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MacLac said:
That would be wonderful to “Kettle” all of our homeless to 1 area of concentration…….Red Deer is a good start?
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The vagrant population of Edmonton descending on Waskatenau

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Edmcowboy11 said:
I wish that some of the downtown stations could be better integrated to it's neighboring businesses. I loved it when you entered or exited from some stations in Tokyo, in the area outside of the restricted (payment zone) the was simply CRUs continuous from concourse to adjacent retail spaces in other buildings..
The closest we have to this is in the Churchill station concourse. My vision for that pedway level would be a few CRUs in addition to all the current accesses to AGA, Winspear, Library, Citadel. A visible security office, and other amenities that would be conveniences to all the passengers passing through that area.

Oh yeah, and again I advocate for tap in and tap out gates, turnstiles to get to the train platforms. Time to eliminate open gates to the train platforms.
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Yes, you go to other cities and see turnstiles, gates and access from the street much more integrated into buildings with CRU's serving commuters.

Here if anything it seems to have went the other way, as buildings with access restrict it due to safety concerns as our prominent LRT stations have become de facto temporary homeless shelters.
 
policyenthusiast said:
Strikes me as "treat the symptoms" changes. Current Peace Officers still do not have effective enforcement mechanisms by which they can address problem behaviors.

It seems like the idea is to fight the perception of "unsafe transit" rather than empowering law enforcement, which is closer to marketing than it is to governance.
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While this is moreso "treating the symptom", ETS can't solve the housing or drug crises; particularly by watering down the TPO package to put token resources toward a few station attendants (as Councillor Stevenson proposed). What they can do is increase proactive patrols, which the "Here to Help" fall campaign proved would decrease incidents and increase perceptions of safety. They're not saying this is the silver bullet, they're just saying this is the best way to re-allocate the $5 million. They actually need 75 more TPOs to get to ideal staffing levels, but came up with this compromise to make-do with 30 more instead. They say that this should allow TPOs to proactively patrol around 50% of the time, and also cover the bus network more.

It's worth noting that many TPOs do try to help connect vulnerable people with help, but they face barriers that anyone else would also face (i.e., long wait lists for housing, social services have standard business hours, shelters are unsafe, etc.). I highly recommend reading this report, which directly quotes more than two dozen TPOs and EPS officers about their experiences working in Edmonton's transit spaces.

Stevenson's motion failed, and they're going ahead with the full TPO model (option 4). A subsequent motion will help inform the fall budget adjustment, recognizing that much more needs to be done.
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Took the LRT midday yesterday and, much like my last midday LRT outting a few weeks ago, it was fairly busy. Majority were students boarding and alighting at University and Churchill Stations (they need to find a way to get low floor LRT to the university), but still lots from all demographics. Obvious TPO presence. Almost no one causing a safety concern, Belvedere Station was an exception and even then it wasn't terrible.

Also, I might need to record the LRT sounds as white noise for my toddler because she falls asleep on the train almost every time.
 
Station attendants would be nice but if I were to choose between TPOs or that, then its TPOs.

The amount of TPOs and EPS is noticeable, and they're present in Churchill and Central in the morning. They seem to do train visual inspections too, so when a train stops, they take a look from the outside. The level of security is night and day compared to just a few months ago, and if they're gonna add more TPOs, perception is going to improve.
 
Really looking forward to seeing what the money from the province for new LRT entrances will do. That could make a big impact if done well. Our current entrances are dark, narrow, and all the bad things you could want to encourage drug use and a lack of safety for people passing through.
 
I like all the extra stairwells to access stations from street level in theory, but they are hard to monitor and tend to attract bad activity. Other than maintain existing pedway access:

  • Churchill Station
    • Maintain Churchill Connector.
    • Upgrade north station house (99 St 102A Ave) with escalators and elevators.
    • Close the stairwell at 100 St 102 Ave. It was infrequently used even before Churchill Connector opened and often a safety concern.
  • Central Station
    • Upgrade main station house
    • Close all other street level access.
  • Bay/Enterprise Square Station
    • Upgrade main station house which at this moment doesn't feel anything like a station house
    • Close all other street level access
  • Corona Station
    • Maintain main station house. It's dated and eventually should be upgraded, but it does meet minimum visiblity standards.
    • Close all other street level access. They don't feel dangerous but who approved stairs barely over a meter wide as access to a metro system?
  • Government Centre
    • Maintain main station house on 110 St and 98 Ave
    • Maintain connection to Government Transit Centre
    • Close all other street level access.
  • University
    • Maintain all existing access, but provide better signage/maps to let infrequent visitors know which one goes where.
    • Eventually modernize the station as the busiest on the system.
 
I don't know what the original planning or thinking was, but they did seem to go overboard on some of the stairwells with long corridors and corners. Maybe some should be closed either temporarily or at non peak hours.

I use the the narrow one in Corona and it is quite busy at peak hours, but I am hoping with the planned building construction north of it, eventually a better, new wider stairwell will be built.
 
David A said:
I don't know what the original planning or thinking was, but they did seem to go overboard on some of the stairwells with long corridors and corners. Maybe some should be closed either temporarily or at non peak hours.

I use the the narrow one in Corona and it is quite busy at peak hours, but I am hoping with the planned building construction north of it, eventually a better, new wider stairwell will be built.
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I’d imagine the thinking was to get people under roads and closer to office doors to reduce pedestrian traffic for cars and to reduce time outside in colder months?

But 1 nice, well maintained entrance that requires an extra 2 minute walk beats a skinny stairwell full of garbage and needles.
 
Oddly, skinny stairwells are sometimes not the problem, because people going by discourages loiterers, sometimes it is worse in long wide hallways.

A practical approach would be to look at which locations are most problematic and at what times and then use temporarily closures if necessary.
 
How does the saying go?

Has anyone ever go "Heroin Hunch" tipping? It's kind of like of "cow tipping," except that Heroin junkies are the cows.......
 
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