Currie | 87m | 30s | CLC | DIALOG

[CalgaryTiger]

Would have been great to know that before they build the Marda Loop Station on the on-ramp. The Max Yellow is a pretty solid route with a couple of pain points - downtown's brutal lack of bus priority and this Marda Loop station location.

The problem is they put the existing station on the NB ramp onto Crowchild - making it farther with many road crossings from the areas of density and walkability focused increasingly on 34th Avenue, but also subject to long signal delay issues with existing the freeway, waiting for a light, entering the freeway again. Even with the Currie alignment the proposal would have forced a left-hand turn onto Crowchild from 33rd, again risking more delays. The trade-off was that going through Currie centrally would yield some good ridership (eventually at build out) so the risks of delays are worth it.

If the bus doesn't go to Currie, the NB Marda Loop stop is forever in an inefficient location. A better approach (had they known they were going to stay on the freeway) is build the stops into the freeway bridge with a short pedestrian tunnel under the ramp connecting directly to Safeway for the NB stop. When combined with the a SB stop on Crowchild under the bridge and some ramps and stairs we've all of sudden created a transit station in both directions that has zero at-grade crossing for busses or pedestrians, dramatically improving travel times and reliability from signals and congestion.

Consider a south-bound Max Yellow passenger heading to Marda Loop safeway area has:

• Current: 4 crosswalks (1 unprotected on a ramp), 2 signal waits, 1 unprotected
• Proposed: 0 road crossings, no signal delays.

A north-bound Max Yellow passenger has a similar issue heading from Marda Loop safeway area has:

• Current: 3 crosswalks (2 unprotected on ramps), 1 signal wait
• Proposed: 0 road crossings, no signal delays

Here's a poor-quality diagram of what we should have ended up with, black is new sidewalks, green is transit stations staying on crowchild. Yellow lines are what the route currently does:
View attachment 720745

It might seem like small stuff, but this is daily a 2 - 5 minute delay for the bus to enter and exit Crowchild here adding to every trip. For Marda Loop residents all this forced walking delays add safety issues but also real time, making a short walk into a annoying one with 2 to 5 minutes of signal delays waiting to cross a road.

As someone who takes the MY, I see what you're saying but the 33rd Ave station is future-proof. Going through Currie eventually does make sense. And although I do wish I didn't have to go through this interchange, I do everyday and the crossings are not terrible. My journey is actually much better now that there are stairs down to Safeway.

What you describe is smart and is the way it is at the 26th Ave stops as well as the 17th Ave SB stop. However, it would be nice they cleaned those stops up a bit and formalized them as MAX stops. Maybe that formalization will come with the buildout of the Viscount Bennett school site?

 

[MichaelS]

As someone who takes the MY, I see what you're saying but the 33rd Ave station is future-proof. Going through Currie eventually does make sense. And although I do wish I didn't have to go through this interchange, I do everyday and the crossings are not terrible. My journey is actually much better now that there are stairs down to Safeway.

What you describe is smart and is the way it is at the 26th Ave stops as well as the 17th Ave SB stop. However, it would be nice they cleaned those stops up a bit and formalized them as MAX stops. Maybe that formalization will come with the buildout of the Viscount Bennett school site?

That is the plan for the build-out of Viscount Bennet (or Parkline to use the proper name). Minto even had to contribute $1,000,000 as part of their approvals to the upgrades of the 26th Ave BRT stop.

 

[CBBarnett]

As someone who takes the MY, I see what you're saying but the 33rd Ave station is future-proof. Going through Currie eventually does make sense. And although I do wish I didn't have to go through this interchange, I do everyday and the crossings are not terrible. My journey is actually much better now that there are stairs down to Safeway.

What you describe is smart and is the way it is at the 26th Ave stops as well as the 17th Ave SB stop. However, it would be nice they cleaned those stops up a bit and formalized them as MAX stops. Maybe that formalization will come with the buildout of the Viscount Bennett school site?

Totally - if Currie is as big of destination as it was originally proposed, maybe the current setup is worth it despite being inefficient to improve Currie access. Also, it's not ideal to have a transit stop next to a freeway... but that can be mitigated with a higher-quality stop like other MAX stations. If designed right - including having really pedestrian-centric connections to the stop - the benefit of a grade-separated, high-speed corridor is huge. No sense to give all that benefit of a grade-separated, high-speed route to transit's competitor while making the bus take all these time-wasting compromises.

Another long-term goal should be to widen the shoulder on Crowchild so the BRT can actually use it reliably at full speed.

 

[lemongrab]

Would have been great to know that before they build the Marda Loop Station on the on-ramp. The Max Yellow is a pretty solid route with a couple of pain points - downtown's brutal lack of bus priority and this Marda Loop station location.

The problem is they put the existing station on the NB ramp onto Crowchild - making it farther with many road crossings from the areas of density and walkability focused increasingly on 34th Avenue, but also subject to long signal delay issues with existing the freeway, waiting for a light, entering the freeway again. Even with the Currie alignment the proposal would have forced a left-hand turn onto Crowchild from 33rd, again risking more delays. The trade-off was that going through Currie centrally would yield some good ridership (eventually at build out) so the risks of delays are worth it.

The other option would be to put it about 400m further south, near the pedestrian overpass and existing stop for the 20. Ped crossing is currently okay, but could definitely be better,

Right now I think MY runs about 1900 meters (1600 meters as the crow flies) from MRU stop to Marda Loop stop, and then just 550m to 26 Ave stop. So this would make for much better spacing, and serve Currie/Altadore much better

There are mobility challenges for all three options (including current) way, though for our proposals its only when you need to cross Crowchild, whereas the current involves gaining a lot of elevation either way, albeit more gradually.

Hard to say if better access to Currie is worth an extra few hundred meters from the heart of Marda Loop. The other challenge with mine is that the bus would feed into slightly more traffic going NB but there are a few simple tweaks that could mitigate that.

I like your idea for short-term, but I think mine is better long-term compared to running through Currie, which should be a fairly slow road with lots of playground zones and crossings.

 

[seawalker]

Earlier Currie design documents call for a replacement pedestrian bridge (red arrow on this map) about mid-way in between the current one and the 33 Ave overpass. On Garrison Woods' side, it'd land about where the Manor Village at Garrison Woods is with a long ramp to where the current bridge lands. I think that would be a safer and less hostile bridge to cross than the current pedestrian bridge and the current 33 Ave. But, how likely will that happen, no one knows.

Currie Barracks - JMGartly Design Studio

Calgary, AB

jmgartlydesign.ca

 

[Surrealplaces]

I hope the bridge does get built someday. Both Flanders and 33rd are terrible crossing for pedestrians and cyclists. With the amount of density starting to go into Currie those crossings will be getting much busier.