The bird is a magpie (part of the CORVID family - not ‘circus family’ autocorrect is tormenting me) :)
As a developing transit nerd, this was a great read. Strong Towns and Not Just Bikes are referenced frequently in our house. You’re bang on the money with “pedestrian infrastructure” not being about people but about not inconveniencing cars.
As a pedestrian I love pedestrian bridges. Waiting at an intersection is no fun. The only problem is that pedestrian bridges are super expensive to build - over $1 million each
I've visited Calgary often over the years because my brother and his family, and now my niece and her family, live there. In the beginning, I spent summers there working (for the City parks department, assigned to do grounds keeping at the historic Union Cemetery). This was when the "Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark" stereotype was still prevalent, and I expected to hate the place. But I came to love it. If there's ever a point where I give up on Kitchener and Waterloo Country (like if they built a new Auditorium on the bus terminal site, for instance), Calgary is one of the few places I'd consider relocating to.
When you consider what big cities (for this purpose, let's say Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary) spend on other massive projects that are sometimes ill-thought out (the gardiner rebuild comes to mind), $245 million for the social infrastructure of a library seems worth it. There's a lot of positive economic benefits to libraries too!
Calgary has a really cool station design for their LRT stations. The stations are staggered and serve a single direction enabling the stations to not be as wide. The stations are island stations similar to Allen station in KW. I think that there should be both car friendly roads and pedestrian friendly roads. For instance Weber St in KW for people who are driving and Duke St for people cycling/walking. Making walking along Weber St pleasant shouldn't be a goal. I agree that labelling garbage cans with "landfill" is a good idea
I'm not convinced designing city roads that prioritize vehicles is a good thing, even so-called arterial roads. Folks still live along those roads, and given the tendency to put mostly apartments or denser buildings mostly along arterial roads, they seem like an important space to ensure quality pedestrian spaces.
I live on Fischer-Hallman (60 km/h, 4 lanes), and both walk and drive along it, and since it connects the whole city, I think pedestrians and cyclists have every right to it that any driver does. I would be very upset if the region suddenly decided they wanted to make the street I live on suddenly only friendly for cars.
My thinking related to prioritizing different modes of transport on different roads has been influenced by https://youtu.be/c1l75QqRR48 Having a network for driving and a different one for cycling in Amsterdam seems really cool
The bird is a magpie (part of the CORVID family - not ‘circus family’ autocorrect is tormenting me) :)
As a developing transit nerd, this was a great read. Strong Towns and Not Just Bikes are referenced frequently in our house. You’re bang on the money with “pedestrian infrastructure” not being about people but about not inconveniencing cars.
As a pedestrian I love pedestrian bridges. Waiting at an intersection is no fun. The only problem is that pedestrian bridges are super expensive to build - over $1 million each
Totally agree re the “landfill” label! Subtle but impactful!
I've visited Calgary often over the years because my brother and his family, and now my niece and her family, live there. In the beginning, I spent summers there working (for the City parks department, assigned to do grounds keeping at the historic Union Cemetery). This was when the "Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark" stereotype was still prevalent, and I expected to hate the place. But I came to love it. If there's ever a point where I give up on Kitchener and Waterloo Country (like if they built a new Auditorium on the bus terminal site, for instance), Calgary is one of the few places I'd consider relocating to.
Well, I can add another reason to my list of not wanting the Aud to move downtown then ;)
When you consider what big cities (for this purpose, let's say Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary) spend on other massive projects that are sometimes ill-thought out (the gardiner rebuild comes to mind), $245 million for the social infrastructure of a library seems worth it. There's a lot of positive economic benefits to libraries too!
Insightful article! Lots of good food for thought. No easy answers, but important questions.
I, too, like how the “garbage” receptacle has been labelled both in title and the “x” symbol.
Calgary has a really cool station design for their LRT stations. The stations are staggered and serve a single direction enabling the stations to not be as wide. The stations are island stations similar to Allen station in KW. I think that there should be both car friendly roads and pedestrian friendly roads. For instance Weber St in KW for people who are driving and Duke St for people cycling/walking. Making walking along Weber St pleasant shouldn't be a goal. I agree that labelling garbage cans with "landfill" is a good idea
I'm not convinced designing city roads that prioritize vehicles is a good thing, even so-called arterial roads. Folks still live along those roads, and given the tendency to put mostly apartments or denser buildings mostly along arterial roads, they seem like an important space to ensure quality pedestrian spaces.
I live on Fischer-Hallman (60 km/h, 4 lanes), and both walk and drive along it, and since it connects the whole city, I think pedestrians and cyclists have every right to it that any driver does. I would be very upset if the region suddenly decided they wanted to make the street I live on suddenly only friendly for cars.
My thinking related to prioritizing different modes of transport on different roads has been influenced by https://youtu.be/c1l75QqRR48 Having a network for driving and a different one for cycling in Amsterdam seems really cool
Instead of making Victoria St pedestrian-friendly there should be a walking/cycling trail along the tracks