Toronto vs. Philadelphia or Chicago?

[knoxfordguy]

Toronto would be no bigger than Buffalo if it were in the US. Smaller even.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by knoxfordguy

Toronto would be no bigger than Buffalo if it were in the US. Smaller even.

This makes no sense at all.
Like saying "Los Angeles would be no bigger than Tijuana if it were in Mexico."

Toronto is not in the US. There is no "if it were."

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

But since we've been discussing quality vs. quantity: The Chicago Transit Authority has rebounded smartly from the mess it was in the 1990s, but the Toronto Transit Commission has provided what I would say is the highest quality of service in all of North America (yes, better even than the New York MTA) for many years, maybe even ever since Canada's first subway line opened under Yonge Street in 1954.

I'd give that honor to Montreal personally. The metro trains are some of the smoothest riding trains out there, and the coverage and scheduling is very good. The recent REM (light rail) going out to the suburbs is nothing short of impressive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A...%A9tropolitain

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by Arcenal813

THEY HAVE A CAR.

Car ownership per household is roughly the same in Toronto as it is in Chicago. ~28%



Are you debating with yourself?

Illinois has a ~8% higher car household ownership rate than Ontario. So regionally it does shake out they way. Plus if be willing to bet cars/capita pull in Chicagos direction (in fact based on what I can find, Chicago has ~300,000 more cars)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Arcenal813

I'd give that honor to Montreal personally. The metro trains are some of the smoothest riding trains out there, and the coverage and scheduling is very good. The recent REM (light rail) going out to the suburbs is nothing short of impressive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A...%A9tropolitain

Funny: I was watching Not Just Bikes' hour-long video examining Montréal earlier today. He devoted the first half hour to its strengths and the second half hour to its weaknesses.

He too had high praise for the STM Metro and the REM but was highly critical of the buses (and the way the city was laced with freeways and stroads that both hamper the buses and diminish the effectiveness of the metro network, in his view; he is on the whole highly critical of North American cities, including Canada's, and he had plenty critical to say about Montréal as well even as he agreed that it is probably the best city in North America from a walkable urbanist perspective).

Toronto's bus service, or at least what I experienced on a visit there in the late 1970s, is quite good — and we tend to sell the buses short.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Funny: I was watching Not Just Bikes' hour-long video examining Montréal earlier today. He devoted the first half hour to its strengths and the second half hour to its weaknesses.

He too had high praise for the STM Metro and the REM but was highly critical of the buses (and the way the city was laced with freeways and stroads that both hamper the buses and diminish the effectiveness of the metro network, in his view; he is on the whole highly critical of North American cities, including Canada's, and he had plenty critical to say about Montréal as well even as he agreed that it is probably the best city in North America from a walkable urbanist perspective).

Toronto's bus service, or at least what I experienced on a visit there in the late 1970s, is quite good — and we tend to sell the buses short.

I agree, North American cities tend to be quite poorly built in terms of urban form, and after having spent time in even smaller Japanese cities, it is quite apparent that we have a major issue with giant expressways cutting through cities. I find lots of parts of Montreal to be similar to Manhattan and Brooklyn in that they are somewhat outliers, but the problems still exist.