Alberta Urbanism: Underrated Successes and Massive Challenges

Would you believe us if we said that the two big cities in Alberta - a province associated with cowboys and oil - are more “urbanist” than you thought? In this video we’re going to cover the underappreciated urbanism of Canada’s fifth and sixth biggest metro areas and talk about the fundamental challenge for urbanism in a place like this.
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References:
History of Edmonton and Calgary's LRT systems: onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs...
Transit ridership (see bottom of page for legend): www.apta.com/wp-content/uploa...
132 Ave Overhaul: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...
Fossil fuels in Alberta's economy: www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analy...
15 minute city protests: www.theglobeandmail.com/canad...
Winnipeg referendum 2018: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...
Winnipeg 2024 update: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...
Calgary opposition to zoning reform: calgaryherald.com/opinion/col...

[@OhTheUrbanity]

A note on data: the population and area figures that we used were not for city boundaries (e.g., the City of Calgary) or metro areas (e.g., the Calgary CMA). They were another measure that counts all built-up urban and suburban development (but not rural areas) as being part of “the city”. This is usually the best (most consistent) way to compare cities on things like area or density. You can find this data under ”population centre” in Canada (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_population_centres_in_Canada) and ”urban area” in the US (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas).

[@nose10620]

👍👍👍👍

[@blogdesign7126]

That 15 Minute city in Canada you mentioned is also being proposed in California for the "Flannery and Associates" and California Forever proposal in Solano County, California which happens to be the outer suburbs of both Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area. Yes its the one where Billionaires from San Francisco and San Jose bought land near Fairfield, CA and Travis Air Force Base. Nimby here involves security, escalation of income inequality, protecting both San Pablo Bay and the Sacramento Delta at the same time and civil rights concerns.

[@user-zf3xb3qx8w]

@@blogdesign7126 Calgary, the city, never had that kind of competition. You can drive east from downtown for an HOUR and still be in the "City of Calgary"..long term industrial expansion plans. There's no other city near Calgary to worry about, just First Nation lands and cattle.

[@LO-lm4zh]

Calgary and Edmonton are the 4th and 5th largest population centres in Canada - but your video description refers to the "5th and 6th metro areas"... could be consistent there too :)

[@mph20000]

You forgot to mention that part of the reason Calgary and Edmonton are sparse in terms of overall land size, but are very dense when it comes to the neigbourhoods is due to the amount of public green space and parks. For Example, Calgary has Fish Creek Provincial Park which weaves through much of Calgary. The large Green spaces bring down the overall density of the city when compared against the land mass--- but are often overlooked as people just assume we have sprawl.

[@maplebloom]

An urbanist video that isn't all doomerism? In 2024? About Alberta??? Impossible! On a serious note, I really hope more urbanist channels take your optimistic approach to things. The Reddit doomerist/armchair urbanist approach to making urbanist KZbin videos isn't gonna do much :)

[@OhTheUrbanity]

I honestly think any serious attempt at understanding cities needs to cover the good and the bad. Relentless negativity and empty positivity are both boring!

[@pin65371]

@@OhTheUrbanity one thing I hate is some of the other channels that talk about this stuff that basically end up calling anyone that disagrees with them stupid. Its not productive at all. It just ends up being that those channels only speak to people that already agree with them. Then they get mad when they are called "elitists" by other people.

[@Cobalt985]

Yeah honestly I think it's going pretty well as an Albertan! I live in a smaller city and slowly, we're seeing more things being adopted from Calgary and Edmonton as they prove to be effective. No light rail or BRT yet though

[@pin65371]

@@Cobalt985 I honestly would love to see some of the smaller towns look at adopting some of these ideas. Land is extremely cheap and it wouldnt be hard to start to build out more 50k+ population cities. If someone has the ability to work from home anyways then maybe the best option is to move people into the more rural areas. That whole route between Jasper and Edmonton could be great for something like this. If you can create the density then maybe it makes sense to have trains running that route to get people into Edmonton if they need to go for some reason. You could most likely have townhouse communities where people can own a home for $150k that is big enough for a small family. Especially if you have train connections that can get people to the airport that would mean even people that maybe technically work in another province could live in Alberta. Red Deer to the Rockies is another area that could work if they had high speed rail between Edmonton and Calgary. I dont think the people in the rural communities would have as much of an issue with this as what some people might think. You just need people to make the case for them. Say what you want about the UCP government but I think if you show someone like Smith how this could work she would most likely be a great cheerleader. The case is making Alberta a great place to raise a family where there is a sense of community and show the benefits of having a tight community where people can walk and bike around from a financial point of view. That is the conservative case to be made. Instead of big backyards you have well equipped parks where all the kids can play together and families can spend time together.

[@stickynorth]

@@pin65371 Agreed. Almost every town and city in Alberta is/was a railroad town. We need to bring back all types of passenger rail service to this province especially now with 5 million people as of 2024... And yes we need to invest heavily in commuter rail networks to really unlock the value of these communities...

[@MultigrainKevinOs]

That was about as accurate of an assement of Alberta urbanism as any local could ever articulate. I am always impressed how you guys understand local communities so well through your research and experiences. Thanks for another outstanding video. I hope it motivates more ambitious urbanists to make a home here too we would love to have you all and there is so much potential in both cities.

[@cwx8]

Few errors and opinionated liberties (like having issues with the "wide roads" downtown--guess they've never seen rush hour) and the clear bias in the appreciation of our inefficient, overpriced ctrain system. Otherwise great video. I'd take the train every day if it weren't so useless.

[@HallsEmporium]

Super interesting hearing an outside perspective. Thanks for taking the time to feature Calgary and Edmonton! I didn’t realize we were doing so well for density and light rail usage compared similarly populated cities.

[@user-zf3xb3qx8w]

10 cents. Edmonton buses went everywhere. 1959. I went everywhere.

[@stickynorth]

Ridership per route mile is the best metric. Using that Edmonton and Calgary far outshine almost every North American LRT system except the Mexican ones...

[@stickynorth]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_light_rail_systems_by_ridership

[@bradthiessen6877]

I didn't realize this either. It's good to see we are doing well compared to others, but it also makes me sad for other North American cities if Edmonton is one of the best.

[@timneufeld2700]

I took the c train once. Impressive.

[@justanotheryoutubeviewer]

I would say one factor that plays into a lot of Albertans purchasing vehicles upon moving here (vs. not owning a vehicle in other parts of the country) is access to the outdoors. A substantial amount of people in Calgary spend their weekends in Banff, Kananaskis, etc. whereas Torontonians aren't going to Muskoka every weekend to bike, swim, and enjoy the outdoors. Good video overall!

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Absolutely. That’s part of the urbanism feeling like a bubble: there will be lots of places outside of the city you’ll want to go (that won’t be transit accessible)

[@cmmartti]

It should be noted that even highly urbanised countries like the Netherlands still have a relatively high car ownership rate (588 vehicles per capita, per Wikipedia). For reference, compare the rates for New Zealand (1086), the USA (908), Canada (790), and the UK (600). Cars are useful, but it doesn't mean they have to be used for everything. Car ownership rates don't really reflect how they're used, and it doesn't mean it's a bad thing to _own_ a car; only to build our cities exclusively for their use.

[@EggTamago7]

@@cmmartti This is a good point. When living in Calgary's beltline, I did definitely always own a car. But, it was one car between my partner and I, not one each. We also walked and took transit more often than we drove, generally. There were just a fair amount of cases where not owning a car would've been a huge inconvenience. And, those huge inconveniences ramped up quickly the further you lived away from the inner city and/or a train line. Now in Toronto, we don't own a car at all and those "huge inconvenience" cases don't really exist for us. Even so, we'd still like to get a car eventually. Just one car for occasional, specific uses.

[@Ramsayrider]

This is something I think could be mitigated if there were frequent, reliable train service to Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise, maybe even with a stop at Kananaskis junction and some kind of shuttle service. A lot of people don't go park at a trailhead, they just go walk around the towns and enjoy the view, especially folks who have flown in and don't want to rent a car. It obviously wouldn't work for everyone, but I think there's a much bigger market for this than many people like to think.

[@mattiatorX]

@@Ramsayriderthe development group who runs Norquay has been pushing to have passenger rail service to the Banff station, but it seems to be potentially in trouble since part of the proposal includes a Banff-Norquay gondola line that Parks Canada has pretty firmly said no to.

[@sgtpastry]

It's so weird that there aren't intercity trainlines in the prairies anymore. The village I'm from initially developed under the assumption that it would be a major stopping off point for train travel. I think that if we want to bring back trains we need to remind people that was the norm last century and that we should rebuild it. The Calgary-Edmonton line can be advertised as the starting off point.

[@Niko-iv4ch]

As a Torontonian native now living in Alberta, and with family living on the prairie lands throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan. One thing that has astonished me with the prairies is that they always move forward with the times. Trains that were economical anymore were shutdown in the name of cost effective buses and transport trucks. There use to be a farmstead on each quarter section of land, but now one can’t even find any evidence of this. Because prairies just keep on moving forward. There are towns that had populations of over 400 people a century ago, but today their existence can be as hard to find as an ancient buried Egyptian ruin. Quite simply, the prairie lands always move forward to don’t dwell on the past. The prairie lands will rebuild the trains, if that is the way of the future.

[@Digitalsurfer265]

If we could somehow bring passenger trains on the CN system the problem would be almost immediately solved. Freight rail runs through nearly every town and city in Alberta

[@Niko-iv4ch]

@@Digitalsurfer265 Ontario does do that. The GO trains run on Frieght rail. As a result, the GO trains are extra heavy for safety reasons.

[@VideoGameMarimbist]

The issue is that passenger train services like VIA rail need to sort of rent rail slots from the freight companies. Because of this, passenger travel must financially compete with freight transit. It turns out that one freight train can move a lot more value than a passenger train since freight trains tend to be longer and each car packed full. Back when we used to run more passenger rail there wasn't as much freight being moved but these days freight schedules on most major lines are completely full and semi trucks end up filling the additional demand that rail can't meet. It would take a major nation wide rail system upgrade to solve this problem (which would include cheaper shipping for other goods like oil and crops) but there doesn't seem to be much political interest in a major rail upgrade at the federal level. Personally I think it would make a lot of sense to twin the trans Canada rail line with an electric rail so that there could be two way traffic all the time. Since most locomotives are diesel electric (electric train with a diesel generator powering it) I'm sure that there could be a retrofit for them that allowed them to run on the electric line without burning diesel. This would be both cheaper than using diesel and better for our carbon emission goals (not that rail travel is a very large part of our national emissions).

[@eugenetswong]

I think that a step towards that goal is to find a way to way to help shortline freight to help support the line.

[@HipsterShiningArmor]

ngl that shot at 11:54 of that one intersection in suburban Edmonton with the tim hortons and the petro canada made laugh. thats like peak suburban Canada right there, and its amazing how much of this nation just kinda looks like that

[@mchozen2958]

Having always lived in “10-15 minutes” neighbourhoods in Victoria and Edmonton while often working out of town and even in suburban developments, I appreciate when I am carless, not having to pay for fuel, maintenance and insurance. When in Europe and Japan and even across Canada and the states, I took trains; even the now defunct Edmonton-Calgary train and recently decommissioned VanIsle train.(So sad.) Hopefully they’ll return. Trains are the best! So proud Edmonton is leading the way, in more than just trains. Thank you for this

[@PlaidHiker]

The river valley park system in Edmonton is the largest urban park in north America. It has done my life more good than any other government service.

[@AlbertaGeek]

Dude, our river valley parks system *_is_* a government service.

[@kadindiehl7521]

@@AlbertaGeeklmao 😂😂

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

@@AlbertaGeek He said any OTHER government service bro lmao 😂

[@AlbertaGeek]

@@noahrafter-lanigan2409 So he did. My bad.

[@spartacusyoya]

However, it is a very slim natural corridor(not even 1 mile wide) with hardly any natural area feeder routes.

[@stevevos93232]

I hope you come Back to Edmonton in the summer. When the cycling infrastructure really shines. The river valley is the gem of Edmonton! Also a bike/food tour goes through some beautiful neighborhoods in Edmonton.

[@spartancanuck]

Bike traffic has once again been amazing me.

[@jonathanvanheyst7283]

Thanks for a great video! One thing to add about Calgary's transit ridership - as of the end of February 2024 we have surpassed peak daily ridership from before the pandemic on our LRT system! Still lots of work to do to improve the system, but people have come back to using public transit in a big way.

[@MultiCappie]

Yeah and Edmonton even before that.

[@cwx8]

Ridership isn't just high because people want to ride the ctrain. It's high because of rules put in place during Nenshi's reign involving price fixing on downtown parking to blatantly encourage more ctrain use.

[@matthewlafrance8817]

Thanks for having in depth Edmonton content. Edmonton gets ignored a lot in the media so it’s nice to see this excellent content

[@definitelynotacrab7651]

Being able to avoid the highway destruction is such a massive advantage, even if it takes time for attitudes to fully change, having a good core helps with not having to expensively remove massive car infrastructure eyesores.

[@spartancanuck]

Our freeway plan in Edmonton was hilarious. We had American planners come in, just propose reaming broad swathes through the core, and cloverleaf everything. Then we hit the, "Okay. How do we pay for this?" stage, and the planners had apparently just assumed that there would be an American funding formula where 95% of it would be picked up by higher levels of government. Calgary got a bit more money for things on account of being more friendly to the provincial government.

[@Arxsas]

This is excellent coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of urbanism in Alberta, great job! As someone born and raised in Calgary, you managed to cover the topic with the nuance of a local, though Calgary's bus system, from my experience, has pretty poor service (though I understand that this is changing). Both Calgary and Edmonton have big plans for urban mobility in the next few decades, so let's hope they can be actualized. These plans, if actualized, could dramatically shift how these cities evolve with their rapid growth, so let's hope for success despite the challenges brought by the provincial government.

[@petermitchell5240]

I love these sort of videos that highlight the amazing strides Canadian cities have made in walkability and transit.

[@matthewconstantine5015]

It hurts my heart when you say the bus frequency is pretty bad during off peak hours and I see the number, and it's the best case scenario for my local bus, which is part of what is considered one of the best transit systems in the US (admittedly, I'm on its outer edge).

[@AustinSersen]

Yeah, and my local bus #38 in Calgary runs every 19 minutes late in the night until around 1-1:30am, so Calgary Transit is definitely punching above its weight for cities our size on this continent.

[@BenoHourglass]

Well, they didhn't actually show the worst. Off-peak, it can be 45 minutes or so between buses, and even at peak hours it's still only one about every 30. Not to mention that you often have to take multiple buses that don't have any sort of semblance of connections. A 12 minute car ride turns into an hour-and-a-half transit line, of which you're probably only spending about half-an-hour on buses, the other hour is just waiting for the bus to come. Before I got a car, it was actually quicker for me to take one bus and walk for 45 minutes rather than wait for the 3 buses that I would need to take to get home.

[@canuckasaurus]

@@BenoHourglass This was me when I was attending University. The CTrain works well enough, but if you got to the station anytime after 6pm it was a 40 minute wait between buses. I'll still occasionally take the train (even though it's expensive now, at nearly $4 a trip), but if a bus is involved I'd rather just drive.

[@matthewconstantine5015]

​@@BenoHourglass that's kind of how it is here in the suburbs of Washington D.C. 30 minutes is best case. 60 is more common in off peak, and there are a couple times a day where it's closer to 80 minutes. And buses in my area stop around 9PM, even though the Metro train they connect to runs until midnight or later. I've walked home from the train station many times, because the 45 minute walk is better than waiting for the bus. And I'm lucky, because I actually live near a couple bus routes. Much of my area isn't nearly as well served. They've recently installed a bike share set-up at the train station, but haven't installed any docks in my part of town, so for anyone who lives near me, that's useless. At one job, which was just on the other side of the town I live in, about 5 miles (8km) away, it was an hour by bus. 20 minutes in the wrong direction to a train station. Wait 20 minutes. Then 20 minutes back into town to where my job was located. Nothing that went from my side of town to the other, even though that other side of town is where most of the business/offices/medical facilities are located. First thing in the morning, before traffic kicked in, I could bike there in about 30 minutes, but any time after about 7AM, there's no way to bike safely.

[@matthewconstantine5015]

@@AustinSersen That would be amazing. Best case here, it's every 30. Last bus is 10 on weeknights and 8 or 9 on weekends (and that's after they expanded weekend service).

[@sammillions6398]

As a Calgarian, it's nice to see a balanced review. Learned that we have some of the best numbers in north america. Those numbers are almost exclusively people going down town. Going quadrant to quadrant on transit is terrible.

[@jamesgully0077]

As an Edmontonian for the last 20 years (but raised in a small Alberta town), I have to say you nailed this vid! What a lovely video you guys made. Thanks for featuring us, and never heard the Alberta mentality explained so accurately. I learned a lot too! Thank you for this.

[@MattWoelk]

Ehhhh, Winnipeg got a shout-out! You summed up Portage&Main well. We mourn the still-buried street car lines. I'd love an Urbanist view on what the old streetcar network was like.

[@stupidbrowner]

Especially in a place like Winnipeg where a lot of housing is compact, streetcar suburbs (minus the streetcars😢)

[@SulfuricDonut]

Worth mentioning that the same budget that opened Portage & Main also killed (or indefinitely backburnered) a massive lane expansion of a different arterial (Kennaston Blvd). Crazy how being out of money suddenly makes efficient city building seem more palatable.

[@mchozen2958]

I recall Winnipeg still having a lovely ViaRail station downtown in 2005 or so, unlike the rest of the prairies. I hope the station is still there.

[@jasonriddell]

@@mchozen2958 still there

[@jasonriddell]

@@SulfuricDonut the change at city hall did MORE to kill it and the other transit "BRT" lines that was part of that expansion project and now "bridge water" is "locked in" to being a car commuter expansion suburb with near as ZERO transit even knowingings it HAS density that would support transit

[@mackenzie-deltadurocher]

As someone in Lloydminster, I'd love a rail line between Edmonton and Calgary lol. Not only do I hate driving on the QE2, but I understand the value in having more public transit options between the centers and hope it could model expansion into further regions in coming decades.

[@Niko-iv4ch]

For well over a decade, all new subdivisions in Alberta were required to be high density homes. Including mix income homes including townhomes and apartment buildings/condos. Alberta is Canadas fastest growing province. With Calgary and Edmonton representing Canadas 4th and 5th largest cities respectively. And it is this zoning policy implemented by the province over a decade ago as to why the housing crisis is going unnoticed within Alberta, despite being the fastest growing economy in Canada. Things are of course not all rosy, but dig underneath the partisan noise, and note how well Alberta runs in comparison to other parts of Canada.

[@canuckasaurus]

It's less of a requirement and more that the City lifted the density cap. Prior to 2007 that maximum was 7 units per acre. Now the minimum is 8 units per acre and in areas that are R-CG zoned you go up to around 30. Some commenters have noted some sprawling areas on the outskirts of Calgary similar to the American examples and I'd note for them that these are mostly areas that have been developed outside of City limits and are either still adjacent to Calgary or have been incorporated via annexation.

[@pat9353]

⁠@@canuckasaurusit’s big problem that edmonton is unable to annex their suburbs like Calgary did. Strathacona county (specifically Sherwood park) and St. Albert should have been annexed years ago. It’s slowing down Edmontons ability to build transit and lrt lines into the suburbs.

[@yaygya]

@@pat9353 There are suburbs in the north, west, and south that are all part of the City. We're not at the same level as Calgary, but we're not all bad either.

[@anonuser12345]

@@pat9353 There are already (long term) plans to build the LRT to St Albert, they don't need to annex to do that. Also they are still so far from doing it that I don't see how annexing would solve that issue. Lastly, as a St Albert resident, I really don't want my city to be annexed by Edmonton. I suspect most St Albert residents would agree.

[@jamesphillips2285]

@@pat9353 It works both ways. Toronto annexation prevented a lot of dense urban development because people on the outskirts can suddenly vote against it, as happened with the Winnipeg example mentioned in the video.

[@humanecities]

2:42 Calgary needs to brag about this more 😅 It’s hilarious when someone tells me “No one takes transit.” 😐 What?

[@sgtpastry]

Apparently, about 20% of the population, assuming that the value was unique riders, taking transit isn't a lot of people.

[@lostwizard]

@@sgtpastry Closer to 10% actually. Ridership numbers count trips, not unique people. In most cases, trips come in pairs and there is no way to identify unique riders without requiring every rider to have some sort of card that identifies them. Also, considering the relatively large fraction of the city that isn't in walking distance of the LRT and also the substantial number of bus routes that aren't simply feeders to the LRT lines, there's a lot more transit ridership than just the LRT numbers so that's not as low as it sounds.

[@cwx8]

Several polls over the last decade show that between 65 and 76% of Calgarians prefer to drive. It is only the artificially inflated downtown parking prices that prevent them from doing so. Very few people want to take our slow, inefficient, biohazard public transit.

[@kode-man23]

As someone from Edmonton, Calgary’s downtown during rush hour is something else 😂 I’m glad that our’s is nowhere near that level. Not yet, at least. I can definitely see why the transit use is so high.

[@cwx8]

No one WANTS to. We're just forced to because of artificially high parking prices. Whine all you want, but Calgarians routinely poll as preferring to drive. During Nenshi's last term that figure was 76% which he viewed as a "problem" and thus rejected proposals to reduce parking prices. That's how we end up with the 2nd highest downtown parking prices in North America.

[@sportsmaster1364]

I live on the edge of Downtown Edmonton, right by Rogers Place. One of those cycling paths you showed is the one I take regularly to get to the NAIT campus. I appreciate your insights on Edmonton and Calgary; sure we both have our flaws as cities, but I honestly appreciate that I can live without needing to rely on a car for everything. Hope you come back and visit more often! (Especially Edmonton, haha ;) )

[@terry9120]

Loved hearing and seeing your perspectives and experiences in Edmonton. Glad you were able to make it here - really enjoy your work.

[@williammckelvey2677]

Strong Denver vibes. Denver and Calgary are actuall very often compared. Both large, both with strong oil/gas/ranching/mining economies, and both set on the Plains near the Rockies. Though it looks like Calgary is denser and more transit-rich than Denver. I live in a central Denver neigborhood, (Cheeseman Park) and I ike it a lot. But coming from the East Coast, it leaves much to be desired. Denver has a lot of rail transit lines, but none serve my neighborhood. The bus is not very frequent either. Denver has more legacy streetcar neighborhoods than one might expect. Residential neighborhoods with evenly dispersed commercial strips. They are lovely! But most of the city looks like Minneapolis or Phoenix. Single-family homes sprawling across the Plains. I appreciate your point that Calgary and Edmonton are very isolated from other urban areas, making it difficult for to readily compare them to cities on the coasts. I imagine Denver also occupies that space.

[@MrGpButler]

Just out of curiosity, are the neighbourhoods with steetcar access more expensive. If that is a plus for you in a neighbourhood, why did you choose a neighbourhood without streetcar access? I think in Canada, having good transit connections is often a driver of higher house prices, but not sure if that is just a Canadian thing.

[@TheTroyc1982]

Calgary has much much better transit with 10x the ridership of Denver

[@seamusmuldrew5623]

I like to think that if Alberta had one bigger city rather than two big ish cities it would be extremely similar to Denver (Edmonton would add in more progressive politics and trees)

[@cmmartti]

​@@MrGpButlerStreetcar suburbs are neighbourhoods built around streetcars. The neighbourhoods still exist in many cities, but outside of Philadelphia very few of the streetcars remain.

[@yaygya]

​@@seamusmuldrew5623 Alberta's a rather unique province in Canada in that it has 2 major cities that are around the same size. In BC, Ontario, and Québec, the largest metropolitan areas are about 5-6x the population of the 2nd largest. The province with the most comparable disparity is Saskatchewan, but Regina and Saskatoon aren't near the same level of population as Calgary and Edmonton.

[@RossSpeirs]

It was later in my teen years when they finally added it, but LRT stations in my neighbourhood growing up in the SW was a super helpful addition.

[@duffy-009]

Thats just North America in winter. Same vistas from the east coast, the Midwest, and up into Canada

[@shuye5004]

As an Edmontonian for about 2 years, what I'm impressed about regarding the city's urban design is that it is segmented successfully (relatively speaking) into a few "mini-cities"--roughly, the west, north, south and east. No matter which area you live in, you get all the bells and whistles that meet all your needs within a reasonable distance. We never had to drive more than 15 minutes for any errands. It also helps that they have more lanes and wider roads (Yonge Street please take note).

[@EthanMarkWoodruff]

It's a great moment to be an urbanist in Edmonton or Calgary, both Oh The Urbanity! and RM Transit posted videos about Alberta in the past couple days! I'm really excited to see my province get some representation! On top of that it seems like Valley Line West Construction is moving along nicely. (Let's go Oilers!)

[@EggTamago7]

Former born-and-raised Calgarian here. Having visited cities like Salt Lake City or Dallas, no Calgary's sprawl is nowhere close to comparable. The copy/paste suburbs make up the majority of the city's land and don't exactly make for great walkability or transit accessibility (outside of rush-hour-oriented bus routes that get people to train stations), but they are definitely surprisingly dense... to the point that you have to wonder what huge benefit like 6 feet on either side between your house and its neighbours offers compared to just building townhouses. It definitely wasn't lost on me that the CTrain had daily ridership exceeding that of LA's Metro Rail, despite being a city a fraction of the size. For commuting, the CTrain is honestly pretty damn good. The satisfaction of chilling southbound on the red line train going down the middle of Crowchild, rocketing past the crush of stop-and-go traffic starting around Brentwood never wore off. A joy second only to watching a driver plough unceremoniously into the vehicle traps on 7th avenue. Yes, I do wish the King Street Streetcar followed this example lol. But, Calgary definitely feels like a classic Canadian case of "really good... compared to the US". Not owning a car is theoretically possible, but you're shooting yourself in the foot pretty hard unless you live and work in the inner-most inner city and basically never leave it.

[@MultiCappie]

I'm pretty sure it's quieter in detached homes than townhouses.

[@mindstalk]

@@MultiCappie Not if the townhouses are built right.

[@lifeonearth9261]

Thanks for this video, it was a great reminder of the time I spent in Calgary and Edmonton. I spent a few months here last summer and explored the Canadian Rockies - It was a blast! The walkability and ease of getting around - even without a car - greatly increased the amount of time I would have otherwise spent. I hope these cities continue to develop in such a considerate way. There is a true sense of place there. I'd love to see the area able to accommodate the growth in a mutually beneficial way for existing and newer residents.

[@DamonLuciuk-tn3jm]

As a Vancouverite who spent some time last winter in calgary the efficiency of the trains plesantly supprised me and made it easy to get around!! My one complaint is how the busses don't announce their stops like the transit in Vancouver

[@MultiCappie]

75% of the shares of Alberta's oil (and gas) industries are owned by people who don't pay their taxes in any province. Probably 90% by those not paying their taxes in Alberta.

[@carvorob1536]

The point about Winnipeg's suburban population voting down the opening of the central intersection to pedestrians was really interesting to me! The immediate follow-up on zoning reform is super relevant. Edmonton's City Plan states that it is no longer planning to expand nearly as much outwards into the prairies and instead focus on redevelopment and utilizing non-built areas and infill to increase density as population increases towards 2M people. I imagine that with higher density, more transit like the BRT lines being planned, the WVLRT being built towards Lewis Farms, and better bike and walking connectivity, something like what happened in Winnipeg may be a lot less likely to happen in Edmonton.

[@rossbleakney3575]

Prairie politics (on both sides of the border) has traditionally been fairly libertarian. This seems like a great angle for rezoning. If I own property in the city I should be able to build whatever I want (including an apartment or duplex). That sort of thing.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

If that were true then ALL drugs and ALL abortion would be legal. NONE of the government's /police's business. And people would NEVER use the word "CRIME" or "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT" as a pejorative.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

"This seems like a great angle for rezoning. If I own property in the city I should be able to build whatever I want (including an apartment or duplex). That sort of thing." EXACTLY!

[@grahamturner2640]

That’s probably the western parts of North America in general.

[@MultiCappie]

That's the exact problem with "libertarianism". As soon as anything starts making environmental sense the "automatic hypocritical over-ride" kicks in, and they scrape the barrel for reasons against building density.

[@SuperPieman42]

It would actually be a lot of fun to get a full video like this on Winnipeg. See how urbanism does in a prairie city that doesn't have oil money :)

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We need to actually visit to make this kind of video, and we don't have any trip to Winnipeg planned. But who knows, maybe an opportunity will arise in the future!

[@gp7910]

A prairie city without oil money looks like Winnipeg. Meaning less historical buildings were torn down to build highrises. However it also doesn't have the zing and shling that Edm and cow town have . Winnipeg is a place I may move to for a change

[@colebevans8939]

As an Albertan I loved this video. People always hate on our cities for being “too sprawled” but I’ve never thought that was the case. You can generally drive from any point to another within either city in under 30 min. Walking, biking and transit as you mentioned are all very accessible for key locations. For all the people who I hear complaining in Edmonton; if you work in an office you can live downtown, buy a cheap 5k car, and you might only drive the thing one day a week. On the other hand as a very “blue collar” city in which a lot of work is done out of town; a lot of people do in fact need their trucks here. Just because someone is a welder with a big truck; that shouldn’t exclude them from easy downtown access either. Edmonton and Calgary seem to do a good job at balancing vehicle and public transit options to their downtown cores.

[@The2wanderers]

"Verified footage from Edmonton." Shows strip mall with imitation vaguely Dutch or Belgian architecture, yet inexplicably named "Manchester Square." And not even on market day when the parking lot is actually put to productive use.

[@jacobr4166]

Also conveniently didn't pan the camera to the right 😂

[@Jay-jq6bl]

Just look at the window trim...

[@VideoGameMarimbist]

@@jacobr4166 I went to google maps to see why you said that and then I was greeted by a stroad 🤢

[@Angultra]

I visited there, the parking lot goes nearly up to the buildings making it feel cramped like other strip malls. Cool for a few pics but it's a concrete jungle, a bigger buffer and some greenspace would've went a long way.

[@The2wanderers]

@@Angultra They were somewhat restricted in how to build a parking lot, since it reuses the foundation from the warehouse that was there before. While I wish they didn't have it, it's actually pretty small compared to most strip malls. And the most important thing about it is the small retail bays, which make it much more affordable for independent businesses. So it stands out in a positive way from other strip malls, but calling it good urbanism is definitely an exaggeration.

[@herschelwright4663]

I was surprised that Winnipeg got a mention in this video. Another reason why portage and main is opening is because it’s part of the overhaul of the public transit route network.

[@Kresimir_]

Winnipeg mentioned. sigh. it's deeply ironic that we're only doing the right thing with portage/main because we're too cheap.

[@SCoati]

As a lifelong Calgarian and supporter of urbanism/affordable housing, this video means a lot to me. It warms my heart to see folks outside of Alberta in our corner when the fight for urbanism here feels impossible sometimes.

[@EthanMarkWoodruff]

Edmontonian here, I feel the same! It's really exciting to see our province/cities get coverage! Also side note, the SD200 trains on your CTrain line are super cool! I spent this weekend down in Calgary and experiencing the CTrain was a treat!

[@EggTamago7]

Damn I feel this. When Nenshi first got elected, it felt like there was a surge of interest in moving the city in this direction. The Green Line started getting talked about seriously, the sprawl-subsidy got the criticism is deserved, inner city development was thriving, and things were looking up. But, around the mid 2010s it felt like it all just ground to a halt (like right when oil prices collapsed again), and I eventually realized I shouldn't wait around for the city to become what I'd like it to be. So I moved away about 2 years ago. I find myself in a weird place of being probably a bit too ready to throw shade at the city I grew up in, but also really wanting to cheer it on when it takes some great steps in the right direction, celebrate its successes, and see it live up to its potential.

[@syncmonism]

It would be nice to have some train service between Edmonton and Calgary. It definitely doesn't need to be anything special, just a modest high-speed passenger train system based on cost effective, reliable, and proven technologies. Any suggestions of more expensive and super fast train systems should be dismissed immediately as impractical, as they would definitely not be in the public's best interest.

[@libertyoverbondage]

Won't happen with oil and gase's political party in power.

[@cwx8]

CP Rail offered this to the NDP government in 2017. There is a right of way alongside HWY2 that is currently not used. The province turned it down without hearing the proposal. It's really a tragedy since, anyone who has driven HWY2, basically realizes it's one big (more unsafe) train.

[@happycanayjian1582]

@@cwx8I absolutely despise Hwy 2 between the two cities. Far too much traffic, from Winnebagos to semis, to RCMP speed traps, to construction works, to poor weather, to extremes of “too slow” to “too fast” drivers, to sheer volume of commuters, it is far too often a very unpleasant and unnerving driving experience. If a rail line was ever put in, I’d be first in line to use it.

[@cwx8]

@@happycanayjian1582 100% not only is the drive boring and uneventful, but the drivers can't maintain any lane etiquette, in summer conditions the speed is too low, in winter conditions its too high, its just all round insane. Super unpleasant. I think you'd have massive ridership. CP had the details on this I just never saved it. It was significant.

[@anomaliess3]

I appreciate you covering Calgary for this type of stuff! Really cool seeing comparisons, and the benefits, and negatives of this. Thank you!!

[@DAK4875]

This was a nice video with my coffee this morning.

[@techcerotops]

What an interesting take on the city I live in. Thanks for making this video!

[@hiromiarash172]

Awesome video! I just found your channel. You guys are super underrated!

[@falconwaver]

One thing that Calgary does better than TransLink is track maintenance. Calgary will provide bus replacements every 5 minutes and get things done over a weekend where TransLink will single track but drag things out over a month or more.

[@AustinSersen]

And I think it was only 14 days from when the 2013 flood destroyed a significant portion of Red Line Track to it being open again.

[@falconwaver]

@@AustinSersen Columbia station of the SkyTrain is in a cut/cover tunnel and also get flooded quite a bit.

[@ScooterinAB]

Very true. Even when there was major flooding and downtown was closed, the city deployed, like, every bus as a replacement for the train. Rides took a long time and there wasn't a lot of certainty because the drivers didn't knwo where they could even drive, but they were there and it was clear that the city was responding and ready to move.

[@antsterr3]

Wow, thanks for having a look at my city of Edmonton. I like your summary that bike infrastructure is quite good but only as pockets and not yet a full network. I Iook forward to the day that LRT is extended to my quadrant of the city (northwest).

[@restezen]

Calling Edmonton Calgary's sister city is probably going to piss off more hurtin' Albertans more than anything else in this video.

[@sportsmaster1364]

As an Edmontonian, I had to laugh when they said that. I get what they were meaning, but we're only "sister cities" if you're comparing us to sisters that argue with each other about every single thing 😂

[@backgroundartist1879]

@@sportsmaster1364i have a sister, so i can safely say its pretty accurate imo

[@MultiCappie]

As an Albertan I am puzzled by your comment.

[@AmandaHugandKiss411]

As someone who lives in Edmonton but was born in Calgary, I too am puzzled by this comment. Sister cities is perfectly fine. I did chuckle about it in the video, since many people outside of Alberta often think that Calgary is the capital.

[@James-el6lj]

I love this channel.

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

I recommend when you come back to check out Red Deer, the third-largest city in Alberta right in between Calgary and Edmonton. It did not avoid the big highway through the middle of town, but it has an interesting urban life that you might enjoy and a good park system. Great video, amazing how accurate you were!

[@fernbedek6302]

Edmonton's above and underground hybrid system was also decent. (As was Winnipeg's.)

[@drdewott9154]

I didnt even know Calgary had a BRT system but it seems thoughtfully implemented for orbital and secondary corridors to supplement the C-train. Its great that even despite the odds that the 2 do such a good job at density and transit. I do also heavily support the idea of a direct intercity train route between the 2 cities, even if it doesnt have to be 300km/h, 250, 230, or even just 200 could still do wonders for the province and the 2 cities.

[@stenchofjustice]

Calgary and Edmonton have made great strides over the last few decades. Transit in Calgary has improved by leaps and bounds since I was a kid.

[@Vajamjam]

It would be interesting to see more objective/statistical measures of urbanism like modal share, ridership, density etc. and then take the 'sum' of Calgary + Edmonton to compare against the sum urbanism of the two largest cities in the other big provinces: Toronto + Ottawa, Montreal + Quebec City and then Vancouver + Victoria

[@bobsweeper3391]

Another interesting note is that Edmonton actually scrapped minimum parking requirements a few years ago

[@gp7910]

Great video! Density stats in Edmonton is not always accurate as no one lives in the huge industrial areas . Central Edmonton is quite urban and dense. With the new zoning this will greatly increase going forward.

[@yaygya]

That's the main annoying thing about Edmonton to me: the giant industrial islands in the northwest and south that separate two groups of residential areas from each other. It's absolutely insane how big they are.

[@joshthompson80]

@@yaygyaalso gives us a lot of tax revenue that we don’t get from a large corporate downtown base. In many cities, that revenue just jumps to outside the city. We at least keep some of it ourselves.

[@gp7910]

They're freakin massive ! The beginning of the movie "Blues Brothers where they're flying over this huge Chicago industrial area totally reminded me of Edmonton😅​@@yaygya

[@YoungThos]

Winnipeg mentioned!

[@stickynorth]

Great video as always. For the record, Edmonton has its own +15 network as well it's just not as widespread as the Calgary one. This one goes from about 97 St in the East to 104 St in the West, Jasper Avenue to 104 Ave South to North and gives us a much needed break from the bone-chilling Albertan winters of -40c with the GD wind-chill... And now the sweltering summers of +40c with the GD Humidex! As a 4G Albertan whose first immigrants moved here in 1906 just after it became a province, it's amazing to think that there are now 5 million living here in 2024 when I was a kid it was barely over 2 million. And also slightly sad to see how much the province has backslid on urbanism since essentially every town and city was established as a railroad community, save for a handful of fur-trading forts that have now become actual communities. If the province is serious about addressing both its housing affordability and congested road networks they need to follow through on their rumors of starting regional commuter rail networks for both Edmonton and Calgary. You'd be surprised how much more money you can save moving to a community 50 km from either downtown, except around the closest ring of cities which have already seen a huge boom and are now behind on offering proper commuter services (Cochrane, Airdrie, Okotoks, St Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce-Grove/Stony Plain, Leduc) and now offer Edmonton prices with sadly Brooks level attractions..

[@Fenthule]

The density war is SOO bad here in Canada. I'm getting soo sick and tired of people who live on 4 acres 30 minutes outside of a city screeching conspiracy nonsense online and getting tons of attention for it. I'm tired of hearing about how building a 4plex or medium density apartment it's going to bring crime. And I'm *especially* tired of the blatant racism that often gets tied to housing discussions, due to immigration almost always being brought up. It's soo exhausting to try and have genuine discussions with people, trying to come up with solutions or compromises, when on the sidelines you have just the most abhorrent things being shouted out. I think we need to somehow get back to a form of a town hall meeting, but one available to EVERYONE. Not during business hours, do it on like a Saturday evening when the vast majority of people can attend. We need to step away from the technology and discuss things face to face. Bring the humanity back into the equations.

[@helpanimals-]

Well said. The problem is this province has too many white trash Far right CONservative voting people. Sadly the elections showed that.

[@maplebloom]

Are town hall meetings in major cities not a thing? I'd assume they'd be a real thing and all though nobody attends. If they aren't a thing, we gotta bring them back! Some form of direct democracy can work in municipalities and neighbourhoods so long as a culture of participation is enriched and enshrined at early childhood.

[@sgtpastry]

​@@maplebloomMy city has a townhall meeting twice a month in the evening on a Tuesday. It's likely that people aren't aware of it as it's not really advertised. There's a blurb in the newspaper very few read and a statement on the city website, but that's it. Also, people usually attend townhall meetings when they have a grievance, but not when they have a suggestion or other forms of feedback.

[@D-B-Cooper]

Enjoy your 15 min utopia.

[@armanromana1580]

bro no one likes living in apartments.

[@darynvoss7883]

Kind of insane that Winnipeg doesn't have some kind of light rail system in place given that it is absolutely riddle by lightly used or disused freight rail.

[@MultiCappie]

I would love Winnipeg to get light rail! I would come and visit a lot!

[@cwx8]

Well, it's not free, and most people prefer to drive.

[@darynvoss7883]

@@cwx8 newsflash: cars aren't free either lol

[@MultiCappie]

@@cwx8 So roads come from the "free road tree" or something? lol.

[@kailahmann1823]

You say the prairies may be a difficult environment for urbanism. But it also creates an advantage, as there is quite a hard boundary between "the city" and "the emptiness around": People outside the metro area are so few and far away, there is no point into seeing them as regular visitors.

[@Partaz]

As someone who lives near Calgary, the Nose Creek Pathway is one of the best pathways anywhere in North America. It’s extremely well maintained, and you only have to slightly interact with cars when it switches to the other side of the creek.

[@nukewares]

The stat that Calgary has higher rail transit ridership than San Francisco is incredible when you think of the difference population of the two metro areas. 5x the population or so?

[@cwx8]

It's artificially maintained. Nenshi is on public record stating that he uses artificial parking prices to tamp down driving demand. It's why we have the 2nd highest parking costs in North America. Despite a poll in his last term showing thta 76% of Calgarians would prefer to drive, he rejected calls to reduce CPA lot prices to ensure higher transit demand.

[@IdanKashani]

@@cwx8 Ummmm I'm from San Francisco and can tell you our parking is also outrageously expensive and difficult to find. It's one of the biggest stressors of living in the Bay Area. People get into nasty fights over parking and parking enforcement is seen as a cash cow.

[@cwx8]

@@IdanKashani parking is easy to find in Calgary. There's tons of it. The city artificially maintains high prices to force more people to take transit. Our parking costs are higher than San Fran. Yet we have plenty of availability.

[@shashisonu9]

So good to see my city here, the best city in Canada, Calgary

[@alexhaowenwong6122]

In 2019 Calgary's CTrain had 2.5x the per-mile ridership of BART despite SF having higher residential densities, similar job densities, and more expensive gas, parking, and tolls. Why? Likely because individual CTrain lines ran every 5 minutes vs. every 15 minutes on the BART.

[@katyoutnabout5943]

i once did the math, and if we had passenger rail connecting through calgary north-south (edmonton-red deer-airdrie-calgary-okotoks-high river-fortmacleod-lethbridge) and east-west (medicine hat-brooks-strathmore-calgary-Cochrane-Banff), we could connect 75% of Alberta’s total population, or around 3 million people. considering how congested the highways are north and west of calgary, parking issues in banff, and the number of flights every day to Edmonton, the rail would be a hit. there’s been talk of passenger rail for decades, but its just talk. but you can ask any calgarian, and they will agree a train to edmonton and banff would be good for everyone.

[@katyoutnabout5943]

side note, i noticed you guys were right in my neighbourhood in calgary! that’s just fun to see :)

[@Tracks_And_Chill]

… a train between cities?? I’m Canada?? A reasonable connection?? Oh my, We really do need this. I hope the NDP or Conservative add it to their campaign.

[@stynnieuwenhuis9999]

to be honest I dont think theres that many people making daily trips from medicine hat and brooks to calgary in a day to justify

[@Tracks_And_Chill]

@@stynnieuwenhuis9999 if you build it they will come. See the amount if daily busses between these destinations.

[@Jay-jq6bl]

Let's not forget what the highways are like in the winter.

[@beardannyboy]

4:20 Shifter cameo?

[@Mafik326]

I was wondering the same thing!

[@cvdavis]

I have lived and worked in Calgary for 22 years now and this video is bang on.

[@emilyplunkett6034]

I travelled to both Calgary and Edmonton last year and relied heavily on transit it both towns, as well as intercity bus to get between the two (with a pit stop halfway at Red Deer for the night). I agree, it was definitely a surprising step up from what I experience in Ottawa on a daily basis. That said, as someone who travels at least twice a year between Ottawa and far off Sarnia (which is also, notably, a very rural and historically oil-centric town [Imperial Oil might be based in Alberta now, but it was founded in Lambton County!]) at least twice a year by train, I do feel some kind of rail between the two cities could be extremely useful. Not that the intercity bus wasn't fine, but train would have really elevated the experience. It doesn't have to be fancy or high-speed to start. Something akin to VIA Rail's Windsor-Quebec corridor would do just fine. It could really connect a lot of those larger surrounding cities, like Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat or even Banff to the urban centres - and if Saskatchewan and Manitoba got on board to the point where travellers don't have to rely on flying or even the two trips made by the Canadian in a week, it would make exploring the entire region a blast for those of us who can't drive and enjoy train travel.

[@jamesphillips2285]

Sucks that the new VIA rail station in Edmonton has no transit access.

[@LonkinPork]

I've lived in Calgary for nearly 8 years and have subsisted (albeit with some occasional difficulties) without a driver's license that entire time. Of course, most of that time I was going to school, so I just had to be near enough to the C-Train that UofC wasn't too long of a commute, but the transit system has treated me very well in my time here.

[@blzt3206]

You nailed it. Wow.

[@m3rCuRy_HG]

I would love to see such a video for winnipeg as well

[@OhTheUrbanity]

If we ever get an opportunity to visit, absolutely

[@robertcartwright4374]

Me too. I live in Vancouver, but I've a soft spot for The Peg.

[@johnwang9914]

When Calgary built the on-street LRT on 7th Ave, they also required new construction and renovations along 8th Avenue to build a portion of an underground LRT under 8th Avenue including complete train stations. However, this underground line will not likely be used as handicap requirements have changed. An underground segment will likely be further north under Eau Claire. There was an underground opening to the unused 8th Avenue segment from the underground portion of the original line and during a transit strike, urban explorers and graffiti artists explored the unused 8th avenue line and train stations so they bricked off that entrance.

[@ScooterinAB]

Is this that Hogwarts entrance you see coming into downtown from Stampede Park? I always thought it was strange seeing what looked like an obvious train tunnel that never got used.

[@HaonProductions]

Been considering moving to Strathcona in Edmonton since it's bafflingly affordable for a Canadian downtown. Bike+transit seems surpringly effective too.

[@gp7910]

It's a great neighborhood for bikes with the river valley trails and bike lanes . Plus lots of food and shopping. Very urban area

[@1nONLY_DRock]

Something you forgot to mention: Calgary's transit service isn't 24/7 (unless it's stampede). After midnight you're on your own. The city was also hostile against Uber thanks to the cab companies. So unless you have your own car you're limited when it comes to taking advantage of Calgary's nightlife.

[@user-fl8mh1zl5b]

Both things you said are true, but Uber pretty handily won that battle a few years ago so it's not as much of an issue now. Of course the transit situation after dark is still unchanged

[@andrewohare8550]

Ye that’s true, I have a cousin who does Uber in Calgary and the busiest time is at night,

[@crgd23]

You are misinformed - the city isn't hostile to Uber. It did regulate Uber more than many other cities, in terms of licensing for vehicles and drivers, so there was a late and slow start. But in the end that was a good thing. Uber service has been fantastic here for years.

[@ScooterinAB]

Isn't this true for most places? I lived in Japan for 6 years and in two different parts of the country, and their trains ended earlier than Calgary's do. Toronto's seemed to run a bit later, but it didn't seem to run that long after midnight.

[@mindstalk]

@@ScooterinAB Yeah, 24/7 metro service is unusual. I know of NYC (which has duplicate tracks, so can run locals while doing maintenance) and some of the Chicago lines (some also duplicate, not sure about the Blue Line.) 24/7 bus service is less unusual, though often scaled back a lot. Around 2000, San Francisco had a thin network of "owl" service running every 30 minutes in the wee hours of the morning.

[@AustinSersen]

Thanks for showing how amazing Calgary is! ...as our housing costs creep up toward Vancouver and Toronto.

[@MrGpButler]

I hear you are transforming a lot of office space to residential housing. I hope that works well for adding vibrancy to the downtown.

[@AustinSersen]

​@@MrGpButler Yes, I love seeing all of the construction! We're also attempting to convert all R-1 zones to R-CG which expands the zoning to allow for 4 front doors on any property that currently is exclusively single family. We're voting on that housing strategy April 22. We're also starting to explore converting the C-Train Park n Rides to housing with Franklin Station being the first. Maybe they're using this as a test bed at a station that currently experiences an underutilized parking lot. I'd also like to see it done at Brentwood Station where much of the free parking is just being used by students at UCalgary who walk over to the university. We could easily fit a few hundred thousand more people in our city if we developed the LRT Park n Rides into high density mixed use housing. Residents who would be far more likely to use transit to get around...accomplishing two goals at once: increasing transit ridership and increasing the housing supply.

[@Benjamin_Bratten]

Woah, RMTransit also just published a video on Alberta transit.

[@EthanMarkWoodruff]

Right!? I'm in heaven!

[@nightrunnin]

Come back to Edmonton for the summer and check out all the festivals and outdoor activities that is available in the river valley!!

[@zivmontenegro8303]

I live in Calgary and the i highly support a high speed railway to both Edmonton and Calgary, connecting the two cities. We should learn how China and Europe invests to fast speed railways, making the trips easier and efficient.

[@MultiCappie]

Did you know that metro Tokyo has a higher population than *_Canada_* , and metro Osaka has a population higher than Australia? And metro Shanghai has a population larger than Japan? Please get real.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

I think the main difference between Alberta's two largest cities vs. similar US cities is culture. There doesn't seem to be as much of the "drive or f*ck off!" mentality or irrational fear of crime as in much of the USA. American culture celebrates anger and selfishness, which heavily fuels car-centric policy and design. Political will to build anything other than highways has also helped Calgary and Edmonton, which can't be said about many US cities.

[@JohnJackVancouverIsland]

I think this level of Urbanism in Alberta is possible because folks who bristle under the rural car culture in the rest of the Province concentrate in Edmonton and Calgary. That Alberta's energy economy is strong due to nigh-universal inelastic demand probably helps revenues for actually doing these things. My bigger question becomes whether these cities clear snow and ice from bike lanes as quickly as they do roads and streets.

[@gaywizard2000]

Yes, it's a huge priority!

[@richardroe5078]

Its a huge waste of money most of our hippies don't bike from November till March.

[@Niko-iv4ch]

Edmonton rarely clears snow from Roads, but always clears the snow from the bike lanes. And doesn’t look like money well spent. Since it is so cold in edmonton, and dry in the prairies, snow behaves differently and plowing neighborhoods isn’t a priority. If my street gets plowed in Edmonton, it will be once a year.

[@gcc8584]

Only 3 dozen or so people ride their bikes in winter in Calgary. And none of them do it when it’s below -25. And none of them do it when it’s actively snowing.

[@phillipsiebold8351]

I think the urbanism in Alberta is because: A) we can't afford to build roads that will allow us to sprawl like crazy; B) the cold climate and the issue with wind in winter makes it more agreeable to build tightly; C) workplaces have generally been quite concentrated whether that be the meat packing plants in both cities or the refineries and services for the oilfield.

[@Kiera_Jackson74]

Chilliwack BC has a Euro styled mall area in their downtown revitalization. It's quite nice actually.

[@naussica05]

I love the new Valley Line LRT in Edmonton! ♥

[@jfmezei]

"Calgary doesn't have any train connections at all". Should be: "Calgary doesn't have any train connections anymore". Used to have Calgary-Edmonton servoce, and daily trains to Vancouver and Montréal (with stub to Toronto from Sudbury) with station right under the Palliser hotel downtwon. (in fact, Calgary was built around the CP Rail line and its became a problem after the big Missisauga derailment in early 1980s when they feared a massive train derailment downtown).

[@OhTheUrbanity]

“Calgary doesn’t have any passenger train connections at all” is a true statement.

[@jfmezei]

@@OhTheUrbanity IIt is not untrue, but missed the opportunity to mention that it used to have it until the end of 1989 when transcontinuental service was killed leaving only Toronto-Vancouver coverting part of the Super Continental train (Montreal to Vancouver vsi Edmonton). The Canadian was Montréal Vancouver via Lake Superior and Calgary's downtown train station.

[@jfmezei]

Also, Edmonton lost its downtown intercity train station (under the CN tower) and VIA has a shack near freight yards with trains in a wye (so has to back off the station to get back on main line track). Ironically, the right ofway of former tracks to downtown have been used partly by the LRT.

[@jamesphillips2285]

@@jfmezei They also built a college on the old right-of-way.

[@J-Bahn]

I appreciate this as someone who visisted calgary last summer. The one problem with the CTrain is that they are too slow in the transit mall. Why? 1. Trains have to wait at lights like cars and buses; they don't receive absolute signal priority like they do in the suburbs, which makes them SUPER SLOW. Also, it is way too easy for people to drive onto the transit mall, and its very poorly marked. I saw a driver accidentally drive onto the mall and almost get hit by cars. And this is a hot take, but I think Calgary has too many stations downtown. I feel like the CTrain is trying to be a downtown people mover, which is nice, but it really slows down regional trips going though downtown. I think the solutions are thus 1. speed up trains going through downtown by installing crossing gates where trains get absolute priority and closing one stop in the transit mall in either direction (maybe EB Centre street and WB 4th street). 2. either paint the transit mall pavement red or make it green track.

[@danielappell3484]

I'm from Calgary so a lot of what you said I can verify. One thing missed in your very good essay has to do with bus service in Calgary, which is by far the worst service I have ever experienced: from absolutely no way finding, to no proper transfer connections from neighbourhood busses to LRT or "rapid busses," to busses without decent suspension, hard seats over roads that are just a series of potholes. Calgary's busses are a very poor forth rate system where only those who can't drive and have no other choice but to take the bus are very poorly served. I do believe that Calgary could do a much better job of getting less people to drive if they made a very affordable effort to improve their bus system.

[@1nONLY_DRock]

The budget cuts after the oil industry went under last decade didn't help. Also, there's tensions between Transit and their Union again. The delays are a combination of maintenance issues, understaffing, and pretty brutal schedules for the drivers.

[@playlist5455]

After living in other cities, I miss even the "bad" bus service in Calgary. It's good compared to other NA cities, but it isn't 24/7 enough still.

[@denali637]

An HSR line with a pitstop in Red Deer still makes sense to me. However, I think an even more sensible line would be a Swiss-style line (vista cars, ski and bike storage, sustainably high prices, maybe with subsidies for employers that allow them to distribute passes to employees) from Calgary to Banff.

[@blorpblorpblorp]

Why not both?

[@kevintorgrimson8529]

HSR has been touted for as long as I have been alive. I think rail to Banff would make the most sense but probably won’t see it in my lifetime .

[@Jay-jq6bl]

Personally, I'd prefer a stop between Red Deer and Sylvan Lake, with a local rail service that can connect them all. A greenfield development there could be a great opportunity. Idk if it would be possible to dig some canals out from the lake, but that would be awesome. That's the sort of development I think would attract people to using transit. I've been all over Europe and believe me, the aesthetic of the station area matters. Actually, a HSR line could perhaps do hourly express service, with more frequent regional service that stops at green field developments adjacent to the towns, creating a local destination for people in those towns, while also attracting outsiders to them.

[@whatthepick]

I would support it even if we went light rail to cheapen out but branched it to go Calgary with a Branch off to Banff or Cochrane, Airdrie, Olds, Red Deer with a Branch off to Sylvan Lake, Lacombe, Wetaskiwin, Nisku, Edmonton

[@cwx8]

CAN be done YEG-YYC but cannot be done to Banff due to lack of available ROW.

[@bicycles-as-far-as-im-aliv5725]

Love and appreciate your videos. Plz come explore Saskatoon when u have a chance &/or opportunity to do so. Smaller population-wise but still rivals Calgary, Edmonton, & Winepeg when it comes to urbanism.

[@MultiCappie]

Saskatoon is great. You guys kept a lot of your Downtown intact, unlike Edmonton. It's only recently (last 2 years) that I would say Edmonton started to pass Saskatoon. I'm thinking the area around Jasper Avenue and 109 Street. In fact, if you guys build that downtown arena, I dare say you could start gaining again!

[@drewpatterson8261]

Oil isn't just used to make petrol and diesel for cars. It's used in everyday products. At the very least used in the manufacturing of everyday products. So it's not exactly paradoxical to think that oil sector workers would commute to downtown or live in a walkable nieghbourhood. Even if we significantly reduced car ownership in our society, oil would still be needed.

[@MarioFanGamer659]

However, the majority of oil is still used for transportation by far, not for plastic, heating, etc.

[@mindstalk]

In the US, 2/3 of petroleum products are used directly for transportation, and much of the rest is burned for heat. "Feedstocks for actual stuff like plastic" might be only a few percent, though I don't have good numbers.

[@kucanusa3750]

A large chunk of Calgary and Edmonton are people people who work as roughnecks and tradesmen across the province, but live in the city. We like our trucks and we like our public transit, it's not mutually exclusive. The Deer Foot is an effective highway, and the ring road is great. I would also add that high speed rail would be an expensive prestige project, where as a double track Higher-speed rail going 150km across the 300km from downtown Calgary to downtown Edmonton would be cheaper to build and maintain with higher capacity. Finally the political culture of Alberta prioritizes fiscal responsibility and economic development, "Pay your own way" could be our motto.

[@muppetist]

Can any Calgarians fill me in on the BRT system there? Specifically which of the five features of the BRT standard are implemented: - fare payment before boarding and boarding through all doors simultaneously - platform-level boarding, wheelchair accessible without deploying a special ramp - dedicated BRT right of way - BRT right of way aligned to minimize conflict with parking, loading, and turning - intersection treatments prohibiting motorist turns across the BRT right of way

[@ScooterinAB]

It's been a long time since I was in Calgary, but the BRT was running when I was there. Dedicated right of way was a thing, and I think platform-level boarding was semi-there. I think boarding through all doors was also a thing, but not fare payment before boarding. I don't think the intersection treatment was done though, but it may be in place now.

[@lyndabethcave3835]

I live in small town Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton, and I experience this underrated success with massive challenge contradiction myself. Where I live is incredibly walkable and has a walkscore over 70. . . I almost never need a car for the basics of life. In one way, I'm living the urbanist dream. But as soon as I want to leave my town, I need a car because there's no other transit option.

[@MultiCappie]

Lacombe? Don't tell, but Lacombe is nice. I remember thinking they had a nicer downtown than Edmonton back in the '80's. Edmonton around Jasper and 109 Street is getting better though, and goodness is slowly creeping Eastward.

[@CvBrony]

I live in Calgary and housing is in absolute crisis here. Also, transit availability depends a lot on where you are. My wife can walk to work but if I tried to take transit I would have a one way commute time of over TWO HOURS, while in a car it's about twenty minutes.

[@AmandaHugandKiss411]

Alberta's largest revenue comes from cattle, then, natural gas, LNG, petrochemicals and then crude oil. Petrochemicals are used in pretty much everything you use in your daily lives. It is an industry that isn't going away anytime soon.

[@CannedFishFiles]

I don't think I've ever seen farmland covered in snow like that from the air. I guess it happens in the US too but I guess it's like that for months up there.

[@gaywizard2000]

The whole place is covered in snow for 6 months although Southern Alberta is often very dry and snow less. Yes that is Canada, except the coasts. Where you from?

[@MultiCappie]

You're right, the weather stops at the border.

[@dannokk4743]

I think the best way to demonstrate how useful train transit is would be to connect smaller communities to large centers first on the pretense of giving fast and easy access to medical and business facilities without needing to move to those centers directly. This would win support from the rural homeowners by focusing on their wellbeing and mobility before anyone else

[@SamAgost]

Thank you so much for such a sincere coverage of our home. My partner and I live in Kensinton, Calgary, and it feels like a dream come true. The moronic political discourse and fossil fuel dependency here are often exhausting and enraging, but there is a lot to love from both Eddy and Calgs. ❤ kuddos folks

[@ericjessee]

This was a really thoughtful and nuanced analysis of the state of urbanism in our cities- I'm really looking forward to showing this video to othes to help make the case that Calgary and Edmonton aren't as much of a lost cause as people may think, despite the cultural/political challenges.

[@AlexPotvin]

12:03 it’s important to say that the prairies used to be, much like a lot of rural areas of the country pretty decently served by rail, and were not talking a century ago, we’re talking the 1990s and 80s. The transition to cars full time is a consequence of austerity. This divestment is also part of a depopulation trend in most rural areas of the country and those that don’t see it are experiencing resource booms.

[@abdullahrizwan592]

Great video! which city do you think is better overall? Also, I would love a video on my home region of Waterloo.