Vancouver, like most North American cities, has, at best, mediocre transit. It's fine if you live near a SkyTrain station and you work downtown, Monday through Friday from 9-5. But if you're not rich and you have to take a bus to a SkyTrain station and then another bus at the other end because you don't work downtown but in another outlying area and you work nights or weekends, transit sucks just like every other part of your life. There are many bus stops in the Lower Mainland which are nothing but signs on a pole at the side of the road. No shelter from the elements of any sort.
People in metropolitan areas like Vancouver often don't have "choices", they merely have a host of bad options, all of which are too expensive. In many cases, they are forced to opt for lousy access to transit and cramped, overpriced living conditions. The cost of living, even living relatively frugally, is still insane.
That was me. Had a car but rarely used it. Train to work was good but basically anywhere outside of downtown was useless.
Our car sits in our driveway M-F during the work week. But after work tonight I will be driving to the vet to pick up the pooch's meds.
he's very good at including, in the same post, three normal, reasonable, and uncontroverted statements, and then undermine all of them with one whacko irrelevant take.
yeah if the Scandinavians can have great year round cycling infrastructure, no reason we cannot too. we're decades behind though.
I recruit for some companies making prefab homes. It has not taken off yet in N.America, but is big in Europe. Sure, you home won't explode in value but you aren't going into debt getting it and don't have to deal with multiple bidders.
I'm saying that even when you appear to have transit-centric development it doesn't work that great in North America because people won't get rid of their cars no matter what. It works better in Europe where not owning a car is more commonplace. Cars and petrol are optional and expensive in Europe. In North America they are viewed as a necessity. That mentality isn't going to be reversed by construction of any sort. I agree with the concept but in practice it's not going to work that well unless or until the mentality of North Americans changes )and by North American I really mean Canadian because we already know that Americans will never budge on this). Not owning a gas-guzzling pickup truck or SUV is literally communism as far as they're concerned.
We don't have the same mentality as the Scandinavians. We have adopted the American "everything that doesn't involve an internal combustion engine is socialism" mentality. Every time a forward-thinking city government in North America takes away street parking to put in a bike lane people whine and bitch like you just shot their dog.
hence, 'decades behind'
Our rates of urbanization are comparable to Europe.
