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Did you know that Budapest (Hungary) is home to continental Europe’s oldest underground metro line. Budapest has a very fascinating history. The city was originally two separate cities: Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube River. During World War II, all the bridges that connect the two portions of the cities were destroyed. And thereafter, they’ve built two metro lines and nine bridges that connect the two halves in the modern day. George Liu – Urban Mobility Researcher – was very curious to discover all this for himself. In this video, part of the City Unboxed series produced in collaboration with the Urban Cycling Institute, George gives us a tour of Budapest by walking, cycling and public transit to finally give the city a Human Mobility Score!
This video was produced in collaboration with the Urban Cycling Institute. Click here to discover another episode of the City Unboxed series, in Hamburg this time: https://bit.ly/3Ecrxr2
#UMX #cityunboxed #urbanmobility #urbanism
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Urban Mobility Explained is powered by EIT Urban Mobility, a European initiative to create liveable urban spaces! This project is co-funded by the European Union. Learn more about EIT Urban Mobility: https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/
16 Comments
Great review, George!! Felt exactly the same walking along Danube.
This is so interesting. I have never been to Budapest but I liked your analysis. The human mobility score is a good idea.
These trams are urban snakes! Is this peak transit?
Was a fun tour as always – beautiful architecture in this city!
Luckily Budapest is making really good progress in most areas. More and more bike lanes pop up in the city and they are planning to pedestrianise the shore of the Danube. Transit is being modernised, mobility stations are being expanded and new green spaces are being created
Budapest can learn from San Francisco's waterfront planning while San Francisco can learn from Budapest's plaza and open space planning. Cycling is similar and I hope both cities can remove the overabundance of car lanes for bike lanes and pedestrian space…
I always struggle with what's better: (1) bikes between traffic and parked cars or (2) next to pedestrians (leaving parked cars and traffic to your left)? I might be wrong with my comment below, but this is what I've seen with the poor cycling infrastructure in my area:
My experience is that in (2), the problem comes when there is an intersection. Cars coming from the right want to join the direction you are cycling. To do so, they need to show the car's nose, but they don't see anything due to the cars parked, so they will invade the whole bike path and cyclists will not be happy.
Another problem I've seen in (2) is when there is a roundabout. Having the bike path too segregated leads to having to wait for a traffic light next to pedestrians, quite a few meters away instead of flowing next to traffic and continuing straight to your destination.
What do you think? I would really like to dedicate my professional life to Urban Mobility (ideally without becoming a politician) and do not know where to start! Btw, I'm reading a great book called Movement: how to take back our streets and transform our lives, by Thalia Verkade and Marco Te Brömmelstroet. It's super insightful!
As a former Budapest resident, I loved this video and agree with most but not all of your analysis. Transit has always been fantastic in Budapest and the city continues to invest in it (e.g. by opening a 4th metro line in 2014). You rightly give transit a 5/5. Cycling conditions have improved tremendously over the past 20 years, with bike paths, share rows, bike accommodation on public transport and, of course, the public bike system. The infrastructure makes too many compromises with car traffic, it's true, so a 2/5 may be fair. But I think you short changed Budapest on walkability. The Pest bank is awful, as you point out, but the Buda bank does have a decent bike/pedestrian promenade. Budapest's historic squares are a treasure, places for walking, resting, and people watching, and they're all over the downtown core. In addition, in recent decades, the city has pedestrianized, or drastically traffic-calmed, several streets on both sides of the Danube, linking up squares and creating big pedestrian corridors. Reassigning streets from cars to people is a huge political challenge, as you know. For these reasons, I'd give Bp a 3/5 on walking.
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So much potential to be a friendly quiet experience overall. Currently loud, dirty and unsafe to walk and cycle. Imagine the financial gains for business alone!
I used to take that red and white cog train to and from school almost every day back in 1995. I'm glad to see that some things haven't changed.
As A Budapestian I can only agree with your scoring. The public transport network is amazing, however, I can feel the lack of pedestrian-friendly spaces very often. And I'd never ride a bike here, as it's super dangerous. But it's not as disturbing as the lack of pedestrian spaces, since I can get everywhere easily without a bike.
Unfortunately the car lobby, backed by the governement is very strong in Budapest. Drivers feel entitled to a (preferably free) parking spot wherever they please, and since the city is governed by the opposition, the drivers vs mass transit debate is heavily politicized. Plus for its size Budapest municipial budget is rather small, so any large development is dependent on the governement.
I think walking is quite good, shops are always close to you so you dont really need a car
Great video, just found this channel with railways explained
Nice video. Always funny seeing how people screw up the pronunciation of hungarian names