Saturday, March 23, 2013 Woodcroft Library, Edmonton
Edmonton's public transit system has been useful to me during this winter away from my home in the Chilcotin, 1 000 kilometres to the west. I collected maps of various bus routes and the train route. Today I shall return these to the transit map shelves of the downtown library, and go to the nearby farmer's market for a cinnamon bun.
A single ticket costs $3.20, a book of 10 costs $24.00. I bought 11 books this winter. Each ticket allows 90 minutes of travel anywhere that the Edmonton Transit System goes, by train or bus. One exception is the $5.00 cost to ride the bus to the Edmonton International Airport, 20 kilometres south of the city. This bus is new since my last time in Edmonton, in December-January, 2011-2012: then, I paid about $18.00 for a ride on a hotel-based bus from the airport to Edmonton.
Here are the bus maps I collected, and which routes they describe:
1-West Edmonton Mall-Meadowlark-Jasper Place-Downtown-Capilano
2-Lessard-West Edmonton Mall-Downtown-Highlands-Clareview
3-Jasper Place-Downtown-Cromdale
4-West Edmonton Mall-University-Capilano
5-Westmount-Downtown-Coliseum
6-Mill Woods Transit Centre (TC)-Lakewood-Millgate-Southgate
7-Jasper Place-Downtown-University
8-Mill Woods Tc-Lakewood-Millgate-Downtown-Coliseum-Abbottsfield
9-Southgate-Downtown-Kingsway-Northgate-Eaux Claires
10-Coliseum-Belvedere-Clareview
12-Northgate-Wellington-Kingsway-Downtown
14-West Edmonton Mall-Jasper Place-Downtown
15-Mill Woods-Millgate-Downtown-Kingsway-NAIT-Eaux Claires
23-Mill Woods-Century Park-Leger-West Edmonton Mall
30-Mill Woods-Century Park-Leger-South Campus
31-Leger-Southgate
34-Southgate-Leger
45-Century Park-Southgate
52-Southgate-82 Avenue-Government Centre-Downtown
54-South Campus-University
57-University-Whyte Avenue-Downtown
70-Mill Woods TC-Lakewood-82 Avenue-Downtown
94-Capilano-Bonnie Doon-University
100-Lewis Farms-West Edmonton Mall-Downtown
106-University-South Campus-West Edmonton Mall-Lessard
111-West Edmonton Mall-Jasper Place-Downtown
112-West Edmonton Mall-Downtown-Capilano
113-West Edmonton Mall-Jasper Place
114-Winterburn-Mayfield Common-Jasper Place
115-West Edmonton Mall-Westmount-Northgate
120-Jasper Place-Downtown-Stadium
125-Jasper Place-Westmount-Kingsway-Downtown
128-University-Westmount-Calder-Castle Downs
136-West Edmonton Mall-Lewis Farms-The Grange-The Hamptons
137-West Edmonton Mall-Northwest Industrial-Northgate-Clareview
150-West Edmonton Mall-Jasper Place-Westmount-Northgate-Eaux Claires
180-Abbotsfield-Belvedere-Eaux Claires-Downtown
181-Clareview-Londonderry-Belvedere
310-Rio Terrace-Meadowlark-Jasper Place
317-Winterburn-Mayfield Common-Jasper Place
319-Westview Village-Winterburn Industrial
LRT (Light Rail Transit)-Century Park-Southgate-South Campus-University-Downtown-Stadium-
Coliseum-Belvedere-Clareview
I probably rode about half of these routes, some quite often, 1 and LRT most often. I lived two blocks from Jasper Place Transit Centre, noted in many routes above. This centre, about three km northeast of West Edmonton Mall, and about five km west of Downtown Edmonton, is 15 bus minutes from the mall and 25 minutes from downtown. Bus 1's eastern terminus at Capilano is about five km east of downtown.
Route 1 is not Edmonton's longest route; 23 is, according to one bus driver I met. Edmonton has many long routes, longer than those it had when I last lived there, in 1986.
The LRT extends from Century Park, about eight km south of downtown, to Clareview, about eight km northeast of downtown. It was most useful for getting to the University of Alberta, across the North Saskatchewan River from downtown.
Other buses I often rode are the 7, 14, 111, 120, 123, and 125. Bus 125 got me to this library near Westmount Mall, today, for example. Other malls on bus lines, besides West Edmonton and Westmount, are Meadowlark, Kingsway, City Centre, Capilano, Londonderry, Northgate, Southgate, and Mill Woods.
Edmonton transit is good, considering how low Edmonton's population density is. Even neighborhoods of single detached houses, which sprawled onto the surrounding prairie in the past two decades, have buses. Bus 136 got me within a kilometre of my Edmonton employer's Christmas party at River Cree Resort. That glitzy resort is on the Enoch Indian Reserve past the city's western edge, beyond the Hamptons, a new, low-density neighborhood.
Still, the private vehicle dominates Edmonton, as it dominates other North American cities. This unecological, uneconomic policy direction makes these cities expensive to inhabit and service. The 2008 United States banking crisis left whole US suburbs of empty, foreclosed houses. Grass grows through the street cracks in Camden, New Jersey, where RCA Victor once brought prosperity in the postwar era of progressive taxation and union-built infrastructure. Happily, urban gardeners jackhammer away derelict mall parking lots and grow food in many US cities, as the Post Carbon Institute and general relocalization movement encourage.
Some people discard their cars and walk or use public transit. The average number of kilometres annually driven in private vehicles in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) declines annually. My downtown home in Williams Lake, BC (12 000) allows me to walk to work, shopping, and recreation. Williams Lake boasts that BC's most-utilized public transit among cities its size.
Montreal writer Yves Engler's book, Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism, explains the decline of public transit and rise of private vehicles in North America:
http://yvesengler.com/yves-books/
Business investment and government policy, not social or even business efficiency, made this vehicle-dominated landscape.
Walk, share vehicles, ride the bus and train, travel less, enjoy it more, and change the landscape, including the landscape in your head.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Saint Patrick's Day Greeting from Edmonton
Sunday, March 17, 2013 Mill Woods Public Library, Edmonton
Happy Saint Patrick's Day, readers, from the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) branch in Mill Woods Town Centre Mall. Patrick is centuries old. EPL turned 100 this month:
http://www.epl.ca/
This year's library memberships are free, not the usual $12.00. Last week I renewed the annual membership I got in September, 2012. I thought it would then last until March, 2014, but it will last until September, 2014. I will move from Edmonton this month, but I will still be able to borrow electronic books.
As my return home to British Columbia approaches, I rejoice at this city's libraries and pools. As of today, I have been in all branches of each. This morning I was in the city's wave pool:
http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/sport_recreation/mill-woods-recreation-centre.aspx
I type in a busy library, packed with people of all ages minutes after it opened at 1:00 this afternoon. Many patrons are South Asian, whose people came to this southeast Edmonton suburb decades ago.
Edmonton is more multinational than it was the last time I lived here, in 1986. I have met people from many countries: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Kenya, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, Nigeria, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Japan, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and the United States.
Perhaps children growing up here will accept other cultures, and bring peace to a fractious world.
Meanwhile back in Ireland, Saint Patrick died centuries ago; but his emerald isle exported so many people to America that 20-50 million there have Irish blood in them. My dad's mom was born in Ireland, came to Canada in the 1910s, and died a year before I was born.
I drank green beer on Friday: looked like lime juice, tasted like beer.
In a couple weeks, I'll drink springwater from the Chilcotin Region, home, 1 000 kilometres west of this multilingual city of a million on the edge of the Canadian Prairies.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day, readers, from the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) branch in Mill Woods Town Centre Mall. Patrick is centuries old. EPL turned 100 this month:
http://www.epl.ca/
This year's library memberships are free, not the usual $12.00. Last week I renewed the annual membership I got in September, 2012. I thought it would then last until March, 2014, but it will last until September, 2014. I will move from Edmonton this month, but I will still be able to borrow electronic books.
As my return home to British Columbia approaches, I rejoice at this city's libraries and pools. As of today, I have been in all branches of each. This morning I was in the city's wave pool:
http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/sport_recreation/mill-woods-recreation-centre.aspx
I type in a busy library, packed with people of all ages minutes after it opened at 1:00 this afternoon. Many patrons are South Asian, whose people came to this southeast Edmonton suburb decades ago.
Edmonton is more multinational than it was the last time I lived here, in 1986. I have met people from many countries: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Kenya, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, Nigeria, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Japan, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and the United States.
Perhaps children growing up here will accept other cultures, and bring peace to a fractious world.
Meanwhile back in Ireland, Saint Patrick died centuries ago; but his emerald isle exported so many people to America that 20-50 million there have Irish blood in them. My dad's mom was born in Ireland, came to Canada in the 1910s, and died a year before I was born.
I drank green beer on Friday: looked like lime juice, tasted like beer.
In a couple weeks, I'll drink springwater from the Chilcotin Region, home, 1 000 kilometres west of this multilingual city of a million on the edge of the Canadian Prairies.
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