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Home    Sustainable Okotoks    10 Branches of Sustainability    8. Transportation

8. Transportation

Transportation accounts for between 25% and 50% of the energy consumed in a community
Canada vs. the rest of the world
  • Europeans travel to work and on daily errands is 50% shorter on average than similar trips in North America - This has to do with how we design our communities.
  • Doubling residential or population density reduces the annual auto mileage per capita by 20 to 30%.
Roads
  • 32nd street is identified as the future truck route when 32nd street bridge is completed, rerouting  trucks out of the downtown core, maintaining a more pedestrian oriented commercial district.
  • Highway 2A is also not to exceed four lanes to maintain its moderate main street scale.
  • Mixed land uses, reduced road width, homebased businesses, pathway development, and encouragement of alternative modes of transportation reduce long term municipal investment in infrastructure
Other design guidelines to promote more pedestrian oriented streets:
  • Residential road standards reduced to 8.9 m without lanes and 9 m with lanes from current 10 m standard.
  • Roads tapered inward on midblocks where paths cross roadways to reduce road width at pedestrian crossings.
  • Squaring of corners at intersections reduce intersection dimension and radius, and shorten pedestrian crossing distance and reduce traffic speed with exception of Highway 2A, Highway 7, and 32 Street.
  • All new roads to be designed with development facing rather than backing onto the road.
  • Preference for separated sidewalk system to improve pedestrian environment on all new roads in tandem with boulevard tree planting.
  • Consideration of pedestrian streetlight standard in new residential areas (eg. Sandstone Gate).
  • Adoption of a pedestrian scale street name post, sign post and municipal signage system for new development areas, including program to retrofit existing areas.
  • Limited access to development from Highway 2A to reduce clutter, maintain road safety, and improve aesthetic.
  • New neighbourhoods to consider road patterns that displace traffic over several roadways.
  • Elizabeth and Elma Streets to be identified as priority street improvement projects to reduce traffic congestion, economize parking, and stimulate downtown revitalization.
Transit System
An ideal sustainable designed transit system should have one main central transit hub connected to a variety of neighbourhood stations. The main Town hub is to also function as a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Area with high density and mixed / multi use development. Within Okotoks the central station and TOD would be ideal in historic downtown Okotoks as it is the geographical centre of the community, an ideal location for higher density development and has an existing strong pedestrian streetscape connecting to the overall Town pathway system.
 
A bedroom community such as Okotoks would also need to utilize a Park and Ride Facility to provide parking and connection to the transit system for our residents and those of the surrounding municipalities.
 
Currently a private contractor provides a commuting service from Okotoks to downtown Calgary however through The Calgary Regional Partnership as Regional Rapid Bus Service is being designed for all of the surrounding municipalities (including Okotoks)for potential implementation in 2010. The Town is designing a local transit system in tandem with the CRP commuter bus system to support the door-to-door commute and for public access to all parts of Okotoks through a public transit system.
 
If every commuting resident spent one day a week working at home, traffic would be reduced by 20% during the week! Think of how Deerfoot would improve!