Quote:
Originally Posted by Knalus
One of the biggest issues I have with Calgary transit is the assumption I don't want to go anywhere but downtown. If I lice in Edgemont, or the Hamptons, and I want to go to the nearest large commercial area, crowfoot crossing, and I don't have a car, I have two options. Take transit downtown, then take it back up to Crowfoot, or walk.
And this city sure as heck isn't built for walking.
If I live in Midnapore, and I want to go to the cheap movie theaters at Canyon Meadows, and I don't have access to a car, well, I might as well admit I can't get there. Transit is now totally focused on the Train, so I would have to walk way out of my way to get to the train station, go one stop, then walk all the way back. I can see the place I want to go, but I can't get there. At one time there was a fallen tree across Fish Creek, but they tore that one down, so now if I was walking, I would have to go through Parkland, or way on the other side of Macleod trail, cross, then head back. What should be a 10 min walk has turned into a 45 min to an hour ordeal. One other option is to cross on the shoulder of Macleod. I tried that once, and took my life into my own hands. I wouldn't recommend an athiest take that route, as divine intervention is practically a requirement. When they were widening the Bridge over Fish Creek, I thought that this would be the perfect time to add a crosswalk. No dice.
It seems City Planners figure you need to buy a car in order to be important enough to consider your transportation needs. That or work downtown.
Anyone running for office should consider ensuring that everywhere in the city should be accessible by foot. No exceptions.
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The essential problem is that Calgary is very uni-centric compared to most other cities. There simply isn't the critical mass of uses, nor the density outside of the downtown core to support a lot of cross-town type transit routes. Yeah, you might want to take transit from Edgemont to Crowfoot Crossing, but there aren't enough people that could be taken by transit on a route like that to make it viable. Not to mention that once you got to Crowfoot, it is fundamentally designed for automobiles with little or no pedestrian amenity and criminally low densities.
What really is needed is the creation of major high density nodes outside of the downtown core, so it makes sense to provide transit for a critical mass of people that would travel between an intense node at say Brentwood across town to a major hub in the west end or NE of town. Then something like a circle LRT route or cross-town BRTs could serve trips like this. You could take a short feeder bus to a rapid transit line and that could connect you to more major destinations not named downtown. In fact the intent was to create a high density node at Crowfoot, but instead it just became a cesspool of big box stores and massive surface parking lots. Simply not transit-supportive development.
Of course, people like McIver love the business as usual approach to growth and planning - lock-step with the suburban development industry.
