[CallmeCatbread]

Really hard to get excited about any kind of development like this when it’s all completely car oriented. Yeah, sure, we’re building lots of housing, but it’s all as far away from transit as physically possible and seems built to cater exclusively to a lifestyle where you drive down the street to get groceries. None of that is ever getting fixed any time soon. Meanwhile most of our LRT stations are surrounded by vacant land or parking. It’s mind numbingly backwards. Like what the heck are we even doing here.

 

[lemongrab]

Really hard to get excited about any kind of development like this when it’s all completely car oriented. Yeah, sure, we’re building lots of housing, but it’s all as far away from transit as physically possible and seems built to cater exclusively to a lifestyle where you drive down the street to get groceries. None of that is ever getting fixed any time soon. Meanwhile most of our LRT stations are surrounded by vacant land or parking. It’s mind numbingly backwards. Like what the heck are we even doing here.

They've built nice MUPs connecting the whole neighbourhood, set back nicely from the residential roads which are designed pretty well to keep cars slow. So the idea is you can travel actively if you want to the grocery store, gym, restaurants/cafes, spa, liquor store, etc. Topography makes it a little tougher than it might be, but not much you can do about that.

There is bus service to downtown, but pretty much anything else means driving. But that's true of pretty much everywhere in the city, including great developments like UD, West District, Seton, Currie

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Meanwhile most of our LRT stations are surrounded by vacant land or parking.

This is changing, just slowly. There is money in the recent budget to get moving on something at least.

There is bus service to downtown, but pretty much anything else means driving. But that's true of pretty much everywhere in the city, including great developments like UD, West District, Seton, Currie

This is Calgary, and really most cities. We're landlocked but our highways and river valley segment the city into islands. There's decent transit within islands and from the islands to downtown but otherwise it is tough to get around without a car.

 

[Mountain Man]

UD is very walkable within the area, but most people still drive to it and require parking space once there. I love that area, but parking on University Ave is a gong show, people double parking, blocking crosswalks and all that. Calgary is a driving city and I really don't see that changing any time soon. I'm glad we are trying to encourage more walking and cycling, but people like their cars and will choose them pretty much every time. This community will be the same, it is very possible to walk or cycle around the area, but people wont if they have a choice.

 

[CBBarnett]

UD is very walkable within the area, but most people still drive to it and require parking space once there. I love that area, but parking on University Ave is a gong show, people double parking, blocking crosswalks and all that.

This behaviour on University Avenue is almost exclusively the product of two factors:

1. Bizarre oversized lanes that confuse the average driver (originally designed for some thought towards a BRT I think, but never really clear why the width was needed), and
2. UD is the one of only two interesting walkable retail destinations in the entire NW of about 500,000+ people (the other being Kensington).

Calgary is a driving city and I really don't see that changing any time soon. I'm glad we are trying to encourage more walking and cycling, but people like their cars and will choose them pretty much every time. This community will be the same, it is very possible to walk or cycle around the area, but people wont if they have a choice.

These two factors are at work in Trinity Hills too. I doubt it will be as big of a "destination" like UD, but a result of oversized car infrastructure, a community layout designed for driving and a lack of much competition for "nicer" retail places to visit will result in a similar congestion. Put more simply - we are only a driving city, because we are designing ourselves to be a driving city, even in walkable areas.

Tighten up those lanes, build more and better walkable communities of sufficient density that can support retail (i.e. don't string a multi-kilometre long line of 6 storey buildings on a hillside on a single access road making walking a pretty slow option for most people to get even basic stuff). Trinity Hills will probably be stuck in car-dependency given the location and the inefficient community design, but UD will eventually not notice the congestion - an eventual local population of 10,000+ within a few blocks won't waste their time trying to park on University Ave with the tourists driving in from the boring parts of the NW. They will walk - just like how Kensington, the Beltline and countless urban places the world over operate.

 

[CallmeCatbread]

Exactly. Calgary will never (or at least, not any time soon) be the Netherlands, but that's fine. Point is not only is Calgary currently a "driving city" but we're actively making decisions to exacerbate that problem when we don't have to.

Of course suburbs in the middle of nowhere will be car dependant - that's to be expected - but even our premier "urban" destinations are handicapped by this weird urge to accomodate a mode of transport who's spatial needs are fundamentally opposed to what makes those urban destinations functional. Districts like these will never reach their full potential when they're built to prioritize a single mode of transport. And the city has obscene capacity to build better that it's just sitting there.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Really hard to get excited about any kind of development like this when it’s all completely car oriented. Yeah, sure, we’re building lots of housing, but it’s all as far away from transit as physically possible and seems built to cater exclusively to a lifestyle where you drive down the street to get groceries. None of that is ever getting fixed any time soon. Meanwhile most of our LRT stations are surrounded by vacant land or parking. It’s mind numbingly backwards. Like what the heck are we even doing here.

I understand the frustration. I see areas like Chinook LRT with oversized parking or empty lots, and wish that developments like Trinity Hills was going there instead. I've always been a supporter of capitalism, but it has its drawbacks, like developments don't always get built where it makes sense, but instead where it makes financial sense.

 

[Golfing guy]

Really hard to get excited about any kind of development like this when it’s all completely car oriented. Yeah, sure, we’re building lots of housing, but it’s all as far away from transit as physically possible and seems built to cater exclusively to a lifestyle where you drive down the street to get groceries. None of that is ever getting fixed any time soon. Meanwhile most of our LRT stations are surrounded by vacant land or parking. It’s mind numbingly backwards. Like what the heck are we even doing here.

Pretty sure there is a bus route that goes straight thru this development. Dumb rants are fun to read though
Edit… yes WB route 26

 

[AtlanticAvenue]

and E/WB 108 ^

 

[Calgcouver]

Pretty sure there is a bus route that goes straight thru this development. Dumb rants are fun to read though
Edit… yes WB route 26

Hopefully these are well serviced by bus, it is sufficiently dense and along a spine road, so i hope the service is frequent and runs good hours. If so, this should be fine.

 

[Mountain Man]

Have the buildings here been affected by the snowmaking at COP much? In my head I picture the north and west sides covered in snow when the guns are going full steam lol.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

Pretty sure there is a bus route that goes straight thru this development. Dumb rants are fun to read though
Edit… yes WB route 26

Bus route 26 doesn't go through the development, it stops on the extreme east end; 1250m from the existing townhomes, 1600m from the 500 apartments to be built on the west end. Route 108 actually passes through the development.

The bus runs every half hour and takes 18 minutes from this area to meander its way to the LRT at Brentwood.

If you wanted to catch the next Flames home game, puck drop is 8:00 PM; you need to leave home at 6:38 PM, almost 90 minutes earlier. If the game runs 3 hours, you'll get home at 12:43 AM... after walking half an hour up the hill from the #1 in Bowness, since the last 108 leaves Brentwood at 10 PM.

It takes longer from here by transit to go and watch a Flames game and come back than it does to travel by car from here to a Red Deer Rebels game and back.

Say again how it's a "dumb rant" to call this area car-oriented, even though there exists a bus. If "there's a bus" is the definition of not-car-oriented, then congratulations, I guess, nowhere in Calgary is car oriented.

 

[MichaelS]

Have the buildings here been affected by the snowmaking at COP much? In my head I picture the north and west sides covered in snow when the guns are going full steam lol.

I am not sure about this development, but I have heard the houses in Cougar Ridge directly south of COP get quite a bit of extra snow due to the snow making blowing up over the hill onto their driveways and sidewalks.

 

[Golfing guy]

Bus route 26 doesn't go through the development, it stops on the extreme east end; 1250m from the existing townhomes, 1600m from the 500 apartments to be built on the west end. Route 108 actually passes through the development.

The bus runs every half hour and takes 18 minutes from this area to meander its way to the LRT at Brentwood.

If you wanted to catch the next Flames home game, puck drop is 8:00 PM; you need to leave home at 6:38 PM, almost 90 minutes earlier. If the game runs 3 hours, you'll get home at 12:43 AM... after walking half an hour up the hill from the #1 in Bowness, since the last 108 leaves Brentwood at 10 PM.

It takes longer from here by transit to go and watch a Flames game and come back than it does to travel by car from here to a Red Deer Rebels game and back.

Say again how it's a "dumb rant" to call this area car-oriented, even though there exists a bus. If "there's a bus" is the definition of not-car-oriented, then congratulations, I guess, nowhere in Calgary is car y

Your math doesn’t make sense or your example of Red Deer. If it takes almost 90 mins to get to the Flames game from Trinity Hills. Only 18 mins (your quote ) is bus from there to LRT in Brentwood. Why does it take almost 1 1/4 hours to take the train to downtown. There is no way that’s correct. It’s maybe 20-30 mins. Google maps says trip time 1 hour 1min. (108 bus Red line train, 9 mins walk). Says the same time after as well.
Not every developer can build in a TOD. Nor do many people want to live by one. If there was a market for this type of development then it would be provided. Market will dictate what gets built. Just how it is. The city can only mandate so much.
I personally love city’s with great mass transit. Fortunately for those cities most of them are much older and their train lines were built in much cheaper (less political) times. Calgary is what it is. Hopefully moving forward we evolve into a more transit friendly city and hope politicians who support it.

 

[badc0ffee]

Your math doesn’t make sense or your example of Red Deer. If it takes almost 90 mins to get to the Flames game from Trinity Hills. Only 18 mins (your quote ) is bus from there to LRT in Brentwood. Why does it take almost 1 1/4 hours to take the train to downtown. There is no way that’s correct. It’s maybe 20-30 mins. Google maps says trip time 1 hour 1min. (108 bus Red line train, 9 mins walk). Says the same time after as well.

The next home game is on a Saturday, and also you won't arrive to the saddledome exactly at 8:00. The 6:38 departure time seems correct.