"Canada looks a lot like much of the US, in terms of economic types, city sizes and ages, development patterns," Jarret Walker says. So why can't Americans keep pace with Canadian public transit?
Transit ridership is falling. The growth of ride share, low fuel costs and increased car ownership are all likely part of the reason, but it's possible to grow transit in this climate. "But notice the big picture: In a year when urban transit ridership fell overall in the US, it rose in Canada," Jarret Walker writes.
Canada is doing some things notably differently than the United States is, Walker writers: "Canadian cities just have more service per capita than the most comparable US cities. This results in transit networks that remain more broadly useful in the face of competition from other modes." Vancouver, where transit ridership has grown more than any other city in either country can be a particularly instructive example with its concentration of development around transit stations and prevalence of higher gas prices. "Notably, ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are not available in Vancouver due to provincial legislation," Walker adds.
To the United States, Canada is the "least foreign country" Walker argues. Americans should be looking to make their cities more like their Canadian counterparts.
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research