Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Calgary

The Calgary Model: Connect Protected Bike Lanes Fast, Watch Riders Pour In

By Michael Andersen | Apr 6, 2016 | 27 Comments

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Last week, we shared a new report about the best practices for cities that want to make faster, cheaper changes to their streets. Today, let’s take a moment to recognize the North American […]

Calgary Tackles the “Sprawl Subsidy”

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 23, 2016 | 1 Comment

As of last month, it costs more to buy a home on the sprawling edges of Canada’s third-largest city. Under a new rule, Calgary assesses a higher water fee on developers building homes in greenfield locations than on new homes in developed areas, to reflect the higher cost of providing infrastructure in spread-out locations. Mayor Naheed Nenshi and the City […]

Calgary Opens a Downtown Protected Bike Lane Network All at Once

By Michael Andersen | Jun 22, 2015 | 6 Comments

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. One of North America’s unlikeliest and most ambitious protected bike lane projects is now on the ground. Calgary, the arid Alberta prairie town and natural gas capital, agreed last year on a […]

How to Make Transit Succeed in a Sprawling City

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 11, 2014 | No Comments

In many ways, Calgary, Canada’s third-largest city, is very much like a sprawling American city. But in one way, it’s very different: It’s a huge transit city. Despite being composed mostly of sprawling single-family homes, in this Canadian energy boomtown, 50 percent of downtown workers arrive by transit and another 11 percent by bike — way […]

Fixing a Blank Wall Streetscape With Storefront Retrofits

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 5, 2014 | 20 Comments

Every city has places where the buildings present a blank face to the sidewalk. A dark, recessed arcade deadening the pedestrian environment or a soulless concrete wall fronting a windswept plaza. Consultant Brent Toderian, formerly the planning director for the city of Vancouver, pointed out a cheap and easy solution to this problem. He calls them […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Rondo Revisited

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 20, 2014 | 1 Comment

Finally, there is a light rail line connecting the Twin Cities. The Green Line, running 11 miles from Union Depot in downtown St. Paul to Target Field in downtown Minneapolis, cost $957 million and took decades to build. The process of choosing stations was contentious but eventually incorporated the proposals of low-income communities that wanted […]

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