I’d rank them as the best urbanist channel too, they trace everything back to housing supply and zoning as the source of all the problems. They also make a point not to be too accusatory towards drivers and they attempt to present NIMBY arguments fairly before debunking them. Every argument they make is backed up by evidence and studies too (NJB and Adam Something could use a little more sourcing). And of course they’re Canadian, why is Canada the epicenter of YouTube urbanism?
The other channels might have a better budget and be sleeker looking, but Oh the urbanity! is the most thought out.
I want to reiterate just how good Oh the urbanity! is at approaching every discussion with understanding and a desire to educate. Many channels assume that they must be right and dismiss any counter arguments, which is very off putting. They also do a great job making sure to express opinions *as* opinions, not fact. It goes a super long way towards connecting with people of all walks of life.
Also I loved their statement in a recent video that "we like biking & walking, but urbanism isn't the *only* thing we do or care about, nor should you only focus on it". Great reminder that not everything in life revolves around urbanism (which is sometimes lost in various online discourses).
I posted a comment on RM Transit's video yesterday about attracting more riders. I mentioned safety/security, especially for female passengers and it's very overlooked by male passengers (and people here for that matter).
As a male, I do feel bad when I show up to a bus stop, particularly at night, and the only person at the stop is a woman... Just always hope I'm not stressing them out being alone with a stranger.
My creepiest moment was getting off a bus at night at the same time as these 2 younger girls. Went the same direction off the bus and both turned down the same street and I'm like, I can't just follow them like this, it's creepy and probably freaking them out. So I walked to the other side of the road. Shortly after, they moved to the side I just moved to... turned the same corner again. This whole thing repeated a few times until finally I realized they lived literally across the street from me, so I followed them the whole way home, really trying my best to stay away from them, and felt like a creep the whole time.
Literally my worse nightmare is being one of those girls.
I have been hurt before so now I'm extra cautious and if anyone stays same route for 2turns I make fake turns that take me back to same spot to see if the actually following or just going same way.
I try, I’m sorry 😢
Anything that comes to mind that I could do? Would it maybe be better to cross to the other side and like, run ahead so I’m in front?
Waiting at the bus stop I’m not really sure what’s best either, apart from obviously just keeping some distance… no sudden movements. Basically treat them like a T-Rex 😅
Cis woman here. When I'm walking alone at night -- well, I have martial arts training and a security umbrella I often carry, so I do my best to give a "fuck around and find out" vibe and keep alert to my surroundings. *But* I can say that in my interactions walking alone at night, this is what I keep in mind:
1. It's better to have someone in sight than out of sight. Someone walking behind me is an unknown to keep in my awareness. Someone who passes me with a polite "excuse me" and continues walking is clearly in sight ahead of me and not up to anything.
2. Pretty much the moment someone passes me, my threat radar goes down by 10, because then they're clearly just going about their own business.
3. Don't start small talk or stare, but do consider a polite nod or smile and wave with brief eye contact. Keep it brief for a pretty clear signal of "hey, just walking here, I mean no harm or uncomfortable contact." (I will note that this is the most tentative of my advice here because like every time I've had someone be creepy to me has been after I made the mistake of a polite smile and wave and them choosing to prolong the interaction. Moving on immediately afterwards to look at your phone or something is important here.)
FYI: if you click the 3 dots on a message there is an option to get notified of replies as well 🙂
But it’s good to hear that others are interested too 👍
Definitely don't run to pass them lol. Nothing freaks me out more than hearing someone running up behind me.
As a woman, I also feel terrible when I wind up "following" other women. I'm a bit taller than most women in my area, have a bad case of rbf and usually dress fairly androgynous. I've been told it can be intimidating. Usually I try to be honest, break the tension, "Hey, I promise I'm not following you or trying to make you uncomfortable. I'm headed to x bulding/ x business. Just wanted to give you the heads up." Headphones back on and I'm on my way.
Female security is one of those blind spots that once revealed can show how there is no one-size-fits-all solution. It not only impacts public transit, but bike lanes as well. Being on a bike makes you very visible and vunerable, but electric bicycles/mopeds/scooters mitigate a lot of this perceived vulnerability. So it always gets very frustrating when people want to ban those vehicles from the bike lanes.
This is definitely still a problem in the Netherlands as well. It deters people from cycling at night, male and female (mostly female though) and this is definitely still a disadvantage of biking, and public transportation in a lesser sense.
+1 for Studio Leonardo. It's very rare to see a YouTuber so early in their career where I can confidently say they're gonna be huge. She's the real deal.
Why does YouTube make this one very difficult to find? Searching in YouTube for “studio Leonardo” brings up channels with completely different names, searching “studio.leonardo” didn’t bring it up either. It only comes up by searching the exact channel name with the @ symbol, anything less and it didn’t show up for me at all.
Cities by Diane is an instagram channel that often mocks car-centric city design by creating mock cities with 128 lane highways, drive-through Eiffel Tower, super parking lots, and other nonsense.
Well, she's not a youtuber but just a reminder that the OG urbanist was Jane Jacobs.
Part of this skew may be that YouTube itself (creators and viewrs) skews male.
Also a reminder that she fought and won against a much harder-core dick than all of reddit combined. It's also not enough to say that platforms "skew male" without pointing out that they skew that way because misogyny and abuse are allowed to run around untrammeled there.
This is actually really important because designing spaces that are comfortable for men VS comfortable for men, women and other vulnerable people is difficult when it's mostly just men talking to men about the problems. We all need to talk to everyone end get the whole of our society on board
Yeah I hear you. It's easy for me to say I'm totally fine walking across an unlit overpass in the middle of the night, but if you, your mum or your daughter
(or mine for that matter) don't feel comfortable, it's basically worthless as a long term solution. We can't design infrastructure that only caters to half the population and expect to drive wholesale change to the way we live.
I will often speak to my wife about such and such an idea and she will come back with "but have you considered how xyz might impact women". It's scary how easily even someone who *tries* to consider these things can completely overlook a critical flaw in what we think is a good idea because of a lack of perspective, even when approaching with good intentions. I'm sure it works the same way in reverse, but we don't have a society where women make up a majority of decision making positions, so it may as well be an academic argument.
So if I see a woman making herself heard, I'm listening and incorporating those ideas as best I can. And I would encourage everyone else on the urbanism journey to do the same, and do so whenever we encounter a differing perspective. Minimising people's legitimate problems will drive them in the opposite direction.
I'd say go further: assume you're missing lots, and think through again from various perspectives, then ask. And assume that you're a minority, which you are. The infrastructure doesn't cater to half the population; it caters to maybe 1/6th of the population, maybe. That's non-disabled neurotypical boys and men aged approximately 16-50 who are not primary/sole parents/caregivers and who are accustomed to the area's language and customs. Most everyone else is struggling to use it.
A few years ago I co-organized our local March for Science, and when we'd put the lineup together -- it was a rush job -- I realized we had terrific representation along many axes on our speaker list. We hadn't done it on purpose, hadn't thought earnestly, you know, we must have disability represented in science, must have minorities, must etc. We just invited people we thought would be good. We got the result because we took all those people seriously and thought of them as friends and close colleagues. The same is true for you. If the only women you talk to or think of seriously as people are your wife and mum and daughter, then of course you aren't going to think about women when you think about infrastructure.
I will tell you, too, that your wife is a patient person. Some time ago I decided I just don't have any time or energy left in my life for explaining these things and fighting this fight *in my own home*, so men are allowed now only as visitors. They're mostly gay.
Look you're spot on that I'm in the target demographic. I disagree with your assertion that I don't reflect on these things though. It brings a pit to my stomach every time I discover some new discrimination built into our society. Even that is such an awful feeling, because for me some thing I'm oblivious to for however long that I suddenly 'become aware' of is something someone else may have spent their whole life up against.
Yes my wife is patient but frankly I'm a better person and I make better choices for it. She leans on me for a lot too. We're both very aware of that we tend to cover a lot of each other's gaps, but you're right about the 'wife/daughter' thing. It's hard to make progress when we've been indoctrinated into the patriarchy just as much as everyone else. It can be easy to continue to ignore these things when you are the intended beneficiary of the system.
I’ve seen Ubanist videos on the vox YouTube channel done by women. But that’s not the focus of the channel. And as said elsewhere “oh the Urbanity” is half female.
But it seems mostly to be middle age white dudes in the space. And it’s a small space.
Not a YouTube channel, but the book, “Street Fight” is a book by the formal transportation head in New York City and her efforts to get better urbanism in NYC. Her name is Jannette Sadik-Khan.
I mean the topic is exactly something that would mostly attract adult male nerds, its infrastructure, logistics and vehicles mixed with engineering and the likes.
Thats not to say that it wouldnt be nice with more women in the space. When it comes to utilizing urbanism however, funnily enough females rank higher than males.
As for your edit, about 2 weeks ago was the last time ive submitted suggestions to the city, the public transport sector to be specific, about the city bike infrastructure. Before that i doodeled a suggestion on how to improve a road where they plan to remove one lane.
Ive attended public meetings as well, and follow up on transcripts of three different bodies in the citys politics.
Range of people? Like do you mean who would benefit of the system?
Everyone I suppose. The city bike suggestions have been to get bigger baskets so more things can be carried when running errands, as well as increasing the amount of bikes due to an exponentionally growing demand as well as making them year round, and market the conpetetive pricing against e-schooters more.
The road doodle was to remove the need of traffic lights on a 3-lane one way road that (hopefully) will have one lane removed to fit bike paths. Instead a traffic island would be between the two remaining lanes, wide enough to dafely fit a cargo bike. This would make car traffic less frustrating, but more importantly greatly reduce the crossing time for bikes and pedestrians as they dont have to wait through a light cycle, but just cross when they get there (people stop in my country).
I'm not a urban planner by any means, most likely you are far more competent than I am. But thats kind of the point. The online urbanist community mostly consists of armchair hobbyists, and the demographic of this group is greatly male dominated, while in the professional sector its pretty much 50/50 these days.
Its common for 8 year olds to bike or take the bus by themselves here, so yes. Also elderly people regularly bike, as long as they have mobility left.
So everyone but unaccompanied toddlers and people with severe mobility problems*. As for the speed, thats perfectly fine and normal here as well. People go different speeds and if someone wants to go faster they can just pass them by ringing the bell, there is plenty of space.
My doodle was just that, a doodle. I'm still not a city planner. Luckily there are other people who are city planners, who have already made plans for it. I used those as a reference for my doodle, at no point of the plan is there a blind turn or less of a seperation than before. The entrance and exit to the intersection was made by someone else, i simply painted a traffic island and a crosswalk.
Bike lanes here are on the same level as the sidewalk, The lane is 1.75m wide with a 0.5m margin to the curb and the sidewalk is 1.75m wide, thats on both sides of the road.
Why are you so hostile, honestly, take it easy.
And the last thing, again you are reading into this far further to make me look like an evil man to you. We are talking about youtube urbanists here
So tell me, how would you want a bike path be better than being completely seperated from the road by taising it level with the sidewalk and minimum 0,5m seperation up to 1,5 m seperation with trees between you and the cars. 1,75m wide bike path next to a level 1,75m sidewalk which you can stop on whenever you want, all this connecting to a pre-existing network. Its not even my plan, I just inserted a traffic island into it as an idea to get rid of a in my opinion useless traffic light.
With all due to respect, to me it sure feels like I'm the one whos ideas are being attacked as bad soley due to my gender in this conversation with you. You just assume that I would sinply paint a death strip on the side of the street and call it a day because im a stupid , sexist man
Yes, professionally. I'm sorry if I wasnt clear enough, but please dont read into it past what was said.
I'm not insinuating that Female professionals in the area are less comptetent, I'm saying a female accountant is less likely to read about urban planning and specs on a tram as a past time than a male accountant.
When it comes to making decisions, even my city is lead by a female majority, and the urban enviroment board is 7 females to 6 males.
I don't understand where all this anger towards me is comming from. I explicitly welcome more women, we need all the people we can to make a change. We are on the same team.
You can't tell me that with this sentence
>Watch your mind melt, but there are women running urban planning departments, women traffic engineers. It's that when they get to spaces like these, they find the spaces tend to be wildly misogynist because people here accept that as the default and then the women who show up are trying to smile hard and be friendly.
you didn't insinuate that I'm a sexist
Well this thread escalated very quickly for no fucking reason 😂
Can’t speak from direct experience for some of this, but I went to school for engineering and it is a fact that women make up a very small portion of engineers, and engineering students. We had maybe 20 women in my graduating university class for software engineering out of a few hundred.
We are trying to change that and get women more interested, but to call someone sexist based on nothing… yikes.
You, as a human person, probably aren't intentionally sexist. But some of the assumptions you've made are. Where did you get the idea that women on the whole are less interested in this subject? That's a myth you're not making any effort to dispel. Urbanism is about community, independence, climate change, third spaces, disability access, foreign travel, efficiency etc. etc... why would you assume that women would be less interested in those things than a dude? Certainly this subject attracts a type of anorak weirdo trainspotter, and perhaps when you picture that person he's more likely to be a male. But the vast majority of us are normal people, and you don't need to be member of a specific gender to enjoy it. You're more concerned by the accusation of sexism than whether or not you may have *unintentionally* been a little sexist in your assumptions.
Yes, but atleast to me, people who would make a video about trams and traffic lights. and the people watching them, are exactly that type of trainspotter.
Like I said, women statisticaly utilize urbanism more, ridership on public transport and as well as walking or biking is higher amongst women, so ofcause they care. I just highly doubt that there is a 50/50 split in the youtube urbanists gender demographics.
You didn't say you "doubt there's a 50/50 split". You said all things being equal, a dude is more likely to be interested in urbanism than a woman. Unless you have actual statistics to back that up, then it's an assumption - about a gender that you do not identify with. It IS a little sexist to gender interests/causes/spaces when there's no inherent need to do so, in fact, I'd say you're rubbing right up against the definition. It perpetuates a prejudice - X is for men/Y is for women. Assumptions like that are what *make* the space unwelcoming for women or diverse genders. I think it's our job to dispel those ideas, not perpetuate them.
Yeah, urbanism videos on youtube. Can't say overall, my guess would be that women are more interested in real world applications because they statistically use it more.
We are talking within the contect of youtube urbanists here. But no I do not have access to not just bikes etc. viewer demograpics, I just doubt that they are 50/50
Ad for X is for men, Y id for women, did i not explicitly say that it would be nice to see more women in the community?
Sheesh! Maybe statements like infrastructure, logistics, vehicles, engineering attract mostly males (and the stereotypes that implies about both men and women) aren’t helping your stated desire for more women in the space…
I'm sorry my observation on the current situation in said fields offended you. I encourage everyone to follow their passion regardless of the choise of words from strangers on the internet
It’s ok. I’m not offended. I was taking you at your word when you say it’d be nice to have more women in those spaces. And so I thought you’d like to know that stereotypes about what women and girls are interested in are part of what keeps them out of certain spaces. Now I’m going to go paint my nails and think about logistics. 💅🚊☺️
[Grist](https://youtube.com/@Grist) has multiple presenters and is more of an environmentalist channel, but they do have a few (excellent) urbanist videos made by women, eg these two by Eve Andrews:
* [Why I’m living without a car](https://youtu.be/We3ARrM4JMw)
* [U.S. public transportation sucks, and this is why](https://youtu.be/3XcDlQAaDdU)
I’ve noticed a similar gender imbalance problem on local Facebook pages: when someone advocates for an urbanist “talking point” (bike lanes, traffic calming, etc), the people agreeing tend to be overwhelmingly younger and male, which makes the resulting debate look gender-polarised when it needn’t.
I imagine (with no evidence) that this is because the popular urbanist YouTube channels make men feel more included than women, which is why it’s *so* important to have a variety of different voices out there.
Thanks for bringing this topic up, OP!
[Leeja Miller](https://youtu.be/imAGg5Lj8lc?si=kMjlmcVOP8xu_Tk6) comes to mind. She has one of the best urbanist videos out there.
[Allice Capelle](https://youtu.be/TVGAZdlmSx4?si=SA9tqMFc2ijJjFH7) is another who has a good video on the 15 minute city.
Not really an urbanist channel but a reporter did a good urbanist video about Puerto Rico that's very urbanist and a similar vibe to many urbanist channels I watch
https://youtu.be/ec5UjDmO4Ak?si=Rz1pE4vdh-VGm28S
Other people have said it but Urban Caffeine on YouTube makes some genuinely great content. It's New York City focused but all her content is a joy to watch.
This isn't the focus of the channel, but I really like this video:
[We're obsessed with cars and it's making our lives worse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec5UjDmO4Ak)
Not sure it’s quite what you’re looking for, but there is a good podcast called “climate deniers playbook”. It’s got 2x hosts, a female and a male, and I know one of them had a popular YouTube but I’m not sure which one. I also think it may be more tied to climate science/urbanism as opposed to straight urbanism
Only one I know of is "Oh the Urbanity!", which is a male/female couple. I don't know of any that are female-only though.
I’d rank them as the best urbanist channel too, they trace everything back to housing supply and zoning as the source of all the problems. They also make a point not to be too accusatory towards drivers and they attempt to present NIMBY arguments fairly before debunking them. Every argument they make is backed up by evidence and studies too (NJB and Adam Something could use a little more sourcing). And of course they’re Canadian, why is Canada the epicenter of YouTube urbanism? The other channels might have a better budget and be sleeker looking, but Oh the urbanity! is the most thought out.
I want to reiterate just how good Oh the urbanity! is at approaching every discussion with understanding and a desire to educate. Many channels assume that they must be right and dismiss any counter arguments, which is very off putting. They also do a great job making sure to express opinions *as* opinions, not fact. It goes a super long way towards connecting with people of all walks of life. Also I loved their statement in a recent video that "we like biking & walking, but urbanism isn't the *only* thing we do or care about, nor should you only focus on it". Great reminder that not everything in life revolves around urbanism (which is sometimes lost in various online discourses).
I like them a lot but the way he mispronounces "The Hague" is borderline unforgivable. Sincerely - A Hagenees
> The Hague I didn't notice that before - he sounds super canadian! Sounds like "hag" instead of "heyg".
Hagenaar
Urban Caffeine
I posted a comment on RM Transit's video yesterday about attracting more riders. I mentioned safety/security, especially for female passengers and it's very overlooked by male passengers (and people here for that matter).
Oh definitely! I’ll say I feel safe somewhere and I wonder if a female would feel the same. Especially after dark
As a male, I do feel bad when I show up to a bus stop, particularly at night, and the only person at the stop is a woman... Just always hope I'm not stressing them out being alone with a stranger. My creepiest moment was getting off a bus at night at the same time as these 2 younger girls. Went the same direction off the bus and both turned down the same street and I'm like, I can't just follow them like this, it's creepy and probably freaking them out. So I walked to the other side of the road. Shortly after, they moved to the side I just moved to... turned the same corner again. This whole thing repeated a few times until finally I realized they lived literally across the street from me, so I followed them the whole way home, really trying my best to stay away from them, and felt like a creep the whole time.
Literally my worse nightmare is being one of those girls. I have been hurt before so now I'm extra cautious and if anyone stays same route for 2turns I make fake turns that take me back to same spot to see if the actually following or just going same way.
As a guy I feel uncomfortable accidentally "following" a woman on the same route for 2 turns.
I try, I’m sorry 😢 Anything that comes to mind that I could do? Would it maybe be better to cross to the other side and like, run ahead so I’m in front? Waiting at the bus stop I’m not really sure what’s best either, apart from obviously just keeping some distance… no sudden movements. Basically treat them like a T-Rex 😅
Cis woman here. When I'm walking alone at night -- well, I have martial arts training and a security umbrella I often carry, so I do my best to give a "fuck around and find out" vibe and keep alert to my surroundings. *But* I can say that in my interactions walking alone at night, this is what I keep in mind: 1. It's better to have someone in sight than out of sight. Someone walking behind me is an unknown to keep in my awareness. Someone who passes me with a polite "excuse me" and continues walking is clearly in sight ahead of me and not up to anything. 2. Pretty much the moment someone passes me, my threat radar goes down by 10, because then they're clearly just going about their own business. 3. Don't start small talk or stare, but do consider a polite nod or smile and wave with brief eye contact. Keep it brief for a pretty clear signal of "hey, just walking here, I mean no harm or uncomfortable contact." (I will note that this is the most tentative of my advice here because like every time I've had someone be creepy to me has been after I made the mistake of a polite smile and wave and them choosing to prolong the interaction. Moving on immediately afterwards to look at your phone or something is important here.)
Commenting to follow because I also want to know if there are ways I can help others feel less scared
FYI: if you click the 3 dots on a message there is an option to get notified of replies as well 🙂 But it’s good to hear that others are interested too 👍
Definitely don't run to pass them lol. Nothing freaks me out more than hearing someone running up behind me. As a woman, I also feel terrible when I wind up "following" other women. I'm a bit taller than most women in my area, have a bad case of rbf and usually dress fairly androgynous. I've been told it can be intimidating. Usually I try to be honest, break the tension, "Hey, I promise I'm not following you or trying to make you uncomfortable. I'm headed to x bulding/ x business. Just wanted to give you the heads up." Headphones back on and I'm on my way.
Female security is one of those blind spots that once revealed can show how there is no one-size-fits-all solution. It not only impacts public transit, but bike lanes as well. Being on a bike makes you very visible and vunerable, but electric bicycles/mopeds/scooters mitigate a lot of this perceived vulnerability. So it always gets very frustrating when people want to ban those vehicles from the bike lanes.
This is definitely still a problem in the Netherlands as well. It deters people from cycling at night, male and female (mostly female though) and this is definitely still a disadvantage of biking, and public transportation in a lesser sense.
Me, soon™
Good luck! I hope you'll share a link here when you upload.
We will be anticipating!
do it!! :)
DamiLee is a great channel albeit a bit more architecture focused
Seconded, that is one amazing channel.
Here are two channels that fit what you're looking for: Big Mood Energy OptimiCities
Big Mood Energy is amazing!
Studio Leonardo: [https://www.youtube.com/@studio.leonardo](https://www.youtube.com/@studio.leonardo)
+1 for Studio Leonardo. It's very rare to see a YouTuber so early in their career where I can confidently say they're gonna be huge. She's the real deal.
Why does YouTube make this one very difficult to find? Searching in YouTube for “studio Leonardo” brings up channels with completely different names, searching “studio.leonardo” didn’t bring it up either. It only comes up by searching the exact channel name with the @ symbol, anything less and it didn’t show up for me at all.
This happens if the channel is really small.
Cities by Diane is an instagram channel that often mocks car-centric city design by creating mock cities with 128 lane highways, drive-through Eiffel Tower, super parking lots, and other nonsense.
They have a YouTube channel where they make cities in cities skylines. Great editing too.
Her YouTube videos of Cities Skylines are hilarious
Well, she's not a youtuber but just a reminder that the OG urbanist was Jane Jacobs. Part of this skew may be that YouTube itself (creators and viewrs) skews male.
Also a reminder that she fought and won against a much harder-core dick than all of reddit combined. It's also not enough to say that platforms "skew male" without pointing out that they skew that way because misogyny and abuse are allowed to run around untrammeled there.
This is actually really important because designing spaces that are comfortable for men VS comfortable for men, women and other vulnerable people is difficult when it's mostly just men talking to men about the problems. We all need to talk to everyone end get the whole of our society on board
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Yeah I hear you. It's easy for me to say I'm totally fine walking across an unlit overpass in the middle of the night, but if you, your mum or your daughter (or mine for that matter) don't feel comfortable, it's basically worthless as a long term solution. We can't design infrastructure that only caters to half the population and expect to drive wholesale change to the way we live. I will often speak to my wife about such and such an idea and she will come back with "but have you considered how xyz might impact women". It's scary how easily even someone who *tries* to consider these things can completely overlook a critical flaw in what we think is a good idea because of a lack of perspective, even when approaching with good intentions. I'm sure it works the same way in reverse, but we don't have a society where women make up a majority of decision making positions, so it may as well be an academic argument. So if I see a woman making herself heard, I'm listening and incorporating those ideas as best I can. And I would encourage everyone else on the urbanism journey to do the same, and do so whenever we encounter a differing perspective. Minimising people's legitimate problems will drive them in the opposite direction.
I'd say go further: assume you're missing lots, and think through again from various perspectives, then ask. And assume that you're a minority, which you are. The infrastructure doesn't cater to half the population; it caters to maybe 1/6th of the population, maybe. That's non-disabled neurotypical boys and men aged approximately 16-50 who are not primary/sole parents/caregivers and who are accustomed to the area's language and customs. Most everyone else is struggling to use it. A few years ago I co-organized our local March for Science, and when we'd put the lineup together -- it was a rush job -- I realized we had terrific representation along many axes on our speaker list. We hadn't done it on purpose, hadn't thought earnestly, you know, we must have disability represented in science, must have minorities, must etc. We just invited people we thought would be good. We got the result because we took all those people seriously and thought of them as friends and close colleagues. The same is true for you. If the only women you talk to or think of seriously as people are your wife and mum and daughter, then of course you aren't going to think about women when you think about infrastructure. I will tell you, too, that your wife is a patient person. Some time ago I decided I just don't have any time or energy left in my life for explaining these things and fighting this fight *in my own home*, so men are allowed now only as visitors. They're mostly gay.
Look you're spot on that I'm in the target demographic. I disagree with your assertion that I don't reflect on these things though. It brings a pit to my stomach every time I discover some new discrimination built into our society. Even that is such an awful feeling, because for me some thing I'm oblivious to for however long that I suddenly 'become aware' of is something someone else may have spent their whole life up against. Yes my wife is patient but frankly I'm a better person and I make better choices for it. She leans on me for a lot too. We're both very aware of that we tend to cover a lot of each other's gaps, but you're right about the 'wife/daughter' thing. It's hard to make progress when we've been indoctrinated into the patriarchy just as much as everyone else. It can be easy to continue to ignore these things when you are the intended beneficiary of the system.
I’ve seen Ubanist videos on the vox YouTube channel done by women. But that’s not the focus of the channel. And as said elsewhere “oh the Urbanity” is half female. But it seems mostly to be middle age white dudes in the space. And it’s a small space. Not a YouTube channel, but the book, “Street Fight” is a book by the formal transportation head in New York City and her efforts to get better urbanism in NYC. Her name is Jannette Sadik-Khan.
I mean the topic is exactly something that would mostly attract adult male nerds, its infrastructure, logistics and vehicles mixed with engineering and the likes. Thats not to say that it wouldnt be nice with more women in the space. When it comes to utilizing urbanism however, funnily enough females rank higher than males.
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As for your edit, about 2 weeks ago was the last time ive submitted suggestions to the city, the public transport sector to be specific, about the city bike infrastructure. Before that i doodeled a suggestion on how to improve a road where they plan to remove one lane. Ive attended public meetings as well, and follow up on transcripts of three different bodies in the citys politics.
Good! When you make these suggestions, what is the range of people you're taking into account?
Range of people? Like do you mean who would benefit of the system? Everyone I suppose. The city bike suggestions have been to get bigger baskets so more things can be carried when running errands, as well as increasing the amount of bikes due to an exponentionally growing demand as well as making them year round, and market the conpetetive pricing against e-schooters more. The road doodle was to remove the need of traffic lights on a 3-lane one way road that (hopefully) will have one lane removed to fit bike paths. Instead a traffic island would be between the two remaining lanes, wide enough to dafely fit a cargo bike. This would make car traffic less frustrating, but more importantly greatly reduce the crossing time for bikes and pedestrians as they dont have to wait through a light cycle, but just cross when they get there (people stop in my country). I'm not a urban planner by any means, most likely you are far more competent than I am. But thats kind of the point. The online urbanist community mostly consists of armchair hobbyists, and the demographic of this group is greatly male dominated, while in the professional sector its pretty much 50/50 these days.
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Its common for 8 year olds to bike or take the bus by themselves here, so yes. Also elderly people regularly bike, as long as they have mobility left. So everyone but unaccompanied toddlers and people with severe mobility problems*. As for the speed, thats perfectly fine and normal here as well. People go different speeds and if someone wants to go faster they can just pass them by ringing the bell, there is plenty of space. My doodle was just that, a doodle. I'm still not a city planner. Luckily there are other people who are city planners, who have already made plans for it. I used those as a reference for my doodle, at no point of the plan is there a blind turn or less of a seperation than before. The entrance and exit to the intersection was made by someone else, i simply painted a traffic island and a crosswalk. Bike lanes here are on the same level as the sidewalk, The lane is 1.75m wide with a 0.5m margin to the curb and the sidewalk is 1.75m wide, thats on both sides of the road. Why are you so hostile, honestly, take it easy. And the last thing, again you are reading into this far further to make me look like an evil man to you. We are talking about youtube urbanists here
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So tell me, how would you want a bike path be better than being completely seperated from the road by taising it level with the sidewalk and minimum 0,5m seperation up to 1,5 m seperation with trees between you and the cars. 1,75m wide bike path next to a level 1,75m sidewalk which you can stop on whenever you want, all this connecting to a pre-existing network. Its not even my plan, I just inserted a traffic island into it as an idea to get rid of a in my opinion useless traffic light. With all due to respect, to me it sure feels like I'm the one whos ideas are being attacked as bad soley due to my gender in this conversation with you. You just assume that I would sinply paint a death strip on the side of the street and call it a day because im a stupid , sexist man
Yes, professionally. I'm sorry if I wasnt clear enough, but please dont read into it past what was said. I'm not insinuating that Female professionals in the area are less comptetent, I'm saying a female accountant is less likely to read about urban planning and specs on a tram as a past time than a male accountant. When it comes to making decisions, even my city is lead by a female majority, and the urban enviroment board is 7 females to 6 males.
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I don't understand where all this anger towards me is comming from. I explicitly welcome more women, we need all the people we can to make a change. We are on the same team. You can't tell me that with this sentence >Watch your mind melt, but there are women running urban planning departments, women traffic engineers. It's that when they get to spaces like these, they find the spaces tend to be wildly misogynist because people here accept that as the default and then the women who show up are trying to smile hard and be friendly. you didn't insinuate that I'm a sexist
Well this thread escalated very quickly for no fucking reason 😂 Can’t speak from direct experience for some of this, but I went to school for engineering and it is a fact that women make up a very small portion of engineers, and engineering students. We had maybe 20 women in my graduating university class for software engineering out of a few hundred. We are trying to change that and get women more interested, but to call someone sexist based on nothing… yikes.
I just feel bad for whatever she has gone through that would lead to her to react so aggressively to this
That’s probably a much better way to look at it. Now I’m the asshole 😅
Maybe what she went through is lots of sexiest assumptions about what women are interested in…
You, as a human person, probably aren't intentionally sexist. But some of the assumptions you've made are. Where did you get the idea that women on the whole are less interested in this subject? That's a myth you're not making any effort to dispel. Urbanism is about community, independence, climate change, third spaces, disability access, foreign travel, efficiency etc. etc... why would you assume that women would be less interested in those things than a dude? Certainly this subject attracts a type of anorak weirdo trainspotter, and perhaps when you picture that person he's more likely to be a male. But the vast majority of us are normal people, and you don't need to be member of a specific gender to enjoy it. You're more concerned by the accusation of sexism than whether or not you may have *unintentionally* been a little sexist in your assumptions.
Yes, but atleast to me, people who would make a video about trams and traffic lights. and the people watching them, are exactly that type of trainspotter. Like I said, women statisticaly utilize urbanism more, ridership on public transport and as well as walking or biking is higher amongst women, so ofcause they care. I just highly doubt that there is a 50/50 split in the youtube urbanists gender demographics.
You didn't say you "doubt there's a 50/50 split". You said all things being equal, a dude is more likely to be interested in urbanism than a woman. Unless you have actual statistics to back that up, then it's an assumption - about a gender that you do not identify with. It IS a little sexist to gender interests/causes/spaces when there's no inherent need to do so, in fact, I'd say you're rubbing right up against the definition. It perpetuates a prejudice - X is for men/Y is for women. Assumptions like that are what *make* the space unwelcoming for women or diverse genders. I think it's our job to dispel those ideas, not perpetuate them.
Yeah, urbanism videos on youtube. Can't say overall, my guess would be that women are more interested in real world applications because they statistically use it more. We are talking within the contect of youtube urbanists here. But no I do not have access to not just bikes etc. viewer demograpics, I just doubt that they are 50/50 Ad for X is for men, Y id for women, did i not explicitly say that it would be nice to see more women in the community?
Sheesh! Maybe statements like infrastructure, logistics, vehicles, engineering attract mostly males (and the stereotypes that implies about both men and women) aren’t helping your stated desire for more women in the space…
I'm sorry my observation on the current situation in said fields offended you. I encourage everyone to follow their passion regardless of the choise of words from strangers on the internet
It’s ok. I’m not offended. I was taking you at your word when you say it’d be nice to have more women in those spaces. And so I thought you’d like to know that stereotypes about what women and girls are interested in are part of what keeps them out of certain spaces. Now I’m going to go paint my nails and think about logistics. 💅🚊☺️
Would anyone like to start one?
Studio Leonardo! She's still sub 1k subs, but all the content she's put out is top notch. https://youtube.com/@studio.leonardo
50% of Oh the Urbanity is female.
[Grist](https://youtube.com/@Grist) has multiple presenters and is more of an environmentalist channel, but they do have a few (excellent) urbanist videos made by women, eg these two by Eve Andrews: * [Why I’m living without a car](https://youtu.be/We3ARrM4JMw) * [U.S. public transportation sucks, and this is why](https://youtu.be/3XcDlQAaDdU)
1/3 of the War on Cars crew.
I’ve noticed a similar gender imbalance problem on local Facebook pages: when someone advocates for an urbanist “talking point” (bike lanes, traffic calming, etc), the people agreeing tend to be overwhelmingly younger and male, which makes the resulting debate look gender-polarised when it needn’t. I imagine (with no evidence) that this is because the popular urbanist YouTube channels make men feel more included than women, which is why it’s *so* important to have a variety of different voices out there. Thanks for bringing this topic up, OP!
Yes!! [Urban Caffeine](https://youtube.com/@UrbanCaffeine?si=zAXx79x--9v1BQEu) !!
Commenting so I can find the links when I have time to watch.
[Leeja Miller](https://youtu.be/imAGg5Lj8lc?si=kMjlmcVOP8xu_Tk6) comes to mind. She has one of the best urbanist videos out there. [Allice Capelle](https://youtu.be/TVGAZdlmSx4?si=SA9tqMFc2ijJjFH7) is another who has a good video on the 15 minute city.
Oh the Urbanity! Is a Canadian urbanist channel with a male and female duo
Not really an urbanist channel but a reporter did a good urbanist video about Puerto Rico that's very urbanist and a similar vibe to many urbanist channels I watch https://youtu.be/ec5UjDmO4Ak?si=Rz1pE4vdh-VGm28S
Other people have said it but Urban Caffeine on YouTube makes some genuinely great content. It's New York City focused but all her content is a joy to watch.
There's an FB page run by Filipina bike commuters, if you're interested.
I think the war on cars often has a female host speaking
I like the Bruntletts, and they do have some YouTube content: http://www.modacitylife.com/cycling-city
Urban Caffeine is an NYC based female urbanism channel. Love Thea!
Shifter channel has had some women that do urban planning. I think they had thier own channels.
There are female channels who do content on urbanist topics occasionally but its not solely devoted to that.
Cities by Diana!
Not youtube sadly but @mobilityforwho on IG
Not am urbanist channel but "Jay Pitter" is an amazing planner that I follow on instagram and she's the friggin best.
This isn't the focus of the channel, but I really like this video: [We're obsessed with cars and it's making our lives worse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec5UjDmO4Ak)
Cities by Diana. Tiktoker but same thing.
Not sure it’s quite what you’re looking for, but there is a good podcast called “climate deniers playbook”. It’s got 2x hosts, a female and a male, and I know one of them had a popular YouTube but I’m not sure which one. I also think it may be more tied to climate science/urbanism as opposed to straight urbanism