Calgary Civic Election Discussion

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

Count me in the anyone-but-Bronco camp. All he knows how to do is tax and whine.

+1


Lets spend more money on the zoo!

[Rathji]

I love Jenkins plan to build a subway downtown, I love those sandwiches!

If I lived inside the city and could vote, I would probably vote for him, he seems like he is only lying out of half of his mouth.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by Addick

You brought up two problems yet you have been stressing the need for a solution to just one; automobile traffic. What about transit? It is the better option and in the long run the easier and cheaper!

Yes, absolutely, lets get some decent transit in this city! I wholeheartedly agree!

Bronco's 6 years have seen Calgary Transit fall further and further behind the needs of this city.

I am chastizing him for both aspects of transportation into the core. The vehicle commute is terrible and so is the transit commute. Personally, I only go downtown for meetings at random times during the week so I lean towards the vehicle commute. But, if the transit system was worth anything, more people would use it. More people use transit, the demand on the roads into downtown goes down, and the vehicle commute becomes more reasonable.

Also, it isnt just commutting downtown that has become horrible. Driving anywhere in this city is terrible.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by Addick

Here's a simple explanation why the city can't just build roads in an attempt to ease congestion:

I dont see why that illustrates that more roads wont decrease congestion.

I get that Additional Development leads to Increased Traffic. Obviously, that is going to happen when 1500 people are moving to your city every month.

Obviously, more traffic leads to more conflict and congestion.

Roadway expansion lessesn the conflict and congestion, allowing more people to move about in the same amount of time as prior to the increase in traffic. There is the increase in capacity.

More capacity means that land values go up. Why? Maybe cause the population is more productive, and therefor more wealthy? Maybe because the city becomes more desirable because a lower portion of one's life is spent sitting in traffic? Regardless of why, I think an increase in land value is a good thing. The more land goes up, the more equity I gain.

I think the cycle above will continue and continue, until such a point in time that only some people can afford the high land prices. Good. A certain number of people will leave or not come here in the first place. At that point, traffic needs stabalize.

Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to me that the diagram illustrates why we should build more roads as a solution to traffic congestion. Of course, as I said in my earlier post, good roads and good a good transit sytem both are crucial; they work hand in hand. In March, I spend a good amount of time in England. Both driving and taking transit was better in London than it is here (But wow, driving / parking was expensive . . . fine with me as long as it is effecient).

[Addick]

Originally Posted by Draug

I dont see why that illustrates that more roads wont decrease congestion...

Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to me that the diagram illustrates why we should build more roads as a solution to traffic congestion...

Induced demand. When an old roadway is expanded, or when a new one is built it attracts new users that formerly used other roads or other modes of transportation. For example, if a new motorway was built along the CPR ROW that enters downtown from the west it could spur new developments past Signal Hill (which is already occurring but would occur at an increased pace) and take away riders from the BRT. In addition, it could also allow some people living in the West, say Signal Hill, who work in the deep south to move to a job in the core. I hope this answers your question! If it doesn't you can PM so we don't hijack this thread, although I'm not too sure if my PM is working properly.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I love Jenkins plan to build a subway downtown, I love those sandwiches!

If I lived inside the city and could vote, I would probably vote for him, he seems like he is only lying out of half of his mouth.

Is that the guy who says he wants 5 car LRT trains in the new "subway"?

What a rocket scientist he is. Are these new monsters just going to drive back and forth in the subway, becuase no platform I know of can handle 5 cars. There is also a power limitation on existing lines.

Good to see people do their homework before running for mayor.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Addick

Widening highways and building more roads to ease congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.

No, but loosening your belt does cure the problem of your pants not fitting. To use your obesity example, what the city needs to do is kick 200,000 people out; ie lose some weight. Are you willing to move to another city?

The problem with your vicious circle is the fact that the city is going to continue to grow; no matter if wider/more roads are built or not. The 90's showed us that quite clearly. So if you are a fat man who is getting fatter; and you know there is no way to stop getting fatter, why wouldn't you buy yourself a bigger belt?

[Antithesis]

I love how Laracque's campaign brochure given out to residents of Ward 3 reads, under accomplishments, "Made improvements to pubic [sic] transportation".

Awesome!

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

I love how Laracque's campaign brochure given out to residents of Ward 3 reads, under accomplishments, "Made improvements to pubic [sic] transportation".

Awesome!

If you look at her website she is taking credit for the 36th/McKnight interchange. The one that was started before she ever took office.

[mykalberta]

I have only ever voted once in my life, the last Federal Election.

I will be voting for Al Noor on the 15th (even though he looks like the Kenyan brother of the high priest from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) because I so despise Bronco.



MYK

[Thunderball]

I'm normally quite politically active, but this election doesn't appeal to me at all, especially since no one is running against that dufus Diane Colley-Urquhart. I'll flip a coin on election day to go vote or not. If I do, I'll probably vote Bronco because the other candidates seem woefully unqualified, or too young to get serious support. Alnoor Kassam seems really sleezy and his grandiose schemes seem unfeasible. West LRT 2010? Yeah right... 2012 at the earliest.

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I have only ever voted once in my life, the last Federal Election.

I will be voting for Al Noor (even though he looks like the high priest from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) because I so dispise Bronco.

MYK

Nothing wrong with that. But why AL Noor? What is your vote based on, outside of a dislike for Brono? What is it about AL Noor that you draws your vote?

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

I'm normally quite politically active, but this election doesn't appeal to me at all, especially since no one is running against that dufus Diane Colley-Urquhart. I'll flip a coin on election day to go vote or not. If I do, I'll probably vote Bronco because the other candidates seem woefully unqualified, or too young to get serious support. Alnoor Kassam seems really sleezy and his grandiose schemes seem unfeasible. West LRT 2010? Yeah right... 2012 at the earliest.

Is it just me or does Alnoor's campaign posters look like they belong more in Gotham city than in Calgary. He looks like a five foot five Danny Divito without the umbrella and top hat. Vote for him if you dare!

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Madman

Is that the guy who says he wants 5 car LRT trains in the new "subway"?

What a rocket scientist he is. Are these new monsters just going to drive back and forth in the subway, becuase no platform I know of can handle 5 cars. There is also a power limitation on existing lines.

Good to see people do their homework before running for mayor.

Jenkins is the guy who says lets make the current LRT system function properly and efficiently before we expand it to all areas of the city. Makes perfect sense to me!

There has never been a stupider plan than what we have IMO: They add cars to the system, but you still only have 3 per train. So you can't fit any more riders the day before or day after the additions! The cars still come every five minutes (just like before), and are still jampacked with people. God I miss the train like a bad flu!

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I will be voting for Al Noor on the 15th (even though he looks like the Kenyan brother of the high priest from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) because I so despise Bronco.

Just be sure that by voting against somebody- you don't end up helping elect somebody else who's ideas are worse for you that the person you are protesting.

As I mentioned earlier I would like to vote against McIvor (mainly for the incident with Shawnski), but the other guy is even more of a tool.

Al Noor scares me. Every thing I've heard or read from him sounds like a personal agenda. Like how he wants to make all secondary suites legal- to me that come off as somebody with a bunch of properties that he'd like to turn into multi family dwellings.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Is it just me or does Alnoor's campaign posters look like they belong more in Gotham city than in Calgary. He looks like a five foot five Danny Divito without the umbrella and top hat. Vote for him if you dare!

Oh man, I almost spat coffee on the screen... it totally does have that Gotham City supervillainy look to it. Especially cause his campaign promises are so clearly unfeasible. Although maybe its more of a Lux Luthor thing...

[surferguy]

I agree with Sandy Jenkins and putting the train underground now. It needs to happen before transit becomes useful again. By having it undergound it will free up restrictions like having to stop at the lights on 7th making the system much more efficient.

The current plan to upgarde to 4 car platforms on 7th, then go underground eventually i sjust plain stupid. Right now more cars are being added to the line. Seems good - more cars = more carrying capacity, but when all of those trains need to go through the same sets of lights on the bottle neck of 7th ave it just doesn;t work. Its a band aid on a already stressed system.

Bury it now! Do it once, do It right. I can see Mike Holmes banging his head against a crappy Alberta built wall right now.

[Bobblehead]

I really hope people don't vote based on people's campaign posters.

Please look up the candidates views to see if you agree.

The thing is, if it was easy to get transit working flawlessly in 2 years I'm sure it would be done. Just saying that is what they want to do is meaningless. HOW are they going to try and achieve this?

I'm sure in everyone's job they have seem people come in confident that they are going to solve a bunch of problems, but once they get into the position and actually see the ramifications of what they propose they soon discover how really difficult it will be.

I'm not saying this to support the status quo, more to point out that just because someone says they want to fix all the traffic, the LRT, add police, and fix all the arenas doesn't mean they have any real idea on how to live up to those ideas.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Slava

Jenkins is the guy who says lets make the current LRT system function properly and efficiently before we expand it to all areas of the city. Makes perfect sense to me!

There has never been a stupider plan than what we have IMO: They add cars to the system, but you still only have 3 per train. So you can't fit any more riders the day before or day after the additions! The cars still come every five minutes (just like before), and are still jampacked with people. God I miss the train like a bad flu!

Actually if you ride the train regularily the real reason they can't run trains properly is actually due to level crossings downtown. They wait at lights and during times of congestion it takes a full 5-10 minutes to get from Sunnyside station to 8th street and an addtional 5-10 minutes to get out of downtown wating for signals between stops, at times trains get log-jammed waiting their turn to get into downtown. They can run 6 cars on one train and it'll make no difference timewise or efficiencywise and only provide minor capacity additions. The multiplier effect will work on capacity if they tunnel underground or go above ground with it like Chicago and make it less than 5 minutes to get into, through, and out of downtown. At that point they can just send more trains at even tighter intervals improving efficiency. I understand the massive costs (Quite possibly in the billions of doing this) but this is the ONLY way to make transit work properly. Anything short of that is posturing and dithering and completely unacceptable for a city our size.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I really hope people don't vote based on people's campaign posters.

Some people invariably do. Such is life with granting the franchise to anyone and everyone.

But thats not the case here, its just funny how his posters back up the ridiculous and concerning platform that he has.