Quote:
Originally Posted by Antigonish
The proposed BRT system seems kind of farcical in its implementation but I suspect it was half-assed to meet a deadline to receive funding from the Housing Accelerator Fund. Ironically enough this stretch of 1st Street is one of the few areas they actually did right.
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Its farcical on short term planning, but if the long term goal is to establish some form of street-level LRT in Saskatoon, this goes a long way to getting a bit of hard infrastructure in place, local citizens accustomed to transit lanes, and establish easy to remember "Red/Green/Blue" lines with legible conventional streetname-based "Stations" (even if only in the most farcical sense of the word), then this accomplishes that goal. Louise Station. Avenue W Station. Nelson Station. I think that these local morphemes will enter the vocab in the 2030s first by developers and realtors and then the public at large. Think about Ontario developers coming in and thinking how to market their new midrise -- "2 blocks from Arlington Station" is something that would probably come to mind in a Bay Street brainstorming session. And I bet you it will all come in time.
Based on the renderings, the platform fixtures look functional without being square boxes. The round design means that snow wont pile easily, and the materials look easy to maintain. I am also heartened by the municipal funding of transit police.
We have a stable local government, a provincial government that is increasingly concerned about its urban reputation, and a Federal government that's basically treating Saskatoon like the most interesting lady at the dance. All three levels of government are basically in sync right now, and the city is growing fast, so why wouldn't Saskatoon strike while the iron is hot and get *something* out there, even if its "farcical" compared to real BRT (how did it turn out when Winnipeg bit off that cigar?). Preston Avenue, 8th Street, 22nd, all these streets have such wide ROWs that running Canadian-built trains down a greenway or something shouldn't be much of a problem to adapt to in 10-20 years, if the stars continue to align (or realign).
Saskatoon is getting much improved public transit. Yes, the BRT label gives people easy bait to scoff at, but I really think that the right thought has been put into this, and the Link system (lets start just calling it Link instead of BRT), has the bones to prove a durable system. The goal is to lay a foundation, and this does it. We're already seeing rapid investment along corridors even in Woodlawn... anyone drive up Idylwyld North lately? There's multiple multi-units going up, and Quebec Ave feels more filled-in (if not built out) than ever. Concept renderings are up for some kind of multi-family on a big Remax sign for three lots in Minto Place. Going all "Not Just Bikes" over it accomplishes nothing and is counterproductive. I kind of hate how his poo-poo attitude has kind of poisoned the well when talking about North American cities, as if nothing could ever be good enough to compare to Western Europe (those circles don't seem to pay much mind to the advanced cities of East Asia or the Global South), and is therefore deserving of ridicule. Saskatoon has fared a lot better than most of its North American counterparts, so let's take improvements for what they are and continue to improve on them as the city grows and levels of government cooperate.
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