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Calgary Transit

Wrote this last fall for a candidate, just as relevant today.

LRT, MAX Routes and primary transit network

Ridership on transit is a function of convenience. Right now, ridership is held back by low frequency, and investment in frequency is held back by lower ridership. We must break this cycle by investing in increased frequency.

We will seek to increase frequency on routes to 15 minutes, from 6am to 10pm, 7 days a week. Current frequencies can stretch to 30 minutes on weekends and over 20 minutes on weekdays.

As frequency leads to growing ridership, we will further seek to increase frequency to 10 minutes as soon as possible.

Local Routes – LRT and BRT Feeders

On-Demand Transit

On Demand transit service can be faster and provide improved for users. We will vastly expand this type of transit following user consultation.

Existing On Demand Service

We will survey users of On Demand Transit Routes in the southwest communities Aspen Woods, Christie Park, Strathcona Park, Signal Hill, Springbank Hill and Discovery Ridge, and the northwest communities of Carrington and Livingston to gauge whether service has improved from their points of view due to the adoption of on-demand transit.

Then, we will examine costs, and assess changes to average trip time and assess whether On Demand service is preferred, or whether service should return to a more traditional, fixed-route service.

Traditional Fixed Route Community Service

Using data from On Demand Services, we will share the results and survey LRT and BRT feeder bus users on their buses to decide whether to extend On Demand Routes throughout the city. Using these surveys, and assessment from Calgary Transit planners, we will decide on which routes are appropriate for On Demand routes and shift them over.
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Has anyone else noticed how the westbound #7 bus route along 17th Avenue constantly has cars parked in the bus stop? Specifically, it has been an issue at the stops on the corner of 4th street and 6th street.

I don't fault the drivers since there's only a small bus stop sign that even indicates this is a bus stop, but some better signage or even a bus shelter would probably go a long way to prevent this from happening in the future. However, I know 17th Ave is already quite tight and any additional street furniture will just create pedestrian bottlenecks, but wonder if this is an issue that the City is looking to address?
 
Colinfill said:
Has anyone else noticed how the westbound #7 bus route along 17th Avenue constantly has cars parked in the bus stop? Specifically, it has been an issue at the stops on the corner of 4th street and 6th street.

I don't fault the drivers since there's only a small bus stop sign that even indicates this is a bus stop, but some better signage or even a bus shelter would probably go a long way to prevent this from happening in the future. However, I know 17th Ave is already quite tight and any additional street furniture will just create pedestrian bottlenecks, but wonder if this is an issue that the City is looking to address?
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While the street patios are deployed, the solution should be to install a curb extension, and have the bus stop to load in the travel lane.
 
darwink said:
While the street patios are deployed, the solution should be to install a curb extension, and have the bus stop to load in the travel lane.
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The route 6 on 1 Street SW has this treatment and works perfectly.

In reality or perception none of the shops between 4th Street and about 8th on 17 Ave Sw are very dependent on street parking anymore (although many of them will disagree) and the transit service is there endlessly delayed due to cars parking in the bus stop + cars searching for street parking that doesn’t exist.

The retail on that street has evolved to mostly bars and restaurants where the added patio space from a wider sidewalk is worth far more than 3 stalls of street parking .

Broken record warning - north side of 17 Ave should have a sidewalk a full lane wider for at least the core sections, but ultimately the whole corridor. Buses should stop in the remaining travel lane so traffic won’t delay them merging into traffic or having parking cars in their space anymore .
 
Engagement is open for RouteAhead. Lots of talk about frequency so far. Let's hope they listen :)
engage.calgary.ca

RouteAhead 10-Year Update

We’re updating RouteAhead: Calgary Transit’s 30-year planning document that guides us in providing safe, accessible, customer-focused transit service for Calgarians.
engage.calgary.ca engage.calgary.ca
 
jhappy77 said:
Engagement is open for RouteAhead. Lots of talk about frequency so far. Let's hope they listen :)
engage.calgary.ca

RouteAhead 10-Year Update

We’re updating RouteAhead: Calgary Transit’s 30-year planning document that guides us in providing safe, accessible, customer-focused transit service for Calgarians.
engage.calgary.ca engage.calgary.ca
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As a frequent rider, safety and frequency are huge for me. Shelters at C-Train stations taken over by people doing drugs leaving me in the elements is not exactly how I like to start my morning. It would also be great to know that if I miss the 4:30 bus home I don't have to wait until 5 for the next one.
 
10 Year Updates are good, but for any transit enthusiasts out there or anyone involved in the Route Ahead update, I encourage everyone to explore the difference between Translink's projects page and compare to Calgary Transit's "similar" projects page:
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects?page=1&pageSize=10&sort=Date
  • All information on dozens of improvement projects in one place including major, minor, operations, planning
  • Sharp images, plain language, links and infographics to content
  • All in service of the big vision - "here's a list of everything we are doing to improve transit for you"
https://www.calgarytransit.com/content/transit/en/home/plans---projects.html
  • A single, low-res picture of Crowfoot Station under construction (circa 2008)
  • 5 links in total, including one to station improvement projects that have all been complete 3 years or more ago
  • No mention or link to any of the small projects Transit does all the time from the payment app, to longer term corridor studies
This website is emblematic of the broader difference between the two organizations - one has a transit culture that live, breathes and fights every day to promote, expand and improve transit. The other is Calgary Transit. Frankly, Translink is several decades ahead of Calgary (and the gap appears to still be growing) in almost all areas.

It's also not just the obvious and big stuff like frequency of service, grade-separation and reliability, automated Skytrains etc. that Translink excels at - it's all the many, many small things that only get produced when you firmly established a transit culture within the organization delivering it.

For example here's a whole section on bus stop balancing and "bus bulbs", the exact thing I mentioned was so great about a single stop on 1st Street SW. Translink not only explains why they are good things, shows you where they have done this already on dozens of routes and hundreds of locations, but explains in plain language why it's better for service quality and saves money by not having buses wait at as many stops.

Of course my harsh critique needs a big caveat - comparing most agencies to Translink it's not super fair, Translink is best in class in North America, and increasingly competitive with some of the best agencies in the world. Of course Vancouver is larger and more developed, and they have been at this citybuilding game longer and are naturally more ahead. Transit culture in Vancouver benefits from decades of intense arguments and political debates that Calgary hasn't really ever had about what transit is all about and why it's critical to a functioning modern major city.

I don't know how to evolve Calgary Transit into the organization it should be. But I'd love to see far more dedication to relentless communication, transit advocacy and a backbone to push transit primacy in everything it does - from websites to major projects. Transit should never be able to build the Max Purple Line for $200M and not be able to justify signal priority on all the busses that run on it. Transit needs to win those and bring every tool in advocacy, data and politics available to it. Be ruthlessly pro-transit.

Why doesn't Transit fight for itself anymore?
 
I haven't thought a lot about this much but I have to think the reason Calgary Transit is that way that it is has a lot to do with the culture of Calgary more broadly not just Calgary Transit. Calgary isn't a government or large government entity city. The institutions we do have here (CBE) have history of not spending super wisely. If Calgary Transit became like Translink and took over all parts of Transit then I could see there being some huge push back about the fear of creating a large, powerful government entity. BC is use to large government entities (BC Hydro, ICBC, etc.), we are not.

Would CT be more efficient and better at what it did if it controlled regional transit (bus, light-rail, (future) commuter-rail, (future) regional-rail) from all aspects? Absolutely it would be, I just don't see there being a interest in it from the culture perspective. If anything, it would be spun off like Enmax. Imagine, for profit transit. Yikes!
 
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darwink said:
^ a difference is Calgary Transit is the service delivery agency. But they aren't the capital or system planners. That is still in Transportation, not Transit.
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Transportation no longer exists, now that the City has completed their administrative re-organization. I think the jury is still out on whether or not it will improve things though.
 
How do we feel about a Hydrogen powered street car system to supplement the C-Train?

Understanding what I reference is a regional train, I just imagine the buildout for a hydrogen powered street car would cost far less then light-rail. My train of thought being that you avoid all the electrical infrastructure and build the track into an existing road right-of-way so you're not having to spend money on land. Not to mention you avoid the overhead infrastructure required for electric trains.

The trains in the article have a 1000km range, so you could run a street car all day.

Could be wrong about the economics of something like this but in my mind it has to cost less than building a light rail spoke to MRU down 37th. Not sure if you try to integrate all the street car lines into one another or simply use it to fill in the spots where the C-train misses?
 
While I can't comment on the hydrogen-powered aspect, I can say that I don't think building a street car network is the right move for us right now.

Streetcars offer the following advantages over buses:
  • Very slightly faster
  • Higher capacity
  • Better ride experience
  • Encourages more development / provides a better "urban atmosphere"
All of which are nice, but none of which are musts. For the most part, if you're building a streetcar line, you're dedicating a ton of capital into something that would have effectively identical transportation benefit if you just ran a frequent bus route instead. I'd love for us to have a streetcar network eventually, but I think our system has too many issues that we need to address first (and buses are a perfectly adequate tool to address them). Let's invest in operations so we have a frequent, useful bus network first, and then maybe streetcar projects will make sense down the road.

37 St actually does have a streetcar line proposed by Route Ahead as a relatively high priority project, but I don't see how that makes sense if Max Teal already covers the route with less frequency and no capacity problems. If we want better transit on that corridor, just invest in more frequency for Max Teal!

The one place that I think would actually be ready for a streetcar today is 17th Ave between Westbrook and Vic Park / Stampede. Would be an instant hit. Then pedestrianize the rest like Bahnofstrasse in Zurich:
1661886857111.png
 
As dumb as it seems, I think a big barrier to bus ridership is simply stigma/image/reputation. I wonder if running high freq 'cool-looking' busses on a vibrant route might be as effective as a streetcar? Probably with a full-blown marketing campaign that makes them 'feel' somehow different than regular busses:

streetcar-3.jpg



Hipster Express Route: Westbrook-MRU-Marda Loop-17th-Stampede (could conceivably be a figure 8 running up 14th St to SAIT, too)

I could see myself more likely to hop on that to go for dinner, but that idea seems completely incongruous with a 'typical' bus for some reason. I think it could replace a lot of use-cases we used to see with Car2Go
 
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