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However, that being said, I think Calgary is ahead in urbanity. It's structural density transitions are a contiguous built-up high structurally dense form from CBD to adjacent areas. More so than Denver. Its transit ridership is also both more comprehensive and accessible within its neighborhoods served and higher ridership in general. Transit usage and less reliability on automobiles are further culturally ingrained in Calgary than in Denver. C-Train's daily ridership volume is over 305,000 people per day on its rail system, whereas in Denver the RTD's rail component averages a little more than 86,000 people per day.
Calgary is one of those mid-sized cities that really perfected LRT usage throughout its population - 294,000 per day, making it the second highest ridership in North America and light years ahead of cities like Portland (124,000/day) and Denver (79,000/day). This is even more impressive figure given the harsh winter temperatures in Calgary, and the relatively more mild climates in Denver and SLC.
The best part? Calgary City Council recently approved the construction of a 3rd partially underground LRT Line that will cost $5 billion, and is scheduled to begin construction this month. It's one of those rare Prairie cities where you can comfortably live without a car, and benefits from years of sustained government investment into its transit system.
Calgary is one of those mid-sized cities that really perfected LRT usage throughout its population - 294,000 per day, making it the second highest ridership in North America and light years ahead of cities like Portland (124,000/day) and Denver (79,000/day). This is even more impressive figure given the harsh winter temperatures in Calgary, and the relatively more mild climates in Denver and SLC.
The best part? Calgary City Council recently approved the construction of a 3rd partially underground LRT Line that will cost $5 billion, and is scheduled to begin construction this month. It's one of those rare Prairie cities where you can comfortably live without a car, and benefits from years of sustained government investment into its transit system.
This is really good and welcoming information with regard to Calgary's transit expansion. Good stuff there.
What really impresses me the most about Canadian cities relative to American ones is how much they work towards building up the core. The thing I notice when I look at Calgary is how overwhelmingly residential the structures in its core are, more so than commercial offices and such, which is not to suggest that it lacks any office space or anything of the sort but the residential infill dwarfs the office infill it seems. That's really good in my book. Calgary's downtown has a massive residential component to it and by looking at its infill, it appears to still be expanding its stock of housing there. That's incredible and seems to be the common practice among all of Canada's major cities (especially Toronto and Vancouver). Not everything is perfect about it, I'm sure, as is the case with anything and everything, but the investment level is great and profound.
American cities, largely all of them, are also seeing core investments and more residential stuff but not much in the way of their Canadian counterparts, which seem to have more infill and developmental activity in their respective cores, especially when size is taken into account.
C-Train's going through an overhaul, that's amazing to see.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 10-16-2017 at 03:39 PM..
As someone 2 years ago asked, why is Edmonton on the list? It's 300 K's away, which is about a 3 hour drive away to the edge of Jasper National park? If you are driving from Edmonton to the city of Jasper, it's four hours at least.
Canadians do not think of Edmonton as a Rocky Mountain city.
Calgary, even though it's much closer, and is a jumping off point for those who want to visit the Rockies, still technically is not IN the the Rockies.
I like the thread, but IMO it's seriously misnamed.
Calgary looks beautiful especially approaching from the south with the Rockies on your left. Fairly impressive skyline for a town its size. I've only flown in and out via WestJet, so never seen much of the city itself. Therefore, unfair for me to even comment about YYC.
IMO, the thing holding back SLC is it's reputation. It's a great city with tons of potential, but it might take awhile for the over obsessive Mormon image to dissolve.
Agree. SLC would be the size of Denver if not for the "Mormon" issue. In reality, the Mormon pioneers were attempting to be as isolated as possible. To a certain extent, they succeeded.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Natnasci
As someone 2 years ago asked, why is Edmonton on the list? It's 300 K's away, which is about a 3 hour drive away to the edge of Jasper National park? If you are driving from Edmonton to the city of Jasper, it's four hours at least.
Canadians do not think of Edmonton as a Rocky Mountain city.
Calgary, even though it's much closer, and is a jumping off point for those who want to visit the Rockies, still technically is not IN the the Rockies.
I like the thread, but IMO it's seriously misnamed.
I think the concepts are different in the US than Canada, as Colorado is often considered a mountain state even though its almost half prairies. The Colorado Rockies play in a ballfield in a city that is technically on the plains. But overall the Interior West, basically any state in the the mountain time zone which has a lot of prairie frontier, are generally thought of as the "Mountain States" so the big cities within them will have that "Rockies" association.
In Canada, even though Alberta has some of the country's best mountain scenery, it's grouped in with Manitoba and Saskatchewan as one of the prairie provinces. And Calgary and Edmonton are generally thought of as the prairies. The Bow River through Calgary looks like a river that came running straight out of the mountains (https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0527...7i11080!8i5540). I'd agree that Edmonton is pretty distant to the Rockies. It's also the most northern major metro area on the continent, so it's a stone's throw from the boreal landscapes.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 10-28-2017 at 10:37 PM..
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