I believe the builder is Luxuria (Same as Block 11B) as the DP is all one one chunk.
Going in to bloxk 11A (shown in blue)
Going in to bloxk 11A (shown in blue)
University District | ?m | ?s | University of Calgary Properties Group
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
Spring2008
Active Member
DiscoStu
Active Member
I think this is a big part of it. Because it's so master planned, UD is perhaps a bit of an "urban experience" as opposed to something authentically urban, but it gives people enough of the positives aspects without having to deal with the known downsides of the inner city. It's basically EV without the risk/grit. For most people (especially seniors, moms, etc), it's more than worth the tradeoff.
zagox
Active Member
I can see why seniors and soccer moms in SUVs love it. If there was decent cycling infrastructure and better integration with the BRT, I would love it too. But all I see is the missed opportunities, I can't get excited about it.
Nimbus
Active Member
Urban Disneyland.
Those are my two gripes. The cycle lane was a huge miss, but something that can still be rectified. My understanding is Max Orange will have stops right on the avenue, which will be nice.
My 13 year old son and his friends go there a fair bit to hang around and be urban. Definitely not the typical urban grit, but gives a certain kind of urban experience without the downsides of the urban experience. Oddly enough the lack of LRT might be part of the reason it feels safe. On several occasions I've lamented the fact that U/D not on an LRT line, and surprisingly many have told me they're glad it isn't.
AJX
Active Member
Personally, I don’t care if university district is popular with soccer moms or that it has a sterile feel. I’m able to ride my bike there, lock it up and walk around. I can still get an urban experience.
I agree, wholeheartedly about the bike lane though. If it had that it would be perfect. That and may be a couple more of patios on the sidewalk areas.
I agree, wholeheartedly about the bike lane though. If it had that it would be perfect. That and may be a couple more of patios on the sidewalk areas.
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
The train really does have that bad of a reputation... too bad. To what I've seen the University doesn't have a "downsides of the urban experience" issue and it is on the LRT line. Calgary Transit really needs to undertake a a campaign to improve the C-Train's perception.
I think about this in the same vein as the issue that Marda Loop experienced by getting so much media attention for the Main Streets project; all that negative media has done damage to the area's businesses. If all you've heard about the train is how bad it is then you're going to avoid the train like people seem to be avoiding Marda Loop. The City of Calgary needs to get control of the message. A lot of people take the train and the bus and have good experiences. We're a one-car house and my wife commutes so I take transit almost everywhere, I enjoy that I don't have to stress about being in traffic, that I get to sit and relax and can even answer emails and check my phone. Even if I end up standing getting that time between work and being home to detach is really nice.
(Edit: For the City of Calgary ad campaign you could have a voiceover saying what I wrote about the benefits I experience. The visual would be a continuous shot of a view out the window from a train and bus passing cars in traffic. In my mind it sounds like the person is talking about a futuristic means of transport, maybe even a self-driving car. Then the continuous shot ends with the train or bus coming to a stop at a train stop or bus stop. Fade to black and the words "Ride the future today: Calgary Transit" appear on the screen.)
I've never been to UD because it is hard to access via transit. So, you're not wrong when you say it likely does keep people away.
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zagox
Active Member
For a greenfield neighbourhood to be integrated with BRT, I want to see stops integrated into the ground floor of buildings (especially public buildings like the hospital), segregated lanes and/or signal priority, that type of integration. "You can take the bus there" is not the standard to get excited about.
trtcttc
Senior Member
Isn't there a MAX Orange stop already by the Children's Hospital? And they're adding a new stop in the heart of the district on a main street. There's spots to pick your battles and the roads in U/D are rarely congested that adding a dedicated lane and increasing cost for very marginal time benefit. And the cost for something always has to come from somewhere else.
Definitely a stop at the hospital. That's the one my son uses if they take the Max Orange. Someone posted a pic of a prep work for Max Orange stop in front of one of the buildings on University Ave (can't recall which building)
It's unfortunate. I always think of the old expression 'perception is reality' My perception of the train has been fine, but I'm done with trying to convince people it's fine when they have a different perception. All it takes is a bad experience or a story of a bad experience and the damage is done.
My son and I have taken lots of trips on the train over recent years, and this summer he wanted to do a big boy trip with his friends. They decided to take the train from Brentwood to Sunnyside, and then were going to take the bus home from there. As luck would have it there was a physical altercation on the train, and one of the guys in the altercation ended up urinating in the train car. Long story short he's not interested in taking the train again.
Tarsus
Active Member
Sorry to sidetrack the thread more towards LRT discussion but want to mention my wife has the same issue. She used to take the LRT to work regularly before Covid and never had much of an issue with it. After Covid, she started taking it again, and all it took was a couple of incidents and now she refuses to the train.
I don’t take the train myself very often, but just looking at the comments on here and from what I hear from other people outside of the forum, I feel like a lot of people here on the forum are tone deaf. They’ll insist that the LRT is perfectly fine and that people who don’t want to use it aren’t worldly enough, but that’s not the situation for a lot of people. The LRT has real issues that don’t seem to be getting looked at enough.
I don’t take the train myself very often, but just looking at the comments on here and from what I hear from other people outside of the forum, I feel like a lot of people here on the forum are tone deaf. They’ll insist that the LRT is perfectly fine and that people who don’t want to use it aren’t worldly enough, but that’s not the situation for a lot of people. The LRT has real issues that don’t seem to be getting looked at enough.
zagox
Active Member
There is a MAX Orange stop by the Children's Hospital, but it's 200m outdoor walk from the front door, and includes a walk across a 15m wide access road with a high-speed turn and no painted crosswalk. In contrast, the (heated, enclosed) parking garage has a direct indoor connection. I had to take my son to the hospital for a non-urgent appointment a couple weeks ago and it was pretty obvious which transport mode is the default, easy, comfortable option, and which transport mode pays "the cost for something that has to come from somewhere else."
The same goes for U/D itself - heated, underground parking is conveniently integrated into the buildings, and was available (in surplus) from Day 1. Is a BRT stop conveniently integrated into the ground floor of the brand-new movie theatre? Nope, it's a 550m walk away, and maybe, if they get around to it, there will be a stop added after the fact, no doubt with plenty of compromises in favour of drivers.
Am I asking for too much? In our context, sure. U/D is better urbanism than the many forgettable suburban NW neighbourhoods that surround it in every direction. But it's not transit-friendly, it's not bike-friendly, and its success speaks more to the car-centric nature of the rest of the city than the place itself.
trtcttc
Senior Member
I do believe that sidewalk is painted now, or it should be but the line just wore off over time. I do agree the Max stop should've been there from day 1, and I'm fairly certain if CTransit wanted a stop there, they could've stopped there from day 1, but they chose not to because the ridership figures weren't there, but that's more of a Transit decision. I don't think walking a bit for transit is considered prioritizing cars over transit. For transit to be efficient, it can't be doing little loops and turns into every stop.
In this example, the infrastructure is not stopping the bus from stopping right at the front door of the hospital, closer than any space in the parkade. Similarly, the new stop is on University Avenue, it is much faster to walk from the bus stop to most destinations than using the underground parkade and take the stairs/elevator up. Drivers feel similarly, which is why the street parking is almost always full, while the parkade has lots of space.
The bus could easily turn into to the hospital front door, or stop in the U/D parkade, but Transit chooses not to do that because that slows down the BRT, and part of transit efficiency is well spaced stops. I agree transit has a long way to go in Calgary, but the choices in this case has nothing to do with cars vs transit and is simply the reality of running an efficient transit system.