MichaelS
Senior Member
I guess the citywide speed limit reduction didn't really accomplish anything.
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Cars, Pedestrians, Cyclists and Transit
- Thread starter Ramsayite
- Start date
darwink
Senior Member
Makes me wonder if Covid is effecting people’s eye sight. Would be interesting to see the day vs night statistics like the recent New York Times story.
The article doesn't say how many pedestrians were killed in 2023. It mentions previous years 2021/2022.
Four pedestrians were killed in 2022 in Calgary, the mobility plan’s report says, compared to eight pedestrian fatalities in 2021
Does anyone know the current number for 2023?
Whatever the case, there are a lot more drivers out there this year, and traffic is heavier. Also, I think our level for driver education and ability has dropped in recent years. It seems to be a combination of people not qualified to drive, but somehow getting their license, and others who are spending too much time on their phone while driving.
Four pedestrians were killed in 2022 in Calgary, the mobility plan’s report says, compared to eight pedestrian fatalities in 2021
Does anyone know the current number for 2023?
Whatever the case, there are a lot more drivers out there this year, and traffic is heavier. Also, I think our level for driver education and ability has dropped in recent years. It seems to be a combination of people not qualified to drive, but somehow getting their license, and others who are spending too much time on their phone while driving.
Cowtown
Senior Member
Really good post, I like the phrase “city within a city”.
Calgary with its vast amount of suburban sprawl has a huge task of building infrastructure for all modes of transportation when you look at it from a citywide perspective, but it isn’t a huge task if you look at it for the inner-city.
It’s a task that’s very much achievable IMO. The city can still work towards better infrastructure in the suburbs, but if they put most of their effort into the core, the city within a city concept is achievable. The city can start working on suburban infrastructure and tying it into the so called city within a city.
darwink
Senior Member
Sounds like a great reason to eliminate graduated driving testing for adults
I'm not sure of the reasons behind the lack of driving skills, but it needs to be changed. It also could be only my perception that driving skills have gotten worse over the years.Sounds like a great reason to eliminate graduated driving testing for adults
darwink
Senior Member
TBH I think it is COVID, and not just the social dimensions such as more people walking and more people used to their not being people walking. I think we intentionally ignore the physical dimension of COVID, because it is truly scary how many people are out there with brain fog and other COVID related cognitive impairments including emotional regulation and reasoning. If it is it should show up everywhere, not just in Calgary. Shall see.
In the USA the slow ramp up implies it is something else, like many more people walking to work at sunset hours due to the shift towards the warehouse economy; and the shift of population to states with higher pedestrian involved accident rates (fewer sidewalks mostly I think?).
But Calgary's is either random noise, or something else.
In the USA the slow ramp up implies it is something else, like many more people walking to work at sunset hours due to the shift towards the warehouse economy; and the shift of population to states with higher pedestrian involved accident rates (fewer sidewalks mostly I think?).
But Calgary's is either random noise, or something else.
Cowtown
Senior Member
Indirectly from Covid in other ways as well. Some of the worst driving I see out there is from Skip the Dishes or Door dash. Their drivers spend a lot more time looking at their App, and GPS and looking for addresses than they do just doing regular driving.
And before anyone brings up racism, for the record I'm not a racist.
Cowtown
Senior Member
Agree completely.
Calgary's has a pretty dense core, and then a ring of extremely low density suburbs surrounded by a ring of newer much more dense neighborhoods. Outside of the river pathways, nothing connects to anything. In the most recent subdivisions there are bike paths, but they're only partially good within the neighborhood, and don't connect up to much else. In the low density middle ring neighborhoods there is almost nothing for cycling infrastructure, and then the core/inner city that has good connectivity. The 'inner core' as I'll call it (Kensington/Bridgeland/Mission/EV/Inglewood/DT/Beltline/Sunalta) all have good connectivity to the river paths and good connectivity to each other. All we need to do is keep pushing harder on improving the connectivity even more. For example extending the 5th street cycle lane or extending 12th ave lane to Ramsay. I'd like to see a pedestrian/cycle only bridge cross from Sunalta to Hillhurst. I'd also like to see 2nd street carry on through northward under the tracks and into DT. Another E=W cycle track in the DT core would be great.
Because the inner core is surrounded by all these mid ring low density sprawl neighborhoods, it already is a city within a city, and we should put more effort into it. The next phase will be tying the inner core to adjacent neighborhoods via Centre Street, Elbow drive, Edmonton Trail, 17th ave west etc..
2nd street under the tracks would be great, but might be difficult with the Green line there as well.
darwink
Senior Member
was the original plan, when the plan was solely lines on maps close to two decades ago.
I was going to say, maybe they can work in the cycle infrastructure while building the green line, but at the rate things are going with cost and complexity, I'm not going to hold my breath.
MichaelS
Senior Member
Or perhaps it wasn't a valid solution in the first place? All the air in the room that was taken up by that debate, was the main issue that it was 40km/h vs. 30km/h? Or, the fact that the problem isn't caused by that metric, but to actually address it, would be a lot harder, so let's just make it look like we are doing something, and hide under a pile of coats and hope the problem solves itself.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
I agree with this thinking. Along these lines, one thing the city needs to start thinking about more but has always struggled with is the general expansion of this inner core area. To me, the "lack of effort and focus" has been less about the effort within the immediate city centre - but an inconsistency when acknowledging that things immediately outside this boundary are starting to act a lot more like the inner city than they were 20 or 30 years ago.
Density and populations are steadily increasing, there's more walkable and interesting places there than before - University District, Brentwood, Marda Loop, Montgomery, Edmonton Trail - many good and less good examples of a new urban development patterns are emerging all over the place, not just the traditional core areas. Often the success of these places is in the development and the city both agreeing that they should change from a sleepy, empty suburban model to something more like the current inner core.
Bot the infrastructure and decisions don't align to this expanding urban vision consistently. Take the main streets infrastructure work. Some has been good, some less so - often the issue seems to be the degree in which designers, engineers, developers and the public can agree on how much a street should reflect a newer more urban reality. In the world of trade-offs, we created a pretty nice future urban place on Bowness Road in Montgomery and a more residential/urban vibe on 37 Street SW, while also locking in too much car-sewerness and anti-pedestrian design into 17th Avenue SW as the status quo auto-commuter vision seemed to win that one.
As we have seen in the recent posts, concrete towers are possible in Calgary - not just in the core. Similarly, high pedestrian traffic areas are more possible outside the immediate core
It's okay if parts of the city start looking, feeling and acting like the Beltline but aren't the Beltline. That is not a bad thing, likely a good thing, and quite possibly an inevitable thing - but the infrastructure and policy needs to acknowledge that.
In conclusion - better sidewalks, pathways and urban places everywhere, including downtown. But not only in downtown
whatchyyc
Active Member
I mean the Calgary Plan is being developed and includes the creation of the Street Manual to replace the Complete Streets Policy & Guide, I think we can make a big impact with those