Acknowledgments

Behind every book there is a story. In this case, such a narrative in the background of the pages that follow shares something with the diversity that makes cities hotbeds of both creation and frustration. Our collaboration was built upon connecting heterogeneous experience and expertise about cities, development, and mobility. We hoped that our diverse backgrounds and approaches would enable new insight into Canada’s urban trajectory. Yet the resulting disparity also heightened the suspense about where our commitments of time, energy, and labour – significant inputs needed to realize any book project – would wind up in the pages that followed.

What enabled us to prevail through this uncertainty was sheer ­mulish stubbornness that can only be described as faith. We convinced each other that something important would be revealed from creating a new base of understanding about the ways in which Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver had built their expressways and rapid transit. This conviction fuelled our commitment when the interplay between research and writing, the heartening and the disheartening, the energizing and the exhausting, the convivial and the lonely, and the exhilarating and the deflating stretched out over close to a decade.

Now that our results have become clear, we have many people and organizations to thank for their willingness to help us understand what we were doing along the way and support the financial costs of  this journey. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada launched this endeavour through awarding Anthony Perl and Matt Hern one of their subsequently reformed, and much appreciated, Standard Research Grants. Simon Fraser University also awarded Anthony Perl a small research grant to enable the concluding round of research on this investigation. And SFU’s University Publication Fund contributed to the costs of preparing and digitizing the manuscript for publication by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

For Anthony Perl and Matt Hern, the hard work and forbearance of a small legion of research assistants close to home helped them gather the data with which we have worked, and many thanks are due to Vincent Hopkins, Adrienne Kinzel, Samantha Lundy, Jordan Magtoto, Joshua Newman, Michael Ohnemus, Michael Oram, Michael Soron, Bjoern Surborg, and Duncan Wlodarczak for all their work in supporting our investigation. In the later stages of the project Denis Agar produced the maps that help to visualize what we uncovered along the way. We are indebted to all these individuals.

Further afield, in the world of global mobility data where Jeff Kenworthy has built much insight, thanks are due to the innumerable public servants who work in planning and transport agencies around the world and gave of their time and energy over many years to provide important data on metropolitan areas. Without these individuals, of whom there are too many to name, invaluable perspectives on where and how Canadian urban mobility fits into the global scheme of things would not have been possible in this book. A debt of gratitude is also due to Monika Brunetti, Jeff Kenworthy’s research assistant, who made the latest set of global-cities data collection possible through her time-consuming data entry and data-management process.

One would imagine that in a world of exponentially expanding access to online information, it would become easier to obtain the detailed urban data that support much of our comparative analysis. However, it is in many ways the opposite. Owing to the diminution of the government sector generally around the globe, the capacity and willingness of government agencies to assist with data requests are now less than they were decades ago.

Data transparency and ease of access to some items have increased due to the Internet. Perversely, at the same time they have also reduced due to commercial confidentiality issues, seen especially in the attempts to restructure public transport to be more business-like and in some cases to partner with private business. Previously, almost anything one wanted to know could be found in comprehensive, audited annual reports from government public transport agencies. This information has now been fragmented into a plethora of sources involving private operators who are less than willing to share data.

The long and short of global trends is that systematic and carefully assembled urban data in the planning and transport field are impossible to obtain in any country and require years of painstaking assembly. Canada is no exception on this, and indeed the Globe and Mail ran a special feature on 7 May 2019 called “Find the Gap” about the mountain of data gaps that exist in Canadian society. The problems in the transportation field are highlighted on page A11 of this article through a contribution from Jeff Kenworthy.

The grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada made our research and other research support possible. Further appreciation is owed to the Canadian Journal of Urban Research, which published our initial findings on the relationship between the global ambitions and the expressway building of Canadian cities, in an article entitled “Streets Paved with Gold: Urban Expressway Building and Global City Formation in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.” We presented early findings at the annual meetings of the Urban Affairs Association’ held in 2010 (Honolulu) and 2011 (New Orleans) and of the American Association of Geographers held in 2012 (New York).

There were, of course, many colleagues and friends through the years who helped us think through particularly puzzling findings, talked us down from various ledges, advised us out of technical problems, and directed us away from various goose chases. Special thanks are due to Geoff Mann, Am Johal, Brendon Hemily, Richard Gilbert, and Ken Cameron for their support.

At McGill-Queen’s University Press, we immensely appreciated the capabilities and patience of Jacqueline Mason who supported our efforts to make this manuscript as good as it has become, without reminding us of all the time that it took to do so. Our manuscript’s prose was polished and sharpened by Angela Wingfield’s adroit editing and indexing.

As always, it is partners, close friends, and families who bear the brunt of writers’ anxieties, self-absorptions, and long hours. To them we offer our constant gratitude, appreciation, and love.