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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
Good post--my one caution is how you interpret high ridership--one way to look at it is that a lot of people riding the LRT just confirms that the market is underserved in terms of public transit infrastructure.
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Definitely underserved. The biggest factors for Calgary's high ridership are the highly centralized workforce in the downtown core and a parking policy since the 1960s that has restricted supply. The big issue with many other cities is that employment is all over the metro area and increasingly in car-oriented business parks on the suburban fringes where land values and taxes are lower and parking is free. The nature of Calgary's energy sector is such that they like to cluster - also Calgary as a unicity has not had to deal with undercutting suburban municipalities trying to lure out employment.
The next step as I said is to link up all parts of the city currently not served by LRT and start making more cross town connections.