Cars or bikes? There’s room for both on 17th Ave
Make it a complete street.
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It’s been over a decade since the Calgary Flames Stanley Cup run made 17th Ave SW famous as the “the Red Mile.” These days the 16-block corridor has a bit of a split personality as the east and west ends tend to lack the vibrancy that is present along the avenue between 5th St SW and 10th St SW, an area that continues to be one of Calgary’s go-to places to shop and socialize.
With other trendy areas around Calgary such as Kensington, Marda Loop and Inglewood continuing to evolve—and the suburbs seeing businesses popping up that are beyond the traditional chain restaurants and big box stores—the question needs to be asked: how can 17th Ave re-capture some of that “Red Mile” magic and become THE street for people from across the city to come explore?
For our group, the Red Mile Complete Street Advocacy Group, the answer comes down to one word: mobility. Make it as easy as possible for people from across Calgary to access 17th Ave so that they want to spend their time and money there. This concept of easy access needs to hold true regardless of whether or not someone chooses to drive, walk, bike or take transit for their trip. In essence, make 17th Ave into a complete street and by doing so you will encourage more people to visit and to visit more often.
This concept of easy access needs to hold true regardless of whether or not someone chooses to drive, walk, bike or take transit.
To help transform 17th Ave, our group has come up with a four-point plan that addresses some of the major shortcomings that we feel currently exist along the corridor. We’ll list the plan here and then break down each point into a bit more detail further below.
- Improve the parking situation for the people who choose to drive to 17th Ave.
- Help spread the vibrancy at the heart of the “Red Mile” along the entire corridor with bike share.
- Introduce cycling infrastructure to 17th to improve access for the tens of thousands of people who are inner city residents.
- Minimize the impact on traffic and on-street parking.
Point #1: Parking
To date, parking along 17th Ave has been done poorly. People must either try to parallel park on a busy street or find their way to one of several off-street parking lots. If you’re like us, you’ve probably never really enjoyed parallel parking and avoid it at all costs. We’re not the only ones, though.
A 2016 online poll from the UK revealed that when it came to needing to parallel park, more than half of drivers (53%) have gone past an empty space, three in ten (30%) admit to parking more than one mile from their destination and one in five (22%) said they would rather continue to circle the street until an easier space becomes available. The question needs to be asked: how many visitors has the “Red Mile” missed out on because of its reliance on parallel parking?
The off-street parking situation isn’t much better. Lots are managed by different companies that charge different rates and have different hours of operation. Underground parkades are typically difficult to spot and due to poor signage leave a driver guessing as to how many spots may be available at any given time. One 17th Ave business owner we talked to said that even though he offered free parking in his building’s parkade, few of his customers took advantage of it. Given the current state of off-street parking along 17th, we can understand why.
So how can we improve the parking situation along 17th to encourage drivers to visit?
We are proposing that a partnership be created between the Calgary Parking Authority (CPA), the 17th Ave BIA organization and the landowners who control off-street parking around the district. The partnership would work to standardize parking rates along the 17th Ave corridor. We are proposing that the CPA invest in the installation of “number of available space” counters in off-street lots that participate in the partnership and link this information to improved way-finding signage along 17th Ave to increase awareness and usage of off-street parking. If it makes life easier at Chinook Centre, it will make life easier on 17th.
Last but not least we would like to see the CPA financially partner with developers to include an off-street public parking component as part of any new large-scale developments proposed for the district. We have seen this work already in Kensington with the Lido development and given how much re-development is coming to 17th Ave we have a once in a generation chance to recreate it there.
If it makes life easier at Chinook Centre, it will make life easier on 17th.
Point #2: Bike Share
At 16 blocks, it takes around 35 minutes to walk the length of the ‘Red Mile’. While we don’t know for sure, we would venture a guess to say that few people visit the entire corridor, instead picking a specific business they would like to visit and then perhaps exploring a few blocks on either side of it. But what if it were easy for someone to travel the 16 blocks of the corridor in a matter of minutes?
Ten minutes to be exact.
Ten minutes is the amount of time it takes to cycle the “Red Mile” from end to end. The 25-minute difference between cycling and walking is 25 minutes that a person could instead be spending inside the businesses along 17th Ave. As a result, we are encouraging the City of Calgary to begin a 3 year bike-share pilot program that would have docking stations along 17th Ave. It would mean that regardless of whether or not someone walked, drove or took transit to 17th Ave, every business along the corridor would be easily accessible to them.
Point #3: Cycle tracks
With all the controversy surrounding cycle tracks in Calgary over the last few years it’s easy to forget a simple fact. As much as Calgarians love their cars, they also love their bikes. If they didn’t, Calgary wouldn’t be the city that has the most extensive pathway network in North America and the city where brochures for new suburbs brag about the amount of bike paths the developer is adding to that network.
In fact, the 2011 City of Calgary cycling strategy revealed that 51% of Calgarians self-identified as “interested cyclists.” As per the report, these people are not comfortable sharing the road with motor vehicles without a visible bike facility but are interested in cycling if the route is on a bike facility.
In essence, the lack of bike infrastructure along 17th Ave has closed it off to more than half of the tens of thousands of Calgarians that live just a short bike ride away. These are the people who live close enough to be the frequent customers that businesses along the corridor crave.
But don’t take our word for it.
In a 2016 report, the Urban Land Institute looked at upgrades made to Broadway Avenue in Salt Lake City that involved adding protected bike lanes. In the first six months of the year after the bike lanes were added sales were up 8.8%. The same report found that on average people who arrive to a business on a bike spend less per visit than people who arrive by car ($10.66 vs $13.70) but visit more often, spending more money per month than people who arrive by car ($75.66 vs $61.02).
We would also be remiss if we didn’t point out that there aren’t any major hotels along 17th Ave—however there are a large number of hotels that are a short bike ride away using the existing cycle track network. Given the fact that in 2014 Tourism Calgary placed annual tourist spending at $1.58 billion it would be very advantageous for businesses along 17th Ave to try and get a greater piece of that.
Given that some hotels downtown are now offering bike rentals to their guests, cycle tracks along 17th Ave may just be the way to do that.
We are proposing that one lane of traffic be removed off of 17th Ave to allow for cycle tracks to be installed on the north and south side of the street. Not only would this make cycling safer for people from 8 to 88 but it would also serve to create a greater buffer between pedestrians and traffic, improving the walking experience along 17th.
Point #4: Don’t Mess with Traffic or Parking
Any changes proposed to 17th Ave must also address an important reality. 17th Ave is an integral part of Calgary’s road network and on-street parking is still important to area businesses. So while our proposal calls for one lane of traffic to be eliminated to add bike lanes, we have made an effort not to forget about the drivers who rely on 17th Ave.
What we are proposing is for a lane reversal system to be used for the three road lanes that would remain along the corridor to maintain two lanes of traffic flow in peak directions during rush hour periods. Installing priority turn signals would also help minimize disruptions.
We would maintain on-street parking along the south side of 17th Ave and look for ways, such as removing parking restriction in front of Western Canada High School outside of school pick-up and drop-off hours, to increase the number of available parking spaces.
And last but not least we would improve alleyways to enhance delivery options to businesses and create designated delivery and taxi drop-off zones on side streets along the north side of the corridor to help compensate for the loss of on-street parking.
The last word
Our proposals offer improvements for the motorists, cyclists and pedestrians who want to spend their time and money on 17th Ave while trying to minimize the disruption to the commuters who make it part of their drive to and from work. By making it easier for people to visit 17th Ave we hope people stop by more often and with more of their friends.
In doing so, they will encourage more businesses to move in and more development to occur making 17th Ave even better.
However, we’re just some people with a vision for the area. The greatest challenge to turn this vision into a reality will be convincing businesses, the 17th Ave BIA, the Beltline Neighbourhoods Association and area councillors that these are conversations worth having and ideas worth supporting.
Here’s hoping this is the start of that.
Jeff Binks, lead advocate for the Red Mile Complete Street Advocacy Group, grew up in the suburbs but attended high school at Western Canada on 17th. Ever since he’s had a soft spot for the street. After moving to the East Village, he was shocked at how little time he spent down on 17th. It’s too far to walk to, scary to bike to and none of his friends who still live in the ‘burbs want to drive there.
It got him thinking as to how much more time he would spend along the avenue if only it was easier to get to. The Red Mile Complete Street Advocacy Group was formed to try and spark a conversation about making some of these changes.
The group currently has four members—with two living in the suburbs and two living in the East Village.
You can learn more about their proposals at www.redmilecsag.ca.
