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Calgary Transit

Also important to note that turnstiles are typically only employed in closed systems of which LRT is not. For subways and elevated rail, the only access to the platforms are through the stations and so turnstiles act as barriers as there are no other points of access.

For LRT the idea is to integrate the stations into the community (see 7th Ave) and turnstiles work against that principle. Plus for an at-grade network like LRT, people can access every station by simply finding the closest road/pedestrian crossing and walking 10 feet down the tracks to hop up on the platforms. The turnstile question also ignores the fact that we have low income fare passes available for as cheap as $5.95/month and so a lot of the undesirables people are hoping fare gates will remove, probably have these low income transit passes and have legitimate access to the platforms and the network anyways.
 
Agreed. For the money needed to build and maintain turnstiles, and then to rebuild stations so they could be closed off, we might as well spend the money on extra security.

If the system was closed off I would go with turnstiles, the same way others cities have, but in our case it doesn't make sense. as discussed in another thread about homeless, so much of the issues around the LRT and issues with the downtown core lead back to drug addiction problems. If that can be resolved, it will have an impact on the LRT.
 
lemongrab said:
On my last trip to NYC I think I road the subway twice, and have 2 main memories:
- the dude in front of me jumping over the turnstile
- a dude pissing into a trash can within the fare zone

Of course NYC gonna NYC, but there is nothing magic about barriers.
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The first time I visited NYC was 1989. Stations on the Lexington line were completely covered in graffitti. I remember wiating for a train in a station where the overflowing trash cans were infested with rats, the stench of urine (probably a mixture of rodent and homeless in source) overwhelmed and mostly freightening of all, a discount hooker was conducting buinsess at the end of the platform. I hope Calgary Transit doesn't descent anywhere near that low,.
 
Would adding more transit cops help? I'm sure people would hesitate to be doing drugs or stabbing people if there was a cop right there. Would hate for our transit to be like in Europe where there are fully armed tactical police all over their transit systems. Given that's a terrorism thing not crime, but seeing those guys affects your perception of safety for sure.
 
That's probably the best solution at the moment. If you added some more transit police that hopped on and off trains between Bridgeland <-> Sunalta and Sunnyside <-> Erlton Station it would cut out a fair bit of the undesirable element getting on the trains in between those stops.
 
Do they have to be transit police, or could you hire people to wear vests that say "Questions? Ask Me!"? A simple presence of someone there would deter some. Now, maybe you do need some kind of authority figure. But it's not as if you're going to write these people a ticket.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
Do they have to be transit police, or could you hire people to wear vests that say "Questions? Ask Me!"? A simple presence of someone there would deter some. Now, maybe you do need some kind of authority figure. But it's not as if you're going to write these people a ticket.
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I'm not sure what the best fit is. In the past there has been abuse of transit cops, and it would be better to have someone with more authority like police officers, but the costs go up.

badc0ffee said:
Erlton? Don't leave 39th and Chinook high and dry. Or Franklin and Marlborough for that matter. Or Lions Park lately.
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The hope would be that if officers patrolled the core, it would help stop most of the problem riders from getting out to places like Chinook, etc.. I'm not 100% sure it work as you might have a situation where the officers remove a person and the person gets on the next train, and even if he gets removed again there's nothing stopping that person from trying over and over. Unless the person gets taken away for trespassing, there's nothing to stop them.
 
Having cops could stop crime but they literally need to be in the right place at the right time. They won’t proactively remove people unless they are actively committing a crime or doing drugs but they can’t be at every station at all times. On thing I’ve seen businesses do is they install the special purple lights that make it harder to do drugs, could that be done in the transit shelters?
 
trtcttc said:
Having cops could stop crime but they literally need to be in the right place at the right time. They won’t proactively remove people unless they are actively committing a crime or doing drugs but they can’t be at every station at all times. On thing I’ve seen businesses do is they install the special purple lights that make it harder to do drugs, could that be done in the transit shelters?
Click to expand...
Not sure all the stains revealed by those lights will make anyone more comfortable riding transit :eek:
 
https://newsroom.calgary.ca/calgary-transit-extending-ctrain-bike-pilot/

This sounds good to me - it kinda seems like a rule that would regulate itself through common sense 99% of the time, and the 1% of inconsiderates that would try to jam their way onto a cheek to jowl train are probably gonna do that anyways.

I guess the most challenging situation I could imagine is a rider getting on at an early station and then needing to disembark once the train is really crowded
 
Bout f*ckin time.

Also, people need to start using the help buttons at stations and on trains. I used the one at Bridgeland the other day, super easy, hey just answer and I said “hey im at Bridgeland station and some dipshit is smoking crack inside the station” and they dispatched officers immediately. Don’t know why I’m the only person I’ve ever seen use them.
 
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