With only one way to get on or off the platform at the Stampede/Victoria Park CTrain station, transit rider Jen Hall worried she’d be trapped if a fight or worse broke out.
This station is now under renovation. But the Chinook, Marlborough, Zoo and many other CTrain platforms have a similar design problem. It’s one of several physical elements that make passengers feel less safe on the train, according to text messages to CBC Calgary.
Hall works at a law firm downtown and recently met with CBC Calgary at the construction site.
“There were definitely times where I heard yelling or arguments, and that’s when I started thinking about the worst-case scenario: What are my options? Where am I? What can I do?”’ Hall said.
“I often travel alone and I’m by no means an athlete, so if I have to, where are my exits?”
Hall believes in transit. She “dumped” her car a few years ago and still takes the train or bus everywhere she needs to go. But she is much happier now that local renovations are progressing.
Transit rider Jen Hall says she feels safer on the Victoria Park/Stampede Station platform now that it is more integrated with surrounding streets and accessible from multiple points. (Lucy Edwardson/CBC)
Mirrors, convenience stores, toilets
In hundreds of text messages sent to CBC Calgary’s transit safety project, the most common solution suggested by CTrain customers is for Calgary to close the platforms with turnstiles or gates — an option city council has asked Calgary Transit to explore this autumn.
But that’s not the only physical design option to make stations safer, other passengers and experts say.
Some suggestions from Calgarians include more mirrors and better lighting to make the view better; others said they want the city to ensure there are multiple entry and exit locations, such as at the new Stampede Station. Still others want Calgary to bring back convenience stores, public restrooms, buses, or even community gardens and other elements to enliven the space.
All of these recent examples are part of a different approach to public safety, says Francisco Alaniz Uribe, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture.
“Stations that are really successful have multiple apps next to them and there’s a lot of traffic. It all creates more of a community environment, a safer environment,” he said.
“Integrated with the rest of the street”
For example, hop on over to Sunnyside Station, an inner-city CTrain stop north of the Bow River. He says this kind of public openness and vibrancy is already happening on a small scale.
U of C Assistant Professor of Architecture Francisco Alaniz Uribe says activating CTrain platforms with services and attractions is one way to make people feel safer. (University of Calgary)
“We have a grocery store next door, maybe not the best design arrangement, but there’s a grocery store, there’s two coffee shops 100 meters away, there’s a vacant lot with community gardens and an alternative event space nearby,” he said.
“This may continue in a future design.”
The professor says the new Stampede Park station design is also starting to do some of those things with its redesign.
“It’s very integrated with the rest of the street and that’s better when it comes to perception [of safety] and perhaps crime prevention as well,” he said.
“Even if no one else is on the platform, you don’t feel alone.”
Calgary Transit has a wide variety of stations built throughout the city. Some are integrated into neighborhoods, while others are surrounded by parking lots.
Calgarians texting CBC Calgary said that in many cases, instead of having service connected to the station, riders have to go around large stores to get to the entrance, such as those headed to the Superstore at McKnight /Westwinds.
And even relatively new stations like Sunalta and recently renovated stations like Chinook only have one entrance/exit to the platform.
Calgary Transit had no one to talk about the architecture and safety of the station. A spokesman said security teams consider sightlines and safety features on a daily basis, and designers pay attention to these principles every time they renovate or design new stations.
Integrated design
The Stampede Park redesign is being managed by the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation as it is integrated into the expanded BMO Convention Center and East Village downtown.
It is scheduled to be completed by next year at a cost of $60 million.
Kate Thompson, chief executive of CMLC, said the aim was to keep the station open so that it really felt part of the surrounding environment and all the activity in the new complex.
“So if there’s a busker or there’s a new door for the Stampede at that venue or a pop-up concert — whatever happens there can happen in a much larger area than traditionally just applied to a platform.”
The Stampede/Victoria Park redevelopment introduces new pedestrian access at street level. (CMLC)
So far, they have demolished Plus-15, the spiral ramp and staircase on the west side of McLeod Trail and the double staircase on the east side of the tracks, which was sandwiched between barbed wire fences.
And in October, two new pedestrian routes were opened, allowing foot traffic in the area for the first time in 40 years and access to the train from both ends of the platform and from both sides of the street.
“Open, easy to access and safer”
Taking CBC Calgary on a tour of Stampede Station, Hall says he’s already starting to feel the space is more alive and secure since the new pedestrian access points were added to the platform in October.
She pointed to the clear line of sight she now has as she approaches the platform as something that reassures her.
“There’s another option to go to safety if something happens on the platform,” she said.
“I feel like it can extend the time I feel comfortable on the platform. I used to look at the clock and say, ‘Okay, I think I might take a taxi home instead of the train’ … now I feel open, accessible and safer.”
Transit safety
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