Well, why shouldn’t we? Seems obvious, doesn’t it? I’m all for people and making room for them. I’m a person myself, most days, and I like my room too.

Except, what the author proposed is a little ridiculous, but I understand where he’s coming from. Jasper Avenue is a major traffic artery in downtown Edmonton and the author said:

“I would get rid of the on-street parking and narrow that six-block section of Jasper to two lanes. Doing so would create a hue and cry that it would make it harder to find a place to park and make it more difficult for traffic to move through that part of the city. My response would be that was exactly the intent.”

The author is in favour of transit, as am I, but the author thinks that any extensions to the LRT should come with corresponding reductions in parking downtown to “encourage” people to use transit.

Sorry, but that is just dumb. It’s like a doctor saying to a patient “sorry, but you’ve got lung cancer. To treat it, we’re going to cut off blood flow to your lungs. One possible side effect is that it may kill you.” Oops!

Jasper Avenue isn't the most attractive main street and could use a lot of improvement.

Doesn’t it make sense to treat the cancer but not kill the patient? Cars are not the cancer downtown though. Part of downtown’s problem is that there are more options for people outside of downtown, so they go there. Making it more difficult for people to travel and park downtown will not help downtown Edmonton.

Yes, expanding the LRT is good, depending on how it’s done, but it makes more sense to have a healthy efficient transportation system that is capable of handling as much traffic as possible. Why would you narrow the arteries in the heart of the city?

A people-friendly city is good, and there are ways of making it more people friendly without ruining the transportation system. I’m sure restaurant owners on Jasper would love the patio space, but it may come at the expense of having fewer customers to populate them.

As much as we’d like to have LRT all over the city, the fact remains that it’s not there yet. Cars are going to be the main form of transportation for the foreseeable future. They may run on gas, be hybrids, be electric and may eventually fly (God help us if Edmonton drivers could fly), but cars will be around. Edmonton’s 100-year transit plan predicts a population, eventually, of three million people in Edmonton. You think they’re all going to use transit?

No doubt with fewer parking spaces, those that remain will skyrocket in price. Of course with better transit options, more will use transit. Yes, more people should live downtown, close to where they work.

I think a policy to narrow Jasper Avenue would actually exacerbate Edmonton’s sprawl problem though. If driving downtown is such a pain, people won’t do it. I already limit my travel downtown and prefer meetings outside of it. I rarely go to any shops or the mall downtown. Why should I when I have options more convenient elsewhere?

I’m sure that’s not what downtown businesses want to hear. It’s already a pain to go there for a lot of Edmontonians, so they avoid it too.

The author suggested making changes to Jasper Avenue’s odd infrastructure and I totally agree. It’s not the best looking place and could use a serious spruce up. There’s not a huge amount of parking there, so one could eliminate some parking but still keep at least four lanes of traffic.

But, isn’t an LRT route proposed for Jasper Avenue already? That would eliminate at least two lanes of traffic right there. That’s a whole other topic, but I will say that street level LRT is insanity. Montreal and Vancouver have the right idea with a mix of above ground and below ground subways and Skytrains.

I also agree with the author about getting rid of sodium vapour lights. They are butt ugly. The new lights on 118^th Avenue from 82 Street to 97 Street are very nice. They’ve done a great job on there.

One of the most annoying things about driving downtown is the side streets. It seems like most of the lights are on a particularly long timer, which is nothing but frustrating. It would be nice if the city did some work on timing lights and installing more sensors throughout the city to help move traffic along more efficiently. It’s no wonder Edmonton drivers are an angry lot. It might even ease the load on emergency rooms. I’m sure many drivers come in with head injuries from smashing their head in frustration on the steering wheel.

Making Edmonton a more pleasant and liveable city is a laudable goal. What I hope our city leaders recognize is that our transportation system needs healthy arteries, giving it increased capacity as the city grows. Fail to do that and they may just kill the patient.

It was a half-day event where attendees could find out all about what the plans are for the Edmonton transit system and contribute their views on what should happen with the Edmonton transit system.

There were about 50 to 60 people attending the event and I thought it was worthwhile attending. It was interesting to be able to share ideas on the future of Edmonton’s transit system. We even had a few visitors come up from Calgary to join the discussion.

What will Edmonton LRT look like in the future?

There have been a few stories in the news about what Edmonton’s LRT system will look like so we have a basic idea of what’s being proposed. There are also a few online resources.

What worried me early on in Transit Camp was a presentation from an Edmonton Transit official. I’ve forgotten her name but I thought her presentation was interesting.

So, here are my thoughts in general on Edmonton Transit Camp as well as the Edmonton transit and LRT system in general and what I would like to see in it. So it’s a combination critique and wish list.

I was worried because of the underlying assumptions ETS has used to decide on how Edmonton LRT will expand. At the end of her presentation we had a chance to quiz her on a few things. She had talked about one of the assumptions being that world oil prices would double. Hmm. Ok. Double from what price?

A little more probing and we discover that the assumption is actually from 2006 and it’s based on a doubling of the then gas price of 83 cents per litre. So, they’re forecasting for a 100 year transit plan that fuel prices will double to $1.66 per litre! Granted, I have not seen the plan, so I don’t know how that works into the plan or if they’ve assumed that we’ll be floating around Edmonton like the Jetsons at some point.

$1.66 per litre. Really? We nearly reached that last summer and I’m not sure when this 100 year plan is supposed to start. $1.66 a litre doesn’t seem too pessimistic to me! In fact, if gas is going to top out at $1.66 a litre for the next 100 years, why would anyone even use transit, aside from the population of the area being projected to grow to 3 million over that time (and the requisite parking problems).

I don’t know if the consultants on this project or the people at Edmonton city hall have taken peak oil into account on this. It is a reality. It’s going to make travelling by automobile a very difficult, if not impossible thing at some point in the future. Will Edmonton’s transit and LRT system be prepared for the huge influx of transit users? I’m worried it won’t be.

Star shaped LRT system, or grid?

Checked out Edmonton Transit's showcase platinum bus

Another issue I had with the Edmonton transit plan was the star shaped LRT network. The way they’re planning the LRT routes is to have all the LRT routes funnel through downtown. So, if you were wanting to take LRT from St. Albert to West Edmonton Mall, there wouldn’t be a route other than going all the way downtown, and then west to WEM.

Doesn’t seem to make much sense. Oh, and that’s assuming there will be LRT from St. Albert anyway. Outlying communities will have to get on the LRT at some sort of interchange between municipalities.

I believe that a loose grid network with branches out to communities outside Edmonton makes the most sense. I know the cost issue is a sensitive one, but a way should be found to connect the transit systems of all Edmonton area communities.

A loose grid system would allow travel throughout Edmonton without necessarily having to travel through downtown Edmonton. It’s one thing to project where transit demand will come from, but I know that when transit stations are built in an area, those areas grow. It’s an “if you build it, they will come” approach. Transit oriented design, I believe they call it.

Are there areas which would support growth away from downtown Edmonton? I think the current municipal airport is one. Not knowing the Edmonton region as intimately as some, I’m sure there are many others.

A loose grid works well in other locations and the value is where those lines cross, allowing transit users to access many areas quickly and easily via LRT. Toronto and Montreal have excellent systems with many cross-links. I know the bus and subway system in Montreal is very well integrated and it just makes sense to use it. I have, and I know from experience you can go virtually everywhere in the city quite easily.

Having lived in Vancouver, I have used Skytrain a fair bit. It was always a pain because it was one line. That’s it. It would have been far more valuable with good cross-linking transit lines. That’s the direction they’re finally going.

A star-shaped LRT system in Edmonton funnels everything through the bottleneck of downtown. And with the low step street level LRT they’re proposing (similar to Calgary), it’s going to be slow going, meaning inconvenient.

Time & budget considerations

Scooters & motorcycles should have free parking in Edmonton. More of these on the road would be good.

Edmonton is a big, thinly populated city, right now. They’re projecting a tripling of the population over the next 100 years though, so it’s going to fill in, increasing population density.

With transit now, it takes forever to travel across the city via transit, and I’m worried that won’t change with the proposed expansion of the LRT. I live in Northeast Edmonton, and am lucky enough to be within a single 10 minute bus ride of the LRT line. Still, if I want to travel south, perhaps to Ikea, I’m looking at anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours one way on transit. The end result? I’m not using transit.

The marginal cost of taking my family there with a vehicle is maybe a couple dollars of gas. Transit? If there are four of us, it’s $20 round trip. Transit is out and I’m clogging the roadway. There are many many areas of Edmonton where this calculation works more in favour of using cars over transit. I have used transit for many meetings in downtown Edmonton because the parking is so ridiculous, and if I don’t have other meetings elsewhere following it.

There were some good suggestions about group rates for events. I live close to Northlands and if my family wanted to go to a home show, it would make more sense to drive and park for $10 than to pay $20 round trip for transit. The cost of gas for the trip is virtually nothing. We have walked too, weather permitting.

My wife works out in Sherwood Park and transit isn’t even an option for her. Add another car to the congestion.

I bought a scooter last year, which is far more fuel efficient, but Edmonton’s parking system just views me as another car. There are few good options and certainly no financial benefits from a parking perspective for having it. You can park half a dozen motorcycles in the space of one car. There should be cheaper or free parking for motorcycles and scooters.

An efficient LRT and transit network might tip us into being regular users of transit. I’m not confident the proposed system will do that either.

Connecting with Edmonton airports?

And what about Edmonton International Airport? Apparently that is not in this plan. And what’s happening with the municipal airport? Well, nobody knows that yet, but you can bet it will be gone, given the ideas flowing from city council.

Here are some of the criteria used to decide on the LRT routes. Apparently the plan is being presented to city council as I write this. Not like I’ve got time to spend the morning there listening, but I wouldn’t have minded!

I’m not sure how a 100 year transit plan can be discussed, let alone implemented, without making solid decisions on what is happening with the airports. The presenter I’d mentioned earlier said people on the LRT would be looking out the window at people on the freeway doing 100 km/h towards the airport. Sure, whatever, but those people also have to park, and it’s not cheap there! LRT would be fine to go to the airport.

Conclusion

I have serious concerns about this plan according to what I heard Saturday. I’m concerned that the assumptions this report is based on won’t lead to the kind of transit system Edmonton needs in the future. Once I’ve seen the plan I’ll be able to comment more on it.

There are so many issues that I could go into and I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. Even with the issues I’ve raised, I feel like I could write a book on them.

This isn’t the kind of issue that we can just hand over to consultants and run with it. We need to have a serious discussion about the future of Edmonton and the very important role that transit will play here in the next 100 years. It may seem costly, but I think it’s going to be more costly to build a system that doesn’t work well for Edmonton and surrounding communities.