u/1egg_4u

I'll post the link to the study in the comments, it isnt very large and is imo preliminary and should be expanded upon but nevertheless I had always assumed people who rev their engines loudly and modify their mufflers just wanted attention... I had (probably foolishly) never considered the possibility that it was done purposefully to inflict discomfort on other people. It's an interesting discussion I'd really like to see explored further.

Ive been seeing an influx of posts saying downtown is unsafe and unliveable

Which is probably the most annoying shit to possibly see when you live downtown and the actual problems you see are municipal in nature and are like 99% urban planning and 1% riff raff

But in the last post about this that gained traction my sad raisin heart warmed to see people discussing the REAL problems we actually live with downtown: how poorly the corridors are designed, the lack of mixed-use, the half-baked bike lanes where some are separated and some arent (always the busiest ones are just bonus shoulder for cars I guess), cars treating pedestrians like theyre optional, and e-bikes being where they arent supposed to. There is a major push to make it seem like crime and degeneracy are major issues downtown but those are symtpoms of problems that could be solved with planning.

There has been a lot of discussion lately too now that we are going to scrap the Free Fare Zone and now the AB government is making moves to come after bike lanes.

So I figure while we all have it on the forebrain why not see what downtown people are ACTUALLY seeing as real problems? The bike pubs, the revving engines, how shitty 6th and 9th ave get, that we have an at-grade train crossing on the busiest rush hour streets... especially now that our Mayor is just as online as we are and is in this very sub reading these comments?

Those of us who live here know our biggest problems are planning problems... big and small. What do YOU think are the biggest planning oversights downtown that cause it to be the way that it is?

TL;DR downtown isnt full of crime it is empty of people and businesses and planned like shit, I wanna hear from real downtown people the REAL actual oversights they think could be fixed by the actual city