{"id":606997,"date":"2026-04-16T02:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/606997\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T02:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:05:27","slug":"edmonton-city-council-talks-transit-and-downtown-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/606997\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton City Council talks transit and downtown safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edmonton city councillors debated quicker transit and downtown safety inside the city council chambers Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Papastew Councillor Michael Janz said he was ready\u00a0to see movement on transit priority measures that would move more buses efficiently on Whyte Avenue south of Edmonton\u2019s River Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want Whyte Avenue to be a main street,\u201d Janz said. \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to go across the city, there\u2019s other options like Argyll, 101, or going down to the Whitemud, we don\u2019t want Whyte Avenue to be that source of pollution and danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillors will debate that in depth when they build the City\u2019s next four-year budget later this year.<\/p>\n

But this summer, the avenue will see some minor changes with construction to curbs and the removal of zig-zag pedestrian scramble crosswalks.<\/p>\n

Something Janz says he wants to revisit saying Whyte Ave. should give pedestrians priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re having to cross six lanes of traffic on our main street of the city,\u201d Janz said. \u201cThe street should be built and centred and focused around people, around patio, around shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

After dedicated bus lanes on 101 Street in Chinatown were implement, it drew outcry from business owners in the area who said the lack of parking was hurting their businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, councillors voted to return street parking during off-peak hours in the day. A report will be submitted to the councillors after six months on how the change impacts the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are going to be watching very closely though, is if that does negatively impact bus times,\u201d said Anne Stevenson, councillor for O-Day-Min.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know transit is incredibly important for our growing city and that\u2019s something I\u2019ll be watching very carefully,\u201d Stevenson said.<\/p>\n

The elected representatives also discussed downtown safety after the Edmonton\u2019s Downtown Revitalization Coalition released a number of demands on its website to make the city\u2019s downtown the safest in Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among other demands by the group is for provincial and federal investment in housing and treatment. They also want city leaders to have all levels of law enforcement working together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re asking is to have transit officers and peace officer report directly to Edmonton police service,\u201d said Cheryl Watson, chair of the Downtown Revitalization Coalition.<\/p>\n

Watson said the coalition was also calling on the City to invest more in crisis diversion for vulnerable Edmontonian.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou call 211 and what currently happens, you\u2019re put on hold,\u201d Watson said. \u201cAnd when you finally get a hold of someone, you\u2019re told it\u2019s probably going to be hours until the van can get out to that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Stevenson said the City\u2019s budget includes investments related to the coalition\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose budgetary pieces are there,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cI think a lot of it is around coordination and using those resources to their best effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tEdmonton City Councillors (Courtesy: Facebook\/Edmonton City Council) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edmonton city councillors debated quicker transit and downtown safety inside the city council chambers Wednesday. Papastew Councillor Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-606997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}