Calgary: Cleanest city on the planet.

[getbak]

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/...96316-sun.html

A new survey of 215 cities around the world has ranked Calgary as #1 in the category of "Health and Sanitation", and 24th overall in terms of "Quality of Living" (Vancouver finished #3 in the QoL rankings and tied for 10th in the H&S ranks).


Maybe if we had a bigger mall and more FCUK stores, we would have finished higher in the Quality of Life rankings.

[PsYcNeT]

Or possibly just more rain and less snow.

...and a vastly better transit system...

...or arts scene (damn this cultureless wasteland!)

[fanforever1986]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Or possibly just more rain and less snow.

...and a vastly better transit system...

...or arts scene (damn this cultureless wasteland!)

Your art scene comment is stereotypical. Get out and look around, this city is beginning to have a world class art scene. No it's not Toronto or Montreal, but give it some time.

Also, in the paper on Sunday there was an article about two developers that want to build a 2000 seat performance centre and complex...Something this city really needs.

Sorry, that's kinda OT.

Vancouver can get #1 all they want in those rankings, I live here, the traffic problems are enough to make you want to leave.

[ricoFlame]

how toronto can even be on the charts of the cleanset cities is beyond me...i've never seen such a freakin mess. i suppose that they're a little worse down in some american cities though. oh well.

[psicodude]

Rankings like this are so subjective. Honestly, it really just comes down to the author's personal opinion.

[604flames]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

...and a vastly better transit system...

One day with TransLink and you'd be begging for Calgary Transit back.. Guaranteed.

[Thunderball]

Frankly, I don't see how Calgary can be #1 in health and sanitation with such a piss-poor healthcare system.

Three hospitals and a Children's Hospital that have "Status" Burgundies on a daily basis does not equal excellent healthcare.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Or possibly just more rain and less snow.

...and a vastly better transit system...

...or arts scene (damn this cultureless wasteland!)

bah lol not true.

Quality living in Vancouver is higher than most cities in canada? Guess they have never lived in Vancouver.
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[RedHot25]

Alright, I hate the canucks, but I don't get the hate on for Vancouver? I pretty much lived in or very near Calgary all my life...then moved for a year or 2 to Van, and then elsewhere.

Anyways here goes:

Originally Posted by fanforever1986

Vancouver can get #1 all they want in those rankings, I live here, the traffic problems are enough to make you want to leave.

True, there is traffic....but honestly I thought it was what would be expected in a big city (whatever Vancouver is 2-3 million or so?). In all honesty, I find Calgary traffic worse (obviously taking into account different cities sizes).

Originally Posted by 604flames

One day with TransLink and you'd be begging for Calgary Transit back.. Guaranteed.

I think that I used a different translink, and a different Calgary TRansit ! I found Translink to be vastly superior to Calgary's transit. Vastly.

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

bah lol not true.
Quality living in Vancouver is higher than most cities in canada? Guess they have never lived in Vancouver.

To each their own....but I thoroughly enjoyed Vancouver (and this coming from a ttried and true Albertan).

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by RedHot25

Alright, I hate the canucks, but I don't get the hate on for Vancouver? I pretty much lived in or very near Calgary all my life...then moved for a year or 2 to Van, and then elsewhere.

Anyways here goes:



True, there is traffic....but honestly I thought it was what would be expected in a big city (whatever Vancouver is 2-3 million or so?). In all honesty, I find Calgary traffic worse (obviously taking into account different cities sizes).



I think that I used a different translink, and a different Calgary TRansit ! I found Translink to be vastly superior to Calgary's transit. Vastly.



To each their own....but I thoroughly enjoyed Vancouver (and this coming from a ttried and true Albertan).

Vancouver is around 600,000 - the entire lower mainland is over 2 million - if you combined Vancouver, Burnaby, West/North Vancouver, Richmond - you would get equal population to Calgary, but diff not equal sq/km.

As far as traffic goes - that truly is in the eye of the beholder - If i stayed at my parents place in Calgary and had to work downtown, they live in the SE part of the city and i could make it downtown in 15 minutes in the morning. Traffic in most of Calgary still is distinct - morning rush hour, afternoon rushhour that lasts maybe an hour to hour and half.

In Vancouver the traffic is bad 12 hrs a day. And if Vancouver had anywhere near the freeway system that Calgary has, it would make a world of difference.

Translink when its working is ok, but trying to travel for example from UBC to BCIT or Simon Fraser requires any combination of 3 bus rides and a sky train + a good hour of your time and they are only less than 20 km apart.

I can go from Lake Bonivista to the UofC on one bus and a ctrain and its prob the same distance and it may take me 30 minutes.

The C-train and the routes it takes make transit in Calgary much better...

Translink does a good job of getting people to and from downtown Vancouver - but anywhere else is a nightmare - i think thats the difference between transit in both cities.

Weather - the climate in the lower mainland is better, but the weather isnt. Again its personal opinion, i can handle a few weeks of a year of freezing cold and clear skies than 6 months of cloud and rain. And Vancouver when i lived there always got at least one major dump of snow per year - and when that happened the city and transit went to hell.
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[Jayems]

They really need to dispatch some little chain-gang from the pen to that patch of grass between Canadian Tire and West Hills just north of Sarcee & Richmond Rd. Looks like someone just opened a dump-truck and left it there.

But our city is amazingly clean compared to other places I have been, its almost not even comparable.

Its the first thing any family says when they come over from England .. "Its so clean! I can't believe there isn't trash everywhere!"

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by fotze

Is it me or does Vancouver have next to no playground or school zones? Also, there are rarely left turning lanes.

I always wondered that, i think they do they just dont post a lower speed limit. There are certainly signs telling you that you are near a park or a school, but no different speed limit posted.

Turning left in the city of Vancouver is truly a nightmare. Not to mention the amount of accidents that are caused by this situation. I feel much safer driving on Calgary's big streets than driving around Vancouver
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Arizona medical marijuana dispensaries

[604flames]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Translink when its working is ok, but trying to travel for example from UBC to BCIT or Simon Fraser requires any combination of 3 bus rides and a sky train + a good hour of your time and they are only less than 20 km apart.

<<nods>> ... takes me twenty minutes to drive from my house to SFU, and 90 mins via 4 different buses.

Also Mel, I dunno if you were here in the fall, but 6 inches of snow and the whole city shuts down... Just don't have the resources/enough snow tires to deal with it...

But, when it's sunny, not many places nicer than the 'Couv, if you ask me.

[604flames]

Originally Posted by fotze

Is it me or does Vancouver have next to no playground or school zones? Also, there are rarely left turning lanes.

Nobody pays attention to the school zones here.. and yeah it can take forever to turn left, especially off a busy street like Hastings or Broadway.

[604flames]

Originally Posted by fotze

Also, I got to say to everyone, if you have never been to that section of Vancouver, you really have to. It was probably the most severe case of the willies I have ever gotten. It is like being in a George Romero movie but real. If the inhabitants would just say "Brains....braaaiiins" while walking around they could charge admission to the place.

It's really really disturbing down there.. The bus from downtown to my school goes right down Hastings so when I go that way, I see it all the time. Very sad. Last week some guy got impaled with a piece of rebar cause he was swearing on the street and another guy (who had warrants in 3 different states) didn't like it.

Really makes you wonder how the city is gonna hide that little problem in 2010..

[MelBridgeman]

One thing that benefits Vancouver in this survey is the fact that when they rate Vancouver the best in Canada, i am sure they are only talking about the city of Vancouver and don't include all the burbs in their evaluation. Whereas Calgary is just one big city. Include Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, POCO, Langley eta in the evaluation we might have a different conclusion.
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[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Vancouver is around 600,000 - the entire lower mainland is over 2 million - if you combined Vancouver, Burnaby, West/North Vancouver, Richmond - you would get equal population to Calgary, but diff not equal sq/km.

As far as traffic goes - that truly is in the eye of the beholder - If i stayed at my parents place in Calgary and had to work downtown, they live in the SE part of the city and i could make it downtown in 15 minutes in the morning. Traffic in most of Calgary still is distinct - morning rush hour, afternoon rushhour that lasts maybe an hour to hour and half.

In Vancouver the traffic is bad 12 hrs a day. And if Vancouver had anywhere near the freeway system that Calgary has, it would make a world of difference.

Translink when its working is ok, but trying to travel for example from UBC to BCIT or Simon Fraser requires any combination of 3 bus rides and a sky train + a good hour of your time and they are only less than 20 km apart.

I can go from Lake Bonivista to the UofC on one bus and a ctrain and its prob the same distance and it may take me 30 minutes.

The C-train and the routes it takes make transit in Calgary much better...

Translink does a good job of getting people to and from downtown Vancouver - but anywhere else is a nightmare - i think thats the difference between transit in both cities.

Fair enough Mel. I lived right in Vancouver (not to far from Broadway & Cambie). I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. I drove and took transit.

I think part of it pertains on where you are going. E.g. I used to work in New West....took me less time on transit, esp. with the sky-train. Driving wasn't horrid, but I drove that one big highway (forgot the name) so maybe that gave me a lot of extra time. I also worked in North Van. Taking transit there was much faster than driving. Straight through downtown, across the water and boom. To drive I had to go way left or right and get on one of the bridges...yah.

Transit in Calgary I find is fine if you are on or near the C-Train (such as your example). But after that I find it really pails in comparison to Vancouver (I am talking Van, Burnaby, Port Co., etc etc...all those places). We could get anywhere on transit, virtually door to door service. I haven't had the same luck in Calgary trying to get to way heck and gone new subdivisions. If the C-Train doesn't serve your area, it can make things a bg big challenge (similar to your van transit stories, I can tell stories about calgary transit).

Originally Posted by fotze

Is it me or does Vancouver have next to no playground or school zones?

Hmm. Can't really say I noticed that to be honest. Playground/school zones seemed to be all over the place when I was there (and this was only a couple of years ago). In fact, there were a lot of curb things in intersections to make people slow down, as well as big "speed bumps" in areas to make you slow down.

Vancouver also had a lot of pedestrian controlled intersections, which I quite enjoyed (both as a driver and pedestrian).

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

One thing that benefits Vancouver in this survey is the fact that when they rate Vancouver the best in Canada, i am sure they are only talking about the city of Vancouver and don't include all the burbs in their evaluation. Whereas Calgary is just one big city. Include Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, POCO, Langley eta in the evaluation we might have a different conclusion.

REally? I thought most of those places were not too bad. I REALLY like Port Moody. Burnaby and POCO are all fine to me. Richmond was nice as well. Surrey and langley get bad raps, but in all honesty I thought that they got things a bit too much.

I don't know...I like Calgary and Vancouver both. In fact, if I had the opportunity to go to live in either one...I would jump at the opportunity. Both great cities in my mind.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by RedHot25

Fair enough Mel. I lived right in Vancouver (not to far from Broadway & Cambie). I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. I drove and took transit.

I think part of it pertains on where you are going. E.g. I used to work in New West....took me less time on transit, esp. with the sky-train. Driving wasn't horrid, but I drove that one big highway (forgot the name) so maybe that gave me a lot of extra time. I also worked in North Van. Taking transit there was much faster than driving. Straight through downtown, across the water and boom. To drive I had to go way left or right and get on one of the bridges...yah.

Transit in Calgary I find is fine if you are on or near the C-Train (such as your example). But after that I find it really pails in comparison to Vancouver (I am talking Van, Burnaby, Port Co., etc etc...all those places). We could get anywhere on transit, virtually door to door service. I haven't had the same luck in Calgary trying to get to way heck and gone new subdivisions. If the C-Train doesn't serve your area, it can make things a bg big challenge (similar to your van transit stories, I can tell stories about calgary transit).



Hmm. Can't really say I noticed that to be honest. Playground/school zones seemed to be all over the place when I was there (and this was only a couple of years ago). In fact, there were a lot of curb things in intersections to make people slow down, as well as big "speed bumps" in areas to make you slow down.

Vancouver also had a lot of pedestrian controlled intersections, which I quite enjoyed (both as a driver and pedestrian).

Like i said, thats really the difference, most of Calgary lives within one short busride to the ctrain - that in its self makes transit in Calgary much better. Most major gathering places in calgary are close to the ctrain, really the only exception is Mt Royal College.

Once Vancouver finishes the Canada Line and the Line the runs to UBC - things will be alot better.

Rapid transit really is the key and Calgary's rapid transit serves Calgary much better than Vancouver's. Although if you live close to the sky train, you are really lucky, but thats only a small percentage of people in the area.

Trying taking transit From Dunbar/41 Ave to Coquitlam center - 4 buses and 2 skytrain rides and 2hrs later....
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[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Like i said, thats really the difference, most of Calgary lives within one short busride to the ctrain - that in its self makes transit in Calgary much better. Most major gathering places in calgary are close to the ctrain, really the only exception is Mt Royal College.

Once Vancouver finishes the Canada Line and the Line the runs to UBC - things will be alot better.

Rapid transit really is the key and Calgary's rapid transit serves Calgary much better than Vancouver's. Although if you live close to the sky train, you are really lucky, but thats only a small percentage of people in the area.

Trying taking transit From Dunbar/41 Ave to Coquitlam center - 4 buses and 2 skytrain rides and 2hrs later....

Fair enough - but I would still trade transit systems . I don't think most of calgary lives within a short bus ride to the c-train. Anyways, no worries.

Cheers.