I work for Mayor Nenshi, ask me anything!

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

doesn't matter if you like it or not, having no available cabs on weekends is pretty much guaranteed to lead to an increase in drunk driving. if you have someone visiting the city, just moved here, or just plain forgot about the abysmal taxi service, do you want to take the chance on them making the right decision after they're 6 pints deep and wanting to head home? it's a situation that can be avoided entirely if the city just gets their #### together and solves this issue. i'm honestly surprised that groups like MADD haven't been pressuring Calgary on this

Bigtime's and MADD's logic are a lot like expecting the problems of HIV infection, STI rates, and teen pregnancy to be solved by draconian laws based on abstenence. Ultimately drunk driving usually isn't a crime that occurs intentionally but rather a by-product of a lack of transportation options, and poor decision making on the margin. The people who actually plan to drink and drive can't be stopped by zero tolerance laws as they are consciously choosing to live outside of the law. Transportation is part of the solution every bit as much as legislation. Ultimately if the city has excellent non-car transportation, naturally drunk driving deaths will go down in addition to many other positive externalities. I don't understand why we have to exclusively focus on punishing people who drink responsibly in hopes of nipping the odd person at the border of drinking responsibly.

Moving back to city issues. Why TF is it that difficult to run C-Trains 24 hours or at the very least until 4 or 5 AM on New Year's Eve/Day? For one day it shouldn't be that much of a budget breaker to pay for a few hours of Overtime/Stat pay to do this. We already run the trains 24/7 for Stampede, why not do this on New Year's as well? This has got to be the low hanging fruit of cost/road casualties saved.

[woob]

How much impact does the NIMBY effect have on proposals put forth by the city? Is it a relatively low occurrence or does it regularly impact proposals and send them back to the planning stage/etc?

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Moving back to city issues. Why TF is it that difficult to run C-Trains 24 hours or at the very least until 4 or 5 AM on New Year's Eve/Day? For one day it shouldn't be that much of a budget breaker to pay for a few hours of Overtime/Stat pay to do this. We already run the trains 24/7 for Stampede, why not do this on New Year's as well? This has got to be the low hanging fruit of cost/road casualties saved.

We can barely keep the train system open on weekends as it is. Running it 22 hours would make sense, but I'm sure the system would collapse within weeks.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by NuclearPizzaMan

We can barely keep the train system open on weekends as it is. Running it 22 hours would make sense, but I'm sure the system would collapse within weeks.

I'm not talking about moving to 24 hour service all the time. Just one additional day! "New Year's Eve/Day"

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by woob

How much impact does the NIMBY effect have on proposals put forth by the city? Is it a relatively low occurrence or does it regularly impact proposals and send them back to the planning stage/etc?

It really varies heavily from community to community. Right now we're trying to completely re-invent how the planning system works, and that will include how and when communities (residents and community associations) participate in the planning process.

Transforming Planning:
http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/Pages/Tran...0Planning.aspx

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Daradon

That's a pretty simplistic view of looking at it. Yes, everyone should be that responsible, but a lot of people aren't and it just isn't as simple as thinking of HOW one will get home. The transit doesn't run that late either and not everyone can get someone to pick them up. Cabs are often the ONLY option. So I guess you would argue, stay home then. Fair enough, but like I said, not everyone will. And is that really a good solution anyway? (It is for fixing drinking and driving, but just continue for a moment...)

The problem is not just for the people who want to enjoy themselves. It's for the merchants, the city's nightlife and the vibe of the city itself. How often do we hear that the city wants to encourage people to spend time and money downtown? How often do we hear that Calgary is dead downtown at nights and weekends? If the city really wants to promote things like that, especially in a healthy and fun fashion, it needs to give these people a way to get back home safely.

For something that seems to have such an easy solution, it sure seems like someone or some organization is making it difficult. And even if your feelings are as you mentioned, you have to know that a lot of people, especially young people won't act the same way you do. They might have done everything right up to the point of wanting to go home, including bringing extra money for cab fare, (and when it costs you an extra 40 bucks, planning like that IS being responsible for many who are young) and simply not be able to get a cab. Many of those people will drive home. Now, as far as preventative measures go, and costs associated with accidents, wouldn't this be a no-brainer?

To add my own question to this topic, I remember Nenshi saying he wanted to implement all night trains at some point when it became feasible. How close are we to that? Obviously that would help immensely, but that would most likely be a cost to the city. Adding more cabs seems like a better option in the short term. (Eventually we do need to get back to all night trains)

Really something needs to be done for night travelers, it's getting worse every year and is approaching the realm of ridiculousness. And you know what, it's not even the party goers, there are people who work at night too. I highly doubt 55 extra cabs is going to help much, a lot of the articles I've read said we need over 300.

I've been very happy with how Nenshi has run the city so far, but this issue is a bit of a thorny one for me. Mostly because, as people have mentioned, it seems to easy to fix. Yes, we all want the cabbies to make a good living, but do we want it so badly we are going to inconvenience hundreds of thousands of people until we find the right balance?

Reposting this as it seems to have gotten skipped, question is halfway down by the bold. Basically just wondering if it's known if 24 hour trains are still a priority. I know Nenshi talked about it as being something he wants to do, it's just obviously an expense and money is very tight. Wonder where it falls and if it's on the radar.

With the problems regarding taxis this would be another option. Really one of the two needs to be done. I would think the taxi thing would be easier and cheaper, but 24 hour trains would be beneficial for many reasons and more people.

[para transit fellow]

no info on my livery services/ Taxi commission question?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Reposting this as it seems to have gotten skipped, question is halfway down by the bold. Basically just wondering if it's known if 24 hour trains are still a priority. I know Nenshi talked about it as being something he wants to do, it's just obviously an expense and money is very tight. Wonder where it falls and if it's on the radar.

With the problems regarding taxis this would be another option. Really one of the two needs to be done. I would think the taxi thing would be easier and cheaper, but 24 hour trains would be beneficial for many reasons and more people.

I don't actually recall him saying 24 hr trains were something he wanted. He very well might have but it's not something I've heard him say. Is there a source somewhere?

There are very few places where 24 hr train service happens due to the simple reality that the time is required to do track maintenance daily.

Running earlier and a bit later might be possible on weekends, but there's always a balance between demand and cost to provide that service.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

Why is the livery services bylaw able to ticket the out of town handibus providers $1,500 for picking up their rural passengers (eg at the tom baker cancer centre) in Calgary and taking them home to airdrie/ cochrane/ chestermere/ high river/ carstairs/ strathmore etc.

Not sure, I can try and dig a bit.

[Daradon]

I just remember it being on one of the local news programs. I believe it was after he was elected, and not specifically part of his campaign.

I could search around for a clip but I doubt I'd find anything.

Agreed that it is a cost issue, and there are probably other costs that are more important right now, I just brought it up cause I was pretty sure I had heard that a while back.

Maybe some of the other posters can help me out with this. Wasn't there a time at least 10 years ago, maybe more, when we did have the occasional train late at night? Possibly (probably) as rare as once an hour, but for some reason I thought I remembered that existing.

Maybe they were just out of service trains, moving them about. But, maybe not.

Yeah, I just brought it up cause it surprised me back when I heard it. It's a great idea if possible, but like you said, cost issue.

As far as maintenance goes, do you know what kind of maintenance is done at nights? It can't take very long as often there is only a 5 hour window or so. Maybe one of the transit buffs know.

[V]

We have crews that work exclusively at night doing maintenance work. We also do maintenance during the day when necessary, but it's more expensive, due to the fact that they are constantly interrupted.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by NuclearPizzaMan

We can barely keep the train system open on weekends as it is.

From what I've seen the system is pretty well used during the weekend. Also, I believe the frequency was bumped up to 10 minutes in the last year or two.

[Tinordi]

What are plans for upgrading bike infrastructure for commuters to downtown?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

What are plans for upgrading bike infrastructure for commuters to downtown?

There's lots planned. The Cycling Strategy specifically focuses on improving bike infrastructure in and out of downtown, including the routes within downtown itself. Council also gave Transportation the full operating and capital budget they requested to implement the program in the 2012 budget. The staff is now hired, and work is underway to implement the strategy.

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation...g-strategy.pdf

A new city-wide network plan is to be developed and implemented.

There's also plans underway for the routes that will be implemented downtown. The first fully separated cycle-track will be on 7th Street - this year with subsequent routes on 8th Ave, 5th Street underpass, 10th Ave (or 1-ways on 11th and 12th) and then future routes to be determined this year.

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation...13_may2012.pdf

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

You are incorrect about pretty much everything. The dogs are dangerous even with great owners. They have no place in public places. Or any place pretty much.

Ignorant statements like this only add to the problem, nothing more than fear mongering!

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

Ignorant statements like this only add to the problem, nothing more than fear mongering!

So you can guarantee your pitbull will 100% not bite or harass anyone?

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

Why is the livery services bylaw able to ticket the out of town handibus providers $1,500 for picking up their rural passengers (eg at the tom baker cancer centre) in Calgary and taking them home to airdrie/ cochrane/ chestermere/ high river/ carstairs/ strathmore etc.

I dont work for the city, but my guess is not just any business can use the City of Calgary infrastructure without paying. A private handibus or any other form of transit has to pay the city of Calgary for use of their infrastructure for their business.

Airdrie for example cant just run bus service to Calgary without first making a deal with the City of Calgary (which they did).

[woob]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

Ignorant statements like this only add to the problem, nothing more than fear mongering!

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

So you can guarantee your pitbull will 100% not bite or harass anyone?

There's a thread to discuss dogs and dog attacks. I think Bunk and the others would appreciate if we don't turn this into that thread.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

Why is the livery services bylaw able to ticket the out of town handibus providers $1,500 for picking up their rural passengers (eg at the tom baker cancer centre) in Calgary and taking them home to airdrie/ cochrane/ chestermere/ high river/ carstairs/ strathmore etc.

So I did a bit of digging:

Short answer is - yest it is an offence to provide vehicle for hire services in the City of Calgary without a valid subsisting licence to do so. If the vehicles is indeed a "Handi Bus" by definition of a bus then Livery Transport Services would not have any jurisdiction in terms of licensing.

The City has a service agreement in place with Cochrane, Strathmore and Okotoks that has been working within the restriction imposed - unlike the City of Airdrie who does have a bylaw and provisions preventing any other vehicle for hire coming into their city to provide services. Calgary's bylaw prohibits these service providers because of service standards (ie - is the driver qualified? is police clearance in place? does the vehicle meet the mechanical requirements of the bylaw? is the vehicle properly insured? etc).

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Bunk

The City has a service agreement in place with Cochrane, Strathmore and Okotoks that has been working within the restriction imposed - unlike the City of Airdrie who does have a bylaw and provisions preventing any other vehicle for hire coming into their city to provide services.

Does that mean that you can't take a taxi from Calgary into Airdrie? Or just that the taxi wouldn't be able to pick up a new fare in Airdrie?