{"id":284538,"date":"2026-04-24T23:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/284538\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:07:07","slug":"train-tubers-a-talk-with-the-youtubes-transit-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/284538\/","title":{"rendered":"Train Tubers: a Talk with the YouTube’s Transit Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent 60 Minutes piece<\/a> recounted the woes of California\u2019s delayed high-speed rail project currently under construction between Los Angeles and San Francisco. And while Alan Fisher, who runs the YouTube channel the Armchair Urbanist<\/a>, said it was factually correct, it also had a big problem. \u201cThe framing only focuses on a problem with high-speed rail, but it doesn\u2019t put it in the broader context.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that during TrainTubers: A Panel of Creators United by Transit, a talk on Friday hosted by the High Speed Rail Alliance\u2019s Jordan Pokorney. In addition to Fisher, the panel included Thom de Boo of the channel Trains Are Awesome<\/a> and Keith Davis of Car Free Keith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The three YouTubers have hundreds of thousands of followers and have become a potent voice in urbanist<\/a> and transit advocacy spaces. They\u2019ve done extensive video content on San Francisco transit<\/a> as well as cities<\/a> throughout North America and the world.<\/a><\/p>\n

But how did they end up doing what they\u2019re doing? And how do they continue to put out relevant content? \u201cIt\u2019s still pretty niche,\u201d explained Davis. \u201cThe Biggest\u00a0creator, Not Just Bikes<\/a>, has about a million subscribers.\u201d (Compare that to 60 minutes, which gets over 8 million viewers). To grow the influence of urbanist, pro-transit channels, ways have to be found to broaden the audience, opined the creators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with this content,\u201d explained Fisher, is that most people aren\u2019t that interested in the details of rail planning. \u201cYou have to make it appealing for the average person\u2026 even if they know a commute is a big part of their lives, most people don\u2019t think about it in a historical or logistical way.\u201d<\/p>\n

They just know, said the influencers, that the trains don\u2019t run frequently<\/a>, or that it\u2019s impossible to get around without a car in their neighborhoods. \u201cPart of our filming style is traveling and blogging,\u201d explained Thom. He said his channel shoots from an \u201con the ground, first-person perspective. You use the camera to be your eyes, and to show why something is a good thing or a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s done, in large part, through their personal experiences. Thom, who lives in D.C., is from the Netherlands and grew up partially in Japan. He grew up experiencing excellent bike lanes and rail services, only to see the contrast in the U.S. That, of course, informs his videos. \u201cBecause I moved from another country, I missed the trains,\u201d he explained. \u201cFor the first few years [of the channel] we were just posting pictures of the trains I saw.\u201d That started him blogging and then creating a channel documenting the contrasts.<\/p>\n

One of Fisher\u2019s video collaborations, this one called \u201cSuburbs that don\u2019t Suck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in South Jersey, in a Philly suburb\u00a0with a car-free neighborhood<\/a>,\u201d said Fisher. \u201cAs a kid, I thought that was a normal thing.\u201d But as he got older and traveled around the country, he realized how special and rare that is in the U.S. That set him on a research obsession with why the rest of the country became so car-centered. \u201cMy early videos are essentially just a synthesis\u00a0of those thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

People may not be as interested as Thom, Fisher, or Davis in how American cities grew towards car dependency. They may not be especially interested in light-versus-heavy rail or the Roger Rabbit Conspiracy<\/a>. However, they do understand that they want to live in pleasant, safe, affordable, and walkable neighborhoods with cool things to do. That sometimes requires a bit of slight of hand. Fisher explained that he made a video about electric cars<\/a> that starts out more like a piece about gas vs. electric to draw people in who might be interested in cars, but not necessarily urbanist issues. It then pivots to remind people about the effect that all cars have on cities. Another way to broaden the audience is to collaborate with people in related spaces. \u201cThere are plenty of TikTokers who make videos about cities,\u201d said Davis. \u201cThey do very closely related stuff to what we talk about, just presented in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher agreed and talked about his collaborations with Cities by Diana<\/a>, for example. \u201cOther content creators might not be a white dude like me,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you collaborate,\u00a0you cross-pollinate, which brings in more people through the algorithm.\u201d<\/p>\n

And broader audiences just help these content creators correct the framing set by the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something goes wrong, like the DC streetcar<\/a> or High-Speed Rail, the narrative is that the mode is the problem,\u201d said Thom. \u201cI agree the DC streetcar wasn\u2019t built well. But there are also lots of examples of streetcars being successful<\/a>. On high-speed rail, there are examples all over the world<\/a>. The train is not the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher talked about a highway interchange in Jersey that, as with California\u2019s high-speed rail project<\/a>, was started in 2008 and still isn\u2019t open. But that\u2019s rarely, if ever, mentioned on 60 Minutes or any other television program. \u201c80 percent of DOT funding goes into highways, so the framing is always the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more, be sure to check out Trains Are Awesome<\/a>, Car Free Keith<\/a>, and\u00a0The Armchair Urbanist<\/a> if you don\u2019t know them already. And post about your favorite urbanist YouTube channels in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent 60 Minutes piece recounted the woes of California\u2019s delayed high-speed rail project currently under construction between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[109921,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-284538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-promoted","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}