How to Kill a Stroad

My mind is always boggled when there are community engagement meetings for stroad redesigns. I get that the public should be involved in changes to their neighbourhood, but these are safety interventions. People are literally dying. We don't hold months of community meetings to install a guardrail. We just install it, because there's evidence that it saves lives. Road diets on dangerous roads should be the same.

It’s crazy to me that elected officials would care more about commuters passing through their neighbourhoods than the security of their constituents. Urban planning in north America has come a long way but there’s still so much work to do… Anyway, great well researched video

Wild: officials explicitly state that they want to build an intentionally more dangerous and less livable street to ensure nobody would actually want to live there given the choice..in the name of equity. Keeping a neighborhood bad to keep out newcomers is not equity. It’s perpetuating the injustice we have to avoid dealing with an injustice we do not.

That was an amazing video, but God hearing how this plan was crushed ruined my day.

I remember my social studies teacher said something in the terms of “If you try to make everyone happy everyone will suffer” this is a perfect example of this.

Amazing that making a street safer and better for humans is raised as a negative because it would make living there nicer. We really need more "Yes, and"; "Yes, fix our broken stroads, and also abolish the housing market build affordable housing or whatever". Loved the video btw.

This is a great overview of how city planning and government works. 70%-90% of people surveyed choose a plan, usually the biggest change, then 5% are against it and another 5% are against any change unless their pet peeve is addressed first. Then the city updates a PDF or a website and has some more meetings until they eventually launch another survey and start it all over again. Getting anything done is almost impossible, stopping something from changing is pretty easy. Get 5 people together and call yourself the Committee for Equality and Safety or something and put on a blue blazer and show up to some city meetings and you can halt any progress you want even against thousands.

“Non-alcohol and non-deer” is the best qualifier for a traffic data point I think I’ve ever seen.

I am so glad to have left Philly; there is an incredible culture of self destruction. "Locals locals locals" constantly in opposition to literally any change ever. Not every improvement is Gentrification!!! People are literally dying because of this inaction. It is absolutely shameful. This is a great video, by the way. Super effective deep dive into the actual mechanisms of city planning.

Fantastic video, tho I would not have remained that composed with how frustrating this all has been lol. Also you can't sneak route 18 Rutgers footage in there without me noticing 2:18

I like how you brought up the psychological aspect of stroads - how driving with two lanes in one direction can make it feel like you're racing someone in the other lane. I hadn't really thought about it before, but now I realize why driving on a stroad is so stressful for most people - especially Americans. Wouldn't want someone to pass you, would you? What are you, a slow poke? You have to be the fastest! Also, nice choice of music!

You have a great future on this platform, your content is amazing even though you've just started.

It's unbelievable that people think Washington Ave is fine today or tomorrow. It's crazy to think that driving on a sidewalk and parking on it is normal. Thank you for producing this video, it was well toned and provided good context.

The most striking thing is that the people who would oppose something like this arguing from either misinformation or are deliberately lying.

Thanks for making this! I was at the final meeting, and man, what a disappointment. The fact that there are on-street bike lanes in the final design doesn't bode well for safety. The speed cushion treatments just seem lazy too. Plowing in winter? Guess we'll have to remove the cushions. Let's also not forget that Kenyatta Johnson's bribery trial is now underway!

Incredible work. I help advocate for safer streets in the SF area, and what constantly boggles me is how much sway the naysayers get. But even that it was far more astonishing to see that 19-1 residents in the final survey wanted change in favor of safety, yet leadership still compromised the 3-lane plan to the mixed option. Why does "NO" get so much more power than "YES"???

I'm a 50 something architect and I watch a lot of urban planning type videos, but GEEZE man! You are the king at telling these stories in an inspiring, compelling way! I hope it wins a documentary film award. You certainly deserve one.

This is an INCREDIBLY well-made video. Engaging presentation with crazy levels of detail while remaining accessible, tightly written and edited that makes 20 minutes go by in a snap, and presented with personality that makes an ungodly boring subject actually FUN.

As a European looking to move to America/Canada in the future I really appreciated seeing a very localised and very unique example of America's overreliance on car based infrastructure. I was recommended this video out of the blue and had no idea it was evergreen content. You have an incredibly strong base for your future content, but I would be careful about your appeal to emotions, as it can be distracting in places, and take away from your points. Great work :)

Excellent, and very depressing, video. Subscribing. I live in Montreal and I'm near a stroad myself, a monster of an 8 lane boulevard. There are plans to turn it into a 4 lane road (2 lanes on each side of the treeline) with a BRT running down the middle, but I'm afraid for the future of that plan. I really hope it goes through.