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I think if the Stephen Avenue subway is ever built, the capacity freed up for the Blue Line will mean it's would struggle to ever make the business case to build another subway there in all but the longest-term future scenario. One thing to watch (not that closely, but in the next 50 years) is...

Someone once posted a great analysis on the capacity of 7th Avenue. I don't recall which thread but would be great to refer back to if it still exists. 7th Ave is actually pretty incredible for capacity given it's all at-grade, we often overlook how unique it is to function as good as it does...

I mean this is it in a nutshell - it's the secret sauce for Vision Zero approaches the world over. Just physically make it so cars can't go fast enough to hurt someone and 95% of our road safety issues go away. No more (futile) call for more enforcement, people just police themselves by...

The current trajectory of the Stampede reminds me most of a combination of Toronto's Union Station area + Exhibition area. In the shorter term, I think a more permanent Coke Stage - like a proper, 10,000+ person outdoor venue - plus a Rec Room-type place are the more obvious easy ones to pull...

It's an interesting location. Mentally I can't wrap my head around living at the corner of Home Road and the Transcanada as it always seemed like not a real place, its a highway. But taking my bias aside, the location is actually pretty good. Grocery store and a bunch of retail right there...

We don't have many buildings with this profile, but this is quite common in other cities in the world - it's something about how skinny it is that allows it to melt into the background, despite being 15 stories tall. It's the kind of building that seems tall on paper, would trigger a huge...

I think the subway is on the 30 year+ plan, so perhaps they do what they can now but acknowledge that it's probably the next lifecycle of Stephen Ave that will warrant more serious consideration of a subway. I wish it was sooner - I want the LRT to convert more and more to a grade-separated...

Ugh brutal - another year and that life would have been potentially saved. The 26 Avenue SW cycling lane upgrade plans are posted now, existing paint is getting a curb. Construction starts in 2026: https://www.calgary.ca/planning/transportation/26-ave-sw-improvements.html Here's the diagram -...

Given the arbitrary and out-of-the-blue nature of the province's interest in bike lanes, it's pretty clear it isn't a grassroots or real issue. It's just a small example of a 100 others to use a rhetorical culture war tool to rally the base: Create an issue - get everyone talking about it (bike...

The biggest issue with the 1980s-2000s style developments is not their lack of their grid pattern, but their really spread out nature, almost exclusive single use, and for the most part exclusively car-centric. A grid patten would have addressed some, but not most, of these issues. Doesn't mean...

You hit on a few trends here - overall population growth appears to be slowing globally, however cities still attract outsized share of this growth. I think it's fair to say the pace of change in cities may be slowing in a general sense, but it's probably not accurate to say it's stopped or...

I think you're forgetting a step - downtown Calgary was mostly single family homes first. It's actually a great example against your last point - its very possible to redevelop cities into something vastly different than they first were developed, assuming growth remains positive over a long...

So much of the urban quality of our cities relies on how big the city was before cars consumed everything in planning and society. So few cities have been able to dig themselves out of the design abyss that 75 years of car-centric thinking gave them. The ones that did leveraged their pockets...

Wonder how long that Panama flight will be - that's getting up there!

It'll happen eventually soon, although I am impressed with Lethbridge's growth lately. Statscan estimates city has population of 111,400 in 2024, putting it just behind Red Deer. link to statscan table I'd assume Lethbridge's growth in the long-run will moderate relative to the super-charged...

And on the citywide scale it isn't particularly remote either - it's the closest in greenfield area to the core, with well established direct links. As the local transit routes hopefully improve in the coming years, they can leverage the time-competitive West LRT in from 69th Street. It's...

With the quantity of nearby and highly walkable retail, it will have far fewer car trips than previous generations of suburbs I think. School and work are obviously big trip categories for much of the population - most of that will happen outside the community, mostly by vehicle given the...

I would be interesting to see how the hotel industry groups estimate demand and a deficit. I'd imagine they are more interesting to look at and a bit boosterish, than accurate and useful. Trends seem to often change much faster than most of these projections are capable of contemplating. For...

When you continually push broadly unpopular policies - particularly unpopular in the cities - you need culture war/wedge issues in the cities to distract. Here's Dreeshen's letter: The funniest/saddest part to me is how the minister can't even reference a specific project or corridor -...

Yeah the "foreign-made" paver thing and the fact people will be unsafe walking near construction fencing near homeless people is where they lost me - it's a total shotgun approach to cast doubts on the project. There's legitimate construction timing and impact concerns that can be discussed, but...