Is Vancouver more walkable than any US city besides NYC? (live, best)
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Throughout the olympics, there has been much talk about how immensely walkable and pedestrian friendly Vancouver is. Bob Costas was even talking about it on NBC Sports (not the typical forum for discussions of urbanity). Ive even heard statements like, one of the most walkable cities in the world.
Now Ive been to Vancouver and it is, indeed, very very walkable. But is it really more walkable than Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, etc? Its certainly more user-friendly than probably any US city, but thats only one part of walkability.
Just wondering what people who have been there think...and keep in mind, Im talking about walkability, not urbanity as a whole. I don't think Vancouver is as urban overall as any of the cities mentioned above.
It's definately one of the most walkable and far more walkable than Chicago imo. It's only 44 square miles and I believe it has almost 14,000 people per square mile making it the third most densly populated big city in N.A. It's one of the easiest cities to get around in on foot. When I head up from Seattle I just hop on Amtrak.
I think Boston and SF (and parts of Philly, D.C. And Chicago) are equally as walkable if not more so. Density doesn't directly translate to walkability or even urbanity (tower in the park, anyone?). Vancouver is a great, urban, walkable city but a lot of what you hear is Olympic hype. Bob costas may rave about it, but it's a unique situation for them too... How often do these guys spend 2+ weeks in the same city (aside from their home base where they generally live in the 'burbs)? Vancouver deserves the walkable hype, but it's not in a different tier (in terms of walkability and pedestrian scale) than any of the best US cities.
When people see Vancouver on TV, they're only seeing the city's West End/Downtown area which is what 2 square miles in size. The rest of the city (like 10 times as large as downtown) resembles your typical 1920s era city development. In other words, most of Vancouver is single family craftsmen style homes on smaller lots, a lot like Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis.
Downtown Vancouver might be slightly more walkable than downtown Chicago or Boston because it has more residential development, but definitely not downtown San Francisco. As a whole, I would say Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco have a larger quantity of truly walkable neighborhoods than Vancouver, but I could be wrong.
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