Are you ready for gridlock on 14th Street SW from Glenmore to Woodland for 4 years?

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1 Are you ready for gridlock on 14th Street SW from Glenmore to Woodland for 4 years? We apologize for the length of the newsle er but we believe all the informa on contained is important to understanding this cri cal issue and its impact to our wonderful communi es. Please read carefully. Have you heard about the City of Calgary s fast track plan to implement a SW Transitway & Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System from Downtown to Woodbine? An es mated 4 years of construc on causing gridlock on 14th Street. Do you know that the City is planning on crea ng high density commerical/ residen al Transit Oriented Development in green spaces along 14th Street. The City has stopped adhering to their Engage Policy to inform and work with the ci zens of Calgary. There is a public engagement policy that The City must adhere to called 'engage! and they have failed to do this in the prescribed manner. We formed a new advocacy group known as: "Ready To Engage!" This is a coali on of SW Calgary ci zens seeking to give a voice to those who have had none to date. The name was selected because we believe that the public engagement process is deficient and that The City is not following Calgary City Council's engage! Policy (Policy No. CS009). We are ready to engage the City of Calgary in purposeful dialogue regarding the SW Transitway and BRT proposal. We are asking that this project be put on hold un l The City has completed meaningful consulta on with all affected stakeholders, and a viable and workable proposal be created to address our concerns and to benefit SW Calgary as a whole. Commi ee Elected We elected commi ee members who will help to inform all affected stakeholders, facilitate meaningful consulta on by The City in accordance with their engage! Policy, and review proposals from The City to ensure that they address our concerns and benefit SW Calgary. Chair Appointed Maurice Tims was appointed Chair of the Working Group by unanimous decision. For those of you who don't know Maurice, he is an engineer by profession. Subcommi ees Our team also created a series of subcommi ees who will be working collabora vely on a variety of tasks to advance our cause. They include: Legal, Engineering, Marke ng/communica ons/media, City Administra on, Poli cal Outreach, Community Liaison, Fund Development, and Quote from City s website Stakeholder Outreach. Online Presence We have secured a Domain Name and are developing a website: We have also set up an address: info@readytoengage.ca. All incoming s are being monitored. Twi er and Facebook iden es have also been established and they are: Facebook.com/ ready2engage and Twi er.com/ready2engageyyc Legal We have engaged Chris Davis Law to deal with the legal aspects of this situa on. Mr. Davis is specialized in municipal law and has successfully represented local residents on a number of issues. Fund Development Thanks to all of you who have already confirmed your contribu on to the legal fund. This fund will be a great resource for our legal expenses but will also be used for other expenses such as marke ng, prin ng, engineering peer reviews, etc. Please note that all Commi ee members are dona ng their me and services pro bono. We are asking each household to contribute a suggested amount of $500 made payable to: "Ready to Engage!". If you are unable to contribute $500, any amount is welcome. If you are in a posi on to donate more, we encourage you to do so. We will keep me culous records of the contribu ons and if surplus funds remain at the end of the campaign, they will be refunded to you propor onately. Please drop your cheques off to Maurice Tims' home: #16 Eagle Ridge Place as soon as possible or you can info@readytoengage.ca and we can pick it up from you. If you are out of town, feel free to mail/courier your cheque to Maurice. The Ready to Engage! Fund has bank account at Bank of Montreal, with two signatures required for cheques/ withdrawals. We have great momentum on this front, let's keep it going. If you know of anyone else who would like to contribute, please encourage them to do so as this is a SW Calgary ini a ve. DISCLAIMER Although care has been taken to ensure the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the informa on provided, the par cipants involved in ready to engage! assume no responsibility for such informa on or content. In using the informa on, the user of the informa on agrees that the informa on is subject to change without no ce and that neither ready to engage! nor its cons tuent members assume any responsibility for the consequences of use of such informa on, nor for any infringement of third party intellectual property rights which may result from its use. IN NO EVENT SHALL READY TO ENGAGE! BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGE RESULTING FROM, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE INFORMATION.

2 The City of Calgary are preparing to build a new rapid transit bus system known as Calgary South West BRT which would run from downtown to Woodland via 14th Street Back in 2010 the City of Calgary came up with a plan to promote the Calgary South West BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) facility. Delcan Integrated Systems and Infrastructure Solu ons were hired in 2010 to do a traffic Analysis of the 14th Street Corridor. Delcan were again hired to do a Fun onal Planning Study on The Calgary South West BRT in Delcan produced an Execu ve Summary on the Func onal Planning Study in January Basis of study for SW BRT & Plan It Calgary SW BRT is proposed as part of a network called the Primary Transit Network (PTN), shown in Figure 2. This network, which is approved as part Calgary Transporta on Plan, represents a set of links or corridors which will one day be serviced by 10 bus routes travelling down the 14th Street dedicated bus lanes according to the Delcan report. The Primary Transit Network has been designed to link higher intensity land uses, as defined in Calgary s Municipal Development Plan, but has not been developed to the detail where mode or opera ng environment is described in detail. Instead, each corridor will be studied in detail to determine: Mode (i.e. bus, rail) Level of transit priority, or segrega on (i.e. traffic signal priority, bus only lanes) Other facili es Staging of service introduc on Proposed heated bus terminals. 7 to be built on 14th Street star ng with the Rockyview Hospital Figure 2 Proposed route. Purple for dedicated route, green for mixed traffic Assump ons made for the study Estimated annual passengers Approved budget Kilometer Route Annual Operating Cost Construction begins Proposed Bus Stations It is proposed that the BRT buses will take two dedicated lanes on the west side of 14th Street and that two addi onal lanes will be added on the east side. The median will be narrowed and because there is insufficient room the six traffic lanes will be reduced in width. There will also be a concrete divider separa ng the bus lanes. Fourteen 50 LRT style bus pla orms are planned along 14 Street. The project Schedule is shown on the right showing that the community informa on sessions started only last month. Design is to be complete by December 2015 and out for Tender in May 2016.

3 What is the Southwest Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) All About? The City of Calgary is planning a Southwest Transitway, "a road or lane system dedicated exclusively to transit service", extending from Woodbine to downtown. City Council has already approved a $40 million budget (which as of November 2015 has already been increased to $47 M.), and construc on is scheduled to begin in the first half of It is expected that this project will exceed this amount (and already has) by +/ 40 percent as per the City's feasibility study. The City of Calgary is forecas ng that the Southwest Transitway will carry 12 million passengers annually. One million riders per month divided by 20 business days per month equals 50,000 riders per day. Assuming each and every bus carries 50 passengers that would equate to 1000 buses each 15 hour opera onal day or one bus passing through the 14th Street/75th Avenue intersec on every 54 seconds! (totally unrealis c). The buses on the Transitway will be special new high capacity buses that can hold 100 passengers. On most of the segments of the Transitway, the buses will run on dedicated shoulder lanes or will share exis ng lanes with other traffic. However, 14th Street SW from Southland Drive to 75th Avenue has been designated for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), an LRT like system except there are traffic lights. The BRT will consist of two dedicated north south bus lanes right next to each other on the west edge of 14th Street, with LRT like bus pla orms at Southland Drive, 90th Avenue, Heritage Drive and 75th Avenue. To accommodate these BRT lanes, 14th Street will be torn up, and the exis ng traffic lanes will be moved as far to the east as possible. Due to limited width on 14th Street, the new traffic lanes will be narrower than the current lanes. Detrimental effects of the proposed BRT in your neighbourhood Impact on Quality of Life, Security, Safety and Property Value With the addi onal noise, bus sta on lights, vibra on, emissions, etc. the Quality of Life for all residents along the route will be diminished, par cularly for those whose homes back onto 14th Street. Security will be compromised as more individuals access the entrance into the community. Personal safety, whether in vehicles or walking will be threatened by the addi onal traffic and difficul es entering and exi ng the community. Green spaces which we all cherish might be turned into Parking Lots for those using the bus routes. Air emissions nega vely impac ng the Glenmore Reservoir, a main source of clean drinking water for Calgarians. Because of all of the nega ve impacts, property values will be adversely affected as poten al purchasers seek neighborhoods that don't face these nega ve factors. Environmental poisoning from noxious gas emissions The exhaust stacks on the buses point straight up from the roofs of the buses, causing exhaust fumes and other emissions to be ejected above the height of the barrier wall between 14th Street and the houses bordering on either side of 14th street. These emissions will therefore more easily dri over the barrier wall, especially since the BRT lanes will be right next to the wall. This will be in addi on to the emissions from 6 lanes. Respiratory ailments are par cularly harmful to children and seniors. Noise and vibra ons Noise and vibra on from two lanes of buses right along the barrier wall next to Eagle Ridge. The City of Calgary is planning to use "high capacity transit vehicles", sea ng 100 people, not regular size buses. Noise and vibra on from these vehicles would be higher than normal buses. Construc on Disrup on FOUR years of construc on (see City s website) beginning in May Access to communi es along 14th Street will be significantly impacted. It will create transporta on havoc. Addi onal Traffic Conges on at Rockyview Hospital Entrance With the bus lanes through the intersec on of 75th Avenue and 14th Street and no merge lane southbound, there will be addi onal conges on of vehicle trying to exit/enter Rockyview Hospital and the Carewest Long Term Care Centre to/from 14th Street, and therefore less room for cars/school buses/ maintenance trucks to queue to leave or come in off of 14th Street into adjacent communi es. This conges on will be especially heavy during hospital and Carewest shi change mes. Limited Access To 14th Street Currently there are dual le turn lanes from 75th Avenue onto northbound 14th Street. With northbound BRT buses zig zagging through the intersec on to the right most lane over the overpass onto westbound Glenmore Trail, cars in the right hand le turn lane will have to contend with addi onal conges on. Currently, traffic exi ng from Rockyview Hospital, and Carewest heading southbound on 14th Street does not have to stop at the traffic light because there is a merge lane southbound on 14th Street. In the plans presented by The City, the merge lane will be eliminated. Thus, traffic wan ng to turn right onto southbound 14th Street will have to wait behind the dual BRT bus lanes for a green light or green right arrow to turn right onto southbound 14th Street. This will cause further conges on for all traffic on eastbound 75th Avenue. Severe bo lenecks crea ng conges on on 14th Street Your travel on 14th Street will be slowed by severe bo lenecks on the Glenmore Trail causeway and at intersec ons along the route. City of Calgary Traffic planners have admi ed that they have no solu on for the Glenmore Causeway bo leneck, which currently causes massive traffic backups in both direc ons on Glenmore Trail, with spillover backups on northbound 14th Street and southbound Crowchild Trail. The addi on of large Transitway buses into the mix will just make traffic conges on worse. Narrow Traffic Lanes on 14th Street At the Open House on October 27, the City planning engineers stated that the traffic lanes on 14th Street would have to be narrowed because there is not sufficient width between the barrier walls on the west and east sides of the road to accommodate the two dedicated Transitway lanes plus the six traffic lanes. These narrower lanes will be more dangerous for traffic. It is not yet clear whether the speed limit on 14th Street will need to be reduced because of the narrower lanes. In any case, the narrower lanes will cause more traffic conges on as drivers exercise cau on to avoid accidents. Snow removal in the bus lanes will be a challenge due to concrete barriers and narrowing of lanes. It does not make sense to have dedicated lanes for only 14% of the BRT route. Danger Crossing Over Bus-Only Shoulder Lanes Whenever you want to exit or enter your neighbourhood, you will be forced to cross over bus only shoulder lanes at The Rockyview Hospital, Heritage Park and 90th Ave. This will result in increased conges on and danger as you have to yield to buses. Traffic and parking problems at major intersec ons Bus Sta- ons. This will include Heritage, 90th Ave., Southland and Woodland. It is understood that (Delcan Report) a large parking lot will be developed in the Woodland green space adjacent to homes. Increased crime The construc on of heated and lit LRT style bus pla orms in our green spaces that will increase violent crimes and illicit ac vity close to our homes and schools. There has been no community safety report completed to our knowledge. With the introduc on of three large "bus terminals/ hubs" (two of which book ending our neighbourhood in green spaces on the south and north sides) we will likely see an increase in violent crime, property crime, graffi, li ering, illegal parking, and transient persons. Why do we need it we already have the LRT just blocks away which has just been upgraded to carry 33% more passengers with the new 800 passenger replacement CTrains. It runs on wind power energy with no pollu on. Add more trains if this is not enough.

4 Fig. 1 How will this proposed BRT effect South West Calgarians R edisents are already concerned about access which was degraded in 2008 when entry to 75th Avenue West was cut off by the City of Calgary s Transporta on Department despite protests and were forced to take the suicide route north to the U Turn and then merge three lanes west at 70 Km/hr in a distance of 425 meters which gives one 22 seconds to make this dangerous manoeuvre and does not meet the highway standards. The situa on of course is worsened by winter weather and In fact our independent Traffic Engineering Consultant itrans gave the intersec on an F grade based on the Transporta on Associa on of Canada (TAC) manual which provides guidelines for industry standards. Glenmore and 14th Street is one of the ten highest accident loca on in the City. On the le (Fig. 1) is a drawing displayed at the first open house in October 2015 showing the proposed arrangement for the BRT lanes intersec ng with the 75th Avenue/14th Street crossing. This one would really encroach on the community and cause traffic delay problems. Fig. 2 Fig. 2 appeared at the next open house elimina ng the right hand turn lane from 75th Avenue to 14th Street another traffic delay problem. Furthermore bus sta ons at either loca ons are useless for the Rockyview Hospital simply because they are located too far away from their access areas. Pa ents, visitors would need to walk up the steep hill which would be unacceptable in adverse weather or ailing pa ent situa ons. In addi on the two dedicated bus lanes running Southland to 75th Avenue would increase emission and noise pollu on to an area where there are already 85,000 or more vehicles passing in a day. We have on hand a well documented paper by Dr. Suzanne Tough of U of C which is a real eye opener to the hazards of an Expressway located adjacent to residen al areas. An Expressway is defined as a roadway where the traffic flow exceeds 25,000 vehicles a day. Diesel engine pollu on is now well documented as being very detrimental to our health and well being. The City are predic ng 180 large diesel buses/day capable of carrying 100 people. This is addi on to the numerous large tandem gravel and delivery trucks that use 14th Street. We don't have any firm informa on on plans for Heritage Drive, 90th Avenue, Southland and all the way out to Woodland to analyse Also the noise generated by trucks and traffic running at all hours through the middle of the communi es cause sleep deprava on and inability of adjacent residents to enjoy their own back gardens. In fact the noise level on the residen al side of the sound barrier is o en in the 95 Db. range. Another area of great concern are the pipelines running under 14th Street as illustrated below. The proposed two addi onal lanes on the east side of 14th Street would run over the high pressure natural gas line right of way. This would not be permi ed East side of 14th Street View looking South without the reloca on of the pipeline which would be hugely expensive and would cause enormous disrup on to residents as well as commuters. There are many documented failures of high pressure natural gas pipelines in this situa on which have caused severe damage and many fatali es. See the next page for an example of what can happen to a ruptured high pressure gas line!

5 High Pressure Natural Gas line ruptures and explosions can and do happen this one at O oburne, Manitoba Aging gas lines subject to undue stress can rupture, leak and emit large volumes of natural gas which eventually ignites and explodes destroying everything in its vicinity, igni ng buildings and burning at intense heat for a long period of me before the line is shut down and depressures. A new high pressure natural gas line is planned along Stoney Trail U lity corridor but it wont be completed un l 2018 at which me it will allow ATCO to reduce the pressure in the 14th Street pipeline for a required gas distribu on line. ATCO is unable to relocate this line as it provides gas service to much of Southwest Calgary.

6 The following is from the City s Policy on Engagement - Have we been engaged? Definitely NOT! The City of Calgary s engage! - meaningful dialogue, informed decisions the following is a direct quote from the City: At The City of Calgary we define engagement as purposeful dialogue between The City and stakeholders to gather informa on to influence decision making. Our approach to engagement is straigh orward when our work impacts others we recognize their right to have a say. The City s job includes iden fying stakeholders and ge ng their input in a way that is inclusive, mely, transparent and meaningful. A good engagement process is one that has the support of the en re organiza on. This shows a level of corporate wide commitment to see engagement ac vi es through to comple on. Our people must be aware of consulta on principles and best prac ces and have the capacity to develop and execute effec ve strategies for good engagement. Similar to our project management framework, the engage! Framework emphasizes communica on and outreach as essen al to high quality results. This means providing stakeholders with a variety of opportuni es for input and valuing accessibility. We have a responsibility to go to where our stakeholders are rather than wai ng for them to come to us. Lastly, The City of Calgary must be honest in how we use the input that s provided and be commi ed to report back to stakeholders on how their input factored into the ul mate decision(s). The City s engage! Policy pledges our commitment to a good engagement process. The engage! Framework highlights the people, processes, tools and techniques that support our commitment. Engagement is essen al to our con nued pursuit of superior public service. Eric Sawyer, Ac ng manager Project / Title Date Southwest BRT Engagement Evalua on 1. The City s engage! Policy was followed. NO 2. The issue / ques on was clearly defined before star ng. NO 3. Benefits of involving stakeholders were considered. NO 4. Engagement capability (readiness) was assessed. NO 5. Risks were assessed and dealt with appropriately. NO 6. An engagement plan was iden fied. NO 7. An agreement was developed and nego ated. NO 8. The agreement was evaluated. NO 9. The objec ves were met successfully. NO 10. The terms of engagement were applied effec vely. NO 11. The outcomes were achieved sa sfactorily. NO 12. The guiding principles were incorporated and applied effectively. NO 13. The strategies and promises chosen to r each and involve were kept. NO 14. A champion for the process was iden fied early. NO 15. Support from colleagues was evident throughout. NO 16. Appropriate stakeholders were iden fied. NO 17. Attempts were made to reach and involve those directly orindirectly affected. NO 18. External stakeholders adhered to the process / agreement. NO 19. Council adhered to the process / agreement. NO 20. The engagement conducted was appropriate (i.e. added value). NO 21. A variety of techniques was considered to reach and involve. NO 22. An evalua on process was developed and administered. NO Our first Engagement No fica on! Delcan were hired in 2010 to do a Func onal Planning Study. The City approved it in Our first no fica on was October 2015! The City said 50,000 le ers were sent out! Did anyone here receive one? Now here s the kicker click on the link to engage! HOME and there is a link to Past Public Engagement Ini a ves (h p:// Public Engagement Ini a ves.aspx ). There is a list of 46 projects (including Southwest and West Ringroad Connec ons), but guess what no past public engagements for the Southwest Transitway. If the City tries to argue that they have been following the engage! Process for the SW Transitway, where is the link to the past engagement ini a ve? It gets even worse if you do a search, there is a page for engage! Southwest Transitway (h p:// engage/pages/southwest Transitway.aspx#overview ). However, it is obvious that this informa on was has ly assembled just recently: The list of Affected Communi es does not include: Chinook Park, Kelvin Grove, Eagle Ridge, Pump Hill, and other southwest communi es a. The list of Affected Communi es does not include: Chinook Park, Kelvin Grove, Eagle Ridge, Pump Hill, and other southwest communi es b. There are no workshops or drop in sessions listed c. The Timeline tab only men ons a Transporta on Fair on October 27 and 29 d. The Provide Your Input tab only says, The public is invited to a end any informa on sessions being held by The City to learn about the project. e. The We re Listening tab only says, Various informa on sessions will be posted for the public to a end and learn about the project. f. The link to View Full Project Details takes you to a page (h p:// on/ti/pages/transit projects/ Southwest Transitway.aspx ) which talks about the public informa on sessions on October 27 and 29, and claims to have links to the PDFs of the materials presented in the sessions. It is worth no ng that the SE Transitway project has had 5 years of public engagement and our SW communi es have been given 5 hours of public engagement.

7 WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON? "Ready To Engage!" This is a coali on of SW Calgary ci zens seeking to give a voice to those who have had none to date. So what have we done to date: Le er to City Council On Wednesday, November 4, a joint le er from our CKE Community Associa on and Ready to Engage! was couriered to Councillor Pinco outlining our concerns/ issues. City Council, City Administra on, Heritage Park, Rockyview Hospital and Carewest were also copied. If you wish to see a copy of the le er, contact us at: info@readytoengage.ca. A mee ng was arranged with the City of Calgary between ready to engage and the CKE Directors for December 1st for an update on the South West BRT and presumably to begin the process of the City of Calgary s Engage policy. We are ac vely pursuing communica ons with Atco Pipelines re the issue of their Pipe Line Right of Way which exists on the east side of 14th Street all the way down to Canyon Meadows. This is a major high pressure natural gas feeder for southwest Calgary. It is our understanding that the City will not be permi ed to infringe on the pipe line right of ways and therefore it is not possible to add two addi onal lanes to 14th Street. A replacement for this line will be ready in 2018 but it will remain in service as a gas distribu on pipe line. Moving this line would be somewhat imprac cal and a major expense. December 1st Mee ng with the City of Calgary: Brief Summary - more to follow A Mee ng was held on Decemer 1st with CKE Directors, ready to engage group, Brian Pinco, City design engineers and Stantec who have been hired to design the project. The City admi ed that their adver sing for the October 29th review of the project was misleading under the tle SW Ring Road and Transit and commi ed to work closely with us on our concerns. They informed us that they were star ng on the final design of the BRT and would like to work with us on the Engagement process. They proposed ge ng together early in the New Year. They also said that no green spaces would be used for parking and no expropria on of propert was contemplated. The following is an excerpt from Peter Schreyvers Transit Camp see h p:// calgary transitcampvision second thoughts on the southwest brt/ Peter has some senseable thoughts to offer: The Calgary TransitCamp Vision: Second Thoughts on the Southwest BRT Calgary TransitCamp contributor Peter Schreyvers con nues his series of pos ngs tonight on our vision for a public transporta on system for this great city where taking transit is second nature. Here is his next entry in the series. the City of Calgary commissioned a func onal study for the route in The study examined six aspects of the route: sta on loca ons, opera ons on 14 Street SW, a traffic analysis of 14 Street, the poten al for using shoulder lanes on Crowchild and Glenmore Trails, terminal opera ons in Woodbine (essen ally how the buses turn around), and an order of magnitude cost es mate. While each of these items is worthy of discussion (and we will dedicate an en re post later to the Woodbine ques on), what is important isn t so much what was included in the study, but what was le out. Firstly, the study neglected to consider how the BRT fits in with the rest of the network especially how the BRT 306 Crosstown South will integrate with this BRT, specifically at the intersec on at 14 Street SW and Heritage Drive. It is here that buses from the BRT 306 will turn off from the 14 Street busway and head east toward Heritage LRT Sta on and further on to the Foothills Industrial area (and where westbound buses from Heritage Drive will turn right onto the 14 Street Busway). Omi ng an analysis of the possible ways this could happen is a failure for us to Be Part of the Picture. Because we didn t consider this intersec on in the func onal study, many ques ons remain unanswered: Will buses simply make a le turn through the intersec on to get onto Heritage Drive? If so, will there be a transit only turning signal (as the le turning buses will conflict with southbound traffic on 14 Street)? Alterna vely, will buses turn from 14 Street onto Heritage Drive by way of an elevated flyover? If so, how will the flyover be aligned? Will there be dedicated bus lanes on Heritage Drive, and if so, where will they be located (both together in the median, both on the north or south of the exis ng road, or as two single lane bus lanes on the far right lanes)? All these ques ons affect the current design of the busway on 14 Street. If a flyover is used, the sta on at Heritage Park will have to be relocated slightly to the north; provisions will have to be made for merging the flyover with the busway, and each busway alignment on Heritage Drive will have a different flyover design. Either way, if we build the 14 Street busway without considering the intersec on at Heritage Drive, we run the risk of Building it Twice, Not Building it Right. If we simply build the busway as it is designed in the func onal study now, we run the risk of either having to rebuild parts of the busway and sta ons at the Heritage Drive intersec on, or we may have to live with a lesser solu on because we didn t consider it in the first place. Doing either would be a mistake. Secondly, we have to ask: Is the Southwest BRT necessary now, where is it on the list of our priori es, and which investments on the route will have the greatest impact? One of the main arguments for the Southwest BRT is that it will provide relief to the profoundly congested 14 Street SW (which, according to a 2009 city traffic count, handles 87,000 vehicles a day), which the South LRT line currently cannot relieve, because, well, it is full. However, with the implementa on of four car trains on the South LRT in a few years, this may provide enough relief to southwest residents trying to go downtown. In this sense, doing much in terms of BRT infrastructure for this route may not make much sense. In this sense, we need to Be Pa ent. Let s wait un l the South LRT line starts opera ng with four car trains and see if the BRT is s ll necessary at that point. Otherwise any money we spend on the Southwest BRT is lost, depriving Calgary s capital transit strategy of funding that could have gone to other, higher priori es. (That being said, I myself am confident that this route will be needed in the future, mostly because given the sheer numbers of people the South LRT line needs to serve, some relief will be necessary but that is a subject of another post.)

8 BRT Project Timing, Assump ons and Economics This project was conceived in 2010, approved in 2011 by Council without public consulta on or adherence to the City s Engage Policy. Passed in an Omnibus Mo on with no debate. The project was not debated at City budget forum either. Shelved due to lack of funding and probably not jus fied economically it was then revived in 2015 when the Province made infrastructure funding available. Where are the current economics for this project? Since it was approved by Council there have been significant developments which have not been addressed: 1. The SW Ring Road has been approved. It should make a huge difference to the 14th Street traffic. Traffic on 14th Street will be diminished and there will be no need for the extra bus lanes proposed for BRT. 2. The LRT (which runs parallel to the proposed BRT and is unhampered by traffic or intersec ons throughout the route) has been upgraded with new CTrains capable of carrying 800 passengers instead of 600. Shu le buses are available for all communi es to connect to the CTrain Sta ons. More CTrains could be added at less expense than the BRT to further improve Friday Nov LRT the efficiency of he LRT System. Also the City boasts that the LRT runs on wind power and therefore there is no atmospheric pollu on. 3. The City of Calgary and the Province has been hit with a major depression due to the low oil price crisis. People are leaving the city rather than coming here. Thousands of people are out of work. Furthermore this global oil crisis shows no sign of improving as more oil is found and consump on planned to drop due to higher efficiency equipment and environmental constraints. This means that OPEC will s ll keep their output high to maintain their market share and the price of oil will remain low. 4. In any case this BRT project is not economically viable with the faster adjacent LRT. The cost is highly ques onable and has a 40% con ngency an in fact has already been increased to $47Million. There are pipe line right of ways along the 14th Street green space that would make it imprac cal to add two lanes of traffic. Where are the 12 Million annual passengers coming from? This is the figure the City of Calgary is using to jus fy the project. With the LRT located in the same area people would choose it first for its faster travel me rather than a slow mul stop bus route. If there was no adjacent LRT the project might be viable. According to CTS loca ons like Mount Royal University are already well serviced by bus routes. The Rockyview Hospital is already well serviced by buses. During peak travel periods there are only three to 9 people wai ng at the shelter at 75th Ave. and 14th Street. Other users are dropped off and picked up at the hospital main entrance. If the City thinks ci zens are going to abandon their cars and take the bus they are out of touch with reality. A recent survey found 84% of those surveyed preferred to drive their own cars Where are the calcula ons for a $5.4 million opera ng cost and what fares will be charged? The projected twelve million rides would make the project viable but where are these projec ons coming from they are totally unrealis c. This project should be analysed by the City Auditor. The $47 million +/- 40% may be coming from the Province but it is s ll the ci zens money derived from taxes. Express your concerns by wri ng, ing or phoning your Councillor today: Naheed Nenshi, Mayor themayor@calgary.ca Brian Pinco Tel: Diane Colley-Urquhart: Diane.Colley-Urquhart@calgary.ca Tel: Indicate not in favour of South West BRT Project due to: Lack of Consulta on - Engage Policy completely ignored Loss of green Space to large parking lots close to houses Increased noise & light pollu on and road noises 4 years of traffic disrup on due to construc on Wait to see how the Ring Road changes traffic Not viable with adjacent parallel expanded LRT system Dedicated lane snow removal problems Why have only 14% of route dedicated lanes Waste of $47 million

9 ATCO High Pressure Gas line from Glenmore to Canyon meadows Serving SW Calgary Poten al Hazards on 14th Street The proposed expansion of 14th Street from 6 lanes to 8 lanes has many concerns: Building two more lanes on the East side of 14th Street would result in paving over a high pressure gas line that feeds Southwest Calgary. This 10 line is located in a pipeline right of way owned and operated by ATCO. The exact loca on and depth of the line are not known but according to ATCO it is leass than 3 feet deep and directly in the path of the expanded lanes. Large trucks and equipment cause severe vibra on and can result in pipe line failures. A ruptured high pressure natural gas line can cause catastrophic damage in a neighbourhood destroying buildings and property over a wide range and poten al loss of life. This can not be le to chance and many cases of this nature have been well documented. In California a failed natural gas line incinerated 37 houses and killed 17 residents. Last year in Manitoba a natural gas line ruptured causing property damage and is well documented: There are also many other pipelines along 14th Street including a large water main, sewer line and other oil and gas lines. Some of the oil and gas lines are not in use but not abandoned. In November 2015 there was a failure of the large water main which took three days to repair. It is located under the present median but with the proposed plan would be under he roadway. This is an old line and heavy truck vibra ons could be detrimental. Because of insufficient width the City are reducing the lane spacing to 3.5 meters.the maximum width permi ed for trucks in the USA and Canada is 2.6 meters plus the width od the mirrors where 0.3 meters per side is permi ed. This makes a total width of 3.2 meters leaving only 0.3 meters clearance or around 6 per side clearance. Maybe it should be postponed un l driverless trucks are available so they wont run into each other all the me. It will probably result in the normal passenger vehicle being squeezed out!