Calgary Transit: Ridership growth

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by MasterG

I was bored. Therefore, I created this map from the 2014 community tables and looked at aggregating some data. I know the City of Calgary publishes fancy, colour-coded ones but I can't seem to find them easily for the most recent data. I used the community tables to cross-reference various data elements.

I am particularly interested in Calgary's NW post-secondary institutions because it seems as if they are often ignored from a city planning perspective (at least compared to the mighty downtown). They also are enormously important for attracting youth, another area that Calgary's family-centric planning tends to fall down more often than not. Notable for Calgary, the area is substantially more robust that many transitional neighbourhoods due to a constant demand for young people attending U of C, SAIT and ACAD. These institutions continue to grow and are finally starting to pull their own demand in land-use changes, infills and other developments.

This map shows is percentages by community reporting active (walking + bicycle) and transit usage as their primary commuting modes of transportation. For example, Banff Trail = 47%, meaning that 47% use transit, walking or bicycles. Note that car-pooling and work from home were also reported, so it does not necessarily mean that the other 53% were drivers.

My initial thoughts after plotting this:

• Despite high or majority of residents reporting non-car commuting and travel modes, pedestrian friendly land-uses effectively only exist in Sunnyside, Hillhurst and pockets on the campuses (while as a whole being far better than most neighbourhoods further out).
• The area (as expected) is substantially heavily weighted to the younger population. Nearly all neighbourhoods are far above the Calgary average for the 20-34 age group.
• Several neighbourhoods report nearly 50% aged 20-34. Calgary as a whole is 24%.
• Several neighbourhoods reporting lower percentages (Charleswood, Collinwood etc.) are also significantly older.
• Apart from Kensington, where are all the services for these young people? I would have expected more bars (of the calibre that university-aged people would want to attend) to try to take advantage in this area. Currently, Beltline captures pretty much all significant youth, late night pedestrian-focused traffic.
  [**]Perhaps this will be the next phase of redevelopment is another late-night bar / restaurant node forming around these institutions.

I will put together a few more now that I shaped the relational data properly for easy access. Enjoy. Also: if someone has access and knows what I am talking about, post the official City of Calgary colour-coded ones! They are far superior

One thought, just because you are 20-34 doesn't make you a student, particularly as you get past 25 the % in full time school would drop dramatically. Also I know for myself, when I went back to school at 24-25 I was also working, so I had little time to go to bars or do much of anything really. The portion of the 20-34 age range that is in full time studies and has the spare time for bars is likely the 20-22 range after that you would either be a mature student or pursuing post grad work if your a student.