M
miketoronto
Guest
We can talk all we want about improving transit ridership in Toronto and the region. However I think we have to look at some facts from Calgary Transit to understand why Toronto will never see more people switch to transit, unless we centralize our employment again.
The following are some quotes from the Calgary Transit website. You can see why Calgary Transit has seen great success in the last decade while Toronto's transit has seen more people switch to cars. It all has to do with where we put the workers.
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-The focus of many of Calgary’s land use policies over the past 20 years has been to preserve the downtown’s unique role as a major employment centre and to attract new
high density residential development within the downtown and within close walking distance of LRT stations and major bus corridors.
-Strategic policies have encouraged the concentration of employment in the downtown to support a high level of transit service.
-During the past decade, Calgary’s population has increased by 23 percent while Calgary Transit annual ridership increased by nearly double this rate (45 percent) to over 82 million annual revenue trips. As a result of this rapid growth, existing LRT and bus services are operating near capacity during peak travel periods
-Currently, the LRT system consists of 42.1 km of double track, 116 light rail vehicles and carries over 220,000 boarding passengers each weekday.
-Calgary is a “uniCity†in the sense that it is an urbanized area surrounded by agricultural or country residential areas. This situation allows City Council to exercise almost complete control over its urban environment, including its transportation system.
-These factors have contributed to the
development of a successful, integrated LRT and bus system.
-One of the key policies of the Calgary Transportation Plan is that “The City investment in transit and roads will be approximately equivalent.†The proposed city capital budget for 2006 to 2015 includes 47 percent funding for roads and 53 percent funding for transit.
-LRT and bus service instead of expanding downtown road access has resulted in a significant increase in the transit modal split from 37 percent in 1996 to over 42 percent in 2005.
The following are some quotes from the Calgary Transit website. You can see why Calgary Transit has seen great success in the last decade while Toronto's transit has seen more people switch to cars. It all has to do with where we put the workers.
----------------
-The focus of many of Calgary’s land use policies over the past 20 years has been to preserve the downtown’s unique role as a major employment centre and to attract new
high density residential development within the downtown and within close walking distance of LRT stations and major bus corridors.
-Strategic policies have encouraged the concentration of employment in the downtown to support a high level of transit service.
-During the past decade, Calgary’s population has increased by 23 percent while Calgary Transit annual ridership increased by nearly double this rate (45 percent) to over 82 million annual revenue trips. As a result of this rapid growth, existing LRT and bus services are operating near capacity during peak travel periods
-Currently, the LRT system consists of 42.1 km of double track, 116 light rail vehicles and carries over 220,000 boarding passengers each weekday.
-Calgary is a “uniCity†in the sense that it is an urbanized area surrounded by agricultural or country residential areas. This situation allows City Council to exercise almost complete control over its urban environment, including its transportation system.
-These factors have contributed to the
development of a successful, integrated LRT and bus system.
-One of the key policies of the Calgary Transportation Plan is that “The City investment in transit and roads will be approximately equivalent.†The proposed city capital budget for 2006 to 2015 includes 47 percent funding for roads and 53 percent funding for transit.
-LRT and bus service instead of expanding downtown road access has resulted in a significant increase in the transit modal split from 37 percent in 1996 to over 42 percent in 2005.