Canadian Urban Canyons

[someone123]

Originally Posted by niwell

I was in Portland earlier this fall and actually did some driving, which is something that is usually avoided on vacation. Walking around at street level it was clear that Portland isn't a huge city, certainly much less so than I'm used to. Driving on the other hand... It's admittedly partly due to topography, but some of the highway junctions near downtown were just on another level. Driving through you'd think it's a much bigger city than say, Vancouver.

Americans often talk about how amazing Portland's transit is. It has a light rail system that generally follows the highways out in the suburbs and trundles along like a streetcar at what appears to be 10-15 km/h downtown (I wouldn't be surprised if the rush hour average speed through downtown is something like 9 km/h). It is probably the most modern/complete/functional system in the western half of the US. SF used to have better transit but they have built very little new infrastructure since the 1970's. Iif you ever feel Ontario politics are bad and want to feel better, look to California.

There is a noticeable difference in culture between Canada and the US on cars vs. transit. A large proportion of Americans even in big cities think that transit is impractical (just never going to be useful at any reasonable funding level for day-to-day trips, commuting, etc.) and for poor people. A much larger share of Americans get cars when they are young and seem to default to driving for everything. US transit systems are more frequently boutique projects; built to nice standards but not set up to move large volumes of people quickly. Transportation has also become a politicized holy war issue in the US, with Democrats feeling that they should make life sacrifices to take it so they can save the world and Republicans believing that it is an evil Big Government initiative. I hope that doesn't happen in Canada.

[Doady]

Portland's transit ridership has doubled since 1996. That still makes it an anomaly in the US. I don't think we should judge transit systems too much on the amount of rail (e.g. Seattle has better ridership than Portland, Ottawa has better ridership than San Francisco, etc.). I think what is holding US transit systems back is the lack of bus service, rather than the lack of rail service. The bus service is what separates Canada from the US.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by someone123

Americans often talk about how amazing Portland's transit is. It has a light rail system that generally follows the highways out in the suburbs and trundles along like a streetcar at what appears to be 10-15 km/h downtown (I wouldn't be surprised if the rush hour average speed through downtown is something like 9 km/h). It is probably the most modern/complete/functional system in the western half of the US. SF used to have better transit but they have built very little new infrastructure since the 1970's. Iif you ever feel Ontario politics are bad and want to feel better, look to California.

There is a noticeable difference in culture between Canada and the US on cars vs. transit. A large proportion of Americans even in big cities think that transit is impractical (just never going to be useful at any reasonable funding level for day-to-day trips, commuting, etc.) and for poor people. A much larger share of Americans get cars when they are young and seem to default to driving for everything. US transit systems are more frequently boutique projects; built to nice standards but not set up to move large volumes of people quickly. Transportation has also become a politicized holy war issue in the US, with Democrats feeling that they should make life sacrifices to take it so they can save the world and Republicans believing that it is an evil Big Government initiative. I hope that doesn't happen in Canada.

In the U.S. the lack of enthusiasm for transit on the part of many people also has an important, often unstated, socio-economic and even racial subtext.

Basically a lot of people who are wealthy enough to not need transit themselves are reluctant to support its development to and in their communities because they think it makes it easier for the poor to "invade" them - and these poor people are often black or brown.

This case, which I remember from my days living in Ontario (where we got Buffalo TV stations) is kinda related.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/19/n...a-lawsuit.html

[esquire]

^ That school of thought exists to at least some extent in Western Canada, at least. When I lived in Edmonton, there was at least some resistance to the LRT partly because it ferried people from some of the more downtrodden parts of town to other areas... I recall some people blaming it for some of the petty crime and mischief that would occasionally happen on the U of A campus. But that certainly hasn't impeded the City of Edmonton from significantly expanding its rapid transit network, for instance... by contrast, the typical similar-sized American city would be far less enthusiastic when it comes to transit.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In the U.S. the lack of enthusiasm for transit on the part of many people also has an important, often unstated, socio-economic and even racial subtext.

Basically a lot of people who are wealthy enough to not need transit themselves are reluctant to support its development to and in their communities because they think it makes it easier for the poor to "invade" them - and these poor people are often black or brown.

This case, which I remember from my days living in Ontario (where we got Buffalo TV stations) is kinda related.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/19/n...a-lawsuit.html

Hence Atlanta's MARTA transit system, commonly known as "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta".

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ That school of thought exists to at least some extent in Western Canada, at least. When I lived in Edmonton, there was at least some resistance to the LRT partly because it ferried people from some of the more downtrodden parts of town to other areas... I recall some people blaming it for some of the petty crime and mischief that would occasionally happen on the U of A campus. But that certainly hasn't impeded the City of Edmonton from significantly expanding its rapid transit network, for instance... by contrast, the typical similar-sized American city would be far less enthusiastic when it comes to transit.

And of course in most any American city of Edmonton's size, the downtrodden parts of town will be quite a bit more downtrodden than their Edmonton equivalents.

[niwell]

Growing up in Calgary people were pretty accepting of the LRT and extensions seemed well supported. However that may be a bit of an aberration as the system was (and still is, to an extent) a fancy commuter train to get professionals to their offices downtown.

What was stigmatized was the bus - nobody took the bus unless you could avoid it. Of course it didn't help that many buses ran on a 45 minute schedule at the time. It was strange moving to Ottawa where people from all social classes didn't seem averse to buses. I'm sure it's not as stark now, but last year when I was back in Calgary I decided to hop on the #1 bus (infamous as a kid - it ran between 2 of the worst neighbourhoods in the city, Forest Lawn and Bowness) to get to a brewery in Inglewood. It was a bit of an adventure to say the least... There was a haze of cigarette smoke and some guys at the back seemed straight out of FUBAR and were pounding beers at an impressive rate.

[someone123]

Hollis Street, Halifax:

Source

[MonkeyRonin]

That's a great one.



Church St. is starting to get a bit canyony:


http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2019/01/...-mobile-cranes

[Chadillaccc]

About 4 straight kilometers of canyon...


https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/7238129...95334/?lp=true

[TorontoDrew]

Damn that looks cold. But amazing shot.

[TorontoDrew]

[IMG]Toronto by erikccooper, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Toronto by Markus Hill, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]King Street Starts - All downhill from here by George Socka, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]b l a c k c l o u d by Dave Hynes, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Toronto by willcwc, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Toronto_39 by David Astley, on Flickr[/IMG]

[megadude]

Love that pic of University Ave and Simcoe to the right. Can see my former and current workplaces on the left. Going up University and coming back down on Simcoe makes for an interesting walk.

It's the border of the Financial District and you can tell with office/hotel on one side and condos on the other. Also like that you can see one cultural institution on one side and another one on the other side. Well just barely for Roy Thompson Hall.

[Hybrid247]

^^^
Nice set. Heavy Manhattan vibes from the second shot.

[TorontoDrew]

[IMG]City life by Harry Luo, on Flickr[/IMG]

[craner]

Does SAM the Record Man still exist in TO ?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by craner

Does SAM the Record Man still exist in TO ?

No but they preserved the iconic sign and reinstalled it at Yonge-Dundas Square.

[rousseau]

Blade Runner 3: Return to the Arctic.

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

That new Dundas Gardens tower on Jarivs with the Ryerson building is definitely adding to the "bigness" of Yonge and Dundas, at east from the view looking east. I see it slowly changing every day.

[hipster duck]

Dundas between University and Bay used to be one of the most embarrassing streets in the city. It had dumpy stores in dumpy buildings right in the very heart of downtown. The dumpy buildings are still there, but the stores have been replaced by an unbroken row of buzzy Asian restaurants serving customers until the wee hours.