Not Just Bikes

Stef from ‪@buildthelanes‬ is raising money to get another pickup truck off our streets and modified to help out in Ukraine! The organisation has delivered over 700 trucks and Stef has delivered 8 of them himself. In June he permanently moved to Ukraine to help out.

Right now they're doing a US 50 states fundraiser to get at least one truck sent from all 50 states.


If you'd like to donate, I'll put a link in the pinned comment. For US residents your donation is tax-deductible.

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3 days ago | [YT] | 3,474

Not Just Bikes

I was reviewing some of my old livestreamed bike rides from Toronto for a video I'm working on and ... WOW ... I had forgotten how bad it was.

Super-narrow bike lanes with giant plastic sticks, swerving around parked cars and patios, bike lanes that just end and send me into traffic ...

I can't believe I ever used to cycle on garbage infrastructure like this. This was hard to watch. 😬

1 week ago | [YT] | 255

Not Just Bikes

I've fallen down the YouTube electric trucking rabbit hole recently. 😆 These videos are really interesting, and I didn't realise that electric long-haul trucking was this far along in Europe. It's great to see!

It's also great that Electric Trucker re-edits and re-dubs all of his videos in English. If you'd prefer to watch the original German video, I'll put a link in the pinned post.

1 week ago | [YT] | 299

Not Just Bikes

‪@evan‬ recently shared a video of him walking 1.5 km from his family home to his elementary school.

When he was a kid he always took the school bus to school, and the reason why will become immediately obviously when watching this video.

The one positive thing I'll say at about Canadian suburbia: at least it has sidewalks (since the 60s, anyway).

https://youtu.be/lShDhGn5e5s

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 851

Not Just Bikes

Do you love public transit? Nebula is looking for a contract researcher for a new show about public transportation.

We're looking for someone who really enjoys public transit and would love uncovering the best parts of transit systems around the world. Having direct experience riding international public transit systems is definitely a plus, though this role does not require any travel.

You should already be a freelancer, capable of invoicing for your work.

If that sounds interesting to you, then fill out the form at this link!

bit.ly/NJBresearch

3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 2,291

Not Just Bikes

Looks like AD.nl wrote an article about Houten and featured my video:

www.ad.nl/houten/dit-nederlandse-fietsparadijs-wil…

[Article in Dutch, login required]

I enjoyed the reader comments. Nice to see that newspaper comments are just as trash in the Netherlands as they are anywhere else. Nothing but the finest complaining from the crankiest Boomers! 😆

2 months ago | [YT] | 2,410

Not Just Bikes

​‪@CityNerd‬ recently released the best summary of the problem of traffic engineering models that I've ever seen.

In my experience as an advocate, there was no group of people more obstructive to creating better cities than the traffic engineers.

Urban planners wanted better streets. A lot of politicians were in favour too (especially the ones downtown). But the people who aggressively fought against every project - whether it be safer streets, bike lanes, or faster public transit - were the traffic engineers. And the main reason for that was these ridiculous traffic models.

So I wasn't at all surprised to hear Ray say that even Portland, with some of the most progressive urban planners and traffic engineers in the US, still have traffic models that basically just tell them to build nothing but roads.

Incidentally, there are no "traffic engineers" in the Netherlands. They're called "transportation engineers" and their job is to move people, not cars. But they're also only one (very small) part of the decision-making process, instead of being a critical step with veto power, like they are in the US and Canada.

2 months ago | [YT] | 1,677

Not Just Bikes

The latest ‪@AdamSomething‬ video is his first full-video on-screen performance. I'm glad he saved such a momentous occasion for a critique of Prague, which is probably one of the most depressing examples of bad urban planning and bad urban policy ruining an otherwise amazing European capital.

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,801

Not Just Bikes

New Yorkers! I need you to vote!

There's a real chance that NYC could get a mayor that's NOT in the pockets of billionaires, for the first time in a long time.

I really, really want to see Zohran Mamdani win.

The democratic primary uses *ranked choice ballots* instead of first past the post, which means that you can actually vote for who you want! All I ask of you is that you a) get out and vote, and b) *do not rank* Andrew Cuomo (and ideally c), rank Zohran Mamdani somewhere on your ballot).

Why do I care about the NYC mayoral elections when I'm not American and I don't live there? Well, a few reasons.

For one, I have lots of friends who live in NYC and I want their lives to be better.

But more importantly, NYC, like London or Paris, is a city that the rest of the world looks to when it comes to municipal planning. So having a good mayor could have positive knock-on effects to dozens of other cities.

And finally, having a democratic socialist as the most important mayor in North America could inspire others to win in other cities.

It is absolutely crazy how much the establishment does NOT want Zohran Mamdani to win. A massive Super PAC funded by Doordash, Bloomberg, and other large corporations and billionaires, has raised millions of dollars, and they've almost exclusively put that money towards spreading lies about Zohran Mamdani.

Doordash alone has donated over $1m. The billionaires REALLY do not want this guy to win. Which should be a giant green flag to everyone else.

So please, if you live in NYC, make sure you vote. I don't often endorse political candidates, but I think this one is too important not to talk about. Links to voting info is in the pinned comment.

PS: if you spread any of the Super PAC lies about Mamdani in the comments, you will be banned. I have no patience for that nonsense ... even if you're not being paid by Doordash.

3 months ago | [YT] | 14,550

Not Just Bikes

This video was interesting. It was less negative than most of the videos of this style, but it was still very honest about the current state of San Francisco.

I lived in the Bay Area for several years, but that was way back in '98 and '99. The last time I was there was on a business trip in 2018, and it was already drastically different. For the most part it's still a pretty good city (by North American standards), but only if you can afford to live there.

3 months ago | [YT] | 718