Calgary Really Loves Transit

This is a bit of oldish new, but Calgary has decided to shift their transportation spending from roads into public transit. According to the Calgary Herald:

"We know, everybody knows, people have known for 15 years, that building roads is not the way to deal with transportation in an urban centre," Ald. Brian Pincott said. "Transit is much more efficient and building a community is about walking and biking."

In this 10-year plan, spending is split 54 per cent for transit and 42 per cent for roads, with the remaining four per cent dedicated to pedestrian and cycling projects. In the previous decade, about 65 per cent of funding went to roads, with 35 per cent going to transit. Pedestrians and cyclists are now being included in transportation planning rather than recreation. In the report going to committee, it points out that the money spent on those projects will increase to $126 million from $45 million in the last list of priorities.”

The city is set to spend $3.9 billion on public transportation improvement in the next decade. That is in addition to a new $2 billion that the Government of Alberta announced on July 8th for public transit.

While many things can be said about Alberta (Calgary), they sure know how to build good public transit.