Calgary student voices quashed in southwest BRT debacle

The first thing to change about the project are the heated indoor mini-stations. I say get rid of them entirely to prevent them from becoming crime and vandalism magnets. The BRT running up Center Street North has simple open air benches and no one has died of frostbite yet.

If the whole idea of the BRT is there will be a bus every 10 minutes why do they need these heated mini-stations ? What, Calgarians don't know how to dress warmly to stand outside for 10 minutes ?

And secondly, yes I question the whole rational or need. The need for the BRT is based on the false assumption that the oil boom will last forever which leads to fake population growth projections of Calgary reaching 2 million and imaginary huge future increase in commuters trying to pour into the core.

Its all lies and smoke and mirrors. Most of the downtown core will be half vacant as oil companies go out of business. Calgary will actually start loosing population as the oil crash deepens and oil prices never recover. The existing road and transit system will be under-used and over built for Calgary's much more modest future population needs.

I am a big transit supporter but oppose the BRT. The real need in these SW communities is to increase the number of buses on the existing routes feeding the LRT so you don't have a half hour wait outside of rush hour to get to a train. Buying and staffing a few hundred more buses to run on existing routes would cost about 1/10 of the SW BRT and result in a far more usable transit system.

And as far as global warming, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are going to be released from two years of unnecessary roadwork, running construction equipment etc. will far outweigh any benefits to the environment from the BRT.

/r/Calgary Thread Parent Link - metronews.ca