An Integrated Approach to Managing Travel Demand in Downtown Calgary

This paper describes how the City of Calgary, Canada has experienced rapid growth over the last decade, and ever increasing demand on our transportation infrastructure. Located in the energy-rich province of Alberta, Canada, the oil and gas industry has quite literally fueled a dramatic increase in employment and population throughout the city. In fact, Calgary has just welcomed our one-millionth citizen, up from 750,000 people only ten years ago! One of the greatest success stories for Calgary has been the continued strength of the downtown in both job and population growth. This subject has attracted numerous corporate head offices, resulting in 20,000 more jobs than ten years ago. The total number of trips into the downtown has subsequently increased by 25%. The success story is that all of this growth has been accommodated without the construction of any new roads into the downtown. Managing the increased travel demand has required a strategic and integrated approach, including: (1) Expansion and increased service levels on our centrally focused Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, resulting in some of the highest ridership levels in North America; (2) Strategic downtown parking policies, including a cash-in-lieu policy; (3) Transportation demand initiatives that actively promote alternatives to single occupant vehicles; and (4) Maximizing the efficiency of existing infrastructure for both automobiles and transit. This paper provides examples of these and other initiatives, and highlight how they have worked in concert to accommodate the incredible growth that Calgary continues to experience.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers

  Traffic Engineering Committee, 1099 14th Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20005-3438

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • MacNaughton, Eric
• Conference:
  • Managing Congestion--Can We Do Better? ITE 2007 Technical Conference and Exhibit
  • Location: San Diego CA, United States
  • Date: 2007-3-25 to 2007-3-28
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References;
• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: Managing Congestion—Can We Do Better? ITE 2007 Technical Conference and Exhibit

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Central business districts; Infrastructure; Light rail transit; Population growth; Public transit; Transit operating agencies; Transportation planning; Travel demand; Travel demand management
• Geographic Terms: Calgary (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01076791
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 21 2007 1:55PM