American Reacts to Freiburg, Germany’s “Green” City (with more bikes than cars!)

My name is Sean Huggins, I’m from America and living in Germany. Watch as I react to German videos, memes, compilations and more. American reacting to German culture, this should be funny!

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the Green City with more bikes than cars this is Friberg Germany let’s take a look Comon my name is Sean Huggins and this is react with hugs I want to see how he reacts when he thinks no one’s watching I can’t help it if he’s weird he’s American he’s going crazy with that work everybody reacts different I think he’s weird but that’s me he’s American you know welcome to react with hugs let’s hop straight into today’s comment of the day so today’s comment of the day comes from o Port 3453 and they say I stand on your videos OHA feeling dunk mind FR dude this I this is hilarious I love German idioms so much I’m glad you added your mustard to the comment section if you are watching this video feel free to add your mustard to the comment mment section if you feel so inclined Oort thank you for standing on my videos you guys are the best lid closed monkey dead anyways let’s not waste any more time and hop straight into today’s reaction all right today we are checking out Germany’s Green City with more bikes Than Cars by not just bikes this is apparently fryberg deuts and I’m excited to hear all about it so let’s not waste any more time sit back relax and enjoy the show let’s find out about fber deutchland lates a city in the Black Forest it’s often referred to as Germany’s Green City it’s a city with more than twice as many bicycles as cars and over 400 km of bicycle Lanes looks pretty Co it’s a city with a lot of trams and amazing pedestrianized streets over the past few decades fryberg has become a leader in modern sustainable Urban Development and they’re building an absolutely amazing City in the process H let’s hear about it I’m excited Germany is well known for its car industry and autobond 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 10% of the city population is actually a pretty big percentage I feel like and a lot of bicycles parked outside the university but you also see a lot of cargo bikes and families a key indicator that fryberg has a very Advanced bicycle culture the Oldtown dude cargo bikes are really cool I would like to get a cargo bike I don’t know why I don’t know what I would use it for cuz I don’t have enough stuff I don’t have anything to put inside the cargo bike but dude they just look cool to me I think in the center of fryberg is a wonderful place to be there’s old architecture alongside the new and the streets are beautiful too looks very nice this amazing I even managed to film two trams going through here at once appreciate my patience and good timing I appr everywhere you look there are TRS 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 except those hideous Bells who would do such a thing what kind of a business would put those hideous noisy Bells how is that not illegal especially on a Sunday I’m just kidding I’m just kidding comment section hold your mustard I was being sarcastic I know that it’s a church hold your mustard you can add the ver but hold the mustard okay anyways let’s continue yet another that cities aren’t loud cars are allow 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 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 That’s So Co is this just one of the most most wholesome things you’ve ever seen this is so much fun that is super fun and now I’m mad that he said it’s for kids cuz I want to do it yeah I’ve been in some other German cities where they have stuff like this where it’s like little cemented off streams of water going through the city center and it’s very fun I like it it’s very cool very nice tranquil relaxing all the good stuff let’s continue 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 and of course she’s 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 medeval city but actually it’s not what you might think sure I love a bit of mystery in my videos if it’s not what I think it is then what is it my friend tell me more 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 cars 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 Centric vision of modity 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 for those decisions yo look at the tractor driving through the center of the city that’s awesome 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 ahuh 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 wa dude that’s a huge difference wow so they were like screw all these cars we’re going to destroy all this and make it not for cars anymore wow dude bold strategy I like it it looks very nice let’s continue 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 comes from making a place carf 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 in cities all over the world every city that retained its tram network has better urbanism than any nearby City that didn’t so he is saying that trams are probably the best way to get around within a city we at least a lot better than cars okay makes good sense to me that seems like good math to me let’s continue expanded its tram Network through the 80s and 90s while other European cities were removing theirs uhuh 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 and it’s one of the genuine highlights of the city center and of course this used to be a parking lot too what dude look at this how many cars there were man it looks so different wow they really did completely change the entire look and feel of this city holy crap this is mind-blowing right now let’s in the 1970s there was a growing environmental movement that protested any developments that would destroy the neighboring Black Forest 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 suburb completed in the early 2000s that was designed to be environmentally friendly from the start okay so this suburb was built after the greenfics aable and green as possible okay let’s see I it already looks literally very green like there’s just trees and bushes and grass everywhere so it already literally looks green but let’s see if there’s anything else maybe doing something with limiting cars that they did that I would be interested in hearing about let’s see the buildings here were built to a very high Energy Efficiency standard and you see solar panels on roofs and balconies all over the neighborhood some of these buildings even generate more energy than they consume that’s cool the neighborhood was built on the location of a former military base and some of the apartments were built from the original Barracks wow 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 today the majority of residents in foban live in housing cooperatives or social housing developments when foban was first built hold on a second what did he say there what was that helper today the majority of residents in foban live in housing cooperatives or social housing developments housing cooperatives or social housing developments I’m too stupid to know what either of those things are when boban was first built only about half of households owned a car but remarkably that number has actually decreased especially what the number of cars have decreased let me let me hear that one more time but remark boban was first housing cooperatives or social housing developments when foban was first built only about half of households owned a car but first of all half of households owning a car that you know when you’re living in a city okay that makes sense but then it’s decre increased since then that is pretty cool remarkably that number has actually decreased especially after the tram line was completed in 2006 today the vast majority of households in foban do not Cars per 1,000 inhabitants foban 175 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants wow that’s nearly half as much as Amsterdam holy crap oh there’s fryberg the the whole city of fryberg okay a little bit more than Amsterdam still very far below the European average which is very cool Germany just a little bit above the average of Europe Fake London what the heck is Fake London what’s Fake London okay I don’t know what that is but okay cool interesting 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 that definitely makes it a lot easier to walk and bike places when you don’t even have to think about cars at all like if you’re in a bike lane that is shared with cars or like beside cars you always have to keep it in the back of your mind like yeah the cars aren’t supposed to come into the bike Lane obviously but you have to keep it in the back of your mind well there’s a chance something like this you don’t got to worry about any cars there’s there’s no chance of any cars you know coming down this little Alleyway because it’s only big enough for bikes you know what I mean so that’s pretty cool this makes the street of foban 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 oh 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 faan 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 welld designed as faang tell me more 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 fber spent only a few decades building car Centric 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 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 yeah see this is what I was talking about even though there’s a big giant red lane for bikes you always just have to have it in the back of your mind like there’s not not much stopping a car from accidentally coming over into the bike lane you know whereas if it’s completely separated from the the street where the cars drive then you don’t have to worry about that you can just you can have a nice leisurely bike ride and you don’t even have to think about getting any in any trouble with cars you know I’m sure that’s a lot nicer for bike riders and there are still many painted bicycle gutters and dangerous merge lanes on busy roads oh wow look at that so clearly there are still opportunities for improvement 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 oh cool and it’s always great to see parking spaces converted to outdoor seating for local restaurants that’s nice 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 tell me more fryberg refers to its tram system as a stbon instead of a Sten Bond the usual German word for tram this is because they consider it to be better with separated tracks traffic light priority and a higher average speed than most tram systems ah okay so they put even more emphasis they basically double down on the tram system and really built it up and gave it priority over cars which makes it more likely that people will use the tram than cars so that people need to use cars less making it easier for everybody with bikes and walking and train and everything works better okay everything is making sense let’s continue 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 uhuh the tram Network covers most of the city and even goes out to several suburbs oh and the current planning rules state that new housing cannot be built unless it’s within walking distance of a tram line oh oh that’s nice that’s very cool new housing can’t be built unless it’s within walking distance of a tram line that is that’s crucial right there that’s that saves everything that that brings everything together in the future future construction it brings it all together that’s great 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 yeah why not I was able to get everywhere I wanted to go and I never had to wait very long for a tram either 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 yeah I mean grassy tram tracks look a heck of a lot nicer than the traditional like stone or paved tram tracks you know it just it looks more natural and more green literally and figuratively you know and yeah just looks nicer on the eyes also I like the new tram and bus station at Europa plots with chargers for the electric buses W 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 W the whole system is run from renewable energy very cool 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 dude I love cable cars like this if you haven’t checked out my Vlog where me and my German fiance Issa go to the German Alps and we take a car like this and we go to the top of a mountain and all kinds of other stuff check out the Vlog I’ll link it down in the description I’m very proud of that Vlog and it was such an amazing trip and we took one of these cable cars for the first time in my life taking a real one of these cable cars and it was like the coolest thing ever you got to check out the Vlog anyways let’s continue look at this 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 is so great wow 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 yeah now the weather wasn’t the best but the view from the gondola was next and when we got back the tram was waiting for us friberg’s train station is centrally located though not very pretty we got here by Train by the way and 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 tra 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 dang look at this holy crap a freaking ocean of bikes that’s cool I want 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 wow looks I prefer it like this and now it leads directly to this B bcle parking garage for the train station wa cool 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 knows someone who is older than the fryberg city center which really does make you wonder why can’t we build more places like this it’s not like it’s lost knowledge we know how to build like this and we know people like being in places like this this is what the sustainable City well I don’t have the answers to those questions but probably because the automotive industry and all of the different tentacles that Branch off of the automotive industry is just too much money to just not have cars I would assume probably if I had to guess but I don’t know of the future should look like not a place with wide roads and self-driving cars but a humanized 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 of the better oo what a action-packed informative video today dude that was actually really interesting I think I need to go to fryberg now every time I see a video of a new German City I’m like H I guess I have to go to that place now but yeah it looks like a great little city and obviously I love the idea of being able to have a walkable city or a bikable city even though I don’t have a bike so more walkable preferably walkable City I don’t know why more cities aren’t like this Mr bikes posed the question in the video why are more cities not built like this and I mean I’m not an expert so I don’t have the answers obviously I’m just some dummy on the internet but I would suspect it’s like I said having to do with the automotive industry and just the sheer scale of it how much money is involved with everything from Cars to fueling cars to building building the infrastructure for cars it creates so many jobs so much money for so many different people and also so many people are so used to having their own car and access to drive wherever they want that most people kind of expect it as you know a a normal thing nowadays so I think that a lot of urban planners are probably hesitant to sort of exclude cars from their thought process when planning a city because they’re like oh cars are so integrated into society I can’t just not include cars everyone has a car everyone wants to drive cars but what they don’t know is that we care less about driving cars and we care more about just being able to go where we want to go when we want to get there it just so happens that the way the system is set up in most places in the world right now it’s revolving around personal vehicles but if we could just walk to the places that we want to go or take public transportation to the places that we want to go then that’s fine too for most people most people don’t care most people it’s fine they just want to be able to go where they want to go as easily as possible and if you put the systems in place for people to be able to do that without having to drive their own Vehicles everywhere then people are going to do it people are going to take bikes people are going to walk people are going to take public transportation you just have to give them the ability to city planners I know you’re all watching this video right now I know that that’s all of my subscribers is the city planners from around the world what are you doing what are you doing watching my videos all the time get out there get back to your job and start planning some cities that aren’t revolving around cars anyways speaking of my viewers I’m going to pose the question to you guys the exact one that Mr bikes asked in the video what do you think why do you think that so many city planners seem to not build cities like fryberg everything seems to revolve around cars even still after after we’ve seen that it’s fine if people can walk places and everything still seems to revolve around cars and I’m curious why what do you guys think why do you think that cities are hesitant to move away from Cars put your mustard in the comments but that’s all the time that I have for today thank you guys so much for being here and as always I’ll see you guys tomorrow peace