Valley Line LRT/ Valley Line West | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton

Grandinite said:
They also picked the wrong station to over-engineer. This is a beautiful station, but it's in the least sexiest location along the line. Why not choose Mill Woods station for this? or perhaps Bonnie Doon? At least for those stations you could tie in better with any high density developments around it
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Simple reason. Davies station is the only station on the Valley line. All the other locations are only considered Stops, at least that was the reasoning from the planners awhile back.
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
Simple reason. Davies station is the only station on the Valley line. All the other locations are only considered Stops, at least that was the reasoning from the planners awhile back.
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I think their point is more that Davies was chosen to have the only station along the line, rather than another part of the Valley Line.
 
Let's not forget too that there is the possibility of future TOD around Davies in the Park & Ride lots, but it probably isn't going to happen for a little while yet.
 
Platinum107 said:
Let's not forget too that there is the possibility of future TOD around Davies in the Park & Ride lots, but it probably isn't going to happen for a little while yet.
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Does the current zoning allow for any TOD, or would council have to change it?
 
CplKlinger said:
Does the current zoning allow for any TOD, or would council have to change it?
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Main Streets overlay is present, but none of the existing zones are affected by it. Someone would have to rezone for housing, none of the existing zones allow for residential.
Davies Station TOD.JPG
I think it's okay for Davies to be the way it is, at least for the next 20-30 years. there's other places for TOD along the line that would be better suited for that kind of development, and the Davies area is an important employment area; lots of people work in those warehouses and industrial businesses, and ought to have access to transit too. It's also a great location for Park and Ride, a frustrating but necessary part of any LRT line. I can't think of anywhere else on the Valley Line where a 1300-stall parking lot would be more suited, or at least not be taking away TOD opportunities.If we gotta have a parking lot, put it in the industrial area, where the neighbours won't mind and no one would want to build an apartment building anyways.
I mean, the Davies Station looks kinda cool, and this way you have unobstructed views everywhere!
As a side note, when i think of places to make a big push for TOD, i think Bonny Doon and Mill Woods Town Centre should be priorities. MWTC has already had the transit centre rebuilt for this work, it's probably the most ready. And the stop there is still nice to look at, just not as flashy as Davies. still worth building around!
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
Simple reason. Davies station is the only station on the Valley line. All the other locations are only considered Stops, at least that was the reasoning from the planners awhile back.
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Oh god help us all. When there is too much time, the idle minds of our city planners go into very strange places.

I believe those tiny huts where buses stop for a minute are stops. Lets aspire to a bit more for our LRT lines. I suspect there would be a lot more traffic at Millwoods and Bonnie Doon, but I suppose thinking about the people who use the system is not very high up on the ETS list of priorities. It is focused on something, but customers not so much.
 
Whether or not this is the best approach, I'm assuming they were looking at low-floor systems like Portland's when they were looking at the stops. The City's LRT guidelines going back to at least 2010 state that they're looking at smaller scale stations. The new "stops" along the Valley Line look a lot like what the MAX stations looked like when I visited Portland a few years back - small scale, walk-up-and-hop-on-the-train sort of stops. Check out this Google Street View of one of their downtown stops if you're curious. Even compared to stations like McKernan-Belgravia, the small scale makes it feel a lot less obtrusive in the neighbourhood. It seems to me that the goal all along was that it would feel more like a neighbourhood transportation option - I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the City of Edmonton has ever presented this as a high-capacity, high-speed transportation link.

I'm assuming the reason for the scale and "station" designation at Davies is the park and ride combined with the bus station as a hub, with future TOD (office/commercial and not residential, I'm guessing). Because it's not in a residential area, the small scale stop would feel (to me) even more out of place than an elevated station.

I'm not arguing that the Valley Line should have full-scale stations or that this new system will be perfect - I think time will tell if they took the right approach in planning. But if the plan for the line all along was small-scale neighbourhood stops (which is what it seems), I think they've executed the plan well.
 
kennyruggs said:
Whether or not this is the best approach, I'm assuming they were looking at low-floor systems like Portland's when they were looking at the stops. The City's LRT guidelines going back to at least 2010 state that they're looking at smaller scale stations. The new "stops" along the Valley Line look a lot like what the MAX stations looked like when I visited Portland a few years back - small scale, walk-up-and-hop-on-the-train sort of stops. Check out this Google Street View of one of their downtown stops if you're curious. Even compared to stations like McKernan-Belgravia, the small scale makes it feel a lot less obtrusive in the neighbourhood. It seems to me that the goal all along was that it would feel more like a neighbourhood transportation option - I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the City of Edmonton has ever presented this as a high-capacity, high-speed transportation link.

I'm assuming the reason for the scale and "station" designation at Davies is the park and ride combined with the bus station as a hub, with future TOD (office/commercial and not residential, I'm guessing). Because it's not in a residential area, the small scale stop would feel (to me) even more out of place than an elevated station.

I'm not arguing that the Valley Line should have full-scale stations or that this new system will be perfect - I think time will tell if they took the right approach in planning. But if the plan for the line all along was small-scale neighbourhood stops (which is what it seems), I think they've executed the plan well.
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Going off that, the trade-off with smaller stops is that they can be spaced closer together. Bonnie Doon's stop is a fair size in my opinion; it's not exactly a bustling mall like WEM. I'd rather have smaller stops spaced closer together, than bigger stations spread further apart like we generally see on the Capital Line.
 
You have explained this well and may be right about the reasoning here, but I don't think the Portland stop quite resembles our smaller scale stations (perhaps that is a better term than stops). Interestingly it doesn't have any covered enclosure that I can see, perhaps everyone there huddles under the nearby awnings or carries umbrellas, when needed. Fortunately they do not need to worry about cold weather much. I also agree the park and ride at Davies supports having a more substantial station, but future TOD at that site could prove to be too optimistic. Hopefully not.
 
I think the smaller stations work well in neighborhoods like Avonmore and Millbourne, but I think stations like Bonnie Doon and the Churchill Connector could be a little more elaborate. I don’t think Bonnie Doon has a proper pedestrian access to the Bonnie Doon Mall.
 
The_Cat said:
I think the smaller stations work well in neighborhoods like Avonmore and Millbourne, but I think stations like Bonnie Doon and the Churchill Connector could be a little more elaborate. I don’t think Bonnie Doon has a proper pedestrian access to the Bonnie Doon Mall.
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The latter point is being addressed as part of the mall's Transit Centre construction, which is being discussed in the Bonnie Doon thread.
 
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