Review of Edmonton's West & Southeast LRT Route



Edmonton's West & Southeast LRT Lines

Image Credit: www.edmonton.ca



As some of you may know already Edmonton is expanding its LRT network for the first time in 30 years.  With the leadership of Stephen Mandel our northern city has finally realized that simply expanding our roadways does not solve any commuting problems.  Widening roadways has exactly the opposite effect as more people tend to use the roadway which can lead to congestion and traffic jams.

The link below redirects you to an interactive Google map, so that you can take a look at the planned stations.

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204434690165192913619.00049ed94ce100e6bc2b8&z=11



Edmonton's West and SE LRT lines



First let me list some stats for the new lines.  The whole line is 26.89 km long and consists of 29 stations and a end to end travel time of 57 minutes and an average speed of 33 km/h.  For comparison, Edmonton's existing LRT line is 20 km long with 15 stations, end to end  travel time of 33 minutes and an average speed of 33 km/h. The new lines has a 77% increase in travel time, and a 15% reduction in average speed, however it also has an 93% increase in the number of stations.  

The doubling of stations per kilometer means that you are basically doubling the this lines catchment area.  While the existing line may seem faster, the travel times to not account for transfer times or time that is spent travelling to an area that is not serviced by an LRT stop.  If you do not place a LRT stop in an area it means that you have to travel to either station before or after and transfer to a bus or walk/cycle to your destination.  With the increase of stations per kilometer with the new line, it is more likely that your destination is more direct and you will not need to spend as much time travelling after disembarking the LRT.



Image Credit: www.edmonton.ca



The new lines will utilize low floor LRT vehicles, which enables the construction of low key glorified sidewalk stations and lower construction costs  (the full analysis of the benefits of low floor LRT can be found here.)  The new lines will still have its own right-of-way meaning that it does not have to compete with other traffic.  The new lines will still have priority signalling, meaning that any at grade intersections are prioritized to allow the train to proceed smoothly.  Gone will be the barriers of the existing transit, with a simple curb separating automobile lanes from the LRT line.  The curb will give way along the route for intersections and easy pedestrian/cyclist crossings and the track will be embedded into the the roadway.

As I have stated before 800 m is the largest distance that will encourage spontaneous transit usage, as it takes about 12 minutes to walk 800 m.  So I have created maps outlining each lines 800 m walkable zones.  Please note that these zones are not entirely accurate as they do not account for obstacles such as fences, buildings, hills or rivers, these zones are meant to provide a rough understanding of how walkable an area is.

West LRT


West LRT Line 800 m Catchment Zones

The West LRT line is 12.57 km long from the western Lewis Estates station to the western edge of Downtown Edmonton and consists of 14 stations.  The City of Edmonton website estimates that the maximum travel time from the Lewis Estates station to the campus station will be 28 minutes, so this work out to an average travel speed of 27 km/hr.   The following tables outline the distances, times and destinations within 800 m for each station on the West LRT line.





The ideal distance between stations would again be 800 m, based on this 10 of the 14 planned west LRT stations fall under 15 minutes of walking time between stations.  This is again shown through the 800 m walking zone map, as there is often some overlap between the zones.  The overlap tends to increase as stations approach the core, this is ideal as you want to promote walking in the core as much as possible.  It can also be noted that the five outermost stations reside in neighbourhoods that utilize modern suburbia planning methods.  This means that no grid network of roadways exists and that it will often be a hassle for sustainable transportation modes to navigate these regions. 

As you can see the west LRT line connects 3 hospitals, 2 shopping centers, 2 commercial roadways, more than 14 schools, more than a dozen community leagues, 2 post-secondary institutions, and a number of parks including the river valley.  My list does not account for the hundreds of businesses, and tens of thousands of residents along the line. 

Downtown



Downtown LRT Connector Walkable Zones

The Downtown LRT connector is 1.91 km long from the western Campus station to the eastern Quarters station and consists of 5 stations.  The City of Edmonton does not provide estimates for travel times for this section yet, but assuming similar west LRT average travel speeds of 27 km/hr, the maximum travel time will be 4.5 minutes.  

With the existing and the new NAIT lines this will bring the total number stations in the downtown area  to twelve.  The new downtown LRT line will run parallel one block from the existing LRT line and the station locations will be staggered between the the existing station locations.  With the exception of the Churchill stations, it will only take at most 5 minutes to transfer between lines. The following tables outline the distances, times and destinations within 800 m for each station on the downtown LRT connector.



From these tables it can be shown that the downtown LRT connector is highly walkable with no inter-station walking times exceeding 7 minutes.  There is also a high mix of attractions and destinations within 800 m of the downtown line.  This includes 1 mall, 2 post-secondary schools, 1 school, a intercity bus station, a future downtown Arena and district, the farmers market, and 1 hospital.  Again my list does not account for the hundreds of restaurants, bars, and businesses or the thousands of downtown residents. 

The downtown LRT design is also great in that it sets out to turn 102 ave into a partial pedestrian mall  (see image above Image credit: www.edmonton.ca).  There will only ever be 1 car lane along 102 ave for business and local access, and west and south bicycle lanes will be installed along with wide sidewalks.  The section of 102 ave between 99 and 100 st that flanks Churchill square will be completely closed to automobile traffic. 














































Southeast


Southeast LRT walkable zones

The West LRT line is 12.41 km long from the eastern downtown Quarters station to the southeast Millwoods station and consists of 10 stations.  The City of Edmonton website estimates that the maximum travel time from the Lewis Estates station to the campus station will be 25 minutes, so this work out to an average travel speed of 30 km/hr.   Its interesting because you can see that by dropping 4 stations from approximately same length as the west line you increase your average speed by 3 km/hr. The following tables outline the distances, times and destinations within 800 m for each station on the southeast LRT line.





The ideal distance between stations would again be 800 m, based on this only 4 of the 10 planned southeast LRT stations fall under 18 minutes of walking time between stations.  This is again shown through the 800 m walking zone map, as there is not that much overlap between the zones.  It can also be noted that the four of the outermost stations reside in neighbourhoods that utilize modern suburbia planning methods.   Two of the stations reside in industrial zones. 

As you can see the southeast LRT line connects 3 hospitals, 3 shopping centers, more than 6 schools, and a number of community leagues, and a number of parks including the river valley.  Again my list does not account for the hundreds of businesses, and tens of thousands of residents along the line.