Canada's Coolest Cities examines what Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver are doing to encourage low-carbon transportation choices, such as walking, cycling, taking public transit and travelling shorter distances.

The study found that Canada's six largest urban areas are making efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, but must do more to promote green urban design and low-carbon transportation choices.

"Each city has taken positive steps, but they're struggling to keep pace with urban sprawl," said report co-author Alison Bailie.

Case Studies on each of the cities studied are available below. For the complete report findings, read the Coolest Cities Technical Report. For an overview of the findings, see the Coolest Cities Results Summary.

Calgary

Cool Fact: In 2007, the City of Calgary finished imagineCALGARY, which engaged more than 18,000 Calgarians in a conversation about the future of the city—the largest visioning process ever undertaken by a city.

Challenge: More than 75% of commuters in Calgary and the Calgary Census Metropolitan Area commute by personal vehicle, with the significant majority carrying only a single occupant.

Success Story: The City of Calgary's transit trips increased by 18% from 2002 to 2006, almost double the population growth of 10%.

Download the Calgary Case Study.

Edmonton

Cool Fact: A demonstration project set up by the City of Edmonton, LocalMotion Challenge, encouraged residents of one neighborhood to decrease automobile travel by 14,000 kilometres in one month, a decrease of almost four tonnes of carbon dioxide per household.

Challenge: Commuters in the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton region rely mostly on personal vehicles for travel, and their commute distances are increasing.

Success story: Edmonton has the highest number of bike paths per capita of the six cities studied.

Download the Edmonton Case Study.

Montreal

Cool Fact: The City of Montreal introduced Canada's first self-service bike rental network, BIXI, in 2009. Bike stations are located throughout the city. Riders can take a bike from one station and return it to any other. In the first season, more than one million trips were taken with BIXI bikes.

Challenge: The Montreal Census Metropolitan Area appears to be growing in the wrong direction; between 2001 and 2006 the percentage of people living in neighbourhoods with medium residential density decreased.

Success Story: In 2006, the City of Montreal had the highest percentage of commuters choosing to walk, bicycle or take transit.

Download the Montreal Case Study. The Montreal Case Study is also available in French.

Ottawa

Cool Fact: The City of Ottawa introduced a pilot bike share program in the summer of 2009. The project consisted of 50 bikes and four stations and generated more than 5,000 trips in its three-month trial period.

Challenge: A relatively high percentage of the population in the Ottawa-Gatineau area live in low-density neighbourhoods.

Success Story: The City of Ottawa has added 177 hybrid diesel-electric buses to its fleet, accounting for almost 20% of its full-sized buses. Each hybrid bus is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 38% compared to a conventional diesel bus.

Download the Ottawa Case Study.

Toronto

Cool Fact: The Toronto area contains the highest concentration of high-rise buildings in Canada (the second highest in North America).

Challenge: Toronto's Census Metropolitan Area is relatively less cool than the City of Toronto, with much lower use of transit and less walking and biking.

Success Story: In 2006, the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area had the highest percentage of residents (64%) living in medium-density neighbourhoods of the urban areas studied. Toronto also has among the highest percentage of people taking transit in the country.

Download the Toronto Case Study.

Vancouver

Cool Fact: Vancouver is aiming to be the Greenest City in the World by 2020. The City has ten specific goals on green economy, green communities and human health.

Challenge: The Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area, which covers a much larger geographical area than the City of Vancouver, has higher population growth but a smaller percentage of commuters using transit, bikes or walking.

Success Story: In 2006, the City of Vancouver had the largest percentage of commuters travelling by walking or cycling of the six cities in this study. As of 2008, Vancouver had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, even though its population grew by 27%.

Download the Vancouver Case Study.

References for each of the cases studies are available here.