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Urban Designer Answers More City Planning Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

Former Chief Urban Designer of The City of New York Alex Washburn returns to WIRED to answer another round of the internet’s burning questions about city planning. How should cities accommodate electric bikes? Can urban planning mitigate over-gentrification? How can urban planning prevent crimes? What does the future of public transportation in urban centers look…

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Former Chief Urban Designer of The City of New York Alex Washburn returns to WIRED to answer another round of the internet’s burning questions about city planning. How should cities accommodate electric bikes? Can urban planning mitigate over-gentrification? How can urban planning prevent crimes? What does the future of public transportation in urban centers look like? Can a city ever reach population capacity? How’s it possible for a city to run out of water? Alex Washburn answers these questions and many more on City Planning Support, Vol. 2.

0:00 City Planning Support Rd. 2
0:15 How to accommodate electric bikes in cities
1:05 Gentrification
2:29 Living in the sprawl
3:43 Can urban planning reduce crime?
4:08 Booooring
4:58 Trees
5:51 If you build it will they come?
6:42 The future of public transportation
7:25 The Big Dig was a Big Dub
8:24 Sustainable cities
8:59 Why do taxpayers subsidize stadiums?
9:59 Hyperloop/Maglev
11:02 Concrete was a poor choice
12:23 Windmills on every building
13:08 Superblocks/Tartan Grid
14:40 Looks familiar!
15:31 Can a city reach capacity?
16:14 Favelas
17:12 please bro, just one more parking lot
18:22 NYC housing costs
19:25 Congestion pricing
19:58 Hall of Fame: Brasilia
20:55 Running out of water

Director: Justin Wolfson
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Alex Washburn
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Casting Producer: Nicholas Sawyer
Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache
Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Kalia Simms
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

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158 Comments

  1. @WIRED

    November 12, 2024 at 12:04 pm

    Did you miss Part 1?:

    • @DarkQueenMarceline

      November 12, 2024 at 8:59 pm

      You should do one of these for the writer that has to tweet the summarized answers while conveying the full answer.

    • @Maazzzo

      November 12, 2024 at 9:28 pm

      Alex was very interesting, thanks! Please bring him back for more.

  2. @FreeTimeFeats

    November 12, 2024 at 6:56 pm

    So glad he is back for round two! Thank you wired for listening to the commenters!

  3. @Zynnix

    November 12, 2024 at 7:07 pm

    Can a city ever reach capacity? * Laughs in Canada *

  4. @cvue009

    November 12, 2024 at 7:14 pm

    Ah yes the mystic question of what shall we do with ebikes…hmmm if only there were some sort pavement things where vehicles travel on the world may never know

  5. @BZAKether

    November 12, 2024 at 7:14 pm

    Speaking as an ignoramus, I have the feeling the “American school” of urbanisation was quite popular around the world, and screwed us all, Americans and non-Americans, for decades. Maybe rich cities can build a highway underground, but poor cities, the fastest growing right now, can’t even provide enough water to its citizens.

  6. @microproductions6

    November 12, 2024 at 7:25 pm

    Counterpoint: No, the Big Dig was not worth it. Removing the elevated highway was certainly worth it, but moving it underground simply serves to continue to make it easy for people to drive directly in to the center of the city, all while being more expensive to maintain than an elevated highway. Even if there were no problems with the project and it was finished on time and within budget, it still would not be worth it because of the aforementioned issues. I can maybe see a case for it if there were no on/off ramps within the city center, but as it is now there are, and they take up a lot of space and dump cars directly into the city. The only tunnel that should have been built was for the North-South Rail Link, which originally was supposed to be built along with this project.

    • @enjoystraveling

      November 12, 2024 at 8:05 pm

      I agree that the tunnel should not have on off ramps within the city center

  7. @MrWbrennan

    November 12, 2024 at 7:27 pm

    Keep this guy coming! Love his insights and commentary

  8. @oyecomova7740

    November 12, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    7:56 how they call me back in high school

  9. @lowbudgetmic

    November 12, 2024 at 7:33 pm

    That infrastructure 😮🍑💛

  10. @Ironwill_Games

    November 12, 2024 at 7:34 pm

    Super interesting as always. Thanks for the video!

  11. @rararaspberry691

    November 12, 2024 at 7:35 pm

    Is Joseph Buscemi related to Steve Buscemi?

  12. @alicecoriolano440

    November 12, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    Brasilia was built before people move to there.

  13. @rararaspberry691

    November 12, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    5:57 I imagine when we move to mars or any other planet if we ever do, we will have pre-built cities but even then cities will shape themselves as they grow.

  14. @rararaspberry691

    November 12, 2024 at 7:40 pm

    Bring an architect in the future as well!

  15. @enzofrade3137

    November 12, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    Yes!!! City planning daddy is back!

  16. @baldbadger7644

    November 12, 2024 at 7:42 pm

    This kind of video makes me sad knowing that I live in a junkyard build by Ford

  17. @who3182

    November 12, 2024 at 7:47 pm

    Wired heard us out!!

  18. @Nein1no

    November 12, 2024 at 7:50 pm

    7:20 “Let the car deal with it”…..? Uhh, the car just doesn’t suddenly ””’vanish”””.

    It’ll be on the street – being traffic and wasting energy. 🙃🙃

  19. @enjoystraveling

    November 12, 2024 at 7:51 pm

    Concrete ditches instead of rivers are some of the ugliest things that are in some of our cities and many countries. 
    There’s many people who would love to walk along paths by the river in a park, but almost no one would like to walk along a ditch. It becomes even uglier because if it’s a ditch, a lot of people who don’t throw their trash in a trashcan just throw it in the ditch.

  20. @ProjectElf

    November 12, 2024 at 7:55 pm

    As a Singaporean, having my country being mentioned in both videos makes me proud 🇸🇬

  21. @scootergirl3662

    November 12, 2024 at 7:56 pm

    Boring probably is a legit company, its just ran by an egotistical idiot. Get someone else in there and there may be potential.

    Come at me Muskrat fans, idgaf.

  22. @joshbobst1629

    November 12, 2024 at 8:02 pm

    I have to question the critical thinking skills of an urban planner who thinks self-driving cars can solve traffic problems. It’s a single occupancy vehicle that takes up as much space as a train car.

  23. @tkj222

    November 12, 2024 at 8:05 pm

    Bring him
    Back for the all day last question!

  24. @lucaslorenz8812

    November 12, 2024 at 8:12 pm

    More people move into NYC than leave? Not anymore…

  25. @metawurst13

    November 12, 2024 at 8:26 pm

    Did he just justify Gentrification?

  26. @Hum0ng0us

    November 14, 2024 at 10:17 am

    5:44 The city of London is actually legally a Forrest or something like on account of its got so many trees.

  27. @castform57

    November 14, 2024 at 10:18 am

    Hyperloop is so advanced that every company that has tried it has gone bankrupt before even building a functional prototype of any meaningful length or speed. Meanwhile japan has almost 43 km worth of test track for actual maglev that reaches over 500 km/h.

  28. @toddferguson7626

    November 14, 2024 at 10:24 am

    Diversity is not a selling point for people on the other side of the gentrification conversation. Money is the dominant incentive, but it was not the original reason for gentrifying neighborhoods in the first place. Take a guess on what the original reason was…

  29. @invox9490

    November 14, 2024 at 10:35 am

    Concerning lanes, and taking into account electric mobility will be the norm in the future, we just need 3: 4 wheels, 2 wheels and walkable. And they should NOT mix!
    The Tartan grid idea seems good on paper but it could give rise to snobism and/or tribalism.
    And sepaking of teibalism, the real problesm with Favelas is crime, plain and simple. The way social-economics divides the citizens is move prevasive than streets or roads.
    And that is why some cities can grow to 30 millions, the prevasive culture and the way their citizens behave is a great indicator on how much people can live together in the same place.

  30. @fluffylee

    November 14, 2024 at 11:20 am

    19:57 100% pound for pound it was the Nicollet ave Kmart in Minneapolis. Thankfully it’s about to be fixed.

  31. @kelvincannon3675

    November 14, 2024 at 11:40 am

    They want people to think bigger/smarter, but they keep thinking small/dumb-founded!

  32. @readjordan2257

    November 14, 2024 at 12:01 pm

    Trees dont do that though. Unless you want to consider the oxygen they expell gets used for a net gain of 0 to barely above 0, meaning you need the Amazon rainforest just to produce 1% of the worlds oxygen, but all of which gets used by the same rainforest.
    I love trees, but i think we need to stop pretending theres more to it than we just like trees and its okay to put them all over bound by wisdom and conscientiousness only.

  33. @bruja_cat

    November 14, 2024 at 12:21 pm

    I’m shocked he didn’t mention the AirBNB problem that’s gentrifying neighborhoods, pushing out locals. Along with the main problem with renters being that land lords are charging $1350+ for a single studio apartment as if that’s rational pricing

  34. @antoniofracchia9621

    November 14, 2024 at 1:09 pm

    Gentrification “is a really hard problem because it really hasn’t been solved” must be the laziest answer ever. It hasn’t been solved because the people that could solve are making a proffit out of it.

  35. @Jazzzon777

    November 14, 2024 at 1:17 pm

    I just don’t think that public transportation will ever be popular or lucrative in the US. We need to focus on making SMALLER transportation easier and safer, wether is smaller cars, e-bikes or scooters/motorcycles.

    • @reaperz5677

      November 14, 2024 at 2:54 pm

      (Google this term —>) Induced demand means that “the more car infrastructure you build, the more abundant cars will be, and the more traffic jams you’ll face”, but this principle works in reverse – the less car infrastructure there is (say, 6-lane roads are replaced by bike and bus lanes), then the LESS people would use cars, because there are more options for people to get around a city.

      This sort of defeatist “WE WILL NEVER GET BETTER” logic is just… harmful, for any public progress at all. You do not need to make car transportation “easier and safer” (which means, increasing car lanes, because that’d be “easier”), you need to replace those cars altogether. If other cities/countries can do so (like Amsterdam, Paris or London), then so can American cities.

    • @Jazzzon777

      November 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm

      @reaperz5677  nope

  36. @tomashubelbauer

    November 14, 2024 at 1:17 pm

    That favelas answer was frankly laughable, I am sorry. I feel like the guy didn’t want to get into the guts of a difficult problem so he came out with an oversimplification so bad it sounded like a 10 year old’s idea of world peace or something.

    • @reaperz5677

      November 14, 2024 at 2:45 pm

      Yeah it really felt like he was much more inclined to push a message of “Favelas aren’t bad” as opposed to answering the question, which was “what do urban planners think”. An actual answer would’ve been something akin to “yeah so they’re good/bad, and here’s why _______”. He just dodged the question and the issue with Favelas (that being that they’re SLUMS, and nothing else), basically. It’s weird.

  37. @besknighter

    November 14, 2024 at 1:44 pm

    I have borned in Brasilia. When I moved out I was 28. Washburn is spot on. It’s a beautiful city but you can’t do ANYTHING without a car. Even public transit is not good enough. It somehow manages to be worse than most US cities in this regard. It started to have traffic problems with waaaay less people than most cities start struggling with that. In a couple decades it had 10x more people living in it that it was initially planned to.

  38. @wowshiii4519

    November 14, 2024 at 3:06 pm

    Self driving cars will be really bad cities especially if the idea of eliminating intersections takes places meaning street life will disappear overnight

  39. @YoJesusMorales

    November 14, 2024 at 3:12 pm

    WTF, the first answer is to build sky lanes? just make bike lanes and limit the speeds.

  40. @meowtherainbowx4163

    November 14, 2024 at 4:48 pm

    While this guy deserves to be clowned on for the self-driving car train idea, I do like his description of gentrification. It really is a matter of housing supply. Having rich, poor, and middle-class people living together is as ideal as you can get as long as class differences still exist.

  41. @WOUSIE14

    November 14, 2024 at 4:54 pm

    Would be amazing if that was in longer format where the questions are more answered in detail. Would love to see that!

  42. @zainabs2603

    November 14, 2024 at 5:04 pm

    I want this to become a recurring series

  43. @mattcastle1010

    November 14, 2024 at 6:03 pm

    Love when Steven Spielberg teaches me about buildings

  44. @reecedawson6113

    November 14, 2024 at 6:06 pm

    Just ask the dutch

  45. @meowtherainbowx4163

    November 14, 2024 at 6:10 pm

    How come he can’t look at Barcelona’s superblocks and just say that they’re great and should be copied? He gives a cool-sounding alternative idea, but he doesn’t explain why there’s anything wrong with the superblocks in the first place. It’s like he gets anxious about closing more than 1 street at a time to cars. I think he can’t resist car brain.

  46. @funtimedavi

    November 14, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    About sponge cities, you gave as example Porto Alegre, here in Brazil that had a flood. The avenue you showed here has a very big park less than a 200m away, and at the level the lake got, it would be great, but sponge cities won’t do much alone.

  47. @robumf

    November 14, 2024 at 6:23 pm

    We have to be careful with self driving personal transportation.. It could very easily orbit around you instead of parking. Creating even more traffic and roads. We really need to think charging/tax per miles and time when they are moving. If they are electrified where and how they will be charged?

  48. @joshuacoolidge5995

    November 14, 2024 at 7:08 pm

    Self driving cars are great but what I see happening on the ground is privatization of public transportation. So less public trains, buses, bikes. Priority is given to people who can afford to own a car. Although New York is further behind on this. Look at America’s fastest growing cities. Not much planning for public transportation but a focus on cars. And soon to be replaced with self-driving cars. Although in our news feed it seems like we are heading towards a pedestrian utopia.

  49. @shakesrear7850

    November 14, 2024 at 7:27 pm

    Why not maglev windmills like the ecowhisper turbine? Is it still quite loud compared to no windmill?

  50. @henrybellin4453

    November 14, 2024 at 11:50 pm

    This video highlights the importance the importance of democratizing city planning. Our cities have been screaming for public transportation and affordable housing for years, but since most planners are hired by car brained people, they’re usually on the same car brained wavelength. We can’t trust city planners to fix this issue on their own, the only way to change things for the better is for people to get involved in local politics, and advocate for pro-human plans.

  51. @daljotsingh4918

    November 15, 2024 at 1:14 am

    5:51 Chandigarh in Punjab is a custom built city.

  52. @badllama4554

    November 15, 2024 at 2:38 am

    So many bad ideas, especially related to transport, in this.

  53. @momsbenhameen

    November 15, 2024 at 3:26 am

    Citizens do not build cities. Cities are either built by the private market through developers or they are built by the public. Of the two, it’s obvious which one is closer to the “citizens”

  54. @olyasurits7815

    November 15, 2024 at 3:29 am

    Omg I am SO glad you brought him back!!! He needs a weekly series

  55. @linachambers3327

    November 15, 2024 at 4:11 am

    EEEEEEEE IDK WHY THIS INTRESTS ME BUT I LOVE URBAN CITY PLANNING

  56. @jamesbollard6502

    November 15, 2024 at 4:25 am

    5:52 I may be wrong, but Milton Keynes, Brasilia and Canberra are all man made cities.
    Wasn’t Washington dc a manufactured city?
    Also in Egypt and the line in Saudi.
    The uk wants to create more towns/cities also.

  57. @sillyjellyfish2421

    November 15, 2024 at 7:14 am

    Gotta say that i love the tartan grid idea – one side of the block being for cars, another for pedestrians and bikes, then just keep alternating betwee the two. Intersections with overpasses for the foot traffic. Everyone gets everywhere in their own way with minimum to no passing into each other’s space and all buildings get an access to both systems on different sides of the construction. That would be great. Wanna ride a car or catch a bus? North and east building exit. You want to walk, skate, or take a bike? South and west exit will take you there. Chose your adventure, either way you can get to your destination +/- 100m, depending on which grid you chose and which side of the block your destination is situated on. Brilliant.

  58. @WillLiang

    November 15, 2024 at 9:17 am

    Can you bring back the health-related questions of this series? Been sometime since you’ve done something related to health and the body

  59. @leocremonezi

    November 15, 2024 at 9:45 am

    I’ve been to Brasília and it is a very unusual city! The architecture is amazing (World Heritage Site), but it is indeed a place created to accommodate cars instead of people. It is worth the visit anyways 🇧🇷

  60. @liampezzano

    November 15, 2024 at 11:12 am

    “Sprawl is expansion without thought.” “The future is self driving cars.”

    Make it make sense.

  61. @Bad_Wolf_Media

    November 15, 2024 at 12:06 pm

    5:01 – Mr. Washburn turned into Christopher Walken for a moment there!

  62. @0jamil

    November 15, 2024 at 12:41 pm

    This guy is delusional Musk dickrider

  63. @transitociudadano

    November 15, 2024 at 1:13 pm

    Gentrification displaces more than renters, because of the value that landlords give to the profit. It displaces history and culture, sometimes even language.

  64. @HigherQualityUploads

    November 15, 2024 at 1:29 pm

    No wonder NYC is so garbage when it had this guy in charge for so long.

  65. @HessianHunter

    November 15, 2024 at 2:34 pm

    13:44 Even when describing the distinct between a street and a road as coined by Strong Towns, he can’t bring himself to imagine a street that is only for pedestrians and cyclists, even one immediately adjacent to a car-friendly road. Every other place on earth has wildly popular pedestrian-only streets, but North America just can’t have nice things, I guess.

  66. @fancyflower3298

    November 15, 2024 at 2:50 pm

    Disappointed in his response to the rental costs in New York.

  67. @LordL3ss

    November 15, 2024 at 2:54 pm

    The “International Building Code” doesn’t appear to be all that international, more the USA and a few other in South America. Sounds more like American “World Series” championships…

  68. @benjamin5370

    November 15, 2024 at 2:57 pm

    Train, Tram, Subway, solve sprawl. This man seems to not know of these things. Bro is caught in his old modernist era thinking. You did good, but its time to retire pops

  69. @TheKirkami

    November 15, 2024 at 3:14 pm

    It’s hillarious how he just explained what Metro/Subway is when talking about Boring company

  70. @kelsey-prudhomme

    November 15, 2024 at 3:28 pm

    Stop

  71. @athos.

    November 15, 2024 at 4:50 pm

    Former for a reason

  72. @luislozano6073

    November 15, 2024 at 6:51 pm

    Two answers and just letter to Santa Claus booo

  73. @Betweoxwitegan

    November 15, 2024 at 7:51 pm

    Architecture does have an effect on crime, yes socio-economic inequality is a much bigger contributor but a lack of social connection is also a major contributor to crime and the design a residence and area does effect social interaction.

    I do think the urban designer had an implied negativity bias to the question though, thinking the question was more about hostile architecture.

  74. @zacharyhenderson2902

    November 16, 2024 at 8:48 am

    Word of the day is eccentricity

  75. @wolf-od3zw

    November 16, 2024 at 9:49 am

    Wow, it would be so convenient to get into some form of car, you get out of it, and you just dont have to worry about it anymore. Wouldn’t that be great. Oh, wait, sorry, i just remembered that already exists. It’s called a bus.

  76. @МарианГеоргиев-ь8т

    November 16, 2024 at 9:53 am

    Why do they keep pushing the ‘Singapore example’. This is a controlled city state, they can literally control influx of people AND THEY DO IT very very very aggressively (example: huge recent stamp duty increases post-cov)!

  77. @charlotte8666

    November 16, 2024 at 10:29 am

    your perspective on transportation is dark. self driving cars will ruin our cities

  78. @isbeb507

    November 16, 2024 at 11:52 am

    “let’s do the interstate system again” is such a crackhead take

  79. @willchb

    November 16, 2024 at 1:00 pm

    Yes, it’s a failed experiment, but to understand Brasilia you kind of need to throw all your biases out of the window. Any city planner thinking they could do better, good luck trying to plan a city in Brasil. Apply everything you learn in school or let it grow organically, you’ll see either way the chaos it’s going to become.

  80. @rainbomg

    November 16, 2024 at 1:08 pm

    I freakin love this guy. I want to go to his house for thanksgiving and just ask him questions over stuffin and taters

  81. @BeatrixCreighton

    November 16, 2024 at 5:02 pm

    Estatic that you guys brought this man back!

  82. @dreamervanroom

    November 16, 2024 at 5:26 pm

    So favellas are run by gangs?

  83. @steveshea9448

    November 16, 2024 at 5:45 pm

    Actually Nagoya has a maglev, too, but it’s not very high-speed. They’re expanding the service, but I don’t know whether they will also upgrade the speed of it. It’s in daily use, so Shanghai’s isn’t the only one.

  84. @xlatimer24x

    November 16, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    Detroit’s obsession with parking lots cannot be understated

  85. @fauzirahman3285

    November 16, 2024 at 7:07 pm

    I agree on that point that we can get rid of parking completely in the city and people don’t have to find parking, but I respectfully disagree that the way for that is fully automated taxis or rideshares / cars. There is already a way for that: Mass transit.

  86. @maelajah

    November 16, 2024 at 9:28 pm

    Self driving tunnel is definitely giving same energy as what I imagined of the cars in F451.

  87. @hughmann1118

    November 16, 2024 at 10:48 pm

    Hyperloop turned out to be a fraud, perpetuated by a megafraudster.

  88. @raspberrytaegi

    November 17, 2024 at 12:48 am

    i don’t like his take on self-driving cars either, but i do think only having them authorized for the “reinventing the train, sort of” use he described would be better than just letting them roam free everywhere. i love hearing his perspective on other issues and would love to see him back again. thanks, wired!

  89. @MsMinoula

    November 17, 2024 at 3:37 am

    I did not expect my city for 15 years to have been mentioned. Yes, Ilissos is pretty weird.

  90. @alanmcivor2005

    November 17, 2024 at 6:42 am

    This guy is fantastic! Really enjoyed that!

  91. @gyorkshire257

    November 17, 2024 at 7:48 am

    Self-driving cars aren’t going to happen. Car reduction should be the plan.

  92. @sharkbit2038

    November 17, 2024 at 10:47 am

    I’m so glad others are hearing his lunacy

  93. @manishkes1

    November 17, 2024 at 11:15 am

    Chandigarh and Navi Mumbai are cities in India that were planned and built in anticipation of people.

  94. @manishkes1

    November 17, 2024 at 11:17 am

    Mumbai in India used to mandate that new developments would provide cheaper housing options for people to own. This would take care of gentrification.

  95. @Subbestionix

    November 17, 2024 at 11:37 am

    You say having a third tier? in Europe having e bikes and normal bikes go along with each other works pretty fine.
    But for bikers to feel safe on streets there needs to be plenty public transport and a way of disinsentivizing car ownership and usage. Otherwise it’s just way to dangerous.

    • @Subbestionix

      November 17, 2024 at 11:48 am

      That being said, many places in Europe also have to heal their scars of late 19th and early 20th Ventury civil engineering

  96. @PeggyKoneko

    November 17, 2024 at 3:57 pm

    Canberra is a planned city, and is considered very nice to live in!

  97. @Clear_Night4

    November 17, 2024 at 8:12 pm

    ok this was actually an interesting video. I thought it was going to be so boring

  98. @fire_tower

    November 17, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    Architecture/urban planning in as far as it can be used to reduce the need of people to resort to crime absolutely does impact crime rates. To little housing driving rent up? Don’t be shocked when people break bad to pay the bills.

  99. @ashly3102

    November 17, 2024 at 9:11 pm

    I need this guy to have a podcast.

  100. @MeghanF93

    November 17, 2024 at 9:38 pm

    Normally I LOVE this series but this video wasn’t it. His obsession with cars and building cities around cars instead of pushing for more public transportation was a terrible take.

  101. @BlueBass2

    November 17, 2024 at 10:00 pm

    the tartan grid is SO neat to think about @13:08

  102. @KSPRAYDAD

    November 17, 2024 at 10:14 pm

    in city speed limits should be 30 kph for all vehicles. There, problem of Ebikes solved.

  103. @Zergdragon

    November 17, 2024 at 10:16 pm

    The problem I have with designers (and a lesser extent, engineers) is entirely how they see something on paper and fall in love with the idea but never really truly stop to consider the human element.
    Automated transit could be supremely efficient and lead to tidier cities, but most people would vehemently oppose any attempts to remove or even simply lessen their ability to get around on their own terms.

    Humans generally like to own the things they use more than they like to use them. It’s part of why some people are so incredibly arrogant and combative in their area of residence. Most of us have heard of, seen, or even personally know at least one entitled person who believes that because they pay taxes, roads and parks and government employees are in some small part “theirs”.

  104. @pindeed

    November 18, 2024 at 12:46 am

    Ok. City architect praising stupid boring company’s idea. Seems like he’s not knowing what he is talking about regarding city planning, transportation etc. 4:57

  105. @RafMatthyssen

    November 18, 2024 at 5:48 am

    This dude is truly drinking the car industry coolaid.

  106. @realquadmoo

    November 18, 2024 at 6:32 am

    This guy is a carbrain. A disgrace to urban planning.

  107. @herdek550

    November 18, 2024 at 7:00 am

    The most American view on infrastructure…
    Q: Elektric bikes?
    A: Bike highways
    Q: Public transport?
    A: No, self-driving pods
    Q: Parking?
    A: Self-driving cars

  108. @DrPepperone

    November 18, 2024 at 8:00 am

    Self-driving cars celebrated; opinion discarded

  109. @opantelis

    November 18, 2024 at 9:12 am

    11:35 not only the Ilissos River was converted in a big concrete ditch/highway but also Kifisos, the other great river of Athens.
    They could have easily built the city around these 2 rivers, like Bucharest, London or Paris. Every great European capital has its river. Athens missed such a great opportunity…
    Now its a big ugly concrete city.

  110. @Spencergundersenmusic

    November 18, 2024 at 10:31 am

    Everyone forgets that self parking cars still have to park somewhere, the parking lots don’t just disappear, so we still spend big time and they will NEVER be more efficient than any standard public transit. Then there’s the part where people don’t want to pay for the parking so their AV just does loops around the block making traffic worse and more bloated.

    Watch NotJustBikes analysis of the our self driving car future for a lesson on the horror of AV.

  111. @Joe-sg9ll

    November 18, 2024 at 5:39 pm

    1 tree feeds 2-5 people? ….
    complete nonsense

  112. @christao408

    November 18, 2024 at 6:02 pm

    Taipei does a great job building urban parks along the river to absorb flooding. Beautiful outdoor spaces.

  113. @davestingermanotta5266

    November 18, 2024 at 8:07 pm

    “A big what? 🫢”
    “You dig-”
    “Oh”

  114. @LeZylox

    November 18, 2024 at 10:42 pm

    who just accepts favelas 💀

  115. @kay1133

    November 18, 2024 at 11:51 pm

    Where do you find these personable, enthusiastic, and engaging experts? Love him.

  116. @rxchard8004

    November 19, 2024 at 4:43 am

    When he got excited thinking of solutions

  117. @llarose

    November 19, 2024 at 5:08 am

    ‘Diversity’ & ‘Community’ – the most misused words in modern history. ‘Diversity’ in my city of Vancouver has led to a massive urban and cultural crisis, where the so-called ‘community’ (of who, exactly?) has decayed beyond recognition. Please.

  118. @rodrigotolosa590

    November 19, 2024 at 7:27 am

    I feel there are many assertions in the video without proper argumentation

  119. @WhiteRabbitKurai

    November 19, 2024 at 8:24 am

    I can’t be the only Dutch person who’s ears perked when the topic of water and flooding came up, and there was no mention! 😆

  120. @catalina4447

    November 19, 2024 at 9:19 am

    loved this guy! i want more with more examples of other countries as well please 🙂

  121. @dactax37

    November 19, 2024 at 10:31 am

    Just ridiculous about that self driving car train. Like cmon, you are a professional.

  122. @karinampadron3014

    November 19, 2024 at 11:27 am

    More of this man!

  123. @gtleshow

    November 19, 2024 at 11:29 am

    Love this series! It’s so refreshing to see an urban designer break down city planning concepts in a way that’s easy to understand.

  124. @szymonmiosz8551

    November 19, 2024 at 12:20 pm

    This guy is literally 50 years behind european planers

  125. @MorriganNoel

    November 19, 2024 at 1:08 pm

    So glad you brought Alexandros back. His first video was one of the best Support videos I’ve seen, and I’ve probably watched nearly all of them.

  126. @SpiritofTexas1590

    November 19, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    Electric cars and cars in general are the least efficient forms of transport. Saturn actually put out a commercial a long time ago that inadvertently acknowledged this.

  127. @Maria-zc4nn

    November 19, 2024 at 2:02 pm

    his credentials immediately dunked after he said he worked for nyc

  128. @nickryan4126

    November 19, 2024 at 2:13 pm

    I think the question about the stadium is why doesn’t the team pay for it? They have the money.

  129. @jdankerdake

    November 19, 2024 at 4:18 pm

    Yes. Metro Atlanta has exceeded population capacity. Housing costs, commute times, traffic congestion, exurb development, and urban sprawl are all evidence.

  130. @jdankerdake

    November 19, 2024 at 4:21 pm

    The future of public transport should be more remote jobs. Decrease the demand for people to travel great distances five times per week. Many people push buttons and talk for a living. That can be done most anywhere for a lot people.

    That would also lessen the need for people to cluster in large metropolitan areas, freeing them to go live in smaller cities or towns with lower costs of living and have potentially a better quality of life.

  131. @fernandasantiago1442

    November 19, 2024 at 7:56 pm

    Forgot about planned cities like Brasilia, Brazil?

  132. @mimus6596

    November 20, 2024 at 2:39 am

    Did he just reinvent a pedestrian area at 3:23?

  133. @ordinarypeople801

    November 20, 2024 at 9:43 am

    Come to Bulgaria…. almost every city runs out of water at some point…..

  134. @RYN988

    November 20, 2024 at 10:42 am

    oh was this bombed lol

  135. @andrewlyon9292

    November 20, 2024 at 11:07 am

    I live in Taipei and wow does East Asia have the best public transit I’ve ever seen. Growing up in America I had to have a car, but in Taipei I wouldn’t dream of it bc I just don’t need it at all

  136. @Luzgar

    November 20, 2024 at 11:38 am

    300 km/h in a train was first achieved in 1955 (in France).
    It has been a common speed for high speed rail since for a few decades. The technology for that is mature and widely deployed, you don’t need fancy maglev technology to go that fast with great efficiency.
    (You don’t get the same acceleration, but if you need to stop and start often, maybe high speed rail is not a good fit.)

    You need some political will and to give a call to Alstom or Siemens.

  137. @LM-cx4sj

    November 20, 2024 at 11:48 am

    There’s barely any proper consideration for new developments (like 15 minute cities) that consider accessibility for disabled folks- or at the very least, they’re accelerating it so fast that transport links can’t keep up.

  138. @Scartoons-t1h

    November 20, 2024 at 12:18 pm

    Cars are not the answer. The reason USA cities are gridlocked hellholes is because of Urban Planners liks this guy. He mentioned 15-minute cities like Paris where everything is a cycle ride away, but his ideas are for more cars. Murica is failing. Visit Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, etc to see how it should be done

  139. @Idlehour-su6bv

    November 20, 2024 at 1:28 pm

    Love the idea of Electric Car Trains. This is some real exiting future stuff! Love this video – but I think the crime factor frequently gets minimized in a few of these takes though.

  140. @lauraray1946

    November 20, 2024 at 4:06 pm

    The self driving car lane thing….
    There was a Doctor Who episode about this. S3E3 I believe

  141. @lauraray1946

    November 20, 2024 at 4:15 pm

    11:00 oh man thank you for talking about this. Vegetation along river banks is what helps mitigate flooding. The roots of the plants help stabilise the banks, and add important minerals to the water. We poisoned and killed our rivers when we made them concrete.
    There are a few creeks here in Newcastle, Australia that for toooo long I thought were just drains. Turns out they’re thousand year old ecosystems thatve been replaced with concrete.

  142. @thalesn

    November 20, 2024 at 7:34 pm

    5:56 what about Brasília?

  143. @LimitedWard

    November 20, 2024 at 8:00 pm

    Asking if the Big Dig was worth it is the wrong question. What we should be asking is whether the Big Dig was the right approach to replacing Bostons above grade freeways. The answer to that is a hard NO. Boston should have spent that money connecting the North and South commuter rail stations, increasing commuter rail service, and electrifying the network. But instead they chose to spend billions burying the freeway underground, which not only failed to solve their traffic problems, it also forcibly defunded the MBTA after they were left to foot the bill.

    Saying the Big Dig was worth it because they replaced the above ground freeways is parks presents the semblance of a false choice.

  144. @luc1792

    November 20, 2024 at 9:24 pm

    When your urban designer wants to sell off their Tesla stock

  145. @jakehood7463

    November 20, 2024 at 9:26 pm

    American sprawl is 100% intentional… 80%~ of the zoning only allows for single family homes with parking minimums to guarantee that everything looks a certain way. You don’t organically get to the bankrupting inefficiencies that America has now by accident. It’s completely unnatural.

  146. @georgetouros6021

    November 21, 2024 at 2:05 am

    As an Athenian, Kifissos is like a tragic joke we tell every morning in the radio shows and the news, on traffic reports: it gets stuck with traffic daily. Meanwhile, the slightest drop of rain causes a huge congestion because both Ilissos and Kifissos flood, and the road network is unusable.

  147. @doctor_elefant

    November 21, 2024 at 4:12 am

    that answer abt rent being too high coulda been answered with jsut three words: better rent control

  148. @parasocialtransgf

    November 21, 2024 at 6:10 am

    bro really wants to normalize socioeconomical inequality in south america

  149. @littlesmallworld123

    November 21, 2024 at 11:34 am

    Channelization (ex. the LA river) is terrible for the environment and only acts to contain lesser amounts of water at slower flows. The problem is you dig a concrete ditch with 0 impendence, so the flow can run down it like a water slide, with no natural drainage. Not even counting the fact that you completely destroy the natural ecosystem and all the benefits that come with that.

  150. @robertdiceston3336

    November 21, 2024 at 12:40 pm

    Kinda lost me when you said 15 minutes cities. Do not want that. That has the potential for misuse. I like traveling to get things done.

  151. @Roanmonster

    November 21, 2024 at 4:13 pm

    12:20 even better: if the water is allowed to seep back into the ground, the sewage system doesn’t get overflown and it’s just an overall better way of draining water in a city. If it’s been designed in a smart way, the parks in a neighborhood will be a bit lower than the streets so the water will automatically flow there. Gravity is free after all.

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