Calgary & Alberta Economy

[darwink]

I don't agree with extending the free fare zone, but we should be considering a zone-based system. $3.80 is a really steep price if you're taking the train from downtown to Kensington or SAIT (as I do). Conversely, it's an absolute bargain if you're going from downtown to Somerset-Bridlewood.

Alas, until the downtown tunnel is complete, the logical 'zone' system is paying for crossing into the free fare zone. Outside of somewhat wide peaks, the system could be super cheap. Trip cost for LRT only is $1 or so (can't confidently say what it is today, two decades ago the cost was something like $0.27 a rider iirc).

In reality, something close to 80% of trips include a connecting bus so you'd need to raise fares for trips that include buses to make up for the induced shift to more kiss and ride and walk ups to LRT.

I think the model today is pretty good for the system as designed. Do we really want to shift trips to less efficient modes, like moving Max Orange trips to LRT trips using our most constrained (and expensive to add incremental capacity) resource, downtown access?

 

[Surrealplaces]

I don't agree with extending the free fare zone, but we should be considering a zone-based system. $3.80 is a really steep price if you're taking the train from downtown to Kensington or SAIT (as I do). Conversely, it's an absolute bargain if you're going from downtown to Somerset-Bridlewood.

It would be nice if there was a flat rate of say $3.80 for anything past a certain point, but a cheaper ticket for a shorter zone, say anything 5 stops or less. Easy enough to do with a closed system, but with the current pay method it's more difficult. Although maybe those new validation scanners would take care of that issue?

 

[kora]

Expand the Free Fare Zone from Sunalta to the Franklin stations on the Blue Line and the SAIT/ACAD/Jubilee and Erlton Stations on the Red Line.

Great idea. I would make transit free for people under 12 years old. That's the policy out here in Victoria under BC Transit. I personally would extend it to anyone under 16 or even 18. Why should children pay for transit when they don't make money?

 

[kora]

the main barrier to increasing ridership is not the fare price,

I don't necessarily always agree with this. Consider a family of 4 taking a trip with 2 teenagers. In Victoria that costs $3 x 4 = $12 even for a short 20 minute bus ride downtown. Car travel is almost always cheaper, severely discouraging transit use in this circumstance.

 

[thecivilengineer]

How about if we put a cap on daily fare and weekly fare to certain numbers.

 

[badc0ffee]

Great idea. I would make transit free for people under 12 years old. That's the policy out here in Victoria under BC Transit. I personally would extend it to anyone under 16 or even 18. Why should children pay for transit when they don't make money?

It's already free for kids 12 and under, and discounted for 13-17 (13-21 if attending high school).

 

[trtcttc]

Okay, all good points about extending the free fare zone. How do we feel about including the cost of a train pass in a ticket to say the McMahon/Jubilee or Saddledome/Stampede Park?

Adding $8 to an adult tickets isn't a big bump but I think a decent amount of people already take transit to those places so can the system even handle more people for large events?

That would require buy-in from those organizations, but maybe there is and CT just haven't tried to do that. This would also be better for fare evasion as I'm sure many, many people are not paying for transit to these events because there's simply not enough validators for the passenger load, and they usually don't have fare inspectors during these big crowded

I don't agree with extending the free fare zone, but we should be considering a zone-based system. $3.80 is a really steep price if you're taking the train from downtown to Kensington or SAIT (as I do). Conversely, it's an absolute bargain if you're going from downtown to Somerset-Bridlewood.

It would be nice if there was a flat rate of say $3.80 for anything past a certain point, but a cheaper ticket for a shorter zone, say anything 5 stops or less. Easy enough to do with a closed system, but with the current pay method it's more difficult. Although maybe those new validation scanners would take care of that issue?

Vancouver does this, some people get screwed if they travel short distance between the fare zones, but most benefit. The only thing is there'd need to be a way to addfare, but we use a ticket system instead of an account system, there's no way to charge someone extra if they have a 1 zone ticket but travelled two zones.

 

[Albertasaurus]

Great idea. I would make transit free for people under 12 years old. That's the policy out here in Victoria under BC Transit. I personally would extend it to anyone under 16 or even 18. Why should children pay for transit when they don't make money?

In addition, free transit for youth is a great way to get young people acclimatized to taking transit. It's surprising how reluctant many people are to take a bus or train if they're not used to doing so from an early age.

 

[DougB]

In addition, free transit for youth is a great way to get young people acclimatized to taking transit. It's surprising how reluctant many people are to take a bus or train if they're not used to doing so from an early age.

When I attended elementary school in the 70s, Calgary Transit did a half day session teaching kids how to ride transit: reading schedules, paying fares, transfers, safe riding etc. We also got to tour the Victoria Park facility to see how the buses are cleaned and maintained. It was well worth it.

 

[kora]

It's already free for kids 12 and under, and discounted for 13-17 (13-21 if attending high school).

That Youth rate is cheaper than here in Victoria. Day passes are way more expensive in Calgary. $6 in Victoria across the board.

 

[Surrealplaces]

In addition, free transit for youth is a great way to get young people acclimatized to taking transit. It's surprising how reluctant many people are to take a bus or train if they're not used to doing so from an early age.

My son has been taking full advantage of transit the past couple of years. Him and his friends use it a lot. He turned 13, but still gets on for free most times.

 

[Mountain Man]

Interesting article on the collapse of Attabotics.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Interesting article on the collapse of Attabotics.

Very interesting read. It sounds like the downfall wasn't too surprising when you look at the events leading up to it.

 

[InfrastructureEnthusiast]

Other than replacing resources from someone who (allegedly) mistakenly flies drones into EU airspace.

I do think you're speaking more specifically about the port of Montreal, which yes, typically ships finished goods. It is probably time that we use the little manufacturing we do have to do something other than autos, although diversifying our autos even more is the worst idea. We're in the age of a new defence buildup, getting even a small slice of the EU defence buildup pie is worth it. In this case you do need to put the cart (port capacity) before the horse (finished products), otherwise the horse is left to sit on the dock.

The ship has sailed on stop-gap euro energy. It just won't be sailing from Canada...

And Russian gas will flow freely long before any of that can change now. Opportunity missed, time to move on.

While its not really a Canadian thing to do historically, getting into more military / defense related production production would be an excellent way to increase domestic industry.

While its exciting to see the De Haviland project taking off, it would be even more exciting to see some domestic military aviation programs. Another fighter fleet to complement the F35, Grippens, Eurofighters or maybe both?

Lots and lots of opportunity in the drone space too, seems like it'd be a good fit for some of the attabotics refugees.

Not really sure how serious the feds are about making a meaningful contribution to euro armaments though, you have to figure they would have fired up the ammo plants in QC if they were. Instead they donated thousands of clapped out pistols... Embarrassing really.

Ukraine needs arty shells more than anything. Maybe there's opportunity for munitions manufacturing up in refinery row? Although I'm not sure how wise it would be giving explosive access to Edmonton people...

 

[trtcttc]

The ship has sailed on stop-gap euro energy. It just won't be sailing from Canada...

And Russian gas will flow freely long before any of that can change now. Opportunity missed, time to move on.

While its not really a Canadian thing to do historically, getting into more military / defense related production production would be an excellent way to increase domestic industry.

While its exciting to see the De Haviland project taking off, it would be even more exciting to see some domestic military aviation programs. Another fighter fleet to complement the F35, Grippens, Eurofighters or maybe both?

Lots and lots of opportunity in the drone space too, seems like it'd be a good fit for some of the attabotics refugees.

Not really sure how serious the feds are about making a meaningful contribution to euro armaments though, you have to figure they would have fired up the ammo plants in QC if they were. Instead they donated thousands of clapped out pistols... Embarrassing really.

Ukraine needs arty shells more than anything. Maybe there's opportunity for munitions manufacturing up in refinery row? Although I'm not sure how wise it would be giving explosive access to Edmonton people...

There is no chance we'd develop a fighter ourselves. We don't have the engineering and manufacturing capacity to build one, unless we are just going to give away tax revenue on a pet project of no value. Drones are much more interesting and maybe that's one we partner with some more industrial countries to build. We have aerospace talent (mostly in QC), abundant energy and Germany brings the tooling and machinery.