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Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek
I see your point and I agree for the most part. Canadian cities are on a different level than American cities when it comes to transit ridership, and we should be looking at Europe for precedents instead of down south. Last I checked after NYC, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver take the next 3 spots for highest public transit ridership despite being smaller than Chicago and the cities in California and Texas.
Also, even though Winnipeg’s peak ridership in 2019 was “only” 50 million boardings, it still punches well above its weight in ridership per capita with roughly 62.5 trips/capita. Higher then Philadelphia and Portland while being on par with Chicago for reference. Not to mention the city is back to 90-95% pre pandemic levels in terms of ridership so hopefully they can get those BRT extensions going ASAP.
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Winnipeg got close to 50 million revenue riders (linked trips) but in terms of boardings (unlinked trips), it was around 70 million, so it was closer 100 per capita if you want to compare to US cities.
I think you cannot directly compare the rail infrastructure (or lack thereof) of smaller European and Canadian cities because the streets in historic European city centres are much smaller. They lack the capacity to handle a large volume of bus riders, which is not a problem in Canadian cities because they have wider and longer roads with a clearer hierarchy.
In both Canada and Europe, we build the transit that we actually need. If system is not overcrowded, then we will continue to use what we already have. Quebec and Halifax are examples of systems that will struggle to increase ridership if they do not invest in rail. BRT would be a waste of money in both of these cities.
I am happy to hear Winnipeg Transit is close to 100% recovery. Brampton was the first last year, and Mississauga was the second earlier this year. I like Winnipeg's modest approach, BRT, mix of transitway and on-street, some grade separation at busy locations, just building what they actually need, nothing too crazy. I've become wary of ambitious transit projects with all the massive delays and cost overruns of the various LRT and subway projects in the Toronto area.