23 responses so far ↓

• 1 IanS // Aug 15, 2011 at 1:18 pm

  I would imagine that the downtown ares have a lower transit use because people walk to work.

• 2 gmgw // Aug 15, 2011 at 1:30 pm

  The West End has long been absurdly over-serviced by transit, especially during rush hours. It’s not uncomon to see two or three Davie buses in a row pass by on Granville, with the latter two being all but empty. The situation used to be the same with the Robson buses– and may still be; but I don’t even know what route they follow through downtown these days (via Burrard??).

  Meanwhile buses on the Granville Corridor, as well as on the perpetually under-serviced 4th/Dunbar routes, are jammed to the doors during rush hours, so much so that drivers are forced to routinely pass people waiting at stops. This has been a fact of life for riders on these routes for so long that I think they have adopted an air of fatalism, as in: Things haven’t improved in twenty years, so why expect them to change now?

  In any case, I think that any able-bodied person worth his/her salt who lives in the West End and works downtown should be commuting via shank’s mare (or via bicycle, if you prefer). I lived west of Denman for seven years back in the 70s/80s and it never occurred to me to take to the bus from/to downtown. Mind you, I used to run 50K a week in those days, back when I had fully functional knees… ah, youth. So fleeting. But given the paltry distances involved, I repeat my argument that the West End is over-serviced by transit. And no, I don’t expect that to change.
  gmgw

• 3 CTS // Aug 15, 2011 at 1:30 pm

  I’d add in walk to work and see how that changes things, as an unusually high number (compared to other cities) of downtown workers walk

• 4 Tiktaalik // Aug 15, 2011 at 1:33 pm

  @1 Yeah I think that makes sense. The downtown core has lower bike commuting numbers than many other Vancouver neighbourhoods as well, likely for the same reason.

  http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/vanmap/5241714/story.html

  You can see clearly that transit ridership areas are along where the rapid transit Skytrain and Canada Lines are. Folks love their trains.

  All of these maps are super interesting.

• 5 spartikus // Aug 15, 2011 at 1:39 pm

  I would imagine that the downtown ares have a lower transit use because people walk to work.

  Yep. (Chad Skelton has a map for that too).

• 6 jesse // Aug 15, 2011 at 2:34 pm

  The ridership on the west side is decidedly lacking, given UBC students who live off-campus. It’s too obvious to me that improving ridership on the west side should be the region’s goal, at least so says Cartesian geometry.

• 7 ThinkOutsideABox // Aug 15, 2011 at 2:50 pm

  Something’s off. It’s either me not getting it, or some type of misinterpretation.

  On the map spartikus links to, the top 5 walking neighbourhoods are in the West End. Yet overlayed on the map for people who work close to home, the top 5 neighbourhoods only show three in the West End?

  Presumably people who walk to work, work closest to their home, no?

  It will be interesting to see what the new stats show as we’ve had a bit of a socio-economic sea change since 2006.

  Frances or anyone, any idea when we will have new figures to look at from the recent census?

• 8 ThinkOutsideABox // Aug 15, 2011 at 2:52 pm

  Let’s try that link above again:

  map for people who work close to home

• 9 spartikus // Aug 15, 2011 at 3:19 pm

  Frances or anyone, any idea when we will have new figures to look at from the recent census?

  It’s scheduled for February 2012

• 10 Bobbie Bees // Aug 15, 2011 at 4:24 pm

  I live four blocks away from work. It takes me 10 minutes to walk either way. I live across the street from the seawall. I’m 11 blocks away from Downtown (Robson and Granville). If I want to go see a movie at Tinseltown I either hoof it or ride my bike. I rarely ride downtown as the extra few minutes isn’t worth the hassle of putting up with over-stressed car drivers and a lack of secure bike parking at my destination.
  When I go figure skating at Kits or Britannia I will ride. And generally if I’m going anywhere really past Main Street or West 4th I’ll ride. Other than that I walk.
  I did live with a room mate not too long ago who would actually drive from the apartment we shared 6 blocks to Pacific Centre and then bitch and moan about traffic and parking and how I wasn’t pulling my fair share becuase I wasn’t paying insurance, or gas taxes. Blah, blah, blah….

• 11 Bobbie Bees // Aug 15, 2011 at 4:35 pm

  Oh, and GMGW, the #5 Robson bus and the #6 Davie bus are one in the same.The #5 Robson Leaves Davie and Denman and heads downtown to Pender and Homer where it turns around and heads back to Davie and Denman still as the #5. Once at Davie and Denman it changes into the #6 Davie and heads along Davie to Granville. It then turns down Granville to Cordova where it then heads up Richards back to Davie. It then heads to Davie and Denman where it becomes the #5 Robson again. It repeats this cycle over and over.

• 12 A Dave // Aug 16, 2011 at 12:15 am

  I compared a few downtown numbers for a report a little while ago. What jumped out at me was that a whopping 58% of Yaletown/Beach Ave residents drove automobiles to work (30% walk/bike), and 55% of False Creek South residents drove (23% walk/bike).

  Compare that to only 22% of Gastown/Chinatown residents driving to work (33% walk/bike; 43% transit), or 36% for the Denman area (45% walk/ bike).

  This data suggests to me that commuting mode is also partly based on socio-economics. Also, single family residential neighbourhoods generally have much higher numbers of drivers on the West Side vs. the East Side, where transit is more often used (ie. Victoria-Hastings has 30% transit commuters vs. Alma-10th with only 15% transit).

  But you’re right TOTB, there’s been a fair bit of change since 2006, with new bike lanes and the Canada Line. And sooner or later, soaring gas prices are going to really change things…

• 13 Eric // Aug 16, 2011 at 12:49 pm

  I’m surprised that Chad got permission to use Statistics Canada’s census tracts and census data in an interactive map. I’ve found that mapping data in this format often violates usage agreements you have to sign with Statistics Canada in order to use their data.
  This problem doesn’t exist in the US where mapping census data is free and easy to do. You also don’t have to pay to gain access to most census data. Compare this to Canada and it really limits what map makers can create and share with the public, and thus limits the opportunities for research, discussion and learning via mapping.

• 14 Shane // Aug 16, 2011 at 4:19 pm

  Well – the map showing % of folks working close to home shows you who should pay higher property taxes to pay for the transportation network.

• 15 Michelle // Aug 16, 2011 at 8:21 pm

  Apropos, re. Downtown…WestEnd we live in Vancouver (westside) and will have a big Birthday party on Saturday. Usually we were doing a lunch @ a downtown restaurant, followed by a Seawall walk and photo op, later in the evening we would go somewhere on Denman for a snack , cake and coffee. I am talking about a 20+ party here. Not anymore. The Parking hassle that Vision Vancouver have created in downtown, the way they are treating its citizens and the fact that none of us will vote for this group of clowns, made the choice real easy for us. We’ll be going to the Spanish Banks/ 4th and on Broadway later on. When the Westenders will realise one day that business are relocating outside their area…that’s why. Ta da

• 16 Michelle // Aug 16, 2011 at 8:23 pm

  One more thing. Feels good doing it on4th/ Broadway. Who knows when this is going to be f#$%ed up by Vision, they still have a few months to screw that one up, right?

• 17 Bobbie Bees // Aug 16, 2011 at 8:40 pm

  Michelle, what the heck are you talking about?
  What feels good? As Faith No More once asked, “What is IT” and why are you doing “it”?

• 18 Bobbie Bees // Aug 16, 2011 at 9:30 pm

  Shane, I’m all in favour if introducing distance based charges for motorists.
  Fit a special meter into the vehicle and charge drivers three or four dollars per kilometre.

• 19 gmgw // Aug 16, 2011 at 11:51 pm

  @Michelle #15:
  “Why don’t we do it/in the road…”
  gmgw

• 20 Bill McCreery // Aug 17, 2011 at 12:59 pm

  It’s also interesting to look at the higher transit ridership vis a vis densities, eg: Marpole, Kerridsale, etc., even Mt Pleasant, where there are concentrations of higher density apartments. Some of these areas are not on a transit line or even a decent bus service.

• 21 Bill Lee // Aug 17, 2011 at 5:12 pm

  The Chad Skelton , Vancouver Sun maps were more than biking.
  See his blog, twitter and external links to Chicago Tribune and other sites for census related scraping.
  Still, until you know the individual Census Tracts, it should only be an impression.

  And curse Industry Minister Tony Clement for making the 2011 Long Household Form a farce, a non-reliable data set for the next ten years. Idiot!

  See all Chad Skelton’s themes. [ Subject and their intriguing headline ]
  http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro-mapped/index.html

  Metro Vancouver Mapped Metrotown the most transit-friendly neighbourhood in the region

  Walk to Work
  About 40 per cent of West End residents walk to work

  Car commuting
  Langley neighbourhood has highest rate of commuting by car

  University
  Whalley neighbourhood has fewest university degrees per capita

  High school
  Surrey neighbourhood has most high-school dropouts

  Babies
  Surrey neighbourhood has most babies per capita

  Young Children
  West End has fewest young children in Metro Vancouver

  Tweens
  Fraser Heights neighbourhood has most tweens
  A neighbourhood in Surrey’s Fraser Heights has more “tweens” per…

  Teenagers
  Neighbourhood in Surrey’s Fraser Heights has most teenagers per capita

  Seniors
  White Rock neighbourhood has most seniors per capita

  Income
  Rosemary Heights in Surrey is richest place in Metro Vancouver

  Immigrants
  In one Richmond neighbourhood, 80 per cent of residents are immigrants

  Speak English
  More than a third of Chinatown residents can’t speak English

  Home size
  North shore, Surrey have region’s biggest homes

  Renters
  Downtown Eastside has most renters

  Average Rent
  West Vancouver has Metro’s priciest rents

  Apartments
  In some suburban neighbourhoods, apartments as common as in West End

  Work/Life
  Port Moody residents least likely to work close to home

  Single Parents
  Single parents most common in suburban centres and aboriginal reserves

  Home Values
  Shaughnessy homes ten times as expensive as those in Guildford

• 22 ThinkOutsideABox // Aug 17, 2011 at 9:42 pm

  University
  Whalley neighbourhood has fewest university degrees per capita

  Coincidentally, this map of university degrees shows an east west divide of Vancouver along Main St. that also correlates generally to the snap shot from a few years back of real estate values.

• 23 Norman // Sep 1, 2011 at 6:28 am

  The West End deosn’t really have that much bus service. Not in terms of frequency, but routes. North-South there’s Denman, then all the way to Burrard. After that, there’s Howe, Hornby, Granville, Seymour, Richards. East-West, there’s nothing between Davie and Robson, is there? You can’t take a bus that isn’t there. After 6:00PM you will wait a long time between buses on Davie.