talks now.
The U.S. is a big place and local attitudes about transportation vary wildly. It's ok to be frustrated but this post is generalizing a bit too much.
I think an important thing to note is that he is right in pointing out that his channel was always for people that can move, explaining why you would want to and why he did. The problem is, you finish doing that at some point, and it trails off into "let's complain about cars". There was a video that stuck out to me, where his tone was very harsh and unwelcoming to those who might disagree with him. In the comments, he said something along the lines of "If you find "my tone too harsh" don't watch the videos or deal with it" although I think with more curse words, I don't remember exactly.
I think that's a horrible perspective that he's moved into. As a rather progressive person, including in this topic of conversation, his older videos were a well-measured perspective that I could send to my (rather conservative) family in hopes that they'd understand where he (and I) was coming from. Now, as much as I want to say I like his content and am a fan just because I usually agree with him, he sounds more like a bitter old man complaining in a way that's not going to do anything other than make people who already agree with him feel good, certainly not bring people who don't over to his side or help them understand his perspective. It's all very disappointing.
As far as whether it's "possible" to "fix" North America... I don't think it matters all that much as far as affecting our actions. Whether the things we're doing take hold in 10 years, or 60, or 100, we should start and continue as soon as possible. Being cynical about it, while maybe not being wrong, I don't know, just seems... useless.
Hard agree, Jason's videos are the kind of videos I could show to my republican co-workers and they'd actually start to re-examine their own feelings about cars and urbanism. I have noticed more of a shift towards a mean spirited attitude, and it kinda reminds me of the snark you see on channels like Climate Town, which I cannot show to my republican co-workers without them clamming up.
My entire problem with fuck cars, in this post.
I agree with 90% of what this community says, but it’s all mainly complaining without any realistic actions or ideas on trying to fix anything.
It’s just an venting outlet, which is fine, just not what I want to be a part of.
It seems he has given up on it and was asked for his opinion.
Imo you don't need to fix the US entirely, should be doable to fix small areas you want to live in. It's nice if an entire city is well designed, but the greatest inpact is in the area you are 95% of your time in anyway, which is much smaller.
Well, he is spot on. Not only traffic-wise, the US is a lost case, indeed.
I don't think the US is a lost cause. I think about 80-90% of the US shouldn't be the focus of smarter urbanization efforts, but that's because 80-90% of the US is sprawling farm land.
I'm seeing sentiment shift around cars, bikes, and public transit. I had a discussion at work the other day and three of five people said they would much prefer public transit or biking to work, it's just not viable with today's options. I think local effort can and will spread the message. "If Springfield can do it, Shelbyville can do it better" needs to be our aim. Things like national high speed rail networks are just too big to start until the ball is already rolling.
It's even more than 90% of the land: 80% of people in the US live in just 3% of the land area. The only infrastructure needed in 97% of America is just train lines stringing small towns to the nearest big cities. We used to have this. The train tracks are mostly still there. We just need to make a deal with railroad companies that we'll invest in the tracks in return for national passenger trains having total priority on them. Or just eminent domain them, that would work too.
Get money out of politics and things could change very fast. It’s corporate rule with corporate money that is killing the US.
I don't remember electing oil and auto lobbyists yet they seem to have more power than any politician I've ever voted for.
You may not remember it possibly because you weren't alive when it happened. The boomers destroyed literally everything they were given because they were too busy snorting coke and pretending to be liberated while voting for regressive politics and politicians.
He is right, in that the change people wish for might take more than half a century to reach, but more importantly, the problem is cultural and very rooted in how americans perceive freedom .
The US is fixible more quickly... with the political will. Cutting the defense budget in half for several years and intelligently spending that money would go a long way.
I just don't see it happening without major reforms to get the government out of corporate hands though.
You agree with JustBikes then. Cutting the defense budget with fascist threats like China and Russia is difficult. By half? Impossible.
Russia is no longer a threat to anyone except, perhaps, a small neighboring country with no defensive capabilities. China, on the other hand, is certainly a growing problem. While the USA maintains a significant technical advantage, China is set up to out-build the west from a manufacturing perspective.
Yeah, I don't think it's impossible to fix the US. Or frankly anything else. But possible and practical are very different things. It's possible, but it would take a massive amount of time, money, and political will that would have to basically come out of nowhere. It's not practical to expect that in the foreseeable future.
But just because we can't "fix" it doesn't mean we can't at least make improvements. Fixing isn't really a binary. Even if we can't do much for existing suburbs with their massive sprawl and absolutely nothing you can walk to, we can make city centers more walkable and expand public transit within them. We can avoid building more suburban sprawl. We can make walkability an important criteria for new neighborhoods. Even if we can't fix things for everyone, we can at least improve things for a significant number of people and that's absolutely doable.
My Canadian city has been improving in recent years. We got an LRT in the past 5 years or so and it's amazing if you're on its corridor (and that has prompted more and better development along it). We've added a bunch of bike lanes (proper ones with concrete barriers), removing car lanes in some cases. In our downtown, the sidewalks got expanded and street even closed to vehicles to be pedestrian only (and part of it is full of picnic tables and stalls for festivals). We still have a long way to go and the city still down have a bunch of suburban sprawl, but it is getting better and we should not give up on improving it.
I hard disagree on this, and after watching a lot of his content I kind of got the feeling that this was his position. The united states is fucking HUGE. I agree we will not fixed the US within our lifetimes, but there are a lot of major cities that have a good launching point. Mostly in the northeast.
We also have to think about the major CA HSR project that will be finished in our lifetimes, and if that project is a success it could have serious implications for transit across the whole country.
This attitude gets us nowhere. No serious amount of people are going to move out of North America, especially not the United States given how fucking huge and diverse it is. Comments like this actively hurt our cause.
Also he's wrong that "That's not doomerism". It's exactly doomerism, and it anchors the whole problem that doomerism creates: it asks you to be hopeless about changing anything. Indeed, says you are not part of the community if you think things can be changed.
We aren't going to "fix" the whole United States and we don't fucking have to. Do you think there are trains that visit every square inch of the Netherlands? If you think everything must be fixed for it to count, then the Netherlands isn't Fixed, either. Change is done gradually; sometimes gradual change is followed by rapid chaotic change. Look at the way we gained the right to gay marriage or legalized weed in America. I heard people saying they'd never see new weed laws in America as recently as 1 year before states started flipping the script.
Fight to change something, don't just give up. This guy sucks.
And almost all of the transit-related changes are things decided locally. Boston or NYC aren't Amsterdam, but they are very different places for transit with very different potential for solutions than something like a Houston suburb.
You're talking about one high speed rail like that was a divine revelation but in first world countries we call it building infrastructure
He's actually been kinda cranky on Mastodon lately. I've actually thought about unfollowing him because he's been a bit of a downer and even downright rude. Still love his videos, but I'm beginning to think he might be kind of a dick.
It's the problem with para-social media. Just because someone makes something you like, doesn't mean you have to like them.
I don't know or watch this guy. Only just seen this post. My interpretation is that he's just frustrated and he's demonstrating that. It honestly seems like people need to get off his back and leave him be.
I have to agree with him. I'm in a similar situation but in Australia. I live in a car-fucked city with no hope of changing, so my only feasible short term solution is to move to Melbourne, Australia's closest thing to a liveable city. Sydney isn't an option because of the absurd cost of rent and housing.
I don't think it's completely impossible in Canada, but for the US? Absolutely. I see the US as an insanely large organization that can't get anything done because it's too bloated. A very few people are fighting over power, and are so completely opposed ideologically that they disagree for the sake of disagreeing. Canada has the advantage of being mostly inhabiting a few areas of the country with any kind of density, so with some will, there could be a way.
Small changes are so rare that we somehow manage to celebrate then individually. A small town opens it's first mixed used building with bike/pedestrian area in San Francisco's suburbs and we open the champagne. One tiny part of a rail line opens in Montreal and we celebrate it like the second coming.
Meanwhile we aren't doing mass manifestations when a new lane is being added. We post about it on the internet and send one or two angry but polite emails. I am culpable of that too. No wonder things aren't changing. We should be much more loud, riot when someone gets killed by getting run into with a car.
Mexico: ¿soy una broma para ti?
Right? Most Americans think México is central america when it's actually part of north america.
With that said, it would probably be easier to get the cartels to invest in renewable energy and accessible public transportation before the current government does
What's there to discuss?
How best to rile up Americans for engagement.
Blocked on resolving the lack of motivation to rile anybody up because reasons in the OP.
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100% in agreement. I live in Wisconsin and this entire area is fucked for improvement. Nevermind the endless zoning red tape, nevermind the horrible laws that would have to be changed in every municipality and the utilities that would have to be redone from scratch, most "Muricuns" don't want it.
I think he's partially right. It's a valid point of view for sure.
North America can probably be fixed but it's going to take a long time and meanwhile other regions are already much more advanced than we are in this regard. So it's only natural that some people would not want to wait for the change and just go live where life will be "better" for them.
It can even happen while staying in North America! I left my small town in rural Canada because I didn't want to drive a car. I went to the closest medium size city with public transit instead of waiting for my village to have a bus service back, a service that was cut in the 90ies and indeed never came back anyway. Eventually I moved to Montreal because it's just easier here. There's already an established public transit network, bike shares, a solid bike path network... I didn't want to have to advocate and wait for this to happen back where I lived. Nothing has changed there still! It's even worse than it was before. They cut even more bus services to other medium sized cities in the region.
And so for this path I've taken in my life, moving to Montreal, I've been called privileged for being able to live in a city that allows me to not to be threathened (or less) on the road when I walk or cycle around and that just makes my life easier. They would prefer that I stay in my region and fight to get even a hard shoulder on a provincial road between two villages, so that I can get "coaled" by pickup trucks while cycling there?! Sorry but I chose to live elsewhere instead.
You can take this to different degrees. I see it like people chosing to flee a country they don't feel welcome in, rather than try to change it. You have to chose your battles.
In 10-15 years, LA will have a very good bike system and connections to buses and transit. With good density around most transit.
He is completely wrong.
Sure it's not going to be as good as Amsterdam in our life, but it is the beginning of the process that we saw in Amsterdam 50 years ago.
Some parts and areas are already pretty nice and getting better.
The fact is, most our cities simply have to change now. It's not possible for them to keep going how they are
It really depends on where in the USA, but for the most part he's right.
Any growing communities like small towns and cities have the chance to change this, but it usually sounds too high risk for them.
Plus they already have to deal with the insane red tape and overhead in the US like poorly cascaded federal and state laws, lowest bidder stupidity, maximum annual budget spending, scam zoning laws, and slow as hell development time.
Like I would definitely throw in effort to try in the plenty of towns that surround metro areas.
Dearborn for example, which is technically metro Detroit, surprisingly has some walkable neighborhoods because the smallest roads are thinner and businesses are very close to residential areas. It's definitely not perfect because all the main roads (stroads) are still absolutely huge, but it's nice to see that it's not just typical suburbs with strict Zoning.
But after visiting Houston, I would just declare the entire state of Texas a lost cause.
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Every time I meet an American tourist or visit America I’m flabbergasted at how stupid they can be. The vast majority of them have bought hook line and sinker into American propaganda. It’s frightening.
We aren’t much better in Canada, but the shit I see at a regular rate from people I meet in the states is straight fucked up. No wonder their country is going down the toilet.
Sure, let's compare the Netherlands to the US - the US being nearly 24,000% larger in size and somehow it could possibly be just as bike-friendly. From its most narrow point, it is a comically short 80 miles or roughly 130 km.
Wow, talk about delusion.
Nobody is saying that we need to have a bike path going across the whole country. Most people don't leave their home city on a regular basis, and for those who do, we need to build trains, not more cars.
Canada has a bike path across our country: https://tctrail.ca
Note: some sections require canoe.
Ironically, the guy has an entire video dedicated to debunking the poor framing of this argument.
No one is trying to bike across the United States. Heck, hardly anyone crosses the United States period. The core issue usually relates just to city clusters in one area, and mostly relates to a single individual city with its suburbs, and how that city has used the space it has.