2016 Transit Service Review, Northwest and Inner City
Public Engagement -What We Heard
February – March 2016
Verbatim Comments GENERAL
Feedback below was collected in February and March 2016 at engagements, online, 311 email and service requests.
Content is captured as it was provided by stakeholders. No edits have been made.
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2-way routes better than circle routes
Shorter routes make sense
Increased number of transfer can be safety/security issue?(women)
Remaining route works okay if another route covers the section. Need to know that/if another route covers.
Big bus suggested for seniors - hard to manoever walkers, strollers, mobility devises. On shuttle - they don't
fit - have to wait for big bus to come before they can get on. Shuttles don't kneel, can't get on the bus unless
it's big bus.
Consider low income/reduced mobility residents
Bethany Care centre
Seniors and Louise Dean to Lions Park
Service from W. Hillhurst/Parkdale to Branton/Aberhart
advance publicity for this open house and those to come was very limited. When asked what measures were
taken to notify ridership, the only response was "we passed out notices at the LRT stations". This despite the
fact the the proposals don't affect LRT riders but bus riders, whom CTS has not contacted with their
announcement cards on the buses or stops. A very sleazy end run with mere lip service to actual consultation
with a majority of the affected constituents.
Flawed methodolgy and misguided execution: the driver for the changes were questionaires handed out on
the buses last September, the common complaint being riders didn't like the delays suffered in the
downtown core. Okay, they were not asked if cancelling downtown bus access entirely was an acceptable
solution. Those complainants had and continue to have the option of riding the LRT out of downtown and
then transferring to their bus at Sunnyside or Bridgeland, the plan now proposed, and choose not to.
3. yes, downtown traffic is busy in rush hour. So leave it to private vehicles? CTS's proposals will drive
ridership away, not encourage it, what is their mandate? A far better incentive would be to create designated
rush hour bus lanes on 4th, 5th and 6th avenues. What better motivation for commuters to switch from their
cars to the bus when they see the buses bypassing by the gridlock.
Intradepartment communication within CTS is poor. None of the bus drivers I've spoken to this week and last
are aware of the massive changes, thus not being able to apprise the riders to check out the website. One of
the hosts suggested we could continue to use buses to get downtown by taking the southbound 73 and
transfer to the 1 or 305. He was unaware the 305 is being cancelled in March.
Interdepartment communication would also seem to be non-existent, though we were assured one of the
architects to these proposals sits on other committees. I don't think he's showing up. example, the revised
route 9 would abandon University Drive for 29 Street; this moves the bus from a 4 lane road to a 2 lane,
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2016 Transit Service Review, Northwest and Inner City
Public Engagement -What We Heard
February – March 2016
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which will become a partial 1 lane once development begins on Stadium Shopping Centre and Foothills
Hospital expansion and the added construction and industrial vehicles which will accompany the work.
The LRT is their god. The southbound crossing at 9 St and 5th Avenue SW is one of the most accident prone in
Calgary. It regularly shuts down the train, yet, we are going to be forced to use it. A bus gets stranded in
traffic, you can get off and walk. A train stops away from a station (quite common), you're stuck.
Overall, Calgary will become one of North America's only cities not to provide direct access from inner and
mid city neighbourhoods to the business, cultural, entertainment and social cores by bus. This is not a trend I
see other jurisdictions following.
The presentation model is a Joke! Tell me what the prosed changes are & let the community ask questions!
II.Policy and Principles Where's thePublic Notice of the Proposed Changes? Another concern I have is
directed to the notice and consultation process used by Calgary Transit and the City of Calgary for route
changes. There was no effective and meaningful notice given to the public regarding significant changes to
Routes 9 and 419. I read the Calgary Herald every day and I did not see any Calgary Transit notice of the
proposed changes published in that newspaper. It would not have been an onerous expense to the City to
post notices in that newspaper twice or three times so as to be open regarding proposed substantial changes
to public transit. Calgarians with internet access and who are aware of, and subscribe to, the e-notices from
the City and Calgary Transit are relatively small in number. On the basis of the quality and quantity of notice
given to Calgarians regarding proposed transit changes, it may be reasonable to believe that Calgary Transit
and the City wished to have minimal feedback to the proposal, and then announce the changes "as a done
deal" a few days before implementation. I have seen personally transit patrons express surprise after picking
up information sheets (prepared by interested riders) at the Number 9 stop and on the Number 9 bus. These
riders were unaware that such changes were in the offing, and some expressed consternation regarding the
relatively secretive nature of the transit route change process. The information pamphlet that Transit drivers
handed out, on what I believe one day only, was insufficient notice because it may have missed riders absent
that day, and further, that notice did not give enough information to truly inform ridership of the nature and
impact of proposed changes. The information sheets prepared by the interested citizens were far more
informative.
Overall, the routes provide clear improvements but are still far from a transfer based system.
Increased number of transfer can be safety/security issue?(women)
Big bus suggested for seniors - hard to manoeuvre walkers, strollers, mobility devises. On shuttle - they don't
fit - have to wait for big bus to come before they can get on. Shuttles don't kneel, can't get on the bus unless
it's big bus.
Many other routes go both ways on total route. One way routes could offer better use of bus resources 404
does this.
More advance notice would have been beneficial for recruiting institution representatives
Consider low income/reduced mobility residents
Wayfinding when you get off at one stop and need to find a connecting route.
Calgary transit needs better maps.
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2016 Transit Service Review, Northwest and Inner City
Public Engagement -What We Heard
February – March 2016
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Shuttle buses are not easy when you have a walker.
Bus drivers are very good and extraordinarily helpful.
There is no route plan that works as no bus will take an NW inner city commuter downtown. The only option
is to take the LRT which is often packed. A commuter in Brentwood, Charleswood and Collingwood will need
to take two modes of transportation to get downtown (bus & train). I cannot understand this justification.
A prosperous, growing, viable, progressive city should encourage public transportation and give its citizens
multiple modes of transportation to get to work and school everyday. This proposal is not putting the public
needs as a priority. This is a great disadvantage to the vast demographic of transit users. (students, parents
with strollers, persons with disabilities, senior citizens). It is increasing the time it will take for users to get to
where they need to go.
What are the transit options for M. Pleasant community?!
o The transit representative explained that suburban communities (ranchlands, McEwan, Tuscany)
have express busses to downtown. Why cancel express bus routes in inner city communities and
encourage urban sprawl.
o Public consultation notification comment: Question?! Why is there not a comment form for every
proposed route.
o Lastly this proposal does not encourage public transportation.
This plan was not well publicized. Thee was less than a week notice before this event was held (March 1)
from when it was communicated to transit riders on this route.
o The people in attendance should be familiar – have actually travelled these routes on bus or ctrain –
before they can talk about it. The city transit reps. In attendance don’t live in this neighbourhood.
o The mayor and councillor should take the c-train during the morning rush hour (and not from the
terminus) to see what it is like. Take a 3-car train from Brentwood station – every day for a month –
to see what it is like.
o I have little faith in this process and any other city consultation process. You have already made
decision and will unlikely change them. This is evidenced from past processes, where you fauxconsult – you make the effort, but there is no change to the outcome. People “protest” against the
changes, but you make the changes anyway, without incorporating input from the public. If you
really did consultation, this city would look a lot different.
201 Redline - The station at Northland Mall needs to be built to serve the schools, mall/redevelopment, mid
density residential including towers, offices, various commercial and rentals for nearby university and closer
to Market Mall, library and recreation centre. I bet it would get more ridership than Martindale and 39 Av
combined. Skipping building it along with Dalhousie has cost over many hours of travel time.
I'm unsure why the City chose not to provide sufficient notice of the meeting that was held on the Friday,
February 26th. It doesn't do us any good to see a sign on the Saturday that a meeting had been held the day
before. A suggestion for next time would be that the City put transit information related notices at the bus
stops so residents are better informed.
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2016 Transit Service Review, Northwest and Inner City
Public Engagement -What We Heard
February – March 2016
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I did complete the online survey but I am not confident that it actually worked. As to the survey - I thought it
odd it was asking questions for areas of the city that we don't live in - once we picked which route we used.
Also, I would have expected further questions would be "route specific" but that was not the case.
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