Imperial Oil building office in Quarry Park

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Claeren

The city needs to work on easing its downtown parking stall caps. It made sense for a while (drive up the cost of parking so that people commuting are inclined to use transit) but that time has now come and gone. LRT will continue to be popular regardless and the IOL would be less inclined to vacate. Parking costs alone are a major drain on peoples finances.

the parking in this city (and the cabs) is draconian in nature, and overtly punishing.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by 4X4

He said an hour and a half. Just a slight exaggeration. Though I do agree that it still wouldn't be at all ideal to go for a quick meeting. I just was being picky because it kind of struck me like the opposite of Airdrie commuters claiming that they can get DT in 20 minutes.

On topic, I did some work on those townhouse condos there in Quarry park, and got to know the area and the traffic patterns a bit. 24th St is already over capacity. Good luck getting out of there at 5pm if there are another few thousand people working in the area. That right turn on to 24th from 18th will be backed up all the way to the Jacob building.

Oops, in the second half of his reply you mean (1.5 return to DT). Yeah, that is an exaggeration. 45 minute per day driving for a round trip commute would be about right from Hillhurst. It's not a 45 minute per day round trip commute from Hillhurst to DT, for sure. So yeah.

A mid-day RT commute, factoring in parking, from QP to DT might be between 45 mins and an hour. Leave at 11:30. Meet for lunch at noon. Leave DT at 1-ish. Back in QP by 1:30 at the latest. I would expect.

And that right-turn may be backed up all the way to Glenmore.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Claeren

The city needs to work on easing its downtown parking stall caps. It made sense for a while (drive up the cost of parking so that people commuting are inclined to use transit) but that time has now come and gone. LRT will continue to be popular regardless and the IOL would be less inclined to vacate. Parking costs alone are a major drain on peoples finances.

Yeah, if parking under my office was 350 per month instead of 550, I'd still take the train, but cheaper daily parking would be nice for the few times a year I need to drive somewhere after work.

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by 4X4

On topic, I did some work on those townhouse condos there in Quarry park, and got to know the area and the traffic patterns a bit. 24th St is already over capacity. Good luck getting out of there at 5pm if there are another few thousand people working in the area. That right turn on to 24th from 18th will be backed up all the way to the Jacob building.

I just moved there as part of Stantec...

Luckily I can adjust my hours and come late and leave late...or early...

I agree it'll be fun when all the development is done...

Right now I'm watching the prep work for the new rec center...driving packers has to be one of the most boring jobs in the world...

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by 4X4

He said an hour and a half. Just a slight exaggeration. Though I do agree that it still wouldn't be at all ideal to go for a quick meeting. I just was being picky because it kind of struck me like the opposite of Airdrie commuters claiming that they can get DT in 20 minutes.

Oh 4x4 - let me set the record straight. These are no different from what I said above, just clarifying them.

Rush hour AM or PM - commute time from Hillhurst is 45 minutes, one way on a good day. PM commute is usually worse... I had a route via Memorial.

11:30-1:30 - time from downtown to QP is about 40 min. This does include cross down to get to Macleod S to Blackfoot, to Deerfoot south, to Douglasdale turnoff.

Any times outside of this, yeah, they will be less.

If it's snowing or they're doing construction double the above times.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Rush hour AM or PM - commute time from Hillhurst is 45 minutes, one way on a good day. PM commute is usually worse... I had a route via Memorial.

Weird - I usually leave Royal Oak just before 7 most weekdays, and I am in QP by 7:40 or 7:45 more often than not. If I leave a little earlier, it can shave 5-10 minutes off the commute time. On a Friday, I can make the one-way trip in less than 30 minutes without breaking speed limits.

[chemgear]

^ That sounds terrible/sanity destroying.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by Claeren

The city needs to work on easing its downtown parking stall caps. It made sense for a while (drive up the cost of parking so that people commuting are inclined to use transit) but that time has now come and gone. LRT will continue to be popular regardless and the IOL would be less inclined to vacate. Parking costs alone are a major drain on peoples finances.

Used to be the city's explicit goal was no more cars downtown. The vision was transit only, and they made Calgary's parking caps more draconian than Vancouver and Seattle, by comparison.

That was a while back, but it may not have changed.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by chemgear

^ That sounds terrible/sanity destroying.

Commutes are easy to get used to. Music playlists in the morning commute to wake up, podcasts in the evening commutes to wind down.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Yeah, if parking under my office was 350 per month instead of 550, I'd still take the train, but cheaper daily parking would be nice for the few times a year I need to drive somewhere after work.

What if you had to drive a little further, but parking was $0? Even from the NW- with the Ring Road and the 24th street interchange at Glenmore, this could be a pretty easy commute.

When I worked at Bantrel a lot of people in the NW complained about being moved to the Glenmore & Elbow location. However free parking changed a lot of people's views on that.

[TurnedTheCorner]

When is there supposed to be a Glenmore/24th interchange?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

When is there supposed to be a Glenmore/24th interchange?

Really? An interchange at a street that doesn't currently intersect with Glenmore? I don't believe it.

[TurnedTheCorner]

That's kind of what I was thinking.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Really? An interchange at a street that doesn't currently intersect with Glenmore? I don't believe it.

I believe the Ogden Rd interchange will incorporate 24th St.

[4X4]

That would make much more sense. I'd love to see a drawing of it.

[BlackArcher101]

I don't know what the hell the city is doing anymore with that intersection. The plans/drawings were all on the city's website as a planned project a year or so ago, but have now disappeared. With the recent modifications to the intersection (making a turn lane longer), I'm thinking they've gone back to the drawing board to start over again and just made a temp fix. Rather unfortunate as it needs work ASAP.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

Weird - I usually leave Royal Oak just before 7 most weekdays, and I am in QP by 7:40 or 7:45 more often than not. If I leave a little earlier, it can shave 5-10 minutes off the commute time. On a Friday, I can make the one-way trip in less than 30 minutes without breaking speed limits.

Ahh.... you just hit the wild card... departure time. If you were to leave at 7:15 - what would you time be like? A full hour I would guess?

Living north of the river, I found the PM commute to be worse from QP... Crowchild over the river being the usual suspect. I experimented heavily with routes in the north before I settled on the East / Memorial as the way to go.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Ahh.... you just hit the wild card... departure time. If you were to leave at 7:15 - what would you time be like? A full hour I would guess?

Living north of the river, I found the PM commute to be worse from QP... Crowchild over the river being the usual suspect. I experimented heavily with routes in the north before I settled on the East / Memorial as the way to go.

Barring accidents, stalls or other unusual developments, I still think a 7:15 departure would result in a commute less than one hour in the morning. Things just flow once you get past Bow Trail.

But yeah, that Hillhurst commute home in the evening would be a nightmare. NV Crowchild is practically unusable at that time of day. Did you at least take 18th north to Glenmore before getting onto Deerfoot? Because trying to get onto Deerfoot NB from 24th Douglasdale appears to be disastrous.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by ken0042

What if you had to drive a little further, but parking was $0? Even from the NW- with the Ring Road and the 24th street interchange at Glenmore, this could be a pretty easy commute.

When I worked at Bantrel a lot of people in the NW complained about being moved to the Glenmore & Elbow location. However free parking changed a lot of people's views on that.

Hypothetically, if a bunch of stuff changed, I'd be happy to work in quarry park.

My point was mainly that uber expensive parking isn't necessary for people to keep taking transit downtown. Traffic and parking that's only expensive not extortionate means that people would still take the train, and cheaper parking would benefit a number of other users of downtown other than commuting 9 to 5ers. I'd take the train even with free parking. I can't read while driving, the train takes about the same amount of time, and it saves me buying a second car.

[llama64]

Imperial is going to have a lot of turnover and they are going to have a hell of a time retaining younger staff.

Who the heck wants to work in a "campus"? The word just brings thoughts of working for Initech (Office Space) and depresses the hell of out me.

I'll take my (nearly) downtown office (10th ave SW) and my 15 minute walking commute over some soul destroying cube farm job at Imperial. Maybe the rest of the big Oil companies will move out and some more innovative companies can take over the core.

Transit in this city is designed to bring people in and out of the core. Trying to do anything else is atrociously painful - I feel nothing but pity for Imperial employees right now.