InfrastructureEnthusiast
New Member
With regards to TOD development, I think it's important to remember that Calgary is still a relatively young city, with few geographical constraints compared to a place like Vancouver, where TOD developments took quite a while to really get going.For an entire LRT line, those are a drop in the bucket for ridership. Below is a true TOD...and the other is what we actually got at Shag Point. Replacing 2-4 story developments with 3-4 story developments scattered on Centre St is not going to increase ridership, you need open space that needed LRT to come to develop. Sunnyside isn't a comparable to Centre St, it just isnt. It's comparable for the Ramsay/Inglewood station...not Centre Street line
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Eventually though even without geographical constraints, sprawl will be limited by what people consider to be an acceptable commute time. Until then, prospective homeowners when given a choice of a property that has dedicated land which will appreciate long term, or a multifamily unit which has maintenance fees that will increase long term, will mostly chose the former if prices are similar.
But if Calgary continues to grow as it is, the sprawl / commute time limit will be hit before the transit lines need full scale upgrades or replacement. IMO its best to plan these networks with the idea that the ROW is going to have to last forever, thus my focus on full grade separation, or at least the possibility to easily upgrade to that.