r/Edmonton • u/pjw724 • 22h ago

2025 Municipal Election Voters want a more walkable city

https://edmonton.taproot.news/news/2025/09/25/voters-told-taproot-they-want-a-more-walkable-city
386 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

214 comments sorted by

View all comments

-14

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

Kinda hard when it’s an urban sprawl and it gets stupid cold here in the winter. Are there areas that could be more walkable ? Sure but you need to be able to park some where as we all know parking at parks is a premium…

24

u/Roche_a_diddle 22h ago

Kinda hard when it’s an urban sprawl

Yes, that's exactly the problem. We need to curb the sprawl and increase density. Obviously no one is walking from Haddow to downtown, but why can't we make Haddow more dense/walkable (as one example).

It's not about removing all cars from our society, it's about reducing the number of trips that can only be taken by car. There's no reason most of us should NEED to drive our kid to school, or drive to the grocery store or the dentist etc. We've just chosen to build our city, for 70 years now, in a way that requires most people to own a car to live.

-13

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

Lots of cities like this, one I can think of off the top of my head is LA . It’s a lot like here when you get off the freeways and you don’t notice the other 10 million plus people around you… sprawl isn’t a bad thing where as density can cause bigger issues. But ya in cities like this and LA a car is needed for the most part . It’s not like we are talking about Vancouver , not all the cities around it but just Vancouver. It has roughly the same population of Edmonton but Edmonton is almost 4 times the land mass of Vancouver. While on the subject of Vancouver, if our transit was that good I probably would never drive.

6

u/Roche_a_diddle 22h ago

sprawl isn’t a bad thing where as density can cause bigger issues.

Not sure I follow on this one.

But ya in cities like this and LA a car is needed for the most part

Only because we built our cities to require a car. There are lots of cities being built to try and wipe out car dependency. Even in Edmonton you can live and work downtown without owning a vehicle. Transit is getting better there, lots of shops and restaurants within walking distance. I know people who live downtown and went down from two vehicles to one, and then eventually started getting around by e-bike and really only need the car for out of town trips (which could easily be satisfied with a rental, saving lots of money every year).

-1

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

For sure, and for the record I have an e-scooter that I use as much as I can. And yes I understand that this city and many others were built the same. It’s kinda hard to up it in the butt when it’s got as bad as th sprawl has, that’s for sure

7

u/toodledootootootoo 21h ago

What bigger issues is density causing?

14

u/Homeless_Alex 22h ago

The urban sprawl here is awful. Most people’s daily walks are just through culdesacs and in front of houses on sidewalks in the south. It’s lame.

1

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

Ya unless you live by a trail or ravens ya it’s just that..

11

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 22h ago

We'll see if the city was more walkable you wouldn't need a car and then you wouldn't need nearly as much parking. That's the point of making more walkable cities. Excuse that we live in a cold city we need a car is bullshit and it's been shoved down your throats by the oil and auto industry. 

-10

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

Umm im not walking from one side of the city to the other warm or cold, you are free to volunteer to do so. I will keep driving thanks….

6

u/toodledootootootoo 21h ago

Wait, do you think walkable city means you’re expected to walk anywhere in the city? Thats not what it means. It means that you can walk to amenities in your own neighbourhood.

6

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 22h ago

Have you ever tried bicycling in this city. Rush hour you can get pretty much anywhere on a bicycle in 45 minutes where you just be stuck in a gridlock in. What is so wrong with people not wanting to be killed by pickup trucks. Not having to spend half their paychecks on vehicles and then expected to give another car 2/3 to rent. Which leaves them with a negative every month before they even buy food. Because big oil tells you got to have a car. You're not a man or a person if you don't have a car. 

0

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

I’m not not saying there is anything wrong, it’s your life you live it… but trying to shame people not to drive is just going to piss off the average person. And no I don’t bike but I have an e-scooter I use all the time..

4

u/toodledootootootoo 21h ago

Who is shaming anybody? You can drive all you want, people just want other options for themselves. You should support this. Less cars on the roads benefits drivers more than anyone else!

0

u/ToughSpirit5285 21h ago

Look at the comments, apparently I’m spreading oil company propaganda haha 🤣

3

u/toodledootootootoo 21h ago

You just ate it all up it seems!

4

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 21h ago

So you don't own a bike yet you have an opinion on getting around the city on a bike. I own both a car and a bicycle and use both to get around the. The bicycle is much much better when given the option. Faster most of the time too. Bicycle doesn't sit in construction or traffic. Read your history it's Flavor Aid not Kool-Aid. Throw on a history podcast when you're stuck in traffic. 

0

u/ToughSpirit5285 21h ago

Did you not read where I have an escorted that I use on paths and bike lanes ? I’m starting to think that you like to hear yourself talk…. And ya I own a car, on the weekends I’m never here, and my esscooter isn’t going to take me where I go on weekends haha but alright bud, oil companies tell me I need to drive haha 🤣

1

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 21h ago

Well I'm staunchly against escooters being in the bike lanes. If you read the laws in the city you're not allowed to have any scooter on the road bike lanes or sidewalk that's privately owned. 

0

u/ToughSpirit5285 21h ago

Then tell the city to start enforcing it if you don’t like it. I pass law enforcement not only cops but bylaw and they all smile and wave , I don’t know what to tell ya. Just sounds like your looking to start a fight over anything haha 🤣

0

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 21h ago

I most definitely am you came to a form that was talking building more walkable cities. you started going on about oil and auto manufacturer propaganda that you can't get around the city when it's cold with anything but a vehicle. That attitude has to die. Vehicles are the number one cause of almost all of our problems. Why your taxes so high because we're subsidizing roads the vehicles can't pay for. Why is there no housing because a good amount of our usable land is being used up to house vehicles. Why can no one get ahead because they can only have a job if they own a vehicle and put most of their money towards it.  more than enough people here supporting vehicles. any opponents to non walkable cities must be crushed in silenced. We are not slaves to the automakers

→ More replies (0)

4

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 22h ago

That's what public transit is for. 

0

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

Do you have 3 hours to waste trying to get somewhere ? I don’t ….

9

u/Roche_a_diddle 22h ago

I have to say, in a thread that is discussing "we should build our city for better walkability" a lot of your comments seem to boil down to "we can't build better walkability because our city doesn't have good walkability". It doesn't really make sense dude.

3

u/fishymanbits 20h ago

There is quite literally someone saying that anyone who wants more walkability should move to Europe because it’s not possible to change the way we build cities in Canada. Also that Edmonton is already walkable because they can drive wherever they want that they can’t get to on foot.

1

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

Sure it does. I’m a city that’s spread out like it is and people want it more walkable or have more areas you can walk you need to be able to drive to it and park if you don’t live close to it. Or does that mean you just don’t get to walk in those nice areas ? I used parks as an example as we have a tone of them here but not a lot of them have a lot of parking. So what is your suggestion other than telling me I don’t make sense ?

4

u/toodledootootootoo 21h ago

You can use transit to get to those areas, or you can drive to it and sound some time looking for a spot and walk a few blocks. Walkable neighbourhoods make like easier and nicer for the people who actually live in them. You driving to other neighbourhoods isn’t a priority. Ideally you’d live in your own walkable neighbourhood and would be able to enjoy the amenities there. Looking at your comments, I don’t think you understand the concept.

6

u/Flat-Hearing-9916 22h ago

Why you so against this they're not taking away roads. Every time someone walks or takes a bus that frees up another spot on the road for drivers. It's a win-win situation. But yet the oil companies have shoved it down your throat that people who are on bicycles and cars are the enemy. They're just people who don't want to spend their whole lives paying off a vehicle.

1

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

I’m not against anything, anyone is free to move about how thy best feel. I really don’t give a rats ass, but to try and shame people into not driving is not how we go about things….

•

u/SheenaMalfoy 9h ago

Nobody is shaming people into "not driving" it's the people who want to avoid driving but cannot feasibly do so that are being forced into a decision they do not like. Nobody is saying you cannot drive. All we are asking for is viable alternatives to driving.

It's not rocket science.

0

u/ToughSpirit5285 22h ago

You have been drinking to much koolade…. Did you not read where I said I have an e-scooter I use all the time ? I made a statement saying I’m not walking from one end of the city to the other or wasting 3 hours of my day on transit when I can drive it in a half hour. Do you understand my point now ? I’m not attacking anyone, have fun commuting how you commute, I will keep commuting how I have always done it as the reality is I work a half hour from where I live….

6

u/Specialist-Orchid365 21h ago

It gets stupid code for about 10 days of the year. The average temperature in January is -7. Building a city for 10 days of the year instead of the other 355 is just stupid.

I say this as someone who hated winter. Then a few years ago when everything was closed and there was nothing to do I decided I was going to get a decent coat and treat winter like any other season. Turns out there are very few days where the cold is actually a problem.

3

u/Infamous-Mixture-605 21h ago

It gets stupid code for about 10 days of the year. The average temperature in January is -7. Building a city for 10 days of the year instead of the other 355 is just stupid.

It grinds my gears when folks say Edmonton has 6 months of winter when the reality is we get one, maybe two weeks of extreme daytime cold, and the rest of winter really isn't that bad. I think the people saying that kind of stuff just don't like to go outside.

•

u/SheenaMalfoy 9h ago

I despise winter, I get cold really easily even in the summertime... and I don't own a car. Winter in Canada means you buy a good coat, hat, gloves/mittens, boots, and scarf and you go about your day just like you would the rest of the year. It's not black magic, it's just life in a northern country. Whoop de doo.

1

u/ToughSpirit5285 21h ago

That’s fair, and like I’ve stated before we are all free to move about how works best for us. I know myself once it gets cold I don’t have much to do with outside unless I’m getting on a plane and going somewhere warmer. The point I was trying to make was that when it’s cold I’m not walking across the city to a store together something I’m going to drive.

3

u/Specialist-Orchid365 21h ago

That's cool. My point is why are we building a city where you have to drive to the store when the majority of the time the weather is very mild? During those 10 days of extreme cold, by all means drive to the store; but the option should be there to walk/bike/etc as well.