11th Street Underpass | ?m | ?s | City of Calgary

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Nawads said:
11th street where the train crossing
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February 2025 update on this... your heads might explode and the recommendation. In a good way.

engage.calgary.ca

11 Street S.W. Underpass Functional Planning Study

The City of Calgary is undertaking a functional planning study for 11 Street S.W. / CP Rail project area.
engage.calgary.ca engage.calgary.ca

Project Update - February 2025​

FUNCTIONAL PLANNING STUDY IS CLOSED
Using the input we received from the public and key interest holders, along with additional technical analysis and policy directions these are recommendations for the study area:
  • Recommended plan – active travel modes underpass as a destination
  • Recommended Alternate plan – all travel modes underpass with enhance public realm

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I used to live a couple of blocks away (with kids) from there, and used that intersection to bike, drive, and walk all the time. That street is wide enough to accommodate everyone safety, and separating the three modes is a great idea. Removing car access though is needlessly shooting ourselves in the foot and just adding a bottleneck elsewhere. Giving people more and safer transportation options in the inner city is great... removing one for no good reason would be a step backward, and honestly the type of annoying actions that makes many people hate urban planners.
 
Something I've noticed, people opposed to prioritizing public space over cars typically:

1) Drive for most errands and tasks and
2) Radically underestimate the number of Calgarians that walk or cycle for most tasks.

Personally speaking, I live in the area, never drive on 11th St. and welcome any additional public space without cars whizzing by. Older Calagarians would be surprised to learn that this sort of lifestyle is becoming increasingly popular.

Closing off this one road to Cars won't put us into gridlockalypse. Heck, we could close a quarter of downtown Calgary roads and still have one of the most car friendly Downtowns among cities above 1mil.
 
DiscoStu said:
I used to live a couple of blocks away (with kids) from there, and used that intersection to bike, drive, and walk all the time. That street is wide enough to accommodate everyone safety, and separating the three modes is a great idea. Removing car access though is needlessly shooting ourselves in the foot and just adding a bottleneck elsewhere. Giving people more and safer transportation options in the inner city is great... removing one for no good reason would be a step backward, and honestly the type of annoying actions that makes many people hate urban planners.
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If you're not going to use it for cars, why not just close it and put a much smaller Wheeling/Walking underpass for a 1/100th of the cost?
 
Woosh said:
Something I've noticed, people opposed to prioritizing public space over cars typically:

1) Drive for most errands and tasks and
2) Radically underestimate the number of Calgarians that walk or cycle for most tasks.

Personally speaking, I live in the area, never drive on 11th St. and welcome any additional public space without cars whizzing by. Older Calagarians would be surprised to learn that this sort of lifestyle is becoming increasingly popular.

Closing off this one road to Cars won't put us into gridlockalypse. Heck, we could close a quarter of downtown Calgary roads and still have one of the most car friendly Downtowns among cities above 1mil.
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I would be using that to commute on my bike, and I don't want to have to dodge kids running between the playground and slide. I do also understand that is a very busy road for cars and is one of a few connections between the downtown west end and the beltline, so why close it off? If we want a playground in the area I'm sure there is a section of Cowboys Park (hate that name lol) that could accommodate.
 
DiscoStu said:
I used to live a couple of blocks away (with kids) from there, and used that intersection to bike, drive, and walk all the time. That street is wide enough to accommodate everyone safety, and separating the three modes is a great idea. Removing car access though is needlessly shooting ourselves in the foot and just adding a bottleneck elsewhere. Giving people more and safer transportation options in the inner city is great... removing one for no good reason would be a step backward, and honestly the type of annoying actions that makes many people hate urban planners.
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Makes me think of this stretch of Kensington road that the city blocked off just for the hell of it. No driving, no parking, no bike lane, just barricades for the sake of barricades.
 
Mountain Man said:
Makes me think of this stretch of Kensington road that the city blocked off just for the hell of it. No driving, no parking, no bike lane, just barricades for the sake of barricades.
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I think this was a traffic calming exercise after several pedesrian collisions along that stretch:
www.calgary.ca

Kensington Road traffic safety improvements

www.calgary.ca www.calgary.ca

globalnews.ca

Calgary to slow down traffic along all of Kensington Road - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

The city announced traffic calming measures along Kensington Road, between Crowchild Trail and 14th Street Northwest.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
 
I assumed it was something like that. They can still allow parking for the areas away from the intersections though, just leave an empty spot for 20-30' at the intersections until they can build the pedestrian bump-outs. Flashing pedestrian crossings are also a good idea, they generally work quite well.
 
CallmeCatbread said:
Jeez you guys are miserable. The recommended plan has tons of potential. We have more than enough space for cars downtown.
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11th is a very important street for connectivity between north and south of the rail lines.

Remove 11th and it’s an eleven block gap (14th-1st) to get on to 9th Avenue from Beltline.

11th is also an import link to 5th avenue from Scarboro/Sunalta/Beltline. Because 14th St has such limited connections to 9th/6th/5th/Memorial, take away 11th St. and you force all of that traffic further through Beltline to 8th and 4th.

These suggestions are how you end up with Toronto style gridlock which isn’t pleasant for residents of the neighbourhood.

No one is going to play at a sunken playground between rail lines and a five lane 9th Avenue anyways.

Now imagine the Staples lot gets redeveloped to WVT level residences. By car, you can only get home from the west on Bow Trail.
 
haltcatchfire said:
11th is a very important street for connectivity between north and south of the rail lines.

Remove 11th and it’s an eleven block gap (14th-1st) to get on to 9th Avenue from Beltline.

11th is also an import link to 5th avenue from Scarboro/Sunalta/Beltline. Because 14th St has such limited connections to 9th/6th/5th/Memorial, take away 11th St. and you force all of that traffic further through Beltline to 8th and 4th.

These suggestions are how you end up with Toronto style gridlock which isn’t pleasant for residents of the neighbourhood.

No one is going to play at a sunken playground between rail lines and a five lane 9th Avenue anyways.

Now imagine the Staples lot gets redeveloped to WVT level residences. By car, you can only get home from the west on Bow Trail.
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It's not a direct connection to 9th Ave but you can take 8th St via 8th Ave.

That being said, I do agree with your points.
 
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