Decision 2010: Calgary Municipal Election

[fusili]

Originally Posted by Radley77

Is rail bias going to necessitate spending many times the amount in capital costs and operational costs?

Rail has lower operating costs. Costs per passenger are much less than buses due to fuel efficiency and passengers per operator. Maintenance is lower as well, as lifespan of vehicles is much longer than buses. The disadvantage rail has compared to buses is capital cost. And before anyone goes and mentions flexibility as an advantage buses have, I want to say that flexibility is a disadvantage, not an advantage. The permanence of rail is a good thing for a transit system.

[MalcolmTucker]

Even on the operational side, as streetcars when your capacity needs gets high rail can be less effective than buses. The TTC did a study on replacing its streetcar fleet with buses, and the operational costs for those particular routes dropped by half. Now that might have more to do with the awful way the TTC runs its stretcars, but the rail advantage should not be taken as a given.

In any case, this discussion should move over to the Transit Thread.

[suburb]

Offer to view open house & have a civic election discussion today right beside the Harvest Hills advanced voting station. Quite ingenious if I do say so myself

KIJIJI ADD

[Riise]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

In any case, this discussion should move over to the Transit Thread.

Which is where my latest response can be found.

[suburb]

Calgary candidate reaches out to new voters
REF

A Calgary mayoral candidate is appealing to voters who have trouble understanding the English language.

Naheed Nenshi has translated his online brochures into ten different languages, translated his platform video and recruited volunteer interpreters who speak 23 different languages, including Chinese and Arabic.

"They're answering questions, they're making sure that folks know where to vote [and] when to vote," Nenshi said.

"If they have question about my policy, these interpreters will speak to them one-on-one and help them understand the policy, which is great because lots of folks phone your office and ask stuff and sometimes, if the answers are technical or complex, it's difficult for them to understand. It's great to have these volunteers to help."

Nenshi, whose background is in business, said he's hoping to get more people interested in municipal politics.

"We're really trying to reach out to people, but it's clear from our voter turnout levels that a lot of Calgarians feel alienated from the process," he said.

"We're doing everything we can to bring them in. You know, when only one in three Calgarians votes, it's clear that we're not doing enough to make people feel involved."

Municipal elections will be held across the province on Oct. 18.

[Radley77]

Apologies on the overtime, final post on this issue.

Originally Posted by fusili

Rail has lower operating costs. Costs per passenger are much less than buses due to fuel efficiency and passengers per operator. Maintenance is lower as well, as lifespan of vehicles is much longer than buses. The disadvantage rail has compared to buses is capital cost. And before anyone goes and mentions flexibility as an advantage buses have, I want to say that flexibility is a disadvantage, not an advantage. The permanence of rail is a good thing for a transit system.

Rail has lower operational costs per passenger only when there is a high ridership volumes. The following report has a comparison between LRT and BRT for costs per revenue hour as well as passengers per hour. I am not sure what the volume "break-even" point would be for an LRT system, but I would assume that the transportation engineering experts that put the Plan It together would be most qualified to understand the various options. I would think a below grade system would have even higher operational costs than at grade LRT due to extra lighting needs, HVAC system, and water pumping system for the tunnel, plus extra maintenance.

http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/brt_report.pdf

Without things like Park'N'Ride and larger land packages for walkable communities, then it would be hard to attract that level of ridership. A Centre Street alignment would have to rely to a huge extent on a feeder network.

Anyways, I know I don't know the best answer to this... but I would hope that Calgary transportation engineers which I think have built an excellent LRT system and were a part of Plan It would be the most appropriate to evaluate this various decisions. I would hope that one of the other values of Plan It is that it allows cumulative efforts and understandings to have a plan and hasten people's learning curve. Things shouldn't need continual reevaluation from the bottom-up. I am worried any project that becomes a political pet a la monorail and is not justified by sound planning or a regurgitation of research without adding value; large studies are not required if the answer is fairly obvious...

[MalcolmTucker]

^ Remember that it wasn't Plan-It's job to choose which corridors were best for LRT. They were guided by past council decisions and could not change things that were already in place without direction. That is why the airport tunnel was in Plan-It until council decided they couldn't square that circle. That any LRT, streetcar, bus network, road work is or is not in Plan-It, does not indicate that there was any backing or even studies of the individual parts - note the Sandy Beach Bus Way that was in one version for example.

Plan-It is only a visioning document, a beginning, not an end. Realistically it only has force above an exercise like 'Imagine Calgary' in that it helps shape bureaucrats actions, and helps Alderman stand up and ask when a proposal comes 'does this comply with the principles set out in Plan It'? so that media can write a simple story when a project was approved or not. It is surprising how much 'this does not fit with the vision put forward in Imagine Calgary' was used to help justify blocking projects, and the vice versa for pushing things forward.

[suburb]

Thought this was interesting. McIver shooting out a blurt without having thought it through, Nenshi says change is needed but it requires a more thoughtful analysis (while highlighting McIver's ineffectiveness with a real example), and surprise surprise - Barb has no comment.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2010/10/10/15648561.html

[Robert in Calgary]

Originally Posted by Radley77

Don't get me wrong, I'd like a Centre Street route as well. It's just that it would be cost-prohibitive or not result in efficiency improvements as already reviewed by transportation engineers.

http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/north_central_calgary_transit_corridor_review.pdf

Why revisit this, when one could allocate more resources toward implementation of Plan It?

The engineers are wrong. They don't want Centre Street LRT and made sure the report reflected that bias. LRT in the Nose Creek Valley is asinine.

I have had face to face conversations with the planners admitting they were afraid of "community outrage" over picking the common sense route.

We'll buy properties for Glenmore/Elbow, for West LRT, we'll spend decades buying properties for 16th Avenue. We'll put houses right next to Deerfoot Trail....

If the city had spent 2 million dollars a year for the last 20-25 years, we would have the route ready and waiting to go.

Around...8 or 10 years ago I suggested running the early sections of the route in an open trench on a 1st Street NE alignment. You would have thought I was suggesting a manned mission to Mars!

Now what do I see being used on the West LRT route? The exact same concept I suggested.

I produced my own report back in 2006 giving a modified route.

Here's a slight variation on it. We need a Centre Street LRT route, and we're going to get one.

http://beta.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/24138560/

[fusili]

Originally Posted by Robert in Calgary

Here's a slight variation on it. We need a Centre Street LRT route, and we're going to get one.

http://beta.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/24138560/

Replied in transit thread.

[suburb]

Great news! For those still not decided, there is now a fantastic tool available. A DVD with full coverage of three of the debates + additional tools. You can read more about it HERE.

[G-Unit]

Hey, I've been reading this site for a long time, and once in a while something has almost made me sign up but until now I couldn't be bothered to actually do it.

I just wanted to say that I am a conservative, very conservative in fact. I was active in Conservative youth groups back east, but haven't picked a side in the Wildrose/PC split here, although I really like Danielle Smith. I still defend Bush when I think he's getting treated unfairly (but not all the time cause he wasn't great either, and wasn't particularly conservative in a lot of ways for that matter).

Anyway, I am saying all this because I am voting for Nenshi, as are several other conservative minded people I know. It's because I think that government should do as little as possible, but the things it must do (especially transportation and policing at the municipal level) should be done as efficiently and as well as possible.

Nenshi is the only one who has any sort of plan that seems to make sense. I like that he asked questions about how the police budget is spent. And from a conservative who's thought about it: it's not 'social engineering' to focus on transit if it is the most efficient way to move people, it would be social engineering to build inefficient car based infrastructure.

[suburb]

^^ G-Unit - Hello and thanks for joining the conversation.

Going with Nenshi is about implementing the best solutions and I think that can appeal to a spectrum of people - as long as they are thoughtful and semi-education about the system and municipal politics.

Unfortunately, many people are not educated on many of these things. According to GlobalTV's recent poll (ref):

The poll also noted that Higgins has a substantial lead among Calgarians with a high school education or less

Irrespective, it is coming down to the wire and for Nenshi will be about getting the voters out.

[Innersoul1]

Barb Higgins the new leader in the polls? A two horse race!?

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/C...ns_lead_101011/20101011/?hub=CalgaryHome

[Robert in Calgary]

Originally Posted by Innersoul1

A two horse race!?

No, this poll's methods will overstate support for Higgins and McIver while understating support Nenshi.

Nenshi is still on track to win.

[Innersoul1]

Originally Posted by Robert in Calgary

Nenshi is still on track to win.

Hey, I have been in the US for the last little while and have tried to follow the race as much as possible. But I miss a lot. Why is Nenshi on track to win?

[Robert in Calgary]

Momentum!

He's the only who really has any.

The only person I see and hear people excited about is Nenshi.

I hear plenty of people saying they don't want Higgins or McIver.

..and on FB.....lets see, Nenshi has added 1,127 folks while Higgins has added 80.

I've been to four Mayoral Forums, three in the last week. Higgins has been at none. And as I understand it, she hasn't even been to a city council meeting in at least nine years.

Nenshi is impressing people.

[MalcolmTucker]

It will be an interesting week, my impression is Ric has a lot left in the bank, or in reserved time on both radio and tv to seal the deal. Ric now that he is behind might endorse a televised top 3 debate as well, thinking Higgins won't perform well, plus he isn't in the lead any more so he has less to lose.

Higgins, I expect she will be very visible, but only on her own terms in the next week. Solidify the base, get their volunteer force motivated and in place for e-day.

Nenshi will keep doing more of the same, just with more radio ads.

3 wild cards in the week ahead I foresee: Will Hawkesworth actually file a lawsuit? (and is he doing it as a favour for future considerations from a mayoral candidate)
Will the media put the pieces together on the Eau Claire deal and blow the lid off the issue, and lay the blame at Ric's feet?
and
Will 2 of the 3 want a debate and force the third into it?

[LFRENCH]

Originally Posted by Robert in Calgary

Momentum!

He's the only who really has any.

The only person I see and hear people excited about is Nenshi.

I hear plenty of people saying they don't want Higgins or McIver.

..and on FB.....lets see, Nenshi has added 1,127 folks while Higgins has added 80.

I've been to four Mayoral Forums, three in the last week. Higgins has been at none. And as I understand it, she hasn't even been to a city council meeting in at least nine years.

Nenshi is impressing people.

The person they interviewed on the news, some MRU professor mentioned that nenshi support is underestimated as a large majority of his support is from the youth vote. This youth vote doesn't utilize lan lines and the poll never called cellular phones. Interesting point, but who knows if this is the case

[devonb]

That latest poll put Nenshi at 21%