RAPID TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT IN MEDIUM-SIZED URBAN AREAS: A COMPARISON OF PLANNING AND DECISIONMAKING IN TWO CANADIAN CITIES

Several North American urban areas with populations of 500,000 to 1.5 million are in the midst of rapid transit development programs. Although the systems being considered are smaller in scale than the rapid transit systems of larger metropolitan areas, their effect on the transportation systems and land use patterns of the smaller cities may prove to be much more significant. Detailed technical analyses of the many impacts of alternative modes, routes, and staging scenarios thus have a major role to play in the decisions to be made with respect to rapid transit development in such cities. Nontechnical factors, however, such as the characteristics of the political environment and the planning process undertaken in a particular city, can have just as great an influence on the rapid transit system ultimately implemented. The rapid transit planning processes undertaken in Calgary, Alberta, and Ottawa, Ontario, are compared to illustrate this balance between technical analyses and nontechnical factors. From the initial decision to proceed with a rapid transit program through the decisions made with respect to route alignments and mode selection, the analysis methods used and the decisionmaking processes followed in the two cities differ significantly. In both cases, however nontechnical influences proved to be extremely important in creating two very different rapid transit solutions to similar transportation problems.

Media Info

  • Media Type: Print
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: pp 12-19
  • Monograph Title: Urban public transportation planning issues
  • Serial:

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00372409
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 0309034655
  • Files: TRIS, TRB
  • Created Date: Apr 29 1983 12:00AM