Urbanism on YouTube

Dec 1

Here are several examples of creators who offer up YouTube video explainers on topics related to urban planning, transportation (particularly transit), and urbanism in general.

CityNerd - all things city and transportation

Ray Delahanty’s CityNerd is a channel and community that embraces all things cities and transportation, approaching things with a profound love for urban environments and an analytical bent. The channel was born out of his frustration with the limited scope of what he could explore and share as a transportation planning and engineering consultant. Ray joined YouTube in July 2021 and has posted 24 videos with 42.7 million views.

Here’s an example - Phoenix: The Good, the Bad, and the Mildly Dystopian

Banks Rail - transit and diversified urbanism

Banks Rail is a YouTube creator focused on rail, transit, and urbanism, offering long-form explainers and critiques of transportation projects in the U.S. and abroad. His channel positions itself as “Not Your Average Urbanist YouTuber,” blending technical rail analysis with commentary on broader urban issues. He also seeks to diversify the urbanism audience and encourages underrepresented presenters to create urbanist videos.

Here’s an example - The Problem with You Tube Urbanism (SOLVED)

Nandert - mostly urbanism

Nick Andert’s Nandert channel is a documentary production and editing company. His channel is for personal projects, mostly about the LA Metro or local politics, with a smattering of recut trailers from the old days. Updates are sporadic. He’l joined YouTube in March 2007 and has posted 39 videos with 1.7 million views and 22 thousand subscribers.

Here’s an example - LAX Wants to Spend $1.5 Billion to Make Traffic Worse

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City Beautiful

Dave Amos has been making YouTube videos under the brand of City Beautiful since 2016. Amos is devoted to studying how we build our public spaces and how we can continue to build them better. And one of the things that makes City Beautiful videos so approachable is their bite-sized run time in the 8 to 12 minute range. Amos has produced dozens of videos and had nearly 700,000 subscribers as of late 2025.

Here’s an example: Are NIMBY’s Selfish?

Climate Town

Rollie Williams’ Climate Town offers videos that are well-produced and address climate change related topics. He blends comedy with investigative journalism to make climate issues accessible and memorable.

Here’s an example - The Suburbs Are Bleeding America

H. Pike Oliver

H. Pike Oliver focuses on master-planned communities. He is co-author of Transforming the Irvine Ranch: Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson, and THE BIG PLAN, published by Routledge in 2022.

Early in his career, Pike worked for public agencies, including the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. For the next three decades, he was involved in master-planned development on the Irvine Ranch in Southern California, as well as other properties in western North America and abroad.

Beginning in 2009, Pike taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in Urban and Regional Studies. He relocated to Seattle in 2013 and, from 2016 to 2020, served as a lecturer in the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington, where he also served as its chair.

Pike graduated from San Francisco State University's urban studies and planning program and received a master's degree in urban planning from UCLA. He is a member of the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

https://urbanexus.com