Here's something kind of fun I've been reflecting on - from my first email June 10, 2010 to Naheed in the early stages of his 2010 election campaign with respect to transportation policy (I helped lead his policy platform creation on Transportation, Transit and Development/Growth stuff).
This led to policy in his platform, which led him to putting forward the creation of RouteAhead
www.routeahead.ca which is where the full Green Line concept emerged as the marquee project.
Quote:
A focused plan to for LRT expansion
Because transportation and transit are very high on the list of issues for people, I think making a coherent and tangible plan for LRT expansion would be a really effective campaign plank. I think a big issue with our "plans" for LRT expansion is the actual lack of a coherent plan. Speaking from my experience watching the goings on in Toronto, watching Mayor David Miller's "Transit City" Plan www.transitcity.ca opened my eyes to this issue. It very clearly identifies LRT lines that are to be built, costing, sequencing and other details. What it really did though was gave politicians at senior levels of government something tangible to grasp on to and support. Soon after the plan was launched provincial and federal dollars flowed. Since, Ontario's bleak financial situation has meant that about $4billion in funding for that project has been delayed unfortunately. Try and find a capital expansion plan for the C-Train that is clear, logical, accessible and easily understood by the public for Calgary. With no plan, there will be no money, and things will be built much more slowly. Calgary needs to create a greater sense of urgency in pushing these big pieces of transit infrastructure forward.
I would suggest coming out with a C-Train expansion plan with a similarly memorable name that can provide the basis for capital investment priorities. Right now, things are done on an ad-hoc basis with SELRT being moved up the priority list through notice of motions and other such shortsighted planning.
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And a tidbit about North Central LRT
Quote:
North Central LRT
The planning for the North-Central LRT is an example of the City where the right hand (transit planning) doesn't know what the left (land use planning) is doing or have competing agendas. While we talk about connecting land use to transit, the proposed routing of the North Central LRT up Nose Creek completely bypasses north central Calgary (110,000 residents) and identified corridors for growth in the MDP, such as the Centre Street Urban Corridor. Centre Street has no chance to develop as a mixed use urban corridor as envisioned without the LRT in place. The line is a least-cost alternative that misses 50% of its potential ridership and only serves suburban and developing communities on the fringe of the city. There is nary a mention of Transit Oriented Development potential in the North Central Calgary Corridor Review. Ridiculous.
http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/no...dor_review.pdf
NCLRT is a great example of how Calgary Transit is stuck in a mentality of transit being a necessary evil that should be done at the least cost possible. The routing of the early LRT system was executed with this mentality. I think that this approach did serve its purpose in getting up a relatively extensive system for little money to build initial ridership, but as we become an actual big city we can simply not plan this way anymore. The planning model needs to shift from one of least-cost to that of greatest long term benefit. In the case of North Central LRT a line underneath Centre Street rather than Nose Creek would quite clearly be more expensive (probably a similar $2 billion cost to Vancouver's Canada line - same overall length and similar length for the underground portion) but its benefit in terms of serving far more people, and being a catalyst for reurbanization of the Centre Street corridor is invaluable in the long term. We're talking about a piece of infrastructure that will be around for more than a century.
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