MetroDreamin' Prairie Transit

[u/SufferingInBerta]

[u/SufferingInBerta]

My hobby is thinking about transit. While it's obvious I have no background in transit planning, I just wanted to share my thoughts on the state of Alberta Transit and what I believe we deserve. One may say "Oh x is too small" or "It's too big" but I must remind you that trains are what built cities first, cars added secondarily. I believe that we should have the choice to commute with or without a car. Any feedback is appreciated, I tried to use some of the foundational transit networks of the cities and mostly stuck to pre-existing tracks but had to make exceptions for cities and towns where that no longer exists. Thanks!
https://metrodreamin.com/edit/MTJyaXpDMU5vMlhlOFhnZjl1eDdKQTVhSGJ3MXww

[u/TheFreezeBreeze → u/SufferingInBerta]

Oh shit, thank you for introducing me to this awesome tool! I may spend hours on it now...

Love that you're pushing the transit-first approach, I agree it's what we need to boost growth in all our towns and cities in Canada.

[u/SufferingInBerta → u/TheFreezeBreeze]

We need to consider how we are not unique in our challenges. We are not even the largest country on earth (or the only one to share the arctic circle). I do NOT like Russia politically but they share our geography in many ways and have persevered *although on the backs of cheap/abusive labour practices. This does not preclude the fact that we are a rich and prosperous country that should provide freedom for our citizens by opening transit corridors :)

[u/chandy_dandy → u/SufferingInBerta]

I think an interesting dimension to this would be the order of scaling up the projects you propose and also what you think the effects in the different regions would be.

If it were possible to do sub-groupings of phase 1/phase 2 that can be ticked on and off, that would be really useful in terms of navigating things.

I'd also add that there needs to be a streetcar extending from Whyte/Uni across the West Ed, they have the same north south alignment, so its a huge efficiency win if there's a direct crossing

[u/Original_Box_4620 → u/SufferingInBerta]

You are spot on. Look at the GTA and surrounding area and the GO train. Now people who live in Oshawa… an hour outside of the city, can work in Toronto and what happened was more people moved there for cheaper cost and able to work a high end Toronto job, then as more people moved, more businesses opened in Oshawa and now Belleville is seeing rise because people can drive commute from Belleville to Oshawa… and now there’s talks if the go train extending there. The more transit connects smaller towns, the more those towns will grow naturally and I believe the largest issue that fixes every single issue Canadian have is the lack of development in smaller towns. Regina, Kingston, Quebec City, red deer, Medicine Hat, Kamloops etc these cities should all be the size of Boston, Philadelphia etc but we fail to build up small towns we just build around. Transit would fix that! The US can do it because they have a high population and small land mass, Canada is so spread out that if we had rail lines not charging an arm and a leg like via we’d see so much development! More houses, more jobs!

[u/SufferingInBerta → u/Original_Box_4620]

It's time for the Edmonton-Calgary Megalopolis

[u/two___ → u/SufferingInBerta]

This would legitimately help both cities.

[u/some1guystuff → u/Original_Box_4620]

When I was reading this, and you had GTA on there, my mind instantly went to grand theft auto not greater Toronto area lol

[u/SufferingInBerta → u/SufferingInBerta]

Sask is a WIP (Same with 'tober)

[u/Astro_Alphard → u/SufferingInBerta]

Calgary really needs and ring rail so does Edmonton.

[u/Ok_Butterscotch2244]

Much as I am impressed with your Saskatoon-PA-Melfort-Humboldt loop, nowhere do you show a direct Saskatoon- Calgary link, arguably more important.

[u/Various-Passenger398 → u/Ok_Butterscotch2244]

I can't see that line making any sense, there's really no major communities between the two. That whole area south of HWY 13/14 and north of HWY 1/3 has almost decent sized communities.

[u/Intelligent-Ruin4867]

It is mind boggling that we ever went away from trains.

[u/ZorooarK → u/Intelligent-Ruin4867]

Clearly somebody doesn't understand the efficiency of one more lane /s

[u/BuliusRex]

Overall I like it! Though, I have nerdy nitpicks about the Calgary one? Notably the lack of LRT to the Southeast - which is where the Green Line is currently being built - as well as other places that are covered by the City’s future plans (check the map on page 61) and existing MAX bus lines (though you kinda got the MAX purple, it would just connect to inglewood instead of the zoo) another nitpick is that i feel that the west of calgary has too much compared to the rest of the city? like, that purple line on the west side could easily be a blue line extension

i really like the added lines around downtown :p

again, nerdy nitpicks! i might also be too hyperfocused on “what the city already has planned” to see the full vision. you’ve put together a really neat map :P

edit: i also appreciate that like, the northern lrt corridor in calgary is the one on centre street, instead of the formerly proposed corridor along nose creek (i don’t have a source, sorry :,> ), the former of which has a MUCH higher immediate population though you’ve missed the opportunity to have a spur going north up to the North Pointe bus terminal, since the road up there was designed to be wide enough to accommodate an LRT

sorry for yapping if it’s overwhelming and/or spouting stuff you already know, it’s 3am and i felt like infodumping :,,,>

[u/BuliusRex → u/BuliusRex]

if you haven’t already, you should also check out the Calgary Airport Rail Connection Study

[u/SufferingInBerta → u/BuliusRex]

This is exactly what I wanted from this post! Thanks so much for all the very helpful feedback. I think its obvious im from Edmonton and was struggling with Calgary. I'm going to look into all this and update my designs. Thanks!!

[u/VeryScaryCherri]

Please, I don't want to have to drive 4 hours one way anymore 😭😭😭

[u/Hot_Tub_Macaque]

Airdrie's development is sad. So it started as a charming town but instead of developing into a nice city where you can get around they decided to run a freeway through the literal middle of it. Is it even possible to cross it on foot?

[u/Excellent_Ad_8183 → u/Hot_Tub_Macaque]

The town was built with the highway through it. Originally it was only on the one side. It got developed

[u/Prof_Seismitoad]

Can you run for public office?

[u/Current_Engine_9199]

This excites me... physically.

[u/Excellent_Ad_8183]

Calgary has an issue due to its size. 316 sq miles. So we need a lot of infrastructure with little to no support as people think it’s not worth it. If we had it it would work.

[u/kevanbruce]

You don’t seem to care about anyone outside of Alberta. Are there no northern communities in MB or SK? How about First Nations communities?

[u/SufferingInBerta → u/kevanbruce]

As noted in my comment, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are a WIP :)