Quote:
Originally Posted by savevp
Comparing Canadian and American systems is useless except to make us feel good about ourselves. We are worlds apart when it comes to public transportation and to pat ourselves on the back for our superior networks is little more than gloating.
As is usually the case, our peer nations are Australia and New Zealand. Compare ourselves to them and there's actually some value in the discussion.
|
In what ways are our cities much more similar to those in Aus and NZ than to the US? Without some pretty convincing explanation, I'm not seeing it. I can think of some ways we're more similar to Aus/NZ like we didn't have the US issues with white flight or the US interstate freeway system. But I can also think of ways we're more similar to the US like we built new urban rail lines in the largest cities rather than continually upgrading and electrifying mainline systems with city-centre loops. And we also had urban renewal schemes more similar to the US. We also tend to have bigger, more US-like stroads once one leaves older city centres. The US also has more grid cities while none of Canada's major cities have radial or meandering layouts like those in Aus/NZ.
From what I can see, Canada's cities are equally similar and dis-similar in various ways to both US cities and Aus/NZ cities. Not seeing the "world's apart" in either case.