Having grown up in Winnipeg I can tell you that having the Perimiter Highway there was great. You are correct in that many times it won't save all that much time for the average person as you now have a greater distance to travel. But being able to cruise with no stop and go traffic makes it a much easier drive. Plus it takes some of the stress off our already crowded roads. You mentioned getting the semis of 16th ave- it will also get some of the tourists who are just passing through off 16th ave, and anybody coming from Hwy 2 going onto the Trans Canada ( or vice versa) from having to enter the city and add to our traffic just to go from Okotoks to Banff. It will also help get the semis off Deerfoot.
And that's just the non-peak traffic savings. Its once you get into rush hour periods where it will be quite the savings. People travelling to and from the Airport will now be able to just go around instead of going through.
It also adds a new series of alternate routes. For example if people going home from downtown to the south (Midnapore, McKenzie, etc) hear that SB Deerfoot is close due to some major accident, they can head east or west to the ring road and swing back around that way.
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