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 COMMUNITY
NOTICES
Imagine Using
Household Garbage to Fuel Your Car
Edmonton
City Centre Airport Land Redevelopment
Councillor
Ben Henderson: Smart Card for Better Transit
Capital City
Clean Up: River Valley Clean Up
Imagine
Using Household Garbage to Fuel Your Car
August 31, 2010: Construction has started on the world’s first industrial scale municipal waste-to-biofuels facility.
The $80 million facility will be built, owned and operated by Enerkem Alberta Biofuels and will produce 36 million
litres of biofuels a year and reduce Alberta’s carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint by six million tonnes over the next
25 years—the equivalent of removing 42,000 cars off the road every year:
www.edmonton.ca/city_government/news
Edmonton City Centre Airport Land Redevelopment
The transformation of the
Edmonton City Centre Airport (ECCA) site into an environmentally-sustainable, transit-oriented, mixed-use development
for 30,000 residents continues to build momentum.
A master plan design competition for external consulting teams has just shortlisted the top five proposals from
33 remarkable submissions to create master plans for the 217-hectare site.
www.edmonton.ca/city_government/planning
Smart Card for Better Transit
I want to let you know of
an exciting new initiative that Council is considering for Transit. We have asked Finance to bring forward funding
strategies for implementing a Smart Card system; this proposal would come before Council sometime this spring.
Smart Card has proven successful in a number of other cities; we are confident that Edmonton will be able to implement
this with several benefits.
Smart Card will improve passenger experience in several ways. Tickets, transfers, paper transfers and various types
of passes can be greatly reduced when a single Smart Card covers all aspects of transit. They are considered ‘contactless
payment devices’ as they can be re-loaded online and no one needs to search for exact change at the bus door. Loading
times for buses will improve as the driver has no need to get exact change or issue transfer slips. This will make
it a lot easier to be a transit passenger, as no need to keep spare tickets around or buy a full month’s transit
pass if that does not suit your transit needs. And if a card is lost it can easily be deactivated by contacting
Transit, and a new card issued without losing the funds on the lost card. Use of Smart Cards improves the security
of ETS operators by reducing fare disputes and improves bus loading time as there is no need to confirm cash or
tickets in the fare box. Less fare evasion will improve Transit’s affordability for everyone.
ETS will be able to plan routes more efficiently and provide travel incentives with a more advanced fare structure.
Bonus awards and loyalty programs can help us attract more riders and get more cars off the roads. Transit services
can improve as we will be able to plan for passenger numbers and hours far more accurately and can thus structure
routes and fares to better serve the needs of Edmontonians. As Edmonton continues to work with the whole Capital
Region, the Smart Card system can work well with the larger transit system within the whole Capital Region.
Another transit improvement that Council may look at, much further in the future is to have GPS tracking for all
transit vehicles which citizens would be able to access. This project is not under consideration at this time but
would, if implemented, work with Open Data to provide better security and information on where each bus or train
is located at any given time. GPS ability for Transit will be looked at in the future but as yet is not being considered
for funding. Meanwhile we hope to implement Smart Card much sooner. In the big picture of making Edmonton for our
future a more livable city we need to continually improve our transit and transportation infrastructure.
Ben Henderson,
Councillor, Ward 4
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Capital City Clean Up: River Valley Clean
Up
On Sunday, May 2, over 1,100
people came out to clean up the River Valley including Downtown’s Louise McKinney Riverfront Park. Lots of garbage
was collected including, cigarette butts, plastic, cardboard, and also many unique finds such as suitcases, socks,
and even a bicycle.
Each year thousands of city residents pick a day to tidy up the River Valley. In 2009, 3,928 volunteers gathered
6,458 bags of garbage to help make this Capital City jewel sparkle.
Capital City Clean Up provided garbage bags and gloves and a pre-assigned location. Once the garbage bags were
filled with litter, they were dropped off at a nearby location. For more information about Capital City Clean Up
and their numerous clean up initiatives, visit www.edmonton.ca.
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