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Good points, but isn’t the horse already out of the stable, the die cast, so to speak? The outer city and the suburbs are fully developed with car dependent housing. How do we go about changing somewhere like the Rouge area in Scarborough (Walkability score 42 out of 100) or Princess-Rosethorn in Etobicoke (scored 44) into something like my Cabbagetown neighbourhood and its 93 score? This isn’t Sim City where we can just wipe the map.

Mind you, walkability or not, we still have two cars and a motorcycle. Though one car hasn’t moved in weeks.
Guessing that you own those vehicles because affordability is not a problem.

Zoning reform allowing more small-scale commercial uses and residential intensification in residential zones will help. It's going to take time though. Not sure these are even the worst neighbourhoods, as they are not completely cul-de-sac.
 
Yeah, there's obviously a huge challenge in re-engineering stuff, given we spent the last 75 years building sprawl. Never mind suburbs around Toronto, where you have some transit options, what about places like Peterborough or Brockville, where you literally cannot go anywhere without a car? EV's will help, but they're not a magic bullet, we need to make a lot of incremental change.
 
Most ROWs in the suburbs are so wide that building wider sidewalks and decent bike lanes shouldn't be difficult.
But sidewalks and bike lanes to where? Streets lacking sidewalks entirely aside, lack of sidewalk width is not the reason they’re not used. There’s no where to walk to.

By contrast, from my front door I have the Parliament Street shopping area within a two min walk, two subway stations, two streetcar lines and three bus routes within a five min walk, four or five of the nation’s top medical centres, the Eaton Centre, the Carlton Cinema, Massey Hall and much more within a 20 min walk. Within five mins I can walk to a dozen non-chain, non-fast food restaurants and cafes. There’s little point in having a good sidewalks if there’s no where to walk to.
 
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what about places like Peterborough or Brockville, where you literally cannot go anywhere without a car?
My adult daughter lives in Peterborough and does not drive. She goes all over the place by bus or foot. She walks with her bundle buggy to/from the local supermarket and shops. She tells me she much prefers the pedestrian and transit experience in Peterborough vs. downtown east Toronto due to the lack of what she calls “crazy people” (I assume she means addicts and the insane) and fewer leering pervs and creeps. When we visit, we walk from her place to several nice independent restaurants nearby in the very walkable downtown strip. Due to the high number of Trent U students (tuition includes free transit), the buses in Peterborough are frequent and cover much of the city. Here’s the map.

And homes are affordable in Peterborough. Here’s forty eight listings under $500k. Check out this cute starter home for under $400k https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/24682423/92-ware-st-peterborough-downtown

You definitely do not need a car to live a good life in Peterborough.
 
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I lived car-free in Waterloo for 3-4 years as a student. It was very doable. I will admit, it was largely because I was trying to live inexpensively. It helps that smaller cities are not impossibly huge to get across between walking, transit, and bike.
 
I've never lived in Peterborough, and I'm sure it has a small walkable downtown core. But I think it's pretty fair to say it's unusual to live in cities with that profile without a car, though people do. It's fair to say that it's unusual to live in Toronto without a car too, though a lot more people do (in absolute, not necessarily relative, terms).

I went to school in Waterloo too. From my social circles, it was pretty unusual for any student to have a car, in Waterloo and elsewhere. Cars are expensive!
 
Somewhat continuing the off-topic tangent, just saw a video on how expensive cars are to both owners and society. Kind of shocking, really.

 
Somewhat continuing the off-topic tangent, just saw a video on how expensive cars are to both owners and society. Kind of shocking, really.

I own a 2000 VW, for which I paid $3k in 2015. I work from home, so I drive about 5,000 km per year. My annual costs are as follows:

$212 - Toronto on-street parking permit
$1,200 - Liability insurance (no collision, fire or theft)
$1,000 - Fuel to travel 5k km at $2 per L (less the $0.50/km my employer pays when I visit clients)
$1,000 - Est for maintenance, winter/summer tire swaps

Total annual car expense $3,412.
 
Only 1$k to maintain a 23 year old VW sounds lucky! Oil changes and wear components would be a big part of that figure.
 
Only 1$k to maintain a 23 year old VW sounds lucky! Oil changes and wear components would be a big part of that figure.
At ~5000km/year, that's less than a typical oil change cycle. Even if you do one annually it's like $40-odd. Some components suffer from use - others from lack of use.
 
Most manufacturers recommend oil changes in time or mileage, whichever comes first. I guess on a 23 year old car you can disregard the advice.
 
Only 1$k to maintain a 23 year old VW sounds lucky! Oil changes and wear components would be a big part of that figure.
Oh, she’s had her $3k years in the near past. Starter flywheel shattered after it was stolen, that cost me $2+ k for engine drop. Plus brakes, etc. I got the car for $3k in 2015, and I’ve probably spent $10k in everything from struts, head gaskets, brakes, etc in those seven years. But since I changed to wfh she sits out front covered in leaves.
 
That is 40% more than your estimate, but yeah... most projections of what car ownership will cost you depend on more typical behaviour, like owning newer cars and driving more. Just like home ownership, there are ways to cut your costs.
 
My adult daughter lives in Peterborough and does not drive. She goes all over the place by bus or foot. She walks with her bundle buggy to/from the local supermarket and shops. She tells me she much prefers the pedestrian and transit experience in Peterborough vs. downtown east Toronto due to the lack of what she calls “crazy people” (I assume she means addicts and the insane) and fewer leering pervs and creeps. When we visit, we walk from her place to several nice independent restaurants nearby in the very walkable downtown strip. Due to the high number of Trent U students (tuition includes free transit), the buses in Peterborough are frequent and cover much of the city. Here’s the map.

And homes are affordable in Peterborough. Here’s forty eight listings under $500k. Check out this cute starter home for under $400k https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/24682423/92-ware-st-peterborough-downtown

You definitely do not need a car to live a good life in Peterborough.

Peterborough is my sleeper pick. If HFR gets built, demand to live there will skyrocket.
 

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