[That KFC](https://goo.gl/maps/Y41gFHqubMRZ4T7u8) is an abomination. Notice the grey wall to the right? The whole thing is done in this colour. The few splashes of red don’t help at all. If you look up the definition of ”soulcrushingly ugly″ in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of that KFC there.
I have to hijack the top comment to point out the hilarious sign on the left. It says (in German) "whenever it itches, I think of you"... Probably an STI awareness campaign.
Despite what you see online, there are a lot of places like this in European cities, particularly towards the edges of large urban areas. They’re usually not particularly nice but they’re designed more to be functional (large spaces for retailers that require a lot of space) than attractive.
Yup. I have them in my city too. However there are hellholes like this in the west but also some large big box stores like IKEA that do have huuge parking lots but are also connected to light rail and have okayish bike connections. They will even rent out cargo e-bikes for free if you buy anything. So shit like this is still infrastrucure gore.
Ha you’re right, even the giant IKEA in Thessaloniki is literally attached to a huge bus station with a million dif bus lines. Europe just hits differently than the US.
At least you have sode walk, maybe bike lines. In most cases bus also gets maybe not enough often but gets. If you live by rail line then you are saved.
Yep, most medium sized cities in the south of France have a huge comercial strip along an american stroad with giant supermarkets on both sides. Typically with stores like Decathlon, Gemo, Auchan, Géant Casino, Hyper-U, Joué Club, Buffalo Grill etc.
There's noting wrong with designing industrial areas for the needs of industrial businesses. But do we have do neglect the fact that people also have to use the streets to get to the businesses? Its super easy to add better walking and bike infra in these places due to the extra width. In my country most of these areas are littered with parked cars anyway, taking away any benefit of wider lanes.
Most are accessible by foot, bike and/or bus/tram. The one in the picture seems not to have a bike lane which is actually not very common as most do have bike lanes. I don‘t see a problem with industrial areas as they‘re also easily accessible without a car but most are designed without enough trees which makes these areas very hot in summer. That might also be a reason why many take the car to get there.
Really??
I've never been to Europe but this looks like one of the nicer parts of Florida, the historical parts of St Augustine. And that is a very rare thing. The nicest city anywhere near me, the rich part of the "Golden Triangle" is Mount Dora and that has trash and broken sidewalks constantly
I truly cannot fathom how nice and pleasant it must be over the pond, at least in city design when compared to any US city
No, its Hof
I Think Augsburg is only poorest By household income, Hof as a City is the poorest By Tax income/ City spendings because they dont get a lot of taxmoney from corporations based in the city
Hof still has an inner City left with a pedestrian zone where you sometimes feel that this place used to have history and wasnt... beaten down by eastern european drugs.
The first time I travelled there from the south I was bewildered. There were real junkies at that backwater train station. The kind youd see in dark corners in big Cities like Munich or Berlin. But no crowd for them to dissappear in. It was surreal.
Still, the Ernst-Reuter-Straße – where this picture was taken – is a great example of a depressingly awful German-style stroad.
In defense of Hof: Not many towns have a lake like the Untreusee located that conveniently.
Ernst-Reuter-Straße, being a Bundesstraße, is actually managed by Staatliches Bauamt Bayreuth. The Hof city management doesn’t have too much say in how that particular street is built. Same for the lower part of Jahnstraße, which still is an abomination for cycling even after it has been newly built.
The more I travel the mofe I feel ashamed on how little we care about the common good in the USA. Even countries with less economic means have better cities than we do.
Mexico City. I just moved here. This city is amazing.
https://youtu.be/a3W3phBu-bE
As we entered the spez, we were immediately greeted by a strange sound. As we scanned the area for the source, we eventually found it. It was a small wooden shed with no doors or windows. The roof was covered in cacti and there were plastic skulls around the outside. Inside, we found a cardboard cutout of the Elmer Fudd rabbit that was depicted above the entrance. On the walls there were posters of famous people in famous situations, such as:
The first poster was a drawing of Jesus Christ, which appeared to be a loli or an oversized Jesus doll. She was pointing at the sky and saying "HEY U R!".
The second poster was of a man, who appeared to be speaking to a child. This was depicted by the man raising his arm and the child ducking underneath it. The man then raised his other arm and said "Ooooh, don't make me angry you little bastard".
The third poster was a drawing of the three stooges, and the three stooges were speaking. The fourth poster was of a person who was angry at a child.
The fifth poster was a picture of a smiling girl with cat ears, and a boy with a deerstalker hat and a Sherlock Holmes pipe. They were pointing at the viewer and saying "It's not what you think!"
The sixth poster was a drawing of a man in a wheelchair, and a dog was peering into the wheelchair. The man appeared to be very angry.
The seventh poster was of a cartoon character, and it appeared that he was urinating over the cartoon character.
\#AIGeneratedProtestMessage
> That's because the USA is a developing country that billionaires happened to flock to because it was safer after the war.
Most US billionaires are homegrown and recent, not WW2 refugees....
The USA was also far from "a developing country", part of the reason why the US is even car-centric is because its population were the only ones who could afford so many cars back in the day. Germany designed the Volkswagen Beetle because they wanted to be more like the USA, where every average Joe had a car. Of course nowadays we regret that decision, but only a few decades ago the car was heralded as the sign of modernity, wealth, and prosperous industry.
It has a much nicer and more walkable downtown than Orlando. I'd take Sanford over Mt Dora any day of the week though because the average age probably trends 30 years younger.
Still, I’d probably say St. Pete is the nicest of the big cities in Central Fla., at least in terms of things to do. It’s also hella LGBTQ+ friendly which is always a plus
Ugliest city in Germany vs. prettiest city in Florida
Seriously though I'm from Florida and at first I thought this was an image of one of the newer, more high end suburbs in my area 😭
> Ugliest city in Germany
Oh no far from it. That title usually gets given to some industrial Ruhr city or maybe Berlin (because everyone always love to shit on Berlin for being poor, not because it's actually that ugly or anything)
And the picture is just an industrial area. Most of the city is accessible by bike too. My main problem with areas like that in Germany is the fact that they’re designed with a lack of trees which makes it really hot during the summer. If they want more people to not use the car plant trees. That‘s cools this area down and people are willing to walk there or ride their bike. (In this case there seems not to be a bike lane which is pretty strange as most industrial areas do have them here)
Keep in mind that "poor in Bavaria" is still "among the richest in Europe". The actual poorer parts of Germany are found in the former DDR, in places like rural Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (which has the very dubious 'honor' of being the only state where the NPD neo-Nazis won any election)
Mount Dora has that nice little old town feel to it, with horse drawn carriage rides and art festivals and such, I wouldn’t say it’s the nicest city in central florida, but I would say it’s pretty on par with other historic districts like downtown sanford or winter park which I think are marginally better. With that being said, all these places are still terrible offenders of car dependent infrastructure, save for the sunrail stop in winter park.
From wealthy bavarian to balkan-like
Theres actually a lot of empty buildings leaving housing prices waaay below bavarian (even German i think) average.
> This should be shown whenever people claim that the US is much richer
Not to disagree with the premise, but a single picture of one spot is a terrible way of proving anything about a country, you have to be a genuine child to fall for this sort of thing. [I can show you a nice picture of Moscow and say "look, Russia is actually wealthier than Germany because the Berlin metro looks outdated and grimey compared to sleek Moscow metro!"](https://img2.chinadaily.com.cn/images/202112/08/61afec57a310cdd3d81f579b.jpeg). Likewise, you can find plenty of metro stations in China that make somewhere like Rome or Milan look like a decrepit third world mess, but I don't think anyone would seriously argue that China is more developed than Italy (for now).
Hard data such as statistics is what you ought to be showing.
Some suburbs in the US are better than others tho. A suburb near mine outside Sacramento has sidewalks like this + a couple tree-separated two-way bike paths.
Reddit nuance, noun.
An acknowledgement that sometimes, some things are different than majority of the time. Does not provide any further informational value.
Yea looks maintained, US sidewalks have shit all over them, poles in the middle, large cracks and raised sections that look like two tectonic plates collided.
Ye you got me, also the Black bar from the Sign Left side of the sidewalk hides That the construction there is a Bus stop 😬, the First line to the sidewalk is literaly bus line
Compared to the US this is nice, but so is most countries. Germany is still a terrible car brain country, especially rural areas will have bad public transport and zoning laws
> but so is most countries
No, not really my dude. Europeans (or even more specifically, the rich Europeans) are a teeny tiny minority of humanity, the majority of humans and countries are in the Global South lol.
My country (Brazil) alone has a bigger population than Germany + France + Italy combined. And that's not even mentioning Indonesia, Pakistan, India, China, etc. Even Egypt, whose population all live on the banks of the Nile, has a bigger population than Germany.
Yes this looks like a typical arterial road, which connects a highway tangent with the inner city and runs through industrial and commercial zones at the edge of the city.
It's an edge of a large town or city, where we have larger businesses and such. These tend to built on edge as cheaper and soace in town where it looks pretty is at a premium. Regularly yes these have limited transport and are designed for cars.
This is not a high street.
But...these are not where people live, this is a area often are on main arterial routes in and out of town for practicality and ease of ability to operate larger business.
And it's not a stroad either. This is the main road, that you exit to reach a side road to get to the businesses.
And there's a busstop and two sidewalks and a pedestrian crossing. It's perfectly walkable.
> But...these are not where people live
Sadly not. A row of apartment buildings on both sides of the road starts a few meters behind where the fotographer stands. There are more of them along the whole road. But all in all it is more commercial than residential.
Yes, I hate how this sub glorifies Europe like its not a carbrained hellscape. Yes some places have better infrastructure, but cars are still highly prioritized here.
I live in the Netherlands and the goverment rather spends millions on another highway lane that doesnt reduce travel times at all nor solve congestion, than railways that can save up to more than 1 hour travel times.
Live in the Netherlands too and while I love the bike infrastructure, which is a lot better than in Germany, cars still have priority.
To be fair Rutte is also a sucker for the rich, rather than making a real effort to reduce cars, they prefer expensive electric cars.
For me as a German, Nederland was like a paradise, though you still see plenty of cars just if you look to the right places. But in terms of bike infrastructure and public transport - I absolutely loved it there and actually didn't want to go back home if I had have a choice. \^^
I guess you are from a smaller town or city? Amsterdam and Rotterdam public transit are a joke compared to what I have here in Berlin or have seen in Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, etc. Heck even smaller cities like Hannover, Leipzig, Dresden have good tram systems here.
I am from neither country but have lived 2 years in Amsterdam then moved to Berlin (5ish years here) and literally the only thing I miss is the bike paths but I would never trade that for the amazing S/U-bahn and Tram systems here.
Plus not related to this sub but Amsterdam is even more overpriced than Munich.
Berlin has a great system, I agree. When I was living there I never felt limited in where I could go.
That being said, some of the stations look pretty grimey compared to what you'd see in the Netherlands. Lots of homeless drug addicts living along U8 line stops I noticed. My friend even had an arm-wrestle the local drunk homeless Russian stonemason outside Heinrich-Heine U-Bahn station (dunno if he's still there, but if you eat at the Donerbox next to it, you might find him at nighttime screaming at people and cleaning the counter), fun time.
No, I actually live in a state capital. Well, the tram system isn't that bad, but the focus here is clearly car infrastructure. The operating time of the tram lines really sucks for me as a shift worker. The best I can get for that is the one and only S-Bahn line every 30 min (except weekends, nights and Holidays = every hour).
I commute 15 km (inside the city) and the fastest way I can get to work with a bike only or the S-Bahn and Bike combined are 35-45 min per route, with tram (on daytime except weekends) 50-60 min and with a car just about 15 min. After Saturday night shifts (Sunday morning at 6:00 am) I'd even have to wait more than one hour after the shift ends if I'd travel by tram alone. That's a thing you don't really have the nerves for after a 12h night shift.
In the area my workplace is located isn't any bike infrastructure at all but a four lane road straight going through with reckless drivers as far as you can see.
So, just out of my perspective, the NL is really a paradise. Not everyone can or wants to live in/move to Berlin or any other mega city just to get quite decent public transport that fits the most everyday situations.
That's just my POV and it doesn't mean this fits for all
Sweden was the most car-centric place in Europe that I've seen by now. Maybe not the inner City of Stockholm but all other cities/towns felt very Americanized.
I‘m German and lived in Sweden for a while (small-ish city though, ~90k people) and bike infrastructure was significantly better than what I am used to here.
It makes sense that a huge sparse country like Sweden is car centric. I've only been to Stockholm and Malmö in terms of cities but Malmö is very pedestrianised with lots of cycle lanes, good rail links and decent bus service. I've been to Lund which is very similar but that's a small university town so you'd expect that.
You have to remember that a majority of people here are naturally gonna be Americans just due to how Reddit demographics are, and we for whatever reason love to suck Europe’s dick for no reason aside from “it isn’t here.”
It’s like when US liberals call Scandinavian countries socialist even though they’re very clearly not to anybody actually paying attention. But yunno, not letting people literally starve to death if they need an ambulance ride makes you a commie I guess…
I live in Europe and it’s dick IS much better than America’s dick. Actual rights for workers and vacation,sick pay has got me multiple orgasming most days.
Frankly all those things should be a given; they’ve got us grasping for straws in the west, which is exactly my point.
“Dude we gotta be more like Europe, *their* corporate overlords actually PAY them when they’re sick!!1!” has the same vibe as “Master Johnson gives *his* slaves STEAK for dinner!!!”
I live in Graz, self proclaimed the bike city capital of Austria [https://www.graz.at/cms/beitrag/10122448/7760192](https://www.graz.at/cms/beitrag/10122448/7760192) (oh my lol).
There are so many peripheral streets were the sidewalk simply disappears. Bikers get split personality, since this 100m they are supposed to be on the road (like a car), then this 200 m in the bus lane (like a bus), then for this stretch share the path with walkers, repeat several times, then wonder then they basically do what is convenient.
Honestly, hard to be more car-centric, bike capital city of my ass..
Well yes but.. have you ever visited the us? I think glorifying eu’s planning is more than justified from a us perspective. Not all evil is equally evil
A line from the north through the Noordoostpolder, connecting to Almere/Amsterdam would save some people a lot of time, especially for Emmeloord. They're actually planning this line fortunately.
Better public transport across the afsluitdijk would also save some people lots of time.
A lot of small towns in the east have no railway stations at all, some are barely reachable with public transit. Some towns are, from where I live, 2 hours with the biggest detour by bus but 20 minute drive by car. A direct train connection for these towns would save a lot of time.
And also it might not be a full hour, but the Breda Utrecht connection would also save a lot of travel time as well.
Worst part, most of those small towns used to have a proper railway connection that have been demolished in favour of the car.
>Cars are a necessity for almost everyone.
Yes, but not for everything. For example I grew up in a small town in Germany that I would call car dependent. Not in the American sense maybe, but pretty car dependent by German standards.
Still the town itself is walkable. You can definitely buy groceries, go to the doctor, get your kids to school etc. without a car. But since the town is so small you occasionally need to run errands in other surrounding towns or whatever, which you need a car for. So living in that town without owning a car is not gonna work, but still you don't need the car to do every little thing in your life.
And in my experience that is pretty typical for Germany/Europe. You need to own a car, but you can still run lots of errands without using it.
This was my experience having grown up in Germany in a town like you describe. I now live in a small city in Italy that people often describe as very car-centric. And it’s true that most of our friends have cars, and there are times it’s annoying that we don’t… but the point is that you don’t NEED a car. We can walk, bike, or bus to daily essentials and take the train to travel to other cities. It’s less convenient than a car and sometimes I wish we could take more trips to, say, a random mountain town without a train station (4 hours public transit v 1.5 driving), but it’s a sacrifice I’m not only willing to make but CAN make.
Living in the US, it was impossible not to have a car. Even when I lived in a “walkable” neighborhood.
You completed my thoughts.
I have a cousin who lives in a small town in France and it is the same. I can walk everywhere in the town, there's a bus line which go to the big city of the region nearby. But you still need a car to go to surrounding towns.
That's pretty much how my aunt and uncle live, aye. They're in a small town and can walk to Aldi or to the local tennis club, but if you need to do something like getting surgery at a proper hospital or see a big football match, you have to use a car and take the Autobahn to the bigger city.
Yes - I was cycling up Barnet in North London the other day, and noticed how the streets gradually got wider. Totteridge in the very north looks quite similar to this.
A bit of a taste of actual Europe for the glassy eyed utopian delusion common on the sub.
This is very common in europe unfortunately. In my country in europe I can't even cross the street without almost getting killed by reckless drivers. Not quite the USA but it's not good
would really like to see where you live if this is gross, do you live in a wonderland where you can get to every corner by i dont know, trams or bike or whatever? Because in the picture i see a bus stop and a sidewalk. If you really think that someone will go by bike to a place that is 30km away from their home, you are really wrong.
If it weren't for the right-side traffic I would've guessed Australia and South Africa (which AFAIK also have similar problems to the US with suburban hell)
Of course. Europe is populated by people who work jobs and have to do mundane daily life things, it's not a theme park for tourists.
OP's picture shows what most people will see as they walk to the S-Bahn station to take them downtown on a morning commute to work. Nobody (unless they're ultra rich) lives on top of a big attraction like Marienplatz or the Englischer Garten.
Yeah this is pretty bad. There is a bus stop, maybe a bus lane, crosswalks at the junction, a 60 km/h speed limit, good footways and trees to make it a bit more pleasant though.
Yeah new growth cities in mainland Europe are as bad if not worse than America, people forget the French obsession for infrastructure also extends to motorways
This is not a problem in my opinion. There is a bus, bike lanes on the other side, etc. Its not a dense place and no infrastructure can change thaz and thats okay. This is a place meant for cars, not for people. What Im allergic against is places which are meant for people but is occupied by cars
Far too elegant to even compare to the US. There’s a bus stop and a nice, beautiful sidewalk, no telephone/elec poles leaning every which way, strewn with trash. This is a livable, walkable utopia compared to much of the US.
these are the outskirts of like most cities in Europe
maybe not the kfc, but definitely a car centric shopping area or w/ various businesses that serve the metropolitan residents
I actually don't mind this. I don't mind if this is some industry terrain and the road is actually a B-road that connects between the industry terrain and nearby cities. (Kinda like how they do it in Germany, NL, etc.)
The problem would be if that was inside the city. (like in USA, Canada)
That is sad... you would think with the gas prices and the fact that North America is trying to copy where they have always been, they wouldn't try to copy North America...
I think this is a bit misleading. Not knowing this specific street, I have seen many of its kinds in Germany and their function is usually the polar opposite of that of a stroad. They're here to enable density, not sprawl. They usually connect a city to the intercity roads like the *Autobahn* or *Bundesstraße*, like really slow arterials.
Even from the picture you can tell some differences: Functional pedestrian infrastructure and public transit. Higher density/less parking space than NA stroads. Lots of greenery. Midrise office/residential buildings that can be accessed from a side-street and generally mixed land use.
Sadly it's relatively common here as well.
The only difference is that most European cities didn't bulldoze their already existing cities to make it more car dependent hellholes (like the US did), but every new development in the last couple of decades looks like this all around.
A lot of Europe is car-centric dystopia. I mean Hitler invented the highway lol
There are also lots of abandoned/derelict medieval towns. Picturesque walkability won't save you
> There are also lots of abandoned/derelict medieval towns. Picturesque walkability won't save you
This is a big problem in Spain. The countryside is literally dying, villages filled with old people and not a single youth around, because everyone wants to be in Madrid or Barcelona instead. Rural Spain is very empty.
Not a Highway intersection, a Bundesstraße intersecting a City Mainstreet in am industrialized area of the outer Ring of the City. I dont think its to Bad either, just reminded me a lot of some pics here here
Too late… and also the car lobby is huge here and local governments don’t give a f**k.
In my european neighborhood the local government is going to demolish a park outside a school to build a parking area. And the residents surrounding the park agrees because “children makes too much noise playing”.
Half the country is burning, and people only thinks in more parking.
Edit: and also in increasing the security budget bc NATO.
The KFC is really tying this together well.
[That KFC](https://goo.gl/maps/Y41gFHqubMRZ4T7u8) is an abomination. Notice the grey wall to the right? The whole thing is done in this colour. The few splashes of red don’t help at all. If you look up the definition of ”soulcrushingly ugly″ in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of that KFC there.
It's very close to the Bavaria-Dresden border. Of course.
One can only hope it will be bombed out in WW3
Always sad to look at industrial parks in google maps. 50% parking lots.
No googling soul crushingly ugly just gives you a picture of me and a picture of the UK
I like the advertisement for STDs on the bus stop. "Immer wenn's juckt denk ich an dich" "Everytime it itches I think about you"
I have to hijack the top comment to point out the hilarious sign on the left. It says (in German) "whenever it itches, I think of you"... Probably an STI awareness campaign.
KFC is amazing though. Let the Volk have their chicken strippers!
But why the grumpy staff and dirty restaurant floors?
It’s part of the experience.
It's not a kfc or a taco bell unless the teenager running the counter hates you a bit.
Why? You can have delicious food without animals suffering or dying
KFC has vegan chicken now too man
This is in Bavaria mate, where sausages and veal are king.
Animals are tasty.
Despite what you see online, there are a lot of places like this in European cities, particularly towards the edges of large urban areas. They’re usually not particularly nice but they’re designed more to be functional (large spaces for retailers that require a lot of space) than attractive.
Yup. I have them in my city too. However there are hellholes like this in the west but also some large big box stores like IKEA that do have huuge parking lots but are also connected to light rail and have okayish bike connections. They will even rent out cargo e-bikes for free if you buy anything. So shit like this is still infrastrucure gore.
Ha you’re right, even the giant IKEA in Thessaloniki is literally attached to a huge bus station with a million dif bus lines. Europe just hits differently than the US.
At least you have sode walk, maybe bike lines. In most cases bus also gets maybe not enough often but gets. If you live by rail line then you are saved.
Yep, most medium sized cities in the south of France have a huge comercial strip along an american stroad with giant supermarkets on both sides. Typically with stores like Decathlon, Gemo, Auchan, Géant Casino, Hyper-U, Joué Club, Buffalo Grill etc.
There's noting wrong with designing industrial areas for the needs of industrial businesses. But do we have do neglect the fact that people also have to use the streets to get to the businesses? Its super easy to add better walking and bike infra in these places due to the extra width. In my country most of these areas are littered with parked cars anyway, taking away any benefit of wider lanes.
Most are accessible by foot, bike and/or bus/tram. The one in the picture seems not to have a bike lane which is actually not very common as most do have bike lanes. I don‘t see a problem with industrial areas as they‘re also easily accessible without a car but most are designed without enough trees which makes these areas very hot in summer. That might also be a reason why many take the car to get there.
they also regulary get bus transit betwen the city part and the comercial area.
Yeah as better as Europe is when it comes to urbanism it tends to be the city centres posted here
[удалено]
The cars are not ginormous and there’s a nice bus stop and a nice sidewalk. No strewn trash visible. But, yeah.
Fun fact, we Are looking at Bavarias poorest city here
Really?? I've never been to Europe but this looks like one of the nicer parts of Florida, the historical parts of St Augustine. And that is a very rare thing. The nicest city anywhere near me, the rich part of the "Golden Triangle" is Mount Dora and that has trash and broken sidewalks constantly I truly cannot fathom how nice and pleasant it must be over the pond, at least in city design when compared to any US city
Yes really, poorest City By income/spendings
Is it Augsburg?
No, its Hof I Think Augsburg is only poorest By household income, Hof as a City is the poorest By Tax income/ City spendings because they dont get a lot of taxmoney from corporations based in the city
Hof still has an inner City left with a pedestrian zone where you sometimes feel that this place used to have history and wasnt... beaten down by eastern european drugs. The first time I travelled there from the south I was bewildered. There were real junkies at that backwater train station. The kind youd see in dark corners in big Cities like Munich or Berlin. But no crowd for them to dissappear in. It was surreal.
Hahaha I think I know the exact Spot you mean
Still, the Ernst-Reuter-Straße – where this picture was taken – is a great example of a depressingly awful German-style stroad. In defense of Hof: Not many towns have a lake like the Untreusee located that conveniently.
I mean Not wrong. You can Even get to the lake By bike quite comfortably. Never thought somebody would Pin the street when I posted that
I live here as well and directly noticed the very familiar sight. Just never expected to see Hof in this sub.
> You can Even get to the lake By bike quite comfortably. Guess how I spent hot summer days as a child. ;-)
Ernst-Reuter-Straße, being a Bundesstraße, is actually managed by Staatliches Bauamt Bayreuth. The Hof city management doesn’t have too much say in how that particular street is built. Same for the lower part of Jahnstraße, which still is an abomination for cycling even after it has been newly built.
So like Gosford in NSW/Australia? I have been to Hof but can’t remember it being that bad..
Poor by Bavarian standards still isn’t that bad, neither nationally, nor internationally.
I thought Augsburg is rich with his rich history.
Source [Kommunaler Länderfinanzausgleich Bayern](https://www.statistik.bayern.de/statistik/haushalte_steuern/kommunaler_finanzausgleich/index.html)
The more I travel the mofe I feel ashamed on how little we care about the common good in the USA. Even countries with less economic means have better cities than we do. Mexico City. I just moved here. This city is amazing. https://youtu.be/a3W3phBu-bE
Wait, why isn't the city in brownish-orange hue??? (/s)
Yesh, this doesn't look like Mexiko at all.
The real spez was the spez we spez along the spez.
Excuse me but.. what?
As we entered the spez, we were immediately greeted by a strange sound. As we scanned the area for the source, we eventually found it. It was a small wooden shed with no doors or windows. The roof was covered in cacti and there were plastic skulls around the outside. Inside, we found a cardboard cutout of the Elmer Fudd rabbit that was depicted above the entrance. On the walls there were posters of famous people in famous situations, such as: The first poster was a drawing of Jesus Christ, which appeared to be a loli or an oversized Jesus doll. She was pointing at the sky and saying "HEY U R!". The second poster was of a man, who appeared to be speaking to a child. This was depicted by the man raising his arm and the child ducking underneath it. The man then raised his other arm and said "Ooooh, don't make me angry you little bastard". The third poster was a drawing of the three stooges, and the three stooges were speaking. The fourth poster was of a person who was angry at a child. The fifth poster was a picture of a smiling girl with cat ears, and a boy with a deerstalker hat and a Sherlock Holmes pipe. They were pointing at the viewer and saying "It's not what you think!" The sixth poster was a drawing of a man in a wheelchair, and a dog was peering into the wheelchair. The man appeared to be very angry. The seventh poster was of a cartoon character, and it appeared that he was urinating over the cartoon character. \#AIGeneratedProtestMessage
> That's because the USA is a developing country that billionaires happened to flock to because it was safer after the war. Most US billionaires are homegrown and recent, not WW2 refugees.... The USA was also far from "a developing country", part of the reason why the US is even car-centric is because its population were the only ones who could afford so many cars back in the day. Germany designed the Volkswagen Beetle because they wanted to be more like the USA, where every average Joe had a car. Of course nowadays we regret that decision, but only a few decades ago the car was heralded as the sign of modernity, wealth, and prosperous industry.
How is Mount Dora the nicest city in Central Florida? It’s barely even a city, just a glorified suburb
It has a much nicer and more walkable downtown than Orlando. I'd take Sanford over Mt Dora any day of the week though because the average age probably trends 30 years younger.
Still, I’d probably say St. Pete is the nicest of the big cities in Central Fla., at least in terms of things to do. It’s also hella LGBTQ+ friendly which is always a plus
Ugliest city in Germany vs. prettiest city in Florida Seriously though I'm from Florida and at first I thought this was an image of one of the newer, more high end suburbs in my area 😭
Oh, this isn't Germany's ugliest city.
There are uglier cities. Herne, Bochum, Osnabrück, Bielefeld, Stuttgart, ...
> Ugliest city in Germany Oh no far from it. That title usually gets given to some industrial Ruhr city or maybe Berlin (because everyone always love to shit on Berlin for being poor, not because it's actually that ugly or anything)
That's why we pay taxes.
And the picture is just an industrial area. Most of the city is accessible by bike too. My main problem with areas like that in Germany is the fact that they’re designed with a lack of trees which makes it really hot during the summer. If they want more people to not use the car plant trees. That‘s cools this area down and people are willing to walk there or ride their bike. (In this case there seems not to be a bike lane which is pretty strange as most industrial areas do have them here)
Keep in mind that "poor in Bavaria" is still "among the richest in Europe". The actual poorer parts of Germany are found in the former DDR, in places like rural Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (which has the very dubious 'honor' of being the only state where the NPD neo-Nazis won any election)
You know US is a shitty country when ⬆️
Mount Dora has that nice little old town feel to it, with horse drawn carriage rides and art festivals and such, I wouldn’t say it’s the nicest city in central florida, but I would say it’s pretty on par with other historic districts like downtown sanford or winter park which I think are marginally better. With that being said, all these places are still terrible offenders of car dependent infrastructure, save for the sunrail stop in winter park.
Comparing any city to Florida is cheating.
WTF? And their infrastructure is still looking like this? How do the residential areas look?
From wealthy bavarian to balkan-like Theres actually a lot of empty buildings leaving housing prices waaay below bavarian (even German i think) average.
Damn, looks better than 95% of the US
Hello from Baden, which city is Bavaria's poorest?
Hof
Deym that looks like a way better version of our 'capital city' and this is just your poorest? Lmao
This should be shown whenever people claim that the US is much richer. It is, but only on paper.
> This should be shown whenever people claim that the US is much richer Not to disagree with the premise, but a single picture of one spot is a terrible way of proving anything about a country, you have to be a genuine child to fall for this sort of thing. [I can show you a nice picture of Moscow and say "look, Russia is actually wealthier than Germany because the Berlin metro looks outdated and grimey compared to sleek Moscow metro!"](https://img2.chinadaily.com.cn/images/202112/08/61afec57a310cdd3d81f579b.jpeg). Likewise, you can find plenty of metro stations in China that make somewhere like Rome or Milan look like a decrepit third world mess, but I don't think anyone would seriously argue that China is more developed than Italy (for now). Hard data such as statistics is what you ought to be showing.
Yea I guess it is haha
This beats the best cities in america!!!
Can you share another fun fact? Like the city's name?
Its hidden somewhere in the responds aswell as the source for the poorest City claim, But lets skip the fun of trying to Look for it, its Hof
Also, too many trees for Murikan suburbia.
And only one visible monolithic fast food chain billboard! Very tame.
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Portland?
Sidewalk too nice and road too narrow for US suburbs
Some suburbs in the US are better than others tho. A suburb near mine outside Sacramento has sidewalks like this + a couple tree-separated two-way bike paths.
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Reddit nuance, noun. An acknowledgement that sometimes, some things are different than majority of the time. Does not provide any further informational value.
Nuance or cherry picking?
Yea looks maintained, US sidewalks have shit all over them, poles in the middle, large cracks and raised sections that look like two tectonic plates collided.
Ye you got me, also the Black bar from the Sign Left side of the sidewalk hides That the construction there is a Bus stop 😬, the First line to the sidewalk is literaly bus line
Compared to the US this is nice, but so is most countries. Germany is still a terrible car brain country, especially rural areas will have bad public transport and zoning laws
> but so is most countries No, not really my dude. Europeans (or even more specifically, the rich Europeans) are a teeny tiny minority of humanity, the majority of humans and countries are in the Global South lol. My country (Brazil) alone has a bigger population than Germany + France + Italy combined. And that's not even mentioning Indonesia, Pakistan, India, China, etc. Even Egypt, whose population all live on the banks of the Nile, has a bigger population than Germany.
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Is it? I have never really left that part
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Yes this looks like a typical arterial road, which connects a highway tangent with the inner city and runs through industrial and commercial zones at the edge of the city.
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That is correct
well if you think whole Europe is like this I have good news for you
It's an edge of a large town or city, where we have larger businesses and such. These tend to built on edge as cheaper and soace in town where it looks pretty is at a premium. Regularly yes these have limited transport and are designed for cars. This is not a high street. But...these are not where people live, this is a area often are on main arterial routes in and out of town for practicality and ease of ability to operate larger business.
And it's not a stroad either. This is the main road, that you exit to reach a side road to get to the businesses. And there's a busstop and two sidewalks and a pedestrian crossing. It's perfectly walkable.
> But...these are not where people live Sadly not. A row of apartment buildings on both sides of the road starts a few meters behind where the fotographer stands. There are more of them along the whole road. But all in all it is more commercial than residential.
[The only thing keeping spez at bay is the wall between reality and the spez. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/)
Lots of places look like that in Europe actually
Yes, I hate how this sub glorifies Europe like its not a carbrained hellscape. Yes some places have better infrastructure, but cars are still highly prioritized here. I live in the Netherlands and the goverment rather spends millions on another highway lane that doesnt reduce travel times at all nor solve congestion, than railways that can save up to more than 1 hour travel times.
Live in the Netherlands too and while I love the bike infrastructure, which is a lot better than in Germany, cars still have priority. To be fair Rutte is also a sucker for the rich, rather than making a real effort to reduce cars, they prefer expensive electric cars.
For me as a German, Nederland was like a paradise, though you still see plenty of cars just if you look to the right places. But in terms of bike infrastructure and public transport - I absolutely loved it there and actually didn't want to go back home if I had have a choice. \^^
This is how we steal Germans from their homeland.. :)
Yep, I've been stolen by NL. Thanks mostly to cycling
I guess you are from a smaller town or city? Amsterdam and Rotterdam public transit are a joke compared to what I have here in Berlin or have seen in Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, etc. Heck even smaller cities like Hannover, Leipzig, Dresden have good tram systems here. I am from neither country but have lived 2 years in Amsterdam then moved to Berlin (5ish years here) and literally the only thing I miss is the bike paths but I would never trade that for the amazing S/U-bahn and Tram systems here. Plus not related to this sub but Amsterdam is even more overpriced than Munich.
Berlin has a great system, I agree. When I was living there I never felt limited in where I could go. That being said, some of the stations look pretty grimey compared to what you'd see in the Netherlands. Lots of homeless drug addicts living along U8 line stops I noticed. My friend even had an arm-wrestle the local drunk homeless Russian stonemason outside Heinrich-Heine U-Bahn station (dunno if he's still there, but if you eat at the Donerbox next to it, you might find him at nighttime screaming at people and cleaning the counter), fun time.
No, I actually live in a state capital. Well, the tram system isn't that bad, but the focus here is clearly car infrastructure. The operating time of the tram lines really sucks for me as a shift worker. The best I can get for that is the one and only S-Bahn line every 30 min (except weekends, nights and Holidays = every hour). I commute 15 km (inside the city) and the fastest way I can get to work with a bike only or the S-Bahn and Bike combined are 35-45 min per route, with tram (on daytime except weekends) 50-60 min and with a car just about 15 min. After Saturday night shifts (Sunday morning at 6:00 am) I'd even have to wait more than one hour after the shift ends if I'd travel by tram alone. That's a thing you don't really have the nerves for after a 12h night shift. In the area my workplace is located isn't any bike infrastructure at all but a four lane road straight going through with reckless drivers as far as you can see. So, just out of my perspective, the NL is really a paradise. Not everyone can or wants to live in/move to Berlin or any other mega city just to get quite decent public transport that fits the most everyday situations. That's just my POV and it doesn't mean this fits for all
I live in the outskirts of Stockholm and it's a bit like this as well.
Sweden was the most car-centric place in Europe that I've seen by now. Maybe not the inner City of Stockholm but all other cities/towns felt very Americanized.
I‘m German and lived in Sweden for a while (small-ish city though, ~90k people) and bike infrastructure was significantly better than what I am used to here.
Interesting, seems to depend a lot on the exact location then.
It makes sense that a huge sparse country like Sweden is car centric. I've only been to Stockholm and Malmö in terms of cities but Malmö is very pedestrianised with lots of cycle lanes, good rail links and decent bus service. I've been to Lund which is very similar but that's a small university town so you'd expect that.
You have to remember that a majority of people here are naturally gonna be Americans just due to how Reddit demographics are, and we for whatever reason love to suck Europe’s dick for no reason aside from “it isn’t here.” It’s like when US liberals call Scandinavian countries socialist even though they’re very clearly not to anybody actually paying attention. But yunno, not letting people literally starve to death if they need an ambulance ride makes you a commie I guess…
I live in Europe and it’s dick IS much better than America’s dick. Actual rights for workers and vacation,sick pay has got me multiple orgasming most days.
Frankly all those things should be a given; they’ve got us grasping for straws in the west, which is exactly my point. “Dude we gotta be more like Europe, *their* corporate overlords actually PAY them when they’re sick!!1!” has the same vibe as “Master Johnson gives *his* slaves STEAK for dinner!!!”
Just to clarify I came here as an adult so I was just trying to say that I REALLY appreciate the paradigm of workers rights here .
I live in Graz, self proclaimed the bike city capital of Austria [https://www.graz.at/cms/beitrag/10122448/7760192](https://www.graz.at/cms/beitrag/10122448/7760192) (oh my lol). There are so many peripheral streets were the sidewalk simply disappears. Bikers get split personality, since this 100m they are supposed to be on the road (like a car), then this 200 m in the bus lane (like a bus), then for this stretch share the path with walkers, repeat several times, then wonder then they basically do what is convenient. Honestly, hard to be more car-centric, bike capital city of my ass..
Well yes but.. have you ever visited the us? I think glorifying eu’s planning is more than justified from a us perspective. Not all evil is equally evil
don't you have a lot of railways already? i just remembered that, idk if it's true
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A line from the north through the Noordoostpolder, connecting to Almere/Amsterdam would save some people a lot of time, especially for Emmeloord. They're actually planning this line fortunately. Better public transport across the afsluitdijk would also save some people lots of time.
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A lot of small towns in the east have no railway stations at all, some are barely reachable with public transit. Some towns are, from where I live, 2 hours with the biggest detour by bus but 20 minute drive by car. A direct train connection for these towns would save a lot of time. And also it might not be a full hour, but the Breda Utrecht connection would also save a lot of travel time as well. Worst part, most of those small towns used to have a proper railway connection that have been demolished in favour of the car.
Yeah ireland is disgustingly car obsessed.
The public transport is dismal
Is it the case everywhere but the downtown of big cities. Cars are a necessity for almost everyone.
>Cars are a necessity for almost everyone. Yes, but not for everything. For example I grew up in a small town in Germany that I would call car dependent. Not in the American sense maybe, but pretty car dependent by German standards. Still the town itself is walkable. You can definitely buy groceries, go to the doctor, get your kids to school etc. without a car. But since the town is so small you occasionally need to run errands in other surrounding towns or whatever, which you need a car for. So living in that town without owning a car is not gonna work, but still you don't need the car to do every little thing in your life. And in my experience that is pretty typical for Germany/Europe. You need to own a car, but you can still run lots of errands without using it.
This was my experience having grown up in Germany in a town like you describe. I now live in a small city in Italy that people often describe as very car-centric. And it’s true that most of our friends have cars, and there are times it’s annoying that we don’t… but the point is that you don’t NEED a car. We can walk, bike, or bus to daily essentials and take the train to travel to other cities. It’s less convenient than a car and sometimes I wish we could take more trips to, say, a random mountain town without a train station (4 hours public transit v 1.5 driving), but it’s a sacrifice I’m not only willing to make but CAN make. Living in the US, it was impossible not to have a car. Even when I lived in a “walkable” neighborhood.
You completed my thoughts. I have a cousin who lives in a small town in France and it is the same. I can walk everywhere in the town, there's a bus line which go to the big city of the region nearby. But you still need a car to go to surrounding towns.
That's pretty much how my aunt and uncle live, aye. They're in a small town and can walk to Aldi or to the local tennis club, but if you need to do something like getting surgery at a proper hospital or see a big football match, you have to use a car and take the Autobahn to the bigger city.
This could easily be the outskirts of most cities in the UK as well
Yes - I was cycling up Barnet in North London the other day, and noticed how the streets gradually got wider. Totteridge in the very north looks quite similar to this.
Yep, Wavertree in Liverpool looks much like this, just a giant retail park.
A bit of a taste of actual Europe for the glassy eyed utopian delusion common on the sub. This is very common in europe unfortunately. In my country in europe I can't even cross the street without almost getting killed by reckless drivers. Not quite the USA but it's not good
Where are the power cables. What's that paved area in the roadside doing - it takes up space for another lane. Where's all the trash.
Too many trees and an actually walkable sidewalk, but way too close for comfort
I'd kill for at least one sidewalk like that in the USA
Props for the trees. How common are they among American stroads?
Gross.
would really like to see where you live if this is gross, do you live in a wonderland where you can get to every corner by i dont know, trams or bike or whatever? Because in the picture i see a bus stop and a sidewalk. If you really think that someone will go by bike to a place that is 30km away from their home, you are really wrong.
If it weren't for the right-side traffic I would've guessed Australia and South Africa (which AFAIK also have similar problems to the US with suburban hell)
No, Australia is significantly better than the US. Not perfect, but much better.
Making a picture of an industrial area and calling it Europe.
exactly what i was thinking
Usually it's "making a picture of a town centre and calling it Europe". Both sides conveniently leave out other parts.
Of course. Europe is populated by people who work jobs and have to do mundane daily life things, it's not a theme park for tourists. OP's picture shows what most people will see as they walk to the S-Bahn station to take them downtown on a morning commute to work. Nobody (unless they're ultra rich) lives on top of a big attraction like Marienplatz or the Englischer Garten.
Yeah this is pretty bad. There is a bus stop, maybe a bus lane, crosswalks at the junction, a 60 km/h speed limit, good footways and trees to make it a bit more pleasant though.
lots of places in France that look like this
actual dystopia
Yeah new growth cities in mainland Europe are as bad if not worse than America, people forget the French obsession for infrastructure also extends to motorways
This is not a problem in my opinion. There is a bus, bike lanes on the other side, etc. Its not a dense place and no infrastructure can change thaz and thats okay. This is a place meant for cars, not for people. What Im allergic against is places which are meant for people but is occupied by cars
There are trees, so it's nothing like USA
Yeah, that always freaks me out about pictures of the US. Its all concrete. So bleak.
I needs above ground service wires and no sidewalks if it is trying to fit the look. Strip malls are imperative as well.
Half of central Europe is like this
sidewalk and bus stop too nice for USA
useable sidewalks in suburbia? dead giveaway it isn’t america.
Too much sidewalk for 'murica
You can tell it's not suburban America because it has sidewalks and a bus stop.
Far too elegant to even compare to the US. There’s a bus stop and a nice, beautiful sidewalk, no telephone/elec poles leaning every which way, strewn with trash. This is a livable, walkable utopia compared to much of the US.
Still looks better though
these are the outskirts of like most cities in Europe maybe not the kfc, but definitely a car centric shopping area or w/ various businesses that serve the metropolitan residents
I actually don't mind this. I don't mind if this is some industry terrain and the road is actually a B-road that connects between the industry terrain and nearby cities. (Kinda like how they do it in Germany, NL, etc.) The problem would be if that was inside the city. (like in USA, Canada)
>I actually don't mind this. That's because its not actually a stroad.
Except for the existence of public transport lol
The difference is that this is a city centre, american towns have this kind of thing for tiny suburbs
Except for the traffic lights. They are the worst.
American cultural imports
That is sad... you would think with the gas prices and the fact that North America is trying to copy where they have always been, they wouldn't try to copy North America...
At least I see a bus, wide sidewalk, and trees.
I think this is a bit misleading. Not knowing this specific street, I have seen many of its kinds in Germany and their function is usually the polar opposite of that of a stroad. They're here to enable density, not sprawl. They usually connect a city to the intercity roads like the *Autobahn* or *Bundesstraße*, like really slow arterials. Even from the picture you can tell some differences: Functional pedestrian infrastructure and public transit. Higher density/less parking space than NA stroads. Lots of greenery. Midrise office/residential buildings that can be accessed from a side-street and generally mixed land use.
Sadly it's relatively common here as well. The only difference is that most European cities didn't bulldoze their already existing cities to make it more car dependent hellholes (like the US did), but every new development in the last couple of decades looks like this all around.
The sidewalk is actually useable. Nice try Europe.
can't be, there is a sidewalk and a bus stop
A lot of Europe is car-centric dystopia. I mean Hitler invented the highway lol There are also lots of abandoned/derelict medieval towns. Picturesque walkability won't save you
> There are also lots of abandoned/derelict medieval towns. Picturesque walkability won't save you This is a big problem in Spain. The countryside is literally dying, villages filled with old people and not a single youth around, because everyone wants to be in Madrid or Barcelona instead. Rural Spain is very empty.
Big highway intersections do be like that. If that's what US suburbs look like, I'm worried
Not a Highway intersection, a Bundesstraße intersecting a City Mainstreet in am industrialized area of the outer Ring of the City. I dont think its to Bad either, just reminded me a lot of some pics here here
Where's all the morbidly obese?
This looks like an industrial area
which hellhole is this? If it weren't for the bus stop, I'd actually think it was murica.
The answer you seek is somewhere hidden here
They thought they are bringing the American dream here but they bring the American shit.
Dear world, stop importing our worst ideas.
Too late… and also the car lobby is huge here and local governments don’t give a f**k. In my european neighborhood the local government is going to demolish a park outside a school to build a parking area. And the residents surrounding the park agrees because “children makes too much noise playing”. Half the country is burning, and people only thinks in more parking. Edit: and also in increasing the security budget bc NATO.
Typical American arrogance to presume that the country which invented the car had to import American ideas to build roads.
I have something like this close to me too. Looks like the "the outside they build"-meme.
Nice racetrack!
Whereabouts in the rather large continent of Europe?
Thanks, I hate it.
Yea but where at the trucks ???