I have a real love hate relationship with public transportation, I enjoy the feeling of reducing my carbon footprint and the bus truly is the best place for people watching but I loathe waiting for the bus in -30°C weather and I hate grasping on to the handrail in +30°C weather. I once managed to befriend a Russian man who told me about his experience in jail and I also got coughed on by a guy with really warm and the most disgusting smelling breath, all while I was on the bus. I'm usually an avid user of Calgary Transit since I take it every weekday to school or work, but I do allow myself the luxury of driving on the weekends. The number 20 has been my route of choice to school for the past 5 years and the number 3 is really the only logical option for Calgarians to get to work downtown, but this past semester has been particularly bad since I now drive to the University twice a week because of my 8am audit class. However, I do carpool so I guess it's not as awful and I do manage to reap the benefits of $1.75 parking at the front of lot 32. Still, I am an admitted meat-eating vegetarian because I identify myself as an urbanist but rely way too heavily on cars.
I guess I could blame the fact that North-Central Calgary is in dire need of an LRT, but then again my neighborhood does have excellent transit service since both the number 3 and 301 BRT have one of the highest ridership rates in Calgary. The city also recently released draft versions of Plan It Calgary and there are ambitious plans for higher density development and increase transit service. Most interestingly, there are rumors that the proposed North-Central line may run along Centre Street instead of previous plans to build the line along Edmonton Trail. This is not exactly clear but I have been a strong supporter of the LRT running up Centre Street even though the costs will be astronomical and according to Stephanie Tse, it would apparently destroy all the mom-and pop shops if the train is to run above ground past McKnight (roll my eyes). This plan is 20 years away though and both the West and Southwest lines will be completed before the North-Central line will even see the light of day. However, it brings up the interesting question if the C-train should be designed to serve the greatest amount of people (Centre Street) or should transit-oriented development be constructed once the route is completed (Edmonton Trail)?
Regardless, I really hope I won't be living in the suburbs in 20 years so I guess this may no longer be relevant to me in the future. The purpose of this post really was to advocate for increase use of public transportation and applaud the city's effort to reduce automobile dependence. Afterall, Calgary is a post-war city designed for cars instead of people so it's great to see the city realize the importance of public transportation and we can pride ourselves on having the most successful LRT system in terms of ridership in North America, even more than Vancouver!! Anyways, I hope this post will convince you to pull out the bus pass instead of the car keys next time you leave the house. I promise I will try as well.
I guess I could blame the fact that North-Central Calgary is in dire need of an LRT, but then again my neighborhood does have excellent transit service since both the number 3 and 301 BRT have one of the highest ridership rates in Calgary. The city also recently released draft versions of Plan It Calgary and there are ambitious plans for higher density development and increase transit service. Most interestingly, there are rumors that the proposed North-Central line may run along Centre Street instead of previous plans to build the line along Edmonton Trail. This is not exactly clear but I have been a strong supporter of the LRT running up Centre Street even though the costs will be astronomical and according to Stephanie Tse, it would apparently destroy all the mom-and pop shops if the train is to run above ground past McKnight (roll my eyes). This plan is 20 years away though and both the West and Southwest lines will be completed before the North-Central line will even see the light of day. However, it brings up the interesting question if the C-train should be designed to serve the greatest amount of people (Centre Street) or should transit-oriented development be constructed once the route is completed (Edmonton Trail)?
Regardless, I really hope I won't be living in the suburbs in 20 years so I guess this may no longer be relevant to me in the future. The purpose of this post really was to advocate for increase use of public transportation and applaud the city's effort to reduce automobile dependence. Afterall, Calgary is a post-war city designed for cars instead of people so it's great to see the city realize the importance of public transportation and we can pride ourselves on having the most successful LRT system in terms of ridership in North America, even more than Vancouver!! Anyways, I hope this post will convince you to pull out the bus pass instead of the car keys next time you leave the house. I promise I will try as well.
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