Mark Hornell, loyal PT reader and Victoria city planner, responded to the post below that noted, according to the Canadian Federation of Podiatric Medicine, Vancouver is the “Best Walking City in Canada.”
Oh, really? wonders Mark.
Here in Victoria we take some pride in the walkability of our city, where we have a 24 hour walk mode share of 17% of all trips based on the most recent household travel survey. Looking at 2006 census journey to work numbers, 16% walk to work in the CMA as a whole, with the number rising to 49% of folks living in the City’s central area.
Downtown Vancouver’s rate is probably higher than Victoria’s downtown, but I suspect that at the city and CMA levels, Victoria is more of a walking town than Vancouver.
Coincidentally, Vancouver’s Council will be receiving a report from the Engineers that answers that very question. (You can see the report here.)
They’ve included charts which report that in 2006, about 40 percent of Downtown Vancouver residents walk to work – a very high rate, but not as good as Victoria’s Central Area, which measured close to half.
For Vancouver City, only about 12 percent walked to work, compared to Victoria’s 17 percent:
For Metro Vancouver, a pathetic 4 percent:
Better appeal that award to the Podiatrists, Mark.
The Downtown Vancouver pie chart also reflects the diverse commuting patterns in the region, with 36% of downtown residents either driving or riding in a car to work, suggesting that they work outside the downtown (with a small percentage probably driving to their downtown jobs). That could explain the lower walking numbers (i.e. smaller pool for whom walking is feasible).
The Vancouver pie chart also shows that 57.6% of Vancouver residents – despite having the best transit service in the region – either driving or riding in a car to work.
The Metro Vnacouver pie chart shows 80.9% of regional residents – likely many with poor transit service – either driving or riding in a car to work.
Comparing Vancouver to Victoria is a bit dangerous, however, considering the relatively tiny geographical area that Victoria takes up relative to its region. Imagine what walking statistics for all of Vancouver would be had it kept its original boundaries and not annexed Point Grey West, South Vancouver, etc.
That said, I’m not surprised more of Victoria’s downtown residents walk than Vancouver, simply because I expect a higher proportion of the jobs are downtown. Vancouver really needs to do a better job protecting its downtown jobs now that the housing is there.
The problem with Mark’s argument is this – Victoria isn’t really a city, it’s more of a town. Especially by North American standards.
And as everyone knows, small town folk tend to walk a lot. “Ambling” is what they call it, if I’m not mistaken.