Calgary Public Transit II

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by reflexzero

Notice the hooded ruffian, on his way to start a fire in a garbage can... oh wait that's not Sunalta.

joking aside, I don't know how safe I would feel with a place for persons to congregate right beside my house, as generally people are pigs or thieves.

its too bad they never thought to develop a block or two around the station at a higher zoning density. having a few multi-family spots and more people on the street would do wonders for increase the eyes to watch out for these hooligans

but i can just imagine once this kid and his neighbourhood buddies turn 18 and stumble home from the bar on the train and relieve themselves all over this poor guy's front porch... ugh

[Policy Wonk]

Public urination accounts for the vast majority of reasonable complaints made to Calgary Transit when people are complaining about a stop in close proximity to their home. Vandalism is a distant second.

I know a family that had hoped removing the bushes from their front yard might discourage people, it didn't. The men do it anyway, now directly on the side of their house and the women will let themselves into their back yard and periodically leave a little something extra.

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Public urination accounts for the vast majority of reasonable complaints made to Calgary Transit when people are complaining about a stop in close proximity to their home. Vandalism is a distant second.

I know a family that had hoped removing the bushes from their front yard might discourage people, it didn't. The men do it anyway, now directly on the side of their house and the women will let themselves into their back yard and periodically leave a little something extra.

I think one of the worst bus stops ever was at the intersection of Uxbridge Drive and Unwin Road NW. The students from Van Horne High pretty much destroyed the bus stop and urinated everywhere. A Great bunch, they were.

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Public urination accounts for the vast majority of reasonable complaints made to Calgary Transit when people are complaining about a stop in close proximity to their home. Vandalism is a distant second.

I know a family that had hoped removing the bushes from their front yard might discourage people, it didn't. The men do it anyway, now directly on the side of their house and the women will let themselves into their back yard and periodically leave a little something extra.

I've always thought there should be some public toilets along the C-Train route, especially near the end of the line.

Eliminating public urination is as easy as providing facilities. People would rather use a toilet, but if there isn't one, they're going to go anyway. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

[Policy Wonk]

The tragedy of most public amenities is we would rather remove them entirely than deal with the lowlifes who abuse them. I worked in a building downtown where the card key doors on each floor were moved to the elevator lobby because they couldn't keep the Larry Craig's of the world out of the washrooms, who didn't just fuck in there but left them absolutely disgusting and vandalized the tile wall with their "personal ads"

Although there are some problematic locations in very close proximity to public washrooms where people let loose anyways. I guess they don't want to risk missing the next bus?

Much of it just comes down to people having no respect for their community, or as the case may be too intoxicated to care where they do it.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

The tragedy of most public amenities is we would rather remove them entirely than deal with the lowlifes who abuse them.

I'd suggest pay-per-use automated toilets.

[Policy Wonk]

The homeless garrisoned them in Seattle until they were removed,

Ultimately public misbehaviour has to be confronted,

[mooky]

The best public toilets are public toilets with an attendant on site.

There is a public toilet near Westminster Abbey in London, England, at the entrance is a turnstile I believe I had to throw 10 pence in.

They weren't luxurious, but more then adequate and well used, and I'm sure the fee paid for some/most of the attendants wage.

[outoftheice]

Originally Posted by MasterG

its too bad they never thought to develop a block or two around the station at a higher zoning density. having a few multi-family spots and more people on the street would do wonders for increase the eyes to watch out for these hooligans

but i can just imagine once this kid and his neighbourhood buddies turn 18 and stumble home from the bar on the train and relieve themselves all over this poor guy's front porch... ugh

I definately agree... especially since the LRT right of way was built into the community plan. It definately leaves me scratching my head why anybody involved in planning thought that this was the way to go... I guess maybe the whole 'let's integrate transit into the neighbourhood?' angle... but there's got to be a better way to integrate transit....

[MalcolmTucker]

I forget whether that station itself was in the original plan (when the neighborhood was laid out). I would also think it would have been hard to sell dense housing there up until the point when transit was built, which wasn't predicted for many more years.

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

they couldn't keep the Larry Craig's of the world out of the washrooms, who didn't just fuck in there but left them absolutely disgusting and vandalized the tile wall with their "personal ads"

At the risk of ruining everyone's lunch.. who is/was Larry Craig?

[mersar]

Originally Posted by Aegis

At the risk of ruining everyone's lunch.. who is/was Larry Craig?

A US senator who was accused of solicitation in a mens washroom at an airport in Minneapolis.


And in transit news, it seems that CT has figured out a way to get the U2's and SD160's to run together in revenue service. And not just the 2 AC U2's, but the DC U2's as well.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by Aegis

At the risk of ruining everyone's lunch.. who is/was Larry Craig?

At the risk of ruining yours, have you heard of google?

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

At the risk of ruining yours, have you heard of google?

I tried to google it, but my employer's firewall blocked the results.

[SmokWawelski]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

At the risk of ruining yours, have you heard of google?

My, my....aren't we on a high horse...

[xAnderblaze]

I was curious if anyone is aware of any plans to add express trains to the lines, whereas the train would go from the last station and not stop until it reached downtown or possibly 1 or 2 other stations along the lines. It seems our system is kinda in need of that when it is shoulder to shoulder by the time it gets to the second or third station.

[mersar]

Nope, it would actually be a pretty horrible waste of resources in my opinion as it wouldn't be any faster as the trains would still need to wait the same amount at each station even if they didn't open the doors otherwise they'd get too close to the train in front. The load from each station at any given time of day also varies quite a bit on a daily basis to make it likely that rather then running a full train (or over-full train), you might end up running a half empty train all the way downtown and leaving people waiting on the platforms in between, making their commutes even longer.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by xAnderblaze

I was curious if anyone is aware of any plans to add express trains to the lines, whereas the train would go from the last station and not stop until it reached downtown or possibly 1 or 2 other stations along the lines. It seems our system is kinda in need of that when it is shoulder to shoulder by the time it gets to the second or third station.

The problem you state and your solution don't seem match up. If the first three stations fill up the train, then either larger trains, more frequent trains, or trains that don't go all the way to the end of the line are needed. Express trains aren't going to make it easier for people to get on the train further down the line. Plus, express trains are really used in places like NY, where there are numerous destinations along all lines, and trains need to stop frequently to make walking distance to the stations shorter. The express trains bypass all these stops in order to allow people to cross the city quicker without having to use local service trains. In Calgary, there really is only one destination- Downtown, and the rest of the stops are just origin stops, not really destinations (UofC and SAIT being two exceptions). So there really is no benefit for express trains.

People on the first three stops are getting on fine, it is the people closer to the core who can't get on the train. Four car trains, greater headways due to the subway and even an inner-city streetcar system are what is needed.

[freeweed]

Plus the only way express trains could possibly work here is a completely separate rail line. As mersar outlined, how else could the express trains pass the regular trains?

4 car trains, plus greater frequency - it's the only option.

[Danma]

^ Not to mention your timings need to be much sharper if you have multiple trains at different speeds on the same tracks. You'd have to invest in an ATC system for keeping trains from blocking each other... sigh. Complicated!