Limiting Calgary's expansion

[Calgarian]

I don't think it really matters how much development there is outside the ring road in Winnipeg. That city is fairly compact and doesn't really suffer from urban sprawl. It is growing, so I hope they have a good strategy, but I seriously doubt it will ever reach the geographical area that Calgary currently covers in my lifetime.

[Calgarian]

I really doubt we will see Calgary annex more land in the next 30 or so years, there is a ton of greenfield sites that can and will be developed, and as was stated before, the development going in now is much denser than what was built in the past.

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by freeweed

It's the actual environmental effects we need to mitigate. About my only fear in my lifetime is air quality. We're seeing far too many smog days in my opinion. We need some serious clean air legislation here.

I agree that overall air quality is a big issue. However many American cities have seen an improvment in air quality due to newer technology in automobiles. Newer cars are smaller and much more efficient at burning fuel and get much better gas milage than the cars of the 70's and 80's.

Check out this land yaht: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:19...n_Town_Car.JPG

Does anyone know the number of smog days Calgary has?

[Ferreth]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Don't want to turn this into a Toronto-bash, but... if you were "stuck" on the 401, in traffic - you only saw half the fun.

Try driving their freeways at 2 or 3 in the morning, when traffic is incredibly light and you can set the cruise at 130 and just fly around. It still takes FOREVER to go places. I once drove from Hamilton to Markham in the middle of the night and it felt like I was driving all the way to Banff.

Calgary driving at night is hilarious. 30 mins to completely cross the city on our freeways, max. And there's so little traffic by comparison. I suspect that will change muchly over the next 20 years though.

I drove the 401 at pretty much all times of the day. It was an interesting driving experience In terms of sprawl, the GTA has a bias to build around the lake. N-S, Toronto doesn't really spread out much further than Calgary N-S. It seems to me more along the lines of towns along the lake with their own economic drivers being sucked up into the general GTA. For example, to me, Hamilton isn't really part of Toronto, it's more like the two have grown together. But I'm not a historian or an expert on why TO has developed the way it has.

What scares me in the long term (assuming Calgary grows to over 2 million) that towns like Strathmore and High River are going to get big. That would lead to the kind of "Toronto sized" sprawl in the Calgary area. I'd like to see Calgary to stay fairly close to the confines of the ring road, with growth limited in all outside 'burbs to +/-50K, with no new 'burbs created. That ain't gonna happen.

Oh, as far as that comments about Winnipeg: Inner-city - I agree it does seem to be getting better in the last while. The main roads seem narrower, but that's because they were all built around the time we got Blackfoot between 17th and 42 St SE - it's pretty much like that.

[5seconds]

I believe this order was more to do with the ring road than limiting expansion or the establishment of a green belt, but I found it interesting anyway

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...2754%2C4169508

Alberta Government restrict development around Calgary, 1976