Calgary Public Transit - Discussion

[chemgear]

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...algary-transit

Calgary Transit is upping security and police presence on its network amid heightening concerns over rider safety.

The city announced Monday that beginning immediately, it will bring more peace officers, bylaw officers, uniformed security guards and Calgary Police Service members onto the Calgary Transit system. The decision comes after a trio of councillors met with transit officials last week to seek solutions to escalating social disorder on buses, trains and LRT stations.

The city has seen an increase in calls for service related to transit since the start of the pandemic, but Fleming said they’ve now stabilized at a high level. She said she expects reports to increase in the coming days with more resources in the system, but hopes they will decrease as a result of increased security.

[GGG]

That security presence increase is good news. With the significant decrease in transit ridership you didn’t have the critical mass to keep problems away.

[sleepingmoose]

That article is a month old - so in theory this has been going on for a month. I’m not sure if anyone has really noticed a difference.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

That article is a month old - so in theory this has been going on for a month. I’m not sure if anyone has really noticed a difference.

I’ve noticed more security and such. It hasn’t changed anything though.

[81MC]

I don't take transit much, but when I do, the stations are ####ing gross. If we want people to take transit, could we up the budget on basic maintenance a bit please? Seriously, they're embarrassingly filthy every time I see one.

[Weitz]

Not just the stations. The trains are gross too.

[CliffFletcher]

Transit is in a death spiral. With dramatically reduced commuting downtown, the C-Train feels less safe and is less safe. Which reduces ridership (and revenue) further. Which sparks calls for more security (which costs money). Budgets get squeezed as taxpayers are asked to fund a service that fewer of them use. With the decline in commuting likely permanent, I don’t see how they pull out of the spiral.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Transit is in a death spiral. With dramatically reduced commuting downtown, the C-Train feels less safe and is less safe. Which reduces ridership (and revenue) further. Which sparks calls for more security (which costs money). Budgets get squeezed as taxpayers are asked to fund a service that fewer of them use. With the decline in commuting likely permanent, I don’t see how they pull out of the spiral.

By plowing full steam ahead with the SE Green Line, that's how.

I recognize that the CAPEX is heavily discounted by other levels of gov't, but the OPEX is going to be unnecessary burden and likely harm other operations.

[Old Yeller]

My wife and I took our son downtown to see the new library and walk around last weekend, we decided to take the LRT down because my kid is fascinated with trains.... what a mistake that was.

Arrived at heritage station and the first thing we saw was a guy in one of the shelters smoking meth with no shoes on, there was fentanyl zombies on the actual train and just a general sense of what I can only describe as uneasiness on the train for everyone who wasn't high on drugs.

It was eye opening as I haven't taken transit in years... downtown on the weekend wasn't too #### hot either.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

My wife and I took our son downtown to see the new library and walk around last weekend, we decided to take the LRT down because my kid is fascinated with trains.... what a mistake that was.

Arrived at heritage station and the first thing we saw was a guy in one of the shelters smoking meth with no shoes on, there was fentanyl zombies on the actual train and just a general sense of what I can only describe as uneasiness on the train for everyone who wasn't high on drugs.

It was eye opening as I haven't taken transit in years... downtown on the weekend wasn't too #### hot either.

I expect your experience with the C-Train was pretty typical. And I expect that sort of discretionary, non-commuting trip to plummet (or never recover from the pandemic plummet). So remove most white-collar downtown commuters and most discretionary leisure trips from the ridership, and you’re left with low-wage retail workers, cleaners, etc, with no choice, a few students, and bad actors. Is that enough to sustain a healthy transit budget?

[GirlySports]

No one could have envisioned COVID and WFH. There was talk of making transit free to reduce cars.

[Zarley]

It's funny this was bumped, as my girlfriend and I took the C-Train for the first time in over a year on Sunday and had one of the worst transportation experiences in recent memory. Here's a summary:

- Got on at Sunalta, where we were greeted by a junkie at the bottom of the escalator menacingly waving a hockey stick - thankfully he was in is own world and not on a bad trip.

- Had to transfer to the red line at one of the stations downtown, which was an absolute nightmare. Half of the people on the platform were roaming around in a meth-induced psychosis, yelling and screaming and being generally unpleasant. On top of this there were the street dealers hanging around on their miniature bikes who seem to be able to do whatever they want with impunity. Oh, and there were multiple instances of vomit on the ground and garbage strewn about.

- We find a spot to wait for the train that is relatively calm, but in short order we are accosted by an addict who is acting erratically and aggressively panhandling. The poor guy waiting next to us declined to give this guy money - he was then berated, screamed at, his accent mocked, and finally spit at. We received the same treatment, minus the spit.

- Finally get on the train which is a relief as the only issue was the stench emanating from a gent passed out on one of the seats.

- Get off at Chinook, where the shelters on the platform have been taken over by people shooting up - leaving piles of used needles, packaging, and other debris all over the benches and ground.

I had heard that things are bad, but the extent to which the C-Train system has deteriorated has to be experienced to be believed. I have the utmost empathy for people battling the demons of addiction, but tolerating these types of petty crimes and antisocial behaviours does nothing to help these people and dissuades Calgarians from using what is an excellent transit system. We desperately need to step up basic enforcement of existing laws and bylaws.

[Fuzz]

Could we benefit from more safe consumption sites?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Could we benefit from more safe consumption sites?

Do safe consumption sites remove junkies and other unwanted, aggressive behavior from public places? They might provide a clean and better environment to get high and remove needles from public places but I don't think they improve the social safety aspect in our society.

[Sainters7]

Oh yeah Chinook is such a greasy stop, even in normal, pre-pandemic times that stop felt shady. Depending where you're going, I find the Somerset line (at least north of Canyon Meadows) always felt kind of shady outside of peak times. I can only imagine what it's like now.. This is probably for the best.

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by 81MC

I don't take transit much, but when I do, the stations are ####ing gross. If we want people to take transit, could we up the budget on basic maintenance a bit please? Seriously, they're embarrassingly filthy every time I see one.

Honestly, they could scrub those stations and trains spotless each and every day, and it would look filthy again within an hour.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Do safe consumption sites remove junkies and other unwanted, aggressive behavior from public places? They might provide a clean and better environment to get high and remove needles from public places but I don't think they improve the social safety aspect in our society.

It's hard to articulate this with the right nuance, but I think it's fair to say the status quo of leaving addicts to their own devices isn't good/fair/compassionate for anybody.

I know you cannot force help upon people, and that this would get into mucky areas of charter rights (if not feel like an episode of Black Mirror), but IMO the most humane option is to create segregated safe-supply communities, with abundant resources available for those who are interested in making a change (with graduated stages to transition back to society).

Like a prison? Sort of in the sense that you can't leave the perimeter, but otherwise they maintain the rest of their liberties (with a few privileges like free food, shelter, and drug supply).

Expensive, but you gotta way it against the present societal costs.

[Leondros]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's hard to articulate this with the right nuance, but I think it's fair to say the status quo of leaving addicts to their own devices isn't good/fair/compassionate for anybody.

I know you cannot force help upon people, and that this would get into mucky areas of charter rights (if not feel like an episode of Black Mirror), but IMO the most humane option is to create segregated safe-supply communities, with abundant resources available for those who are interested in making a change (with graduated stages to transition back to society).

Like a prison? Sort of in the sense that you can't leave the perimeter, but otherwise they maintain the rest of their liberties (with a few privileges like free food, shelter, and drug supply).

Expensive, but you gotta way it against the present societal costs.

Name checks out

[mrkajz44]

I'm actually quite surprised to read these stories. We did a family trip downtown a few weekends ago and took the train from Anderson and didn't run into any issues at all.

[Lubicon]

Anecdotally (my kids ride the train daily to university) it seems to have gotten much worse since the pandemic. Both of them report seeing routine drug use (not pot smoking either) on the trains or at stations and in increase in passengers who are clearly not fare paying riders.

Hopefully as WFH is scaled back and people return to the office the increase in ridership will help take care of the issue. The return of students to campus (SAIT and UCalgary in particular) will also help.