West Edmonton Mall

[Platinum107]

The mindset of both Southgate's and Kingsway's owners at the time of the respective LRT extensions could (imo) be summarized as: "We don't want to deal with the costs of security and dealing with loitering and homeless people. Therefore, we don't want any enclosed direct link to the mall, because people who take the train don't have enough money to shop here anyway, right?"

From what I understand this has changed in both cases since, but it's already too late for Kingsway, and I don't think Southgate is going to fund a pedway extension to the mall from the station.

 

[David A]

The mindset of both Southgate's and Kingsway's owners at the time of the respective LRT extensions could (imo) be summarized as: "We don't want to deal with the costs of security and dealing with loitering and homeless people. Therefore, we don't want any enclosed direct link to the mall, because people who take the train don't have enough money to shop here anyway, right?"

From what I understand this has changed in both cases since, but it's already too late for Kingsway, and I don't think Southgate is going to fund a pedway extension to the mall from the station.

It seems contradictory to say the mind set has changed, but they are not going to bother to improve it. However, I am going to try to be more optimistic and say hopefully those two malls will get to it at some point, although it may not be their biggest priority.

But if the mindset has changed, it may be because they see how congested their parking can be at busy times and realize it would be expensive and difficult to add more parking for them. So that may become more of a deterrent for people to go there. Easier access to LRT means more people can visit without expanding existing parking.

 

[Glenco]