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To be fair, Vancouver gets a lot of coverage in Asian countries like China and Hong Kong, due to large contingent of immigrants from those regions. Many people I've talked to in HK and China, at least those who have some knowledge of Canada or North America, seem to know Vancouver - and local highlights like "Skytrain" or "Richmond" - far better than what they may have heard of other NA cities. There are even Chinese equivalent names for many of the attractions in Vancouver due to their popularity, and Skytrain is one of them.
So, I think what is iconic/well known and what isn't all depends on who you talk to. Shocking I know, what an earth-shattering insight right?
I know there are pockets of interest or knowledge like this.
I just get a chuckle out of the notion that there is all this awesome fascinating stuff to know about regarding Canada that the entire world has clued into, and that only those ignorant Americans are left out of.
In my experience while I wouldn't say that Americans on average know that much about Canada, they know more than most other nationalities I've met - and I've met a lot.
(Knowledge about Canada doesn't tend to be very high in any country on this planet, let's just say.)
It depends on what definition of iconic you use. It just doesn't mean " well known " but " a symbol of something."
For automated metro lovers, Vancouver's Skytrain is a symbol of that, since it is the largest, and one of the first in the world. In other words, Iconic. However for this thread, I gave Toronto's streetcars an edge.
Do you know every person or symbol that is iconic to a particular group? Does that make that symbol less iconic?
As for
"I just get a chuckle out of the notion that there is all this awesome fascinating stuff to know about regarding Canada that the entire world has clued into..."
No one said this was assume fascinating stuff and if this thread was solely about " well known " then, I would ask again why is Canada included to a mainly American audience? As you said, they usually don't know much about Canada, compared to, as Bostonkid123 pointed out, people in parts of Asia and other parts of the world do.
It depends on what definition of iconic you use. It just doesn't mean " well known " but " a symbol of something."
For automated metro lovers, Vancouver's Skytrain is a symbol of that, since it is the largest, and one of the first in the world. In other words, Iconic. However for this thread, I gave Toronto's streetcars an edge.
Do you know every person or symbol that is iconic to a particular group? Does that make that symbol less iconic?
As for
"I just get a chuckle out of the notion that there is all this awesome fascinating stuff to know about regarding Canada that the entire world has clued into..."
No one said this was assume fascinating stuff and if this thread was solely about " well known " then, I would ask again why is Canada included to a mainly American audience? As you said, they usually don't know much about Canada, compared to, as Bostonkid123 pointed out, people in parts of Asia and other parts of the world do.
I know there are pockets of interest or knowledge like this.
I just get a chuckle out of the notion that there is all this awesome fascinating stuff to know about regarding Canada that the entire world has clued into, and that only those ignorant Americans are left out of.
In my experience while I wouldn't say that Americans on average know that much about Canada, they know more than most other nationalities I've met - and I've met a lot.
(Knowledge about Canada doesn't tend to be very high in any country on this planet, let's just say.)
Just fyi, that "pocket of interest" equate to roughly 20-40% of the population who are looking to immigrate, and Canada, U.S., and Australia are the top three destinations for would be Chinese immigrants. That translates to a 200 million to half a billion "pocket of interest" population wise
I think it's more that there are different areas of interest. There's a myriad of marketing, tourism, and immigration agencies in China and HK, and their singular goal is to make their destination countries "interesting". So in China there's a huge amount of TV and online social media content dedicated to learning English and learning about daily lives in countries like Canada or Australia. As you can imagine, one of the hottest topics on Chinese social media for the past few years has been "immigrating to Vancouver" and "real estate in Vancouver" because it's arguably the no. 1 city destination for would-be Chinese immigrants. And yes, Vancouver Skytrain and other urban amenities (e.g. the abundance of Chinese supermarkets and restaurants...) get featured alot in these conversations.
NYC and Chicago are the indisputable top two. Their transit systems are heavily intertwined with the culture of each city.
DC and Boston are a toss up for me at 3 and 4. Both are iconic to each city, I think "the Metro" and "the T" are pretty recognizable even for outsiders. I think in particular the architecture of Metro and the green line trolleys of the T are unique features that are often associated with each city.
#5 is kind of hard for me to pick. The San Francisco cable cars and the New Orleans streetcars seem like an obvious choice, but I'm not sure if they actually count as transit systems. Honorable mention might go to BART or SEPTA which are at least usually mentioned/depicted in media of each city.
I'll throw in some outliers too:
1. LA has a small subway system and a rapidly growing light rail system, but neither seem to be depicted very often in media. Is this because they're relatively new?
2. Dallas - Same as LA. A relatively extensive light rail system that's rarely associated with the city it's in.
3. Atlanta - MARTA and the tricolor rainbow are iconic to us Atlantans, but not so much to outsiders. Particularly, I rarely see MARTA depicted in movies set in Atlanta, although this is changing as of late. I wonder if this is because MARTA had some pretty strict rules regarding filming?
4. Miami - Honestly I feel like if you weren't looking for it, you'd never know Miami had a rapid transit system.
I think some posters -- not you -- are confusing the term iconic... at least as my definition goes in the context of the OP's thread. To me, if something is an Icon, it's symbolic of something; it conjures an image ... in this case, a particular city being identified with a particular form of mass transit.... Nobody is saying Boston's great (imho) rail transit system isn't historic; it obviously is as the first American subway transit system. But that doesn't mean it's an icon because, for it to be, it would conjure an image in the average (American) person's mind. Aside from we urban/transit geeks, I don't think it does because I don't believe the average American identifies The T, in any form, with Boston. I'm not sure the average American even realizes Boston has rail transit at all, unless, perhaps, you were old enough, or saw reruns, of the old "St. Elsewhere" series from the 1980s where the old Orange Line el (now demolished) zoomed by what purported to be St. Eligius Hospital -- which is actually an 1897-built apartment building just off Washington St that's still standing...As I said before, Boston, being an historic American town, conjures plenty of images. I just don't think The T subway/LRT is one of them.
Whereas the NY subway, Chicago L, New Orleans streetcars and SF cable cars are urban icons and, immediately, cause people to ID their locale... Just my take.
non-sequitorial tangent: i saw the spenser direct-to-netflix moo-vee released last month which prompted me to go back and watch the 1985 series. so far, its quirky but it believes in itself (has the red-line running over the longfellow bridge in the opening credits).
non-sequitorial tangent: i saw the spenser direct-to-netflix moo-vee released last month which prompted me to go back and watch the 1985 series. so far, its quirky but it believes in itself (has the red-line running over the longfellow bridge in the opening credits).
The Red Line crossing the Charles on the Longfellow Bridge is probably the most-often-seen transit-related shot of Boston in movies and on TV.
Sorry, but the Detroit people mover would be pretty low on any list. It’s short (I think the monorail at Disneyland is longer?) and it’s still relatively new.
I’d spend summer with family in Michigan as a kid and remember when it opened in the late 1980’s. I also went to school in the region during the 1990’s and even interned downtown.
What I remember the most is all the stories in/on the news about what a tremendous waste of money it was for just a small loop around such a desolate DT. I know a lot has changed in DT since then and it’s a huge asset (luxury not financially) for the city, but it’s not iconic to anyone outside of the city/region.
I would have to agree. Many might not even know Jacksonville and other smaller cities have these "Skytrain/Peoplemover" type systems, which are great to have no doubt, but don't really belong in any conversation of "top" transit systems. They tend to only service small portions of the downtown area, not the greater city at large.
just saw mo' money again for the eleventeenth time and i had to lookup it was shot in chicago. never mentioned in dialog. always assumed it was n.y.c.
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