Living in Cochrane: The Good and The Bad

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Is this sarcasm? If not, on what facts do you base this assertion?

I'm close friends with a couple who are currently 8.5 months pregnant, live in Lower Mount Royal, and have no plans to leave the inner-city area after the birth of their child. In my Beltline condo building, there are several families with children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers. There's absolutely no reason why you can't raise a family in the inner-city.

Exactly, I live in Mount Royal as well with a 2 year old and another coming late November. We have no plans of moving. Great place to raise a family. Close to work, Dome, parks, restaurants etc. Couldn't ask for a better area. The only downfall would be it's expensive to get a decent place in the core but I luckily got in before the unsustainable boom.

Living in the suburbs with long Commutes and high auto bills doesn't do it for me but nothing wrong with Cochrane or the suburbs if it works for you. A lot of pros and cons of each but raising kids isn't one of them.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Any acquaintance of one of the people involved. I believe the negotiations started some time ago but, looking at the ring road situation, you can see things don't get done quickly in this department.

One thing is guaranteed, they are going to try cash in with the lease rates, and residents will pay.

There is a reason houses there sell for quite a bit less, there is a risk attached. You can get a much nicer house than for the same price with freehold land ownership.

Yeah there is a portion of the municipal taxes that is placed in an investment fund which will be used for the settlement.

[stampsx2]

Living in the suburbs doesn't have to mean long commutes. The LRT gets you downtown in 20 minutes and you don't have to be woken up by rumbling shopping carts every morning. The average commute time in Calgary is 26 minutes. Even walking to work downtown can take that long.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

The LRT gets you downtown in 20 minutes

I didn't know they started selling condos right on the platform. Cool.

Its a 5 minute walk from anywhere in the park and ride, and at least a 5 minute drive or 10 minute walk or bus ride (usually more) plus wait time for a train (0-5 minutes). Then you have to walk from your downtown station to work.

I live one stop out of downtown. The train ride is only 3 minutes. When you add the 8 minute walk, 5 minute wait, 3 minutes on the train, another 8 minute walk to my building, that's 24 minutes being one stop out of town (which is why I choose the 8 minute bike ride). I really doubt you are pulling off 20 minutes from the suburbs.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

I didn't know they started selling condos right on the platform. Cool.

Its a 5 minute walk from anywhere in the park and ride, and at least a 5 minute drive or 10 minute walk or bus ride (usually more) plus wait time for a train (0-5 minutes). Then you have to walk from your downtown station to work.

I live one stop out of downtown. The train ride is only 3 minutes. When you add the 8 minute walk, 5 minute wait, 3 minutes on the train, another 8 minute walk to my building, that's 24 minutes being one stop out of town (which is why I choose the 8 minute bike ride). I really doubt you are pulling off 20 minutes from the suburbs.

I believe he meant teh LRT "ALONE" gets you downtown in 20 minutes.

I live in Bridlewood and to walk from my door to the bus, take the bus to the Somerset train station and LRT downtown is 45 mins if everything goes perfect and 1:10 if not. (these times are in the summer, in the winter who knows)

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

The average commute time in Calgary is 26 minutes.

I saw that stat as well; if memory serves it was "survey" based. Considering how badly people (can) estimate commute times, I'd say the number is heavily biased on the low side. My commute is less than 7 km with traffic that never stops for anything other than red lights and I'm usually 15ish minutes. That's door to door summer time including the spiral pathway in the parking lot. People seem to never use actual door-to-door numbers when they live in those parasite communities.

On a side note, I saw an amusing article how Calgary Transit is getting f-bombed on their new Twitter account. But I guess issues with maintenance and service aren't helped by people committing suicide-by-train.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

I believe he meant teh LRT "ALONE" gets you downtown in 20 minutes.

I live in Bridlewood and to walk from my door to the bus, take the bus to the Somerset train station and LRT downtown is 45 mins if everything goes perfect and 1:10 if not. (these times are in the summer, in the winter who knows)

But that is clearly the problem, that is NOT your commute time. It's just a fraction of the whole when people quote and think numbers like that. It would be like saying that my commute is just 400 metres and takes just 45 seconds (when all I'm thinking of is doing the spiral down the parking lot.)

I wonder if people purposely under/overestimating things like this is a defense mechanism to help make them feel better rather than face the real numbers. (The not so recent rash of articles about Canadian debt seem to follow that trend as well.)

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, I'm just a numbers guy and I hate it when people are not realistic - I get enough of that at work.


. . . and I remember taking the train when I lived much farther out - I also remember taking it during the winter. It blew chunks on top of the fact that it took even longer than normal.

[calgaryrocks]

just to wade in, I drive from Bonavista, I leave my house at 7 in the summer and get to work between 7:15 and 7:20. when there is snow on the ground it takes closer to 30 minutes, sometimes 40. door to door.

[Bill Bumface]

Helicopters are sweet!

[calgaryrocks]

Originally Posted by fotze

Where do you work, how do you get there?

manchester park, corner of 25 ave and spiller road. ok so its not right downtown,but it is pretty close. its my commute time, doesn't mean I work downtown though. and I drive

[stampsx2]

Yes if we're talking door to door then it takes me 45 minutes. 35 of which is spent texting, being on the internet and answering the phone if i need to. None of which you can do while riding your bike, walking or driving.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Yes if we're talking door to door then it takes me 45 minutes. 35 of which is spent texting, being on the internet and answering the phone if i need to. None of which you can do while riding your bike, walking or driving.

I'm pretty sure you can answer the phone and send/read text messages while walking.

[stampsx2]

^^^ Ok talking on the phone you could. Tried texting and walking twice and almost bumped into people so stopped.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Yes if we're talking door to door then it takes me 45 minutes. 35 of which is spent texting, being on the internet and answering the phone if i need to. None of which you can do while riding your bike, walking or driving.

lol, someones mad his commute time just doubled in the span of two hours.

I think commute times should always be calculated door-to-door. It's disingenuous to do it otherwise. For some reason when people move out to the 'burbs they suddenly only count the time they step onto and off of the c-train.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

lol, someones mad his commute time just doubled in the span of two hours.

I think commute times should always be calculated door-to-door. It's disingenuous to do it otherwise. For some reason when people move out to the 'burbs they suddenly only count the time they step onto and off of the c-train.

I'm beginning to feel that commute time is somewhat irrelevant, partly because it is so inaccurately reported, and partly because if someone perceives their commute as being short (i.e. not a waste of time) then so be it, that's their business. I've met many people who enjoy sitting in their car for an hour a day, listening to Howard Stern or whatever.

It might be more useful to look at actual commuting distances (as on Google Maps) because it can't be fudged plus it more accurately represents the environmental and infrastructure cost of living far from work.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by chemgear

On a side note, I saw an amusing article how Calgary Transit is getting f-bombed on their new Twitter account. But I guess issues with maintenance and service aren't helped by people committing suicide-by-train.

Calgary transit likes to pretend all of the issues are out of there control, but that's not the case. I spent 25 minutes sitting on a train last friday (in >30 degree weather) mostly due to incompentence.

They couldn't get the switch to change from the South line to the NE line remotely. The train driver comes on and announces this, and says they're sending a supervisor. Everybody groans.

15 minutes later, he comes on again. "Uhh, it was a shift change for the supervisors, but someone's coming now." Another ten minutes later we saw the supervisor waddling by. (Waddling is the right word, my 85 year old grandpa with two bad knees walks faster than this guy)

Can that be anything other than incompetence? Why is the shift change for supervisors between 4-5 PM, and if it has to be then, why can't they communicate it with each other. Bunch of idiots.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

lol, someones mad his commute time just doubled in the span of two hours.

I think commute times should always be calculated door-to-door. It's disingenuous to do it otherwise. For some reason when people move out to the 'burbs they suddenly only count the time they step onto and off of the c-train.

Or 30 minutes if you get a ride to the LRT or use park and ride and are actually going to work.

I guess people that ride their bikes should also include locking up bike time, waiting at intersection time and change of clothes and shoes time because technically that's all part of your commute.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Or 30 minutes if you get a ride to the LRT or use park and ride and are actually going to work.

I guess people that ride their bikes should also include locking up bike time, waiting at intersection time and change of clothes and shoes time because technically that's all part of your commute.

I think Hulkrogan was being honest about his time.

[stampsx2]

I think he was too, but just the bike ride part not the door to door part.

Do you shower after riding to work? I hope so.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Do you shower after riding to work? I hope so.

Do you shower after taking public transit? I hope so too!