Quote:
Originally Posted by Doady
Even if its transit is in decline, Chicago still has a huge transit system with a lot of riders. That still makes it easier to build taller compared to most other cities in North America.
I'm not saying transit ridership is the only factor in high-rise construction, but certainly it is more important factor than Chinese money laundering.
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I've even heard the argument that Toronto's traffic problems and lack of faster transit connections between downtown and large swaths of the outer metro area has contributed to the push toward centralization making more people want to live in or near downtown since it would be so hard to reliably access otherwise. This would make sense given that when it comes to supply and demand, how high the demand gets for something partially depends on the presence of substitutes.
In other words, if there's high demand for transportation but the road access isn't expanded then people can use transit like subway or commuter rail as a substitute (or vice versa). But if there's high demand for access to downtown and there's no significant expansion to transportation supply then people can use a closer domicile as a substitute.