Quote:
Originally Posted by McMurph
Or you could make all of downtown an at-grade, uncontrolled crossing like Embarcadero near Jack London Square in Oakland. That's a modern take on the "fire a cannonball down the street and not hit anyone" type of place.
Thankfully Calgary has a bit more going on than Oakland, but in all honesty I'm not sure all CPR crossings downtown have to be grade separated. I'd rather have a couple more punched through at grade than to put all the available money into sinking 11th below grade. For pedestrians and cyclists in particular more at grade crossings would be a whole lot more useful than a single separation at 11th.
|
This. I do think 11th can warrant a underpass given the traffic levels. But I am with you: I want to see as many at grade-ped/cyclist connections through the CPR tracks as possible. They cost next to nothing and would dramatically improve Beltline Access to DT.
I believe the kink in this plan is CPR occasionally likes to park trains between 11th Street and Inglewood, which would reduce level crossing effectiveness to zero. And the city usually has their hands up in the air because they have little pull on CPR to do anything with it being regulated federally.
There should be paths connecting 7th and 6th Street in particular.
That's a frustrating reality. There are solutions that can vastly improve the well-being and access of inner city residents that cost almost nothing but can't get them through because of one reason or another. Moving a few CPR parking spots is hardly a big ask unless there is some other reason I am not aware of.