Now is the time to Allow Real Community Involvement in the Calgary South West Bus Rapid Transit Project.  It is never too late to do the right thing.  Please support this petition to call for a review of the project design for the 14th Street SW and Glenmore Trail segments.

The multi-year approval cycle for Calgary planning may provide stability for the City but proves difficult in capturing the current needs of the communities.  A 2010 City approval of the Calgary SW Bus Rapid Transit project has been quietly progressing in the background with city planners. This project covers nearly half the city and has taken on a life of its own, even though affected Calgarians object to the south half of the project.  The City’s Public Notifications purposefully seem to miss informing the public and the information is so high-level that communities cannot determine the project parameters upon which to comment, thereby ending up with only unanswered questions.

The Mayor’s efforts have been to manage the project progress by a PR campaign against the concerned Calgarians and his directive to stop engaging the dissenting communities was disappointing.  Fortunately he has reversed his directive but the recent engagement was effective only as a PR effort.

Recent community feedback on all project options has been extensive and overwhelmingly full of unanswered questions or disapproving.  A City purchased survey of “1001” Calgarians is summarized as supportive of City Planning but upon detailed review of the survey, the generic nature of the survey questions and the consolidation of the results seem more like a push poll; generating good headlines – PR again.

In these difficult economic times, proceeding with a project generated in 2010 without addressing details and without the project being finalized for community approval - seems incoherent and fiscally questionable.  Further challenging the project approval is the large community contention of failure, for both goals of improved traffic flow and rapid bus transit.

Albeit the money for the project is a mix of civic, provincial and federal grants I believe that all public money should be spent wisely regardless of the source of the money.  Efforts to get the project paused, while recent design issues are raised and costed, are met with “it is already approved” by Ward Councillors.  I requested various Calgary City Councillors to pass a motion referring the project back to study but the overwhelming response is “it would be a political hot potato” to propose a motion in another Councillor’s ward, when those project Ward Councillors have refused a direct request.  Yes, I can understand this position but my reply was “ineffective planning and improper process are coming to your wards too”.

Please sign my petition to the “Best Mayor in the World 2014” and the Calgary Councillors, asking them to put forth and approve a Motion-in-Council to return the 14th Street SW and Glenmore Trail segments of the South West Bus Rapid Transit Project to study.  Hopefully other Calgarians will have projects more readily welcomed and better planned.