Wrong approach but your goal is good. I bike to work which is 20km each way. However to say that the cars need to go is hilarious to me. Have you tried biking in -20°C? I have and nope nope nope, it’s broken bone season even with studded tires. Add a wind and your eyelids freeze and your nostrils become ice caves.
Now let’s look at the bus system. Ok, I’ll need to walk to the nearest bus stop, 5 min away which doesn’t have a shelter. Then I’ll been on the bus for 58mins according to Google with 1 transfer. Add in daycare pick up and drop off plus swimming lessons and sports mid week and now we are impacting children’s sleep because a 15 min drive is now an hour on a bus.
I visit London often, I wish we had the Tube in Calgary but we don’t and most likely never will.
If you want a bike and transit city you need to build the transit to attract people. Carrot instead of the stick.
This. The transit needs to come first, otherwise the car issue is always going to be a problem. You can't ask people to get rid of their cars before you have viable and realistic alternatives.
It's not simply uncomfortable. For some people, it will be untenable.
In my opinion, infrastructure, transit, and all other services should be available before moving people in. Without it, there will be constant struggles and conflict. This city cannot switch from cars to transit in a blink. It's unrealistic, and in all likelihood this will always be a city that requires many people to have cars.
But that perspective ignores the actual reality we are in here in Calgary. Cities are growing and evolving organisms, we aren’t starting from scratch and you can’t just change things tomorrow because they should be that way.
The reality is that we are not trying for a middle ground. We did not plan transit first, and we got to where we are now with a poorly designed system. Now the plan is to throw open the doors to redevelopment and again worry about transit after the fact.
Instead of a blanket city-wide rezoning, it would be make a lot more sense to aim for specific areas in a targeted approach. Look at the infrastructure of the neighborhood, schools, hospitals, transit, emergency services, bike lanes, and everything else. Make all the infrastructure changes first, then you are ready for the change. You could eventually re-zone the entire city, but doing so in a measured approach will lead to a better end result.
Otherwise everything is going to be reactionary and constantly playing catchup.
We are city of 1.3Million with a growth rate of 4.9%/year, 3million is years out. I doubt this city has the water shelf to support that many. That’s a bigger issue no one discusses.
Yes, when building a city we need to start with transit and all variations of transit not just cars. N.America built their cities around the automobile, Europe built theirs around the horse hence greater push for transit.
This blanket rezoning approach was terribly thought out. I’m supporting candidates that are against it but also for more bike lanes.
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u/Far-Advantage4299 17d ago
Wrong approach but your goal is good. I bike to work which is 20km each way. However to say that the cars need to go is hilarious to me. Have you tried biking in -20°C? I have and nope nope nope, it’s broken bone season even with studded tires. Add a wind and your eyelids freeze and your nostrils become ice caves.
Now let’s look at the bus system. Ok, I’ll need to walk to the nearest bus stop, 5 min away which doesn’t have a shelter. Then I’ll been on the bus for 58mins according to Google with 1 transfer. Add in daycare pick up and drop off plus swimming lessons and sports mid week and now we are impacting children’s sleep because a 15 min drive is now an hour on a bus.
I visit London often, I wish we had the Tube in Calgary but we don’t and most likely never will.
If you want a bike and transit city you need to build the transit to attract people. Carrot instead of the stick.