Why Urban Planning In Alberta Isn’t That Great

[@TheFuelInjected]

This video doesn't actually address why Alberta's urban planning "isn't great" it only briefly touches on the history of municipal and regional urban planning decisions. Further, Alberta's urban planning is actually regarded as pretty good by North American standards. Both Edmonton and Calgary have a significantly greater population density than most North American cities, both cities had managed to avoid building highway systems through their downtown core, and both cities have successful public transport systems, with Calgary's in particular enjoying a larger ridership than many American ones.

[@anon84931]

Jasper avenue is 6 lanes between 124 and 109, with 4 lanes thereafter (where the downtown core is older, though the heritage buildings were torn down). Whyte Avenue is a highway east of 109, and 109 itself is 6 lanes through both dense core areas. These downtown roads were meant to be highways, but people got in the way. New planning in Edmonton actually punches way above the board though - the planners are actually making it into a walkable, bikable, and overall interesting downtown.

[@TheFuelInjected]

@anon84931 Yeah, it admittedly wasn't intentional that neither city ended up building out highway systems through their downtown, they both had planned to and Edmonton had the initial phase in already. They sort of lucked into not completing them due to the timing of economic cycles. Regardless, through intention or luck neither cities history of planning decisions have resulted in what most planners today would consider "not great" planning, particularly given their geographical locations.

[@MegaCarbon14]

Edmonton transportation system is probably the worst thing ever existed in the world

[@bodegatiger404]

edmonton? successful public transit? lol. i live in edmonton and it's one of the biggest shitholes in north america. horrible urban sprawl that can't keep up with a constantly growing unsheltered homeless population, a deteriorated urban core that is only used for government purposes and lined with crackheads/homeless, a terribly designed infrastructure and road system that makes traffic constantly bottleneck, commutes impossible, and aging structures. And our unreliable public transit has had so many development and ridership issues that our pockets are empty from all the years of delays and unruly spending. Our population density is one of the lowest of major north american cities since we're all so spread out and mostly suburbanized here. Our historically useless city council has been trying to reverse it a little too late. Calgary is much much better but still not the best I've seen. Real cities that I've been to and enjoyed their true urban planning are Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, NYC, Seattle, and Boston. We're nothing compared to them.

[@TheFuelInjected]

@bodegatiger404 The problem with your anecdotal analysis of urban planning is that it doesn't really stand up to objective scrutiny. Its odd that you would mention homelessness and drug use in Edmonton yet consider Vancouver and Toronto to be better in this regard, considering that they both have statistically higher rates of homelessness and drug addiction. But also in regards to actual urban planning and not social issues- of the cities you've mentioned Edmonton and Calgary have a higher population density than all but the Canadian ones. You would perhaps be surprised to know that Calgary actually has a higher population density than NYC, while Edmontons is higher than Boston. And in terms of public transit use per capita, certainly Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto have a higher ridership- but when you compare both Calgary and Edmonton to American cities of their population they both punch way above their weight, with Calgarys in particular performing admirably, having a higher use per capita than popular American transit systems like the BART. Edmontons ridership is only about half Calgarys so it certainly has room for improvement. I never said either cities were the gold standard, my point was that people dismiss these cities as underperforming in areas of urban planning due to presumptions that they are "Oil Province, Car Centric Urban Centers" and it is statistically proven that they are both above the North American average in most areas that objectively measure successful urban planning like population density and public ridership per capita.

[@gggaryjon67]

If only they had started a Sovereign Wealth Fund like Norway, which now has 1.5 trillion and backstops the country, but no, they encouraged foreign countries to develop the oil and oil sands--so the 1/2 the money left the province and Canada. And Ralph spent what Lougheed had put away. Sad.

[@sanjarsocool]

in alberta’s next boom they should definitely look to regional connection through High Speed Rail. Their geography doesn’t prevent them and they could definitely get a jump over other provinces in regional development

[@anon84931]

The only way that'll ever get funded is if the train car could be pulled by a series of extended-cab Ford F350s with dullys. Unless the passenger car is basically a tailgate party with air quality so bad it's like smoking 2 packs of smokes an hour, it'll never happen.

[@SA-ks9vz]

No more booms planned in the future. They stopped hiring.

[@James-vj5hz]

​@@anon84931The UCP is actively working on it. No idea why the NDP didn't do anything during their time tbh.

[@bjdon99]

Fun history story about Calgary: its initial founding was done at the time that cameras already existed. There are photos of the city from its initial start as a fort with a few buildings around it, right until today’s >1 million pop metropolis. You can see how it grew and grew.

[@EvolvedHumanity]

Great information! Thank you for the research, analysis and presentation.

[@TheUrbanique]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@paulinec1491]

def, the urban planning is the worst here, I live here and its the worst. not even any walkable cities are existence

[@J.HayleyHighway]

Yeah, we got the basics down.. It's just to build on it... A better bigger faster rail!

[@SkodenEh]

Northern BC is the exact same way.

[@dtglck4fkds]

Crazy video given Alberta is next to BC, known for its lack of urban planning and proper municipality plans. Click bait and hate driven. I highly suggest you look at BC with a critical eye. Also, Edmonton has a new density plan and Calgary is on the edge of approving one.

[@bodegatiger404]

"Edmonton has a new density plan" hahaha do you know how we work here? Maybe we'll be as dense as Vancouver in 100 years. In terms of developing a great planned city with fast and widely available public transit, Vancouver has had it all sorted out this whole time which edmonton and calgary have struggled decades behind them. This is probably why they're picking on alberta. I mean the rest of Canada is shit except for Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary.

[@dtglck4fkds]

@@bodegatiger404 oh I didn’t realize bc only consisted of the lower mainland. It’s factual that you look at the island or wine country and the lack of cooperation between municipalities is lagging behind Alberta

[@user-xn5jv3xq1m]

Strong disagree born and raised Calgarian

[@Texan1840]

I think you just hate conservatives

[@kenwin5845]

Alberta's greatest problem is they keep electing crazy politicians. Danielle Smith is a classic example, she is so controlling has no respect for anyone culturally different. Free enterprise when it is for money, but maximum social control. Fortunately most people learn to ignore the government, which is why drug use in Alberta is actually worse than BC. BC has regions, but Alberta is province wide a damn mess.

[@TheFuelInjected]

Riiiiight. That sounds exactly like something someone from downtown Vancouver would say without ever actually having been to Alberta or doing any research on it.

[@planefan082]

Don't like her either but you miss the point. My issue is she's not consistent in her values and picks and chooses winners and losers in private industry with regulations and handouts

[@epicchocolate1866]

@@TheFuelInjectedwell they would be correct in this case.

[@TheFuelInjected]

@epicchocolate1866 yeah except the overdose rate in Alberta is significantly lower than BC and declining the fastest in Canada. The rest of the arguments made in the original comment are subjective, but categorically false.