Where we’re going we don’t need roads

(Actually we will need roads.)

I had a fantastic Saturday in Edmonton. Here’s where I’ll tell you why it was such a good day.

Of course, the weather was beautiful. Sunny, hot, blue sky with puffy white clouds, just a few minutes of rain early evening…perfect summer day stuff. That always puts a bounce in the step.

But it was more than that. I got a haircut. That’s always nice too, but not really what this is all about.

I saw an Edmonton that was for the urbanite. It was walkable, transit-connected, bike-orientated, local, for just about everyone, and fun.

I tweeted that it was a glimpse into what Edmonton could be in the future, at least on a regular basis, and I stand by that. Let me walk you through what I did, to explain.

The main part of this story begins on the High Level Bridge Streetcar. I finally got to ride one of the streetcars that wasn’t the Australian one. That one is nice, but they have three of them and I’ve never been on the other two.

I finally got a different ride, on the German streetcar. It’s red and sleek and feels a little more modern than it’s Aussie counterpart. Riding an old, yet new, form of transit from the southside, across the picturesque river valley, is always fun. And it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to get to the Grandin area (109 Street south of Jasper Avenue).

The streetcar is a good time, but it’s also a great example of re-purposing old tracks for something that can continue to be used. It also makes me sad that we had streetcars a long time ago and they’re all gone now. Especially when you hear about the new, low-floor LRT that will likely be running down the centre of main streets, mimicking that streetcar of old.

Off the streetcar, I walked about six blocks to the Bikeology Festival happening in Beaver Hills House Park, at Jasper and 105 Street. This is one of Edmonton’s many, many, summer festivals. This one is all about the bicycle though.(June is bike month in Edmonton.)

I chatted with the Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club about day-trips and evening rides they do in and around Edmonton. They’re seeing a surge in popularity. They also do a handful of rides between Jasper and Banff, some very rugged and others with stops and proper rest places on the way.

The Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’ Society was on hand, talking about the best way to get to work, dressing for the weather, and tune-ups. I really get the sense that Edmonton’s bike scene is growing. If it’s not expanding, people are certainly more open about loving their bicycles, and using them for more than just some summer exercise.

(Don’t forget to track down a map of all the city’s bike trails and routes!)

This year, if you headed just a bit northeast of Bikeology, you found more bikes and more options to driving your car on the road.

The City held its first Park(ed) event on 102 Avenue, between 104 and 100 Streets. In conjunction with Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Bikefest, you saw a lot of two-wheeled options to the automobile. You also saw that roads don’t always have to be for cars and trucks.

Besides bikes and walking, the point of Park(ed) was to take over parking spaces. People got to throw down some AstroTurf (if they wanted) and set up camp (as you can see to the right, sometimes literally) in a plot of pavement usually reserved exclusively for a car, truck, van or motorcycle. It was a great street party, and fun for the whole family, but it was also about re-thinking the city.

We have a few street parties through the summer, including the Art Walk on Whyte Avenue, but here we were, in the downtown core, walking down the middle of the street on a busy Saturday. I loved it. I hope people thought about that fact that we don’t have to build everything to suit the automobile.

We don’t have to turn every street into a giant sidewalk, but we can think about pedestrians, think about neighbourhood use, transit, bike lanes, all kinds of things that both move us around and get us outside to meet the community.

Now, 104 Street, in my opinion, IS a street that could be pedestrian-only, between Jasper and 102 Avenue. If not all the way up to 104 Avenue.

The Downtown Farmers’ Market takes the street over every Saturday through the spring, summer and some of fall, it’s already narrow, it’s becoming one of the greatest examples of a busy core with high population density, and its got plenty of street-level interaction and retail.

The farmers’ market (and the many others in and around Edmonton) is a another example of something we can keep moving toward; local food. It doesn’t have to be local at the exclusion of all other foods, but when something can be grown right here it’s often better to buy it right here. It at least supports the local food economy.

It was great to see Bikeology connected to Park(ed) and the Bikefest, and all of it right by the always busy farmers’ market.

But that’s not all that happened Saturday.

Park(ed)’s reign on the street ended as you moved east down 102 Avenue, but I soon found myself at an energetic Churchill Square. The basketball nets were busy, people were making their way to the fountain at City Hall to cool off, ‘boarders were at the temproary skate park, street food was flowing (summer foods like ice cream and hot dogs), and there was even a rock show this weekend.

That all really melted together nicely, within a few, walkable, blocks. And it was another block to the bus, to ride back to the southside.

We talk a lot about making the city more sustainable, building more LRT tracks and getting more people out of their cars, revitalizing the downtown and older, core,  neighbourhoods. There are certainly things that get in the way, like the Edmonton Public School Board shutting down central schools, and our endlessly growing roadways and sprawling suburbs.

But, I think this weekend proved we can become a different kind of city, without even changing all that much.

Jun 21, 2010 | Categories: Neighbourhoods | Tags: back to the future, beaver hils house park, bikeology, churchill square, CITY HALL, city of edmonton, farmers market, high level streetcar, jeff, park(ed), skate park, summer, transit, walkable | 2 Comments »