Before I begin, I must stress that as a born-and-raised Vancouverite, I will always firmly believe that this is the best place on earth. However, just as one might lovingly point out the shortcomings of a partner or child in hopes that they will learn, I, too, have to admit when my city fails to live up to its potential…During a recent trip to Australia, my fiancé and I spent a week in Sydney and stayed with a friend with whom we had studied at UBC, thus becoming temporary locals. As such, we had a chance to bypass the touristy facade of the city and immerse ourselves in the reality that those who call it home experience on a day to day basis.I was immediately struck by just how identical Sydney and Vancouver were. For one, both cities are plagued by many of the same social and economic issues, organised crime and housing crises exacerbated by greedy landlords chief among them. At least in Vancouver there are restrictions in place that cap the amount rents can be increased every year, a basic right not enjoyed by Sydneysiders borrowing their living spaces.Save for a lack of mountains in Sydney, the geography was remarkably similar as well; both had relatively small downtown cores, endless coastlines, north shores, and sprawling suburbs. The layout was reversed, though, and I often felt as though someone had placed Vancouver on the east coast and turned up the heat. The central business district teemed with diversity, however further out into the suburbs I noticed that the population became less varied. Also, just as we have Surrey and Abbotsford, Greater Sydney has areas in the southwest where conflicts between rival gangs play out and others are warned to avoid going there lest they become unwitting victims.Regardless of where one goes in Sydney, it is almost certain the destination can be reached via public transportation the likes of which those of us in BC could only dream of. The city has an impressive network of trains, metros, trams, buses, and ferries that makes Vancouver's system feel like that of a small town..The most impressive of the aforementioned modes of transport were the interurban trains and ferries, which whisk passengers over land and sea at a frequency I found quite impressive. There are nine train lines, almost all of which pass through the CBD. Some go east to west, others north to south, and a few even make a U shape. A total of ten ferry lines connect coastal communities with the city..Meanwhile over here we have one interurban railway line and one major ferry service. The West Coast Express runs between Mission to the east and downtown Vancouver a few times every weekday morning, and makes return journeys in the evening. The SkyTrain, Vancouver's main form of rapid transit, was inaugurated in 1986 and while it has expanded its coverage in recent decades, it remains woefully inadequate to handle a growing metro. The SeaBus, which first set sail in 1977, travels from downtown up to North Vancouver's Lonsdale Quay every 30 minutes, 15 during peak times. Aside from that, we do have Aquabus and False Creek Ferries both servicing the body of water of the same name, but they hardly count. Vancouver hasn't always been this way. Until the mid-1900s there was an extensive network of interurban trains operated by BC Hydro traversing nearly every neighbourhood from Vancouver to Chilliwack. There are also a number of ferry services that no longer exist, such as the beloved Albion Ferry that connected Maple Ridge and Fort Langley.The death of both the interurban network and the ferry came at the hands of the automobile, which officials decided should take priority. All of a sudden, new paved highways and bridges rendered those modes of public transportation, in the minds of those who probably never had to ride them, obsolete. Those who relied on them were forced to either hop on less-enjoyable buses, or buy cars and start driving.Sydney is a very car-friendly place, but unlike in its Canadian counterpart, officials there realised that freeways shouldn't come at the expense of public transportation. The two cities had similar-sized networks by the end of the 1930's, though in Sydney it was slightly more sophisticated, however the following decade their plans diverged. One chose to hold, and the other folded. Fast forward nearly 100 years, and it's easy to see whose bet paid out..I often wonder how Vancouver would look had officials not opted to shortsightedly sacrifice public transportation at the altar of the automobile. Reddit user InfiNorth mapped it out, and after looking at what could have been, it's honestly embarrassing to see what is. Greater Sydney has a population of over 5 million, while Greater Vancouver is home to half that. This is worth noting not to defend our comparative lack of public transportation, but to point out that the current 2.6 million is set to nearly double by 2050, bringing with it the need for more services. Officials are slowly waking up to a reality Sydneysiders understood a century ago, but it may be too late. At this point, a miracle is our only hope of having a Sydney-level network to deal with a near-Sydney-level population.Both Sydney and Vancouver are world-class cities, their natural beauty and active lifestyles celebrated by visitors and locals alike, however they are not without their faults. While the latter may beat the former on some fronts, when it comes to moving people around, there is no contest, which pains me as I know it didn't have to be this way…
