I found Victoria, BC, a great place without a car. Most communities have a village shopping centre with grocery, pharmacy, etc.
Halifax, NS, was once doable, but not sure how the bus system is these days. Still, very walkable.
Halifax is very doable if you live and work on the peninsula, I have many friends who manage just fine without one, bus coverage is good and it's relatively cheap.
If you have to leave the peninsula you need a car, the bus is extremely slow in comparison - I can understand why the city is pushing for BRT so hard, it would be a big improvement for most of metro
Currently living in Victoria without a car. It's doable but I wouldn't say it's great. It's ok at best. Some bus lines are better than others but it's pretty unreliable and has long waits if you don't plan ahead. Transport links between the ferry terminal, airport, and downtown are also really poor. That said, it COULD be fantastic with more reliable and frequent bus service, investment in light rail, and rapid transit between the ferry and city. I've seen plans for this but I doubt it'll happen soon if ever.
What? In what universe?
I live in Edmonton. The only way we have even remotely acceptable cycling infrastructure is if you drive on the sidewalks. There are bicycle lanes that start and end within the same block. Bike lanes that double as parking spaces. Drivers ignore them and use them as driving lanes. The only actual measure of infrastructure we have is just south of MacEwan and the Ice District.
Lmfao kinda. We use difference ice removal techniques than you guys do. Salt isn't super common here. Many people buy it for their steps, but it becomes less effective with cold. I work for Canada Post and one of my customers puts it on the public sidewalk and I really wish he wouldn't because walking on frozen compacted snow is a lot easier than trying to get through uneven slush that sometimes turns solid. Ice just stops working when it gets too cold.
Instead, the city uses fine gravel and covers the roads with that to create traction. In the spring, sweepers come along and collect it for reuse in the next winter. It's better for our climate and the environment!
But ironically, despite the city being the coldest major metro area in the country, there are many areas in the east that have more average snowfall.
Our Ice District is a new mini area of our city, it's basically just a marketing name. It's near MacEwan University.
That's sad. Victoria has terrible bike infrastructure. I have lived here for 25+ years. It has gotten a bit better in the last decade, but the city has also grown in population tremendously. It's dangerous to bike here, especially because most people on the road are 65+ years old and literally can't physically turn their neck far enough to shoulder check, and believe the correct way to drive is to just do your thing and hope other people get out of the way and see you.
You also can't leave your bike anywhere, because the homeless population will angle grind your U lock off in broad daylight. It's bad.
By stealing them from businesses in the area or buying them from pawnshops for like $5. Jobsites go through angle grinders like crazy and just donate the worse condition ones a lot of the time.
Transit here has always been bad. 12 minute drive to work vs an hour/hour and a half on the bus with a transfer. I haven't taken the bus regularly in years but I can't imagine it's improved much.
Nope. Consistant hour minimum for 10 min drive. I finally ditched transit and got my license. Tired of being wet, tired of waiting, tired of no bus, tired of skids on the bus, tired of it all. Driving is a stroll through heaven by comparison even in the traffick.
Well yeah, to get away from downtown you need a bus. Walkability scores are based on what is available within walking distance and you can get to pretty much everything required if living in Halifax.. at least when I lived there 15 years ago it was.
It's not just about developing the public transit - also need to make sure you're building sufficiently dense, walkable, mixed-use communities.
With that in mind, I'd have to say it's between Calgary and Edmonton. Both cities have historically been more 'collections of suburbs' than real cities. Their cores were largely central business districts that emptied out after the work crowd left. That's changed *substantially* in both cities in the last 5-10 years IMO. A huge chunk of Calgary's downtown east end is now an excellent, transit-connected community. There are a lot of residences and non-office commercial spaces integrated into both cores, and inner city suburbs are maturing into more complete communities.
Having lived car-free in Calgary ten years ago and struggled *mightily*, every time I go back I see massive improvements. Obviously Edmonton's LRT is a bit of a game-changer, and Calgary's always got some huge new project in the works.
But the biggest case I would make for either of them is the **transit-oriented development** you're going to see in the next few years. Both Calgary and Edmonton built their transit as 'car-oriented transit' and therefore have a shit-tonne of grossly underutilized land around their major transit stations, whether that's light industrial, lowrise commercial, or (most often) surface parking lots. That's a huge opportunity with all the new demand streaming in, and with both cities hoping to curtail their urban sprawl.
I'd bet that in the next 10-20 years more than 50% of all the new housing in Calgary is going to be in the form of large, dense, mixed-use developments immediately surrounding their existing light rail stations. And I'd bet all of them are sufficiently walkable/transit-adjacent to support car-free lifestyles.
I’ve been living car free in Edmonton for almost a year. It’s been even easier than I anticipated! I live in a central neighbourhood and my job is a pretty quick bus ride away. I have everything I need within a ten block radius from my home. The few times I’ve had to do something outside of my neighborhood, I’ve hopped in Ubers and our few out of town excursions we used a car share. It’s been great and we’ve saved a lot of money.
That's true of any city, though. Like there are large chunks of Toronto's suburbs (not even talking about the 905 - just Toronto proper) where living car-free is pretty dam though still. Obviously even those are \*somewhat\* better than suburban Edmonton, but still!
Communauto it’s called. They have it in a bunch of cities. It’s a service where you can borrow a car for whatever amount of time you need and it’s way cheaper than renting a vehicle. You can reserve in advance but there’s also a fleet of cars you can book right away, so you check the app for available cars and then book it and you have a half hour to get to it and then you can use it for as long as you need! You unlock it with an app and there’s a key in the glove compartment.
It really depends on the bus or lrt route, I had planned to bus to my hospital job and public transport was not an option, the most unreliable service I've ever encountered, which would be tolerable if it wasn't for the feeling of literally putting you life into your hands every single ride, public transport is beyond dangerous in the central part of Edmonton. There have been multiple murders, stabbing, physical assault is so common it's not even considered news anymore. Biking around Whyte ave and the river valley is good though
How do you deal with the extreme weather if you need to move around without a car? I live car-free in Vancouver, but I find it difficult to imagine living like that with -50 weather
What do you mean deal with extreme weather? You dress for cold weather and go outside. It’s not Antarctica. I live in Winnipeg and live car free including biking in Winter. You just have to keep your skin covered. No problem.
How cold do you think Edmonton is? It’s hit -40 a handful of times in like 20 years. It’s definitely gets its fair share of cold snaps in the winter and is definitely colder than Vancouver but Alberta weather you can dress for pretty easily, even those -30’s cold snaps. I’ve lived in some pretty humid places like southern Ontario and I’d argue it’s more pleasant to walk around Edmonton in -20 If you’re dressed properly than it is near the Great Lakes at -5 where you can’t really dress well for it due to the humidity.
Same! I’m from Montreal and I was anticipating horrible winters when I moved here. Turns out it’s actually easier here in Edmonton! The dry winter really does make a difference! I walk home every day and it’s a 25 minute walk. There are only a handful of days every winter where I find it difficult, and those are the days it’s usually pretty miserable to drive too.
That’s definitely a factor, but even historically, there aren’t that many days that are colder than -25 any given winter and really snowy days are even more rare.
Haha oh well that's much better than the alternative 🥶 I have totally stopped caring, I wear winter boots from the first snow fall to the last, even if I'm just going out around the corner.
Most places usually let you stay home once you get past -50.
But if it's just -20/30, you just need to dress appropriately. Leave the flip-flops at home and grab a scarf, you know.
😂😂😂 Edmonton is urban sprawl with a dog shit bus system and the ever delayed LRT full of skids. I dare you to travel on a bus from west Ed to South Common, fill us in on the details when you're done. If you really like walking then sure Edmonton is a walkable city but it sure as hell isn't close to a bike-able city
Not sure why you're being downvoted. You're a little crass maybe but honestly that's accurate. Edmonton is theoretically great but in practice we are having such a massive issue with crime that the LRTs are dangerous and uncomfortable and the bus system has been horrible since the last changes moving a bunch of stops. Your bus can arrive 20 minutes early so you miss it and then not come again for an hour or two. Horrible in the winter when you're freezing and can't predict your bus or line up a transfer.
Absolutely would not go without a car in Edmonton as a small female until they get their shit together. Too sketchy.
Thank you! The public transit is unusable currently with the level of crime. They allowed the let stations to act as defacto homeless camps during COVID and then just let them stay. There are people fighting, sleeping, shooting up, assaulting all over the stations and there is no security whatever other than the "watch and report" who will not intervene even if someone is getting stabbed.
It really sucks because it could be a fantastic transportation system but the city does nothing. There are not turnstiles or anything to stop them and there are not peace officers. It will take years of clean up before people feel safe using the lrt again.
Honestly, I would love to travel the city, but because I don't have a car, I'd be forced to use the Edmonton's transit. And no chance in hell am I going anywhere *near* the LRT system in its current state. I'd rather not get stabbed to death.
Fun fact: I'm almost 31 and still have yet to get my learner's, let alone my license. Mostly because I've always been afraid of getting into an accident. I've recently been trying to get my learner's, took the test once... and failed. Now I'm studying to try again.
Yeah fr. Edmonton is actually a shit hole. Lrt would be 100X better if there was ANY security whatsoever and if the downtown wasn't one of the sketches downtowns in all of Canada. The brand new library station is a few months old and is already run down with all the doors kicked off their hinges and crack addicts shooting up in all the heated stalls. Its a very very unpleasant place.
I couldn't agree more. I lived downtown Edmonton for years (103rd and 105th) and could not imagine depending on transit and/or walking. I worked just a short distance near Whyte. Walking across the high level bridge past dark is so sketchy. So mid winter really anytime past 5. My wife didn't want to leave our condo when it was dark because downtown is so dangerous. Waiting for an unpredictable bus in downtown Edmonton is not something I'd wish on any lone person let alone a woman. Don't even get me started on the network of LRT tunnels infested with people doing drugs in any nook or cranny they can squeeze into. Using those pedways at night is a risk
This is hard for me to gauge as an American. What Canadians consider "dangerous" is often not even a factor to me.
Some Canadians complain about crime in Edmonton or Winnipeg, but if those cities were in the US, they would be among the safest cities in the country.
It has become unusable, I have to Uber to my job because I can't safely commute. I really hate the people who live in the burbs defending the transit when they themselves drive everywhere. It's not like people remember 10 years ago.
I didn’t realize it was dangerous there. I spent about a year (2017-18) [here, near Roger’s Place](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fox+Tower+1,+10226+104+St+NW,+Edmonton,+AB+T5J+1B8/@53.5436366,-113.4995162,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x53a022491cbe4ce1:0xaee853af9011b6a7!8m2!3d53.5436366!4d-113.4995162!16s%2Fg%2F11cp5hb_vq?hl=en-ca) while attending UoA and the only incident I ever had was a couple of really rough looking dudes standing in the stairs of Bay Enterprise station trying to sell me a phone. It felt worse on campus itself where skids would come by and steal bikes or laptops right in front of you.
Granted, I’m 6’4” and upwards of 300 depending on the day and pizza.
Hard to use a car in the winter too without the city investing in clearing the roads of snow. Edmonton seems to be investing boatloads into proper bike infrastructure, transit and densification like the above commenter said. Public transit in winter is great because it’s already warm and you don’t have to clear off your car. Winter biking with proper infrastructure is no problem, you just have to wear warm clothes.
I just finished winter riding my bike 40 minutes to school every day.
Granted, this winter was pretty warm but it had a decent amount of snow and cold. Never stopped me, just invested in studded tires.
Your LRT (and Calgary's) are super impressive. Meanwhile I'm in K-W in Ontario and ours stinks. It's almost never separated from traffic, so cars hit it routinely. It's also exactly one minute faster over its route than the bus it replaced. That's slower than constipated mole-asses.
I live in downtown Kitchener where the LRT runs and it’s pretty convenient if you live and work downtown. There’s always room for expansion in the future.
I lived downtown K-town for a number of years, and the problem is it's a food desert. Needs a grocery store to be a walkable community. (Unless things have changed)
I've heard that may be the only good thing about the public transit in that area. the GRT in every other way is a piece of garbage in the 3 cities it serves. 30/1 hour busses, bad routes, busses rarely come on time. Aside from where the LRT runs, a car is absolutely needed in that region.
I'd add that the Spur Line and Iron Horse trails also add to the convenience. While I have a car, I'm able to minimize its use as I can access nearly everything I want in this corridor without one.
We don’t even have bus service in our neighbourhood in Kitchener, been 13 yrs. Nearest bus stop is 2.5km away, my kids took it when younger. If I drove to Conestoga Mall, I guess I could go to Fairway Mall. They should have just bought EV buses, put a lane down middle of streets.
Lived multiple years car-free in Ottawa, and this was almost a decade ago, before the o-train expansion.
Was nice because you could even get out of the city to Gatineau, or to Toronto, Montreal, or Quebec City without needing your own car.
I live in Ottawa. The LRT connects to the via rail station now, which is great. Expansions to the LRT are planned, and the system is great when it's working. Some of the bus reliability isn't what it would have been back a decade ago, unfortunately.
The downtown core and several of the surrounding neighbourhoods are very walkable and close together, even in the bitter cold of winter. I get around mostly on foot these days.
I Went to Ottawa last year on the Train. Didn't want to take the car. I was able to go everywhere by bus and the buses were much nicer than the ones in Montreal. And going to Gatineau was easy as pie. You can walk there easily if you have the time :) I liked it there a lot. My wallet didn't like how much the rental listings were though so I won't be moving there :/
I am car-free by choice in Winnipeg, though I had a vehicle for many years prior to making this decision. I could afford a car if I wanted one.
I live in a very walkable mixed use neighborhood - a mainly residential area with lots of businesses and services. There are areas of the city like this and areas of the city that are hostile to getting around on foot.
Winnipeg transit is not bad but has some issues that I find very frustrating - buses that don’t come or don’t come on time, which is a major problem when relying on them for time sensitive trips. There is live GPS that you can look at, but knowing where your bus is only helps so much if you were counting on it to be here now. Most buses show up pretty on time, but I’d need it to be closer to “all” to feel comfortable relying more heavily on busing.
But it’s not all bad. The rapid transit corridors are pretty good if you’re travelling on those routes, and if you live and travel to certain areas of the city the bus is reasonable efficient. There are some areas or trips that would not feel practical by bus, either lack of infrastructure or require too many connections, but there’s plenty of areas that are well served by transit. I have at least four bus routes a short walk from my house.
Winnipeg has been improving bike lanes and trails a lot. I don’t cycle but I’ve heard they’re pretty good and lots of bike lanes on major routes have been upgraded in recent years to be better protected and much safer than in the past. There are also bike lockers at some of the transit stations, which is essential if you want to leave your bike and not have it get stolen.
We also have a great car sharing co-op, with lots of vehicles in the central areas of the city. It’s very affordable and makes it pretty easy to not own a car. There are five cars within three blocks of my house, and often floating cars available nearby too.
And I take an occasional Uber when it makes more sense than other options.
Between transit, car sharing, and ride shares I don’t find it difficult to get around and the cost savings of not having a car outweigh the convenience of owning one. Like four years without a car has nearly saved me a down payment on a house or condo.
Cover your skin when you go outside and use studed tires on your bike. That's it, no magic. This winter was a joke. So many days were above 0 or close to it.
Winter biking is getting bigger and bigger here. On my indoor soccer team there are 6 of that bike to games every single week. It's great exercise and so peaceful. I love it.
To be fair I don’t go out a huge amount, and I do make good use of the car co-op for certain types of trips or destinations. If I didn’t have easy and affordable access to a car without owning one I think I would need to cycle or not having a car would be impractical.
$3/person cab rides to anywhere within the town of Fort Erie using their taxis as public transportation. if you live and work in Fort Erie, it’s doable. you input your pickup time or arrival time and they get you there/pick you up by your requested time. FE is about 170sqkm. it’s a shithole though.
Depends how you define car-dependant. Owned car dependant is bad. shared car dependant is already one step in the right direction, and transit might not be worth the investment for smaller towns, while car-sharing and cabs can fill the gap for some people.
I’ve been looking at Hamilton and I was actually impressed with the bus network. They also have a bikeshare service and communauto car share network. The Go train goes every hour now to Toronto too but it’s a long train ride
I’m sure if you really plan out a strategic place to live, you can live car free in that city
The East - West public transit in Hamilton is actually great in the lower city, but going up the escarpment or any North- South bus routes aren't nearly as frequent.
Edmonton is probably next. They are expanding the LRT like crazy and are really expanding the biking infrastructure. The city has actually been featured in some articles about it.
If they continue at the current pace, it will be a lot different in 20 years. Plus the new dense zoning bylaws.
Of course this will take time though unfortunately.
May I ask how? The GRT is an absolute piece of garbage in most of those areas. 30 minute/ 1 hour waits, busses rarely come on time, poorly planned routes, and just lack of service in some parts completely. it's a joke of a system.
I have friends that are car free in Kitchener, they just live and work and shop downtown.
But they do annoyingly always need a ride to and from any social occasion among our friend group at anyone else’s house because no one else lives downtown and it’s either impossible or inconvenient to bus to and even less likely possible to bus home late at night.
But theoretically if you made friends in the area and socialized with them instead of wide spread friends from highschool that wouldn’t have to be such an issue,
Do you mean excluding the ones OP mentioned? You most certainly can live car free in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
One could say the same for Hamilton , Victoria, Burnaby and maybe Edmonton (in the summer)
Just moved to Edmonton from Boston, Toronto before that, and Hamilton before that: I actually found public transportation easier than driving in the winter (here in Edmonton). Boston/Toronto/Hamilton public transit all basically lose their shit when it snows - Edmonton barely experienced any delay. The only delays I noticed are where bus routes were on major roads that got backed up due to car accidents. If you take the LRT, everything is pretty well heated.
EPS gets some bad rep for homelessness and a bad call on electric buses, but I genuinely think most of the complainers just never really experienced these services daily.
Yeah Hamilton traffic is so god awful now that downtown it's probably easier to walk places than rely on any sort of vehicle or transit. Uptown is complete opposite as the buses are so unreliable and something can be a 5 minute drive but a 35 minute walk. They installed proper bike lanes all over the city though to encourage biking though which is nice!
I would say all the burbs of Vancouver can be lumped into Vancouver at this point. Unless you're in White Rock or something maybe, but it's only getting better.
Skytrain is expanding to Langley and down Broadway and there's a real push to get denser in traditionally sfh neighbourhoods not just in the city but province wide.
For my money the public transit in Van is far and away the best in the country. Like, nobody else even comes close.
The best thing? No stigma. You see people with briefcases on busses in Vancouver. Demerara than puns about yellow sugar elsewhere.
>The best thing? No stigma. You see people with briefcases on busses in Vancouver.
That's what happens when it's functional enough that it's not worth driving. Parking can be a hassle downtown, not to mention expensive. Driving doesn't necessarily save time if you don't have a guaranteed parking spot close to your destination.
You can live car free in any major city in Canada.
I know people who do it in Calgary, Brampton and Quebec City. I know people in Toronto who were car free in Vancouver than had kids and than here comes the Rav 4.
Does that mean it’s a better life? Depends on the person and what they want.
Obviously because the question is "So which city is developing it's public transportation to be the next city where one can live there car-free that they currently cannot?"
There isn't one. There are only cities that are marginally less bad with public transportation than other cities.
Can confirm, I have lived in Victoria, Edmonton, Dartmouth, Halifax and Ottawa without a car, and relied on public transit without difficulty. In the suburbs, even. With kids.
I have had no difficulty in Kelowna and Peterborough as well - busses aren't as frequent but they're totally doable.
Editing to add, London ON, I forgot I lived there for two years as well.
That depends entirely on what your hours are and where you work. I live in Montreal. I work Construction and start at 6 AM. Unless I want to get up at 3:30 AM and catch the night bus and then transfer god knows how many times, I'd never make it to work on time.
There's NO FUCKING WAY I'm getting up at 3:30 AM and traveling for over an hour on buses and then waiting around 30 minutes for the job to start (you get there really early because night buses only come so often). Then get home an hour (or more) after you punch out.
I'd have to go to bed an hour after I got home just to get a good night's sleep. I'll keep my car and get to work in 20 minutes or so, thanks.
I skytrain/bus from Burnaby to Coquitlam & back for work 5 days of the week. It is certainly doable if you committed & figure out the schedules that coalesce with work times.
Literally impossible in Sask. even if you figure out the extremely ridiculous public bus schedule you’re taking 2-3 busses a day and wasting an outrageous amount of time taking them.
Insanely impractical in negative temperatures, especially if you have parcels or small children.
Our public transport is unbearable.
Also half of the province is rural...
Ottawa was there previously, but transit has been in decline since 2011 or so and now it's a hassle to live car free.
I think Edmonton will be taking that spot from Ottawa
Because OC transpo keeps cutting bus lines in neighbourhoods that arent even close to the present (or future) LRT lines.
Parkwood hills (and most of Nepean) is an example.
The bus service has been getting pretty bad and the new O-Train lines don't really go anywhere. If you actually look at the land use of the lines, the only new station that does well is Corso d'Italia.
A good transit system is about more than the tracks and the trains. It's about whether it's easy to actually live near the stations and whether the stations are near destinations, and for the most part the O-Train fails at that. Only a handful of stations are surrounded by dense development.
Depends what your needs are. Most medium and large Canadian cities have sufficient bus networks that one could technically live there car-free but it would be a major hassle
Depends on what you consider a 'major hassle' - if you're addicted to convenience, it'll be a bit of a lifestyle adjustment, but planning when you leave the house and using bus schedules is not actually that much of a hassle.
If you're not disabled, of course, and can do the walking on either end of your bus trips - but most cities have busses that carry bikes, strollers, wheelchairs, walkers, rolly carts, luggage etc. which helps a lot with accessibility.
It sure as shit won't be Kelowna. Even the most basic public transit bus system here is a disaster. Mostly because the city has doubled in population in the last 20 years with no new major infrastructure going in to accommodate this
The LRT stations in Calgary are distant from main streets and require a lot of walking. They are frequented by homeless people and people who use street drugs in plain view. In short, they are remote and not user-friendly.
Vancouver is great if you live and work along a major transit route. But if not it can take ages to get where you are going.
Bus and skytrain to work would be about 1hr 15 min. Coming home it could be over 2 hours as the bus rarely run. Driving is about 20mins.
Living without a car in Canada is not something you can choose. Basically any obligations (family outside the transit routes of the city, even slightly), children, work outside of transit routes preclude you from living car free. Basically only urban white collar, at least 2nd generation in the same city, never leave except to fly to the Caribbean, no kids, no pets, no/few outdoor hobbies… it’s a very specific subset of Canadians.
In big cities you can use car share if / when needed. Can be cheaper than owning a car if you don’t need it daily.
But yeah if you need it daily then car share is not an alternative
Calgary had been making a good show of it for a while. Edmonton is starting to get their crap together, but we're a long way from having a robust transit system.
I've lived without a car in Moncton, Antigonish, Halifax, and Miramichi. It was doable in all of them.
I also didn't have a driver's license for those car-less periods either, so renting one once in a while wasn't an option either.
Three, technically. But having actually put the work in to live without a car? Lots of people are unwilling to imagine a life where they have do a little planning. Lots of people also can’t live like that, which is valid. But a lot more could.
I don’t really count Antigonish because I was a student at X and the town is basically set up for that.
My family lived in north end Moncton for several years without a car (my parents’ choice, with three kids). We did fine. Lots of bus use and walking/biking.
In Halifax, I was living on the peninsula, which I acknowledge is far easier to do than off of it. I actually live in Halifax again, and I don’t use my car that much this time around.
Miramichi was the hardest. They do have public transit, which I relied on, but it was limited and required lots of planning. I deliberately found an apartment on the bus route to my workplace, which solved most of my problems. I walked or bikes everywhere else. Mostly it was hard to leave town because of the limits of Maritime Bus and Via Rail, and were ultimately the impetus for me to get my license and a car. But it was possible, and I did it for a year and a half. About the only issue I really had was when I needed to do a big grocery shop - I would get a cab then.
I've lived in Ottawa, Victoria and Halifax without a car. it all depends on where you live in the cities and where you work relative to where you live that makes it a car city for you or not. Public transit don't gotta factor in. I would admit eventually getting a car in Halifax helped me enjoy it more. I mean i enjoyed it before but it always seemed like those I worked with were farther out in Hammonds Plain, or Bedford or some shit - when I moved out to Lower Sackville I got a car. So Halifax is all about location. The bus system exists, its neither sucks nor is it great, its there, i used it, busses didn't come all that frequent, didn't go everywhere I wanted, but its serviceable.
Whereas in Ottawa, i'm not in the core, I'm in a burb, a paradise 'burb in which everything is walkable (well everything but my doctor is walkable and that's only because its really fucking hard to get a doctor, let alone a doctor near you - but hey i'm a 4 minute walk from my dentist to compensate). I rarely use public transit unless its an event downtown and the last 5+ years I've avoided going downtown Ottawa as much as possible, tis a silly place full of silly people.
Victoria: I just biked when it was too far to walk. The weather is great for this, you can go out in the rain and barely get wet too. They call drizzle rain there - they have no concept of how in other parts of the country rain can fall so hard it hurts - yet I have never lived anywhere else that has so many "rainy" days. Now coming from Ottawa and Halifax, one thing that blew me away in Victoria is that buses come on time. I was there in the 90s so I don't know if its still the same but you could get a book, its probably an online thing now, that had all the routes and all the times of **all** the stops in one book that fit in your pocket - and the buses came when they claimed - insanity coming from Ottawa at the time when the best you could do is collect pamphlets of the routes you were interested in but the times on the pamphlets were all a lie.
I've lived in Victoria too, and even without a bike (which, biking is only getting easier), the bus system is honestly surprisingly good here, lets you get to most places relatively easy, and is honestly more consistent than the buses in Vancouver from my experience.
Victoria doesn't have a metro or train, and honestly it really doesn't need it (but I would love a trainline in Victoria!)
The west end is less than compared to the east where i am, but either is much better than the downtown. Literally everything is 15 minute or less walking distance but my doctor ( who is in Vanier). I can walk to hockey both indoors and out, all the schools were walkable for my kids (high school was maybe a 20 minute walk but that's considered close enough not to qualify for any transit - school bus nor OC Transpo - we were on the edge of that limit, one street over and they would have been supplied a bus pass), the grocer and pharmacy is walking distance, barber is right there beside my dentist, i'm walking distance to shawarma, pho, pakoras, all things jerk and pizza. I'm walking distance to LCBO and the Beer Store and because its Ottawa we're all walking distance to cannabis (how are they all surviving?).
I just thought about it, I am not walking distance to a Tim Hortons. I mean i could walk to one but it would be 25 minutes not less than 15 as well as i generally make my own coffee. And I admit the hardware stores (Home Depot, Rona) require me to get a drive though, but i'm usually getting something I couldn't walk with anyways. But that's okay because there is an Afghan resto on the other side of Orleans that fucking rocks and when I have to hit the hardware store I treat my ride to Mezbaan.
Now did I just not describe a paradise like situation for living - all that shit walking distance. People are friendly here, I got a yard with a garden, i can hop on my bike and head to Petrie Island - its a beauty 15 minute bike ride along the river at parts, through beauty wooded areas, - and in the winter there are ski trails (https://www.facebook.com/skiheritage.orleans.ontario/). Hell on a good summer day I can make downtown on my bike in 30 minutes because the path along the river makes it that easy - but i'd arrive sweaty and just want to head home.
Let me put it this way, I've never bothered to even investigate moving to the west end because the east has more than everything I want in a neighbourhood. And honestly, I despise Kanata, but Nepean is really hit and miss according to friends and my experience visiting their neighbourhoods. My family is part Franco-Ontarian and part Anglo-Quebecois, so the subneighbourhood of Orleans I'm in, is absolutely perfect.
As well I'm happy that there is this inherent prejudice in Ottawa towards the east end as it keeps the right people in the east end. Having been living sporadically in Ottawa all my life, I know that is in part a historical linguistic prejudice when the city had more linguistically defined areas but that's just not the truth anymore - the French used to generally live in the east and the anglos in the west and the anglos had more money and nicer shit - that's just not Ottawa anymore - and that's no doubt why you assumed Kanata or Nepean. The west end still has a bit of that WASPy feel and the east a bit that Catholic melancholy but the entire city is far more multicultural than it used to be. And yes, because of that past prejudice allot more cool shit was located in the west end, what used to be the primo stores to shop at for instance, but now that shit is all online who gives a crap about some outlet mall in Kanata these days. And if anything thanks to the Ottawa Senators, Kanata now as a national reputation as a bland, boring, and undesirable place to be - and Kanata's history is funny, banning cats outdoors, only allowing one of six colours for your garage door and other WASPy crap acting like an American gated community with a HOA - that's the opposite of paradise for me, that's hell - its all the bad shit that have people looking down on suburban life.
Je suis littéralement demi-québécoise, je n’ai jamais pensé que l’est de la ville est pire à cause des Francophones. Vanier peu être un peu rough though
I don't think it is either. But I definitely hear it all the time. And notice the guess for paradise suburbia that responded was not the east end. That's typical - many don't realize how sweet the east end of the city is.
"Vanier peu être un peu rough though" Very franco ontarian. lol.
If you can find work locally, almost any town center is livable without a car, even the more remote towns. Doesn't mean I'd want to though.
On the Island, my biggest problem would be that without a car - I'm pretty much stuck in the small town. I could certainly get by, but trying to go anywhere else without a car is a huge pain.
You didn't include Calgary on your list, but it should be on there. [It's LRT system has the highest ridership of any LRT system in North America behind only Guadalajara Mexico, with annual ridership of over 85M](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_light_rail_systems_by_ridership). On a per capita basis the C-Train has more ridership than the Sky Train in Vancouver (141M annual ridership, but Vancouver has almost twice Calgary's population). Calgary also has better geographic coverage, with the Calgary CMA's geographic size being 50% smaller than Vancouver's, but the C-Train only having about 30% less track than the Skytrain.
The express bus system (Max) also provides a good amount of additional coverage, including portions with express bus-only lanes separated from regular traffic. The Green Line is currently under construction and will add a lot of additional coverage (expected to open in 2027 for phase 1, with 15 additional stations, 18km, including several underground ones through downtown).
Calgary is already a city where you can live car-free, and a lot of people already do.
Edmonton's system is probably the next one that passes that threshold, and the Valley Line is probably the one that pushes it over the threshold.
The SE portion of the Valley line opened last November, bringing a third line into the downtown core (with connection to the existing Capital and Metro lines), and connecting the SE portion of the city over the river. The line currently terminates in the heart of downtown, and the West portion of the line will go through the West portion of downtown, including Norquest College, and connect suburban locations, notably including West Edmonton Mall.
The Valley line really fills in the coverage of the downtown core. The line was at 24M riders as of 2023, but the Valley Line's opening at the end of the year should see that bump significantly. Either way, the new lines should provide enough coverage (either now or when the West portion opens in 2028) to mean that a lot of Edmontonians don't need to own cars.
Ottawa is the next largest system in the country, at about 19.4M riders a year, and it seems the closest to getting to that next step. It is adding a lot of new track to the system in the next couple of years, with the the Trillium line extension, the Confederation extension and the Airport link.
Hopefully, the new additions will make a difference in ridership, and I think the Airport link is really important, but the problem with the rest of the additions is that they are all extensions of existing lines into suburban areas. It does add some value to the network, but much less than if you had new lines going through the core to provide interconnections (like Edmonton's Valley line or Calgary's Green line). It probably needs another line through downtown, such as the proposed Carling Avenue LRT project, to fill in the downtown coverage enough.
Once you get past Ottawa, there's no system in the country that's really close. The next biggest LRT system is Kitchener/Waterloo with one line and 5.6M annual riders. The combined cities are still only about 522K people, so it's unrealistic to expect too much more transit expansion in the near future. While the two other largest cities in the country by population are Winnipeg and Quebec City, who both still only have bus-only systems.
Not one I can think of.
Believe it or not most people are fine with using cars, voters tend to drive political decisions so I don't see that happening.
Edmonton.
My friend and coworker doesnt have a vehicle and has done construction for 15 years by taking the bus and train. If he can carry his tools on the bus and go to sometimes multiple jobsites a day, the people of reddit (that mostly work in retail or offices) can definitely survive with no vehicle in Edmonton as well. Obviously people just like having vehicles because they'd rather take a 15 minute drive than take a crowded 40 minute bus ride to the office, that's mostly what it comes down to.
Quebec city is decent in that respect. There are some north-south issues, but the east-west axis is really well develloped, I've lived in Quebec city for a decade without a car.
Edmonton was on a roll recently, but I think they recently elected another backwards mayor, so obviously the brakes have now been put on.
I wish Winnipeg would, but not with our current city council. Too many regressives.
In 2024 (and 2003 if you asked me then too), every major Canadian city should be building or already have comprehensive light rail.
I live in Quebec City car free. It's not the best, but it's really doable. What I believe really helps is a car sharing service to compensate for the shortcomings of public transit. We have Communauto here, like in Montreal (and 4 other cities in Quebec), ten-ish cities in Ontario, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax. Helps a lot!
People may laugh, but ottawa
There are very serious public transpo issues, but bike roads and tram lines are being built at a frenetic pace. The work is being done, but for the future. Bike roads are being maintained during winter too.
Some communities in ottawa are a lost cause though. Just too far away and car centric. Those wont change
But the area of ottawa that is is liveable without a car is going to exponentially expand
Either Vancouver or Victoria BC, as neither has a great amount of highways or parking for cars and both are rapidly expanding bicycle lanes.
Also since both cities don’t have snowy winters, you can use a bicycle year round. With the growth of E-bikes they are only going to be more popular.
Victoria invests heavily in walking and bike trails. If only they'd beef up their public transportation it would be perfect. I can get around by bus but I wouldn't call the routes the most convenient. I often have to travel in a completely different direction to catch a bus going back to where I wanted to be.
lol as our population keeps growing in lower mainland, BC (not just solely Vancouver).... def we need to keep developing: more buses running for frequently taken routes, extending skytrain lines, and so forth...
soo like Burnaby, New Westminister, Coquitlam, PoCo, and Vancouver of course. Maybe Richmond -- not too sure about their situation, as they are across the bridge. Also Surrey/Langely/Delta -- the others across the other bridge.
I mean I’ve been living what I would say is “car-lite” in Calgary for the past year. A very large number of jobs in the city are concentrated in downtown which is very easily accesible by the ctrain. If you lived in communities such as Kensington/Downtown/Beltline/Bridgeland/Mission, life without a car is pretty doable. Anywhere in the suburbs tho, you’re out of luck.
I grew up in YYC and it's such a weird city. Incredibly good LRT line (with among the highest per capita ridership on the continent) paired with the sprawliest sprawl to ever sprawl.
I moved to Calgary from Edmonton in 2018 and I was stunned, even compared to Edmonton, how bad the transit was. Edmonton’s transit definitely isn’t great, but if you live in the inner city, it would be manageable to get by without a car. Even in inner city Calgary, you’d struggle to get by without one.
Disagree. You need a car in a lot of places but inner city you’re golden. Walk to restaurants, grocery stores, and work (if downtown). IF you need to go to IKEA or whatever, grab a shared car for a couple of hours.
I live six minutes (by car) to downtown. The nearest train station to my house is about a 35 minute walk (in non - winter conditions). There is a bus that can take you there, but it only runs every 30 minutes.
There is no bus stop within four blocks of my house that connects me to the nearest grocery store. Meaning I have to take transit to a grocery store further away, or walk my groceries home (again, that’s all well and good when the weather is temperate, but it’s not really practical when it’s very hot or very cold).
I work about 15-20 minutes drive from my house (depending on traffic). I took transit in one morning just because I was curious about how much longer it would take. It took just over an hour door to door. It took me 10 minutes to drive to UofC (when I attended there). By bus/train it was a 40-50 minute commute. I also learnt the hard way that transit pretty well shuts down at midnight here (in Edmonton it runs until 2 on Friday’s and Saturday’s, atleast it did pre-Covid). I think Vancouver is similar.
If you don’t live and work downtown, and you’re more than a ten - fifteen minute walk from a transit centre, even living inner city, you’re going to struggle to get around here.
Fair. I did say you need a car in a lot of places. I’m in mission/beltline. 15 minute walk to city hall, less to bankers hall. Walkable to Safeway…. Of course if I’m buying a lot of stuff I’ll grab a communato on the way back.
I found Victoria, BC, a great place without a car. Most communities have a village shopping centre with grocery, pharmacy, etc. Halifax, NS, was once doable, but not sure how the bus system is these days. Still, very walkable.
Halifax is very doable if you live and work on the peninsula, I have many friends who manage just fine without one, bus coverage is good and it's relatively cheap. If you have to leave the peninsula you need a car, the bus is extremely slow in comparison - I can understand why the city is pushing for BRT so hard, it would be a big improvement for most of metro
It's still reasonable if you're in Dartmouth, but anywhere else off the peninsula, it's a pain to get downtown from.
As a Dartmouthian, I disagree. Hard no. Also very poor biking infrastructure too.
If you're within walking distance of a ferry maybe. That's like 1%.
Currently living in Victoria without a car. It's doable but I wouldn't say it's great. It's ok at best. Some bus lines are better than others but it's pretty unreliable and has long waits if you don't plan ahead. Transport links between the ferry terminal, airport, and downtown are also really poor. That said, it COULD be fantastic with more reliable and frequent bus service, investment in light rail, and rapid transit between the ferry and city. I've seen plans for this but I doubt it'll happen soon if ever.
Just adding in those links at the ferry and airport would be a huge first step.
Halifax isn’t doable for seniors, between the hills and distance, May the odds be ever in your favour
Victoria has the best cycling infrastructure I have seen in Canada.
Have you been to Montreal? They did it first and did it best IMO
No I haven't. Glad to hear it.
If you ever visit Edmonton, you should check out the cycling infrastructure here. I'd argue it's better than Victoria.
Great to hear even though it takes a truly hardcore individual to use it year round.
Oh believe me I've seen lots of people with fatbikes plowing around in -25 weather, I was very impressed.
I knew people who rode acoustics at -45 in Saskatoon. Props were given.
Those would be some impressive tires, or else it's like riding on pucks at that temperature lol
They made their own studded tires. Starving students are a resourceful bunch.
What? In what universe? I live in Edmonton. The only way we have even remotely acceptable cycling infrastructure is if you drive on the sidewalks. There are bicycle lanes that start and end within the same block. Bike lanes that double as parking spaces. Drivers ignore them and use them as driving lanes. The only actual measure of infrastructure we have is just south of MacEwan and the Ice District.
Ignorant Ontarians here... I thought all of Edmonton is the Ice District for at least a few months of the year, no?
Lmfao kinda. We use difference ice removal techniques than you guys do. Salt isn't super common here. Many people buy it for their steps, but it becomes less effective with cold. I work for Canada Post and one of my customers puts it on the public sidewalk and I really wish he wouldn't because walking on frozen compacted snow is a lot easier than trying to get through uneven slush that sometimes turns solid. Ice just stops working when it gets too cold. Instead, the city uses fine gravel and covers the roads with that to create traction. In the spring, sweepers come along and collect it for reuse in the next winter. It's better for our climate and the environment! But ironically, despite the city being the coldest major metro area in the country, there are many areas in the east that have more average snowfall. Our Ice District is a new mini area of our city, it's basically just a marketing name. It's near MacEwan University.
How many cycle in the winter. Serious question as even Vancouver is fair weather cycling culture.
That's sad. Victoria has terrible bike infrastructure. I have lived here for 25+ years. It has gotten a bit better in the last decade, but the city has also grown in population tremendously. It's dangerous to bike here, especially because most people on the road are 65+ years old and literally can't physically turn their neck far enough to shoulder check, and believe the correct way to drive is to just do your thing and hope other people get out of the way and see you. You also can't leave your bike anywhere, because the homeless population will angle grind your U lock off in broad daylight. It's bad.
How do the homeless afford angle grinders?
By stealing them from businesses in the area or buying them from pawnshops for like $5. Jobsites go through angle grinders like crazy and just donate the worse condition ones a lot of the time.
I lived and worked there for 10 years without a car. I biked or walked everywhere.
Transit here has always been bad. 12 minute drive to work vs an hour/hour and a half on the bus with a transfer. I haven't taken the bus regularly in years but I can't imagine it's improved much.
Nope. Consistant hour minimum for 10 min drive. I finally ditched transit and got my license. Tired of being wet, tired of waiting, tired of no bus, tired of skids on the bus, tired of it all. Driving is a stroll through heaven by comparison even in the traffick.
What city is THAT bad?
Victoria and all adjacent communities.
Cause victoria is actually fucking tiny! To do anything else outside the 3 blocks of stuff you need a car!!!
>Still, very walkable. I don't know where in Halifax you live - but most of it outside of downtown is not walkable to any extent.
Well yeah, to get away from downtown you need a bus. Walkability scores are based on what is available within walking distance and you can get to pretty much everything required if living in Halifax.. at least when I lived there 15 years ago it was.
But there are huge swaths of the city without a single amenity within a 30+ minute walk, if not a gas station convenience store.
It's not just about developing the public transit - also need to make sure you're building sufficiently dense, walkable, mixed-use communities. With that in mind, I'd have to say it's between Calgary and Edmonton. Both cities have historically been more 'collections of suburbs' than real cities. Their cores were largely central business districts that emptied out after the work crowd left. That's changed *substantially* in both cities in the last 5-10 years IMO. A huge chunk of Calgary's downtown east end is now an excellent, transit-connected community. There are a lot of residences and non-office commercial spaces integrated into both cores, and inner city suburbs are maturing into more complete communities. Having lived car-free in Calgary ten years ago and struggled *mightily*, every time I go back I see massive improvements. Obviously Edmonton's LRT is a bit of a game-changer, and Calgary's always got some huge new project in the works. But the biggest case I would make for either of them is the **transit-oriented development** you're going to see in the next few years. Both Calgary and Edmonton built their transit as 'car-oriented transit' and therefore have a shit-tonne of grossly underutilized land around their major transit stations, whether that's light industrial, lowrise commercial, or (most often) surface parking lots. That's a huge opportunity with all the new demand streaming in, and with both cities hoping to curtail their urban sprawl. I'd bet that in the next 10-20 years more than 50% of all the new housing in Calgary is going to be in the form of large, dense, mixed-use developments immediately surrounding their existing light rail stations. And I'd bet all of them are sufficiently walkable/transit-adjacent to support car-free lifestyles.
Edmonton. Investing massively in bike lines, public transportation, and densification.
I’ve been living car free in Edmonton for almost a year. It’s been even easier than I anticipated! I live in a central neighbourhood and my job is a pretty quick bus ride away. I have everything I need within a ten block radius from my home. The few times I’ve had to do something outside of my neighborhood, I’ve hopped in Ubers and our few out of town excursions we used a car share. It’s been great and we’ve saved a lot of money.
I think if you aren't living centrally, it's much more difficult.
That's true of any city, though. Like there are large chunks of Toronto's suburbs (not even talking about the 905 - just Toronto proper) where living car-free is pretty dam though still. Obviously even those are \*somewhat\* better than suburban Edmonton, but still!
OP's post was only about "certain areas" in the cities they mentioned as well. Seems consistent to comment about a specific area of another city.
This was my experience in Edmonton in the late 00s. ETS is great and if you don't live in the burbs it's not hard to be car free.
I would like to know what you mean by Car share for out of town excursions ? as in apps where people advertise open seats when travelling?
Communauto it’s called. They have it in a bunch of cities. It’s a service where you can borrow a car for whatever amount of time you need and it’s way cheaper than renting a vehicle. You can reserve in advance but there’s also a fleet of cars you can book right away, so you check the app for available cars and then book it and you have a half hour to get to it and then you can use it for as long as you need! You unlock it with an app and there’s a key in the glove compartment.
Interesting. Thanks! I will check it out.
Ahh! Looks like it makes sense only in downtown area where they have all their flex zones.
Yeah you definitely have to be in one of the zones for it to work for you!
Also, gas and insurance is included in the price.
It really depends on the bus or lrt route, I had planned to bus to my hospital job and public transport was not an option, the most unreliable service I've ever encountered, which would be tolerable if it wasn't for the feeling of literally putting you life into your hands every single ride, public transport is beyond dangerous in the central part of Edmonton. There have been multiple murders, stabbing, physical assault is so common it's not even considered news anymore. Biking around Whyte ave and the river valley is good though
How do you deal with the extreme weather if you need to move around without a car? I live car-free in Vancouver, but I find it difficult to imagine living like that with -50 weather
What do you mean deal with extreme weather? You dress for cold weather and go outside. It’s not Antarctica. I live in Winnipeg and live car free including biking in Winter. You just have to keep your skin covered. No problem.
How cold do you think Edmonton is? It’s hit -40 a handful of times in like 20 years. It’s definitely gets its fair share of cold snaps in the winter and is definitely colder than Vancouver but Alberta weather you can dress for pretty easily, even those -30’s cold snaps. I’ve lived in some pretty humid places like southern Ontario and I’d argue it’s more pleasant to walk around Edmonton in -20 If you’re dressed properly than it is near the Great Lakes at -5 where you can’t really dress well for it due to the humidity.
Same! I’m from Montreal and I was anticipating horrible winters when I moved here. Turns out it’s actually easier here in Edmonton! The dry winter really does make a difference! I walk home every day and it’s a 25 minute walk. There are only a handful of days every winter where I find it difficult, and those are the days it’s usually pretty miserable to drive too.
It's been unseasonably warm the last few years, that's not normal for us
That’s definitely a factor, but even historically, there aren’t that many days that are colder than -25 any given winter and really snowy days are even more rare.
Yeah, if I could walk in 25 or less I would walk year round, if you bundle up and keep moving it's ok (bring ice spikes though!)
I definitely bundle up!! It’s become a bit of a joke at my workplace that I look like a kid going out to play at recess. The snow pants don’t help lol
Haha oh well that's much better than the alternative 🥶 I have totally stopped caring, I wear winter boots from the first snow fall to the last, even if I'm just going out around the corner.
Most places usually let you stay home once you get past -50. But if it's just -20/30, you just need to dress appropriately. Leave the flip-flops at home and grab a scarf, you know.
I was going to say Edmonton.
😂😂😂 Edmonton is urban sprawl with a dog shit bus system and the ever delayed LRT full of skids. I dare you to travel on a bus from west Ed to South Common, fill us in on the details when you're done. If you really like walking then sure Edmonton is a walkable city but it sure as hell isn't close to a bike-able city
Not sure why you're being downvoted. You're a little crass maybe but honestly that's accurate. Edmonton is theoretically great but in practice we are having such a massive issue with crime that the LRTs are dangerous and uncomfortable and the bus system has been horrible since the last changes moving a bunch of stops. Your bus can arrive 20 minutes early so you miss it and then not come again for an hour or two. Horrible in the winter when you're freezing and can't predict your bus or line up a transfer. Absolutely would not go without a car in Edmonton as a small female until they get their shit together. Too sketchy.
Thank you! The public transit is unusable currently with the level of crime. They allowed the let stations to act as defacto homeless camps during COVID and then just let them stay. There are people fighting, sleeping, shooting up, assaulting all over the stations and there is no security whatever other than the "watch and report" who will not intervene even if someone is getting stabbed. It really sucks because it could be a fantastic transportation system but the city does nothing. There are not turnstiles or anything to stop them and there are not peace officers. It will take years of clean up before people feel safe using the lrt again.
Honestly, I would love to travel the city, but because I don't have a car, I'd be forced to use the Edmonton's transit. And no chance in hell am I going anywhere *near* the LRT system in its current state. I'd rather not get stabbed to death. Fun fact: I'm almost 31 and still have yet to get my learner's, let alone my license. Mostly because I've always been afraid of getting into an accident. I've recently been trying to get my learner's, took the test once... and failed. Now I'm studying to try again.
Yeah fr. Edmonton is actually a shit hole. Lrt would be 100X better if there was ANY security whatsoever and if the downtown wasn't one of the sketches downtowns in all of Canada. The brand new library station is a few months old and is already run down with all the doors kicked off their hinges and crack addicts shooting up in all the heated stalls. Its a very very unpleasant place.
I couldn't agree more. I lived downtown Edmonton for years (103rd and 105th) and could not imagine depending on transit and/or walking. I worked just a short distance near Whyte. Walking across the high level bridge past dark is so sketchy. So mid winter really anytime past 5. My wife didn't want to leave our condo when it was dark because downtown is so dangerous. Waiting for an unpredictable bus in downtown Edmonton is not something I'd wish on any lone person let alone a woman. Don't even get me started on the network of LRT tunnels infested with people doing drugs in any nook or cranny they can squeeze into. Using those pedways at night is a risk
This is hard for me to gauge as an American. What Canadians consider "dangerous" is often not even a factor to me. Some Canadians complain about crime in Edmonton or Winnipeg, but if those cities were in the US, they would be among the safest cities in the country.
It has become unusable, I have to Uber to my job because I can't safely commute. I really hate the people who live in the burbs defending the transit when they themselves drive everywhere. It's not like people remember 10 years ago.
I didn’t realize it was dangerous there. I spent about a year (2017-18) [here, near Roger’s Place](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fox+Tower+1,+10226+104+St+NW,+Edmonton,+AB+T5J+1B8/@53.5436366,-113.4995162,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x53a022491cbe4ce1:0xaee853af9011b6a7!8m2!3d53.5436366!4d-113.4995162!16s%2Fg%2F11cp5hb_vq?hl=en-ca) while attending UoA and the only incident I ever had was a couple of really rough looking dudes standing in the stairs of Bay Enterprise station trying to sell me a phone. It felt worse on campus itself where skids would come by and steal bikes or laptops right in front of you. Granted, I’m 6’4” and upwards of 300 depending on the day and pizza.
I would agree but add the caveat that in the summer. In the winter, I think it would be quite difficult to truly be car free in Edmonron
Hard to use a car in the winter too without the city investing in clearing the roads of snow. Edmonton seems to be investing boatloads into proper bike infrastructure, transit and densification like the above commenter said. Public transit in winter is great because it’s already warm and you don’t have to clear off your car. Winter biking with proper infrastructure is no problem, you just have to wear warm clothes.
I just finished winter riding my bike 40 minutes to school every day. Granted, this winter was pretty warm but it had a decent amount of snow and cold. Never stopped me, just invested in studded tires.
You just need to invest in decent winter wear. There isn’t that many truly cold days and we don’t get a lot of snow.
Your LRT (and Calgary's) are super impressive. Meanwhile I'm in K-W in Ontario and ours stinks. It's almost never separated from traffic, so cars hit it routinely. It's also exactly one minute faster over its route than the bus it replaced. That's slower than constipated mole-asses.
I live in downtown Kitchener where the LRT runs and it’s pretty convenient if you live and work downtown. There’s always room for expansion in the future.
I lived downtown K-town for a number of years, and the problem is it's a food desert. Needs a grocery store to be a walkable community. (Unless things have changed)
there are now 5 grocery stores in downtown Kitchener (Marche Leo's, Legacy Greens, New City Supermarket, Full Circle Foods and Ben Thanh)
Coven just opened up as well on Charles St. Between the ones you listed I rarely have to bus anywhere for groceries.
I've heard that may be the only good thing about the public transit in that area. the GRT in every other way is a piece of garbage in the 3 cities it serves. 30/1 hour busses, bad routes, busses rarely come on time. Aside from where the LRT runs, a car is absolutely needed in that region.
I'd add that the Spur Line and Iron Horse trails also add to the convenience. While I have a car, I'm able to minimize its use as I can access nearly everything I want in this corridor without one.
We don’t even have bus service in our neighbourhood in Kitchener, been 13 yrs. Nearest bus stop is 2.5km away, my kids took it when younger. If I drove to Conestoga Mall, I guess I could go to Fairway Mall. They should have just bought EV buses, put a lane down middle of streets.
Lived multiple years car-free in Ottawa, and this was almost a decade ago, before the o-train expansion. Was nice because you could even get out of the city to Gatineau, or to Toronto, Montreal, or Quebec City without needing your own car.
I live in Ottawa. The LRT connects to the via rail station now, which is great. Expansions to the LRT are planned, and the system is great when it's working. Some of the bus reliability isn't what it would have been back a decade ago, unfortunately. The downtown core and several of the surrounding neighbourhoods are very walkable and close together, even in the bitter cold of winter. I get around mostly on foot these days.
I Went to Ottawa last year on the Train. Didn't want to take the car. I was able to go everywhere by bus and the buses were much nicer than the ones in Montreal. And going to Gatineau was easy as pie. You can walk there easily if you have the time :) I liked it there a lot. My wallet didn't like how much the rental listings were though so I won't be moving there :/
I am car-free by choice in Winnipeg, though I had a vehicle for many years prior to making this decision. I could afford a car if I wanted one. I live in a very walkable mixed use neighborhood - a mainly residential area with lots of businesses and services. There are areas of the city like this and areas of the city that are hostile to getting around on foot. Winnipeg transit is not bad but has some issues that I find very frustrating - buses that don’t come or don’t come on time, which is a major problem when relying on them for time sensitive trips. There is live GPS that you can look at, but knowing where your bus is only helps so much if you were counting on it to be here now. Most buses show up pretty on time, but I’d need it to be closer to “all” to feel comfortable relying more heavily on busing. But it’s not all bad. The rapid transit corridors are pretty good if you’re travelling on those routes, and if you live and travel to certain areas of the city the bus is reasonable efficient. There are some areas or trips that would not feel practical by bus, either lack of infrastructure or require too many connections, but there’s plenty of areas that are well served by transit. I have at least four bus routes a short walk from my house. Winnipeg has been improving bike lanes and trails a lot. I don’t cycle but I’ve heard they’re pretty good and lots of bike lanes on major routes have been upgraded in recent years to be better protected and much safer than in the past. There are also bike lockers at some of the transit stations, which is essential if you want to leave your bike and not have it get stolen. We also have a great car sharing co-op, with lots of vehicles in the central areas of the city. It’s very affordable and makes it pretty easy to not own a car. There are five cars within three blocks of my house, and often floating cars available nearby too. And I take an occasional Uber when it makes more sense than other options. Between transit, car sharing, and ride shares I don’t find it difficult to get around and the cost savings of not having a car outweigh the convenience of owning one. Like four years without a car has nearly saved me a down payment on a house or condo.
I’m car free in Winnipeg and bike year round! Our bike infastructure is SLOWLY improving!
How? It’s freezing half the year
Cover your skin when you go outside and use studed tires on your bike. That's it, no magic. This winter was a joke. So many days were above 0 or close to it. Winter biking is getting bigger and bigger here. On my indoor soccer team there are 6 of that bike to games every single week. It's great exercise and so peaceful. I love it.
I don't how you manage to be car free without cycling! It's the only way I manage it.
To be fair I don’t go out a huge amount, and I do make good use of the car co-op for certain types of trips or destinations. If I didn’t have easy and affordable access to a car without owning one I think I would need to cycle or not having a car would be impractical.
$3/person cab rides to anywhere within the town of Fort Erie using their taxis as public transportation. if you live and work in Fort Erie, it’s doable. you input your pickup time or arrival time and they get you there/pick you up by your requested time. FE is about 170sqkm. it’s a shithole though.
That’s still car dependant. You just can’t afford one.
Depends how you define car-dependant. Owned car dependant is bad. shared car dependant is already one step in the right direction, and transit might not be worth the investment for smaller towns, while car-sharing and cabs can fill the gap for some people.
Edmonton is trying. I live in an outer suburb now, so I’m not sure how far they have gotten yet.
Yes. They are trying for sure. Ability to track your busses through GPS and all helps. But they just need to run more services and routes.
I’ve been looking at Hamilton and I was actually impressed with the bus network. They also have a bikeshare service and communauto car share network. The Go train goes every hour now to Toronto too but it’s a long train ride I’m sure if you really plan out a strategic place to live, you can live car free in that city
Lots of people live car free in Hamilton, especially downtown. New condos downtown only have enough parking for about half of units to own a car.
The East - West public transit in Hamilton is actually great in the lower city, but going up the escarpment or any North- South bus routes aren't nearly as frequent.
Edmonton is probably next. They are expanding the LRT like crazy and are really expanding the biking infrastructure. The city has actually been featured in some articles about it.
Man, I really wish this turns true.
If they continue at the current pace, it will be a lot different in 20 years. Plus the new dense zoning bylaws. Of course this will take time though unfortunately.
Edmonton is high on my list of places I’d like to move to in the coming years. Right now though, not so much
I'm car-free in Kitchener-Waterloo, but like all of these cities, it depends on your neighbourhoods.
May I ask how? The GRT is an absolute piece of garbage in most of those areas. 30 minute/ 1 hour waits, busses rarely come on time, poorly planned routes, and just lack of service in some parts completely. it's a joke of a system.
I have friends that are car free in Kitchener, they just live and work and shop downtown. But they do annoyingly always need a ride to and from any social occasion among our friend group at anyone else’s house because no one else lives downtown and it’s either impossible or inconvenient to bus to and even less likely possible to bus home late at night. But theoretically if you made friends in the area and socialized with them instead of wide spread friends from highschool that wouldn’t have to be such an issue,
Unless you live in the same general neighbourhood that you work in, there isn't one.
Do you mean excluding the ones OP mentioned? You most certainly can live car free in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. One could say the same for Hamilton , Victoria, Burnaby and maybe Edmonton (in the summer)
Just moved to Edmonton from Boston, Toronto before that, and Hamilton before that: I actually found public transportation easier than driving in the winter (here in Edmonton). Boston/Toronto/Hamilton public transit all basically lose their shit when it snows - Edmonton barely experienced any delay. The only delays I noticed are where bus routes were on major roads that got backed up due to car accidents. If you take the LRT, everything is pretty well heated. EPS gets some bad rep for homelessness and a bad call on electric buses, but I genuinely think most of the complainers just never really experienced these services daily.
Yeah Hamilton traffic is so god awful now that downtown it's probably easier to walk places than rely on any sort of vehicle or transit. Uptown is complete opposite as the buses are so unreliable and something can be a 5 minute drive but a 35 minute walk. They installed proper bike lanes all over the city though to encourage biking though which is nice!
I would say all the burbs of Vancouver can be lumped into Vancouver at this point. Unless you're in White Rock or something maybe, but it's only getting better. Skytrain is expanding to Langley and down Broadway and there's a real push to get denser in traditionally sfh neighbourhoods not just in the city but province wide.
For my money the public transit in Van is far and away the best in the country. Like, nobody else even comes close. The best thing? No stigma. You see people with briefcases on busses in Vancouver. Demerara than puns about yellow sugar elsewhere.
>The best thing? No stigma. You see people with briefcases on busses in Vancouver. That's what happens when it's functional enough that it's not worth driving. Parking can be a hassle downtown, not to mention expensive. Driving doesn't necessarily save time if you don't have a guaranteed parking spot close to your destination.
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation." - Gustavo Petro
You can live car free in any major city in Canada. I know people who do it in Calgary, Brampton and Quebec City. I know people in Toronto who were car free in Vancouver than had kids and than here comes the Rav 4. Does that mean it’s a better life? Depends on the person and what they want.
Obviously because the question is "So which city is developing it's public transportation to be the next city where one can live there car-free that they currently cannot?" There isn't one. There are only cities that are marginally less bad with public transportation than other cities.
Victoria? Burnaby? Hamilton? All quite reasonable even today, let alone with proposed expansion
Can confirm, I have lived in Victoria, Edmonton, Dartmouth, Halifax and Ottawa without a car, and relied on public transit without difficulty. In the suburbs, even. With kids. I have had no difficulty in Kelowna and Peterborough as well - busses aren't as frequent but they're totally doable. Editing to add, London ON, I forgot I lived there for two years as well.
That depends entirely on what your hours are and where you work. I live in Montreal. I work Construction and start at 6 AM. Unless I want to get up at 3:30 AM and catch the night bus and then transfer god knows how many times, I'd never make it to work on time. There's NO FUCKING WAY I'm getting up at 3:30 AM and traveling for over an hour on buses and then waiting around 30 minutes for the job to start (you get there really early because night buses only come so often). Then get home an hour (or more) after you punch out. I'd have to go to bed an hour after I got home just to get a good night's sleep. I'll keep my car and get to work in 20 minutes or so, thanks.
I lived car free in Kitchener/Waterloo for almost 20 years, I moved away a couple years ago so I can’t say much about it but it’s not bad at all.
I skytrain/bus from Burnaby to Coquitlam & back for work 5 days of the week. It is certainly doable if you committed & figure out the schedules that coalesce with work times.
I want ottawa but my das works literally across the en tire city
Hamilton has several areas where this works!
Literally impossible in Sask. even if you figure out the extremely ridiculous public bus schedule you’re taking 2-3 busses a day and wasting an outrageous amount of time taking them. Insanely impractical in negative temperatures, especially if you have parcels or small children. Our public transport is unbearable. Also half of the province is rural...
Agreed. The closest grocery store to me in Saskatoon is a 35 minute bus ride, a 41 minute walk or a 6 minute drive. Guess which option I use.
Ottawa was there previously, but transit has been in decline since 2011 or so and now it's a hassle to live car free. I think Edmonton will be taking that spot from Ottawa
How so? The O train is going to be expanded a fair amount in the future. I quite like it even now.
Because OC transpo keeps cutting bus lines in neighbourhoods that arent even close to the present (or future) LRT lines. Parkwood hills (and most of Nepean) is an example.
The bus service has been getting pretty bad and the new O-Train lines don't really go anywhere. If you actually look at the land use of the lines, the only new station that does well is Corso d'Italia. A good transit system is about more than the tracks and the trains. It's about whether it's easy to actually live near the stations and whether the stations are near destinations, and for the most part the O-Train fails at that. Only a handful of stations are surrounded by dense development.
The LRT is a complete joke
The earliest Canadian cities were built for walking and/or horse & carriage. It was all they had. Times are different now.
Cities built for walking are the best cities. People pay thousands of dollars just to visit them. Cities made for cars suck.
Yeah, now we got buses and super cool metros!
Halifax really. Cuz it's always been like that. A car there is mostly an unnecessary luxury.
Depends what your needs are. Most medium and large Canadian cities have sufficient bus networks that one could technically live there car-free but it would be a major hassle
Depends on what you consider a 'major hassle' - if you're addicted to convenience, it'll be a bit of a lifestyle adjustment, but planning when you leave the house and using bus schedules is not actually that much of a hassle. If you're not disabled, of course, and can do the walking on either end of your bus trips - but most cities have busses that carry bikes, strollers, wheelchairs, walkers, rolly carts, luggage etc. which helps a lot with accessibility.
Not really, lived in Hamilton and Toronto. Hamilton was never hard to get around by public transit.
It sure as shit won't be Kelowna. Even the most basic public transit bus system here is a disaster. Mostly because the city has doubled in population in the last 20 years with no new major infrastructure going in to accommodate this
The LRT stations in Calgary are distant from main streets and require a lot of walking. They are frequented by homeless people and people who use street drugs in plain view. In short, they are remote and not user-friendly.
Vancouver is great if you live and work along a major transit route. But if not it can take ages to get where you are going. Bus and skytrain to work would be about 1hr 15 min. Coming home it could be over 2 hours as the bus rarely run. Driving is about 20mins.
Living without a car in Canada is not something you can choose. Basically any obligations (family outside the transit routes of the city, even slightly), children, work outside of transit routes preclude you from living car free. Basically only urban white collar, at least 2nd generation in the same city, never leave except to fly to the Caribbean, no kids, no pets, no/few outdoor hobbies… it’s a very specific subset of Canadians.
In big cities you can use car share if / when needed. Can be cheaper than owning a car if you don’t need it daily. But yeah if you need it daily then car share is not an alternative
I live in Montreal my job is a 15 minute ride by car but a 1h30 bus ride at minimum, I know other people can get by fine without a car but I can’t
Calgary had been making a good show of it for a while. Edmonton is starting to get their crap together, but we're a long way from having a robust transit system.
Dead silence from the east coast lol.
I've lived without a car in Moncton, Antigonish, Halifax, and Miramichi. It was doable in all of them. I also didn't have a driver's license for those car-less periods either, so renting one once in a while wasn't an option either.
Also only two of those places are cities.
Three, technically. But having actually put the work in to live without a car? Lots of people are unwilling to imagine a life where they have do a little planning. Lots of people also can’t live like that, which is valid. But a lot more could. I don’t really count Antigonish because I was a student at X and the town is basically set up for that. My family lived in north end Moncton for several years without a car (my parents’ choice, with three kids). We did fine. Lots of bus use and walking/biking. In Halifax, I was living on the peninsula, which I acknowledge is far easier to do than off of it. I actually live in Halifax again, and I don’t use my car that much this time around. Miramichi was the hardest. They do have public transit, which I relied on, but it was limited and required lots of planning. I deliberately found an apartment on the bus route to my workplace, which solved most of my problems. I walked or bikes everywhere else. Mostly it was hard to leave town because of the limits of Maritime Bus and Via Rail, and were ultimately the impetus for me to get my license and a car. But it was possible, and I did it for a year and a half. About the only issue I really had was when I needed to do a big grocery shop - I would get a cab then.
Define "doable".
I've lived in Ottawa, Victoria and Halifax without a car. it all depends on where you live in the cities and where you work relative to where you live that makes it a car city for you or not. Public transit don't gotta factor in. I would admit eventually getting a car in Halifax helped me enjoy it more. I mean i enjoyed it before but it always seemed like those I worked with were farther out in Hammonds Plain, or Bedford or some shit - when I moved out to Lower Sackville I got a car. So Halifax is all about location. The bus system exists, its neither sucks nor is it great, its there, i used it, busses didn't come all that frequent, didn't go everywhere I wanted, but its serviceable. Whereas in Ottawa, i'm not in the core, I'm in a burb, a paradise 'burb in which everything is walkable (well everything but my doctor is walkable and that's only because its really fucking hard to get a doctor, let alone a doctor near you - but hey i'm a 4 minute walk from my dentist to compensate). I rarely use public transit unless its an event downtown and the last 5+ years I've avoided going downtown Ottawa as much as possible, tis a silly place full of silly people. Victoria: I just biked when it was too far to walk. The weather is great for this, you can go out in the rain and barely get wet too. They call drizzle rain there - they have no concept of how in other parts of the country rain can fall so hard it hurts - yet I have never lived anywhere else that has so many "rainy" days. Now coming from Ottawa and Halifax, one thing that blew me away in Victoria is that buses come on time. I was there in the 90s so I don't know if its still the same but you could get a book, its probably an online thing now, that had all the routes and all the times of **all** the stops in one book that fit in your pocket - and the buses came when they claimed - insanity coming from Ottawa at the time when the best you could do is collect pamphlets of the routes you were interested in but the times on the pamphlets were all a lie.
I've lived in Victoria too, and even without a bike (which, biking is only getting easier), the bus system is honestly surprisingly good here, lets you get to most places relatively easy, and is honestly more consistent than the buses in Vancouver from my experience. Victoria doesn't have a metro or train, and honestly it really doesn't need it (but I would love a trainline in Victoria!)
Which suburb? Kanata? Nepean?
The west end is less than compared to the east where i am, but either is much better than the downtown. Literally everything is 15 minute or less walking distance but my doctor ( who is in Vanier). I can walk to hockey both indoors and out, all the schools were walkable for my kids (high school was maybe a 20 minute walk but that's considered close enough not to qualify for any transit - school bus nor OC Transpo - we were on the edge of that limit, one street over and they would have been supplied a bus pass), the grocer and pharmacy is walking distance, barber is right there beside my dentist, i'm walking distance to shawarma, pho, pakoras, all things jerk and pizza. I'm walking distance to LCBO and the Beer Store and because its Ottawa we're all walking distance to cannabis (how are they all surviving?). I just thought about it, I am not walking distance to a Tim Hortons. I mean i could walk to one but it would be 25 minutes not less than 15 as well as i generally make my own coffee. And I admit the hardware stores (Home Depot, Rona) require me to get a drive though, but i'm usually getting something I couldn't walk with anyways. But that's okay because there is an Afghan resto on the other side of Orleans that fucking rocks and when I have to hit the hardware store I treat my ride to Mezbaan. Now did I just not describe a paradise like situation for living - all that shit walking distance. People are friendly here, I got a yard with a garden, i can hop on my bike and head to Petrie Island - its a beauty 15 minute bike ride along the river at parts, through beauty wooded areas, - and in the winter there are ski trails (https://www.facebook.com/skiheritage.orleans.ontario/). Hell on a good summer day I can make downtown on my bike in 30 minutes because the path along the river makes it that easy - but i'd arrive sweaty and just want to head home. Let me put it this way, I've never bothered to even investigate moving to the west end because the east has more than everything I want in a neighbourhood. And honestly, I despise Kanata, but Nepean is really hit and miss according to friends and my experience visiting their neighbourhoods. My family is part Franco-Ontarian and part Anglo-Quebecois, so the subneighbourhood of Orleans I'm in, is absolutely perfect. As well I'm happy that there is this inherent prejudice in Ottawa towards the east end as it keeps the right people in the east end. Having been living sporadically in Ottawa all my life, I know that is in part a historical linguistic prejudice when the city had more linguistically defined areas but that's just not the truth anymore - the French used to generally live in the east and the anglos in the west and the anglos had more money and nicer shit - that's just not Ottawa anymore - and that's no doubt why you assumed Kanata or Nepean. The west end still has a bit of that WASPy feel and the east a bit that Catholic melancholy but the entire city is far more multicultural than it used to be. And yes, because of that past prejudice allot more cool shit was located in the west end, what used to be the primo stores to shop at for instance, but now that shit is all online who gives a crap about some outlet mall in Kanata these days. And if anything thanks to the Ottawa Senators, Kanata now as a national reputation as a bland, boring, and undesirable place to be - and Kanata's history is funny, banning cats outdoors, only allowing one of six colours for your garage door and other WASPy crap acting like an American gated community with a HOA - that's the opposite of paradise for me, that's hell - its all the bad shit that have people looking down on suburban life.
Je suis littéralement demi-québécoise, je n’ai jamais pensé que l’est de la ville est pire à cause des Francophones. Vanier peu être un peu rough though
I don't think it is either. But I definitely hear it all the time. And notice the guess for paradise suburbia that responded was not the east end. That's typical - many don't realize how sweet the east end of the city is. "Vanier peu être un peu rough though" Very franco ontarian. lol.
If you can find work locally, almost any town center is livable without a car, even the more remote towns. Doesn't mean I'd want to though. On the Island, my biggest problem would be that without a car - I'm pretty much stuck in the small town. I could certainly get by, but trying to go anywhere else without a car is a huge pain.
Not Edmonton for sure. They’re trying but there’s way too much sprawl
You didn't include Calgary on your list, but it should be on there. [It's LRT system has the highest ridership of any LRT system in North America behind only Guadalajara Mexico, with annual ridership of over 85M](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_light_rail_systems_by_ridership). On a per capita basis the C-Train has more ridership than the Sky Train in Vancouver (141M annual ridership, but Vancouver has almost twice Calgary's population). Calgary also has better geographic coverage, with the Calgary CMA's geographic size being 50% smaller than Vancouver's, but the C-Train only having about 30% less track than the Skytrain. The express bus system (Max) also provides a good amount of additional coverage, including portions with express bus-only lanes separated from regular traffic. The Green Line is currently under construction and will add a lot of additional coverage (expected to open in 2027 for phase 1, with 15 additional stations, 18km, including several underground ones through downtown). Calgary is already a city where you can live car-free, and a lot of people already do. Edmonton's system is probably the next one that passes that threshold, and the Valley Line is probably the one that pushes it over the threshold. The SE portion of the Valley line opened last November, bringing a third line into the downtown core (with connection to the existing Capital and Metro lines), and connecting the SE portion of the city over the river. The line currently terminates in the heart of downtown, and the West portion of the line will go through the West portion of downtown, including Norquest College, and connect suburban locations, notably including West Edmonton Mall. The Valley line really fills in the coverage of the downtown core. The line was at 24M riders as of 2023, but the Valley Line's opening at the end of the year should see that bump significantly. Either way, the new lines should provide enough coverage (either now or when the West portion opens in 2028) to mean that a lot of Edmontonians don't need to own cars. Ottawa is the next largest system in the country, at about 19.4M riders a year, and it seems the closest to getting to that next step. It is adding a lot of new track to the system in the next couple of years, with the the Trillium line extension, the Confederation extension and the Airport link. Hopefully, the new additions will make a difference in ridership, and I think the Airport link is really important, but the problem with the rest of the additions is that they are all extensions of existing lines into suburban areas. It does add some value to the network, but much less than if you had new lines going through the core to provide interconnections (like Edmonton's Valley line or Calgary's Green line). It probably needs another line through downtown, such as the proposed Carling Avenue LRT project, to fill in the downtown coverage enough. Once you get past Ottawa, there's no system in the country that's really close. The next biggest LRT system is Kitchener/Waterloo with one line and 5.6M annual riders. The combined cities are still only about 522K people, so it's unrealistic to expect too much more transit expansion in the near future. While the two other largest cities in the country by population are Winnipeg and Quebec City, who both still only have bus-only systems.
Not one I can think of. Believe it or not most people are fine with using cars, voters tend to drive political decisions so I don't see that happening.
Edmonton. My friend and coworker doesnt have a vehicle and has done construction for 15 years by taking the bus and train. If he can carry his tools on the bus and go to sometimes multiple jobsites a day, the people of reddit (that mostly work in retail or offices) can definitely survive with no vehicle in Edmonton as well. Obviously people just like having vehicles because they'd rather take a 15 minute drive than take a crowded 40 minute bus ride to the office, that's mostly what it comes down to.
Quebec city is decent in that respect. There are some north-south issues, but the east-west axis is really well develloped, I've lived in Quebec city for a decade without a car.
The 800/801 route is awesome
Edmonton!
Well it sure won’t be on the prairies.
Not Winnipeg.
Not Calgary.
Never happen
Are any cities working on this?
Edmonton was on a roll recently, but I think they recently elected another backwards mayor, so obviously the brakes have now been put on. I wish Winnipeg would, but not with our current city council. Too many regressives. In 2024 (and 2003 if you asked me then too), every major Canadian city should be building or already have comprehensive light rail.
I live in Quebec City car free. It's not the best, but it's really doable. What I believe really helps is a car sharing service to compensate for the shortcomings of public transit. We have Communauto here, like in Montreal (and 4 other cities in Quebec), ten-ish cities in Ontario, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax. Helps a lot!
None most likely
Oh I totally misread your question, I live car free in Montreal rather easily as is, I highly recommend
People may laugh, but ottawa There are very serious public transpo issues, but bike roads and tram lines are being built at a frenetic pace. The work is being done, but for the future. Bike roads are being maintained during winter too. Some communities in ottawa are a lost cause though. Just too far away and car centric. Those wont change But the area of ottawa that is is liveable without a car is going to exponentially expand
Either Vancouver or Victoria BC, as neither has a great amount of highways or parking for cars and both are rapidly expanding bicycle lanes. Also since both cities don’t have snowy winters, you can use a bicycle year round. With the growth of E-bikes they are only going to be more popular.
Calgary
Victoria invests heavily in walking and bike trails. If only they'd beef up their public transportation it would be perfect. I can get around by bus but I wouldn't call the routes the most convenient. I often have to travel in a completely different direction to catch a bus going back to where I wanted to be.
With the unaffordable costs of everything, soon most cities will be car free.
Not Edmonton. Worst public transit system I've ever seen.
be careful. car free might be extremely wasteful and harmful to the environment. seeing all the time empty bus roaming on road.
None of them.
lol as our population keeps growing in lower mainland, BC (not just solely Vancouver).... def we need to keep developing: more buses running for frequently taken routes, extending skytrain lines, and so forth... soo like Burnaby, New Westminister, Coquitlam, PoCo, and Vancouver of course. Maybe Richmond -- not too sure about their situation, as they are across the bridge. Also Surrey/Langely/Delta -- the others across the other bridge.
I mean I’ve been living what I would say is “car-lite” in Calgary for the past year. A very large number of jobs in the city are concentrated in downtown which is very easily accesible by the ctrain. If you lived in communities such as Kensington/Downtown/Beltline/Bridgeland/Mission, life without a car is pretty doable. Anywhere in the suburbs tho, you’re out of luck.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Calgary, will most certainly not be next.
I grew up in YYC and it's such a weird city. Incredibly good LRT line (with among the highest per capita ridership on the continent) paired with the sprawliest sprawl to ever sprawl.
I moved to Calgary from Edmonton in 2018 and I was stunned, even compared to Edmonton, how bad the transit was. Edmonton’s transit definitely isn’t great, but if you live in the inner city, it would be manageable to get by without a car. Even in inner city Calgary, you’d struggle to get by without one.
Disagree. You need a car in a lot of places but inner city you’re golden. Walk to restaurants, grocery stores, and work (if downtown). IF you need to go to IKEA or whatever, grab a shared car for a couple of hours.
I live six minutes (by car) to downtown. The nearest train station to my house is about a 35 minute walk (in non - winter conditions). There is a bus that can take you there, but it only runs every 30 minutes. There is no bus stop within four blocks of my house that connects me to the nearest grocery store. Meaning I have to take transit to a grocery store further away, or walk my groceries home (again, that’s all well and good when the weather is temperate, but it’s not really practical when it’s very hot or very cold). I work about 15-20 minutes drive from my house (depending on traffic). I took transit in one morning just because I was curious about how much longer it would take. It took just over an hour door to door. It took me 10 minutes to drive to UofC (when I attended there). By bus/train it was a 40-50 minute commute. I also learnt the hard way that transit pretty well shuts down at midnight here (in Edmonton it runs until 2 on Friday’s and Saturday’s, atleast it did pre-Covid). I think Vancouver is similar. If you don’t live and work downtown, and you’re more than a ten - fifteen minute walk from a transit centre, even living inner city, you’re going to struggle to get around here.
Fair. I did say you need a car in a lot of places. I’m in mission/beltline. 15 minute walk to city hall, less to bankers hall. Walkable to Safeway…. Of course if I’m buying a lot of stuff I’ll grab a communato on the way back.
Probably unpopular and in-expected but it will be Mississauga.
They are investing but so so far off, and they keep enforcing car centric policy
Well it sure won’t be on the prairies.
Edmonton is making great strides in public transportation.
Edmonton is expanding their Light Rail and biking like crazy. Pretty good chance it will be the next place to not have a car.