I work for Mayor Nenshi, ask me anything!

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by Addick

In regards to NYE, does it have to be either or? Even in London and Paris they get a corporate sponsor to cover at least part of the cost of providing late-night service on NYE. And while they do have larger audiences, they also have larger and more costlier to operate systems.

Oh I agree, from the viewpoint of idealism anyway. Ideally there's funding, resources and political will (i.e. probably more appetite for tax increases to pay for services) to make public transit part of the fix to the New Years Eve problem as well as provide badly needed service during peak and off peak weekday hours. Realistically, improvement strategies have to be weighed against each other because funding and political will for overall improvements are lacking.

With the corporate sponsor thing, although I would be interested to see it explored, out of hand I'm not sure there would be as much appetite for it in Calgary as in London or Paris just based on the cultural differences on how public transit is valued in those specific settings as well as the approach to corporate partnerships . I think you can cultivate that with time and it is something I would like to see, but that's a much broader issue. In that vein, there are some interesting things being done in some cities, Montreal for example, with engaging with retail businesses and corporate partners in their transit loyalty smartphone app.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by V

That's what I'd be interested in knowing. Surely there's enough data out there from the Stampede service. I'd be curious to know if the City has compiled the costs and benefits associated with additional service during Stampede. Ridership and costs are easily quantifiable, the social benefits are obviously less so.

Here's an article from today's Metro.

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/898...transit-trial/

Estimated $350 000 to extend train and bus service to 2 AM on New Years Eve with an estimated additional uptake of 2000 people. $175 per head based on those estimates.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

What? You're mixing up operations and capital expenditures/budgets.

Annual transit service hours don't directly relate or compete with capital projects like 8th Avenue Subway.

I wasn't confusing them. That was exactly my point. You mentioned trains being full during the weekday rush. That will be the case whether or not we have extended late-night service.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

To make it effective, you have to have feeder buses running from the train stations because you can't just take a bunch of drunk people out to a train station and leave them there because for a lot of those people, they're still nowhere near their residences.

Does it though? It seems to work during Stampede?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Here's an article from today's Metro.

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/898...transit-trial/

Estimated $350 000 to extend train and bus service to 2 AM on New Years Eve with an estimated additional uptake of 2000 people. $175 per head based on those estimates.

Maybe a Christmas day level of service would be an appropriate compromise between just the train and full service.

If it's good enough for Christmas, surely it's also good enough for late night?

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Does it though? It seems to work during Stampede?

That's what I was getting at earlier. I'm not really sure if it does work during Stampede, at least not in the way it would have to work to solve the problems associated with New Years Eve.

It could just be that 24 hour LRT service during Stampede is a gimmicky service to go along with the City's promotional rollout for the event that is marginally effective in actually solving any sort of problem with public safety (i.e. drunk driving) and is moreso a solution geared toward traffic and parking management on and near the Stampede grounds via Park & Ride lots.

[CaramonLS]

350k just sounds horribly inaccurate. I'm not understanding how those costs are calculated.

[para transit fellow]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

350k just sounds horribly inaccurate. I'm not understanding how those costs are calculated.

Try $100/hr per bus for two hours then it's a question of how many buses do you need to cove 800 square km....

[cam_wmh]

And that it's either, all of the buses or none of them.

What would it cost to operate the C-Train for an additional 2 hours.
$20,000?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

And that it's either, all of the buses or none of them.

What would it cost to operate the C-Train for an additional 2 hours.
$20,000?

Well the old ad campaign invited us to "ride the wind" because it was all wind-powered, so at least that part is free!

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well the old ad campaign invited us to "ride the wind" because it was all wind-powered, so at least that part is free!

This is a joke, right?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by SebC

This is a joke, right?

Just not a very good one!

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

Try $100/hr per bus for two hours then it's a question of how many buses do you need to cove 800 square km....

Well, I sure hope they wouldn't be running close to 1500 buses concurrently between those times for 2000 people!

Considering we have 956 buses in the entire fleet.

[trew]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I think you should lobby the local Councillor Druh Farrell - I think she'd ultimately be the one to initiate a review/change.

Funny. I talked to Drew and she said to lobby the Mayor's office about the crosswalk. (Something about Memorial Drive being a city matter and outside her domain).

[para transit fellow]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Well, I sure hope they wouldn't be running close to 1500 buses concurrently between those times for 2000 people!

Considering we have 956 buses in the entire fleet.

i don't know how much LRT costs per hour....but why are we spending a quarter milion in an evening for the benefit of 2000 people? n.b. $100/hr is the regular rate.... doesn't include the extra cost of working on a holiday.

what i don't understand... the province cracks down on 0.05% as a benchmark for intoxication.... but the municipality foots the bill for preventive measures... This discussion would be different if there were provincial dollars for operation of transit.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

i don't know how much LRT costs per hour....but why are we spending a quarter milion in an evening for the benefit of 2000 people? n.b. $100/hr is the regular rate.... doesn't include the extra cost of working on a holiday.

what i don't understand... the province cracks down on 0.05% as a benchmark for intoxication.... but the municipality foots the bill for preventive measures... This discussion would be different if there were provincial dollars for operation of transit.

...But is this really this case?

Evening / Weekends typically run around 200-250 buses at a time according to CT's website.

And so you pay an average of ~$20 per hour extra for wages because of the holiday.

Still not adding up.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by trew

Funny. I talked to Drew and she said to lobby the Mayor's office about the crosswalk. (Something about Memorial Drive being a city matter and outside her domain).

uh, ok. strange.

I'll bring it up.

[Smartcar]

Speaking of crosswalks, there's a yellow sign on 17th Ave westbound just past 1 St SE that says 17th Ave crosswalk pilot project August 2013 to August 2014. I haven't noticed anything different and there isn't any other info that I could find on the Calgary.ca website (which BTW really sucks if you're trying to find information, I thought the search function on the old site was way better).
What is it? I only noticed it a week ago and when I first saw it I thought it was going to be the diagonal walk thing like in Eau Claire and I thought what a stupid idea - until I saw it started in August.

[worth]

I saw that today as well Smartcar and wondered about it.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Smartcar

Speaking of crosswalks, there's a yellow sign on 17th Ave westbound just past 1 St SE that says 17th Ave crosswalk pilot project August 2013 to August 2014. I haven't noticed anything different and there isn't any other info that I could find on the Calgary.ca website (which BTW really sucks if you're trying to find information, I thought the search function on the old site was way better).
What is it? I only noticed it a week ago and when I first saw it I thought it was going to be the diagonal walk thing like in Eau Claire and I thought what a stupid idea - until I saw it started in August.

On 17th Avenue, there's 5 intersections (between about 4th street and 12th street) that are testing out new crosswalk marking materials (each intersection is using a different material - mostly epoxies) and a new, more visible and standardized design 'ladder' or 'zebra stripe' crosswalk (60cm line/60cm gap). Something I helped initiate since our crosswalks generally suck and disappear with regular paint after only about 5-6 months. I don't believe there's anything about it online about it.

Here's a picture of one of them being applied at 5th Street last summer: