Calgary Herald letters: Cities can create safer streets for seniors

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Re: Design cities for our aging population, Aug. 24

This excellent column points out the need for greater care when designing various aspects of our environment. The example of traffic signal timing, which is often too short to allow some seniors and those with mobility limitations to cross the street safely, is a good illustration of the problem. Timing has typically been based on an assumed walking speed of about one metre per second (m/s). However, some people walk much slower than this. For example, the speeds for those using crutches or a cane are .78 m/s, while those with knee arthritis walk .74 m/s.

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Average walking speeds for those over 60 years of age are 1.23m/s, which means that half of them walk more slowly than this. A study in Sweden found that a comfortable walking speed for those over 70 was .67 m/s.

It would help senior pedestrians to have more mid-block crosswalks, as many seniors do not walk an additional distance of 100 metres to cross at an intersection. Thus many will jaywalk.

Additional problems arise for many pedestrians under winter conditions when they are wearing heavy boots.

Robert Dewar, Calgary

UCP can’t cherry-pick freedoms

After reading the article about “compassionate intervening” of drug users, I am gobsmacked about the hypocrisy of the UCP government.

During the COVID pandemic, they claimed it was an infringement of a person’s freedom to have them get vaccinated, stay at home and/or wear a mask. To have them take away a drug user’s freedom is the same ilk.

If the word “compassion” is to be used, the UCP government should have thought about people who were immune-compromised and were susceptible to a higher risk of contracting COVID, and also the medical community working with patients, etc. When individuals refused to listen to the health experts of the world, that is when they should have confiscated a person’s right to freedom.

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Freedom should be universal, not cherry-picked.

Kathy Hoggan, Edmonton

City won’t listen, why should we?

How would city councillors (except the six that actually listen to their constituents) react if 70 per cent of us decided we didn’t want to listen to them about water restrictions?

Would they feel as impotent as the citizens of Calgary?

Mary-Anne Loftus, Calgary

Rail service too essential to stop

Given how critical rail transport is to the Canadian economy, I find it extremely difficult to understand why it took the federal government until the last possible moment before initiating binding arbitration on rail companies and unions.

For the unions to immediately ignore this ruling and initiate strike action is unacceptable.

There may be valid reasons for the workers to be dissatisfied with threatened changes to their terms of employment. Nevertheless, compromise is the key and this required a return to work. Canadians cannot afford to be held for ransom by a small group of rail union leaders.

Trudeau should have stepped in early in to sort out this mess. Yet again it is politics first, Canadians second and another nail in his political coffin.

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Nicholas Worthington, Calgary

Monday letters:

Monopolies only good for the business

In Canada, there is no real competition for essential services. We have two airlines, two railways, two major internet providers, five grocers, five big banks, two meat processors, etc.

The monopoly owners of the two railways have a business model that cannot operate in a loss position. I am from the group in the food chain of these successful companies who pays for everything. The financial statements of these publicly owned companies illustrate that they are making a profit.

As an employee of these companies (essential services), there is a great advantage for salary/benefits/work schedule negotiations as all company cost increases get passed on down the line to the consumer. We never really know the details from the employee’s perspective. We just hear higher, better, more flexible. Higher than what, better than what?

I know we have no right to know the details although I do know all cost increases will be added to everything I need to survive. The ultimate payer for any increase is always us.

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Brian McConaghy, Foothills County

Lights off policy could also benefit bottom line

Re: Birds’ fall migration calls for Calgarians to turn off the lights, Aug. 23

Would turning off lights for bird migration also be a benefit to the grid?

I would assume with today’s technology that companies could contribute. An example would be an announcement to employees that at 10 p.m. all lights would be automatically turned off. If anyone had to stay longer, those lights could be turned on and off manually or by sensors.

It may even be beneficial to employees to promote workplace balance.

Ron Millette, Calgary

High density vs. green space and mental health

I recently read an article exploring what happens to our mental health when we are living in high-density neighbourhoods. It cites a 2023 survey by the non-profit Happy Cities for Vancouver Coastal Health, reporting that “people residing in apartments and row housing reported the same levels of well-being as those who lived in single-family homes.”

But what urbanites do need, says the author, is “access to public greenery — trees, grass, parks, sports fields, community gardens and trails. Those are the kinds of spaces that keep people healthy, tranquil, physically active and engaged with their communities.”

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I have seen beautiful green spaces in many large, dense European cities that are well-used by locals and visitors alike. In Calgary, we are now witnessing new multi-unit residential developments being quickly squeezed onto urban land, particularly in communities close to downtown. In new housing builds, private backyards are shrinking in size or disappearing altogether.

Are our city leaders giving thought to developing local neighbourhood parks and public green spaces with equal attention and zeal as they do their push for high-density housing?