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Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05] - YouTube
Channel: Not Just Bikes
[6]
this is the fifth video in my strong
[7]
town series you don't need to watch the
[9]
others to understand this one but it
[10]
might provide some context
[14]
if you live in the us or canada then
[15]
this will certainly look familiar to you
[18]
multiple lanes of car traffic wide
[20]
highway-sized lanes
[21]
giant signs traffic lights parking lots
[23]
lots of driveways and side streets with
[25]
traffic merging in and out
[27]
and a place that's nearly impossible to
[28]
cross as a pedestrian
[30]
there isn't even a sidewalk here
[34]
these are what strong towns refers to as
[35]
strodes which is a horrible name and
[37]
that's intentional because these are
[39]
horrible places
[40]
strodes are a street road hybrid and
[42]
they are dangerous expensive and
[44]
ineffective
[46]
i'll get to those issues in a moment but
[48]
first let's talk about the difference
[49]
between a
[50]
street and a road according to strong
[53]
towns
[55]
this is a road it is a high-speed
[58]
connection between two places
[60]
because of the high speeds involved
[62]
there are several safety features
[64]
the lanes are wide and forgiving so that
[66]
vehicles do not bump into each other
[68]
the road is as straight as possible and
[70]
when curves are necessary they're
[71]
designed to be gentle
[72]
making it easy to drive along the area
[75]
next to the road
[76]
called the clear zone is free of any
[79]
obstacles that could be hit
[80]
just in case a vehicle runs off the road
[84]
the signs are very large designed to be
[86]
read from a distance and at high speeds
[88]
and entrances and exits are few and far
[90]
between because the road is designed to
[92]
keep vehicles at a high speed for as
[94]
long as possible
[95]
to minimize travel times roads are
[98]
important we need roads
[100]
though i personally prefer my roads to
[102]
have rails
[105]
this is a street it is a complex
[108]
environment where life in the city
[110]
happens
[111]
buildings are placed right next to the
[113]
sidewalk to be easily accessible by
[115]
people walking
[116]
and it gives a sense of space almost
[118]
like an outdoor room
[119]
this is a place that feels comfortable
[121]
to be in so you find people here
[124]
there are many entrances and exits to
[126]
and from the street and there may also
[128]
be street parking for vehicles and
[129]
deliveries
[131]
this is an environment meant for slow
[133]
speeds because this is a destination
[135]
not a through fair high speed traffic is
[138]
not compatible with lots of human
[139]
activity so vehicle speeds are reduced
[143]
everything on the street is at a human
[145]
scale it's designed to be inviting
[147]
encouraging people to walk to window
[150]
shop or to just sit and watch the world
[151]
go by
[153]
the street is designed to get the most
[155]
value out of the space available
[158]
streets are very important and we
[160]
definitely need streets
[164]
a strode on the other hand is neither of
[166]
these things
[167]
just like how a futon converts from a
[170]
terrible uncomfortable couch to a
[171]
terrible uncomfortable bed
[173]
the strode is the futon of
[174]
transportation
[176]
it is a street that is designed like a
[178]
road and in doing so
[180]
it fails at being good at either one
[184]
the strode fails it being a street there
[186]
are many driveways to businesses and
[188]
homes like you'd find on a street
[190]
but mixed with multiple highway sized
[192]
lanes
[193]
this mixes high speeds with many points
[195]
of conflict watch over this white car
[197]
turning
[198]
and this cyclist are there any cars
[200]
coming out of these driveways
[202]
unlike a street strodes are hostile to
[205]
people outside of a car
[207]
there are lots of motor vehicles and
[208]
speeds are high so walking or cycling
[210]
feels uncomfortable and dangerous
[213]
there are long distances between places
[215]
and there are often large parking lots
[217]
that need to be crossed before getting
[218]
anywhere
[220]
and it's basically impossible to cross
[221]
the strode except by walking to a
[223]
traffic signal
[224]
and waiting the signs are large and
[228]
meant to be read while driving which
[229]
feels really out of scale if you're
[231]
walking there
[232]
and often trees have been removed from
[234]
the clear zone making the environment
[235]
even more uninviting if you're not in a
[237]
car
[239]
somehow though painted bicycle gutters
[241]
are still okay in the clear zone
[243]
traffic engineers are concerned about
[244]
drivers hitting a tree hitting a cyclist
[247]
is expected this is clearly a place for
[251]
cars
[252]
so it's unsurprising that pretty much
[253]
everyone drives here
[255]
trust me it sucks to walk down this
[257]
strode
[259]
but these environments are ugly anyway
[261]
nobody cares about these places and
[263]
nobody wants to spend any time here
[266]
cities in the us and canada are covered
[268]
in terrible non-places like this
[271]
places you go because you have to not
[273]
because you want to
[275]
nobody actually sits and watches the
[276]
world go by on this
[278]
bench but the strode fails it being a
[282]
road too
[283]
the lanes are wide and there are a lot
[285]
of them you're surrounded by asphalt
[287]
but you can't actually get anywhere
[289]
quickly like you can with a road
[292]
there are cars constantly changing lanes
[293]
and going in and out of the strode
[295]
slowing down traffic and introducing
[297]
many points of conflict that require
[299]
drivers to constantly slow down to avoid
[300]
a collision
[303]
traffic volumes can be quite high on
[304]
strodes because there are no viable
[306]
alternatives to driving
[308]
distances are too far to walk and it's
[310]
too unsafe to cycle
[311]
and since public transit gets stuck in
[313]
traffic anyway only the poor and the
[314]
desperate will take the bus
[317]
so everyone drives but because there are
[320]
so many crossroads entrances and exits
[322]
to the strode
[323]
traffic lights are required meaning
[325]
drivers are constantly stopping at red
[327]
lights
[328]
and because speeds are high light
[330]
timings need to be very long
[332]
leading to traffic signal-induced
[333]
congestion nobody is getting anywhere
[336]
quickly
[337]
on a strode
[340]
all of these elements make strodes
[342]
unsafe as well and the majority of fatal
[344]
crashes within cities happen on strodes
[347]
they are especially dangerous to people
[348]
walking and cycling
[351]
the wide and straight design of highways
[353]
were designed that way to make them safe
[354]
for high-speed traffic
[356]
but the strobe to hell is paved with
[358]
good intentions
[360]
on a strode these wide highway-like
[362]
designs encourage drivers to drive
[364]
quickly
[365]
but combining that with traffic turning
[367]
in and out of driveways and lots of
[368]
four-way junctions
[370]
makes this the most dangerous type of
[371]
urban driving possible
[375]
this is an inherently unsafe way to
[377]
design a road and is part of the reason
[379]
why the us has the most dangerous roads
[381]
of any developed country
[383]
for example during the coronavirus
[385]
lockdowns in the first nine months of
[386]
2020
[387]
car volumes in the us dropped
[389]
significantly but despite an estimated
[391]
355 billion fewer miles driven
[394]
fatal crashes per mile actually
[396]
increased by up to 34 percent
[400]
this brings us to the sad truth that the
[402]
only reason these unsafe american
[404]
strodes aren't killing even more people
[406]
regularly
[407]
is because they're usually so jammed up
[409]
with traffic that drivers can't get
[410]
going fast enough
[411]
to kill each other
[414]
and finally strodes are really expensive
[418]
because strodes are built to a highway
[419]
standard their lanes are very wide and
[421]
there are never less than four lanes
[424]
plus there's normally extra space for
[426]
shoulders and clear zones at the side of
[427]
the road too
[429]
because strodes try to be streets there
[431]
are many entrances and exits
[433]
so many turning lanes are required but
[435]
because the high speeds
[437]
turning lanes are much longer than on a
[438]
street taking up even more space
[442]
and as traffic increases even more due
[445]
to traffic entering and exiting the
[446]
strode
[447]
the city will install another traffic
[449]
signal for three quarters of a million
[450]
dollars
[453]
all of this means that a strode is much
[455]
bigger than a road
[456]
that would carry the same amount of
[457]
traffic and significantly larger than a
[460]
street
[461]
that would have the same number of
[462]
businesses and houses along it
[466]
as the size of the strode increases
[467]
there are several other costs incurred
[470]
high-speed strodes need to be flat so
[472]
the area that needs to be graded
[473]
increases
[475]
land may need to be purchased from
[476]
residents to widen the strode and
[477]
destroy their property values
[479]
by the way do you think this girl is
[481]
waiting to cross this five lane strode
[484]
flood protection infrastructure becomes
[486]
much more expensive due to the
[487]
impermeable surfaces
[489]
and there's a huge amount of asphalt and
[491]
traffic control systems to maintain
[494]
and of course because everyone drives
[496]
large parts of the landscape need to be
[498]
dedicated to parking lots meaning
[500]
everything is inherently spread out in
[501]
low density
[503]
parking lots don't employ anyone and
[505]
they don't earn much tax revenue either
[508]
a strode environment is significantly
[510]
less financially productive than a
[511]
street
[512]
but with significantly more
[513]
infrastructure
[515]
the result is a mix of high cost per
[517]
area maintenance expenses
[518]
combined with low value per acre tax
[520]
revenue which makes these strode
[522]
environments a net negative for cities
[526]
these places are literally putting
[527]
american cities on the strode to
[529]
financial ruin
[530]
and they're doing it while being
[531]
dangerous ugly and ultimately
[533]
ineffective at actually moving people
[537]
the strode fails at every metric but
[539]
it's the default setting for
[540]
transportation design almost everywhere
[542]
in the us and canada
[544]
so what's the alternative well strong
[547]
towns advocates for one of two things
[550]
first you can convert a strode into a
[553]
road
[554]
this means limiting access to the strode
[556]
accessing businesses and neighborhoods
[558]
from side streets
[560]
painted bicycle gutters need to be
[561]
removed because moving vehicles is the
[563]
primary objective of a road
[565]
people can still walk or cycle but these
[567]
paths need to be completely separated
[569]
from the flow of traffic
[572]
in this way the strode becomes a road
[575]
a high-speed connection between two
[577]
places
[579]
the other alternative is to turn the
[581]
strode into a street
[584]
for this the lanes need to be narrowed
[586]
and parking needs to be moved to the
[587]
curb or behind buildings
[589]
and the buildings themselves need to be
[591]
built closer to the street
[593]
everything needs to be brought down to a
[595]
human scale making it inviting to people
[597]
and getting more value from the space
[599]
available
[601]
this isn't a hypothetical and we don't
[603]
have to imagine what this would look
[604]
like
[605]
because the netherlands has already done
[607]
it just with three types of
[609]
infrastructure
[610]
instead of the two proposed by strong
[611]
towns
[614]
you will almost never find a strode here
[616]
because in the 1990s the
[618]
dutch adopted the concept of sustainable
[619]
traffic safety
[621]
and one of the key pillars of this
[622]
program was that every road and street
[624]
in the netherlands
[625]
has to be classified and designated as
[628]
one of the following three options
[631]
the first is a stromwech which is pretty
[635]
straight
[635]
forward it is a motorway or highway
[639]
i think everyone is familiar with these
[640]
so i won't spend too much time on it but
[642]
the important thing here is that there
[643]
are no traffic controls
[645]
cars enter and exit through merge lanes
[647]
and you will never find a traffic light
[649]
or roundabout
[650]
on a stormwatch
[653]
highways should also go around cities
[654]
and never through cities
[656]
i'm looking at you cincinnati actually
[659]
that's not fair because basically all
[661]
american cities did this
[664]
thankfully the plan to do this to
[665]
amsterdam was unsuccessful
[669]
moving one level down is the uh
[675]
the distributor road these are the
[678]
connectors between highways and streets
[680]
there may be entrances and exits to
[682]
other streets and roads
[683]
but driveways to houses or businesses
[685]
are avoided as much as possible and if
[688]
traffic controls are necessary
[689]
then roundabouts are preferred unless
[691]
traffic volumes require a traffic light
[694]
i'm going to refer to these as roads
[698]
finally there's the airftuchongswech the
[701]
neighborhood access street
[704]
these are the end destinations for
[705]
journeys the places where people live
[707]
work shop relax and so on i'm going to
[710]
refer to these as
[712]
streets streets are designed to be low
[715]
speed
[716]
with a speed limit of no more than 30
[717]
kilometers per hour
[719]
and they almost never have more than one
[720]
motor vehicle lane per direction
[723]
in many cases vehicle speeds are slow
[725]
enough that separated bicycle
[726]
infrastructure is not required
[728]
though bicycle pass may still be used to
[730]
purposefully narrow the street
[732]
constraining the space available for
[734]
motor vehicles
[736]
the street network is designed to
[737]
discourage through traffic by cars
[739]
either through traffic calming or by
[741]
explicitly blocking cars
[743]
while still allowing walking cycling and
[745]
public transit to take the most direct
[746]
route
[748]
i've talked about this before in my
[750]
invisible infrastructure video
[751]
where i show a typical trip by bicycle
[753]
through the street network
[754]
compared to the very different route by
[756]
road that is taken when driving
[760]
once you learn about these three types
[761]
of road in the netherlands what i'm
[763]
unofficially calling highways roads and
[765]
streets
[766]
it's really interesting to drive around
[768]
and see which type you're on
[770]
this is a street this is a road
[774]
this is a street this is a road
[779]
this is a road with streets on either
[780]
side to access houses
[783]
since this is a relatively recent
[784]
concept only implemented about 30 years
[787]
ago
[787]
the best place to see this in action is
[789]
in newer developments
[792]
here we are driving on a road outside
[793]
the town of newlawsen
[796]
this road is designed to move vehicles
[798]
so there is no direct access
[800]
to adjacent properties the homes and
[802]
businesses are accessed by streets
[804]
on the right and left side and the road
[806]
is mostly accessed by roundabout
[809]
as we exit the roundabout into this
[811]
industrial park the road turns into a
[813]
street
[814]
where cars and trucks can access the
[815]
warehouses and industrial facilities
[817]
safely and efficiently
[819]
without disrupting traffic on the road
[822]
it's also very interesting to see where
[823]
one type turns into another
[826]
this is clearly a street a residential
[829]
street in amsterdam
[831]
there is parking on either side and
[832]
there are many side streets branching
[834]
off
[835]
there are no traffic lights or stop
[836]
signs speeds are low here so
[838]
intersections are unmarked and you give
[840]
priority to any vehicle coming from the
[842]
right
[843]
i've talked about this before in my
[844]
video about stop signs
[847]
this street has a brick road surface
[849]
speed bumps and other traffic calming
[850]
measures to slow down traffic
[853]
the speed limit is 30 kilometers an hour
[855]
and bicycle and motor vehicle traffic
[857]
is mixed but as we travel down this
[860]
street we come to a set of traffic
[861]
lights and here is where this street
[864]
becomes a road the bicycle path becomes
[867]
totally separated from motor vehicle
[868]
traffic
[869]
there's no more street parking the road
[872]
surface is made of smooth asphalt
[874]
and there's a median separating the
[875]
traffic lanes
[877]
there are buildings on either side but
[878]
crucially they cannot be accessed by
[880]
this road
[881]
because turning traffic would be
[883]
inefficient and unsafe
[885]
as we travel down this road a little
[887]
farther we can see here
[888]
it turns back into a street here's
[891]
another example in the suburb of
[893]
amstelveen
[894]
the right of way is about 22 meters
[897]
which in the u.s or canada would be at
[898]
least a four lane road with center
[900]
turning lane
[901]
but despite the space available there's
[903]
only one lane of motor vehicle traffic
[905]
in each direction here
[906]
and the lanes are narrow which
[908]
encourages drivers to drive slower
[911]
single lane roads are much safer because
[913]
cars changing lanes introduces points of
[915]
conflict between vehicles
[916]
and they are easier for pedestrians to
[918]
cross
[920]
this also frees up space on both sides
[922]
for car parking a bicycle path
[924]
and a sidewalk there are multiple other
[927]
streets intersecting with this one
[929]
bringing traffic in and out of the
[930]
street
[932]
a few meters along this street starts to
[934]
turn into a road
[936]
here you can see that access to the
[937]
houses and parking on the right hand
[939]
side are provided by a small side street
[941]
running parallel to the road
[942]
so that through traffic does not compete
[944]
with drivers going in and out of parking
[946]
spaces
[948]
travel along this road a little farther
[950]
and the street has completely turned
[951]
into a road
[952]
there is a stoplight multiple lanes of
[954]
motor vehicle traffic and an entrance to
[956]
a highway
[957]
the bicycle path is two-way and isolated
[959]
completely from the road
[962]
a little farther along this road becomes
[964]
quite interesting
[965]
here there are several houses but
[967]
instead of being accessed directly
[969]
as they would be on a strode they're
[971]
accessible by a two-way side street
[973]
which was made purposefully narrow to
[975]
slow down drivers
[977]
this also provides a safe alternative
[979]
for people cycling
[982]
the road itself is only two lanes for
[983]
car traffic with turning lanes when
[985]
necessary
[986]
one lane has been reserved as a bus lane
[988]
and there is a two-way cycling path as
[990]
well
[992]
it's also interesting to note that
[993]
because dedicated bus lanes and bicycle
[995]
paths are much more efficient at moving
[997]
people than car lanes
[999]
this road configuration can actually
[1000]
transport more people
[1002]
than a typical strode the netherlands
[1005]
didn't change this overnight and this
[1007]
transition to roads and streets is not
[1009]
totally complete
[1010]
there are still some streets here that
[1012]
carry too much through traffic for
[1013]
example but at least they're usually
[1015]
only two lanes wide
[1017]
this change has happened slowly with
[1019]
street and road redesigns spread out
[1020]
over the past 30 years
[1023]
the first step though was identifying
[1025]
that there was a problem with road
[1026]
safety
[1027]
and road productivity and changing the
[1029]
design standards to match
[1032]
it's time to face the fact that
[1033]
designing strodes as both a high speed
[1035]
through affair
[1036]
and a destination simply doesn't work
[1039]
strodes are dangerous and expensive they
[1042]
destroy walkability
[1044]
they make cycling dangerous and
[1045]
infeasible and they don't work for
[1047]
drivers either
[1048]
the us and canada need to rethink the
[1050]
traffic engineering manuals that define
[1052]
urban spaces and start building
[1054]
productive streets and efficient roads
[1057]
then they can get on the road to
[1058]
recovery and benefit from fewer traffic
[1061]
deaths
[1061]
more viable alternatives to driving less
[1064]
traffic
[1065]
and more financially productive cities
[1068]
it's the end of the road for strodes
[1070]
good riddance
[1073]
i'd like to thank my supporters on
[1074]
patreon who pay me to get this show on
[1076]
the strode
[1077]
if you'd like to support the channel and
[1078]
get access to bonus videos
[1080]
visit patreon.com not just bikes
[1107]
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