I would agree with you, Sunspace. Not just Tokyo, but look at Chicago: local Els and subways, along with the regional Metra system (very similar to the GO system that you know). Look at London–how many Underground lines are there now? Look at New York, with its subways, buses, and commuter trains, in spite of the local geography that makes travel difficult.
Or Transperth, in Perth, Australia–because like Calgary, Perth is a city of about a million people. But frequent buses in the suburbs feed four train lines, which in turn feed the city. IIRC, Perth City station has about ten or twelve platforms to handle all the trains. (By contrast, Calgary’s central “station” is a series of open-air platforms at various cross streets along Seventh Avenue; meaning a Somerset train, for example, can’t go until the Whitehorn train gets out of the way.) But again, growth of the city way out in the Perth suburbs like Currambine and Armadale would not have been possible without the frequent and reliable transit system access to them.
My husband has a theory that getting people out of their cars is not a priority in Calgary in our oil-and-gas based economy, and you’ve just added more fuel to his fire, Spoons.
What I would love to see, over and above a train to Edmonton, is a train out to Canmore or Banff. It seems like such a natural thing to do as far as getting tourists out there.
We’re going to have to meet up someday so Jimbo and I can discuss this in person. Where shall we drive to?
Seriously, I agree, getting people out of their cars does not seem to be a priority in Calgary. Whether that’s because of the oil and gas economy (let’s face it, we don’t have significantly lower gasoline prices than the rest of Canada, meaning there’s little incentive to consume recklessly, so I wonder about it as a factor), or for another reason, I don’t know. But at any rate, maybe that’s a good thing, if it checks the city’s growth and prevents it from becoming another southern Ontario Golden Horseshoe. I don’t miss those hour-plus commutes along the Evil Death Highway of Doom or on the Death Valley Parkway in the GTA. I like that even when the Deerfoot is slow, it moves better than similar GTA roads. And I like that in spite of what many seen as “massive growth,” I can still be out in farmland within a reasonable time of leaving my house in Calgary.
Speaking for myself only, I’d like to see better public transit, both within and without Calgary. I’d like to see Calgary Transit improve services; I’d like to see a train between Edmonton and Calgary, and between Calgary and Banff/Lake Louise (as Raygun suggests). But at the same time, I’m well aware of the potential for growth that improved roads and transit can bring, and I’m unsure if I really want to see a similar kind of growth in Calgary.
But of course, what I want really doesn’t matter. We’ll have to see what happens.
Another similarity to Denver. I-70 into the mountains is so horribly crowded from Friday through Sunday, that there is much talk of creating a rail line with buses feeding to the ski areas.
A rail line out to Canmore/Banff sounds like a natural to me, too. Go out, ski, hike, whatever, have a few drinks, and hop on the train and doze back to Calgary.
Dang it, too quick on the draw - Spoons, we’ll take you up on that someday. Jim and I both have lots of conspiracy theories; we’ll have to go out for wings at Brewsters some night and swap 'em.
Yes, I know that it used to be considered Victoria’s hapless, rube cousin, but things there have changed greatly in the last few years.
The housing market is nowhere near as inflated as Victoria or Vancouver, and the downtown core is finally being revived.
You have mountains nearby (including some good-to-great skiing); Vancouver is just a short ferry ride away, for when you need the Big City culture. Victoria (which is hands-down the nicest place to live in Canada–I grew up on the Prairies–) is only an hour and a bit down the Malahat.
You have the west coast climate (Nanaimo is still in the sub-mediterranean zone, and is much drier than Vancouver).
Nanaimo does get about 25% more precip than we do, down here at the tip of the Island, I note. Average house prices there are a good $100-150K less than Vancouver.
NO city wants to get people out of their cars. It’s not on Toronto’s priority list to have people use less gasoline, so why should Calgary have such a priority?
Nothing is more powerful than the North American’s love of his or her automobile, and cities enter into mass transit projects only in two circumstances;
If the volume of traffic is so bad it actually begins to harm business (which is not true in Calgary’s case) or
If a higher level of government gives the city a big bag of money to build public transit.
Calgary’s traffic just isn’t nearly bad enough to start sufficient outcry for mass transit. The traffic there isn’t even bad by the standards of cities that size.
Let’s plan for around Christmas. I know it’s a ways away, but my wife’s schedule is quite busy up until then, and I spend most of my time lately in Edmonton. By Christmas, things will have settled down and I’ll be back in Calgary for more than a couple of days at a stretch.
Besides, it’ll give me a few more trips up and down Highway 2, bemoaning the lack of a train. But yes, if Christmas is OK with you, we will do it then.
With enough warning (and money, and planning around other events, especially family), I might be able to make it out there! TAKE 7 is taking place in Montreal much later, not Calgary in May, so I don’t have that excuse to go visit you guys, so I need to find another one. Maybe I can roll this in with my visit to my sister in February.
Wikipedia says around 12 million for the city (the prefecture-level entity that contains various municipalities), and the Greater Tokyo Area has over 35 million (!). Interestingly, the Tokyo article goes on to say:
. Maybe decent transit has be be built in to the basic pattern of the city.
