Centre Street Bridge

One of the great places to walk in Calgary is Prince's Island Park, which is an urban green space on an island in the Bow River. From the park, one has a great view of downtown Calgary, the river and the Centre Street Bridge. This bridge was originally built in 1906, but was heavily damaged in a flood in 1915. It was re-built and opened a year later. It's one of the main entry points into downtown from the northern part of the city and is famous for the four stone lions that mark its entrances.

Cars travel across the river above and below the main span of the bridge. A walking and biking path also crosses underneath.

I was on the island the other evening and couldn't resist drawing it.

Moving around downtown Calgary is easy in the free public transit zone

One of the interesting things about Calgary is the city's Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system for public transportation. Built for the 1998 Olympics, the electric trains move people quickly in and out of the downtown core on three separate lines. The lines converge on 7th Avenue, where the major offices and shopping are located. It's really quite nice because in this stretch commuters can get on and off the train without paying. It's a free fare zone and it's a wonderful thing.

Calgary fulfilled a promise made by former premier Ralph Klein and joined a number of other cities around the world offering partial or free transit. It's a popular way to reduce vehicular traffic in downtown.

(You can see more about the Calgary Transit system in this information page.)

I believe subsidized public transit, made available for free to the public, offers many advantages for cities. Some time ago, I wrote a position in support of this idea as part of an on-line debate at Helium.com. The article is here. The debate is still active, so you'll see some of the arguments on both sides of the issue. My pseudonym is Pathseeker.

Related post: "Public transportation in Paris."

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Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/