Improving public transportation safety on the minds of Calgarians

The City of Calgary is improving public safety on Calgary Transit, according to several surveys conducted by the city.

Officials say a safety survey conducted between Nov. 13 and 23, 2023, shows that Calgarians feel safe riding the CTrain.

Seventy-two percent of people responded positively to the survey, up from 67 percent when the survey was conducted in May 2023.

People feel safer waiting on train platforms, the city said.

“I'm encouraged to see that we've been able to move the needle safely, and we still have a long way to go to help Calgarians feel safer on and around CTtrains,” said Kay Choi, community safety and well-being leader. City of Calgary, in a news release.

The survey found that 49 per cent of Calgarians avoid using buses or CTtrains because of safety concerns, but 75 per cent feel safer on buses than trains.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek attributes the change in attitude toward transit safety to millions in the budget for a number of initiatives.

“By investing $15 million annually, the council has seen progress toward improving transit safety,” he said in a press release.

“Together with our community and law enforcement partners, we will continue to work together to address safety challenges in our growing city.”

Aside from transit, the poll found most Calgarians think the city is safe overall.

“(Seventy-one) percent of respondents continue to agree that Calgary is generally a safe city. Specifically, 95 percent feel safe walking alone in their community during the day; 75 percent at night, and two-fifths (40 percent) of Calgarians feel Calgary is “safer” compared to other major Canadian cities. says.

According to Calgary Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth, the statistics are very encouraging.

“Safety is a high priority for the city. We're focused on ensuring Calgary remains one of the most livable cities and has a safe, reliable and convenient transit system that people want to use.”

The Calgary Prospects Survey has been conducted three times in the past two years, the first between July 19 and 28, 2022.

It collects data from a random sample of 500 Calgarians and has a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The next survey will be in the spring.