Urban living in Calgary is much more private compared to the most countries where the streets are where they eat, drink, shop and play. Consequently the streets are often empty.
Downtown can be so hit or miss. Friday and Saturday nights are pretty busy, but outside of that, it can definitely feel pretty empty. There's been a long tradition of most businesses down here closing at 6pm and a lot of people only coming downtown for work... so they go home.
I'm sure it'd be a different story of most of the buildings weren't empty office towers lol
I think it also has to do with the lack of pedestrian only zones. No one really likes to spend time beside a busy road with the sounds and stink produced my cars (unless they're really drunk ofc).
There's always Stephen Avenue. Or the river pathway. I don't know if I would fully agree that we don't have many pedestrian only zones. We have just as many as any other cities our size. Plus a banger pathway system.