MYTH: The SWBRT would be better located on the Southwest Ring Road rather than 14th street SW.

FACT: Moving the SWBRT to the ring road would leave thousands of Calgarians without access to high-quality transportation, and would fail to serve numerous important destinations in Southwest Calgary.

Recently a suggestion has arose on social media that the SWBRT should be moved off of 14th street SW, on to the SW Ring Road in order to serve the deep south of Calgary. While some advocates of this idea appear to be suggesting this move simply as a way to keep the bus away from 14th street SW, others are claiming that this would actually improve the SWBRT project. This is not the case for a few important reasons.

There are a number of elements that are required for a bus route to be successful, one of which is the basic principle that the route needs to go from where people are, to where they want to go. In practice this means that a successful transit route needs to run through neighbourhoods and communities where people live, and then connect to the destinations those people want to access.

In short, transit needs populations and destinations, something the SWBRT already has in abundance.

In order to illustrate the differences between a 14th street SW SWBRT and one that is located on the Southwest Ring Road, the map above has been created showing the approved SWBRT route (green) and an entirely theoretical ring road-based route (orange). The circles indicate a 400m radius around approved SWBRT stations (green) and hypothetical stations along a ring road route (orange, with highlights showing overlap with existing Calgary housing).

POPULATIONS

The approved SWBRT stations serve at least 15 communities, which are home to thousands of Calgarians. Communities like Woodbine, Oakridge, Palliser, Braeside, Haysboro, Currie and South Calgary/Marda Loop are all along the route of the new service.

The route travels through the heart of Southwest Calgary, and this proximity to well-populated neighbourhoods means that thousands of people are within walking distance of the BRT. The route has an abundance of ‘built-in ridership’ that can immediately take advantage of the service.

By comparison, a BRT route located along the Southwest Ring Road does not benefit from traveling through Calgary’s Southwest communities. As mentioned in our previous Mythbuster, the Southwest Ring Road is envisioned as a bypass route, and is purposefully being constructed away from the built-up areas of the city. As such, much of its route travels through undeveloped fields, and is generally not located near populated areas. This distance to potential riders would exclude thousands of Calgarians from meaningful access to rapid transit, and would harm a ring road-based BRT’s ability to be successful, as potential riders would not have direct access to the service.

DESTINATIONS

There are a number of important destinations that are served by the approved SWBRT route, places that Calgarians are looking to access in an efficient way. These kinds of destinations are what drive demand for any bus service, and consist of the employment, health, education, recreation and retail destinations that Calgarians are seeking to access on a daily basis.

The SWBRT route provides direct walking-distance access to Mount Royal University (which employs and educates over 12,000 people), the Rockyview Hospital, Heritage Park, Glenmore Landing, the Calgary Jewish Community Centre, Southland Leisure Centre, Currie, Oakridge Co-op, Fish Creek Park and Downtown Calgary.

If the SWBRT were to be moved to the Southwest Ring Road, access to many of these destinations would be lost. A ring road-based route would add no new destinations for Calgary’s residents, and would actually remove direct access to important areas that citizens rely on, including southwest Calgary’s only hospital. Such a move away from 14th street would only harm the service and prevent efficient access to rapid transit in a part of town that has been historically under-served by high quality transportation options.

A FUTURE POSSIBILITY

Given that the Southwest Ring Road currently has significantly fewer people and destinations located along its route, moving the SWBRT to this road would mean a significantly impaired service for Calgarians. While the Southwest Ring Road is not a suitable location for the SWBRT, a future BRT service could potentially utilize the ring road for a portion of its route.

The City has approved development of a new community south of Fish Creek Park that has direct access to the Southwest Ring Road. The area known as Providence is projected to accommodate upwards of 32,000 residents and 11,000 jobs, and those future residents will require high-quality transportation options. As well, the Tsuut’ina Nation has recently announced plans for the future development of land along the ring road. These plans are reported to contain major commercial, retail, tourism and entertainment developments, and what is currently empty fields will one day become destinations that Calgarians will be looking to access.

These future populations and destinations are still years away from being a reality. Should a future BRT be planned along the Southwest Ring Road, it would function best as additional service in parallel with the SWBRT. Just as the Southwest Ring Road will not replace the need for 14th street SW, a ring road-based BRT would not replace the need for a 14th street SWBRT.







SERVING CALGARY BETTER

Without a local population or significant destinations, a BRT route along the Southwest Ring Road would lack the elements needed to be a successful and good-value-for-money transit service. A ring road-based BRT does not serve the people of Calgary, nor the destinations they are looking to access, while the approved SWBRT project already contains the elements needed for success.