Calgary neighbourhood pushing city hall to make more space for vehicle traffic, not less

The Ramsay Community Association says long-planned changes to the 11th and 12th Street S.E. corridor won't deliver what residents need most — better access for vehicles travelling in and out of the community. 

Final design plans show the City of Calgary is set to create a permanent, multi-use pathway through a CPKC railway underpass for pedestrians, bicycles and public gathering.

The space earmarked for the pathway was used for vehicle traffic until 2020, when the City of Calgary closed one of the southbound lanes to create a cycling path. 

Then, the city closed a northbound vehicle lane in the summer of 2024 as part of a separate initiative to enhance safety for cyclists, leaving one lane open for vehicles heading in each direction. 

Ramsay Community Association vice-president Michael Garnett said the city should scrap the current arrangement and reopen all four lanes to vehicle traffic, given the heavy traffic residents often cope with. 

"Getting in and out of Ramsey … there's a train line that blocks our access," he said. 

"This can affect us … multiple times per day. It's completely unpredictable. It completely cuts off our community and makes any kind of planning very, very difficult." 

Ramsay is flanked on the north and east by CPKC rail lines, and trains can block access to some of the community's entry and exit points, including the roundabout west of Crossroads Market.

Long-time resident and former community association director Erin Joslin agrees that access and egress points for the neighbourhood are insufficient. 

"This is the concern we've had right from initiation on this project," she said. "If the train comes through at the wrong time … you see significant backup."

Changes to the underpass are planned as part of Calgary's Ramsay-Inglewood Public Realm Improvements Project.

The transformation work is part of the city's Transit Oriented Development (TOD) program, which aims to make the area more "transit-centred."

A light rail station between the two communities is included in the latest Green Line alignment plans. 

Street lighting, trees, widened sidewalks and curb extensions will be added between 11th Street S.E. and 12th Street S.E, according to the project information webpage.

The city said the aim is attracting more people to local businesses and providing comfortable spaces where people can socialize and be active. 

"It serves to improve the 11th and 12th Street corridor in the communities of Inglewood and Ramsay by … providing safe places to walk and wheel, key connections in between Inglewood and Ramsey," said project engineer Michael Keith. 

Garnett wants the city to adjust the improvements plans to reopen second lanes to vehicles through the 12th Street S.E. underpass. 

Joslin said she's worried the project will have more negative effects in the community than positive effects. 

"I spent so many meetings asking … What are the traffic impacts? Have you considered this?" she said. "It really feels like after all the time and effort we put in to communicate our needs to make sure that we were understood, we haven't been understood, we haven't been listened to."

The project team meets regularly with the Ramsay Community Association, according to Keith, and the final improvements plan was released after a multi-year engagement process with residents. 

Traffic analysis have occurred throughout the life cycle of the project, he added. 

"Changes to any one of those key design elements to provision for another would be at the detriment of all the previous due diligence," said Keith. 

Ward 9 councillor says other solutions possible

Worries over entry and exit points are well-founded, according to the councillor for Ward 9, but other solutions can be found.

"I appreciate your network connectivity concerns and I celebrate them and I will work with everybody on improving those situations, but not at the expense of a greatly improved public realm on a street that doesn't need a 1960s freeway-style underpass," said Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra.

Carra added the Green Line and improvements project will connect Ramsay and Inglewood in a more meaningful way than they've ever been connected before. 

"This has been well thought out, well planned, funded and shovels will be in the ground next year. And, you know, if you're not happy about that, it's happening." 

Early enabling work on the Ramsay-Inglewood Public Realm Improvements Project has already begun, and full construction is expected to launch in spring 2025.

Construction has also started on a Sixth Street S.E. underpass, west of Ramsay, according to the province. 

The city says a road connecting 25th Avenue S.E. and Blackfoot Trail S.E. from across a train line is also planned for the longer term.