Quote:
Originally Posted by CalgaryAlex
I think that feeling is changing in some areas. In public surveys for design of the Bow to Bluff green strip, one of the points I saw was a desire for the green fence along the tracks to be torn down.
Would improve visibility and the overall aesthetics of the area drastically.
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TLDR: grade seperation is good
Removing the fences, and running the NW LRT or the green line like a tram in traffic will also reduce speed, reliability, and frequency of the public transit. It will make it lower quality for its users. Removing elements that essentially make sections of the LRT system grade seperated will kill or seriously injure people and is a safety issue unless the train is limited to slow speed - 30km/h in that area.
Forgive me, begin rant/
We are not building complete communities in Calgary yet and one of the results is the LRT in Sunnyside and the upcoming redesign of Crowchild Trail over the Bow River. I think it's terrible and local communities shouldn't have to have big, noisy, dangerous transportation elements slashing through and dividing neighbourhoods - a dispersed grid network of multiple transportation options emphasizing active transportation where everyone can work, live, and play is the ideal. Calgary builds suburban sprawl and freeways that other transportation choices need to compete with.
Think of how much harder it would now be to make the Sunnyside LRT station elevated, elevate the line from the Bow/Memorial bridge to the bridge up the escarpment and over 10th St NW, and throw in something like a multi-use pathway with trees like along the Bow River with the LRT's heavy daily usage and Kensington continuing to build up around the Sunnyside station, so there's even less space than there was in 1983.
This is the absolute same false idea some are selling with the green line LRT - selling the benefits of our current LRT, that over large portions is essentially grade seperated and can run every three minutes, at 80km/h, and is not affected by traffic congestion or accidents, with a relatively inexpensive, new low-floor at grade version running in traffic lanes either interacting with vehicles or not seperated in any way except at skeletal roads. This will have to compete with a six lane freeway in Deerfoot Trail, door-to-door service where you can control the temperature and play music while not having to interact with people different than you are.
More frequent BRT, since the LRT won't originally run at 3min headways - the 3min frequency of buses becomes 15 minute headways is a worse option than a bus - BRT with queue jumpers is better than some of the ideas for LRT out there. As sexy as rail is right now in 2015, the jump should be from BRT to a system as grade seperated as possible. Calgary will get what it pays for, and people will make the decision between car, bike, walking, or transit. Why not make all the options as high quality as possible even if we can't build it as quickly? Do it in phases with buses dropping people off. The TOD argument is a red herring, TOD is a result of zoning, public transit enables it, but that public transit can just as easily be something cheaper like buses with identical public amenities and public realm investments to LRT stations. There's studies out there that claim seperated bike paths raise house prices.
This urban utopia with trams running down the street is bunk. There are very good reasons street trolleys were removed in Calgary and replaced with buses despite the romance and nostalgia of rail. Buses are cheaper and better. If we can agree to spend an estimated $5 billion on 25% of a ring road... Given how this city is laid out, people will be less likely to use a slow, less reliable, and less frequent service, because they need to get from point A to point B and yes the communities in between will be negatively impacted. Let's minimize the impact by grade seperating the transportation infrastructure and investing in the public realm.
Efforts like that $45,000 could very well be the future for greenline communities. I'd much rather invest public realm monies into wider sidewalks trees, flower beds, and seperated bike lanes while seeing negative examples of public realm impacts like this:
wally gobetz
thor christofer
jag9889
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Had no idea they were that far along though, great news!
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