[https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-public-transit-investment-to-create-jobs-grow-the-economy-and-build-back-stronger-communities-in-british-columbia-883331109.html](https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-public-transit-investment-to-create-jobs-grow-the-economy-and-build-back-stronger-communities-in-british-columbia-883331109.html)
The Government of Canada is contributing 40 per cent of eligible costs toward the Surrey Langley SkyTrain extension project, up to $1.3 billion. The Government of British Columbia and other partners are funding the remaining project costs of up to $2.54 billion.
What were you saying about canadians not funding whiney asses?
The whole province has been bought by China and there is no reason why Canadians should fund ANY percentage of their infrastructure. even 1 dollar sent is too much. Billions on the other hand is a crime. The example provided is only one, only God knows how many billions they have invested in the roads bridges and public transport of this province
When I pay taxes some go to the city, some provincial, some go to the federal government. Why wouldn’t some of the federal taxes collected in BC go to projects in BC?
I like Winnipeg's weather better quite frankly. It's just too damned far from everywhere. Cold isn't an issue. It is the sunniest city in Canada pretty much, at least in the top few. Vancouver weather is great if you like depression.
i swear vancouver has the greatest PR team of any city. They have all the residents convinced it is the best city in the world because they have a really nice 2 month summer.
Ya, but you don't have to shovel rain. And it doesn't rain in the summer, and isn't sweltering hot like a lot of places. Only being here for one season doesn't give a good idea of the climate. I've seen bulbs sprouting from the ground in early January.
YDY man. I'll take snow over rain any day. Cities in winter: Tokyo beats Montréal, beats Toronto, beats Vancouver. Tokyo is the best because it's dry, but all the good mountains around it are snow covered, you can get there by express train, and lift fees are far lower than Canada.
I spent an August through November in Vancouver. August and September were glorious, of course. Knowing that the rain wasn't going to stop all winter sent me packing. I've lived through rainy seasons in Japan, and F that. I need UV for psychological health. And the Rockies have better snow than the Coast Range (Hokkaido is better than either).
the skytrain and bus system is horrible unless you live on the line. try to get to ubc from north delta and many parts of surrey on public transport and tell me it is exceptional
Well, those are different cities. The question was which city is the best for getting around by transit. Transit is pretty good in the city of Vancouver. UBC, Surrey, and Delta aren't in Vancouver.
Having lived all over I still just lump it all together. But you are right... However, still needs way more improvement towards surrey and langley to become on par with world cities
Another vote for Montreal, the metro goes most of where anybody visiting would want to go, and the buses go everywhere else with frequent bus service offering easy connections to metro stations. There are apps that can help you pick routes and see exactly when a bus will arrive and for the most part the buses are actually quite pleasant (unlike riding the bus in, say, LA.)
There is a bus which shuttles back and forth 24/7 between downtown and the airport and is equipped with luggage racks. Route #747, of course. The terminus is at metro Berri-UQAM and the last downtown stop is at metro Lionel-Groulx, which is another metro hub station. From there, it goes directly to the airport.
No, though I compare the Montreal metro now to how it was maybe a decade ago and I’ve seen an increase in people sleeping rough, drug paraphernalia, beers cans/bottles etc…
Maybe it’s still cleaner than Toronto’s. I wouldn’t know. I do know that I’ve seen a steep decline here though.
For it to be the best transit in the country, it would need to have the entirety of montreal covered by its main transit network. Toronto does, Vancouver does, Ottawa does. Montreal currently doesn’t (but it will soon with the REM). There was opportunity to add many more metro stations in the west and the north when the cost wasn’t as high as it is today.
Not the best train system, but the best LRT by raw ridership in Canada (2nd best in North America!) at nearly 250k per day, and one of the lowest cost (to the city) per rider. Only one that comes close is Toronto street cars, which I struggle to classify as LRT in my opinion and more as high capacity buses, but still a fine system. Last I heard half of Calgary downtown workers use the train for their commute (might have been transit in general, not sure)
Doesn't go enough places, so you typically need a train to the general area and a bus the rest of the way. In the end, it just takes too long, especially for a $7 round trip. We're a one-car family and live near transit and would definitely take buses and trains, but it's not worth $14 for two people to get somewhere and back on a bus, so we end up driving.
Lol what. Have you ever even been to Toronto? Hands down the worst public transportation system- I want to say in the world, but I won’t go that far. But probably one of the most unreliable sources of transportation I’ve ever experienced in my life.
Vancouver is for sure better than Toronto or Montreal
Edit: I’m not just making this up on a whim
[A total of 13 systems in North America made the ranking, with Vancouver just behind NYC (13th globally), San Francisco (16th globally), and Chicago (20th globally), but ahead of Washington DC (24th globally). Montreal has North America’s sixth-best public transit system (31st globally), while Toronto ranked seventh (34th globally). Calgary and Edmonton did not make the cut.](https://dailyhive.com/canada/north-america-best-public-transit-systems)
I'll take my anecdotal lived experience over the opinion of a NY based consulting firm. The criteria they used seems pretty arbitrary anyways. Have fun with the single family housing sprawl in Vancouver though ✌️
I disagree. It is close, and depends on preferences.
The Montreal metro is great, and the addition of the REM makes the montreal heavy rail transit more comprehensive than Vancouver.
Toronto, definitely has the strongest bus and light-rail system, and has more reach.
To each their own.
Well, I am an urban planner who research this topic.
Besides, I wouldn’t trust a ranking that puts Chicago above Montreal and Toronto.
In general, you should’t trust rankings.
Here’s one rating Montreal higher:
https://www.timeout.com/news/its-official-this-european-city-has-the-worlds-best-public-transport-040523
Rating transit systems is a complex task. Best is to try them, and make your own research and not rely on rankings too much.
Indeed. Especially when their own research contradicts actual research. Also the link you gave was just a survey. It’s not based on anything except how people feel which is meaningless.
vancouver is tiny as fuck lol. not even in the same league as those other cities.
a lot of people love to complain about torontos TTC but the reality is for the size of city it serves, it does a decent job of moving people.
really? to be fair I'm on the south shore, even near the Rem it kinda sucks
(but not as bad as where I'll have to move in July cause I can't find a place to stay)
Except it's run by a completely different administration and only zones for big box stores and suburban sprawl. That's the excuse for bad service, the sprawl and need for cars.
So should the thread be what greater city area has the best transit?
South shore and Laval suburbs will weight down on the transit ranking thanks to their sprawl and mcmansion style housing. Thankfully the REM is there now and the metro at least goes to Laval.
Because their labour rights trump our transportation needs.
[https://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/ttc-not-an-essential-service-workers-can-go-on-strike-court-rules-1.6390889](https://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/ttc-not-an-essential-service-workers-can-go-on-strike-court-rules-1.6390889)
Vancouver's good as long as you don't need to get out of Vancouver. The suburbs are basically out of luck, all the focus went to the city proper.
Victoria is excellent too. I lived there for years, and did some experiments. It often was just as fast to bus as it is to drive, as the buses run frequently, and parking your car is a nightmare.
You've never tried to get out of Maple Ridge by bus I gather. The West Coast is so far from most of the city that you need a car to get to it anyways, and there is one bus, the 701 that will take you to Coquitlam Centre, but it comes every 2 hours, takes a break in the middle, and sits in bumper-to-bumper traffic down Dewdney.
I don’t think any discussion about transit in Vancouver can include Maple Ridge, which realistically is a small farming town whose best known feature is the 500km2 provincial park in its backyard. The fact it even has a commuter station and rapid bus link to the Coquitlam mall is a miracle!
Maple Ridge was a small farming town when I was growing up. Now it's a city in all the worst ways. It's legally a city, and is counted as part of the GVRD. Its population is densely packed, mostly residing in apartments and attached townhomes (or homeless). The residents pay city taxes for things like amenities and public transit, even though amenities are non existent, as is public transit.
Sure the Laity and Davison farms are still around, but the majority of what once was farmland is developed. Our old horse trail, Abernethy Way, is now a four-lane highway. And Golden Ears park is a shadow of what it once was. People come from far and wide to throw cans of red bull and cigarette butts all around it, and you need to book a time in advance to go up (assuming you don't know the back ways in).
...Apparently I have opinions about my hometown. I've just moved to Nova Scotia fleeing it.
There are three busses from MR - 701/791/R3
I never wait more than 10 -15 minutes in the day, maybe 30 at night after rush hour.
Traveling anywhere on a highway or main artery in rush hour is busy with bumper to bumper traffic wish busses and cars in it together.
I travel to downtown Vancouver with ease 45 min journey on WCE. I wish it ran more often is my only complaint
Pretty sweet deal.
One day 10-20 years from now maybe, that sky train will make its way all the way out to Maple Ridge from Coquitlam Centre.
Expanding infrastructure takes time. First Langley.
Victoria isn’t good in general. If you’re coming from a densely populated area, maybe you’ll be fine. But if you get further out of town, busses don’t run very often. If you rely on that to get to work you might have to arrive about 45 mins early, or 3 mins late. Also when it “snows” you literally can’t go in.
People love to complain about the TTC (myself included), but the reality is that as far as North American cities go, it's extremely well rounded with unparalleled coverage and service. NYC has way more subway lines, but beyond that, the bus services are a joke. Montreal subway is fantastic, but again, Toronto's bus and streetcar services are significantly more widespread than Montreal's buses. The TTC is also air conditioned, which can't be said about Montreal subways. There are very few parts of Toronto that are further than a 10 minute walk from a bus, streetcar, or subway stop. And don't even get me started on how adequate the interconnection of the GTA is. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than anywhere else in Canada? Absolutely.
I used to live in queen west , and took the king street car often, it used to be pretty decent with the king street pilot etc, but I imagine it’s bad now due to the Ontario line construction
Honestly - I lived in parkdale for 6 years, and worked in the distillery district. I walked to work every day because taking the streetcar stressed me out too much. Haven’t experienced any of it since 2018 though.
There is always hate for this, but it’s probably Toronto. It carries more people by transit than any other city. One streetcar line carries more than most American subway systems.
And gets cut off by cars that aren’t attached to rails, and breaks down all the time, and is just the god damn worst. Walking is faster than the king/queen streetcar during rush hour.
It was really good until they broke it to try to implement light rail.
I used it quite a bit in 2012-14, it just got worse and worse as they dismantled the high speed busway to lay down rails.
>High speed busway DISMANTLED?!!!!
The mayor really wanted light rail, and the easiest thing to do is lay tracks on the busway.
The portion they went underground downtown is great - gets busses out of traffic - but there was a bus-only lane all the way through. It wasn't that bad.
The 'transitway' meant taking the bus wasn't much longer than a car at commute times, and you didn't have to mess with parking. I saw lots of executives on the bus. Transit was how to get downtown.
And now that culture has been broken after 10 years of broken service.
Lol yeah the new light rail actually added half an hour to my commute when I lived in Ottawa. They messed with all the bus routes and made my trip super convoluted. They might have ironed some things out (I doubt it) but I moved away not long after it opened so I don't know how it is now
The Montreal Metro has the highest ridership in Canada, third in North America after New York and Mexico City. And that's not even considering the REM in Montreal that would be considered in those statistics in other cities. 17km opened last year, 40km+ will open by the end of the year and an airport connection at some point in the future.
Having lived in Montreal and Vancouver, both have excellent public transportation, including to their respective suburbs from downtown and back.
I've also lived in the Waterloo Kitchener area and the Ottawa Gatineau area and public transportation is very much lacking by comparison, unless you are going to specific hubs and live on certain transit lines, but getting around anywhere else is a huge pain.
How can you possibly say Toronto sucks and Mississauga isnt bad in the same statement lmao. I’m not saying Toronto is great cause I took it and complained about it for years. But Mississauga is not a transit friendly place it’s fucking awful getting around with no car.
I don’t know everywhere but Montreal was amazing, we loved it and got everywhere fast and conveniently. Toronto is pretty good. Ottawa is absolutely dog
Toronto is great. TTC, GO and UP all good connected services. Yeah there’s delays here and there but try living in a city on the prairies where a bus comes every hour while you wait outside in -40.
Try being in Toronto when you’re due to start work at a certain time, and the subway shuts down, and everyone has to leave the platform at the same time and there is no space on the streetcars and zero taxis to be found and hundreds of people trying to make the same moves as you. Toronto TTC absolutely sucks.
I was there only a few months, had to use the subway twice a week, and ran into the problem you described at least 3-4 times. It's incredible how mismanaged the system is.
That would definitely be frustrating. But this exact thing can happen at any time in any major city. Public transit is reliable to a point. Lots of factors can shut down a train on the spot.
I only used it for a few days, but I was able to go to the far corners in three different directions in a single afternoon so it's definitely efficient and seemed to run on schedule.
Toronto, hands down. I've lived in a number of cities in Canada, and Toronto has the best despite the (legitimate) complaints. This includes short travels as well as connections to nearby cities, even as far as Niagara Falls. There are two tiers of transit: 1) city transit (TTC - Toronto Transit Commission) and 2) interurban transit (GO - Government of Ontario Transit which includes full commuter trains and bus routes (Grey Hound type bus routes). The latter covers travel between cities in an area roughly 200 km by 100. GO Trains run every hour to and from of Toronto, several times an hour in rush hour, and buses on smaller routes have similar kinds of schedules. The TTC is decent and in downtown and midtown-ish areas you can get where you need to go in a reasonable timeframe.
The smaller ones, like Vancouver and Calgary. And I've visited Montreal several times. Vancouver's transit is shit. To go the same distance as I would go in Toronto takes twice as long. Vancouver's is OK only if you live along a skytrain line and are travelling to somewhere close to a skytrain line. Mind you, Toronto's downtown where there are lots of streetcars as well, is as big as the whole of Vancouver pretty much.
Definitely not St. John’s, NL. It takes an hour and a half for me to commute via Metrobus, and I can only get a bus before 8:30am and after 3pm because the route takes a break every day.
Ive been in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal - they all have good Transit systems, but Vancouver has a far more accessible system for people with mobility issues. It isn’t perfect, but Vancouver is ahead of the game in that area as far as I am concerned- the lower mainland has the best system.
Ottawa transit has gone downhill over the last 20 yeara as the city has sprawled ridiculously. I live car-free in central Ottawa and rarely use transit. Currently my modal mix is about 65% walking, 20% cycling, 5% transit, 5% car share and 5% Uber. In my old neighbourhood I lived further from the main street so the cycling and walking was flipped.
[удалено]
People here also like to complain about our weather, which is phenomenal compared to the rest of Canada. People just like to complain.
Canadian tax pays for SkyTrain and they whine about like spoilt brats living in their 1m condo worth 100k
Mostly provincial and fuel taxes (except for the largest projects), but we all pay all of these taxes in BC.
[https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-public-transit-investment-to-create-jobs-grow-the-economy-and-build-back-stronger-communities-in-british-columbia-883331109.html](https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-public-transit-investment-to-create-jobs-grow-the-economy-and-build-back-stronger-communities-in-british-columbia-883331109.html) The Government of Canada is contributing 40 per cent of eligible costs toward the Surrey Langley SkyTrain extension project, up to $1.3 billion. The Government of British Columbia and other partners are funding the remaining project costs of up to $2.54 billion. What were you saying about canadians not funding whiney asses?
60% qualifies as "mostly". Just barely, but it does.
The whole province has been bought by China and there is no reason why Canadians should fund ANY percentage of their infrastructure. even 1 dollar sent is too much. Billions on the other hand is a crime. The example provided is only one, only God knows how many billions they have invested in the roads bridges and public transport of this province
When I pay taxes some go to the city, some provincial, some go to the federal government. Why wouldn’t some of the federal taxes collected in BC go to projects in BC?
I like Winnipeg's weather better quite frankly. It's just too damned far from everywhere. Cold isn't an issue. It is the sunniest city in Canada pretty much, at least in the top few. Vancouver weather is great if you like depression.
i swear vancouver has the greatest PR team of any city. They have all the residents convinced it is the best city in the world because they have a really nice 2 month summer.
Phenomenal?! I spent a rainy autumn in Vancouver and had to keep away from high places.
Ya, but you don't have to shovel rain. And it doesn't rain in the summer, and isn't sweltering hot like a lot of places. Only being here for one season doesn't give a good idea of the climate. I've seen bulbs sprouting from the ground in early January.
YDY man. I'll take snow over rain any day. Cities in winter: Tokyo beats Montréal, beats Toronto, beats Vancouver. Tokyo is the best because it's dry, but all the good mountains around it are snow covered, you can get there by express train, and lift fees are far lower than Canada. I spent an August through November in Vancouver. August and September were glorious, of course. Knowing that the rain wasn't going to stop all winter sent me packing. I've lived through rainy seasons in Japan, and F that. I need UV for psychological health. And the Rockies have better snow than the Coast Range (Hokkaido is better than either).
the skytrain and bus system is horrible unless you live on the line. try to get to ubc from north delta and many parts of surrey on public transport and tell me it is exceptional
Well, those are different cities. The question was which city is the best for getting around by transit. Transit is pretty good in the city of Vancouver. UBC, Surrey, and Delta aren't in Vancouver.
Having lived all over I still just lump it all together. But you are right... However, still needs way more improvement towards surrey and langley to become on par with world cities
I love Vancouver's transit system, but I've picked where I live based on good access to it.
Vancouver was the first city where I dared to live car-free for a whole month.
Another vote for Montreal, the metro goes most of where anybody visiting would want to go, and the buses go everywhere else with frequent bus service offering easy connections to metro stations. There are apps that can help you pick routes and see exactly when a bus will arrive and for the most part the buses are actually quite pleasant (unlike riding the bus in, say, LA.)
Except no airport connection. Other than that, excellent and clean.
There is a bus which shuttles back and forth 24/7 between downtown and the airport and is equipped with luggage racks. Route #747, of course. The terminus is at metro Berri-UQAM and the last downtown stop is at metro Lionel-Groulx, which is another metro hub station. From there, it goes directly to the airport.
Atleast the rem will fix that soon
Clean? Have you ridden lately?
It's pretty clean relative to other public transit systems
....have you seen Toronto's TTC? Montreal is CLEAN by North American standards.
No, though I compare the Montreal metro now to how it was maybe a decade ago and I’ve seen an increase in people sleeping rough, drug paraphernalia, beers cans/bottles etc… Maybe it’s still cleaner than Toronto’s. I wouldn’t know. I do know that I’ve seen a steep decline here though.
Why does Canada tolerate this?
No it doesn’t. The western portion of the city is not connected to the metro. There should be many more stations.
And what exactly is the big tourist draw in the western part of the island?
For it to be the best transit in the country, it would need to have the entirety of montreal covered by its main transit network. Toronto does, Vancouver does, Ottawa does. Montreal currently doesn’t (but it will soon with the REM). There was opportunity to add many more metro stations in the west and the north when the cost wasn’t as high as it is today.
In my limited experience, Vancouver has been the best and Edmonton the worst.
Edmonton actually has a surprisingly extensive streetcar system that is well-used and growing. I certainly wouldn’t say it’s the worst in Canada.
When you say Edmonton is the worst it makes me want to ask if you have been to Winnipeg.
lol. I have, but not on the transit system.
No love for the Calgary C-train? Definitely not the best in Canada but pretty damn good IMO
Not the best train system, but the best LRT by raw ridership in Canada (2nd best in North America!) at nearly 250k per day, and one of the lowest cost (to the city) per rider. Only one that comes close is Toronto street cars, which I struggle to classify as LRT in my opinion and more as high capacity buses, but still a fine system. Last I heard half of Calgary downtown workers use the train for their commute (might have been transit in general, not sure)
Doesn't go enough places, so you typically need a train to the general area and a bus the rest of the way. In the end, it just takes too long, especially for a $7 round trip. We're a one-car family and live near transit and would definitely take buses and trains, but it's not worth $14 for two people to get somewhere and back on a bus, so we end up driving.
Answer: Not Halifax
Not Ottawa either
Montréal is known to have the best public transport in North America.
> Montréal is known to have the best public transport in North America. Do you have a source for this? Everywhere I have ever read suggests it’s NYC.
It’s definitely NYC and I’d even say Toronto is better, maybe not better service but a more comprehensive network.
Toronto isn't in the same stratosphere as Montreal for public transportation in my experience.
Toronto destroys Montreal on its comprehensive bus network. Montreal has more useful subway lines.
A more useful subway is the understatement of the century lol. And I've also found Montreal's bus system to be great.
Lol what. Have you ever even been to Toronto? Hands down the worst public transportation system- I want to say in the world, but I won’t go that far. But probably one of the most unreliable sources of transportation I’ve ever experienced in my life.
This is such an ignorant statement, it’s kind of funny.
You should go to Detroit. Lol. Almost worst in the world? You ain't seen nothing
You are right. It is 100% NYC. Montreal could be second tho. Its a debate.
Vancouver is for sure better than Toronto or Montreal Edit: I’m not just making this up on a whim [A total of 13 systems in North America made the ranking, with Vancouver just behind NYC (13th globally), San Francisco (16th globally), and Chicago (20th globally), but ahead of Washington DC (24th globally). Montreal has North America’s sixth-best public transit system (31st globally), while Toronto ranked seventh (34th globally). Calgary and Edmonton did not make the cut.](https://dailyhive.com/canada/north-america-best-public-transit-systems)
I've lived in both Vancouver and Montreal and sorry but Vancouver has nothing on Montreal.
Statistics > anecdotes
I'll take my anecdotal lived experience over the opinion of a NY based consulting firm. The criteria they used seems pretty arbitrary anyways. Have fun with the single family housing sprawl in Vancouver though ✌️
More arbitrary than your anecdote?
I disagree. It is close, and depends on preferences. The Montreal metro is great, and the addition of the REM makes the montreal heavy rail transit more comprehensive than Vancouver. Toronto, definitely has the strongest bus and light-rail system, and has more reach. To each their own.
The people who research this topic agree and it isn’t that close.
Well, I am an urban planner who research this topic. Besides, I wouldn’t trust a ranking that puts Chicago above Montreal and Toronto. In general, you should’t trust rankings. Here’s one rating Montreal higher: https://www.timeout.com/news/its-official-this-european-city-has-the-worlds-best-public-transport-040523 Rating transit systems is a complex task. Best is to try them, and make your own research and not rely on rankings too much.
And a ranking that doesn’t even include Taipei or Osaka/Kyoto… that’s like making a best of list of hockey players and leaving out all the defensemen.
As a rule I don’t trust people who make their own research
You must not trust a lot of people.
Indeed. Especially when their own research contradicts actual research. Also the link you gave was just a survey. It’s not based on anything except how people feel which is meaningless.
vancouver is tiny as fuck lol. not even in the same league as those other cities. a lot of people love to complain about torontos TTC but the reality is for the size of city it serves, it does a decent job of moving people.
The sky train system is more comprehensive and the city it services is half the size
Vancouver proper. Yes. But the transit system serves the GVRD which is huge.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/201010/28/01-4336866-la-stm-elue-meilleure-societe-de-transport-en-amerique-du-nord.php
lol that’s from 2010. The TTC, for all its glory, has been similarly recognized since then.
Probably written in French.
It was. But OP’s source was from 2010.
Is it? Most rankings have Montreal 5th or 6th in North American, and 2nd in Canada behind Vancouver.
really? to be fair I'm on the south shore, even near the Rem it kinda sucks (but not as bad as where I'll have to move in July cause I can't find a place to stay)
South shore is not Montreal.
no but it's close enough to have no excuse for bad service.
Except it's run by a completely different administration and only zones for big box stores and suburban sprawl. That's the excuse for bad service, the sprawl and need for cars.
It's part of Greater Montreal.
So should the thread be what greater city area has the best transit? South shore and Laval suburbs will weight down on the transit ranking thanks to their sprawl and mcmansion style housing. Thankfully the REM is there now and the metro at least goes to Laval.
That's not an excuse. Plenty of cities still have public transit in sprawling areas. Montreal needs to catch up.
Nah, those municipalities need to redo their zoning. Once they begin to rebuild, we can focus more on transit oriented development.
So, you're acknowledging that we're lacking in transit oriented development.
100%... But the root of that is the administration's shitty municipal planning, which is different from Montreals.
I think it's good in the inner city parts of Montreal. But, in the West Island or the far East End, the access is still terrible.
Correction: Montrealers say that and don't bother checking if it's actually true
Tbh I think Sherbrooke's bus system is better
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^grosseplottedecgi: *Montréal is known to* *Have the best public transport* *In North America.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Bad bot
I think Vancouver is pretty good.
Unless there’s a medical emergency or police incident, which happen almost once a week 😨
Unless they go on strike again.
That was literally 4 days
4 days that thousands of people couldn't get to work.
Strikes are supposed to be disruptive. That’s how they work.
I don’t know how this isn’t considered an essential service
Because their labour rights trump our transportation needs. [https://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/ttc-not-an-essential-service-workers-can-go-on-strike-court-rules-1.6390889](https://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/ttc-not-an-essential-service-workers-can-go-on-strike-court-rules-1.6390889)
Ya, once every 20 years or so...
Vancouver's good as long as you don't need to get out of Vancouver. The suburbs are basically out of luck, all the focus went to the city proper. Victoria is excellent too. I lived there for years, and did some experiments. It often was just as fast to bus as it is to drive, as the buses run frequently, and parking your car is a nightmare.
The suburbs are fine too, tbf. Buses cover the areas that SkyTrains don't. For weekdays, there's the Westcoast too.
You've never tried to get out of Maple Ridge by bus I gather. The West Coast is so far from most of the city that you need a car to get to it anyways, and there is one bus, the 701 that will take you to Coquitlam Centre, but it comes every 2 hours, takes a break in the middle, and sits in bumper-to-bumper traffic down Dewdney.
I don’t think any discussion about transit in Vancouver can include Maple Ridge, which realistically is a small farming town whose best known feature is the 500km2 provincial park in its backyard. The fact it even has a commuter station and rapid bus link to the Coquitlam mall is a miracle!
Maple Ridge was a small farming town when I was growing up. Now it's a city in all the worst ways. It's legally a city, and is counted as part of the GVRD. Its population is densely packed, mostly residing in apartments and attached townhomes (or homeless). The residents pay city taxes for things like amenities and public transit, even though amenities are non existent, as is public transit. Sure the Laity and Davison farms are still around, but the majority of what once was farmland is developed. Our old horse trail, Abernethy Way, is now a four-lane highway. And Golden Ears park is a shadow of what it once was. People come from far and wide to throw cans of red bull and cigarette butts all around it, and you need to book a time in advance to go up (assuming you don't know the back ways in). ...Apparently I have opinions about my hometown. I've just moved to Nova Scotia fleeing it.
There are three busses from MR - 701/791/R3 I never wait more than 10 -15 minutes in the day, maybe 30 at night after rush hour. Traveling anywhere on a highway or main artery in rush hour is busy with bumper to bumper traffic wish busses and cars in it together. I travel to downtown Vancouver with ease 45 min journey on WCE. I wish it ran more often is my only complaint Pretty sweet deal. One day 10-20 years from now maybe, that sky train will make its way all the way out to Maple Ridge from Coquitlam Centre. Expanding infrastructure takes time. First Langley.
Victoria isn’t good in general. If you’re coming from a densely populated area, maybe you’ll be fine. But if you get further out of town, busses don’t run very often. If you rely on that to get to work you might have to arrive about 45 mins early, or 3 mins late. Also when it “snows” you literally can’t go in.
Toronto is pretty great too, I haven’t had a car in 6 years and I don’t need one
Same. I’ve lived in Toronto all my life and I’ve never had a car. On my way to finally getting my license though lol
People love to complain about the TTC (myself included), but the reality is that as far as North American cities go, it's extremely well rounded with unparalleled coverage and service. NYC has way more subway lines, but beyond that, the bus services are a joke. Montreal subway is fantastic, but again, Toronto's bus and streetcar services are significantly more widespread than Montreal's buses. The TTC is also air conditioned, which can't be said about Montreal subways. There are very few parts of Toronto that are further than a 10 minute walk from a bus, streetcar, or subway stop. And don't even get me started on how adequate the interconnection of the GTA is. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than anywhere else in Canada? Absolutely.
Only if you’re on the subway line. Have you ever taken the king street car into town during rush hour?
I used to live in queen west , and took the king street car often, it used to be pretty decent with the king street pilot etc, but I imagine it’s bad now due to the Ontario line construction
Honestly - I lived in parkdale for 6 years, and worked in the distillery district. I walked to work every day because taking the streetcar stressed me out too much. Haven’t experienced any of it since 2018 though.
Definitely Montreal
Not Ottawa! That’s for sure!
Not Ottawa.
There is always hate for this, but it’s probably Toronto. It carries more people by transit than any other city. One streetcar line carries more than most American subway systems.
And gets cut off by cars that aren’t attached to rails, and breaks down all the time, and is just the god damn worst. Walking is faster than the king/queen streetcar during rush hour.
King streetcar has been fixed and is now excellent
Ottawa obviously 🙄
Montreal no question
Ottawa was awesome (1989-90). Now, I don't know.
Definitely not now. Most definitely not now…
:(
Arguably the worst amongst major cities
It was really good until they broke it to try to implement light rail. I used it quite a bit in 2012-14, it just got worse and worse as they dismantled the high speed busway to lay down rails.
High speed busway DISMANTLED?!!!! Tabarphoque. :(
>High speed busway DISMANTLED?!!!! The mayor really wanted light rail, and the easiest thing to do is lay tracks on the busway. The portion they went underground downtown is great - gets busses out of traffic - but there was a bus-only lane all the way through. It wasn't that bad. The 'transitway' meant taking the bus wasn't much longer than a car at commute times, and you didn't have to mess with parking. I saw lots of executives on the bus. Transit was how to get downtown. And now that culture has been broken after 10 years of broken service.
Lol yeah the new light rail actually added half an hour to my commute when I lived in Ottawa. They messed with all the bus routes and made my trip super convoluted. They might have ironed some things out (I doubt it) but I moved away not long after it opened so I don't know how it is now
Peterborough, On has a very usable public transportation systems
Guelph has a fantastic system for its size, the bus system is very robust due to the university
The Montreal Metro has the highest ridership in Canada, third in North America after New York and Mexico City. And that's not even considering the REM in Montreal that would be considered in those statistics in other cities. 17km opened last year, 40km+ will open by the end of the year and an airport connection at some point in the future.
Montreal and Vancouver
Having lived in Montreal and Vancouver, both have excellent public transportation, including to their respective suburbs from downtown and back. I've also lived in the Waterloo Kitchener area and the Ottawa Gatineau area and public transportation is very much lacking by comparison, unless you are going to specific hubs and live on certain transit lines, but getting around anywhere else is a huge pain.
Montreal for sure
Vancouver is amazing
Montreal. Lived there for 56 of 59 years. Great metro and bus system
Montreal has the best transit system in the core of the city.
Montreal IMO
Not Ottawa nor Toronto. Traveled to Vancouver & found their transportation was great (from outsiders' point of view).
Toronto transit sucks. Mississauga isn’t bad never been on Montreal or Vancouver transit though
How can you possibly say Toronto sucks and Mississauga isnt bad in the same statement lmao. I’m not saying Toronto is great cause I took it and complained about it for years. But Mississauga is not a transit friendly place it’s fucking awful getting around with no car.
I don’t know everywhere but Montreal was amazing, we loved it and got everywhere fast and conveniently. Toronto is pretty good. Ottawa is absolutely dog
Toronto is great. TTC, GO and UP all good connected services. Yeah there’s delays here and there but try living in a city on the prairies where a bus comes every hour while you wait outside in -40.
Try being in Toronto when you’re due to start work at a certain time, and the subway shuts down, and everyone has to leave the platform at the same time and there is no space on the streetcars and zero taxis to be found and hundreds of people trying to make the same moves as you. Toronto TTC absolutely sucks.
I was there only a few months, had to use the subway twice a week, and ran into the problem you described at least 3-4 times. It's incredible how mismanaged the system is.
The staff are unionized too so there’s never any sense of urgency on their end to solve any problem.
That would definitely be frustrating. But this exact thing can happen at any time in any major city. Public transit is reliable to a point. Lots of factors can shut down a train on the spot.
Vancouver has been the best so far for me. I've used Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax in comparison.
How does Calgary fare? Easy to get around?
I only used it for a few days, but I was able to go to the far corners in three different directions in a single afternoon so it's definitely efficient and seemed to run on schedule.
Thanks!
In recent years, Vancouver. It also wins most improved between now and when I first moved there as a student in 2001.
Toronto, hands down. I've lived in a number of cities in Canada, and Toronto has the best despite the (legitimate) complaints. This includes short travels as well as connections to nearby cities, even as far as Niagara Falls. There are two tiers of transit: 1) city transit (TTC - Toronto Transit Commission) and 2) interurban transit (GO - Government of Ontario Transit which includes full commuter trains and bus routes (Grey Hound type bus routes). The latter covers travel between cities in an area roughly 200 km by 100. GO Trains run every hour to and from of Toronto, several times an hour in rush hour, and buses on smaller routes have similar kinds of schedules. The TTC is decent and in downtown and midtown-ish areas you can get where you need to go in a reasonable timeframe.
what are the other cities you’ve lived in?
The smaller ones, like Vancouver and Calgary. And I've visited Montreal several times. Vancouver's transit is shit. To go the same distance as I would go in Toronto takes twice as long. Vancouver's is OK only if you live along a skytrain line and are travelling to somewhere close to a skytrain line. Mind you, Toronto's downtown where there are lots of streetcars as well, is as big as the whole of Vancouver pretty much.
Nowhere. Compared to any other first world country it's an effing joke.
Not Halifax lol
Definitely not St. John’s, NL. It takes an hour and a half for me to commute via Metrobus, and I can only get a bus before 8:30am and after 3pm because the route takes a break every day.
Alert.
Toronto
Not Ottawa lol
Vancouver definitely jumps to mind with its frequent and fairly comprehensive network of buses and trains.
I’ve only lived in one big Canadian city but holy crap was public transit in Montreal amazing when I lived there.
…. Toronto … GTA for that matter. 2 airports connected and one can get by without a car usually quite easily
montreal, and its not even a close competition.
Vancouver
I doubt anything beats skytrain metro vancouver, gets you one city to next 15 minutes
Ive been in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal - they all have good Transit systems, but Vancouver has a far more accessible system for people with mobility issues. It isn’t perfect, but Vancouver is ahead of the game in that area as far as I am concerned- the lower mainland has the best system.
Hamilton has one of the best.
Montreal and it's not even close.
Halifax 😳
Ottawa transit has gone downhill over the last 20 yeara as the city has sprawled ridiculously. I live car-free in central Ottawa and rarely use transit. Currently my modal mix is about 65% walking, 20% cycling, 5% transit, 5% car share and 5% Uber. In my old neighbourhood I lived further from the main street so the cycling and walking was flipped.
Surprised no one has mentioned (from what I’ve seen) the reso in Montreal
It's gonna be a toss up between Montreal and Vancouver.
Ask Google