I think the bottom line is if you work in north Calgary then Airdrie is great,if you work downtown or even farther south then Airdrie living is a bad alternative.
Put it this way. I live in Harvest Hills(12 minutes from Airdrie) and if I worked downtown I would consider myself dumb as paint to live here!
Time is life and life has a time limit, if your willing to spend 10 hours a week of your life commuting to work in rushhour your missing out and are plain stupid.