Calgary, Alberta

:This page refers to the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. For other places with the name Calgary, see Calgary (disambiguation)

Transportation

Calgary is a major Canadian transportation centre and a central cargo hub for freight into and out of north-western North Americahttp://www.calgaryairport.com/document.cfm?did=700. The city also sits at the junction between the "Canamex" highway system and the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1 in Alberta). The Calgary International Airport serves the city as well as the international traffic for Alberta and Saskatchewan. The airport saw 9.1 million passenger movements in 2004. In December of that same year, it was the third busiest airport in Canada after Toronto Pearson International Airport and the Vancouver International Airport. It is marginally busier than Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. It is one of Canada's busiest cargo airports as well. Calgary is also by far, the largest Canadian city without any intercity passenger rail service as all VIA Rail service to the city was terminated in the late 80's and early 90's by the Conservative government.

Related Topics:
Trans-Canada Highway - Highway 1 - Calgary International Airport - Toronto Pearson International Airport - Vancouver International Airport - Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport - VIA Rail

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Calgary's mass transit system is operated by Calgary Transit. The light rail transit (LRT) system, known as the C-Train, in the city consists of 42.1 km of track connecting 36 stations and was one of the first such systems in North America. Until very recently, Calgary, Alberta and Edmonton, Alberta were the only two, under 1 million population cities in North America, to operate mass rapid transit systems. The Whitehorn-City Centre line serves downtown and the Northeast, while the Dalhousie-Somerset line runs between the Northwest and South Calgary via Downtown. Travel between stations along 7th Avenue in downtown is free-of-charge. Unique to the C-Train system, its power is completely wind generated and is thus completely free of emissions. As well as the LRT, Calgary Transit has an effective system of buses, and has routes stretching all over the city. It has won several prestigious awards for its efficiency and its environmental responsibility. It consists of over 160 bus routes and three C-Train lines (two routes) stretching over 4,500 km.

Related Topics:
Calgary Transit - C-Train - Calgary, Alberta - Edmonton, Alberta

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The City of Calgary maintains an impressive network of paved bicycle paths. The dedicated path network in Calgary is among the most expansive in North America and spans 583km. There are also about 200km of bike lanes. A PDF Map is available from the City of Calgary Website. The pathways connect many of the city's parks, the river valley, residential neighbourhoods, and downtown. Even the airport is on the path network. Thousands of people make year-round use these paths for walking, running, and cycling to various destinations, including to work. Calgary's system of elevated walkways or skyways downtown (known as the +15 system) is the most extensive in the world. These walkways not only serve to connect buildings, but also contain restaurants, shops, and services. The system is 16 kilometres long.

Related Topics:
Airport - Skyway - +15

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Calgary has an extensive, efficient, and well-maintained street network. Smaller roads are supplemented with a number of major arteries and freeways, the largest of which is the north-south running Deerfoot Trail (Queen Elizabeth II Highway/Highway 2). Other major expressways include Glenmore Trail, Macleod Trail (although it is only a principal arterial road north of Anderson Road), named for one of the city founders, Colonel James MacLeod, and Crowchild Trail, named for the 1800s Blackfoot leader Chief Crowchild. Note that the vast majority (but not all) of the main expressways and freeways are Trails, as well as some of the main arterial roads that do not fit in the numbering grid.

Related Topics:
Deerfoot Trail - Queen Elizabeth II Highway/Highway 2 - Glenmore Trail - Macleod Trail - James MacLeod - Crowchild Trail - Blackfoot - Chief Crowchild

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The city is divided into four quadrants, commonly known as the Northeast, the Northwest, the Southeast and the Southwest. Traditionally, Calgary's roads were built on a grid system with numbered Streets (running north-south) and Avenues (running east-west) on a quadrant system, with most addresses ending in suffixes NW, NE, SE or SW. The central point of the quadrant system is the Centre Street Bridge, with Centre Street and Centre Avenue forming the boundaries (although the points vary; most of the south end has Macleod Trail as a boundary, except near Chinook Centre where Macleod dives eastward slightly; in the west end, the Bow River forms the boundary for the most part). An interesting quirk is that the numbers actually start at 100 for addresses on Avenues and 0 for addresses on Streets. For example, 550 8th Avenue SW is between 4th and 5th Street SW and 550 8th Street SW is between 5th and 6th Avenue SW. Numbered roads exist all the way into the suburban and rural areas outside the city, although those are mixed in with named streets and only used when they roughly fall in place on the grid.

Related Topics:
Quadrant - Chinook Centre

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