Alberta Urbanism: Underrated Successes and Massive Challenges

Would you believe us if we said that the two big cities in Alberta — a province associated with cowboys and oil — are more “urbanist” than you thought? In this video we’re going to cover the underappreciated urbanism of Canada’s fifth and sixth biggest metro areas and talk about the fundamental challenge for urbanism in a place like this.

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[octranspo_owl]

An urbanist video that isn't all doomerism? In 2024? About Alberta??? Impossible!

On a serious note, I really hope more urbanist channels take your optimistic approach to things. The Reddit doomerist/armchair urbanist approach to making urbanist YouTube videos isn't gonna do much :)

[HallsEmporium]

Super interesting hearing an outside perspective. Thanks for taking the time to feature Calgary and Edmonton! I didn’t realize we were doing so well for density and light rail usage compared similarly populated cities.

[MultigrainKevinOs]

That was about as accurate of an assement of Alberta urbanism as any local could ever articulate. I am always impressed how you guys understand local communities so well through your research and experiences. Thanks for another outstanding video. I hope it motivates more ambitious urbanists to make a home here too we would love to have you all and there is so much potential in both cities.

[justanotheryoutubeviewer]

I would say one factor that plays into a lot of Albertans purchasing vehicles upon moving here (vs. not owning a vehicle in other parts of the country) is access to the outdoors. A substantial amount of people in Calgary spend their weekends in Banff, Kananaskis, etc. whereas Torontonians aren't going to Muskoka every weekend to bike, swim, and enjoy the outdoors. Good video overall!

[matthewlafrance]

Thanks for having in depth Edmonton content. Edmonton gets ignored a lot in the media so it’s nice to see this excellent content

[mackenzie-deltadurocher]

As someone in Lloydminster, I'd love a rail line between Edmonton and Calgary lol. Not only do I hate driving on the QE2, but I understand the value in having more public transit options between the centers and hope it could model expansion into further regions in coming decades.

[sgtpastry]

It's so weird that there aren't intercity trainlines in the prairies anymore. The village I'm from initially developed under the assumption that it would be a major stopping off point for train travel. I think that if we want to bring back trains we need to remind people that was the norm last century and that we should rebuild it. The Calgary-Edmonton line can be advertised as the starting off point.

[mchozen]

Having always lived in “10-15 minutes” neighbourhoods in Victoria and Edmonton while often working out of town and even in suburban developments, I appreciate when I am carless, not having to pay for fuel, maintenance and insurance.
When in Europe and Japan and even across Canada and the states, I took trains; even the now defunct Edmonton-Calgary train and recently decommissioned VanIsle train.(So sad.) Hopefully they’ll return. Trains are the best!
So proud Edmonton is leading the way, in more than just trains.
Thank you for this

[HipsterShiningArmor]

ngl that shot at 11:54 of that one intersection in suburban Edmonton with the tim hortons and the petro canada made laugh. thats like peak suburban Canada right there, and its amazing how much of this nation just kinda looks like that

[PlaidHiker]

The river valley park system in Edmonton is the largest urban park in north America. It has done my life more good than any other government service.

[stevevos]

I hope you come
Back to Edmonton in the summer. When the cycling infrastructure really shines. The river valley is the gem of Edmonton! Also a bike/food tour goes through some beautiful neighborhoods in Edmonton.

[jonathanvanheyst]

Thanks for a great video! One thing to add about Calgary's transit ridership - as of the end of February 2024 we have surpassed peak daily ridership from before the pandemic on our LRT system! Still lots of work to do to improve the system, but people have come back to using public transit in a big way.

[jamesgully]

As an Edmontonian for the last 20 years (but raised in a small Alberta town), I have to say you nailed this vid! What a lovely video you guys made. Thanks for featuring us, and never heard the Alberta mentality explained so accurately. I learned a lot too! Thank you for this.

[Arxsas]

This is excellent coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of urbanism in Alberta, great job! As someone born and raised in Calgary, you managed to cover the topic with the nuance of a local, though Calgary's bus system, from my experience, has pretty poor service (though I understand that this is changing). Both Calgary and Edmonton have big plans for urban mobility in the next few decades, so let's hope they can be actualized. These plans, if actualized, could dramatically shift how these cities evolve with their rapid growth, so let's hope for success despite the challenges brought by the provincial government.

[definitelynotacrab]

Being able to avoid the highway destruction is such a massive advantage, even if it takes time for attitudes to fully change, having a good core helps with not having to expensively remove massive car infrastructure eyesores.

[terry]

Loved hearing and seeing your perspectives and experiences in Edmonton. Glad you were able to make it here - really enjoy your work.

[colebevans]

As an Albertan I loved this video. People always hate on our cities for being “too sprawled” but I’ve never thought that was the case.

You can generally drive from any point to another within either city in under 30 min.

Walking, biking and transit as you mentioned are all very accessible for key locations.

For all the people who I hear complaining in Edmonton; if you work in an office you can live downtown, buy a cheap 5k car, and you might only drive the thing one day a week.

On the other hand as a very “blue collar” city in which a lot of work is done out of town; a lot of people do in fact need their trucks here. Just because someone is a welder with a big truck; that shouldn’t exclude them from easy downtown access either. Edmonton and Calgary seem to do a good job at balancing vehicle and public transit options to their downtown cores.

[Fenthule]

The density war is SOO bad here in Canada. I'm getting soo sick and tired of people who live on 4 acres 30 minutes outside of a city screeching conspiracy nonsense online and getting tons of attention for it. I'm tired of hearing about how building a 4plex or medium density apartment it's going to bring crime. And I'm *especially* tired of the blatant racism that often gets tied to housing discussions, due to immigration almost always being brought up. It's soo exhausting to try and have genuine discussions with people, trying to come up with solutions or compromises, when on the sidelines you have just the most abhorrent things being shouted out. I think we need to somehow get back to a form of a town hall meeting, but one available to EVERYONE. Not during business hours, do it on like a Saturday evening when the vast majority of people can attend. We need to step away from the technology and discuss things face to face. Bring the humanity back into the equations.

[matthewconstantine]

It hurts my heart when you say the bus frequency is pretty bad during off peak hours and I see the number, and it's the best case scenario for my local bus, which is part of what is considered one of the best transit systems in the US (admittedly, I'm on its outer edge).

[DamonLuciuk-tnjm]

As a Vancouverite who spent some time last winter in calgary the efficiency of the trains plesantly supprised me and made it easy to get around!! My one complaint is how the busses don't announce their stops like the transit in Vancouver