Comments by "HomerOJSimpson" (@Homer-OJ-Simpson) on "Not Just Bikes" channel.

I appreciate how you point out some issues of Oslo's bike paths but also take into consideration that progress is progress and Olso has a long term plan. We can't expect a city to go from 0 to 100 in a short period. As the video pointed out, most roads need a complete rebuilt every 15-20 years so if you have a long term plan now, every year that a specific road hits that 15-20 year threshold is an opportunity to add good bike paths at no extra costs.
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I'm glad that one positive thing that came out of covid is that people got a touch of some streets being closed to cars and allowing more pedestrian friendly areas. I hope that helps create more pedestrian friendly areas with new construction. The whole city doesn't need to be super pedestrian friendly but just creating zones and paths will be great. For example, I live in Chicago and street designs are a grid system. If every 4 blocks (half mile) both north to south and east to west had no vehicles allowed on it, it would make walking and biking everywhere much easier while creating areas that would be full of outdoor dining, some green (trees, small parks, etc), and lots more businesses.
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@jsrodman I don’t get it. What’s wrong with saying europe? It fits well with what OP said
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@laurencefraser I have no idea why people complained OP used Europe. What an odd complaint indeed. Especially when the video points out these services are in most of Europe!
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@dunbass7149 why is it weird to group countries up? People do that with North America, Latin / South America, Caribbean, East Asia, etc.
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@ImKuru oh my bad, it was wrong of me to say Europe. I should have said “he shows Similar services in other countries of the region that Americans call Europe and that this Canadian called europe”
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5:45 regarding costs of a car in the US, driving 10,000 miles a year would cost me $1,400 fuel, $1,100 insurance, $3,500 car payment, and $1000 misc repairs for a total $7,000. Yeah, that $4,000 electric bike pays for itsself in less than a year!
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10:32 I can tell you as an American well in tuned with politics, using aggressive tactics for “less important” will backfire. Even the BLM was damaged when certain elements of the group (and many not even part of the movement but took advantage of the situation) used aggressive or violent methods. A large protest with shouting and slogans while having city approval for the protest is great. Illegally blocking roads or using violence will hurt your cause in the US.
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Chicago also has seen local shops repalced with national Chains. I moved to Chicago in early 2000's. The 'hip areas' or 'most desired areas' where most people want to live (as opposed to the outer areas that are more family and suburban vibe) use to have far fewer national chains. I noticed around or just after the Great Recession that national chains began to move in. Still majority local shops but there must have been at least a two fold increase on the national chains -- especially fast food chains and coffee chains. Seeing a lot more targets as well (mini-targets that halfway between a walgreens and a full target).
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10:20 “like buying a bag of milk”. Canadian confirmed.
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computers and cell phones are a factor for”lazy” youth though. It’s up to the parents to decide if they want their kids outside or not though.
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@sunyfishh let’s be real. Not much has changed the past 40 years except now there are more things to keep you home from more tv options, internet, more game options, etc. There are indeed more distractions at home. But there are other factors too such as the whole stranger danger and what that lead to. It was perfectly fine in the 80’s to let your kids walk to a nearby park and play by themselves. Kids age 6-12. Now it seems parents only allow they if their kids are at least 12 years of age.
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@advokatie you’re not going to stare at the ceiling all day and nobody said you would. The point is kids spend LESS time outside and distractions such as social media and video Games and internet are a reason. The is still the same amount of time in day now than 40 years ago so the more kids consume that entertainment the less they are outside. Also, “rise of social media can be blamed on car dependency” is a joke. Social media is very popular in many parts of the world with low car dependency.
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@NotJustBikes I sold motors for those hot dog roller heater!
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If I could re-do my life, I would have moved to Netherlands when I was younger -- assuming I can find a job. I've been to Amsterdam for 3 days but it was so beautiful and loved how walkable and bikeable everything is. And having to wait only 6 minutes for the next train but still complaining it's too long -- wow, what a difference. In Chicago, only during peak rush hour morning and afternoon is it under 10 minutes to wait for the train. If not peak, you're waiting 10-20 minutes depending on what time it is! I think it's 10min during busy but not peak and 15-20m late evening and overnight.
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@Zaydan Naufal you don’t have a source, do you? A quick google search shows Nigeria spends the most time on social media. Followed by Phillipines. India spent more time than US on social media and China was 10% less time than the US. So your theory that you state as a fact appear to be wrong or weak correlation.
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I looked up "no salt used on the roads in Oslo". It's not quite accurate. The most heavily trafficked roads (about 20% of the roads) Oslo does use salt. On the other roads, Oslo sometimes use salt during the transition periods of the year, in the spring and the autumn, when the temperatures are around 0 degrees C. A few 2023 articles say this winter that just finished had the most salt used on record. I've never seen gravel used on ice. The usual is salt which does a great job of melting ice but it's bad for the environment. The only other option I've seen is sand. Gravel seems like it would be more expensive than sand but I suspect gravel might be less expensive for Norway possibly because it's more available inside the country
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@timmattle4730 Eisenhower's main focus may have been for military and economic transportation but I think @Christopherspect was curious about the whole post from OP. Did Eisenhower not actually want highways to cut through cities?
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The car and wide road seems to be symbol of development in lots of East / SE countries! China and Vietnam or Thailand for sure!
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Nothing screams north america like that opening scene. I'm glad I live in a big city and not the burbs.
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Cargo electric bikes are the future. It needs to get here soon In terms of popularity. You would only need a car for longer trips (think 4km+). Anything within 4km would be perfectly fine in an electric cargo bike.
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@advokatie well, it’s impossible to play more video game and watch tiktok while also going outside equally as much as prior generations. Kids don’t go outside as much but ultimately it’s on the parents.
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@Zaydan Naufal lol, social media literally could not exist 20 years ago because technology wasn’t there. You have to be a joke account? Also, social media is popular in many places where there is little car dependency
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@Zaydan Naufal in fact, Us Was 2 hours 8 min a day which was below the world average of 2hr 24 min
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Puerto Rico is the same and it's a bigger island with bigger cities. For some reason, much of the Carribean (I'm including Bahamas) is no different than the US & Canada. But it's so different in most of Latin America. I've been to Mexico a lot and the cities are usually very walkable as are many of the towns. Mexico also has very good bus options for transportation between cities. While the cities are generally very walkable, the city public transportation is hit or miss. I've never been to Mexico City which I heard has a good train system but all the cities I've visited didn't have a train and the buses were just okay. Cheap though. Rarely take the local buses because the cities are walkable and if I have to go somewhere local that isn't walkable, its usually not too far and a cheap uber will do.
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@dunbass7149 talking about a specific country? The video literally discusses how these services are popular in much of Europe. Did you watch the video?
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You could say the same about TikTok now…and social media as a whole
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@WladylawGomulka well, it did produce lots and lots of vehicles that created jobs and helped create some economies but that’s too difficult for some to understand. That said, it has major costs in terms of the impact on the environment and quality of life
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While I think 80% of the video are great points, it was highly bias against driverless vehicles and some of the opinions showed it but so did some misleading facts. One of the biggest issue i had with the video, especially early on, is the suggestion that driverless cars today is basically how it will be in the future. Running the red light for example. It takes practice on the road for machines and their designers to get to their ideal product. These mistakes are expected early on but the constant sometimes subtle but other times not suggestion they won’t improve much was just too much for me
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While I agree with most of the video and certainly love the 'walkable' and 'unique' places, there is a difference between what people want as a tourist and what they want in day to day life. For some reason, Americans just love having big homes and big lawns/yards for their homes. They love the space. They the quietness. And further out suburbs are also much less expensive so housing costs less per size of lot or home. But they may love those walkable areas as a tourist.
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16:58 City Beautiful is how I got started with watching urban planning and I think algorithms showed me this channel (not just bikes) while I watched City Beautiful. If I had been exposed to urban planning in the 90’s as teen, I probably would have gone down that road but I was 30+yrs old when I became exposed to it and interested in it
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@NotJustBikes Chicago depends on the definition. The highway goes just to the west of downtown. Does that count?
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@Bionickpunk yes, it's solid progress unlike many cities that have gone backwards or made little progress.
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4:01 “diet cokes per bald eagle” 😂😂
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4:11 “Nachos Bikes”. Took me a moment to realize it. Notjust bikes
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12:50 roundabouts are now somewhat common all over the US. They are frequently found in new rural intersections and new outer suburb development.
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13:36 great video but the problem is that North America went to hard on cars it’s very expensive to do undo the damage of building around cars. You brought up a recent development in Netherlands where they also built a tram at the same time but that was near a city center and everything already connected to it and nearby was walkable. It’s hard to turn current North American suburbs or many of the big cities built around cars to into transit oriented cities. There are too many people who have already invested in homes with car dependency in mind. That said, North American cities can take little steps which you described some examples.
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4:50 sparkling water from a public water fountain. Rome near the colosseum also has one. I loved it!
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A lot of the complaints and video footage shown here are for very suburban parts of North America. There just will not be the foot traffic to justify the Intersections you describe in the Netherlands. They (North America) would first need to fix their zoning and allow more densely populated areas and buildings before they should even consider half of what’s in this video. In the major cities of North America, most of this makes sense.
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Petition to rename London Ontario as Fake London Ontario.
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