Vancouver is becoming car-free faster than any US city

From Portland to New York, North American cities are exploring how they can persuade more residents to travel by subway, bus, or bike.

Vancouver might be the continent's biggest pedestrian and public transportation success story.

As Citylab notes, people in Vancouver take half of all trips by foot, bike, or transit as of 2015. This is considerably more than any US city of comparable size, including Seattle (21%) and Philadelphia (27%), according to a 2015 United Nations report.

Ten percent of Vancouver's commuters also bike to work (For comparison, that percentage is 3.4% in Seattle and 2.3% in Philly). In the U.S., 0.6% of workers commute by bike, while 5% use public transit.

In a new short film, the nonprofit Streetfilms interviewed key planning officials, who detail how Vancouver became such a success story.

Check it out below:

 

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