Bikes, Trams, and Transit Envy: An American Reacts to Freiburg

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vil5KC7Bl0

Hello everyone. Welcome back. I’ve been gone for a whole week. Been kind of busy. Um, but finally have some time to record some videos. So, I’ll have some this week to post and I got I got a whole list to videos to record. So been going to be a bit busy with this which I’m okay with because more content to react more can build the community and get this journey continue this journey. So, I have a video here, Germany’s green cities and more bikes than cars, which I would like to live more with bikes and just more walkable cities. And I think it it’s just more peaceful like that instead of just being uh just a ton of cars everywhere. I don’t really like loud noises, especially like the Harley-Davidsons that ride up around my house or the souped up cars that are super loud and it’s just it’s kind of annoying sometimes. But being able to live in areas where there isn’t a whole bunch of vehicles, that that’s that’s really lovely. And I don’t mind walking places going to like the whatever store you need. It’s all like almost walkable. I I would say maybe like 75 80% of what you need is almost walkable in towns across Germany. What I experienced. So, let’s check out this video and see how green it really is and what this video talks about and see if if the video and I can uh a way I can experience or point I should say point out familiars that I’ve seen while I was there. is Fryberg in Bryce, a city in the Black Forest. It’s often referred to as Germany’s green city with more than twice as many bicycles as cars and over 400 km of bicycle lanes. It’s a city with a lot of trams and amazing pedestrianized streets. Over the past few decades, Fyberg has become a leader in modern sustainable urban development, and they’re building an absolutely amazing city in the process. H Germany is well known for its car industry and autobonds. But Fryberg is different. This is a city where cars do not rule. Fryberg is a university town and around 10% of the population attends the university. So obviously you see a lot of students cycling to and from school. Mhm. And a lot of bicycles parked outside the university. And that’s that’s pretty common through pretty much almost all German cities. Well, probably mostly of Europe. It almost seems like there’s more bikes than cars because like your university could be like 10-minute bike ride from your house. So, you just get your stuff, get your bike, ride down there, lock it up. And how like tight the streets are, it’s it’s almost seems easier to just ride your bike through like the back alleyway to the school or have like the little baskets that you can have on your bicycle so you can get like groceries or whatever. Um, oh yeah, there there’s there’s some baskets right here. Kind of like what I was talking about. Just put some groceries in or whatever you need for the store that day and ride back home. kind of saves a saves a lot of money too, which would be amazing here in America because got we have to super rely on vehicles and they can break down and you might be screwed for the day. Happened to me a few times with some of the cars that I had and it just it’s it sucks if I can like oh car’s not working today. I can just jump on my bike and ride to work or school or need stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things and ride back. That that is so efficient. I like that. But you also see a lot of cargo bikes and families. A key indicator that Fryberg has a very advanced bicycle culture. The old town in the center of Fryberg is a wonderful place to be. There’s old architecture alongside the new. And the streets are beautiful, too. Isn’t this amazing? I even managed to film two trams going through here at once. Appreciate my patience and good time. I absolutely love that the fact that you guys are building society like the future society like the trans and like bicycle lanes and cars and stuff and keeping or basically building around the um like the old architect like all all this this is probably what 76 1700 00s probably maybe 1800s. So none of this stuff was there but you guys figured out how to not even touch that and build basically the future here. So that’s that’s really cool. I like the old and the new together like that. I always find it so fascinating. I mean, everywhere you look, there are trams, people cycling, and lots of people of all ages out enjoying themselves. There are nice narrow streets and lots of outdoor patios. The city center is almost entirely pedestrianized, so of course it’s very quiet. Yes, I like that. Yet another reminder that cities aren’t loud, cars are loud. Mhm. And when you do see the occasional car, it looks comically out of place with so many people around. The city center has these open water channels, and it’s said if you fall in one, you’re destined to marry someone from Fryberg. But the best part is that kids actually make boats to sail on the water. Isn’t this just one of the most wholesome things you’ve ever seen? Very awesome. This is so much fun. I was lucky enough to meet up with Ashton from the YouTube channel Type Ashton while I was in town. She and her family are from the US, but they loved Fryberg so much that they decided to stay in Germany permanently. Ashton has great videos on her channel about everything from macroeconomics to micro urbanism. And she talks a lot about the differences between the US and Germany. I’ll leave a link to her channel below. I’ll check out her I’ll check out her channel, too. And I’ll also link that down below. Also an expert in Fryberg, which was great for my first trip here to this amazing city. Seriously, the Fryberg Oldtown is one of the nicest places I’ve ever been to. So you might be thinking, “Okay, okay, okay. This is an old medieval city, but actually it’s not what you might think. Sure, Fryberg was originally founded in the year 1120, but most of Fryberg was leveled in World War II, which was the case for many cities in Europe, of course. But what was truly unique about Fryberg is that when they rebuilt it, they made it similar to what it used to be instead of being rebuilt for car. Okay, back to the old comment about old and new. I’m sure the buildings when when you guys rebuilt the town, you probably didn’t do you didn’t change the layout. You just rebuilt the buildings the way they were. But that’s still building the future around those building essentially because like like this building wasn’t like over here and they decided to move it back and make road wider. they just cleaned it up and rebuilt it. So, I don’t know how much has it changed as like how wide the roads are or um how much did they actually change the landscape or the the the layout of the city to accompate the new technologies and transports of the future. So, remarkably, pretty much everything you see here is less than 75 years old. Unfortunately, the rest of the city was not so lucky. It’s commonly said in Fryberg that the war destroyed 80% of the city and cars destroyed the other 20%. Outside of the city center, neighborhoods were built with that car ccentric vision of modernity that was common across the world in the 1960s. This road just outside of the city center used to be a narrow street just like the rest with several popular beer gardens and restaurants, but they were all destroyed to build the ring road. The 1960s really were the decade of destroy stuff to build roads and we’re still paying. Okay, that my answer is um answered or my question is answered. That’s a shame. That really sucks for those decisions today. It was only very recently that activists were finally successful in getting a car lane removed to build this totally insufficient bicycle lane. This area will likely never return to its original beauty. And it’s entirely because of car infrastructure. Ironically, the center of Fryberg, though rebuilt in the style of the original city, was completely overrun by cars and asphalt. Look at this difference between this footage from 1973 and how it looks today. This pedestrian square used to be a parking lot. Now parking for the city center is in garages on the periphery. There were several key decisions that put Fryberg on the right path and avoided the destruction that I guess there was uh between before before World War II and today it was I guess I guess Germany and I guess probably all over the place. Not just Germany but probably all Europe for the rebuild after the war. They were kind of like since America had majority of its hand in it, it was probably being built the way America was built and all it is is freaking roads and parking lots, which it’s it’s kind of crappy, but I guess since when Germany fully reunite united, um I guess I I don’t know like they get They’re they had their own idea of their own vision of like we want more walkable streets and not cars. So they just got rid of a lot of the roads or what converted the roads into transits and bicycle lanes and walkable areas which is not only healthier for the population because you’re out walking or riding bikes or whatever you’re doing. It’s also healthier for the environment and uh just the city itself. It keeps the city clean. The air probably doesn’t smell as bad and I more it’s just more community related or you know community focused and you’re walking around get to meet more people talk to people instead of being locked in a car. Yeah, the there’s a car beside me but I’m not talking to that person. We’re like completely in our own bubbles. But here, like there’s no really isolation. You’re all part of like one town. I think I think that just helps people’s mental health as well. Um just being part of a wider community and better just better life for everybody comes from making a place car friendly. In 1972, the city voted to keep its tram network. This had a massive impact on the Fryberg we see today. There’s one consistent thing I’ve seen. I think it would have been kind of stupid if they voted to get rid of it. I mean, why would they even thought about getting rid of it? I don’t know that that’s kind of like a weird thing to vote no or you know vote no to get rid of instead of just keeping it and improving transportation. I don’t know a little ignorant on the reason why that would come up in government in cities all over the world. Every city that retained its tram network has better urbanism than any nearby city that didn’t. But Fryberg went a step further and actually expanded its tram network through the 80s and ’90s while other European cities were removing theirs. The first part of the city center was pedestrianized in 1973. And once the cars were removed, the city center became a successful business district with a popular market that is still active today. The market surrounds this beautiful cathedral. Yeah, because I would think there’s a lot more space to just have an open square market. You can walk around and if you buy stuff, you can just walk back to your house or get on the transit and go to the next town and go home and stuff cuz that when I was in Germany, I used the transit a lot. That’s how I got around Germany a lot. If I wanted to go somewhere, I just buy a ticket, get on the train, and go and got to the town. Uh, got off the train and walked around the town, explore it a bit. And if I wanted to go back, I just get, you know, another ticket, back on the train, back to the town, and no problem. It was awesome. And it’s one of the genuine highlights of the city center. And of course, this used to be a parking lot, too. In the 1970s, there was a growing environmental movement that protested any developments that would destroy the neighboring Black Forest. Yeah. This kept the city more compact than most cities that were built or rebuilt for the automobile after the war. In 2002, Fryberg elected the first Green Party mayor in Germany. And since then, Fryberg has become the model for sustainable city development in Europe. One great example of this is Voban, a I I’ll probably find a a video or you could put in the comments below on like the political parties in Germany. So, is like green the Green Party more like heavily more invested in the environment? Is that why they’re called the Green Party? Because they’re more about the environment. That’d be interesting to learn because I I was in last time I was in Germany was in May of 2019 and you guys were having state and local elections and a little kind of envious that I saw that you guys had 44 parties to vote for and it’s like Man, imagine if you got imagine if we had options instead of two groups. I mean, I guess you can technically argue about libertarians and that we have a Green Party, but that just doesn’t go anywhere. We just got Republican and Democrat and boy, how that h how that’s not really great. But anyways, I digress. Let’s move on. suburb completed in the early 2000s that was designed to be environmentally friendly from the start. The buildings here were built to a very high energy efficiency standard, and you see solar panels on roofs and balconies over the neighborhood. Some of these buildings even generate more energy than they consume. The neighborhood was built on the location. Do you I I do notice there’s a lot of solar panels on the roofs. I do see a lot here in America, too. But I heard they’re kind of so expensive even with the incentive to get them. Still breaks the bank. But now in Germany, do I assume the person that owns the house has to put them on, right? Like do they have to get a loan out and they get a company and put them on top or does like the state invest into that kind of like allowing people if they want solar panels on the taxpayers kind of allow the companies to put it on the roofs of people’s homes or I’m not I know I know it’s probably different there than here in America but let me know how that works. But anyways, back to what I wanted to say originally was, do you do you think like solar panels and wind will completely dominate like probably generate 60 70% of power in the next 10 15 years? Let let let me know in the comments below about that because that’s that’s pretty interesting that how um how much you guys are investing in that which I I’m quite happy for of a former military base and some of the apartments were built from the original barracks. One really unique element is that many of these apartment buildings are collectively owned. A group of people would come together and build an apartment building themselves instead of buying units from a developer. Oh, okay. Today, the majority of residents in Foban live in housing cooperatives or social housing developments. When Foban was first built, only about half of households owned a car. But remarkably, that number has actually decreased, especially after the tram line was completed in 2006. Today, the vast majority of households in Fauan do not have a car, and there are only about 170 motor vehicles per thousand inhabitants. I wonder if these old clunkers count towards that number. You don’t have to walk around very long to realize that a lot of people get around here by cycling. Even though this is a suburb on the edge of the city, the neighborhood makes extensive use of modal filters, allowing people walking or cycling to pass through while being off limits to cars. This is exactly the same method that the Netherlands uses to discourage car traffic, especially through traffic in residential neighborhoods. This makes the streets of Phoban very safe for children, and you see lots of kids out on their own. And some of the streets here are designated as play streets. This neighborhood has one of the highest percentage of children in all of Germany, which isn’t that surprising because places without cars are better for kids. Yeah. Here in America, you hear kids getting hit by cars all the time. like just going through school when I was still in school some you would hear stories all the time about kids getting hit by cars and luckily a lot of them don’t die but they still get broken bones and stuff but we don’t have a lot of carfree areas like this unfortunate but there is like if I wanted to get on my bike and ride I’m pretty much on the street because there wasn’t really any like bike trails or anything without getting in a car and driving to one. So, yeah, it’s it’s dangerous here and that probably makes living life a lot less stressful because you don’t have to worry about your kid getting hit by a car and they have a lot more free range to ride their bikes. Is also very well served by transit. On the west side is a transit station with tram and bus stops connecting residents to other parts of the city. But the tram line also runs along the whole side of the neighborhood, making it easily accessible to everyone who lives here. This should be the model used to design new suburbs everywhere. Unfortunately, not all neighborhoods in Fryberg are as well designed as Foban. So, you’ll see other districts with streets lined with parked cars. And it always annoys me when cars are supposed to be parked on the sidewalk because while Fryberg spent only a few dec Now I I I’m aware that not every square inch of the the city can be transit and bicycles and whatnot. There still has to be a spot for vehicles like that. I’m totally aware of that. But the fact that they figured out how to limit the cars and expanded more of the transit and free car zones. It’s I’m envious of that. Building car center infrastructure, those places still remain as it takes many decades to repair that kind of damage. But you can see some of those repairs taking place with extra space being given back. Now, is the goal to get rid all of it? Kind of. It was kind of weird how you said that that he they’re repairing. It almost sounds like they’re going to repair all of it, which I don’t know if I totally agree with that because you still need that car infrastructure a little bit, but if they can get like 20 30% more of the city for like transit and car-free zone, I’m all for that. Back to people who walk and cycle. There is of course a lot of bicycle infrastructure in Fryberg, including many curb protected bicycle paths. Unfortunately, even major intersections are totally unprotected, designed in the Copenhagen style as opposed to using much safer Dutch designs. And there are still many painted bicycle gutters and dangerous merge lanes on busy roads. So clearly, there are still opportunities for improvement. Mhm. But many of the streets in Fryberg have so little car traffic that dedicated bicycle infrastructure is not required. And some of these have been designated as bicycle streets where people cycling can use the whole street and drivers need to yield to bikes. And it’s always great to see parking spaces converted to outdoor seating for local restaurant. Now I did see a comment. There’s probably like some crazy guy on the internet, but I know I saw some guy complaining about the bike and I don’t I don’t know why. Maybe because he has to yield to the bikes. Or maybe that was here because I know in where I live they started trying to put bike lanes in around but I don’t it it kind of it kind of works but it kind of doesn’t really. And I know a lot of people here kind of have a comment about it, but you know, I I appreciate the city trying to do things, but just the layout kind of just doesn’t work, but here is better because everything’s more close together. I don’t know. Now, there’s a lot that’s been written about the cycling infrastructure in Fryberg, but I actually think the tram network is one of the city’s best features. Fryberg refers to its tram system as a honestly, I wish there was more trans cars and stuff. Stob instead of a but they never going to invest in that. The usual German word for tram. This is because they consider it I’ve been saying trans. It’s tram to be better with separated tracks, traffic light priority, and a higher average speed than most tram systems. The trams in Fryberg are very modern with level boarding at tram stops, making the system very accessible, though there are still some older trams that have yet to be replaced. The tram network covers most of the city and even goes out to several suburbs. M and the current planning rules state that new housing cannot be built unless it’s within walking distance of a tram line. H I didn’t even cycle while I was in Fryberg because if I have a choice between cycling and taking a tram, I will take a tram. I was able to get everywhere I wanted to go and I never had to wait very long for a tram either. Yeah, they’re pretty efficient because the trams have a signal priority and a dedicated lane for most of their routes. Getting around by tram is extremely quick and efficient. And there are so many grassy tram tracks here. I love grassy tram tracks. So do I. Also, I like the new tram and bus station at Europa Plots with chargers for the electric buses. And the roof of this station is covered in solar panels. In fact, the entire tram network as well as all of these electric buses are run off of renewable energy because of course they are. Sure. Fryberg is not a sprawling city, so it’s very easy to get out into the Black Forest. We heard there was a great view from a cable car nearby, so we set off to visit. We took tram 2 out to the end of the line in the south where we picked up a bus. We had to walk all the way from the tram right here. This is so great. I know this is just a silly trivial trip to a tourist attraction. And this trip doesn’t really matter at all. But this is the way public transit should be everywhere. Not just for the center of the city, not just for commuting, but for all kinds of trips that someone might want to take. Now, the weather wasn’t the best, but the view from the gondola was nice. And when we got back, the tram was waiting for us. Fryberg’s train station is centrally located, though not very pretty. We got here by train, by the way. While the road directly outside of the station is not as nice as it should be, there is a separate area above the station where you can board a tram and go into the old town without interacting with any cars at all. Or you can pick up a bike share bike to continue your journey into the city. And there are clearly a lot of people who cycle here. And if you need to access the other side of the city, this walking and cycling bridge will take you over the train tracks, which also used to be a car bridge until 1996, because of course it was. Yeah. I prefer it like this. Me, too. And now it leads directly to this bicycle parking garage or the train station. Fryberg is a highly desirable city that is sustainable both environmentally and financially and with great public transport. It’s a beautiful place that’s safe for children, accessible to all kinds of people, and enjoyable to be in. And yet, it’s not thousands of years old. Every one of us probably older than the Fryberg city center, which really does make you wonder, why can’t we build more places like this? It’s like it’s lost knowledge. We know how to build like this and we know people like being in we know how to build like this for thousands of years and they just they just don’t and I don’t know why. Like look look how nice nice this is. No freaking cars, no beeping horns, no giant diesel trucks that sound like a freaking uh a metal knife in a blender. It’s just fantastic. Quiet. I I think I like quiet. Places like this. This is what the sustainable city of the future should look like. Not a place with wide roads and self-driving cars, but a humansized city with clean and efficient public transportation and streets that are safe enough for everyone. Over the past few years, Fryberg has become very well known by urban planners in Europe, and many planners and politicians come here to learn about sustainable urban development, which is great because, as far as I’m concerned, the more cities that copy Fryberg, the better. If you’re a fan of car-free places, you might enjoy my video about Zerott, a car-free town in the Swiss Alps. I’ll put a link to that video down below, which you can watch now, but only on Nebula. All right, he’s going to do his stick. So, it’s channel called Not Just Bikes. Nebula is the subscri and I’ll have his channel linked in the comments below or in the description rather. And my final thoughts about it is it’s generally just better. I think people living in those kind of towns are just a lot happier. They get a lot more done. They don’t like I have to get up, get in my car, drive 20, 25 minutes in traffic to my work. But here you can like wake up, get my bike. I can ride through a nice like foresty little bike trail to work because it’s on the way and just be more feel that cool, moist air. And then after work, you just ride your bike over to a coffee shop. Well, yeah, maybe coffee shop or do that before work and after work, go to a bakery and and hang out, meet people and just hang out. Here, we’re just so so worried about getting home because it takes almost an hour just to get home sometimes. And I don’t know, I think people are just more miserable here, unfortunately. But that’s just how it is. So, I’m going to have more videos coming this week. So, I’m going to do a good bit of recording and and I have to go and edit them to kind of clean it up a little bit. And yes, so I just want to keep plugging this in because it’s been great. Thank you for all who subscribed. and like my videos and comment. I appreciate it. Thank you for joining my journey with this and I will catch you in the next one. See you later.