Delvin4519
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Wanting to extend/save the discussion piece from the 400+ page long General MBTA thread. Original launching point discussion is here: https://archboston.com/community/threads/general-mbta-topics-multi-modal-budget-massdot.971/page-421
This thread is for discussing various urbanist Youtubers such as Not Just Bikes - stories of great urban experiences and urban planning in the Netherlands & as well as Strong Towns concepts/approach to building better cities in the US and Canada, including applying these NJB/Strong Towns concepts in Boston.
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Not Just Bikes (NJB) is one of the more well known urbanist Youtubers. The channel covers urban planning concepts that make cities in the Netherlands one of the most livable and visited in the world. Its cities have good public transit, and urban planning practices that make walking, biking, and public transit; easy, comfortable, and straighforward.
Interestingly, the quest of NJB to undestand what attributes make a good city, is identical to the Strong Towns approach/concepts to building better cities in the US & Canada. Strong Towns is a US organization that was founded with a goal to fix and improve cities in the U.S. (as well as those in Canada). For those who want better cities in the US and Canada, Strong Towns is very important and a key part for such a goal.
Here are some of the more niche urban planning concepts covered by Not Just Bikes & Strong Towns:
* Suburban sprawl is a massive infrastructure and financial liability at a very large scale/magnitude for cities and states in the U.S. and Canada.
* Public transit should be used as a tool to build great cities, NOT just as a "band-aid" to traffic congestion. There is a hidden difference between these two purposes of public transit.
* The "Stroad" was a term coined by the founder of Strong Towns, Charles Marohn. Transporting people and goods at high speeds should be separated from productive urban places, which should typically be incremental and multi-purpose, and move at a human scale/pace. Street design should be intiuative and match such natural human intuiation.
* Parking and storage of motorized vehicles - large two-ton fuel/oil tanks; is hugely distructive to the urban fabric. It can also cause traffic generation/induced demand.
---
There are many reasons why the Netherlands today has one of the most livable and visited cities in the world. Some little known tidbits:
* After WWII, Several cities in the Netherlands were devastated, especially south of Amsterdam. This provided a clean slate for rebuilding the cities for cars; especially the case for Rotterdam. Unlike the US, the Netherlands was impovershed after the war, and so couldn't begin suburbanization for several years after the US began suburbanization, post WWII.
* There were multiple years of very violent riots in Dutch cities in the 1970s, related to traffic violance, and highway expansion, and massive monetary costs for doing so. Dutch cities were being bulldozed to make room for cars, traffic fataltiies were rising by an alarming rate, and the country was going broke doing so; just 25 years after being bombed in WWII and forced their surrender. This eventually led to the near complete halt of suburbanization and highway expansion in the mid 1970s. The votes to cancel and end all highway expansion & suburbanization was won by only 1 vote or so, by just the right people in city council and Dutch leadership.
* The Netherlands has been using Sustainable Safety standards since 1991 for road design/redesign, being updated several times since then. The 1990s standards changed the approach to traffic fataltiies from reactive to preventative/forgiving. These standards were initially only to reduce traffic fatalties, NOT to build a cycling city/country. However, the fact that cycling numbers are increasing and rebounding, post suburbanization era, means that it's a side effect of the efforts to improve traffic safety; and it is improving.
* The Netherlands makes extensive use of raised, continous sidewalks, and bollards. (Bicycle Dutch)
* Reducing conflicts in intersections in the Netherlands. (Bicycle Dutch) Traffic lights are also positioned at the near side of the intersection to reduce box blocking.
---
This means the US and Canada has had about 75 - 80 years of suburbanization and increasing, since 1945. Many US cities are still continuing down their path of suburbanization today. For comparison, the Netherlands had only about 15 - 20 years of suburbanization between the 1950s and early 1970s. The Netherlands is already about 50 years past the decison to end the 15-20 years of suburbanization/highway expansion, about almost 2 life cycles of road-resurfacing. It's also 1 full road resurfacing cycle past the initial 1991 standards for Dutch road design standards, which, being updated since then, means the Dutch are now starting their 3rd generation of road redesign/resurfacing projects to further improve traffic safety and bicycle infrastructure.
This thread is for discussing various urbanist Youtubers such as Not Just Bikes - stories of great urban experiences and urban planning in the Netherlands & as well as Strong Towns concepts/approach to building better cities in the US and Canada, including applying these NJB/Strong Towns concepts in Boston.
---
Not Just Bikes (NJB) is one of the more well known urbanist Youtubers. The channel covers urban planning concepts that make cities in the Netherlands one of the most livable and visited in the world. Its cities have good public transit, and urban planning practices that make walking, biking, and public transit; easy, comfortable, and straighforward.
Interestingly, the quest of NJB to undestand what attributes make a good city, is identical to the Strong Towns approach/concepts to building better cities in the US & Canada. Strong Towns is a US organization that was founded with a goal to fix and improve cities in the U.S. (as well as those in Canada). For those who want better cities in the US and Canada, Strong Towns is very important and a key part for such a goal.
Here are some of the more niche urban planning concepts covered by Not Just Bikes & Strong Towns:
* Suburban sprawl is a massive infrastructure and financial liability at a very large scale/magnitude for cities and states in the U.S. and Canada.
* Public transit should be used as a tool to build great cities, NOT just as a "band-aid" to traffic congestion. There is a hidden difference between these two purposes of public transit.
* The "Stroad" was a term coined by the founder of Strong Towns, Charles Marohn. Transporting people and goods at high speeds should be separated from productive urban places, which should typically be incremental and multi-purpose, and move at a human scale/pace. Street design should be intiuative and match such natural human intuiation.
* Parking and storage of motorized vehicles - large two-ton fuel/oil tanks; is hugely distructive to the urban fabric. It can also cause traffic generation/induced demand.
---
There are many reasons why the Netherlands today has one of the most livable and visited cities in the world. Some little known tidbits:
* After WWII, Several cities in the Netherlands were devastated, especially south of Amsterdam. This provided a clean slate for rebuilding the cities for cars; especially the case for Rotterdam. Unlike the US, the Netherlands was impovershed after the war, and so couldn't begin suburbanization for several years after the US began suburbanization, post WWII.
* There were multiple years of very violent riots in Dutch cities in the 1970s, related to traffic violance, and highway expansion, and massive monetary costs for doing so. Dutch cities were being bulldozed to make room for cars, traffic fataltiies were rising by an alarming rate, and the country was going broke doing so; just 25 years after being bombed in WWII and forced their surrender. This eventually led to the near complete halt of suburbanization and highway expansion in the mid 1970s. The votes to cancel and end all highway expansion & suburbanization was won by only 1 vote or so, by just the right people in city council and Dutch leadership.
* The Netherlands has been using Sustainable Safety standards since 1991 for road design/redesign, being updated several times since then. The 1990s standards changed the approach to traffic fataltiies from reactive to preventative/forgiving. These standards were initially only to reduce traffic fatalties, NOT to build a cycling city/country. However, the fact that cycling numbers are increasing and rebounding, post suburbanization era, means that it's a side effect of the efforts to improve traffic safety; and it is improving.
* The Netherlands makes extensive use of raised, continous sidewalks, and bollards. (Bicycle Dutch)
* Reducing conflicts in intersections in the Netherlands. (Bicycle Dutch) Traffic lights are also positioned at the near side of the intersection to reduce box blocking.
---
This means the US and Canada has had about 75 - 80 years of suburbanization and increasing, since 1945. Many US cities are still continuing down their path of suburbanization today. For comparison, the Netherlands had only about 15 - 20 years of suburbanization between the 1950s and early 1970s. The Netherlands is already about 50 years past the decison to end the 15-20 years of suburbanization/highway expansion, about almost 2 life cycles of road-resurfacing. It's also 1 full road resurfacing cycle past the initial 1991 standards for Dutch road design standards, which, being updated since then, means the Dutch are now starting their 3rd generation of road redesign/resurfacing projects to further improve traffic safety and bicycle infrastructure.
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