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So, I think transit ridership (particularly, per mile) is one of the better measures that helps to define urbanity. Solid Urban cores are typically full of street life and pedestrian traffic.
But I'm biased...my city (Seattle) has a much higher commute share than a lot of rail-heavy cities, and we do it with mostly buses, along with a dose of light rail, a tiny bit of commuter rail, and ferries.
But I'm biased...my city (Seattle) has a much higher commute share than a lot of rail-heavy cities, and we do it with mostly buses, along with a dose of light rail, a tiny bit of commuter rail, and ferries.
Which ones is it “much better than”
Also Commute share is not great Per capita usuals is better. DC for example almost 80% of its ridership is daily commuting while Boston is like 60%. So DC has a higher commute share while Boston has higher ridership
So, I think transit ridership (particularly, per mile) is one of the better measures that helps to define urbanity. Solid Urban cores are typically full of street life and pedestrian traffic.
I just think Montreal and Toronto are being overlooked and underrated quite significantly in this thread.
That's generally true, but since this thread is about downtowns/urban cores it would be more instructive to look at CBD transit shares. Downtowns with lower transit shares tend to feature more auto-oriented development -- surface lots and large indoor parking facilities -- which is anti-urban by nature.
Per Demographia's 2016 US CBD report, the following downtowns have the highest transit share:
NY - 78.4%
SF - 56.1%
Boston - 55.8%
Philadelphia - 49.8%
Washington- 49.2%
Chicago - 46.4%
Seattle - 40.1%
This is as good of a benchmark as any, though after NY the next five all cluster within 10% so ranking them among each other is a bit like splitting hairs -- you get into subjective preferences and weighting of other relevant criteria. It's interesting, though, that Chicago is in the back of that pack which reflects the amount of parking infrastructure in downtown Chicago.
I dont have figures for Canadian CBDs, but I presume that Toronto and Montreal (and probably Vancouver) would be up there as well.
I found this mapping to be interesting for the US part of the discussion, at least as a guide to where “true urban” may be, based on the 2010 Census...
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