Quote:
Originally Posted by HotHotHeat
Try Vancouver if you want a real shat show.
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Disagree.
Vancouver's system is quite a bit better, I've used both extensively. Calgary's is only good at doing one thing, getting someone from most areas of the city to downtown or back. Trying to go east-west or north-south in various parts of the city is a nightmare if you aren't on a line heading to or away from downtown.
Vancouver's on the other hand has transportation hubs in all the surrounding cities which are connected by Skytrain which does a loop instead of the typical Calgary system of piping people from the suburbs to downtown via C-Train but providing no C-Train routes for any other possible direction. Through the Vancouver Skytrain it is fairly easy to go from Vancouver to Burnaby to Coquitlam to New Westminster to Surrey, etc. Skytrain does not use drivers and they appear to have spent the extra money saved by this on security and have much better security as a result. Skytrain also is suspended above street level and therefore is not affected by traffic or people walking into or getting hit by the trains while walking across the street. Also Vancouver transit has several bus routes that run til 4 in the morning on weekends which is an excellent deterrant for drinking and driving.
I often talk to people about how the Vancouver system is much better. Surprised you feel differently I'd be shocked if most people who had tried both extensively would agree with your assessment.
Cons about the Calgary system
- C-Train at street level slows the whole C-Train system down via the crosswalks and lights downtown especially
- C-Train at street level allows for a much higher probability of accidents which both can injure or kill people and slow the whole system down
- C-Train requiring drivers may have some correlation between the lack of transit security in Calgary versus the Skytrain in Vancouver. These concerns about transit security have caused a proposal that the free fare zone in downtown be shut down to prevent some security issues
- The Calgary system is horrible for going directions that aren't directly to or away from downtown
Now of course there are probably some great engineering reasons why we can't have tunnels or an above street level C-train but trying to say that system is superior is something I can't agree with.