Calgary Transit use up in the downtown core, study says

For the first time in Calgary’s history, more than half of people travelling into the city’s downtown core in the morning are using public transit to get there.

The City of Calgary released its annual city centre update Wednesday, highlighting achievements made in the city centre over the last year.

Dawn Thome, Project Manager for Centre City Implementation, said she is excited to see all of the changes made in the downtown core in the last year.

"It's starting to be a much more attractive people place," Thome said. "I think safety and cleanliness is a major component of that."

The survey also found 86 per cent of Calgary residents say they feel safety has improved in the area.

Other listed achievements:

• 89 per cent of Calgarians think the overall cleanliness of the Centre City in the last year has improved (21 per cent) or stayed the same (68 per cent)
• RiverWalk Plaza opened, providing a new recreational festival, events and programming amenity along the river in the East Village.
• Six historic sites within Centre City were added to the inventory of evaluated historic resources, including the original Centre Street Lions, the Canton Block extension, the Davis Residence, the Edmonds Block, Langevin Bridge and the Saddledome.

The City centre includes the downtown and surrounding communities Beltline, Chinatown, East Village, Eau Claire and the West End.