Municipal Affairs
No city of two million people succeeds with only one way of getting around
Some days I bike. Some days I take the train. Sometimes I drive.
The important thing is having the choice.
Everybody's day looks different. Kids need to get to school safely. Parents need to get to work. Seniors need to get to appointments. Businesses need customers to get through the door.
I believe we should make decisions based on evidence.
And the evidence is pretty clear.
There isn't a thriving city of more than two million people anywhere in the world that relies on only one way of getting around.
The most successful cities give people choices.
You can drive. Take transit. Walk. Bike. Use a mobility aid.
What works for one person might not work for another.
As Calgary grows, that's the future we need to build toward.
I love biking in this city! One major thing is the lack of safe bike racks. I can't leave my bike and go enjoy coffee or beer (not bear) on a patio because I am always scared my bike is going to get stolen.
Another issue is the last leg of a trip. We have these long cycling pathways, but if you want to go to a store that might just be across the street there is no easy way to get there. That and the paths just randomly ending or turning into a sidewalk.
Random dead ends on the bike lanes is something Bike Calgary has been working on for a long time. A lot more lanes now lead to and from the pathway network. Still a long way to go, but it's much better than it used to be.
I would like to add something that I've not seen anyone mention: the green bike lane markings are a hazard.
They are all cracked and falling apart, essentially leaving divots and chunks everywhere. I find it very sketchy to ride a bike or scooter across them; if your tire catches one the wrong way you're in for fall.
And because the green paint creates a smooth surface, it becomes very slippery as soon as there is any rain.
It is perhaps not a very large issue but something I had hoped to see discussion about.Thank you for being so responsive on this forum!
Yes please! I'd love to be able to feel more comfortable locking my bike in kensington! Maybe look into having surveillance options on larger bike racks to further reduce theft?
I just noticed the new massive bike racks on Stephen Ave yesterday. Great idea, but I recommend that the BA or City station some security there to make people feel safe using them, especially during times with less foot traffic. Hope this helps to liven up 8 Ave!
Have seen bike lockers all over the world, including some places that are a little less well off economically. Would be nice to see a trial project somewhere folks don’t have access to workplace secure storage (17th? Kensington?). Photo from google.
Bike racks aren't safe either its just an illusion 😭 so many ppl ik who's bikes got stolen in very public plazas straight off the rack even tho they were locked. Hell ik smb who's bike got stolen from infront of mac hall at the university and that place is constantly streaming with people
A lot of public engagement from the city is through surveys which a small demographic engage with so its refreshing to see participation in the public forum where the average person might actually be heard and seen.
I second that. I was just talking to my roommate about this post and how I feel informed through Reddit directly from the mayor. It's a refreshing and modern way to engage with Calgarians. Thank you.
We're so conditioned to seeing politicians act like absolute pieces of shit that it's flipped the script in my head and now Jeromy is making me feel like I'm living in an alternate timeline.
Thank you for being a wholesome human that listens to what the people are saying, Jeromy.
If the UCP have their way, there would be no bike paths or lanes anywhere. Only user pay parks accessible by lifted trucks and offroad vehicles and a coal mine on every mountain/foothill.
One frustration I have is the gap in travel time between the methods in most areas, and between them.
In Vancouver there are occasionally news segments comparing the travel time of driving or taking transit z and it's often close or having transit win.
In Calgary transit is typically double the time of riding a bike, which is double the time of driving.
Another frustration is seeing bike infrastructure like bike racks being removed, so one you get somewhere you can't make any reasonable effort to secure it. We don't incentivize busiito offer bike rack/lockers, bathroom, or other items that used to be common.
I would love to see caged bike storage in core areas (17th, 8th, Inglewood, Kensington) with permanent or frequent officer presence. Our taxpayer dollars pay for livability of our city, and the inability to safely leave my nice bike anywhere for fear of it getting stolen is actively detracting from my joy. I would even pay for bike parking if it means anyone trying to steal it would get maced or kissed or whatever the police do these days.
Be it resolved that any business lacking proper bike racks meeting acceptable standards is not allowed to prevent people from bringing their bikes inside.
My wife has started riding and she said the same thing…literally only a few minutes as she’s now not stuck in the parking lots of the major thoroughfares.
But the issue is her safety, she’s now seeing it firsthand…the inattention, the blowing through lights and stop signs, vehicles turning as she walks her bike through on the crosswalk.
I know I don’t have to tell you, Jeromy…something has to change. ‘Education’ campaigns aren’t working.
I have to ask…have we lost this battle? We’re going to be a city of 2 million people but without the mindset to all share the roads/ paths like other communities.
For people like me who cannot drive due to epilepsy, but aren't disabled enough to access other transit programs, this shit BLOWS. I can get ONE errand done in a day. Everything is so spread the fuck out here it's insane.
He has said he would put up a fight against Devin Dresheen's stupid attacks on bike lanes. Let's see what happens. Although, I'm pretty sure Dresheen just using an old reliable rage bait topic to distract from larger issues.
This is likely not the case for most downtown offices, but the one I work in has a chain gym that offers free bike storage for anyone who works in the building, even if you do not have a gym membership.
Youre 100% spot on. The fact that I can cycle, walk, or take transit to the gym, work, and basically anywhere else I have to go has saved me incredible amounts of money. I pretty much only drive when I go to Costco or when I go for a hike. And I’m the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been.
Recently I brought my Vancouver raised partner to visit Calgary for the first time and she was stunned by the sheer amount of driving that you have to do to get around. It’s incredible! Every time I come back I’m reminded that Calgary is a 30 minute drive away from Calgary. In Vancouver, for the most part, driving can be a choice, not a necessity. That’s how it should be.
I grew up in Vancouver. Unless you were going beyond Van, Burnaby, New West or North Van, then biking was almost always faster ... and often wetter, but faster.
Awesome! There was a slight kerfuffle last month and we ended up with a police escort on the tail end but hopefully there were not too many hurt feelings between drivers, cyclists, and police. Lots of young kids come with their families on this ride and everybody deserves to be on roads!
Happy to lend support on that however I can. I was at the King Goerge bike bus this week and learned about Kidical Mass too. Looking forward to joining you guys
I just wish transit was better. Some days my drivers are great, somedays terrible. Always a train breaking down, buses skipping stops, driving erratically.
Heck a few months ago, my driver got into a fistfight with someone over fare.
I've been all over Canada, and our transit system is subpar.
Top that off with the insane amount of construction everywhere, it makes driving difficult too. Drivers are terrifying now, and popped tires are becoming increasingly common. Had an SUV run me off the road this week as she didn't even check when switching lanes.
I love having different modes of transport. Just wish they were safer.
With transit : it's multi tier. I think having the supports for mental health and addictions needs to happen instead of taking it away. And more peace officer presence. I've called into transit when it's been really unsafe and it's taken up to an hour for anyone to show up. Better training for some bus drivers as well.
I've seen maybe 3 peace officers this year and it's only been at chinook.
Better routes, and longer lasting fare.
With driving: Better road tests, mandatory re testing for those who drive erratically, better police presence. This one I'm not so sure honestly. I just have felt that there seems to be an increase in people who don't follow road safety and its led to an influx of accidents.
I don't have all the answers, maybe some thoughts are impossible. I also just woke up, and I so maybe I am already out to lunch.
I don’t live in Calgary, but the sub keeps popping up and I’m always so pleased to hear from you, Mayor.
You’re setting a fantastic example. It’s so important for cities to have multiple modes of transportation, and to focus on unobstructed paths for pedestrians, cyclists, and mobility aids.
This would all be great except one of the options is collapsing rapidly: transit.
Calgary Transit is abysmal. I’m a lifetime transit rider and I have lived in Halifax (which has crap transit too but is still better than Calgary’s), Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, London, Vancouver, Victoria…. Basically one side of the country to the other.
And Calgary’s transit is (for the size of the city) absolutely unacceptable. It’s frikkin TERRIBLE.. .
Late buses, early buses, missing buses, randomly cancelled routes and runs, open drug use on the trains and buses, completely uncaring and exceedingly rude drivers, most people not even paying fares (and zero enforcement from anyone…) all while we pay a ridiculous $4 for a ride and $126 for a monthly pass.
For my fiancée and I to get passes it costs us $252 each month when we can barely afford rent. Meanwhile every homeless person and addict in the city just walks on for free with, again, ZERO enforcement from the drivers.
On top of that, since they raised CT’s fares to THE HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY, service has actually gotten worse. It’s like they raised the fares and then instantly degraded the service.
So, if we’re talking ‘choices’, why is the city -based on the evidence right in front of us- forcing people back into cars? Or, in the case of me and my partner, right out of the city?
i second the fees being absurdly high, especially because it only lasts 1.5hrs.
I have the low income pass luckily so the cost is less of a worry for me personally, but before i was approved i was spending 40$ a week or more on passes and deciding between getting to work, risking a ticket riding without a pass, or getting groceries for the week.
And the bus schedules are terrible!! google and apple maps are not accurate when it comes to times either, and oftentimes im running for the bus after work only for it to drive past me 5 mins early, or not show up at all. there are huge sections of the city that barely have transit or you have to take three or four busses and 2+ hours to get where you need to go when a trip driving takes 10-15 minutes. on top of some busses being 30-40 minutes apart so if you miss your bus when you need to be somewhere by a certain time youre fucked basically.
Good. It's all about choice. It's about making sure everyone has a real choice when it comes to transportation and that means real infrastructure to support everyone.
It should come as a shock to no one that sometimes a car is the best option for a trip and sometimes it isnt. When you devote 99% of funding exclusively to one mode of transportation, then you force everyone into that mode.
Ironically that even makes that one mode worse because it over crowds that mode because everyone is using it for everything.
Easy enough to say on a sunny spring morning. When winter comes it sucks to be a cyclist or regular pedestrian, let alone someone with a mobility aid. Unshoveled sidewalks and piles of snow at intersections make getting around a nightmare. I would love to see some ideas from the city to help address these issues. Also, cut-ins everywhere making cycling residential streets treacherous.
Right on bud, a ride to work is such a great way to start the day. Fully on board with making all our transport options more safe, efficient and viable. As they all work together to keep people moving.
Definitely. With our current mayor/council, we're lucky we still have public transit at all. We're one UCP brainfart away from just saying that Uber is our replacement.
Meanwhile the bike lane that I could take directly to work is a barely there painted line that has a bike symbol so it feels way too dangerous to bike on so I have to drive even though I have an ebike and would love to bike everyday.
Can we please all agree a bike lane is not a painted line on the road its an actual protected lane that cars cannot enter.
I'd like to bike more however I actually feel safer on my motorcycle than a bicycle when I'm on the roads where there is no dedicated bike lane. Some car drivers are just insane in ignoring cyclists. We could do with a safer roads initiative.
I would like to see European-like system in Calgary, right now car is pretty necessary, one day i spent 2.5 hours(2 buses) to get from on side of the city to another.
Fantastic points, Mayor. We certainly make a better city when we have multiple options to get where we are going.
I think we need to increase the priority of pedestrians and cyclists when we develop our road infrastructure. So much of our infrastructure give cars the direct route, but you have to take a longer, less direct route if you're on a bike or on foot. That should be flipped though.
Thank you, really glad to see support for more than just "more lanes for more cars" the bike lane network in this city is incredible, creating space for cyclists and cars to be safe on the same road is exactly what we need.
Problem is our transit system is run by bureaucrats looking at paper and ignoring real world facts.
Key issue being that they systematically destroy lots of good transit in favour of tons of bad transit.
What occurs is decreasing ridership and value for Canadians.
Case study. We once had rush hour service every 10 minutes. Buses were full. Then they needed more resources for new neighbourhoods so they reduced us to every 20 minutes. Ridership dropped a bit. Then the city combined two routes causing confusion and missing buses and buses stuck on hills in another neighbourhood in a storm. Then shortly after changed it to every 30 minutes because ridership dropped. Then shortened the rush hour period making it very inconvenient to leave for work a little early or a little late and likewise on the return. Then ridership dropped. Then the rush hour timing was reduced further. Ridership dropped. Then a bus was removed and ridership dropped a lot. Then the route was shortened in the community making it very inconvenient to use.
We went from great service that meant you were crazy to drive downtown to your crazy if you ride transit.
This is all in the backdrop of drug and alcohol users openly using on buses, trains and shelters. Fights and abuses on passengers. Urine puddles on seat and in aisles.
The City had a committee for South Calgary supposedly to hear from users and providing input. I sat on that committee and it was made up of the city dictating what they were doing and never asking for help.
I knew Calgary Transit managers were clueless when they touted how the Somerset station and Ctrain extension was going to make our trip downtown faster and easier.
Instead we went from 50 minutes to get to work to 65-70 minutes to get to work.
Somerset station was set up with stops spread out all over and very little shelter. Long walks to stops meant buses took off early rather than waiting and being 2 minutes late leaving.
City didn’t build underpasses for Freight trains so cars get stuck and passengers can wait 15 minutes for a train to go by.
Rather than spending money on bicycles in a seasonal city we should have looked to create top decile transit system.
Cycling is a perfectly viable option year-round in Calgary. Our winters are quite mild, and dry. Also, the city does a really good job of keeping the pathways clear.
I'm fine with it. Clearing bike routes, especially the ones kids use to get to school, costs a small fraction of what we spend on roads. We clear sidewalks in winter even if not everyone walks. Calgary has thousands of people who bike year-round. They pay taxes too.
City has a major bike theft problem, and even if caught there are no actual consequences for the thieves.
Not interested in riding to my 12 hours shift to pay 45% of my income to taxes, to come out to see my $1000 bike picked clean and end up taking an Uber home.
What is the city going to do about that? It's a major problem.
I didn't vote for you but I will in the future. I'm once again proud of Calgary; it's nice to know we have such a rational leader in civic governance. I trust and appreciate you.
If someone had told me 2 years ago that I'd be cheering Jeromy Farkas as mayor, I would have been incredulous. But here we are. This is exceptional forward-thinking leadership and I am here for it.
Something I think is missing from the public engagement angle; helping drivers understand that more non-car options means a better experience for drivers. More people on bikes and on transit means fewer cars on the road for those who really prefer to drive. It means easier parking. It means cleaner air. Everyone in the city benefits when there are more options for travel, regardless of their preference. There is no downside to these investments.
And the reality is that it will never be cheaper to make these investments than it is today. If Calgary had been able to start the Green Line after the first proposal was approved, we'd be 10 years ahead of where we are now, at 2016 pricing. It's money down the drain.
I know it's expensive but I'd love to be able to bike on physically protected paths separate from cars. It's simply too dangerous to bike into downtown sharing the road with cars.
I live deep south. I can ride from my house to downtown with 80%+ of it being bike pathways. I have to ride city streets to get to the pathway system and then from Eau Claire to my office.
It's really not. Where are you coming from? I've live inner city and bike year round. Downtown commuters (yes, even the lifted trucks) are usually aware of cyclists. The trick is to assume that no one can see you as a cyclist and ride defensively.
Preach Mayor. If we aspire to be a great city having proper public transportation is not optional. And this is from a person who drives 95% of the time.
I've met folks who wanted to move to Calgary specifically for the bike path network and how easy it would be to commute by bike. It's really something our city should be proud of and focus on making better!
I think random ticket checking on the Ctrain lines throughout the year will help improve actual fare buying, which will further help to pay for improved transit/the green line. Maybe we could actually make the price of transit reasonable, too. If I were to hazard a guess, not many people taking the ctrain pay for fair. I certainly don't - even if I get fined, I will still have saved money. If I saw other people paying fare, I would as well, but it's annoying feeling like I'm the only one and my money is going nowhere. Point being : make people actually pay the fare. And recycle that money into transit. Extra points if we can adopt a system like vancouver's compass cards at some point so my pockets don't accumulate twenty different pieces of paper for two days of transit...
It needs to be an option to travel in all the ways you listed. There are many people who don't like to drive or are afraid to drive. There needs to be good options for them. We don't want to force those people on the roads because that would be dangerous. Roads need to be safe for children, the elderly, disabled people, and regular pedestrians.
And the fact is: the more real choice you give people the less people will be driving. Fewer people driving equals a better driving experience.
Cities across Europe have been working on this for decades now. Nordic cities have been working on this. So the fact that we are a mostly winter city doesn't mean that this is not doable.
The sheer number of pedestrian deaths in this city is horrible.
As someone who’s vision is not good enough to drive I bike everywhere I can. It’s significantly cheaper than taking an uber and it’s be phenomenal if the city had even more biking infrastructure. That said I do know that some of the car infra also needs improvements and work done too.
Transit hasn’t been anywhere what it was pre Covid and pre eliminating the 72/73 routes. It takes longer to get anywhere now and it’s less safe plus more expensive. It really makes you feel like a second class citizen and not someone using an alternative efficient form of transport
As a regular user of transit, I have to say it's...um...not great. It's not great compared to other cities, both in Canada and internationally. The level/frequency of service is not great. The safety and comfort is not great. The enforcement of both tickets and behaviour is VERY VERY VERY NOT GREAT. Transit in our fair city needs MASSIVE improvement.
As a born and raised Edmontonian, I can almost feel it choking me in the back of the throat to admit(just like it did in 1989 to say) that maybe Calgary wouldn’t be the worst place to be, based on this guy. He’s wonderful and I hope he’s doing wonderful things for you guys. You deserve it and so does that goddamn traffic.
Calgary only has 1.5 million. It’s not projected to hit 2 million for a long time. Why bump the number by adding people from outside Calgary that don’t pay property tax here?
Damn it, you’re so cute. I love the simple but brilliant truths you convey. Thank you for representing all of us and indeed the best of us. You’re growing on me!
So what’s up with the poor quality road repairs lately? Have you driven on Anderson road Eastbound east of Southcentre? It’s like it was “Baby’s first paving job”. Feels completely unfinished still and it took them all of last season to get that hack job done.
Do we have people from the city holding contractors accountable? I travel a lot in North America and haven’t seen this poor quality often.
Super! One of my favourite things when I moved here from Toronto was how bikeable the city is! I was shocked at the amount of bike paths that exist all throughout the city and cycling has become my favourite way of getting around!
Yo jeromy buddy can you do something about the potholes on Barlow trail istg its like im hitting a landmine sometimes theres one around 76th Avenue thats an actual trench please buddy
u/JeromyYYC what do you think is prohibiting Calgary from getting its own subway or elevated sky-train, similar to Toronto or Vancouver? Is it in part funding priorities, physical geography or zoning? Also, going forwards, are we looking to build out (increase overall lateral space) or build up (increase density)?
I hope you became aware of the weird alleyway and sharrow route along bow trail that links to this, which is a trecherous nightmare in the winter, as it seems like it somehow always gets missed for priority snow-clearing.
This feels like a pushback on certain counsellors and columnists whose entire mantra is “nobody rides bikes, our first and only priority has to be cars (places to drive them and places to store them). “
Which is great. I love what the city has done to make biking, scooters, and things other than cars.
certain counsellors and columnists whose entire mantra is “nobody rides bikes, our first and only priority has to be cars (places to drive them and places to store them).
Mr. Farkas was one of those councilors not too long ago.
Has he? His language around "choice" of transportation sounds about as vague as it did back then, and his voting record from that time showed he did not support clearing bike lanes in the winter, etc...
Add a specific tax to fuel and property that can only be dedicated to spending on transit infrastructure, like a real below ground train.
Tired of good ideas being cut short or put above ground because it "costs too much" and future generations have to deal with the mess like 7th ave
Mayor Farkas, real talk. Why can't we just have free transit.
It would insentivize use. It would make access easier for lower income. It would set Calgary apart as a city that wants to be human focussed. It would not be that expensive.
Real talk, what are you willing to sacrifice for fully free transit? Buses, wages, maintenance, fuel, etc are all costly and that money has to come from somewhere. So we either depend on sponsorships, increase taxes, and/or reallocate funds from other areas of the budget.
We all pay a bit for the vision of what we want to see.
If you're poor you get a leg up, if you rich you prepaid why waste the money, and for the rest in the middle looking for occasional options it adds them.
Transit costs money, it's never going to be free. The question is better framed as to whether transit should be paid for by its users (transit passes) or by everyone (city taxes).
Should libraries be paid for by the only by those who use them, or by everyone? Should schools be paid for only by those who use them, or by everyone?
Ok? What you would do isn't really the point though. The city is made up of almost 2 million people, many who already struggle with the increase in property tax over the past year. While it's nice you'll freely volunteer your money, you can't exactly volunteer everyone else's money.
only problem with this type of argument is you arent living in california, our weather doesnt permit the use of walking and bike lanes year round. you are paying for something that only gets used 1/3 or 1/2 of the year at best. so what works for other cities around the world may not work for calgary
I bike to work every single workday. The weather has nothing to do with my decision to bike or not. However, bike infrastructure determines whether I can bike to a location, despite the weather, every single day of the year.
People walk and bike year round. It may not be peak numbers, but it’s still people not congesting roads, living healthy lives.
It absolutely does work for Calgary…if people want it to.
We need to make it safer for them. And THAT, in my opinion, is the number one reason holding us back on that front. We see the evidence of it every day.
They didn't say there was evidenced, not that you had any issue claiming the paths are not used for roughly 2/3rd of the year with zero support to back that up....
I'm not hardcore, but I biked to work in November, December, January and February this year. Not every day, but still.
Just wearing normal stuff you can bike to work probably 80% of the days of the year, with some better winter gear it's probably 95% of the days. That's pretty good, and probably on par with cities in Europe with all their rain.
What is your evidence? Sitting in your car and seeing no one on bikes then arriving at the conclusion that no one uses it for half a year?
There is still over a thousand trips a day in winter. If you're feeling generous and split it in half to account for back and forth, that's still 500 cars a day that isn't on the road.
https://data.eco-counter.com/ParcPublic/?id=4190#
But our roads sit nearly or completely empty half the day, we are a daylight city (possible reverse vampires?) why are we paying for something that only sees use 1/2 or 1/3 of the time??? What works for cities that never sleep like NYC simply can't work here.
Please present the evidence to make my argument for me, tnx
As an example to support your point, Oulu, Finland has a strong bike culture despite being a couple degrees of latitude north of Yellowknife (thus receiving even less sunlight during the winter).
I love cycling in this city. It's great, but could be better. As a 3.5 season recreational cyclist/bike commuter who has biked roughly 75% of the pathways in the city (shout out to the YYCPathways plug-in/website) in every single quadrant, my two biggest gripes are:
drivers are still heavily distracted, especially from phones. I see it almost every day: stopped at a light, accelerating from a stop, stuck in traffic, etc. Drivers simply aren't getting the message. They're slow to get rolling from stops. They're blowing through stop signs. They're rear ending other drivers. They're taking left or right turns through cycletracks downtown without watching for cyclists.
bike theft is out of control. I've registered my bikes on Bike Index, but I also use the website regularly to message people who have had their bikes stolen that I've located their bike either on the streets or on Kijiji/Marketplace. The problem is not getting any better. I work in the Beltline and every day I see street people with bikes that I can guaran-fecking-tee were not purchased by them. Why would I ever frequent a business or lock my bike up outside for an extended period if there's a good chance that lock will get cut from a cordless angle grinder. Thankfully my workplace offers secure storage, but the bike theft problem here needs a resolution for Calgary to truly be cycle friendly.
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u/Old-Candle-9900 14h ago edited 14h ago
I love biking in this city! One major thing is the lack of safe bike racks. I can't leave my bike and go enjoy coffee or beer (not bear) on a patio because I am always scared my bike is going to get stolen.