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.

One of the things that’s been spurring me to use transit, and avoid the stupid Edmonton parking situation, is cost. Parking is, um, not extortionate (that’s a bit strong), but it’s damn expensive downtown and parking tickets cost even more! If I have a meeting in downtown Edmonton, I’ll seriously consider transit if I don’t have to head out to another meeting from there and also if I have the time.

Transit isn’t the most convenient way of travelling, but it is workable. What I have found inconvenient about it is the extra time overhead you have to build into using it. I pretty much need to add an extra half hour, minimum, on both sides of a trip.

That may not be a big deal for some people, but when you’re busy, that could make the difference between using transit and not using it.

Google transit: thank you!

The other thing that’s made transit planning easier is using the Google transit planner in Google Maps. You pick your start and end location, pick the travel by transit option, and voila, you’re given several transit options. You can set your leave by or arrive by time and it will work it all out for you.

This is in stark contrast to the nightmarish Edmonton Transit website. With the ETS Trip Planner you have to figure out what bus stop is closest and the planning flows from there. It’s not the best way and I can especially see it being problematic if you’re new to the city.

The nice thing in Google’s transit planner is that you just plunk in your addresses and it figures it all out.

I find it to be much quicker to use and overall a more pleasant way to plan travel. You can easily compare how quickly walking, transit or car will get you places.

I don’t want to knock the City of Edmonton for the ETS Trip Planner (yet I am), but I certainly won’t be using it.

LRT, transit & kids

This weekend we’ll be using transit to check out the craft sale at the Butterdome and it will all be done using transit. The kids have been bugging us to get on and use the LRT so they can start doing some things on their own. I think it’s about time. It should be interesting.

The University of Alberta is another one of those places where parking is a nightmare. It’s not as expensive as downtown Edmonton, but it’s up there, if you can even find convenient parking.

I’ve already got one cheap option for commuting in my scooter, but I still have to pay for parking. They don’t hesitate to ticket you with a scooter either, as I’ve found out. Environmentally or grid-lock friendly doesn’t matter, the City of Edmonton is ticket happy.

With the new Edmonton South Campus LRT extension, transit is becoming much more useful. It will be a long time to wait, but eventually (crossing fingers) the useful crosslinks for the LRT will be developed.

Avoiding downtown Edmonton

If you’ve ever arranged a meeting with me, you’ve probably noticed I don’t ever suggest downtown as a meeting location. If that’s easiest for you, I’ll go with it, but I just avoid it as much as I can.

I’m always on the hunt for good meeting locations around the city, like a good, independent coffee house on the North side of the city (not downtown).

I enjoy Starbucks and Second Cup, but I like to support the independents as well. Let me know your favourite coffee house North of the river. I’d also be curious to hear some of your favourite places to hold meetings.

See you out on the roads! Or, maybe on transit. : )