[FireFly]

I recently took a course with a prof who is a specialist on transit around the world. Apparently, Calgary has one of the top transit systems in North America, and Vancouver's is relatively crappy in comparison. Reasons for this are a number. Per capita, we have one of the highest user rates in NA, with about 200,000 trips/day on our transit. Secondly, because of the Olympics in 1988, and subsequent updates, our transit is not nearly as out of date as it is in many areas. Also, it's not nearly as confusing. (Have you ever seen a map of the NY subway system?! WTF?! How easy for a visitor to get lost there, whereas it's fairly strightforward in Calgary). And one of the biggest reasons that our transit is ranked highly is because of transit 'towns'. Areas where a person lives, and shops, right near transit. Transit becomes more widely used when people don't have to drive for groceries or whatever. The Sunnyside train station is an excellent example of this type of situation. You get off, Safeway is right there, on your way home. To get higher transit usage, train stations need to be built at the same time as the area around them. When a train station is built with a grocery store, shopping mall, and condo complex all within two blocks, the people in the condo complex are very likely to use the train. That's a well built transit system. One that encourages people to use it.

This same prof actually went to a conference in Vancouver to discuss the needed improvements to their transit system, and basically said it's going to take hundreds of millions to fix it, but because they only have 5 years, they'll probably screw it up, and put train stations in places where there can be no transit villages.

Besides, I took the train from Burnaby to a ferry station, and it took 2 hours to get across town. That screams a lack of planning. They have this huge double length bus, but it only goes every half an hour. Stupid. And passes start at $69, but that only gets you around downtown. If you need all three zones, it's $130/month. A $70 pass will get you all over Calgary.