Calgary Public Transit II

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Such as?

Are they planning to install a lane reversal set-up similar to centre street?

I believe it'll be 24/7 not only rush hour

From what I would guess you'll need new lights at 5th through 12th aves (8 sets) plus maybe an extra set at 5th ave for and advanced turn from the right curb lane to transit lane
Painted lines for sure to separate the contraflow lane, possibly a curb to allow for parking on the west most northbound lane
Probably be some thought that will have to go into the underpass as the width might be an issue
Plus a bunch of signs

This assumes that they are putting the contra flow lane on the west side you probably add a bunch of work if you pair the transit lanes on one side of the road.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Five years? For bus lanes? Doesn't inspire confidence in the bigger projects.

Question the way this is phrased it almost seems like it'll be 2 way till 4th, is the thought that there will be a dual direction transit lanes on 4th rather than having one direction on 5th and the other on 6th?

[fusili]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Such as?

Are they planning to install a lane reversal set-up similar to centre street?

They are converting a one way street to two-way with transit only lanes going in both directions. They have to put new signals in at every intersection.

[J-D]

Originally Posted by joe498

Mind you, the speed limit on Macleod is 80 & it has endless traffic lights.

I've tried taking Macleod as an alternate when an accident ties up Deerfoot / Blackfoot in the afternoon rush hour coming from downtown. It's actually faster to just take the accident route.

[RyLucky]

It's a good start. That stretch of 4th is less congested than the rest, but hopefully this helps folks warm to transit lanes.

[H.E.Pennypacker]

Originally Posted by J-D

I've tried taking Macleod as an alternate when an accident ties up Deerfoot / Blackfoot in the afternoon rush hour coming from downtown. It's actually faster to just take the accident route.

From downtown? Take Macleod Trail to 58th Ave S, turn left .. Take 58th to Centre St S, make a right, take Centre St to either Flint Rd or Acadia Dr after it runs under Glenmore and Centre St forks into these two roads ... Flint/Acadia will get you to Heritage Dr and beyond if need be ... Found this to be the quickest way when I've had to beat rush hour to get from the central north to the south for CSSC games

(Sorry for the OT)

[eggbert]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

It's a good start. That stretch of 4th is less congested than the rest, but hopefully this helps folks warm to transit lanes.

I agree. 4th street is not that bad, especially that stretch. 5th Ave on the other hand is a disaster!

[fusili]

Speaking of the 4th street transit lanes, I hope this becomes a trend that is replicated. Although I think LRT is great, we can do a lot to improve transit in this city by improving bus service. Dedicated lanes, queue jumps, limited stops and (gasp!) off-vehicle fare payment should be implemented on more routes. The 16th avenue crosstown, the 306, etc, could all use these types of improvements. The biggest win IMO would be to implement limited stops on more routes. Many popular routes seriously have stops every two blocks. It is ridiculous.

[joe498]

Here's how the city plans to fund the billion-dollar busway, a 'low cost' alternative to future 40-kilometre LRT route:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgar...ture+kilometre+route/10219463/story.html

I am puzzled by this part:

"But the city doesn’t even have money for all that work, so it’s planning to leave out a chunk of the southeast section — around Ogden and Riverbend — until it can secure $105 million federal Building Canada Fund grants or other money."

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by fusili

Speaking of the 4th street transit lanes, I hope this becomes a trend that is replicated. Although I think LRT is great, we can do a lot to improve transit in this city by improving bus service. Dedicated lanes, queue jumps, limited stops and (gasp!) off-vehicle fare payment should be implemented on more routes. The 16th avenue crosstown, the 306, etc, could all use these types of improvements. The biggest win IMO would be to implement limited stops on more routes. Many popular routes seriously have stops every two blocks. It is ridiculous.

I laugh at Route 3 that has 5 stops southbound from 13th ave until 21st ave on 4th street. Totally unnecessary for any user, particularly for the average commuter/student that I would guess makes up a bigger share of Route 3 than other routes.

Move Route 3 to stops like a current BRT, something like 11/12th ave "Beltline" stop, "17th Ave" stop, "Mission" stop by 23rd ave and a last one just past the Safeway "elbow". Replaces 9 stops southbound and 10 northbound in this stretch with 4. Give a 300-series treatment to a new Elbow Drive BrT that would stop first at Mission then not again until it is at 30th or Sifton Road.

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by eggbert

I agree. 4th street is not that bad, especially that stretch. 5th Ave on the other hand is a disaster!

This stretch of 4th is one of the classic overbuilt one-way to two-way transitions. In order to become fully one way in the core, the road had to transition before even if traffic volumes or flow patterns could never possibly fill this stretch of road even on the worst days, there just isn't enough traffic or lanes that feed into 4th northbound to ever come close to warranting the current 4-lane northbound configuration for this stretch.

See 6th ave and 5th ave on both ends, as well as Macleod trail north of 4th ave in Chinatown. Complete waste of space for these stretches. Anything we can do to put the extra capacity to better use in these situations should be a good idea.

[Allan83]

Originally Posted by joe498

Here's how the city plans to fund the billion-dollar busway, a 'low cost' alternative to future 40-kilometre LRT route:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgar...ture+kilometre+route/10219463/story.html

I am puzzled by this part:

"But the city doesn’t even have money for all that work, so it’s planning to leave out a chunk of the southeast section — around Ogden and Riverbend — until it can secure $105 million federal Building Canada Fund grants or other money."

I’m guessing that they’re planning on running the busses down Ogden road and 24th street in the interim? Those roads aren’t that busy and I don’t think there would be much of a time penalty for doing that, in the short term anyway.

[MalcolmTucker]

The city can't officially plan on using money it doesn't have a contribution agreement for. Federal funds you can't count until you have a letter. A bit more difficult than for provincial funds, when funds are available that is.

Because of the structure of the federal program, and the nature of grants from the province (very different in Alberta compared to all other provinces), extra care needs to go into the grants since the federal government tries to avoid cannibalization of already committed funds from other levels of government, which happened in previous iterations of this program (not in Alberta, but certainly elsewhere).

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by MasterG

I laugh at Route 3 that has 5 stops southbound from 13th ave until 21st ave on 4th street. Totally unnecessary for any user, particularly for the average commuter/student that I would guess makes up a bigger share of Route 3 than other routes.

Move Route 3 to stops like a current BRT, something like 11/12th ave "Beltline" stop, "17th Ave" stop, "Mission" stop by 23rd ave and a last one just past the Safeway "elbow". Replaces 9 stops southbound and 10 northbound in this stretch with 4. Give a 300-series treatment to a new Elbow Drive BrT that would stop first at Mission then not again until it is at 30th or Sifton Road.

Outside of the morning rushhour (and actually into the tail end of it) the next biggest user on the #3 tends to be Chinese senior citizens heading down into Chinatown.

[joe498]

Originally Posted by MasterG

I laugh at Route 3 that has 5 stops southbound from 13th ave until 21st ave on 4th street. Totally unnecessary for any user, particularly for the average commuter/student that I would guess makes up a bigger share of Route 3 than other routes.

Move Route 3 to stops like a current BRT, something like 11/12th ave "Beltline" stop, "17th Ave" stop, "Mission" stop by 23rd ave and a last one just past the Safeway "elbow". Replaces 9 stops southbound and 10 northbound in this stretch with 4. Give a 300-series treatment to a new Elbow Drive BrT that would stop first at Mission then not again until it is at 30th or Sifton Road.

Route 302 is a joke. As is route 20.

Route 20 has 4 stops around the hospital lol.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by joe498

Route 302 is a joke. As is route 20.

Route 20 has 4 stops around the hospital lol.

That is ridiculous. Almost as bad is the #7 as it goes through Marda Loop/33rd avenue. There is seriously a stop on each block for several blocks.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by joe498

Route 302 is a joke. As is route 20.

Route 20 has 4 stops around the hospital lol.

Originally Posted by fusili

That is ridiculous. Almost as bad is the #7 as it goes through Marda Loop/33rd avenue. There is seriously a stop on each block for several blocks.

I think CT needs to complete a network optimization exercise, hopefully the real time data will help identify pinch points and under utilized stops.

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by fusili

That is ridiculous. Almost as bad is the #7 as it goes through Marda Loop/33rd avenue. There is seriously a stop on each block for several blocks.

There are so many routes that have this issue. As I understand it, accessibility concerns were the primary factor that led to this, it was assumed that people would rather walk less than have a bus that came more frequently but was farther away. Calgary traditionally went the accessibility over frequency and efficiency, result in situations like this.

Any transit experts that can add some colour to this?

[fusili]

Originally Posted by MasterG

There are so many routes that have this issue. As I understand it, accessibility concerns were the primary factor that led to this, it was assumed that people would rather walk less than have a bus that came more frequently but was farther away. Calgary traditionally went the accessibility over frequency and efficiency, result in situations like this.

Any transit experts that can add some colour to this?

I would say most transit experts would agree this is an inefficient and untenable situation. One way to address this is to add limited stop routes on top of these routes, reduce frequency on the regular routes and use the freed up labour/vehicles to run more frequent, but limited stop services on these routes.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by joe498

Route 302 is a joke. As is route 20.

Route 20 has 4 stops around the hospital lol.

Would there be multiple hospital stops for people with reduced mobility accessing the hospital?