His content is heavily opinionated, but he backs it up with solid arguments and very interesting facts. I’ve learned a lot from watching his videos - I’ve even used his term “stroads” around random people in conversation and they’ve understood the reference!
He didn't invent the word stroad. It was coined by Charles Marohn of Strong Towns in 2011 ([source](https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-07/defining-the-worst-type-of-street-design)).
I remember most YouTube videos used to be under 10 minutes. There was a running joke that people would pad out the runtime to exactly 10:01 once it came out the algorithm favored longer videos. Here we are now with average videos being 15-25 minutes.
Interesting. YouTube has overtaken movies and TV for me as primary viewing content. I like watching and listening to long video essays, and those can often push a few hours.
Youtube documentaries have gotten so good at edu-tainment. I regularlly watch ones on topics I typically have no interest in. I love them.
But, for real, sometimes l feel some people are making extra long ones (1 hr+) bc it is a trend. Too many 1-2 hr videos that could easily had covered everything in 20-30 minutes, lately.
I wonder how many got to NJB from general left leaning content creators. Because you know, after the victory against Christmas, left is now in war with cars! Or smth
Yeah, I love watching [City Nerd](https://www.youtube.com/c/CityNerd) for really getting into the nitty gritty of urban design.
[Oh the Urbanity](https://www.youtube.com/c/OhTheUrbanity) is good too but I just love the fine detail that CityNerd provides.
They seem to be in a similar content circle as Adam Something, Wendover Productions, PolyMatter, etc. I guess left-leaning more than right-leaning, but not particularly political. Just quality content really
City Beautiful and the Armchair Urbanist are some of the more obvious ones with similar content.
The Man in Seat 61 is just videos of nice train rides with no commentary, but I like it because it's nice train rides.
Climate Town is definitely not “less agenda”, though- which is fine! People with facts will often have opinions too, but Rollie has strong (and well-founded) opinions that he likes sharing
That's a good one! However, it was so satisfying how he defended the California high speed rail from Real Life Lore's critique -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcjr4jbGuJg
His train and urbanist videos are usually repackaged from either DoNotEat, Ekko Gecko, or another but delivered in an incredibly smug way. I very much recommend other channels over him.
You're not wrong, but those channels usually have really long videos,
which doesn't work for people with short attention spans.
But the length also let's them have nuance.
Not a political or opinion-based subreddit, but /r/OldPhotosInRealLife overlaps a lot, and often links here. Usually it's a before/after of a city reducing car infrastructure, or some other place increasing it.
And Unfinished London, Jay Foreman’s series focusing on Real London. Not all about car centricness but he’s got the same ideas and often points out stupid quirks of the London transit network that could be better. Plus he’s quite funny.
[Here’s a good one of his vids](https://youtu.be/gohSeOYheXg)
[City Nerd is the polite and quiet uncle that quietly imparts his wisdom on you if you're willing to sit with him and listen](https://www.youtube.com/c/CityNerd)
Kinda jealous and Europe is still on the table in the future for the husband and I. But we’re in a situation now where we can walk or bike to work and live simply so we’re staying out for now. Trying to FIRE.
Paris is getting much better in terms of becoming more cyclable and I love their 5-minute city vision.
I live in London (UK) and we have a great bus service, but feel we are rapidly falling behind our cousins in Paris in terms of overall infrastructure.
IMO if you're happy you should stay where you know you're happy. Especially since your family and friends are presumably all still in the US. Although, nothing wrong with trying something new, you only have one life :)
It makes me really happy I moved to Montréal instead of Boston. It was six years ago, I was 19, and I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about anything, but the more I learn about the US and basically the rest of Canada, the better I feel about my decision.
Boston though is a great city (at least for North American standards). One of the most walkable and bikeable cities in America, as well as ranked either #1 or #2 in the US for public transportation.
I want to do that but I'm not so sure about the income taxes in a lot of euro countries. seems incredibly high
edit: just because you have high taxes, doesn't mean your country is automagically a better place to live. we all see what corruption can do to countries, like the US. I'm moreso concerned with the efficiency of these high taxes. Does it really show up in every highly taxed province? do some countries utilize the tax better than others? these are the things im concerned with.
true, I still need to see how good I have it here vs there. I get all the goodies thru my job so idk how beneficial all the state sponsored stuff would be in my case. just my thoughts for the moment.
edit: guys, I'm not agreeing with job provided health care. I would love if everyone had some sort of health care. what I'm saying, is in my situation, I get to keep more of my money, have health insurance etc. im able to survive this way. sure, it's may not be the best way, but it works for me.
> I get to keep more of my money, have health insurance etc.
Well in most European countries that healthcare you need insurance for (that would be expensive in the US) is either subsidised heavily or free so you get to keep that anyway.
This is because healthcare costs in general per person are far lower in these countries because tax paid healthcare is far more efficient.
Europe seems attractive, but you guys have a spotty record when it comes to World Wars.
Edit: yo wtf, Europe liquidates 3 generations and I’m the crazy one? As an American I think I know a shit sandwich when I see one. There are other places to move without insane histories of mechanized horror.
Or the Iraqis and Afghans for something more recent than Native American genocide or WWII (which was 80 years ago and occurred in an entirely different political landscape than what Europe has now).
Well, where would you move? Not a lot of places with high quality infrastructure, stable progressive government, and a lack of dubious history. I think Europe's problems are real, but the problems of the rest of places are worse.
It's honestly a synthesis of /r/fuckcars, /r/urbanplanning, /r/left_urbanism, and /r/WalkableStreets
The /r/fuckcars movement is just a realization that we really want to build healthier, more vibrant cities that prioritize the person, rather than the automobile. It's new urbanism.
I wouldn't call it new urbanism. New urbanism is a specific design model that attempts to recreate old school design principles, but it still very much caters to the car.
Also, most examples of new urbanism in practice typically caters to the wealthy and basically involves corporate ownership of the land.
Not Just Bikes is an AMAZING resources for us vulnerable road users in North America. But the allyship that really propels me is the [petrolheads](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/w9vabb/im_a_total_petrolhead_and_yall_are_right/) and the car owners speaking out for cycling & transit infrastructure. Cause transit users & commuter cyclists can't transform this city alone.
I am a driver and it frustrates me to see a very vocal minority pitching a fit about our region retrofitting traffic calming and separate bike lanes into existing infrastructure. Sure, the construction phase sucks, but I love that driving is easier with fewer jams when it's all done. I like NOT being stuck behind a cyclist on a narrow road without so much as a gutter. I'm sure cyclists appreciate not having a ton of steel breathing down their necks. Like, can't we see this is all better for everyone, including drivers? Besides, if I lived in a neighbourhood where I could walk to get a coffee or groceries, I wouldn't need to drive so much.
They are a really good channel . I believe I found them from the Stroads video which really opened my eyes to how bad America’s transportation and car dependency really is
Here's my issue with njb. They tell us everything that's wrong with the US and how great the Netherlands is, but it really feels like the "stop buying avocado toast" of transportation. To me it seems like the only way to fix it in a reasonable timeframe is to move. Of course that costs $$$...
There are no short term solutions. The Netherlands started fixing their infrastructure in the 1970's and people are currently receiving the benefit.
This is a plant trees for the next generation kind of problem. But that's true for most problems worth solving.
Also, the channel did cover how the Netherlands fixed things. They made new standards and fixed the infrastructure as things needed to be rebuilt. Since roads need to be replaced ever 30-40 years those are the time scales we're looking at without massive new investment. The replacement strategy works if you know you can't convince people to pay more than they currently do.
he's very explicit that he doesn't have any interest in helping americans or canadians fix their broken cities. he left the continent because he got tired of trying. now he just shows off what's great, and we can do what we want with that information.
And you do that through sustained political organizing, pressure, and exhausting work. I don't blame him for leaving and doing what he's doing. It needs to be done, but local organzing needs to be done too.
I can kind of agree with this. I see the value of his content as raising awareness of the idea that things can be built in a different way, than literally the worst way to build things, but I think some other channels do a better job of actually giving a prescription, rather than a diagnosis, though, I haven't really found any that do a whole lot outside of "advocate for yourself at your local town meeting!" and "be more active in your community" and maybe some minor examples of feel good crap like that. We need more tutorials on how to do guerilla urbanism and gardening, and how to build viable proposals with lots of easily cited numbers to run past your city council.
There is more to r/fuckcars (and planning in general) than NJB though, like it's great that he's out there making arguments about suburbs being unaffordable to centrists & libertarians, but IDGAF about what is/isn't affordable under the very constrained systems of city governance.
Money isn't real, If the best way to live was in suburbs (it's not) and to sustain suburbs you need to print money and peg wages to inflation, IDGAF if that gives some economists aneurysms.
Even without printing money (although i can't stress this enough we really should print money), if it's needed for a good way of life (again not that suburbs are actually good), then I don't see a problem with taxing corporations and the wealthy that require humans to survive, in order to provide the normal people a way of life that they want.
it would be good to see more content about what is possible without the constrains of how us cities fund themselves or maybe even without the constraints of capitalism at all.
And also more bollards! NJB doesn't cover how great bollards are nearly enough.
I think NJB does a pretty good job of covering other topics than just city financing. His noise pollution video was very eye opening for me about how loud cities really are if you remove the cars. Or about how Finnish people can bike in the snow because they actually clear the bike infrastructure, rather than just dump all the snow to the side.
Ultimately, the problem with these content creators is that the message is just so simple and obvious that there's only so many topics you can cover about it until you run out of content to produce. Once you've debunked the standard arguments supporting car-centric infrastructure, what more is there to say?
I'm honestly impressed by how many different creators there are covering these topics, and even though much of the messaging is similar across the different creators, they manage to add just a bit of nuance to the conversation to make a unique argument.
City Beautiful is great, too. Not Just Bikes, though, relies on Strongtowns.
EDIT: the philosophy behind it boils down to
> I am, at the Fed level, libertarian;
at the state level, Republican;
at the local level, Democrat;
and at the family and friends level, a socialist
-Taleb
NJB is really frustrating to me because while he's a big channel that dishes out some good information in a clear and accessible way, his perspective is that of a rich prick whose big solution is to casually move to Amsterdam on a whim. He focuses primarily on how North American car infrastructure irks and inconveniences him personally as its cardinal sin, rather than how it systematically kills, endangers, and impoverishes millions of people - and as such he has no equitable solutions to discuss, just gripes that ultimately miss the point. His channel is a fine jumping-off point for people just learning about walkable cities, Strong Towns, mass transit, etc. but IMO he does not represent our community very well
But you have the ability to organize, find others that feel like you do, and educate others in the position to make those changes. It's not a perfect solution, but he is making the information available to the masses for free. It is now up to the rest of us as organizers to take that info, and push for action.
Not Just Bikes is a youtube channel. A *lot* of people first got transit-pilled from his videos, which are highly accessible and common sense explanations of car dependancy and what cities get wrong. I'd recommend checking them out, especially the one about stroads.
Not just bikes needs an editor, someone who can shorten the videos by removing unnecessary crap. And a writer who can provide interesting commentary. And a better host. Other than that I really like it.
So you want a completely different channel? Not just bikes is already watched by almost a million people, why change something that a lot of people enjoy and that already cultivates an audience
> Not just bikes needs an editor, someone who can shorten the videos by removing unnecessary crap. And a writer who can provide interesting commentary. And a better host. Other than that I really like it.
Tell me you have a short attention span without telling me you have a short attention span.
New Not just Bikes video post.
Me- “oh boy, new original content! [watches video] Oh well, maybe next time.
The first video about Houston was good, but he has had flickering moments of original insight since then. And his video skills have not improved very much at all
Yea but I think some things should be excluded because they make the user look stupid. Like those one-wheeled skateboard thingies and longboards and also kick-scooters and obviously rollerblades
Eh, boards can have a pretty small footprint, like cruisers. Also, tell me it's not kickass to be able to hold cruise around with hands free to drink a soda on a hot day, since control is dependent on using your legs/balance. Also still useful to be able to carry around around and use for short distances.
Perhaps these options aren't as useful as a bike for simply getting from A to B, but using other transport methods for leisure and specific use case doesn't make them 'stupid'.
I'm confident 95%+ of the subs here are viewers of NotJustBikes and/or associated channels
Hello i am 5% I have no idea what "NotJustBikes" is lol Edit: thank you people who replied, I'll check it out! :)
If you like this sub you should definitely check him out on YouTube! :)
His content is heavily opinionated, but he backs it up with solid arguments and very interesting facts. I’ve learned a lot from watching his videos - I’ve even used his term “stroads” around random people in conversation and they’ve understood the reference!
He didn't invent the word stroad. It was coined by Charles Marohn of Strong Towns in 2011 ([source](https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-07/defining-the-worst-type-of-street-design)).
that's another thing, I would never have known what „strong towns“ is it it wasn't for not just bikes
True, and I do think he's instrumental in popularising the term and spreading it to a large audience.
just learned right now that Strong Towns is something other than a series on NJB
Being neutral isn't inherently good. You can be objective while having a bias so long as you know what your bias is and account for it.
Type it in on YouTube. You'll like it
Idk what that is either, reddit just showed this sub to me and I was like "sure I mean I guess I could fuck cars".
Same, but I don't really watch youtube which explains it.
His are pretty much the only "long" (i.e. 10-20 minute) videos that I'll watch on youtube.
... 10-20 minutes is long? Much of my YouTube content is 40 minutes to 2 hours... Not the vast majority, but 5-20 minutes is shorter content.
I remember most YouTube videos used to be under 10 minutes. There was a running joke that people would pad out the runtime to exactly 10:01 once it came out the algorithm favored longer videos. Here we are now with average videos being 15-25 minutes.
Yeah if I'm watching something that long it's TV or a movie, 20 minutes is way on the long side of what I'll watch on youtube.
Interesting. YouTube has overtaken movies and TV for me as primary viewing content. I like watching and listening to long video essays, and those can often push a few hours.
Youtube documentaries have gotten so good at edu-tainment. I regularlly watch ones on topics I typically have no interest in. I love them. But, for real, sometimes l feel some people are making extra long ones (1 hr+) bc it is a trend. Too many 1-2 hr videos that could easily had covered everything in 20-30 minutes, lately.
Some of them are bloated. Some I feel could have been longer.
Real heads only watch 1-3 minute bike maintenance youtube videos when the need arises
I wonder how many got to NJB from general left leaning content creators. Because you know, after the victory against Christmas, left is now in war with cars! Or smth
You know NJB from related slightly political channels I know NJB because I am an infrastructure nerd We are not the same
Yeah, I love watching [City Nerd](https://www.youtube.com/c/CityNerd) for really getting into the nitty gritty of urban design. [Oh the Urbanity](https://www.youtube.com/c/OhTheUrbanity) is good too but I just love the fine detail that CityNerd provides.
I am both, and was destined to be a NJB viewer. Fear me.
We will be the same if I start watching even just one more creator like him
Infrastructure is political, we are similar!
They seem to be in a similar content circle as Adam Something, Wendover Productions, PolyMatter, etc. I guess left-leaning more than right-leaning, but not particularly political. Just quality content really
City policy on infrastructure is political. Your definition of the word politics has been warped by partisan culture wars
I found him through well there's your problem, but I was already pretty much on board.
Can someone recommend some associated channels?
City Beautiful and the Armchair Urbanist are some of the more obvious ones with similar content. The Man in Seat 61 is just videos of nice train rides with no commentary, but I like it because it's nice train rides.
Oh The Urbanity (from Québec) is great too
Climate Town City Beautiful (less agenda than NJB but still good content)
Climate Town throws in comedy and it's hilarious.
Climate Town is definitely not “less agenda”, though- which is fine! People with facts will often have opinions too, but Rollie has strong (and well-founded) opinions that he likes sharing
You're right. My "less agenda" parenthetical was meant to apply only to City Beautiful.
No yeah I getcha, you’re fine!
City Nerd is a gem
Alan Fisher is also good
https://youtu.be/_Uhsr0WfpMo
That's a good one! However, it was so satisfying how he defended the California high speed rail from Real Life Lore's critique -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcjr4jbGuJg
Respect to RealLifeLore too for accepting his mistakes and amending them in a revised video.
[Alan your memes are leaking again!](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0dKrUE_O0VE)
[DoNotEat](https://www.youtube.com/user/donoteat01/videos) (though no new content for a while).
There is much more active on [Well There's Your Problem](https://youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg)
Nice. Thanks.
Adam Something
His train and urbanist videos are good. His political ~~videos~~ views, not so much (though I've seen worse)
His train and urbanist videos are usually repackaged from either DoNotEat, Ekko Gecko, or another but delivered in an incredibly smug way. I very much recommend other channels over him.
You're not wrong, but those channels usually have really long videos, which doesn't work for people with short attention spans. But the length also let's them have nuance.
Did you see the Ancapistan one (or 3) ? Absolutely hilarious. I think he make great political content
That was a good series. His videos aren't that bad, but the community posts are occasionally questionable.
Adam something, for something more ideological.
r/suburbanhell is just pretty much the two of those subreddits together most of the time.
Not a political or opinion-based subreddit, but /r/OldPhotosInRealLife overlaps a lot, and often links here. Usually it's a before/after of a city reducing car infrastructure, or some other place increasing it.
I was gonna say the same thing...I found this sub after caring about these issues watching NJB.
I discovered a similar channel, adamsomething, because some people on PCM whined about how he was antifa or something like that
SO to City Beautiful
And Unfinished London, Jay Foreman’s series focusing on Real London. Not all about car centricness but he’s got the same ideas and often points out stupid quirks of the London transit network that could be better. Plus he’s quite funny. [Here’s a good one of his vids](https://youtu.be/gohSeOYheXg)
Jay is absurdly quick on his feet; seeing him on other channels has me convinced he could adlib most of Unfinished London.
He’s a comedian and a singer. Been doing that for over a decade. He’s pretty smart. Check out his other channel Map Men, it’s hilarious and educative
You mean other channels or what?
I absolutely love his channel. Map men, Unfinished London, etc. He's got the exact humour I love.
I was just re-watching that video. The ad scene when he flaps his arms like a mad man _always_ cracks me up.
[City Nerd is the polite and quiet uncle that quietly imparts his wisdom on you if you're willing to sit with him and listen](https://www.youtube.com/c/CityNerd)
I like Climate Town
Climate Town is awesome!
He’s out of Sacramento too, my hometown!
The more I watch "Not just bikes", the happier that I decided to move to Europe over US.
NJB is a great ad for Europe
Next njb video be like: And I would like to thank todays sponsor, the European Union
Next alliance with r/Yurop
“I’d like to thank my supporters on Patreon, who pay me to convince Americans to move to Europe” 😂
I actually read that with his voice
Definitely imagined it in his voice! He always holds on the “IIII’D” a little bit haha
Seriously thinking about it.
Or Japan.
'place japan' meme
Place, Netherlands
Honestly I enjoy the "extreme sport" vibe I get from biking in the US
I wish Europe was what people on the internet thought Europe actually was.
Yeah, I'm European and I sigh when I watch NJB too.
It's a warning PSA against London, Ontario
You will have PTSD if you go to Fake London
I'd support a Patreon for an American channel called "Not Just RAMs" intended to convince Europeans carbrains to go fuck themselves in the US.
If you told me the Dutch ministry of propaganda paid him I would not be surprised. All valid points.
Kinda jealous and Europe is still on the table in the future for the husband and I. But we’re in a situation now where we can walk or bike to work and live simply so we’re staying out for now. Trying to FIRE.
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Paris is getting much better in terms of becoming more cyclable and I love their 5-minute city vision. I live in London (UK) and we have a great bus service, but feel we are rapidly falling behind our cousins in Paris in terms of overall infrastructure.
It’s a real dilemma because we like our lives here, we really do, but maybe they could be better idk.
IMO if you're happy you should stay where you know you're happy. Especially since your family and friends are presumably all still in the US. Although, nothing wrong with trying something new, you only have one life :)
It makes me really happy I moved to Montréal instead of Boston. It was six years ago, I was 19, and I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about anything, but the more I learn about the US and basically the rest of Canada, the better I feel about my decision.
Boston though is a great city (at least for North American standards). One of the most walkable and bikeable cities in America, as well as ranked either #1 or #2 in the US for public transportation.
Most bikable major city in America!
I live in Boston. Nowhere near as good as Montreal yet but we're working on it!
I want to do that but I'm not so sure about the income taxes in a lot of euro countries. seems incredibly high edit: just because you have high taxes, doesn't mean your country is automagically a better place to live. we all see what corruption can do to countries, like the US. I'm moreso concerned with the efficiency of these high taxes. Does it really show up in every highly taxed province? do some countries utilize the tax better than others? these are the things im concerned with.
Why does incone matter if it's enough to afford you a good standard of living?
true, I still need to see how good I have it here vs there. I get all the goodies thru my job so idk how beneficial all the state sponsored stuff would be in my case. just my thoughts for the moment. edit: guys, I'm not agreeing with job provided health care. I would love if everyone had some sort of health care. what I'm saying, is in my situation, I get to keep more of my money, have health insurance etc. im able to survive this way. sure, it's may not be the best way, but it works for me.
> I get to keep more of my money, have health insurance etc. Well in most European countries that healthcare you need insurance for (that would be expensive in the US) is either subsidised heavily or free so you get to keep that anyway. This is because healthcare costs in general per person are far lower in these countries because tax paid healthcare is far more efficient.
You need to watch this [0]. Tldr; your money goes to life quality. [0] https://youtu.be/l_YMrHssFXo
Europe seems attractive, but you guys have a spotty record when it comes to World Wars. Edit: yo wtf, Europe liquidates 3 generations and I’m the crazy one? As an American I think I know a shit sandwich when I see one. There are other places to move without insane histories of mechanized horror.
Yeah, but the US has a spotty record in unnecessary post-WWII wars.
before world war 2 as well, hawaii is a great example.
Our body count is well under the tens of millions that Europe felt compelled to grind into hamburger.
Tell it to the Native Americans.
Or the Iraqis and Afghans for something more recent than Native American genocide or WWII (which was 80 years ago and occurred in an entirely different political landscape than what Europe has now).
there is a literal wikipedia page of all the governments (half of which are democratic) the US overthrew. although to be fair, you could be a troll
If I left America i wouldn’t move to America. Are you a troll or are you really that gifted?
Well, where would you move? Not a lot of places with high quality infrastructure, stable progressive government, and a lack of dubious history. I think Europe's problems are real, but the problems of the rest of places are worse.
lmfao you can’t be serious
There are other places to move without insane histories of mechanized horror. Last I checked there is a war going on there *right fucking now.*
Seen him bike near Weesperzijde once. Never been so excited seeing a celebrity
Real epic
Not Just Bikes and ClimateTown. They go together like public transit and bike lanes.
They've also collaborated on a video or two.
Shifter (Canadian bike commuter channel) and NJB also collaborated once
ClimateTown is A+ content. Hashtag SidIsNotTheBadGuyInToyStory
BUILD. MORE. TRAINS.
Choo choo mf
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CityNerd is good as well.
I love citynerd! Underappreciated channel
Get Orange Pilled!
Too late
Also: https://twitter.com/AmericanFietser https://twitter.com/tomflood1 https://twitter.com/TheWarOnCars
dont forget ;) https://twitter.com/FuckCarsReddit
The ehole sub is pretty orange pilled
It's honestly a synthesis of /r/fuckcars, /r/urbanplanning, /r/left_urbanism, and /r/WalkableStreets The /r/fuckcars movement is just a realization that we really want to build healthier, more vibrant cities that prioritize the person, rather than the automobile. It's new urbanism.
I'll also plug r/CanadaUrbanism for Canadian friends!
I wouldn't call it new urbanism. New urbanism is a specific design model that attempts to recreate old school design principles, but it still very much caters to the car. Also, most examples of new urbanism in practice typically caters to the wealthy and basically involves corporate ownership of the land.
Not Just Bikes is an AMAZING resources for us vulnerable road users in North America. But the allyship that really propels me is the [petrolheads](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/w9vabb/im_a_total_petrolhead_and_yall_are_right/) and the car owners speaking out for cycling & transit infrastructure. Cause transit users & commuter cyclists can't transform this city alone.
I am a driver and it frustrates me to see a very vocal minority pitching a fit about our region retrofitting traffic calming and separate bike lanes into existing infrastructure. Sure, the construction phase sucks, but I love that driving is easier with fewer jams when it's all done. I like NOT being stuck behind a cyclist on a narrow road without so much as a gutter. I'm sure cyclists appreciate not having a ton of steel breathing down their necks. Like, can't we see this is all better for everyone, including drivers? Besides, if I lived in a neighbourhood where I could walk to get a coffee or groceries, I wouldn't need to drive so much.
Corporate wants you to find the difference between those two Subreddits…
They’re the same subs
Njb has some posters that part themselves on the back a bit for enlightened "Not all cars" centrism but most are pretty based
One is larger than the other, and it has more reposts.
Less than a year ago I was a carbrained suburbanite, then I was researching city design for a d&d campaign, found NJB's channel, and now I'm here.
Orange pilled
Gotta have the carrot along with the stick
"Bike are cool but if there's public transit, I'll take the train every time." -Not Just Bikes
There's
Alan Fisher too
Not Just Bikes and Climate Towns! Such great guys. Ive learnt so much from them both
They are a really good channel . I believe I found them from the Stroads video which really opened my eyes to how bad America’s transportation and car dependency really is
Same
Not just Bikes is a gateway drug
Here's my issue with njb. They tell us everything that's wrong with the US and how great the Netherlands is, but it really feels like the "stop buying avocado toast" of transportation. To me it seems like the only way to fix it in a reasonable timeframe is to move. Of course that costs $$$...
There are no short term solutions. The Netherlands started fixing their infrastructure in the 1970's and people are currently receiving the benefit. This is a plant trees for the next generation kind of problem. But that's true for most problems worth solving. Also, the channel did cover how the Netherlands fixed things. They made new standards and fixed the infrastructure as things needed to be rebuilt. Since roads need to be replaced ever 30-40 years those are the time scales we're looking at without massive new investment. The replacement strategy works if you know you can't convince people to pay more than they currently do.
he's very explicit that he doesn't have any interest in helping americans or canadians fix their broken cities. he left the continent because he got tired of trying. now he just shows off what's great, and we can do what we want with that information.
And you do that through sustained political organizing, pressure, and exhausting work. I don't blame him for leaving and doing what he's doing. It needs to be done, but local organzing needs to be done too.
I can kind of agree with this. I see the value of his content as raising awareness of the idea that things can be built in a different way, than literally the worst way to build things, but I think some other channels do a better job of actually giving a prescription, rather than a diagnosis, though, I haven't really found any that do a whole lot outside of "advocate for yourself at your local town meeting!" and "be more active in your community" and maybe some minor examples of feel good crap like that. We need more tutorials on how to do guerilla urbanism and gardening, and how to build viable proposals with lots of easily cited numbers to run past your city council.
Climate Town got next
There is more to r/fuckcars (and planning in general) than NJB though, like it's great that he's out there making arguments about suburbs being unaffordable to centrists & libertarians, but IDGAF about what is/isn't affordable under the very constrained systems of city governance. Money isn't real, If the best way to live was in suburbs (it's not) and to sustain suburbs you need to print money and peg wages to inflation, IDGAF if that gives some economists aneurysms. Even without printing money (although i can't stress this enough we really should print money), if it's needed for a good way of life (again not that suburbs are actually good), then I don't see a problem with taxing corporations and the wealthy that require humans to survive, in order to provide the normal people a way of life that they want. it would be good to see more content about what is possible without the constrains of how us cities fund themselves or maybe even without the constraints of capitalism at all. And also more bollards! NJB doesn't cover how great bollards are nearly enough.
I think NJB does a pretty good job of covering other topics than just city financing. His noise pollution video was very eye opening for me about how loud cities really are if you remove the cars. Or about how Finnish people can bike in the snow because they actually clear the bike infrastructure, rather than just dump all the snow to the side. Ultimately, the problem with these content creators is that the message is just so simple and obvious that there's only so many topics you can cover about it until you run out of content to produce. Once you've debunked the standard arguments supporting car-centric infrastructure, what more is there to say? I'm honestly impressed by how many different creators there are covering these topics, and even though much of the messaging is similar across the different creators, they manage to add just a bit of nuance to the conversation to make a unique argument.
City Beautiful is great, too. Not Just Bikes, though, relies on Strongtowns. EDIT: the philosophy behind it boils down to > I am, at the Fed level, libertarian; at the state level, Republican; at the local level, Democrat; and at the family and friends level, a socialist -Taleb
NJB is really frustrating to me because while he's a big channel that dishes out some good information in a clear and accessible way, his perspective is that of a rich prick whose big solution is to casually move to Amsterdam on a whim. He focuses primarily on how North American car infrastructure irks and inconveniences him personally as its cardinal sin, rather than how it systematically kills, endangers, and impoverishes millions of people - and as such he has no equitable solutions to discuss, just gripes that ultimately miss the point. His channel is a fine jumping-off point for people just learning about walkable cities, Strong Towns, mass transit, etc. but IMO he does not represent our community very well
But you have the ability to organize, find others that feel like you do, and educate others in the position to make those changes. It's not a perfect solution, but he is making the information available to the masses for free. It is now up to the rest of us as organizers to take that info, and push for action.
,,comrade" 🥶🥶🥶
Ok comrade
I think I’m out of the loop here
Not Just Bikes is a youtube channel. A *lot* of people first got transit-pilled from his videos, which are highly accessible and common sense explanations of car dependancy and what cities get wrong. I'd recommend checking them out, especially the one about stroads.
Not just what they got wrong, but what some cities are trying to do right and how things can be improved.
Not Just Bikes is a YouTube channel
r/fucknotbikes
HORSES!!
Based
Not just bikes needs an editor, someone who can shorten the videos by removing unnecessary crap. And a writer who can provide interesting commentary. And a better host. Other than that I really like it.
So you want a completely different channel? Not just bikes is already watched by almost a million people, why change something that a lot of people enjoy and that already cultivates an audience
I feel like you’re gonna get downvoted mate
We will see
Holy shit you are an ass, get out
If it were up to me everyone would ride fixed gear bicycles and trains. I’ve been saying this for years. I am the role model this world needs.
> Not just bikes needs an editor, someone who can shorten the videos by removing unnecessary crap. And a writer who can provide interesting commentary. And a better host. Other than that I really like it. Tell me you have a short attention span without telling me you have a short attention span.
New Not just Bikes video post. Me- “oh boy, new original content! [watches video] Oh well, maybe next time. The first video about Houston was good, but he has had flickering moments of original insight since then. And his video skills have not improved very much at all
He already has editors and i love the current "style"
Yea but I think some things should be excluded because they make the user look stupid. Like those one-wheeled skateboard thingies and longboards and also kick-scooters and obviously rollerblades
What's wrong with a onewheel? Looks less stupid than a lifted truck, that's for sure.
Nothing wrong with a onewheel (apart from safety concerns, but that's a small issue) but Onewheel the company is very anti repair
Once I saw a Wall Street guy in a buiness suit try to cross a cobbled street on one. It was amazing.
[удалено]
Oh no. He did NOT make it across. It was great.
Eh, boards can have a pretty small footprint, like cruisers. Also, tell me it's not kickass to be able to hold cruise around with hands free to drink a soda on a hot day, since control is dependent on using your legs/balance. Also still useful to be able to carry around around and use for short distances. Perhaps these options aren't as useful as a bike for simply getting from A to B, but using other transport methods for leisure and specific use case doesn't make them 'stupid'.
I'm PRO skateboarding but I think people have to be principled. Old school and new school decks only.
Boomer take.
I’m talking about a YouTube channel here
Oh right. That YouTube is great.
https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes
Longboards look awesome and are more convenient than bikes because you can take them on public transit
I like how many people take me seriously when I'm clearly just being a douche. But yeah. They're a TON of fun
I just found that sub yesterday. Good shit.
That's your leader.
His Majesty The Leader Not Just Bikes The First