Edmonton Public Transit

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by feepa

It's called taking the cheap way out.

Now: Why aren't they working all winter???

Ten years from now: Why is the ride so bumpy, why are they constantly digging up utilities, newish concrete shouldn't crack this much so quick???? etc.

I love shitting on the city. They usually deserve it. But throwing money at winter construction for civil work is not the solution.

I'm doing my part. Burning gas like crazy. Lets heat this city up a few degrees and extend the construction season.

[Coldrsx]

'I love shitting on the city. They usually deserve it. But throwing money at winter construction for civil work is not the solution.'

In certain situations it most certainly is worth it to cover, hoard, heat, Herman Nelson it up.... and this case, 102ave certainly deserved that treatment. It is unfathomable that we would close such a main section off for so long in the middle of our Downtown core. Irresponsible really.

[milomilo]

People support P3s because they reduce cost and risk, and complain about the high price of public transit infrastructure. But then when those P3s reduce cost and risk, people complain about that too. It's no win.

[Albicaulis]

"In 2021, we are anticipating people will be able to tap on top off but not necessarily everybody because they're going to be rolling it out by group types. And they're still trying to decide how they're going to do the group types,"

This sentence pretty much sums of the level of bureaucratic incompetence in the City's administration. I'm fully expecting a 20 page long PDF "What we Heard" document that solely focuses on those group type selections and concludes with the need for a What we Heard Phase 2 Report...

[Rocket252]

^ makes the city look Bush league. Not rocket science folks. Our transit system and the operation of it is inept.

[Coldrsx]

The fact that I have to bring change to use transit in 2020 versus tapping my CC, debit or using a common card is ridiculous.

[Landlocked]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

The fact that I have to bring change to use transit in 2020 versus tapping my CC, debit or using a common card is ridiculous.

This could be posted anywhere, but recently I've seen more and more graphs showing how U.S. corporations are paying less and less of their 'share' of taxes, shifting more of the burden to tax-paying citizens. Searching for Canadian sources shows a similar problem, though not quite as extreme.

As a country, we have a failing medical system, education system, transit system.... it goes on and on. How much of these 'government failures' should have the blame shifted to glutinous corporations using tax shelters, and other 'unethical' means to avoid benefiting the country/province/county/city in which they operate? We seem to be headed towards the sort of collapse Greece saw.

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

The fact that I have to bring change to use transit in 2020 versus tapping my CC, debit or using a common card is ridiculous.

Or phone or "other" tap /scan device.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Landlocked

This could be posted anywhere, but recently I've seen more and more graphs showing how U.S. corporations are paying less and less of their 'share' of taxes, shifting more of the burden to tax-paying citizens. Searching for Canadian sources shows a similar problem, though not quite as extreme.

As a country, we have a failing medical system, education system, transit system.... it goes on and on. How much of these 'government failures' should have the blame shifted to glutinous corporations using tax shelters, and other 'unethical' means to avoid benefiting the country/province/county/city in which they operate? We seem to be headed towards the sort of collapse Greece saw.

That escalated quickly.

[s4.audios]

Not sure where to post this but seeing all the negativity towards CoE here, I'd like to add one small nod to them. In recent months (not sure how long actually) you no longer have to enter a "zone" number at a parking meter. Essentially allowing you to pay for longer durations and move your car around.

[DKaz]

Or tear off paper transfers like it's 50 years ago. Mind you those magstripe paper tickets Vancouver's Translink had from 2001 to 2015 and took over a 2 seconds per passenger to read were worse, thank goodness they moved to Compass.

[Landlocked]

Originally Posted by s211

That escalated quickly.

The only thing escalating quickly is the tax burden on individuals.

[SHOFEAR]

There needs to be real world realities with throwing money at transit. It is one of the largest budget items despite only serving, what, 10% of the population?

It shouldn't be a endless shake down of taxpayers for something most of us rarely use. Transit funding needs to be tied to usage. I don't care if the money goes to winter construction premiums, buying new pressure washers to hose off piss stained seats, new buses, elaborate transit garages, lice disinfectant, bed bug treatment, fancy heaters in bus shelters....etc. Prioritize, spend, and work within your budget...its what the rest of us do.

There is something extremely broken when it costs as much as it does to move as few people as it does.

[feepa]

more of us would probably use it if it were far more reliable...and provided a competitive option to regular commuting. but we seem focused on building the least reliable LRT projects we can. The more level crossings, the less reliable no matter how much you want to spin all the other benefits. We also focus our transit on making connections all centering around downtown... which makes getting downtown okay, but getting anywhere else in this is absolutely stupid by transit, and only a small segment of the regions population works downtown.

We need transit solutions that make sense for the city as a whole - not just a way to get downtown. Until we figure that out we will never get beyond 8-10% transit usage.

[Albicaulis]

^
Yep. Century park is essentially a commuter line to move workers downtown. Except the City provided no park-and-ride and connected it to infrequent milk run bus lines. Just add in the abyssal at-grade crossings (hello 114 St and Uni Ave), user fees, ever-broken escalators, regular outages and stations designed to bottleneck people. The City has had the opportunity, resources and political and public will to invest heavily in transit and it's had screwed it up with each iteration.

[DKaz]

It might be 10% overall, even Metro Vancouver is only 12% overall, but the transit modeshare is typically high to high density locations such as downtown or University where parking costs are astronomical. I can't find Downtown Edmonton's numbers but Downtown Vancouver is about 44%, much higher than the regional average. Downtown Edmonton I would guess to be about 20-30%.

[Coldrsx]

^I'd agree with the 25-35% number.

We did a study and it showed:

55% car
17% LRT
14% bus
The rest - other - bike, walk, uber etc.

[DKaz]

I guessed a little low. Edmonton's parking costs are higher than Vancouver's, but the general ease of getting to downtown certainly helps the car usage side of things. People tend to value time and comfort and I don't blame them. In Downtown Vancouver, it's a choice between either time (advantage transit) or comfort (advantage car).

When I was at Stantec downtown, in my group (to my knowledge) in the peak of things (December 2018), we had: 6 single drivers, 1 carpooler, 4 transit riders, 2 walkers, 1 cyclist, 1 motorcyclist turned transit rider in the winter, 1 motorcyclist turned single driver most of winter that crazy 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵. The only person I had no clue how he got work was Airboy.

[Coldrsx]

^ha.

IIRC, Stantec's modal shift to ETS is around 30%/1400.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^ha.

IIRC, Stantec's modal shift to ETS is around 30%/1400.

4 out of 16 - 25% - in 2018 isn't far off 30% today given the tower didn't open until the end of september that year and it took time for everyone to actually relocate. i can see a 5% lift simply from better access to lrt compared to the old location(s).