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Originally Posted by someone123
I don't have any strong opinions on London ON but I don't think those statistics capture what this NJB person cares about. London will tend to look relatively good on density stats because it has "well packed" development with few geographical barriers (while a place like Stockholm would have a big census tract level density penalty). Commuting transport mode is interesting but doesn't get at urbanism very directly and I wonder how relevant it is in the post-Covid WFH environment. Is work from home a mode or do they shrink the denominator? What if you work from home 3 days and go in 2 days?
For NJB you'd want to look at whether there are vibrant areas of mixed use where people in practice get around on foot or by bike for day-to-day activities (not just commuting). I will leave it to others to debate whether lots of people in London ON live an Amsterdam-like lifestyle that includes things like many short trips to small scale local businesses.
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Vanishingly few people (compared to Amsterdam, which I have been to twice) in London (Ontario, which I currently live in) live an Amsterdam-like lifestyle. There is a pocket downtown with a critical mass of walk-able amenities (with Covent Garden Market being the best example), then there is Wortley Village (which is really great) and adjacent "Old South" neighborhood, with intact 1920s-1940s development spanning a couple of square kilometres.
Some other nice neighborhoods (without the walk-able amenities) aside (e.g., Old North, Old East), that is about it. Much of the rest of the city is a land of stroads, big-box-barf, commieblocks, cookie-cutter snouthouses, and McMansions.
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