Calgary Officially One Million??

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Neeper

C-Train is a joke. It never should havebeen made above ground. The only reason why it was made above was to show off to the world in the 88 Olympics. "Look at our C-Train, we got lasers in them! Look how nice they look on the surface holding up 36th Street."

Actually, the reason for having the C Train above ground was a cost issue. The enormous cost associated with making the C train line completely subterranean was the breaking point. Take Edmonton's LRT line as an example of the cost. The C train line from Lions' Park through downtown and then south to Anderson station was built for the same cost of the entire underground section of the Edmonton LRT. That's roughly 4 stops on Edmonton's LRT vs. 14 stops (one way) on the C Train Line. The cost differential is staggering when you compare the two.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Neeper

Look how nice they look on the surface holding up 36th Street."

36th is horrible on weekends. Compared to Sat/Sun, weekdays are luxury. In the mornings on the way to work I love getting beside the southbound train and catching the lights most of the way to work.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by looooob

I don't see that at all. Calgary is nowhere near as good traffic wise as it was 20 years ago or even ten, but I have no problems with my daily commute (and I'm in the semi-suburbs). I've visited a few US cities that seemed much worse to me (albeit I was always a passenger)...and I'm not even convinced EDM is much better. although I think if your point is that Calgary has grown too big too quickly I 'd agree

while 'metro' EDM and 'metro' CGY are both around the same population, I certainly believe the rate of increase in CGY has been much quicker

I've never had any problems in Edmonton getting from Point A to Point B during rush hour (except when an accident might back things up) while in Calgary, it seems to get bottled up everywhere, every day.

My point is two-fold, I guess. Calgary has grown too quickly but there's not much you can do about that. My problem is that the city had no vision and lacked the ability to build an infrastructure to accomodate its rapid growth.

Not that Edmonton's had any vision at all, mind you! With slower growth, they've been able to keep up. It took them three years to remove three lights from Yellowhead and the Anthony Henday extension is taking forever.

Still, it only takes me 15 minutes to get from St. Albert to my office on Kingsway. The equivalent distance in Calgary would be driving from Edgemont to downtown Calgary. That wouldn't take 15 minutes!

Regarding U.S. cities, I was impressed with how traffic was able to keep moving in Minneapolis, Milwaukee and even Chicago. I've heard Seattle isn't very good and New York is a complete nightmare but for the most part, American cities are well built to accomodate traffic.

[corporatejay]

shhh nobody lives there.

Don't worry, they are extending the current northeast line into Signal Hill and Westhills-ish. That will be around in a few years, so hang tight ok?

C-Train = Worst. Planning. Ever.

is that the plan? i thought the plan was to expand bow trail so these people have better access to drive downtown.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I've never had any problems in Edmonton getting from Point A to Point B during rush hour (except when an accident might back things up) while in Calgary, it seems to get bottled up everywhere, every day.

My point is two-fold, I guess. Calgary has grown too quickly but there's not much you can do about that. My problem is that the city had no vision and lacked the ability to build an infrastructure to accomodate its rapid growth.

Not that Edmonton's had any vision at all, mind you! With slower growth, they've been able to keep up. It took them three years to remove three lights from Yellowhead and the Anthony Henday extension is taking forever.

Still, it only takes me 15 minutes to get from St. Albert to my office on Kingsway. The equivalent distance in Calgary would be driving from Edgemont to downtown Calgary. That wouldn't take 15 minutes!

Regarding U.S. cities, I was impressed with how traffic was able to keep moving in Minneapolis, Milwaukee and even Chicago. I've heard Seattle isn't very good and New York is a complete nightmare but for the most part, American cities are well built to accomodate traffic.

fair enough. I can relate to almost every traffic example that DWAT mentions in relation to Edmonton though

I really have almost no problems with Calgary traffic....although admittedly if I lived in the far south (for example) I admit it would be a nightmare

[Cube Inmate]

I wonder if there's any fundamental difference in the way populations distribute themselves in a single big city vs. a metropolitan area consisting of multiple cities...e.g./ Calgary vs. Edmonton or Toronto.

For example: I live in Calgary, so I choose to work in Calgary. For others, it's the other way around...they find work in Calgary, and subsequently decide to find a home in this city. But I never really put much thought into what *part* of the city I live in...and I have a fairly long commute of 19 km.

Do people in other cities make a more conscious effort to live in the same municipality as they work? E.g., do more people who work in Sherwood Park actually live there too? Could that be part of the reason why other cities that have "grown together" may have better transportation infrastructure than Calgary, which has just grown OUT? Minneapolis / St. Paul would be an example of this, would it not?

I dunno...just wondering randomly.

[V]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Still, it only takes me 15 minutes to get from St. Albert to my office on Kingsway. The equivalent distance in Calgary would be driving from Edgemont to downtown Calgary.

Maybe at 2:00 in the afternoon, but there's no way you can make that trip in rush hour in 15 minutes. I drove every day for a year from St. Albert to GMCC and it took half an hour, every single time. If rush hour was particularily bad it would take me an hour.

Just getting through that traffic circle at St. Albert Trail and 118 Ave takes 10 minutes alone.

[V]

Originally Posted by Cube Inmate

E.g., do more people who work in Sherwood Park actually live there too?

For the most part, I would think. There's never a whole lot of cars coming into St. Albert from Edmonton in the morning. There sure are a whole lot going the other way, though.

[Clarkey]

I heard from a guy that works at city transit that there was a flaw in building the underground sections of the LRT downtown and that's why they don't use it. The water table is really high there and whenever a big flood of rain comes they fill up with water. There are pumps and all that installed to pump out the water but they abandoned the project because it was just becoming too much of an engineering burden. I guess they didn't get a proper geological assessment done, or it was done wrong (go figure, it's not like there aren't a few geologists in town). Underground systems might be more efficient in some ways but they are also more depressing and more of a haven for vagrants to congregate. Security is a lot better with our above ground system.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

is that the plan? i thought the plan was to expand bow trail so these people have better access to drive downtown.

Yep. This picture was taken off of a website which was taken off of another thread discussed about a month ago on this site. The thread is called "Calgary Traffic" and has 3 pages to it, if you wanna check it out. But this is the future for the C-Train.

[Clarkey]

Where is that green line going to go up?

[Mr.Coffee]

Apparently after the zoo somewhere..

[troutman]

I don't think people in Signal Hill are going to park their fancy SUVs and hot sports cars in the garage, to take the train downtown.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by troutman

I don't think people in Signal Hill are going to park their fancy SUVs and hot sports cars in the garage, to take the train downtown.

Um ok......

so because most people in that community are well off, the whole community doesn't get public transit?

It simply doesn't make sense to have public transit only reach the north, east and south and then just neglect the west because "well they look like they drive nice cars".

[Clarkey]

Actually now that I think about it, that green line is probably going up Deerfoot. There's a wide enough right of way to put a train through there, I don't know where all the stops would be though.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Um ok......

so because most people in that community are well off, the whole community doesn't get public transit?

It simply doesn't make sense to have public transit only reach the north, east and south and then just neglect the west because "well they look like they drive nice cars".

Don't get me wrong; I live in that area too, and I wish there was a C-Train line there sooner than later. I just wonder how many people there will actually ride the train. There are cars parked for the park and ride bus at Westside and Sirroco Dr, so clearly some of us are using transit.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Where is that green line going to go up?

they'll probably wedge it in next to the bike path and the existing rail line along Nose Creek.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

Maybe at 2:00 in the afternoon, but there's no way you can make that trip in rush hour in 15 minutes. I drove every day for a year from St. Albert to GMCC and it took half an hour, every single time. If rush hour was particularily bad it would take me an hour.

Just getting through that traffic circle at St. Albert Trail and 118 Ave takes 10 minutes alone.

Nope, if I leave at 8:40 and I'm at the office by 9:00 at the absolute latest every day. If I leave at 9:30, I'm there by 9:45.

I've never had any problems with the traffic circle, maybe they've changed the timing of the lights since you lived here?

EDIT: I should add, I haven't experienced Edmonton rush hour between 7 and 8, maybe it's much worse at that time. I HAVE experienced trying to get from Sundance to Deerfoot Mall at 7:30 a.m. many times. That was not a very fun trip to make and that was eight years ago!

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

I heard from a guy that works at city transit that there was a flaw in building the underground sections of the LRT downtown and that's why they don't use it. The water table is really high there and whenever a big flood of rain comes they fill up with water. There are pumps and all that installed to pump out the water but they abandoned the project because it was just becoming too much of an engineering burden. I guess they didn't get a proper geological assessment done, or it was done wrong (go figure, it's not like there aren't a few geologists in town). Underground systems might be more efficient in some ways but they are also more depressing and more of a haven for vagrants to congregate. Security is a lot better with our above ground system.

Why don't we just get one them fancy new monorails?

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Where is that green line going to go up?

The green line will probably follow the CPR right-of-way. The same will happen for the 203 (yellow) route; follow the CPR until after the Riverbend/Glenmore station, where the CPR veers to the east.