Comments on: Edmonton Expands Light Rail Service South to Century Park

By: Ocean Railroader

Ocean Railroader — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:11:06 +0000

The Buses in Richmond VA are very unpreductble and some of them pick up and drop passangers off in the middle of no where. Also there is a case in Richmond where as soon as you reach the city limits the bus lines do a sold dead end even though mile 8 miled down the road there are suburbs in the next door counties that are far denser then some sections of the cities. The buses also can show up once every hour in some sections of town.

By: JV

JV — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:59:40 +0000

Canada, in general, is less scary than the US. ;)

By: AL

AL — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:05:27 +0000

Unfortunately what Edmonton still lacks is effective “direct” bus service to connect the major non-downtown transit centres during non-peak times. (Non-peak is a loose term, since the times seem incredibly odd for someone with a typical 9-5 workday). Most of the suburban routes are long, meandering paths and the lack of direct buses can make the travel times exceptionally long.

By: David M

David M — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:32:25 +0000

David A – I don’t know the answer. It depends where you are in Canada. I think generally our cities are designed differently and for the most part, are transit friendly. As Yonah points out in the article, low density is around 5,000 people per square mile. Edmonton is one of the lowest density (ie sprawling) cities in Canada, most cities have higher densities.

The LRT actually replaces express bus routes from Century Park and Southgate to downtown and the University. Eight peak hour express routes to downtown (representing over 32 departures an hour) have been discontinued with the opening of the LRT. In addition an all day express route to downtown has been discontinued. Routes to the University were cut back to South Campus when it opened last year and further cut back to Southgate or Century Park with the opening of the new line.

Edmonton also operates a timed transfer system. Buses run between bus stations and are timed to arrive and depart at set times to allow transfer from one route to the other with no waiting. The LRT is part of this network and when the trains run every 10 or 15 minutes (in the evenings and Sunday), the buses are timed to meet the trains.

By: David Alexander

David Alexander — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:15:53 +0000

Most of the passengers using the LRT will arrive on connecting bus services.

Just as a silly side question, is it me, or are Canadians more likely to ride buses when compared to their American counterparts? It’s funny noting that my family members in suburban areas of Canada have no qualms about riding the bus, while the equivalent here in the States hates the bus with a passion.

By: Yonah Freemark

Yonah Freemark — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:31:10 +0000

That’s a good point, thanks for bringing it up.

By: David M

David M — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:36:49 +0000

Your comment that people must drive to the stations is wrong. Most of the passengers using the LRT will arrive on connecting bus services. All of the bus routes are designed to connect with the LRT and fares are integrated (single fare allows transfer between bus-LRT-bus for up to 90 minutes from time of issue). All of the neighbourhoods have connecting bus service to the two major stations, several of which are express.

By: MNSegler

MNSegler — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:28:41 +0000

Yonah, I can’t pass up remarking on the phrase: “allowing for the multiplication of zones of walkable urbanism”. That’s a mouthful! How about “increasing areas where people can walk to transit”?

A separate question on your final point about systems which might allow people to abandon their cars entirely: Do you mean not own any vehicles or just not require a car in conjunction with other transit trips? I support the latter, but I believe the former is neither realistic nor particularly useful in many cities for a long time. That goal is also a pretty scary leap for most people and may alienate them before you have a chance to describe the value of simply having less cars. I’d like to start by getting down to one car knowing I or other family members could get to many popular places via public transit. I’m not quite ready to put my daughter on two or three buses thru downtown for 90 minutes to get her to her friend’s house in the next suburb. I need the option to make the 15 minute drive.

This reminds me of Patrick Condon’s recent comment on a Human Transit post (http://www.humantransit.org/2010/04/is-speed-obsolete-.html) where he IMHO came out against transit enabling longer out of neighborhood trips. That’s an unfortunate limitation. I think we can have green cars (one per family) and good public transit and retain mobility to where we want to go when we need to go there. It’s not all or nothing. Let’s gently raise automobile ownership costs as we improve alternative transit options. People may be ready for that idea.

By: Dave Onishenko

Dave Onishenko — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:44:13 +0000

Good news for the City of Edmonton, and it’s residents. This has been a process well over 15 years in the making. Now hopefully provincial and federal funding can be secured to finance the construction of other lines waiting in the starting gate.

A couple notes on the article:
- “This means that most people who want to use the light rail line in South Edmonton will be basically forced to drive to stations.” This is true for the most part as per the reasons given in the article, but what was not mentioned was that each of these stations along the south extension are also local bus transfer stations which act as feeder routes to the surrounding communities.

- It will be interesting to see what the actual ridership figures are when measured in September. Estimates for the first phase of the extension was only 65,000, while the actual figure was just under 75,000. I’d guess the numbers to come back higher then the estimated 100,000, somewhere around the 125,000 mark.