Canada: A Suburban Nation … and its changing suburbs

Lots of coverage on the research of David Gordon, director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s University.

Rather than dividing our urban regions into ‘urban’ and ‘rural,’ Gordon defines four classes:

• Exurban – very low density rural areas where over half the workers commute to the central core.
• Auto Suburbs – almost everyone commutes by car
• Transit Suburbs – a higher proportion commute by transit
• Active Cores – a higher proportion commute by walking or cycling

His five-year analysis found that “five times as many Canadians are opting for single-family homes, townhouses or  apartments on ‘the suburban edges’ of those cities rather than downtown condo  living.”

Here’s the coverage in the Montreal Gazette, with a particularly useful infographic of the division of our urban regions – like these cities:

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Not surprisingly Vancouver was distinguished by the relative size of its active cores.   Kelly Sinoski in The Sun:

(The) study suggests the city of Vancouver differs from other Canadian cities, with  an 88 per cent increase between 2006 and 2011 in the population living in what  the study calls “active cores” — neighbourhoods with a 50 per cent higher rate  of walking, cycling or transit than the overall average of the metropolitan  region.

This compares with just 13 per cent population growth in active cores in the  other parts of Metro Vancouver, and just one per cent in Toronto.

However …

“Even in Metro Vancouver, where there was significant population growth in the  high-density condos of downtown, more than three times the growth was in  auto-dependent suburbs.” (Interactive infographic above right can be found in story.)

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It’s not news, really, that the majority of urban growth has been in ‘suburbs’.  That’s where the cheaper available land is.  What’s news in Vancouver is that “the 2011 Census found that over the previous five years, growth in  single-detached houses was just 17 per cent compared with 34 per cent for other  semi-detached or row houses and 48 per cent for apartments/condominiums.”

Some of our suburban cities are in fact more urban than the City of Vancouver: “New  Westminster had the most apartments/condominiums at 69 per cent, followed by  North Vancouver City and the City of Vancouver.”

In other words, the suburbs are densifying, and moving toward status as ‘transit suburbs’ – when the transit is available.  And suburban dwellers willingly embrace it for some of their trips, even as they maintain their cars for others.  Indeed, urban dwellers do the same; only the proportions are different.

Says Patrick Condon:

“Downtown living is something that has expanded throughout the region. The indicator is whether the growth is really capable of being served by  transit. For example, in the city of Surrey, the kind of transit system they’re  going to install there is so important. I’m in complete agreement that light  rail line would make it a city over a suburb.”

That, in essence, is what the referendum on TransLink funding is really about: whether the region will continue that trend or lock its fast-growing suburbs into auto dependence.