Calgary

[iago]

I've been in Calgary for just a few days (3? 4? whatever), and there's a lot here I'd like to comment on. 

Calgary almost feels like an American city.  It's big, fast moving, and people can actually drive.  However, what surprised me is how nice people are.  Everybody I've talked to (in restaurants, on the bus, etc) has been really nice.  Winnipeg is the same way, but I don't expect that kind of thing in a bigger city. 

Calgary has a series of walkways downtown called the +15 system (because it's roughly 15 feet off the ground).  According to Wikipedia, it's the largest of its kind and covers something like 26km.  The guy who invented (or planned or whatever) it won an award. 

Basically, using the +15's I can go to the third floor of my work and, without leaving a building, go anywhere downtown.  The buildings typically have stores, restaurants (entire food courts), attactions, and all kinds of other stuff in their +15s.  I've only been to 4 buildings, and I counted at least 20 restaurants, some stores, dentists, eye doctor, and an airplane hanging from the ceiling.  It's a really cool system.

Driving here is interesting.  Downtown they have reversable streets, which is something I've never seen before.  The streets are either 5 or 7 lanes (5, I think), and at rush hour they vary how many lanes are in each direction.  In the morning, it'll be 4 into downtown and 1 out, and opposite in the evening.  Really cool, but I'm surprised it doesn't cause a lot of accidents (they're clearly marked, but people are idiots). 

If you look at a map (http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=calgary) and zoom in a little, you'll see that the main streets are all formed into a grid.  Within each piece of the grid, streets have similar names.  I think it's a mixed blessing at best, because on one hand you can easily find somebody's house ("appleton?  That must be off apple drive!") but on the other hand, it gets really, really tricky because a lot of areas have over 5 (often over 10) different variations of each friggin' name ("Apple grove?  Apple way?  Apple Lane?  Street?  Boulevard?  Place?  Park?  Crescent?  Drive?  etc.etc.etc.)

Also, there's terrain here.  Not much, but some.  There's hills, valleys, rivers, little lakes, etc.  Where I come from (Winnipeg), it's totally flat, and we have 2 rivers and a whole bunch of creeks.  And that's it. 

So yeah, that's my first few thoughts on living in Calgary.  I'll post more as I think of it.

[CrAz3D]

Cool dude!  Winnipeg is a big city for me :(

Those "reversible" lanes are genius!

[Super_X]

They use reversable lanes like that a lot on the east coast, like the Turn Pike.

And right by the city I live in they have named the streets by the presidents, but they don't start at Washington, or end at Ford. Also, half the streets are set up on a grid, and the rest are like 20 degrees off of that grid. It's stupid.

[Joe]

They use reversable lanes like that a lot on the east coast, like the Turn Pike.

And right by the city I live in they have named the streets by the presidents, but they don't start at Washington, or end at Ford. Also, half the streets are set up on a grid, and the rest are like 20 degrees off of that grid. It's stupid.

Why would it end at Ford? It should end at Bush. Unless you're doing dead presidents, in which case it'd end one before Carter.. unless Carter came after Ford, but IIRC he was before him.

[Super_X]

x86] link=topic=8357.msg105352#msg105352 date=1168047970]

They use reversable lanes like that a lot on the east coast, like the Turn Pike.

And right by the city I live in they have named the streets by the presidents, but they don't start at Washington, or end at Ford. Also, half the streets are set up on a grid, and the rest are like 20 degrees off of that grid. It's stupid.

Why would it end at Ford? It should end at Bush. Unless you're doing dead presidents, in which case it'd end one before Carter.. unless Carter came after Ford, but IIRC he was before him.

Jimmy Carter is still alive. I just said "Ford" as a decent place to end. Oh well. It starts with Adams, and think it ends on Arthur. It doesn't repete.

[dark_drake]

If you like grid systems for roads, you should try driving in Salt Lake City. It's all on a grid and the streets are numbered like 1100 South, 1200 South, 900 East, etc.   It's amazing how well the system works.   :)

[Newby]

If you like grid systems for roads, you should try driving in Salt Lake City. It's all on a grid and the streets are numbered like 1100 South, 1200 South, 900 East, etc.   It's amazing how well the system works.   :)

From my experience in Arizona, it's similar.

[Super_X]

Most places I've been are. There are just stupid places (That I end up living in) that are horibally done.

[rabbit]

American city

people can actually drive

how nice people are

DOES NOT COMPUTE!  DOES NOT COMPUTE!

* rabbit starts shaking and his head explodes

[iago]

If you like grid systems for roads, you should try driving in Salt Lake City. It's all on a grid and the streets are numbered like 1100 South, 1200 South, 900 East, etc.   It's amazing how well the system works.   :)

From my experience in Arizona, it's similar.

Downtown Calgary is like that, you can find any address if you know where Centre st. and Centre Ave. (ie, the Nexus of the Universe) is.  The streets west of Centre st. are called 1st W, 2nd W, 3rd W, etc.  And east of Centre are called 1st E, 2nd E, etc.

It's confusing to have two of each street downtown, but you get used to it.

For example, I work at 100 4th ave NW, Calgary, AB.  That means I'm on 4th avenue (4 blocks north of Centre Ave), and 1 block (100) west of Centre street, which is obviously 1st St.

[rabbit]

"I'm at first and first...I must be at the nexus of the universe!"

[iago]

"I'm at first and first...I must be at the nexus of the universe!"

:)

A new observation: riding a bike through Calgary SUCKS.  I've never really ridden up or down hills before.  It's TIRING!  I thought I was going to die yesterday. 

<edit> The hill I ended up riding basically over, twice, is called Nose Hill. 

I took some pictures here, too.. check them out: http://www.javaop.com/~ron/ospap/show_category.php?category_id=40

[Super_X]

American city

people can actually drive

how nice people are

DOES NOT COMPUTE!  DOES NOT COMPUTE!

* rabbit starts shaking and his head explodes

You judge Jersey as the archetypal American city, Rabbit.

"I'm at first and first...I must be at the nexus of the universe!"

:)

A new observation: riding a bike through Calgary SUCKS.  I've never really ridden up or down hills before.  It's TIRING!  I thought I was going to die yesterday. 

<edit> The hill I ended up riding basically over, twice, is called Nose Hill. 

I took some pictures here, too.. check them out: http://www.javaop.com/~ron/ospap/show_category.php?category_id=40

What per cent of a grade do you think Nose hill is?

[iago]

The road I was on wasn't steep, maybe 15-20 degrees.  But it's looong, like 5 or 6km of continual climbing. 

Keep in mind, I was born and raised on the prairies. :P

[CrAz3D]

Keep in mind, I was born and raised on the prairies. :P

whats a prairie?;)