I live in the West, and can take Deerfoot as easily as anything however depending on the time of my flight I would get off at McKnight or even sometimes take Barlow. Right now I have what I see as basically three pretty even options for routes. Deerfoot to Airport my average speed is faster, but it's longer so it all evens out. If the weather is crap, Barlow, while typically slower, sometimes ends up being faster and less risky.
As planned right now, with the Barlow closure I see no advantage in taking the new routes so I, and I daresay most of the southern part of the city, will be left with essentially a single route to take. Building the interchange now, makes a pile of sense to me as it will potentially give a different access route. What I'm especially interested in is the carrot he tosses out there of an LRT spur line to the airport. If I can hop on my shinny new West LRT line and head up to the end of the NE line, and have a max 10 min wait, I'm taking that route at least 90% of the time. Hell, I'd even happily pay an extra ticket as $10 for the two of us is less than the $40 a cab ride costs right now. Taking the Canada Line from the airport in Vancouver is an absolute dream and I wish we'd end up with something similar.
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