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“Frequent transit is a lot easier for people to use,” said Chestnut. “If you can go and know a bus will show up in five or 10 minutes all the time, it’s much easier to make the choice to use transit — you can depend on that kind of transportation.”

Only New York City ranks higher in proximity to frequent transit, with 93 per cent of the population a 10-minute walk or bike ride away. Toronto is third (85 per cent), Montreal is eighth (75 per cent), and Ottawa is 12th (48 per cent).

Almost 20 per cent of people in Vancouver can access rapid transit in a 10-minute walk or bike ride. Rapid transit was defined as light rail, subway or express buses.

New York once again tops this category, with 48 per cent of people near rapid transit. Vancouver comes in fifth (19 per cent), followed by Montreal in sixth (18 per cent).

Andy Yan, the director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, said sustainable mobility is an important topic that needs to continue to be discussed in Metro Vancouver.

“On the spirit of what they’re trying to do, it’s really important,” said Yan. “It really is talking about sustainable mobility and really how people are getting around to work. However, the challenge for them is they didn’t look at metropolitan Vancouver.”

Yan pointed out that only 25 per cent of the region lives in the City of Vancouver, and while Vancouver does well in terms of access to transit, across the region — which is the area served by TransLink — the situation is different. He said the fact that the region is in the midst of an affordability crisis complicates things.

“I think sustainable mobility outside the City of Vancouver is more important than before,” Yan said.

jensaltman@postmedia.com

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