More car-free than expected

[shootingstar]

For us to be car-free for a long time, it's not too unusual here in Vancouver. But then, when I lived in Toronto, I knew alot of people who were car-free for many years. It became obvious when the occasional bus/subway strike occurred.

Recently, stumbled across local statistics for the % of households for city of Vancouver that are car-free. It's alot higher than I expected and some of these areas, people aren't all low-income:


http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/didYouKnow.htm

• Studies have shown that of multi-family households across the city, about 11% are car-free.
• Higher density areas have fewer cars: In the Collingwood Village about 22% of households are car free. In the West End and Yaletown nearly 40% of households are car-free (source: City of Vancouver Parking Management Branch).

[Tri Girl]

Would you *please* stop making Vancouver so attractive to me? Every time you post things about your city, it makes me want to move there more and more (and I think I'm really Canadian deep down inside).

Really, that's very cool!! 40% in West End and Yaletown? That's incredible. Is it because the city is so condensed and there is fantastic transit opportunities?

In the midwest of the US, being totally car-free is almost impossible. With cities spread out so much, very little public transit options, and layouts not conducive to bicycle transport, you almost have to have a car (excuses, excuses blah, blah blah).
I try to be as car-free as I can, but I know it's nothing like some larger cities. I'm jealous!

[beccaB]

I've never found anything not to like about Canada. That just makes it even more so.

[shootingstar]

Becca, have been to Ann Arbor and liked it even though I wasn't there for a long time.

Tri Girl, invitation to Vancouver is there..since there is a train from Seattle right into downtown Vancouver train station. Can board bikes ... by then the hotels will be dying for biz after the Olympics. You would love Pacific Northwest summers, ..temperate, etc.

Haven't had the pleasure of visiting the U.S. central and south midwest yet. We don't hear much about OK up here.

Am afraid alot of smaller Canadian cities and towns are like OK, more car-centric..and snowier. The city I grew up in Ontario, population of 2 twinned cities would be 300,000+ population. Has had excellent transit system over the past 4 decades ( I used as a child and later to get to university) but right now still struggling over their cycling paths. And this is a place with 2 major universities and 1 college. So a place not lacking in intellectual innovation/growth but behind in other ways.

[PscyclePath]

I've never found anything not to like about Canada. That just makes it even more so.

Well, I did... It's cold up there a little too often to suit me, a creature of the sunny South ;-)

[bmccasland]

Well, I did... It's cold up there a little too often to suit me, a creature of the sunny South ;-)

Just my thought as I still wait to hear if I got the job in Seattle, and we're having a dreary rainy day here. We've had too much rain in December - a record setting year, so everyone is grumbling about another rainy day. If I get the Seattle job, I swear I'm going to have to invest in full spectrum light bulbs and a heat lamp , I've lived in southern latitudes most of my life.

[beccaB]

I would actually like to see some sunshine now and then, but I don't mind the cold.

[shootingstar]

The area where it's 40% car-free folks is where we live. It's alot higher than I expected.

But then a parking stall is expensive.