I second this sentiment.:previous:
I kind of laughed at the title of this thread.

Well, when you're building an insta-city out of nothing (like Calgary) you can put freeways wherever you want, but in the case of established cities like Winnipeg or Toronto building freeways means destroying significant parts of the existing social or structural fabric. The freeway plan that existed in Winnipeg in the 1960s would have totally destroyed large parts of the city with unsightly raised roads. Developments like the Forks and other riverside projects would have been impossible. Many older neighbourhoods would have been sliced up and cut off and even worse off than they are now. So it's fortunate in many respects that the freeway plans were shelved. Even the Disraeli Freeway, a short elevated road that did get built, managed to devastate an entire inner-city neighbourhood.

Building an underpass at Waverley isn't going to make Winnipeg a transportation hub. Traffic on Waverley is increasingly single vehicle occupant cars. It will serve residential neighbourhoods, not commercial routes. These are two separate issues, LRT/BRT vs. commercial traffic. Does anyone in the world build an LRT to enhance cargo transportation? Obviously not.

By the way I specifically wrote light rail, so don't go throwing BRT into the mix. That was your comment not mine.

true, but it wouldn't be very hard to at least convert the perimeter highway to freeway status, for safety sake

freeways cause sprawl, increase commuting distances, increase air pollution, increase reliance on automobile travel and destroy the urban fabric of a city.....there is a reason american cities are so much larger than canadian ones....and why cities with freeways are larger than ones without:

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3...deacalgzw3.jpg

The Perimeter is a provincial trunk highway, not a city street. It is pretty substandard, but I doubt that there is a real need to spend hundreds of millions to make it completely controlled access. Some of the existing interchanges need to be rebuilt, though.

That would seem to be belied by the experience in Halifax, which has terrible sprawl and terrible roads.

Is that Winnipeg superimposed over Calgary?

I believe it would be 2 winnipeg's that are superimposed over Calgary. (1 Calgary would still be better then 2 Winnipeg's combined. Also interesting to note, Calgarys 1 downtown would still be bigger then 2 Winnipegs...LOL)

Absolutely correct, TV. You can never build your way out of congestion, it's been proven over and over. The rate of trip making goes up, you're back into gridlock. Having an effective goods movement network is important but smart land use decisions will drive that more than simply adding capacity where trucks are competing with cars. Nobody builds freeways anymore except Calgary, Edmonton, Dallas, etc. Surprise.

Winnipeg road network isn't much different than Vancouver....Vancouver simply invested in rapid transit and coordinated land use and accomodated alot of growth that way whereas Winnipeg did nothing. Forget Calgary as a model, that's the only city I can think of that invests hundreds of millions in LRT expansion while in the same corridor enhances road capacity.

BTW, those who slag BRT, try the Ottawa system. Far better transit than what you'll get in any Prairie city.

No Rapid Transit, no Freeways, I guess everyone like stopping and going at every light. Seeing as Winnipeg still has sprawl, only small tracts of it are walkable. Gotta have some mode of transportation.... Everyone on the bus! Next Red light, here we come!

C-train is better then BRT in Ottawa. By a long shot. Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax have all recently, and still continue to build freeways...

But both cities would still be way more interesting than 1 Edmonton. ;)

Well, the C-Train is better than what Edmonton offers, much more extensive. But having lived in both Ottawa/Calgary, and using both systems, Ottawa wins. Just as fast as LRT, more frequent service. Although it is more costly to operate. I believe Ottawa transit ridership is actually higher than Calgary's, even with 200000 fewer people. So, the attitude of nobody wanting to ride a bus applies largely to the southern US. Efficient/frequent/accessible service is the key.

As for the freeways, Vancouver is doing it as part of the Gateway initiative, whether these new perimeter roads constitute true grade separated freeways, I don't know. And Toronto, I find it hard to believe with their growth management strategy/Move Ontario program that there are freeways being built. Improvements to existing roads maybe, they have trouble maintaining their transit system.

Bottom line, Winnipeg is fine without freeways, better traffic signal technology would help, some 'point' improvements would help and the Perimeter should be grade separated for efficiency and safety purposes. The absence of an Ottawa transitway or LRT is the crying shame. :hell:

No new freeways in Halifax. They haven't built anything close to that in years around here. That's why our traffic is so screwed up.

As for BRT, Halifax has some (called "Link" buses, for some reason) on a couple of very limited routes. They sit stuck in traffic like everyone else. None too rapid. Our road network is so antiquated and overloaded that we would need to do some massive construction just to get us to the "inadequate" stage.

Blaming Calgary's sprawl on freeways is just ignorant, it is a lifestyle choice that Calgarians made. Living in bigger houses with bigger yards and having 2 of the largest inner city parks in North America dramatically increases the size of the city. Calgary also has very large industrial areas along the eastern edge of the city. Having a freeway in the city makes getting across Calgary much easier. You can take your roads with all of your traffic lights, even if they are timed, you will still end up waiting.

As for BRT lines being better than the LRT, are you kidding me? you still have to deal with traffic and you will still be screwed if there is an accident. Calgary has BRT too, it services the ares of the city that do not yet have the C-train. It's a good system, but it can not compete with the LRT.

Like I said before, sprawl is driven by consumers wanting to buy a house with a good size yard instead of a townhouse or an apartment, and with a high average income, that's a choice that more people here can afford to make.

Talking about Calgary being the only city still building freeways is wrong, you people speak as if we are demolishing neighborhoods and building elevated freeways, when all we are really doing is building more overpasses and increasing traffic flow on existing roads. Deerfoot is our only true freeway, and will stay that way until Glenmore / Sarcee can manage to get rid of all the traffic lights, and move from being a causeway to a freeway. The only thing we are building from scratch (and that is only sections) is the ring road, and you would have to be a complete idiot to tell me that is a bad thing. Anyone who has ever tried to cross through the city on 16th Ave (especially driving an 18 wheeler) knows how frustrating a task that is, the ring road is meant to alleviate that.

Lastly, saying that a freeway causes more pollution is a half truth, true it may increase the distance you travel and thus the amount of gas you burn, but it will greatly reduce the amount of time that you spend in traffic idling (which also burns gas don't you know), and I would say that is better.

end rant.

And two Winnipeg's would both be better than one feepa; always ;). Reading your responses towards Winnipeg, I don't think that Malek (according to you) or Waterlooson are the only troublemakers (ie trolls) on this forum.

mmmyeah, as recent as 1975 for Montréal? (highway 13). Again talking out of your ass:haha:

Thankfully we'll get a new bridge and extension for the 25 by 2011.

There are different forms of BRT. You're right, you run it as on on-street operation without signal priority, etc. and it's a fraud, buses stuck everywhere. Put it on its own dedicated right of way like Ottawa, that works great. Comparing Calgary's so-called BRT to Ottawa's is night and day.

Nobody said Calgary was the ONLY city building freeway type roads. Last I saw, Crowchild was being expanded and turned into a freeway, minus a couple of traffic signals north of the river. And this road takes traffic right to downtown, what other city is providing enhanced auto access into a downtown. Maybe doesn't matter much based on parking charges.

Calgary's development was heavily influenced by the Dallas/Houston mentality, which is one the reasons it's a bit different from every other city in Canada in terms of sprawl and big roads.

Montreal just removed an interchange near where I lived. It's much easier to get around by foot and it's amazing how much land has been freed up for parks and development. It also makes a streetcar running on Parc possible.