Other Forum Issues

[tomh009]

What makes a residential area suburban rather than urban? In my mind a suburb typically ...

• Is lower density
  
• Has street patterns that discourage direct transportation (crescents and cul-de-sacs rather than a grid pattern)
  
• Has houses with attached garages, as a result of car-centric transportation
  
• Shopping in proximity is car-centric (strip malls or similar) rather than pedestrian-centric
  

Based on these criteria, the suburban form in our region really took over in the 1960s, although some 1950s areas have suburban characteristics as well. Most of the residential areas bounded by the expressway, Westmount and the Waterloo border would be urban, based on these criteria, and some other neighbourhoods (such as those near King St E beyond the expressway) would be as well.

The commercial urban areas are a bit different, but, again, the car-centricity would be a key criterion in my mind.