I dunno why it didn't occur to me to actually check the list, but it's certainly in favour of my argument. The 70% of sites being eliminated must be province-wide, because 72% of Calgary's listed sites are already playgrounds.
The city has
420 sites listed on their website. Of those,
305 are playground zones. They just don't staff them, because they prefer to staff the ~40 fishing holes on Deerfoot/Stoney/Glenmore/Airport Tr.
Needless to say, this argument that there is no possible increase in safety because there's nowhere for them to go holds zero water. They have a massive number of identified sites that they simply choose not to staff because nailing rental cars in a road with zero pedestrians is more lucrative.
https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/w...e_20200715.pdf
For what it's worth, the playground zone outside my door is not identified, but a nearby school zone is. In 2 years I have not once seen them setup in that school zone, despite being listed. Not once
ever. I'd estimate they're on Airport Trail about 160 days a year. Tell me more about how this isn't a cash grab.