What American Transit Could Learn From Canada
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- Опубликовано: 10 мар 2023
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Canada is like the United States in a lot of ways - we have big roads, highways, and suburbs. But Canadian transit is often more like that in Europe based on ridership and mode share numbers. So how can the US learn from its frosty neighbour to the north?
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
Canadian living in the US. I'm a professor so I have lived and visited a lot of "college towns". What baffles me is that universities here often run their own bus networks that aim to serve the students with routes and bus loops centering around the campus. They are often much more frequent than the city buses on weekdays. Why can't universities and cities work together here to design comprehensive networks that benefit everyone from the downtown cores to campus?
I went to university of Guelph. Every student had a city bus pass, and the city worked with the university to provide adequate service to the university.
The support of 20k people buying monthly bus passes meant that a small suburban city had some amazing bus frequency and service for locals and students alike.
The night service on university networks in college towns is better than that of many big US cities.
some places kinda do this like the TCAT bust network serving Cornell University and broader Ithaca
In Canada, it's normal for transit agencies to work with Universities to get students to class and provide fare discounts to students. Not so in the US. If you broach the idea of doing any sort of basic collaboration with the transit agency, no one has any idea what you're talking about. There's no leadership for these kinds of things in the US.
The Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts did, when I went to university thirty some years ago. The universities and towns created what they claimed was the largest free bus system in the free world. It was quite extensive.
Where Canada horribly lacks is INTERCITY service, and I think this is what most people think about. I have found local transit to be quite comparable in European cities of similar populations.
Outside of GO and the VIA corridor is basically doesn’t exist.
Which cities do you want to travel between?
Would love to see an Edmonton to Calgary intercity rail service
I'm not really sure how far we could get with that. Many of the distances are just much farther. The corridor is the best place to improve service and that's already being worked on.
I've taken the Canadian from Vancouver-Toronto, and it's a great service, but I just don't know that even if it ran twice a day or more it would get a lot of use.
Once you get west of Toronto, most of the major cities are pretty far apart. Calgary-Edmonton might be feasible, but I don't think Vancouver to Edmonton will make much sense to focus on. Better service to the BC interior and restarting service to Prince George might be a good idea.
Vancouver to Victoria is already very possible using only public transit. Bus to the ferry terminal on either end.
@@Vitalogy94 It would be amazing to have a High-Speed-Rail between Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary
Even a car centric heck hole like here in Edmonton we are building/expanding LRT and trams with a plan and roll out for years to come. It's just a given you can live car free in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal that is a big chunk of our population that can drive the trend and expectations for everyone else forward. I am just so excited for everyone in Canada going forward.
I really hope the Edmonton system can improve, especially considering my daily life will continually rely on it in years to come. As much as I hate it sometimes, I doubt I'll be leaving the greater Edmonton area anytime soon.
@@thestarlightalchemist7333 but that says a lot too, the younger folks are expecting transit as their primary means of getting around and won't settle. Edmonton could be quite a different place in a decade once we roll out the current projects, I am quite optimistic about the potential for the areas it hits along the way. Anyway, there is a lot to be excited about in Canadian transit, even in humble little Edmonton and it's driven by people that want it and use it.
I lived in Edmonton for 9 years and I owned a vehicle for myself for 3 of those years. The rest I took transit or had a friend who did drive pick me up. It’s amazing how much the city it doing when it was already decent to begin with.
Edmonton is doing a great expansion, just needs to plan a bit better!
Even though Edmonton’s transit has a lot of big flaws, it’s WAY better than that of most American major cities. At least you can use transit to get from most suburbs to Downtown. In most American cities, Public transit is virtually nonexistent in the suburbs.
Your point about culture is important.
People tend to assume that most tradesmen would never take the bus, but my uncle (auto mechanic) has said many times that “if I could get to work as fast, or close to as fast as driving, I’d be taking the bus”
Unfortunately, he works in Langley, which translink still seems to think doesn’t exist.
At least you guys are getting the Expo line extension out there which will hopefully come with some more bus route upgrades as well.
When they were building the new runway for Calgary International Airport, most of the riders on the transit bus to the airport in the early morning were people in work gear heading to the job site. People like me, going to the airport terminal, were far outnumbered at the time.
Even today, if you ride transit during rush hours in Calgary, there are people who are obviously going to/coming from construction sites. So cool.
Tell your uncle to follow Strong Towns Langley, we’re fighting for better transit coverage!
bus 502 langley city center/surrey center
@@RickyLeong In my country such workers would be transported at the back of a flat-bed pickup instead (which can double-duty & transport cargo instead @ other times), but it needs some modifications to be safer
I’m stunned by the photos of all the tall buildings that have shot up in downtown Toronto in the 21st century. I can only recognize that it’s Toronto by the fabulous CN Tower that I always liked seeing at night … and that was the original lights in the decade in which it was built. When I rode the red British built trains toward downtown in the early morning the cars were filled with office people dressed in their best. It’s a frozen memory how much makeup the women wore. Nobody, nobody looked poor, and trains were jammed packed standing room only. Very crowded, as it should be in s sensible city. I have family on the outskirts of Atlanta. The loop is 12 lanes wide and very slow during peak rush hour. When Atlanta decided to have rail there was immovable opposition to stations in many areas because they didn’t want “those people” to have easy access to their neighborhoods. Lots of racial and economic class fear. The result is minimized practicality and limitations on usage. Getting around requires a car. I tried to describe to my sister and brother in law what living with meaningful transit is like, but they can’t imagine it. Having lived with it for only a little over a year I would never want to live in s big crowded urban area that didn’t have very substantial transit service with little edit time. It changes what life can be. I had to ride transit, but in my mind I didn’t use it just because I needed it. I enjoyed it. On non working days I quite often rode transit to explore areas of the city I was unfamiliar with. I learned the city so well from riding surface transit that I was able to give precise directions to natives. I was only there 14 adventurous months, but my heart has never left Toronto. I saw the second ever IMAX film a few months after I arrived, and I looked over a plastic model of the Eaton Center to be built before I left. That sort of nails the time period. One of these days I need to come back to find out what has happened in my absence. I still have a lot of emotional attraction to Toronto I’ve never felt for any American City. A significant reason, among many, that I felt connected to the city was sharing transiting around town with other riders. Just being with people if I never exchanged a word had a value for me that isolation in metal boxes on rubber tires by myself never does. I loved looking at rush hour transit in memorable locations, such as streetcars on Queen St in front of City Hall St dusk or underground Eglinton station full of buses, or half a dozen buses in one block full of people headed home. The robustness of the service, to me, made American cities seem so far behind. I think really busy transit neighborhoods together, making a more lively city. And so much more livable. I wish to travel worldwide some day, but without having done that yet I’ve always been convinced that Toronto is one of the greatest cities on the planet and transit has played a very big role in making it that. The fighting city and provincial leaders have been very wise supporting the growth of transit, although in fits and starts. But the three latest group of plans that have developed is astoundingly good, despite themselves. It’s good to see it going in a good direction fast. Maybe the tweaks that could improve the experience more will happen over time, because there’s always room for improvement as perfection never exists although it’s a good mark to aim for. I’m encouraged by the big projects. I hope the daily little things that are big things get upgraded over time as well. Thumbs up to great transit and Toronto’s progress and the 3/4 century since heavy rail first started to be implemented. Go Toronto Transit!
American living in Vancouver here. Canadian zoning has also long been less strict and draconian than American zoning, and this has really helped Vancouver achieve the density needed for frequent transit service. Duplexes have long been legal (first de facto and now de jure) in “single family” areas, and now laneway houses are legal, too, making many homes effectively 3-plexes. My mostly “single family” residential neighbourhood has an average population density of 6800/sq km (17600/sq mi). Seattle is only starting to get serious about legalizing the sort of organic, small-scale densification that has long been standard in Vancouver.
A lot of the mid-level neighborhood density in Montreal would be illegal in the US.
@@1978dkelly A lot of the low rise residential neighborhood density, duplexes, town homes, and SFH with a local grocery store and some light commercial, of my Oshawa suburb would be illegal in the US.
That’s one difference between California and Oregon/Washington I think. Lots more small apt bldgs in the Calif. large cities, I think. Along with bungalow zones.
@@kitchin2 I lived in Davis, CA for a few years where UC Davis is located. Despite lots of run down 2 to 3 storey tall apartment complexes, it still doesn't address the housing shortages for students, faculty and staff. Students have to pay $ 2 to 3k to share a 2 BR apartment.
Vancouver is still pretty strict if you compare it to Montreal which is kinda strict if you compare it to Europe(as someone from CEE)
I've never appreciated what I had in Canada regarding public transport until it was taken away. I've stayed with my father in the Washington state for several months and while there, I was a prisoner because I couldn't drive without a registered driver cause I was only a learner (not that I want to drive because it's a death trap) and he was working all the time meaning I was stuck in the house. Now that I'm back in British Columbia with my mother and grandma I take transit on a nearly daily basis. I go to the mall, travel to the massive public library in downtown Vancouver and heck can even take the ferry to the island by taking the SkyTrain and Canada Line to Bridgeport station and then taking the 620 bus (which has the new double decker buses) to Tsawwassen Bay ferry terminal. Contrary to what some car-brained Americans believe, I feel more free when there's decent public transport than when it's a car-depended hellscape like when I was stuck in the house back in the US. Plus, I like sitting at the front of the fully automated SkyTrain and enjoy the views as they pass by.
Seattle seems to have good transit from the little I've been there to visit a family member. I visited him and his family once in West Seattle, having flown in from out of town. At the end of my visit I was scheduled to fly out early in the morning from SeaTac. I didn't want to bother them to get up so early to take me to the airport, and I didn't want to pay the boucou bucks to take a taxi or Uber. So I found that I could take the earliest express nonstop bus from a stop about 3/4 mile from my family member, to go straight to a stop in downtown Seattle which was across the street from where you can get on the new metro line to the airport. It got me there, and both rides added up to less than $10 (about 5-ish years ago).
But I do hear what you're saying. My hometown of Reno, NV does sluggishly slow improvements to walkability and hardly anything to improve bus route availability. In Reno, there's one big hub in downtown, one in a shopping mall in south Reno and in Sparks downtown. That's it. It's cool to have those hubs but why route every bus to stop just in one of those hubs and open up many other routes that connect residential density with workplace density and more? I would love to have a job where I'm gathering and synthesizing a town's transit wishlists and designing route and walkability solutions to it...
What part of Washington state were you in? Seattle is pretty good and getting better. I live in the suburbs north of Seattle, and the bus service is okay but could be a lot better.
I think the reason American’s don’t associate transit with freedom is because it’s not frequent. The though of using the bus in my city fills me with dread because it has 45 minute frequencies, it 1/3rd as fast as a car, and stops service at 3PM
@@compdude100 my parents house is in Olympia WA. It's a bit further south from Seattle.
Very cool. I normally drive in metro Atlanta, but I always take public transit to the airport or the Amtrak station. I also feel more free without depending on a car.
I'm British, but have visited Ontario 14 times. IMO: Transit within Canadian cities is quite good. Toronto could benefit from further TTC expansion and increased speeds and frequencies on the GO network (but that's happening anyway soon). The biggest weakness is with regional rail and intercity/HSR services. Getting between Windsor and Quebec city via Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal by rail needs to become a lot faster, more frequent and CHEAPER. The ViaRail service is woeful. Also regional rail needs to extend out of Toronto much further than it does right now. Currently I visit Brantford/Paris a lot and while there's a rail line, the ViaRail service only comes a few times a day and costs like $200 CAD (ridiculous) and Paris doesn't even have a station. If that was anywhere in the UK or Europe, it would have a station with at least a half hourly service and a return ticket would cost about $50-60 CAD. And don't tell me Canada doesn't have the population density to support it. It absolutely does in Southern Ontario.
But most of Southern Ontario consist of single-family homes.
That is a very valid and good criticism for VIA Rail (and Amtrak, sans-Northeast Corridor). The biggest problem with either service is that both entities are nationalized versions of historic passenger services from the freight rail companies. Most of the lines are owned by the freight lines and that means that both VIA and Amtrak often have to play second fiddle to the freight lines. Canada is trying to purchase some additional rail for the Québec City-Windsor Corridor known as the High Frequency Rail project which is supposed to increase the reliability and frequency of trains along that corridor. Supposedly most of the line will also be electrified so it is also possible the trains will be able to hit Higher Speed Rail or even High Speed Rail type of speeds. Reece has a video on that one as well.
I watched this video on Nebula and came here to talk about this specific thing. I grew up in a small town near windsor. (leamington) With a car getting to Windsor or Chatham happened in less than an hour. Without a car getting to either city was an exorbitant charge in an inconsistent cab.
@@shauncameron8390 There used to be trains even between Peterborough and Toronto, and thats when both cities would have lower populations. Its possible. There should be some links in Eastern Ontario (Peterborough, Kingston) and Southern Ontario (London, Chatham, Windsor). People need ot be encouraged to live in and around these cities to build them up.
I appreciate you making this video. I was literally comparing the ridership between US and Canadian cities yesterday and wanted to understand the significant difference.
I think a big part is attitude. The US tends to look at a bus like it's a little part of the ghetto that wandered away. Canadians see buses and trains for what they are -- a way to avoid paying for parking! :D
Seriously though, my family lives in Hamilton, and is planning on taking a March Break daytrip to the ROM in Toronto next week. We were thinking of doing what we usually do for Toronto trips: driving to the most outlying subway stop in Mississauga and taking the subway in from there, but now I'm just about to look up the GO schedule from Hamilton. I know my husband would prefer not to drive, and our son loves the "Choo Choo Train".
Is it an obsession with status? Even in Vancouver, where the train takes you directly to the airport faster than any other method people will drive out there. Are we supposed to be impressed? :)
And then after they waste time driving out there they pay hundreds to leave their car in a parking lot for a week (they're building a huge new parking lot but according to the billboards it's a "green" parkade... )
I love GO! I recently flew into YYZ and my next flight was in Hamilton, so a little over an hour later, I went from Pearson to downtown Hamilton and got a free transfer to Hamilton's bus to the airport. So happy to live in a more civilized country now instead of the USA where people would yell at me out of their car windows seeing me riding a bike, and where the general assumption (outside the most major of cities) is if you don't drive, they assume you've lost your license instead of choosing to live life without a massive liability of a metal box.
@@fallenshallrise It's a vicious circle.
The attitude of the city planners is "the bus is ghetto transportation". [Love that phrase!] So they treat the bus system like run down housing - badly maintained, poor service, minimum frequency, no routes in well-off areas ... This causes the ridership metrics to skew toward those what have no option other than the bus, which means planners won't expand the service because "rich people don't take the bus" ... and it all goes downhill.
It takes only a few of us outliers to change the system, though. I'm a well-paid professional living car free in a nice urban neighborhood and working downtown. When the weather is good, I walk the 2 miles to my office; when it's not, I take the bus. [I'm lucky to live near 3 "every 15 minutes" routes that drop me in front of my skyscraper.] A well-dressed professional stands out, even in rush hour, and the driver will remember and perhaps mention "professionals take this route". I'm also on the email list for my transit agency; I always fill in their surveys, and I check the proper box for my income, even though I consider that private info.
Because I'm one woman, working to change The System.
Cars are heavily taxed in my country so even the middle-class use public transport, & with some neighbourhoods waiting up to 40 yrs before being served by rail (as our gov't is worried about stations becoming white elephants), quite a number of us are reliant on bus connections. Additionally not all companies with offices in downtown provide parking to employees, while on the other hand, companies in more remote locations e.g. industrial estates often arrange for free shuttle buses for their staff from the nearest train station
@Richard Williams Ah Singapore
It was a great piece. When we had our snow storms, those of us that take transit regularly were able to get to work
Thanks for watching! Transit is great in foul weather!
I moved to NJ about a year ago, originally from Toronto. There are a lot of buses here, but they primarily exist to serve the train system into NYC etc. Some only run during rush hour. One other major issue imo is the pay system also just really sucks. You have to buy tickets specific to each bus route. If you buy in bulk to get a lower price, there's a short expiration date. They're pretty close to having a strong bus system and just decided to cripple it because people here just cannot fathom the idea of taking the bus anywhere except to work.
There are a bunch of NJT busses that run every 2-3 minutes during rush hour, and every 30-40 minutes on weekends. It's so stupid. The Newark Light Rail, for example, runs every 4 minutes on weekdays, and every 24 minutes on Sunday.
The payment system can definitely be confusing. But it actually doesn't matter what bus route your ticket is as long as the number of zones is correct. It also really bugs me that they allow really strong routes to be taken over by jitneys. Jitneys have no posted schedule so you have no idea when they start or stop running and take away ridership and funding from NJ Transit.
The problem with NJT is that it's more focused as a "commuter" (9-5 workers) than an actual bus network for city travel.
Unless you live in Trenton; Camden (50/50); Paterson; West NY or Hoboken, you're dealing with a vast conglomerate of express lines cosplaying as "city lines"
They should just rename NJTransit to NYTransit
@@alcubierrevj They should just turn NYC, Jersey City and New Rochelle into one large city or even better State.
It's great to see that cities that invest into transit get into an "upward spiral": if they manage to increase ridership, the more the public recognizes its value which leads to an increased political will to invest, which again increases ridership.
Canadian cities are still at a lower point in this spiral than cities here in German speaking Switzerland, but now that the trend is set, I hope it will continue - and eventually convince US cities as well, as without any doubt, Canadian and equally more advanced Australian cities are much more comparable to US cities than European ones.
My country gives public transport a boost by heavily taxing car sales
I remember when I was a teenager living in Comox, there was a bus that would reliably come every 15 minutes at peak and every 30 minutes off peak, and would connect me directly with Driftwood Centre, where I could take the bus to Vanier highschool (because highland sucks) and the trip would maybe be around half an hour. This was true for basically every area of the Comox valley from Cumberland, to Royston, to Courtenay. The entire "metro area" which was just a collection of towns close to one another had a population of about 50,000 people at the time. It was vastly superior transit service to the majority of American cities.
Yeah I'm pretty grateful for the transit we have in the valley, it's also going to get even better and more frequent in a couple years. But why does everyone seen to hate Highland? I never understood the hate
@@Marshall1892 It has a substantially higher percentage of snobs, jocks, and bullies, while Vanier is known for Nerds, Normies, and Rednecks. My brother literally had to drop out of Highland because it was so bad over there. GP Vanier has a lot people from honest salt of the earth middle and working class backgrounds, and is located near rural farmland. So it's a lot more laid back and friendly, and there's far less bullying there. When I went there from 2007-2010, GP Vanier was an extremely positive and friendly school, with really nice supportive people ranging from the teachers to the students.
That's interesting, great to hear even Comox has pretty good transit!
That's impressive!
The Comox Valley is where I happen to reside.
In Toronto city councillors and transit executives are highly likely to take public transit to work because it is fast and convenient. When the people responsible for funding services do not personally use them the priority goes down. It is similar with public education. Most politicians in Canada send their kids to public schools, so they ensure that those schools are adequately funded. In the US and UK politicians almost never send their kids to public or council schools.
You mean private schools. And in Quebec, private schooling is subsidized.
And because they can afford to live Downtown where public transit is at its best.
@@shauncameron8390 please show me the statistics to demonstrate that many politicians send their kids to private schools. I only personally know of a couple. Bear in mind that Canadian politicians are paid salaries comparable to teachers or engineers, not the millions that every person I personally know of with children in private schools earns.
In my country you need gov't permission to attend private school (including international ones, unless you are a foreigner) (for our equivalent of 10th grade & below) as our gov't feels that having more students attend public schools helps strengthen our national sense of identity, by having gone through a standardized school curriculum & thus having a shared experience
Let's not forget about our new mayor who cycles to city hall. Don't know if she did during her time in Ottawa as MP.
It doesn't explain our many federal parliamentarians from Montreal and the GTA who regularly commute to Ottawa on Via Rail...and yet still reluctant to put money into the service.
I agree frequencies are important, but scheduling is also super important as well. Personal anecdote: I wanted to go to a concert by bus. It’s a 40 min bus ride (vs 20 min by car) which is fine. But then it’s only every 20 min and it stops running at 11PM. Those two factors combined made me want to drive to avoid a potentially expensive Uber from a missed bus.
Something WA does well is have free transportation included in any concert or sporting event that uses one of our main concert venues (15k+ capacity), and extra bus routes from most bus stations to and from those venues on the day of the event around the start and finish. On many of those routes, the frequency on a normal route would often be hourly, which is quite the difference.
For example, I went to a game the other day, and what would usually be one bus and two trains was now a one seat bus ride without the need to look at a schedule.
This wouldn't work for smaller concerts though
Our national railway company is experimenting with high frequency InterCity trains (one every 10 minutes). There are already three mainlines and one commuter line where this is implemented. That is not much, but it is a start. Traveling on these tracks means you won’t have to study the schedule, because if you just missed one, the next will arrive in the station in minutes.
Frequency matters to a point but then regularity matters more!
@@grahamturner2640 Meanwhile quite a lot of bus services that serve my city's downtown are truncated during weeknights, Sat afternoon onwards, Sun & public holidays as our downtown is still quite 'dead' after office hours, despite building codes having been updated ~15yrs ago to compel office towers there to also have shops & condominiums (probably as many of the latter might've been bought by speculators/landlords rather than genuine residents). The next thing we could probably do is to host more art exhibitions & open-air concerts in our downtown's park if we want to make the downtown more lively
Yes, job density is even more powerful than residential density and is partly why Canadian transit is better than America's. But San Diego Trolley rivaled Portland's MAX in 2019 total and per mile ridership, despite San Diego having more job sprawl. And only 20% of trips are commutes. So serving all day destinations (universities, hospitals, ports of entry) and building mixed use mega TODs can still generate lots of ridership even with low job density.
Yet Canada doesn't have a single city that comes close to NYC metro.
In US cities my American friend told me only low income people use public transit, but in Toronto you see middle class and rich millionaires/ CEOs taking subway together everyday.
TBF the US equivalent of Toronto is NYC and plenty of middle class people use the MTA.
@@ballyhigh11Toronto may be the largest city in Canada, but the population of the metropolitan area is more like Houston or Washington.
True, I will not be surprised at all for any millionaires in Toronto using public transit especially during bad weather and winter storms. Who want to fight with the brutal weather with the risk of getting the car stuck in snow ?
I visited Toronto about 15 years ago and stayed downtown. Almost everywhere I wanted to go was accessible by public transit and I loved it. If it's even better now that it was then, that's just amazing.
Quick side note : The Tim Traveller Channel tells us that the French city of Nancy is ditching its rubber-tyred quasi-trams this week!
As the Toronto Mayoral candidates announce, may you please begin to cover their policy approaches towards transit? A lot of people don't vote in municipal elections and I feel like this is because it's often hard to find information on the candidates.
We occasionally disagree on a few transit things, but I always enjoy your optimism!
I'm from NY but have family in Toronto. Something I've always been impressed by with the TTC is the multimodality compared to NY. Arriving at a station like Dundas West on the subway and being able to transfer to the streetcar or bus indoors within fare control is amazing.
There's definitely a big difference between people from the big Canadian cities and the people from northern towns and cities. You're lucky to have a sidewalk at all, let alone frequent transit. But that could improve!
San Diego has Montreal-level gas prices and it's building neighborhoods like Mission Valley, with Skytrain-sized TODs. The main problem is San Diego Trolley has less than a third of Skytrain's frequency.
On the bright side, the Trolley recovered so strong from COVID that it got more riders than any other US LRT in 2022.
If only San Diego and the rest of the US would take Vancouver’s cue and build automated light metros instead of getting stuck on light rail. Reese has made videos about the lack of automated light metros in N America.
@@flylcarusfly Light metro is often "cut down" to light rail to save costs... sadly that's usually being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
@@flylcarusfly But even Calgary's C-Train, with grade crossings and human drivers, runs 5 minute frequencies so there's no excuse for San Diego Trolley not to do the same, even without automation. Instead San Diego is prioritizing free transit before adding frequency.
If the ridership keeps going up, they'll have no choice other than to buy more vehicles and increase frequency.
I grew up in San Diego many years ago, with a mom who didn't drive. Back when malls were cool, we'd occasionally take 2 busses an hour to get to Mission or Fashion Valley for a day of shopping ... then my dad would pick us up after work for the
Frequency can and should be improved!
OMG. My friend was laughing at me for taking pictures of public transit when I was on the Sea Bus in Vancouver. You've literally made a job out of it. I think that the TTC and the GO Transit system are just doing an incredible job.
Regarding the point about immigration, one of the first things that surprises many Americans, in my experience, when they go to a Canadian city is how many Chinese and Indian immigrants there are. We still have the image in the US of Canada being very white, when that hasn't been true for a long time. Not to overgeneralize about large groups of people, but the idea of public transit being stigmatized doesn't seem to be quite as prevalent with people who've come from South or East Asia.
To be home I'm not that sure that that's the reason, the US has large amounts of Latino immigrants and public transportation isn't stigmatized in most of Latin America.
@@bruhbutwhytho2301 Hell Latin America *invented* BRT, America's favorite pasttime!
Growing up in Halifax I remember, even after moving out to Dartmouth, we had good bus service nearby (even a bus station in Dartmouth) and express buses that had signal priority. It was also a treat to ride the ferry, and sometimes the smartest decision you can make in terms of transit as one ferry route (Woodside) had no competition in its specific niche. There was also really nice walking infrastructure in Halifax, even in Suburban Dartmouth, I wish I could say the same about my current city but it's getting better.
i wish i could say the same about my current city, Halifax.
i feel you man. Busses in Halifax proper have been pretty good to me, but its a slog getting into the city and finding parking with the ever expanding 'development' stretching out to the airport.
Ever look outside and then realize everything is surrounded with cars and suddenly you cry
Every single day 🥲
@@MelGibsonFan Planning to vote in my first local election next year, after two missed elections. I don't have the right to complain about removed bike lanes and cancelled sidewalk expansion if I don't vote. I don't have the time or money to do much more unfortunately.
(Local elections are not compulsory in Australia, but state and federal ones are, so I never bothered). Luckily public transport is a state thing not a local or federal thing.
No because I’m not a loser and I can actually afford to drive rather than taking old, grimy public transportation
@@664theneighbor5 pretty sad that public transport is old and grimy where you live. I don't blame anyone for driving if public transport is bad, which it often is
As someone once said, a developed country isn't where the poor drive cars, it's where the rich take public transportation.
Not really.
One thing that impressed me was how good public transportation was in Metro Vancouver compared to the metro area I live in the U.S. which has a similar population. The bus lines extend pretty far and run fairly frequently.
What lacks is intercity transit, outside of GO in the Toronto region there really isn’t an existing intercity rail system that works well (via arrivals & departures times are too unreliabl & slow) would be great to have a strong intercity train for the Montreal-Gatineau-Ottawa region similar to the Golden Horseshoe has with GO
Amen!
Toronto is amazing. Public transit allows density... and then a lot of businesses settle there, making everything very convenient. Transit is not about gas prices. For me, in first place, it is about a completely different lifestyle, with much more freedom than when you depend on a car.
Man... I wish we could get some of that pretty good transit here in Saskatchewan. It takes nearly an hour to get halfway across Saskatoon, which is not even that big of a city. Car centric hellhole
You have to remember though that the 401 is one of the busiest highways in all of North America, so while I would love to see more transit on the political agenda, I often see Provincial governments prioritising motorway transit. I am an ex-pat who currently lives in Wales, UK, and we have nothing that compares to the sprawl of North America, nor the massive amount of lanes of the 401 in the Greater Toronto region, (the M4 in Wales barely gets above six lanes wide and is mostly narrow lanes around Newport). The transit in Toronto - no matter how grim it gets - often outshines much of the UK (when not in London or on a mainline rail route to London, that is). There are many things I miss about good, affordable, accessible public transit. One thing you should think about doing a video on are the benefits that come from having services that are from one company. Here in my area, we have transit put on by no less than five different companies... two rail, three bus companies. Nothing is co-ordinated, and no tickets are transferable or accepted by rival companies. While the TTC can be a pain, I am pleased to see the Presto card being used on many regional transit authorities. More of this sort of thing needs to happen.
I would argue that what sets Canada and the U.S. apart the most in terms of transit is not Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, but rather the fact that the second-tier cities have comprehensive networks with decent ridership at all. I can't think of many if any mid tier American cities, away from the coasts that have services or ridership like Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottowa...
Denver is like a West Coast city, big investment, though I don’t know the ridership.
@@kitchin2 I thought that would be the best comparable city too. I checked and is 260,800 per weekday (greater Denver). I compared it to Calgary 344,200 per weekday. Denver is about 2x bigger in population.
Ottawa resident here.
Our Transit is basically a standard "Large US City system"
it's trash.
Mate I went to Toronto recently and I wasn't happy about the following:
-Tram/bus stop signs not being clearly visible
-Subway station escalators only in one direction
-EXTREMELY SLOW trams
-No free transfer between GO transit and TTC
-No automatic daily fare cap
-Infrequent GO trains
GO train is built around massive parking lots and freeways and he has the audacity to downplay Toronto's car problem.
@@bryan89wr there are no parking lots for GO stations in Toronto and I don't know what you mean by the are built built around freeways?
Toronto, and the rest of Canada, needs to start learning from Europe.
@@TheTroyc1982Danforth Station 🤨
As a New Yorker, it makes me happy to see how other places are using their limited amount of resources to build efficient and attractive public transportation modes. There’s a lot NY can learn from despite being at the forefront of public transit historically. I wish we had more willingness to make sound investments while incrementally improving our systems, and it’s nice that although Canada isn’t perfect, it is heading the right direction!
The reality is Canada also needs to start building 160-200 mph HSR :)
So should the US as well. Yes California is building a high-speed rail, but both US and Canada are too late because rest of the world had HSR since the 20th century.
It's 2023, how can US and Canada still lack high-speed rail? US and Canada should've start building high-speed rail lines across the nations during the 20th century.
Yep.
Yes!
I rather we spend the money on continue to expand and improve transit.
@@automation7295 Brightline West has been preparing for construction as of recently too
Live in US, but have ridden much of Canada's rail transit. One big thing I think Canada has working for transit is that one-third of the country live in "transit-heavy metro areas": GTHA, Montreal metro area, Vancouver metro area. Even if you're in a suburban single family home, you're more likely to have a neighborhood street grid conducive to walking to a bus, and your most common destinations are often accessible by transit. In the USA, our eight or so high-transit metro areas (Boston, NY, Philly, DC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, SF) are only about 18% of the population. Sure we have other big cities like Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, etc.; but as you get at in the video...they are a lot more like a really big Calgary, where a much smaller percentage of homes and destinations are convenient walks to high-quality transit due to neighborhood layout. Your statistic on subway/metro construction being equal in Canada and the US but Canada having one-ninth the population is mind-boggling!
5:34 And it’s not like there weren’t proposals for expressways through downtown. In Calgary, there were several proposals in the 1960’s that would have absolutely destroyed the beautiful parks and riverfront we enjoy in downtown today. It’s about choices.
Cities take a long time to build, and you have a lot more power over decision making locally than you do on any provincial or federal level. Get involved young and you’ll get to see your city turn into somewhere worth living.
Underrated Calgary w
Another enjoyable and enlightening video complete with Canadian self-deprecation and tuque. Well done.
Coming from Winnipeg, the city with the worst transit in Canada, I was struck when visiting Montreal by how mainstream it was to use public transportation - wide swathes of the population could be found using the metro or riding the bus, not just those too young or too poor to drive. Combined with the bike infrastructure and overall walkability, it felt like a fantasy land. So I moved here 😎⚜️
nice
And even Winnipeg is now starting a plan to vastly increase its bus network.
@@krchow Indeed; nice seeing some movement in the Peg. I even got my own Peggo card this past summer (visited from Calgary)!
Super happy for your country, and wish that could rub off on the states! I live in Chicago, and I've mostly accepted that transit expansion is nearly impossible here, other than maybe a line extension (see Red Line south). The enormous costs and NIMBYism new line would create is something I struggle to see how we can overcome. Even something as short as extending the Brown Line west seems incredibly daunting.
Don’t underestimate the power of that suburban bus service he talks about. Getting reliable, 10-15 minute bus service across the suburbs will go so massively far in getting more people on transit. NIMBY’s also tend to just not really care about service adjustments on bus routes, so you can do it kinda quietly. Slowly but surely the NIMBY’s become indifferent, or even in favour of transit projects. It’s how both Vancouver and Toronto are able to approve new suburban rail expansions (Langley extension, and Eglington) with very little NIMBY pushback.
Interesting comment, however where there is a will or preferably a necessity, cost fades into the background. The problem is that far too often the environment has been damaged before the necity is recognised
@@ethanwatt-dz3xq You're right about the busses; improvement there is stealthy and more transformative than people realize. Successful projects change people's minds too. I was surprised how little pushback we've had on the Skytrain extensions in Vancouver, but I think the success of the Canada line, after so much pessimistic resistance, was a factor.
Things can always change! Look at where the New York subway was just 30 years ago compared to today!
I’m watching your video from the Detroit/Windsor border like👀 I really like your perspectives, Reece! Keep it up!
In Montreal they had cut service by 20-25% compared to pre-pandemic levels. I had compared schedules from the most frequent routes of the STM, and found that the biggest hit is out of peak service, with frequencies that used to be 6-7 buses per hour, now down to 3-4 buses per hour, and many routes on top of that 20% frequency reduction, saw conversion from articulated buses to standard 40 foot buses. Recently the STM announced that they retired their 10 min max network, and no longer guarantee a bus every 10 mins on most ex-10 min max bus routes.
that sucks, post coivd þings are gonna be diffrent, also alot of people in montral bike
nice video again, Reece!
finally! i've been waiting for this!
I think that Colorado Springs failed with transit because it bought full size buses, and ran them infrequently. When I lived in Calgary, they made significant use of 15 person buses to serve sparser neighbors, and to fill in between the daily rush hours, and evenings and weekends. But the desire in Colorado Springs to have full size buses when just starting service, meant that large buses would carry, say, seven people. A full size bus carrying seven is a failure and a massive money loser, a fifteen person bus carrying seven is a success and pays for its costs much more readily. And few people would choose such infrequent service, on too few routes, so the service stays in failed, money losing mode, even as the city more than doubled in size. (Of course, the Calgary bus union struck out of outrage that most of the work for drivers of full size buses was the morning and evening rush hours, and forced the city to limit how many fifteen person buses they ran.). Using fifteen person buses to build up demand organically would make much more sense, even now, in Colorado Springs.
Awesome video! I live in Vancouver, so I can only speak for it, but what really impresses me with the transit here is how many young people use it, even though many could afford a car. Many of them will continue to use transit throughout their lives and pass that along to the next generation. Covid will just be a blip on the timeline soon and the future looks good for transit, at least in Canada!
Great video! Love your content.
You nailed it, 1:57 and 9:50, RM. Canadians see value in transit; many Americans do not because they transit as only something for the poor, so provide as little of it as possible. America is incredibly car oriented, thanks to a century of lobbying by the automotive and oil industry and their influence on politicians and public policy, and on shaping public thinking more broadly. More generally, I get the sense that Canadians in general are more disposed to paying to support public goods - transit, national health, etc., than are Americans. You’re right to celebrate. Thank you for making this excellent video.
I like that Portland, Maine cares about their transit enough to update some infrastructure every couple years (most recently some battery busses) and we were able to use them for free in school instead of having a school bus, but I just wish they were more frequent than every 15 minutes peak and 30 minutes to an hour off peak, the train station was not so far out of the city center, and that there were some dedicated bus lanes on busier road like Forest Ave (U.S. 302). I am aware that this road may be too narrow for it but it would be cool.
Edit: Biking also sucks here unless you are on the Eastern Prom trail. There are marked bike lanes, but very few protected.
Winnipeg here, where public transit is called "the loser cruiser" and is at the very bottom of provincial, municipal, and public priority lists. Talk to anyone... politicians, transit employees, community leaders, and even the general public and you'll usually get "Winnipeg is too small for good [or rail] transit".
I wish I lived in Canada...
I've never been to Winnipeg, but for some reason I've a soft spot in my heart for it. Maybe because of Guy Maddin's " My Winnipeg", or A. A. Milne? Anyway, it's always seemed like the Chicago of Canada; it should have three or four automated light metros, elevated to forestall the flooding risk, with platform screen doors so the stations can be easily kept warm in the winters, and cool in the summers. The Winnipeg master transit plan shows where they'd go, and the parallel lines indicated for the city centre would be dandy for efficient cross-platform transfer between lines. It's sensible, we just have to change the minds of the money people. Not that I know how to do that.
You don't need rail to have good transit.
Frequent bus service is more important that's why transit in Toronto is so good because you can get a bus within 10 mins in all parts of the city
@@TheTroyc1982 Quite true, and the decision makers in WInnipeg strongly favour bus-based transit. As of today there are only two bus routes with 10 minute or better headways outside of the peaks. The new "Blue" bus rapid transit line, and the amalgam of bus routes that provide service along Portage Avenue between downtown and the Polo Park shopping centre. A couple of others come close, at 12-ish minute headways.
One of many complications is that service isn't scheduled to clock-face frequencies. Each route's frequency is the round trip (including required layover) divided by the number of assigned buses. A list of headways looks like the winning numbers in a lotto 649 draw.
There is another, simpler reason here. The US threw money at highways, so cities built them. And in doing so trashed their transit systems and the markets for them. Canadian cities wanted to do the same (um, Spadina Expressway) but as is usually the case, Canada didn't have the cash and so the status quo remained more in place. Because of that better preserved urban fabric, there was more ongoing use of transit.
well made and informative video
One thing that I have on American transit systems is that how infrequent or delayed things can be. My local town has a very well built up bus network, both working with the local transit authority and the university's own transit system. However, the service is not that great. Especially with the local bus service.
Miami's urban heavy rail system has longer headways than most European countries' suburban rail networks do.
...sadly, as I listen to you talking about my favourite Canadian cities for transit, I sit here in Québec City which, lovely as it is, has been going through hell trying to get its tramway line built, and wow, you should hear how people gripe about it! Québec City definitely feels like and American city where transit is seen as for the poor, the very young, and the very old.
I'm sorry to hear you've problems with push back over your tramway. NIMBYs turn up everywhere, don't they? And it's such an exciting project too.
The last comment in the video about the frequency of transport really hits home with me. Living in Perth (Australia) I have often thought that it would be so much better if my bus/train was just a bit more frequent. In saying that, I can still get around the city quite reasonably, except for at night, so not an enormous complaint
Most people will use whatever mode of transportation is most convenient. If I had a transit stop nearby that would take me to anywhere I need to go, of course I’d take transit. Same rules apply for biking and walking, if it was safe and convenient, I’d walk or bike. Unfortunately a store that’s 30m away from me takes 15 minutes to walk to, and just 2 minutes to drive to.
From my limited experience, I think that you are right. I have used the public transit in Canada- Skytrain & trolleybuses in Vancouver and the Subway & buses in Toronto. Very good services with excellent connectivity between modes and easy to use.
In the USA, I have used buses in Baltimore and the Metro in Washington DC, but would rate Boston's MBTA systems as my personal favourite for ease of use, connectivity and routes.
Yeah but one thing canadians could learn from Americans is that a nation wide rail network is somthing that's needed, western canada, for its size and historical rail trails should have one of the world's best public rail networks......yet we don't
Aces again!
My Toronto household has been car-free for the last decade... (I live near the St. Clair West streetcar line.)
Even our worst systems are still better used than their best... Ridership per mile for example on Edmonton's LRT is still like 5 or 6th in North America and it's the system that never really got more than 1 real line...
Y’all best transit Ridership is an Abysmal compared to Our best transit
I am a tad tipsy right now, but I got home safely and cheaply here in Vancouver by transit that runs quite frequently until the early morning!
I don't drive and I'm taking a trip to Orlando in a few months. Though my friend I'm staying with has a car and drives, It's going to feel so restrictive not being able to take fast and frequent transit everywhere coming from Vancouver. My American friends are surprised how often I transit and that busses here have wifi. I'm very grateful for good transit.
Orlando is at a turning point. It may go either way. The I-4 is widely seen as intolerable, but a transit fix for that? Sunrail + Brightline is in the conversation, but will need public spending. Buses, maybe. Uber & Lyft were a kind of quick fix for car but not car-owning, when they were startups and cheap. My two cents. (Of course it’s bizarre to see Disney vs. competing parks allied with the convention center pushing for transit.)
@@kitchin2 I’m not too familiar with the transit conversations in Orlando. I just know my friend said she never transits and busses aren’t good
As for TOD's? Most are developed by public pension-fund owned mall operators like Cadillac Fairview and Cambridge with very deep pockets which helps. Oxford Properties as well which started out in Edmonton is now developing projects like Hudson Yards in NYC. These aren't fly by night companies but massive conglomerates that actually own most big things in Canada if you look into it... Just a thought for a side video...
New York had TOD around most of its stations for a Century
I always find the US attitude of "transit is for the poor" rather amusing. Get on a morning train from any Home Counties town into central London and it will be chock-full of impeccably suited bankers and lawyers (and more casually dressed software engineers!). All of them could easily afford to drive into London, likely own a flashy car, but they leave it at home as the train is simply faster and more convenient.
Another thing to consider is that Canada is statistically denser than the US, mostly because we only have three large cities and a few medium sized while the US has far more medium sized cities; often lacking basic systems for public transportation
Winnipeg begs to differ :P
I can definitely appreciate that yes, Canada does have better transit. I’m still waiting for Metrolinx to greatly improve the speed of connections further away from Toronto into the city. When I have to go to the office, I have to drive to Burlington in order to catch a train that would still get me in on time. Even extending the lakeshore West line down to just St Catherine’s with one or two express trains would significantly improve accessibility of the Niagara region to the rest of the greater Golden Horseshoe without needing to drive as far. It is nice that the GO buses run out here but the highway is part of what makes them so much slower than the train would be.
Niagara is the Number one area to grow transit in Ontario in my opinion, and I don't live there. A GO semi crescent from Fort Erie to Welland St Catherine and Niagara, and Lake Shore South Line form Niagara to Hamilton would be amazing for connecting communities. I hope that post electrician some of the Diesel trains find themselves on the pre-existing tracks there (some of which are abandoned).
That and a Light rail from Niagara on the Lake to Niagara GO, opperating as a tram through the Niagara strip, and then continuing to Fort Erie would pay for itself in tourism revenue alone. Whats the point of the Niagara GO station when there is nothing there. Letting tourists arrivimg by train get to the vinyards and Buffalo for a day would be amazing. Let alone the benefits to locals working in the strip.
Iirc GO runs peak service to St Kits and Niagara via West Harbour
@@TheHothead101 Ya but I think you have to change trains, and the frequency is not good.
They're currently doing a lot of work to allow for more trains to Niagara, the plan is to run 11 trains every day (5 into Niagara, 6 out of Niagara) with most of those trains running the same service pattern as the tourist trains that run on Saturday and Sunday which can get you to Toronto in under 2 hours. It's going to be extremely transformative.
@@TheHothead101 sort of, if you call one train in and one train out peak service. For example, I have to be in the office from 8:30 am. There is no train that would get me there on time, even though I can drive 45 minutes to Burlington and hop on a train that would get me there on time. And I’m more than certain I’m not the only one, the QEW is surprisingly busy at 5:45 am. I understand not going all the way to Niagara Falls for every trip due to how the Welland canal crossing is configured (only able to guarantee a set number of on-time crossings per day) but even a train terminating in St Catherine’s would be a huge step up.
*Some transit in Canada is good. Ie Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Ottawa transit is hell, and the suburban voting block that formed from amalgamation is going to keep it that way.
The neighbourhood at 7:35, King W near Shaw, is very nice. Love the TTC Streetcars.
I love the mention of the social acceptability of transit. I feel like I’ve heard friend’s in the US talk about transit (more specifically busses), as for ‘other’ people, usually eluding to class or racialization. While that certainly exists in Canada, I appreciate that in most major cities it’s pretty common and acceptable to hop on a bus, subway, metro or sky train. As someone who bounce between Toronto and Vancouver, I love the amount of options I have; car shares, and ride shares, plus all the public options. It does feel like it’s getting better and better… Even if there are some transit authority decisions that baffle me
Better for transit than the worst developed country in the world is like beating a one-legged man in a race. Canada still has a lot of room to improve, particularly in smaller cities.
Where I live in Toronto, it's great. But if you head out to the suburbs car dependency is still the norm.
From what I've read, it seems like it's better than NZ, and the same tier as Australia.
which actually doesn't change what you said.
I don't really agree, the context that the US and Canada developed in was very different than much of the world. It's not a level playing field.
@@RMTransit
The US and Canada, ditto for Australia and New Zealand, were left alone while Europe and Japan got bombed to oblivion during WW2.
I like to ride public transit. Matter of fact I went down to the grocery store and bought a big huge bag of groceries and I took the bus back home. I didn't wait around and take a Uber. I used public transit. I go to work everyday I take public transit. And I don't work downtown. And I ride the CTA everyday.
I do think the US is reluctant to invest in transit when we’ve got all kinds of infrastructure that needs funding. They just announced that the Build Back Better bill will give SOME money (a 9 digit number) to the 2nd Avenue Subway and the new tunnels for Penn Station to New Jersey. But both projects need 10-digit (or maybe 11-digit) number to actually build them, so the MTA and Port Authority are feeling left in the lurch because they have this money earmarked for these projects, but they can’t use it until they get more money somehow.
Gas costs over $5 a gallon in LA. If I lived there, I'd much rather time my commute with Metrolinx than drive and waste valuable gas. You get wifi and can respond to emails or get some work done on the train, and that's a big plus point.
Bro the joke about the leafs and their station though
Normally, I'd disagree with the stuff you said. But for once, you nailed it. I can count on one hand the number of times I got rejected for a job because I used public transit. Otherwise, work hasn't minded that I'm carless. I am excited to see what gets planned for the future. Especially with the planned electrification of GO and the 10-year plan for the skytrain back in Vancouver.
Another good essay Reece. But I loved your comment about "sports teams that are not gonna win". The last time the Leafs won the cup, I was three. Nuf said
I'm not from north america. busses are great, but I wish more bus lines would get converted to tram lines
Winnipeg is definitely not a canadian city to model transportation after. Buses are seen as very negative, so new infrastructure will be needed to convince the car-hungry to switch to public transit. They tore out all trams back in the 1950's, even though most neighborhoods of the 1900s were built along tram lines.
I did hear that the Rapid Transit Bus roads are basically earmarked lrt raillines from a Winnipeg city engineer, and city councilors are asking why Winnipeg don't have lrt, so there's still hope that it will catch up to other canadian cities.
It surprised me about a year ago when I realized how good Canadian cities do transit (meaning compared to US) and wondered for a while why they had so much ridership, and while learning about it, it made me wonder, how is it that Canada has the will to make their transit good but not the US? Well now I know that it's all due to different culture and different structure and way of life
I imagine the automotive industry lobby is not as large as in the States, and Canadian population centers may be a bit more dense than the states, meaning there's more existing density to justify transit projects.
@@LouisSubearth And also they agree to densify areas
Is US and Canadian culture really all that different?
@@IkeOkerekeNews You’d be surprised, however we’re talking about use of public transport here
@@collectivelyimprovingtrans2460
Maybe slightly different in the case of public transport.
I can't help but think that the structure of municipal government has something to do with differences between Canada and the US. Provinces seem to have no problem merging municipalities or allowing cities to annex suburban towns & townships. It means that there are fewer municipal governments to negotiate with and no micromunicpalities vetoing projects or refusing access.
We also don't have as many interprovincial urban areas as the US. I think that Ottawa/Gatineau is the only one in Canada, so I understand that issue well. I'm pretty much car dependent because I live in Aylmer Quebec. Most of my friends & family and things that I do are in the west end of Ottawa. I can drive to Nepean in 30 minutes, or take at least 90 on public transit because I have to bus downtown, walk from Wellington to Queen Street, transfer to the train, then at Tunney's transfer to a local bus.
Interprovincial (well, interstate) urban areas are an issue only in a few places in the US, though you're correct they can lead to problems. "Merging municipalities" in the US would cause many people in said municipalities to get up in arms (figuratively, we hope, but this is the US) since often the whole purpose of these separated areas is tax revenue sequestration and local control for the purpose of excluding what were actually termed at one time "undesirable demographic elements". In fact, the overall trend is in the opposite direction today...see the (failed) recent attempt by Buckhead in Georgia to secede from the city of Atlanta.
It's a mixed bag. A lot of cities in Ontario were amalgamated (against local opinion) by the conservative government of Premier Mike Harris back in the 90's specifically so that more left-leaning urban voters would be outnumbered and outvoted by more conservative suburban voters. Ottawa is a good example of this. For all the talk of "smart growth" etc. from city planners, the reality is that developers run the show and routinely find support for the sprawl they want from sympathetic rural councillors who want more development in their wards.
Interestingly, St. Louis is the only non-NE corridor interstate metro in the US (as far as I know) where it’s rail transit extend to it’s neighboring state (Illinois).
I remember Toronto from over a decade ago and transit was generally piss poor. It was common for 3 buses to show up at once after what was supposed to be a 15 minute wait turned 45, the schedules were less useful than toilet paper, and lots of buses were dirty and clearly not well maintained. Nowadays the TTC is much better, with more consistent and higher quality service.
it almost the same now, most of the time. Toronto and GTA public transit all suck, TTC or buses, downtown or suburbs. car infested city with no consideration or any one outside a car
sorry, but what you describe as cuts not happening in Canada, is exactly what we are experiencing in Halifax. Regular routes cut, service cut to every 30-60 minutes, regular cancellation.
Plus, the STM in Montreal recently announced it lost $77 million in need of more funding and having to reduce service for certain routes.
As someone who also lives in Halifax, definitely true. I feel that in some ways Halifax Transit used to be better 5-10 years ago.
It's simple, RM: Americans love their cars... 🚗 😏
Love the south shot of the Calgary Tower in the lead in of 'Canada has sprawl'. I suppose a north look straight into the front of a score of skyscrapers might not've had the same impact :v
4:05 Ouch I'm not a Leafs fan but even I felt the heat off that sick burn.
How was that a Leafs burn? You can take transit to any number of arenas and stadiums in Canada. Not just the Scotiabank Arena. None of those stadiums or arenas have hosted a Cup winning hockey team in decades.
@@mileitman Or for Vancouver, EVER.
A lot of this video makes me feel like Australian transit is possibly somewhere around the Canadian level. We do have our fair share of motorways and car dependency, but also a decent share of public transport. BRB while I find a map showing where is more car dependent and more public transport dependent.
Yep! I would say they are similar, Aus has more suburban rail, Canada has more urban rail!
Check out the transit expansions slowly going on in Edmonton. I'm not sure how well they're going to work out tbh, but it is still good to see more rail going in.
I still believe there should be massive improvements with existing transit systems, as I am continually dumbfounded with the local governments' inability to plan and commit to transit projects in the greater Edmonton area. At the very least, since I'm now voting age, I can at least make a little bit of an impact to change that, which matters a lot, since I'll be spending more and more time in Edmonton itself as time goes on.
A slight side story: I had to download an app for a once-a-year trip through the greater Edmonton area. Because Strathcona County Transit has cut most of its normal scheduled transit lines, I was pretty much forced to download the SC Transit app so I could request some on-demand buses to and from the Great Edmonton Model Train Show. Thankfully, I'll probably have an easier time this year, even if I'll be going alone again.
Honestly, considering Vancouver’s Skytrain didn’t even exist 40 years ago and now has 3 lines that have had several major extensions, it’s pretty impressive to see how far we’ve progressed. Vancouver has become much easier to get around in such a short amount of time. We even have several projects in the works to be completed in the near future. It’s something that the US could certainly learn from, especially in cities like Portland and Seattle.
I think london should be ranked higher as you separate the tube, docklands and the overground; yet they are marketed to the customer under the same metro system name which is TFL transport for london.
The fact that Canada has less stigma around transit use is an interesting testament to the difference between US and Canadian culture. I've seen some random suburbanites in my region express their unwillingness to use buses on social media, but willingness to commute by rail if it becomes an option.
Hi! Unrelated to the topic of the video, could you make a video on the Rodalies service in Barcelona? Please
You should ask CityNerd to do this. He lives in Spain now.
I'm no different because I live in ottawa and thank you for covering ottawa Ontario
I think suburban public transit, specifically in the more sprawled out areas, it's still seen as a "poor persons" option even if the person who made that judgment is a regular user of subways and commuter trains as they are seen as public transit for everyone. If the suburban network was more developed and frequency improved, then that perception might change. I think the idea is that if you're willing to wait an hour and a half for a suburban bus, chances are you can't afford another form of more convenient transit, thus you waste an hour and a half waiting for a bus at a hub or connecting stop. Better networks and better frequency reduce the stigma of public transit, hopefully we can figure that out soon too.
I lived in Canada in the late 90s, specifically in Burnaby, which is next to Vancouver. Unfortunately I cannot say that public transit was good there at all at the time. It was so bad that if the source and destination weren't both on the single SkyTrain line, you might as well not go. Thirty minutes was considered a "good" headway for buses, and 100% of the bus routes in the Greater Vancouver area could be covered by a single map, handed out by BC Transit (I think that was the name, it keeps changing). Our home was a 15 minutes' walk from Metrotown station, and IIRC there was just one bus line closer than that (30-minute headway), even though there were many apartment buildings in the neighborhood. I guess it was just like an American city, though that's a country I've only visited as a tourist. I really hope it's much better now! I hear there are more SkyTrain lines, BRT lines, more buses etc. Good to hear that it's politically popular to expand the system.
RM, for some reason I couldn’t see the link you mentioned at 3:50…maybe it was just me? Thanks 😊