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Originally Posted by johnnyc
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.
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Wrong. You'll note that such "lifestyle choices" didn't exist for the majority before the 1950's. Government policy and freeway building has everything to do with sprawl. The industrial areas on the eastern edge of the city used to be more compact and oriented around a streetcar line that was demolished as a result of the sprawl industry. Choice, in this case, is an illusion that's created by special interests.
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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.
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Calgary does not have a BRT, we have an express bus. BRT and LRT work in different situations, and Ottawa's system carries as many people as Calgary's (Curitaba's bus-based system carries around 2/3 of the commuting population, the most successful BRT system in the world).
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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.
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As I said before, choices (or rather "free choices") are an illusion. If I provided you with the option to live in a highrise condo or to live in a townhouse, and most people chose townhouses, would it then be valid to say that most people prefer to live in townhouses?
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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.
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We ARE demolishing neighbourhoods. That's why 16th Ave is taking so long, they have to expropriate all the land. The Ring Road is an awful thing, as it will accelerate sprawl. They should have just rerouted the Transcanada down to Glenmore and out the other side of the city, thereby making use of existing infrastructure.
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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.
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As engine efficiency gets better, the amount of fuel burned in traffic will go down. The sprawl won't go away, however. Besides, it isn't an exaggeration to say that one could be stuck in traffic for hours, freeway or not. All it takes are a couple of accidents and every road is clogged.