Quote:
Originally Posted by Weitz
There’s only select routes where Stoney is a viable alternative to Deerfoot IMO.
Whereas I don’t think I’ll ever take 14th again after this opens.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Yeller
It wouldn't surprise me either way if volume dropped on 14th or if it didn't really at all.
Like Weitz, I may never touch 14th again especially on my regular commute, but I'm not commuting downtown so going slightly West isn't too far out of my way. At the same time there's still a pretty significant population that surrounds 14th and may view the ring road as too far out of their way.
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Precisely, Ol' Yeller: Weitz is right, there
are only select routes where Stoney is a viable alternative to Deerfoot. That's the point I'm getting at, really.
The east freeway project was 'sold' to the public on the idea it would be a bypass around Calgary itself, and all that truck traffic was supposed to divert around the city and not bog down the commuters on Deerfoot anymore. Which is fine and dandy, except most of the traffic was commuters in the first place, and their houses and places of work didn't change locations, so it wasn't any more convenient for them to go 5-to-10 km out of their way to Stoney.
And so they didn't, they just kept taking Deerfoot, traffic dropped only marginally, and five years later it was back to where it was in the first place. The SWCRR/WCRR projects are going to have the same effect: traffic might dip on 14th and Macleod a bit, but within a few years they'll be as bad as usual.
I live near Glenmore & 37th, and many of my neighbours expect traffic on 14th to drop precipitously,
to their benefit. What I mean by that is they're expecting a drop on 14th, and think it will work in their favour because Glenmore/14th is the route they would
prefer to take. I tried explaining, "Don't you see that many people like you will think the same thing, and you'll all replace the traffic that diverts from 14th to the ring road, and traffic will soon be as bad as it was to begin with?" They didn't get it. It's like a textbook example of induced demand, and it mostly flew over their heads.