Queen’s University study shows suburban sprawl slowing down in the Prairies | 24CA News
Canada is a suburban nation, that’s the conclusion of a newly-published research from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. Even prairie cities like Saskatoon and Regina have over 70 per cent of residents dwelling in suburban neighbourhoods, however current information exhibits this development is slowing down.
“This came as a big surprise to many people,” mentioned professor David Gordon, one of many co-authors of the Canadian Suburbs Atlas.
“Many see Canada as an urbanized nation, but our study shows that by far suburbs are the way people prefer to live. 78.4 percent of Canadians live in a neighbourhood that can be classified as a suburb.”
A map of Regina displaying city areas in darkish inexperienced, suburbs in yellow and suburbs with lively transit use in gentle inexperienced.
Canadian Suburbs Atlas 2023
Gordon defined that suburbs are each inexpensive and infrequently nice to stay in. Owning your individual home with a bit of land could be very interesting to Canadians.
The research exhibits that, for the primary time ever, suburban growth has slowed down within the final 5 years. According to Gordon, that’s a superb factor.
“Nobody is suggesting that we should never build any more suburbs, but there are significant downsides to them and we need to get better at building them,” Gordon mentioned.
“Otherwise, this lifestyle is not going to be sustainable.”
Gordon defined that suburbs price some huge cash to take care of, have a better environmental impression and restrict mobility. According to him, new developments ought to undertake extra sustainable approaches.
“Saskatoon has been doing well on this front. Developments like Kensington, Stonebridge and Evergreen have a higher density and put a lot less pressure on the existing infrastructure. ”
Suburban growth might have slowed down in each Regina and Saskatoon, however continues to be by far the commonest way of life. 81.8 per cent of Regina residents stay in a suburban neighbourhood whereas 71.1 per cent of Saskatoon residents stay in suburbs.
A map of Saskatoon displaying city areas in darkish inexperienced, suburbs in yellow and suburbs with lively transit use in gentle inexperienced.
Canadian Suburbs Atlas 2023
The research developed an interactive map to indicate the place the city and suburban areas within the cities are positioned. This was in a position to present that individuals dwelling close to a superb public transit line are much more doubtless to make use of it and stay a extra lively way of life.
“We are so grateful for this map that can compare our research to satellite maps. You would need years to show this correlation between the more mobile suburbs and major transit lines,” Gordon mentioned. “It is very obvious if you look at the CTrain in Calgary or the Skytrain in Vancouver.”
By wanting extra in direction of suburban sprawl restore, walkable neighbourhoods and smarter suburb design, Gordon is satisfied that the Canadian way of life might be made sustainable.
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