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Parking, Parking, Parking

fromyeg said:
I think during their council term that will be a decision made on “Substantial Completion.”

Not sure how it will look exactly, but it could be one example of policy to slow the rate of sprawl and potentially encourage more central (and transit friendly) redevelopment.
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It may help, but development could also leapfrog more into suburban areas beyond the city boundaries.
 
whattheheck said:
The shift to public transit will never work in the suburbs. It's all about the built form. And, as it stands, despite all the talk about over multiple years, city hall keeps approving suburb after suburb that's not designed to be transit-friendly.
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Sorry but… built firm might be part of it but it’s far from all about the built form.

Until transit is actually provided at the time initial residents move in, regardless of built form those residents are pretty much forced to use single family vehicles. A sign saying “future transit stop” won’t do in getting people to work or school or shopping etc.

By the time ETS determines population density warrants transit, everyone has already been forced to adopt a non-transit lifestyle. What would have worked if available and convenient from day one now requires a shift that otherwise wouldn’t be needed.

It’s not that the city keeps approving suburbs that aren’t transit friendly, it’s that the city doesn’t provide transit to them.

To make matters worse, this approach is also taken with industrial subdivisions where more than half our work force is employed so that even if you can get a bus at home, you can’t get one to take you where you want to go or to take you home again.

If you want a city that’s “transit friendly” for its residents (ie where its residents will use transit) it has to have an overall transit system that’s accessible and efficient across the entire system instead of blaming new subdivisions for not buying in.
 
trevorhayden said:
Let's not forget successive waves of ultra conservative governments that hold us back.
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While it might be nice to be able to blame someone else, exactly what actual decisions by “successive waves of ultra conservative governments” have prevented Edmonton from developing a user friendly transit system?

I think this is another one of those “look in the mirror” situations if we want to know who’s really at fault.
 
kcantor said:
While it might be nice to be able to blame someone else, exactly what actual decisions by “successive waves of ultra conservative governments” have prevented Edmonton from developing a user friendly transit system?

I think this is another one of those “look in the mirror” situations if we want to know who’s really at fault.
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Some of that conservative government was at the municipal level. I would not call Bill Smith a "liberal mayor". I seem to remember a long run of zero tax increases and infrastructure deferments specifically under him. Add in fiscally conservative councillors and there are a lot of projects over the years that have gotten deferred or scaled back or just lost in the dustbin of time. NIMBYism hasn't helped either.
 
AJo said:
Some of that conservative government was at the municipal level. I would not call Bill Smith a "liberal mayor". I seem to remember a long run of zero tax increases and infrastructure deferments specifically under him. Add in fiscally conservative councillors and there are a lot of projects over the years that have gotten deferred or scaled back or just lost in the dustbin of time. NIMBYism hasn't helped either.
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Fair enough at some of but again I think you’re coming to a conclusion you want to rather than looking at what was and what is. Jan Reimer was mayor before Smith and Stephen Mandel, Don Iveson, Amarjeet Sohi and now Andrew Knack followed Smith. None of them can be considered fiscally conservative in the sense you used the phrase and neither were the majority of the councillors they worked with. As for the mayors prior to Reimer who might be considered small c conservative, they were instrumental more than a half century ago in Edmonton being the first city in North America with a population of under a million to construct an LRT line, a legacy we really haven’t lived up to.
 
kcantor said:
While it might be nice to be able to blame someone else, exactly what actual decisions by “successive waves of ultra conservative governments” have prevented Edmonton from developing a user friendly transit system?

I think this is another one of those “look in the mirror” situations if we want to know who’s really at fault.
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Klein's major cuts to municipal infrastructure funding in the 90s surely hampered Edmonton's ability to continue building LRT, no?
 
From my era, we tend to blame Reimer for killing the LRT expansion. But Decore and Cavanagh were probably more responsible. Fiscally at the time it made sense. Calgary went in a different direction and kept building theirs out.

One thought back then was maybe just slowly build out but continually. If it had pushed through the line would have been all the way down Jasper and pass the RAM.
 
Airboy said:
From my era, we tend to blame Reimer for killing the LRT expansion. But Decore and Cavanagh were probably more responsible. Fiscally at the time it made sense. Calgary went in a different direction and kept building theirs out.

One thought back then was maybe just slowly build out but continually. If it had pushed through the line would have been all the way down Jasper and pass the RAM.
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Two words: Winter Olympics
 
northlands said:
Klein's major cuts to municipal infrastructure funding in the 90s surely hampered Edmonton's ability to continue building LRT, no?
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Perhaps (although it didn’t stop Calgary). For perspective however, that was both two decades after Edmonton’s first LRT and three decades ago from where we are today. In that time, Edmonton went ahead with the construction of multiple large rec centres and expansions, convention facilities construction and expansions, new city hall, Ice District, electric buses, Station Point, the Quarters, new bridges and rehabilitations, new libraries, new arts facilities, multiple one time sporting and special events, numerous major park additions and expansions and renovations etc. etc. etc. I would suggest if day to day transit access and convenience for riders has fallen further and further behind, that’s the result of internal political and administrative priorities much more than external ones.

This isn’t to suggest that most of those other projects weren’t “good projects” but many of them fall into the “shiny penny category” while transit for the most part is forever relegated as a maintenance item or items that is too easily deferred except for the really big ones every decade or three…
 
Gronk! said:
Two words: Winter Olympics
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Yes and guess who was the Mayor of Calgary then who spent lots of money on LRT expansion there - Klein! While Edmonton was more fiscally responsible and patiently waited its turn, even though our mayors then were not conservatives.

Then guess who became Premier a few years after and cut back funding so our LRT expansion was even further delayed and slowed - yes Klein, the same guy. And as I recall, that was around the time Smith who actually was more conservative came in. Yes, I don't think he was eager to spend money on this, but because of the province it couldn't really happen anyways.
 
kcantor said:
Perhaps (although it didn’t stop Calgary). For perspective however, that was both two decades after Edmonton’s first LRT and three decades ago from where we are today. In that time, Edmonton went ahead with the construction of multiple large rec centres and expansions, convention facilities construction and expansions, new city hall, Ice District, electric buses, Station Point, the Quarters, new bridges and rehabilitations, new libraries, new arts facilities, multiple one time sporting and special events, numerous major park additions and expansions and renovations etc. etc. etc. I would suggest if day to day transit access and convenience for riders has fallen further and further behind, that’s the result of internal political and administrative priorities much more than external ones.

This isn’t to suggest that most of those other projects weren’t “good projects” but many of them fall into the “shiny penny category” while transit for the most part is forever relegated as a maintenance item or items that is too easily deferred except for the really big ones every decade or three…
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It would also help if some of the big shinny penny projects wouldn't go over budget by so much or be delayed. Perhaps questionable political decisions involved here, but also ongoing concerns about how well the administration is managing such things.
 
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