It has been quite obvious for some time that Deerfoot trail can no longer handle the city of Calgary's growing population.
What do people think can or should be done to make it less congested? I hate to call the ring road a failure, but I really believe it is, in terms of taking away traffic to Deerfoot. I really haven't seen an improvement at all on Deerfoot with the new ring road. Which is what they were advertising the ring road to do.
I'm no construction expert, but how long would expanding it to say 6 lanes take? I'm guessing somewhere in the range of 7 years? I believe the city (or the province?) should look at a solution ASAP because it really is going to just get worse from here on in.
Also, I really dislike the idea of police pulling over cars on Deerfoot and think it should be outlawed between a certain stretch in the city, say Bedington to Cranston Ave or something similiar. The police should take the license plate number of the vehicle and issue a ticket at a later date. The other day I was Southbound on Deerfoot in rush hour and it was backed up all the way from 16th ave NE to Glenmore because a cop had a guy pulled over near Glenmore. Rubber neckers and the 60 km/hr law caused at least 1000+ people to be in bumper to bumper traffic because of the cop pulling over a car for whatever reason.
Exactly after where the cop had the car pulled over it was smooth sailing from there.
Deerfoot Trail is a mess. In too many places you have cars trying to exit and cars trying to enter in such a small area to do so which causes peoples to have to brake from 100km/hr to something like 40km/hr which isn't safe at all, not to mention the backup it causes.
For the long term, something drastic needs to happen with the Deerfoot. We might suffer for it for mayne 7 years, but it will be all worth it in the end especially with the city contunuing to grow.
I think a lot of people still use deerfoot because the ring road isn't complete in the SE leg. If they do, like me, I have to continue south on 84th and that can be a nightmare. Once the ring road is done and you can go straight N-S that would ease some of the congestion, I figure. Especially truck traffic looking to bypass the city.
Giving motorists a 'free pass' zone where they're not going to get pulled over would be worse, IMO. It's already a free for all. Drivers need to respect that cops/workers have a job to do and slow down to protect both them and the people they have pulled over.
Another thing that sucks is the intersection of Crowchild trail betwteen Bow/Kensington. Are you kidding me... like build an overpass already so we don't see massive backups from one merge lane and the stupid lights on Kensington.
Deerfoot sucks as well and it takes forever to get home when you're backed up to 64th and beyond glenmore North and South... I don't think the ring road will ease traffic at all in my opinion. If you work downtown how many of you would travel out of your way to get to the ring road when crowchild/memorial is right there?
Expanding Deerfoot is the only solution in my opinion.
It's a huge inconvenience for just a couple hundred bucks, but is also a safery issue - for the officer and the civilian. One day a traffic cop in his unmarked SUV is going be road pizza, and then think of the back up and ensuing patrols.
Deerfoot sucks as well and it takes forever to get home when you're backed up to 64th and beyond glenmore North and South... I don't think the ring road will ease traffic at all in my opinion. If you work downtown how many of you would travel out of your way to get to the ring road when crowchild/memorial is right there?
This is exactly my point with the ring road. Most of the places where you have to get on the ring road is so out of the way that most people who would normally take Deerfoot or whatever wouldn't drive out of their way to use the ring road.
I've got the ring road near 84 st SE by my house and have never used it once. That road is nice for Chestermere though so I'm glad we could at least help another community out.
Deerfoot should be 8 lanes and that includes the current pinch-points. Why Deerfoot and Glenmore hasn't been rectified is simply unacceptable. The one major North-South road in the city and it inexplicably shrinks by two lanes at one of the busiest parts? A complete joke in planning.
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I have to agree that it isn't fair to call the ring road a failure when it is currently an E-W route. Once the SE leg is done it should get better; and of course when/if the SW leg is done it will be better again.
To fix the issues with Deerfoot, I think there has to be some combination of metering as well as the overpasses changed. Traffic entering should not be mixing with traffic exiting; they should go over and unde reach other.
Deerfoot should be 8 lanes and that includes the current pinch-points. Why Deerfoot and Glenmore hasn't been rectified is simply unacceptable. The one major North-South road in the city and it inexplicably shrinks by two lanes at one of the busiest parts? A complete joke in planning.
Yup, it's a huge problem..Deerfoot should never be at two lanes anywhere..I go south bound all the time and glenmore and anderson are the worst..It's a joke.
Another thing that sucks is the intersection of Crowchild trail betwteen Bow/Kensington. Are you kidding me... like build an overpass already so we don't see massive backups from one merge lane and the stupid lights on Kensington.
Deerfoot sucks as well and it takes forever to get home when you're backed up to 64th and beyond glenmore North and South... I don't think the ring road will ease traffic at all in my opinion. If you work downtown how many of you would travel out of your way to get to the ring road when crowchild/memorial is right there?
Expanding Deerfoot is the only solution in my opinion.
Better transit, and more people moving inner city is the only solution.
Enter the inner city folks patting themselves on the back.
I live in the inner city, and I still think Deerfoot is a mess. Sure, 95% of the time I'm going in the opposite direction of traffic, but for Calgary things need to get better.
I've got the ring road near 84 st SE by my house and have never used it once. That road is nice for Chestermere though so I'm glad we could at least help another community out.
I live in Coventry Hills and I use the ring road to get out to Chestermere and to get to Bowness, Westgate and New Discovery.
I do service electrical work and the ring road is never an option. I find Southbound Deerfoot not nearly as bad as Northbound Deerfoot. The only way to make the ring road viable Northbound is if the connecting roads were suitable. East of Ogden, Glenmore is horrible to drive on, and 17th ave is also a bad option.
Lets face it, They should have Spent the money to improve Barlow. Its close to Deerfoot and it could have really helped support Deerfoot if it was 8 Lanes Wide from Memorial to Stoney.
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Keep in mind the arguements you guys have against the current Ring Road are that same ones that stopped the previous one from being built in the 60's. Had that one been built then, many of today's issues would have been solved. That road would have used Deerfoot, Anderson, and 14th street as a major freeway system. (Making 14th an alternate N-S route to Deerfoot.) I forget where the E-W connector in the north was supposed to be; maybe John Laurier.
So I can see why the province decided to do Stoney now. Deerfoot is a mess and the construction challenges won't change if it's done in 2007 or 2017. However delaying the Ring Road wasn't a good option in my books.
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How about giving this a trial run at WB McKnight to NB Deerfoot? The problem I see is that metering of any kind here will destroy an already horrible WB McKnight. Maybe people will resort to Metis Trail to get north.
Better transit, and more people moving inner city is the only solution.
Better transit for sure.
-7 car lrt's on existing legs - more people would use it if it wasn't so full all the time
-parkades at the end of each lrt leg - parking lots fill up too fast
-Se and north lrt - if people had the option, many would use it
-Fixing the intersection at anderson and beddington - these are two major bottlenecks at rush hour
-Completing the entire ring road
-Emergency towing on the deerfoot during rushhour - already in use
-Make rubbernecking illegal - if you're not going to pull over to help then keep moving
How about giving this a trial run at WB McKnight to NB Deerfoot? The problem I see is that metering of any kind here will destroy an already horrible WB McKnight. Maybe people will resort to Metis Trail to go nothbound
I don't think metering will work because it doesn't stop those merging onto the deerfoot from braking. Every merge lane onto the deerfoot needs to have a device that disables your brakes.
Deerfoot Trail problems - Ideas, solutions?
