News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 9.5K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.4K     0 

badc0ffee said:
I read the comments. So many people want to eliminate street parking... I like street parking, though. It's better than parking lots, better than driveways that cut across the sidewalk, and it provides a buffer from traffic. Part of what makes walking along roads like 16th and MacLeod so awful is that traffic is zipping by 2 feet away.

And then there the people who think we can just plant a tree canopy in this climate...
Click to expand...
Most people also have zero understanding of urban design. Street parking is great for pedestrians, residents, and retailers - and removing it invites higher traffic speeds.

RE: street trees, it's a tough go to get them established - especially when the City only waters them for one season I believe. However there are some really nice streetscapes created by public trees in Calgary - 5A Street comes to mind.
 
badc0ffee said:
I read the comments. So many people want to eliminate street parking... I like street parking, though. It's better than parking lots, better than driveways that cut across the sidewalk, and it provides a buffer from traffic. Part of what makes walking along roads like 16th and MacLeod so awful is that traffic is zipping by 2 feet away.

And then there the people who think we can just plant a tree canopy in this climate...
Click to expand...
Street parking is part of a great street and is much better than parking lots for vibrancy and like you say creates buffers (just don't do it like west side of 2 St. SW).

More needs to be done to green the city than always talking about the tree canopy. The payoff is too far down the road and there's lots of alternatives that can be done.
 
Last edited:
artvandelay said:
However there are some really nice streetscapes created by public trees in Calgary
Click to expand...

Near where I live there are some nice blocks -
48 Ave SW
And especially 55 Ave SW
Other ones that come to mind are the avenues in Crescent Heights, 7 through 11 Ave N approximately. But these are understandably rare in Calgary - 5A street is in the river valley so might have always had trees, but I think the rest of these would have been prairie grassland in 1900.
 
Surrealplaces said:
I think this may have been mentioned already, but if not....
calgaryherald.com

Province unveils $160M Highway 566 interchange upgrade near CrossIron Mills

Local stakeholders have long called for the upgrade as rapid commercial and retail growth brought a sharp increase in traffic to the area.
calgaryherald.com calgaryherald.com
Click to expand...
Wowzers - 160M for an interchange?

For that price I hope we have a pathway connection. If I can find them, I'll post the designs as the article says they are complete - Alberta Transportation's website leaves a lot to be desired about transparency in information on projects.

Great pre-election timing too!
 
Probably would involve an under/overpass for the CP rail line. I should probably snap some photos of that vintage gas station nearby before it's too late...

Edit: CP rail
 
Last edited:
4-5 units per acre, 48~58 x 100 ft lots, 3 car garages, front driveways, cul-de-sacs. I guess it's sort of like Canyon Meadows Estates or one of the other Calgary neighbourhoods from 50 years ago, with pathways running behind the houses.

I don't really care one way or the other what gets built there, but I do think it's funny they're using terms like "pedestrian focused" and "mixed use" here.
 
Another angle to this overpass story. Between how the Province approached the bridge over the Elbow River for the SW Ring Road and their desire to throw Nose Creek into a culvert for this overpass, it seems like there is absolutely zero value placed on the importance these waterways have in forming wildlife corridors. Once again everything takes a backseat to building roads. It's frustrating.

globalnews.ca

Overpass construction make or break for Calgary to Airdrie park plans: Conservation group - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

A new overpass will be constructed after funds were allotted for the project in the Alberta government's recent capital budget.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
 
I took these pictures a few weeks ago, but didn't get around to cleaning them up until today. These are from March 19th, in Mission. It's the cousin of the well-established sneckdown, a main street snarrowing:

PXL_20230319_225053750~2.jpg
PXL_20230319_225655370~2.jpg


All that stored snow in the curb lane reduced the width of 4th St -- and many others -- by a substantial amount. I measured it as 3'3". 4th St overall is not a super-wide street, I measured it at roughly 46 feet, with 11 foot centre lanes and 12 foot curb lanes. But for weeks, it had 9 foot curb lanes, with three feet of snow storage and functioned equally well.

What it could use is extra sidewalk space; between sandwich boards and furniture and a fair bit of pedestrian traffic, it gets pretty busy. About three extra feet of sidewalk would be great.

And the same is true on dozens of other roads that had the same or similar snow narrowing; there's tons of space that drivers claim to need but which can be taken away without the road losing functionality. 25th Ave has a single 11.5 foot lane heading eastbound; it was easily reduced to 10 feet with the snow; still handled bus and truck traffic, with no problems.
 
The other thing I should mention is that these lanes (and similar ones on 17th, and I bet others on other high streets) should just be converted to full-time parking. Right now, they are signed for no-stopping during rush hour (the left photo above is southbound, so it's no stopping from 3:30 to 6 PM). I assume this is an old traffic engineering 'solution' to try and keep traffic moving during the rush hour. But there just isn't the demand; 4th St SB at 20th has 525 southbound vehicles in the PM peak hour (it had 650 vehicles 35 years ago (!)). That can easily be handled with a single lane. In fact, it often is -- the last couple of summers, patio extensions have closed sections of the curb lane permanently so they aren't used. And even in winter; on a recent walk around 5:30 PM, I noticed that there was a car stopped in almost every single block on 17th; some of them were delivery drivers with their lights on, some were just parking early.

So the lanes aren't needed for traffic flow, and even if they were, they currently aren't available for traffic flow -- since drivers are stopping in them, you can't drive through for more than a block or two anyways. The businesses in the area always want parking, and I can't imagine that getting your car towed is a good advertisement for patronizing a BIA. (I saw three people get their cars towed the last time I caught happy hour on the Earl's patio.) So it's not helping businesses and it's not helping through drivers, and more traffic isn't helping pedestrians. The tow truck drivers don't need help that badly.

There might be a few spots near intersections where a restriction of a couple of car lengths is appropriate to permit right turning vehicles a place to wait for pedestrians without blocking traffic flow, and it might be a good idea to start putting a couple of ten minute stopping zones every couple of blocks to help delivery drivers.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top