Safety review for Deerfoot?

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

Police chief likes idea of safety review. Is this an over reaction. I think a few more cops on the Deerfoot might urge some idiots to slow down.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...df8917&k=53311

It is somewhat disingenuous to suggest 10,000 accidents occur on Deerfoot. Most of them take place on the major roadways as they intersect with the freeway. It's bound to happen when you have that much metal in such a small area.

The province's infrastructure minister says no review is planned at this time.

[Juventus3]

"People treat it like the Indy 500, rather than a major transportation expressway"

That says it all. Idiots on the road do it to themselves, and unfortunately others (which IMO is the only tragic part of this. People who can't drive deserve to get in accidents...It's the only wakeup call that works).

[Cowperson]

If they want Deerfoot to be safer they'd let people drive 120 km an hour AFTER they've built an adequate ring road system around Calgary to ease a lot of the congestion.

Cowperson

[Bobblehead]

I don't need to use the Deerfoot, but when I do need to go on it during rush hour it isn't going anywhere near the speed limit.

There are a few issues that I see. On southbound Deerfoot, why does one lane just get removed right before going under 16th? Shouldn't they have let that lane as part of the off ramp, rather than have people zipping alonng it then forcing them to merge left? There are a few spots where this happens - is it just poor planning?

Deerfoot between Memorial and 17th/Blackfoot is trouble both directions, with people trying to pull off and merge on during rush hour (perfect spot for collector lanes along there so through traffic can bypass the bedlam)

Yes, Deerfoot has issues, but it is naïve to think a speed limit reduction will improve the situation.

[4X4]

The interchange at southland is a total disaster for SB motorists...


The real problem on Deerfoot are slow people in the fast lane. It aggrivates faster drivers and they often use the middle or right lane to get around the dum dum going 90 in the left lane.

[flambers]

In my opinion the problem with Deerfoot is the poor merge lanes at a bunch of overpasses. For example the Glenmore design is a total disaster, Anderson Road merge always causes problems..... etc.

The only fix in my opinion is to add two more lanes all the way through the City on both sides.

[4X4]

^^^ Yup, glenmore is ######ed. How does a road go from 5 lanes to 4 to 3 to 2 to 3 to 4?

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Originally Posted by 4X4

^^^ Yup, glenmore is ######ed. How does a road go from 5 lanes to 4 to 3 to 2 to 3 to 4?

Exactly. Everything south of Glenmore is a mess. All the diagramatic signs are a disaster too. If you're gonna use diagramatics, have the diagrams right. At least North of Glenmore you still have your three basic lanes straight through town. Though there's a couple bad sections there too. They wouldn't have to put up those stupid cable medians if they had designed the medians properly in the first place. Calf Robe bridge is another mess. Whoever thought it was a good idea to design a large-scale bridge on a curve was an idiot.

I'd like to think the Province would learn some lessons after the messes they see in Calgary in Edmonton, but then I see some of the design work they're doing on Stoney Trail and just shake my head.

[4X4]

Sometimes I wonder if road planners have shares in auto body repair shops. In a city that sees at least 4 months of snow and ice per year, the amount of extraneous curvage on our streets boggles my mind.

[troutman]

Let the Germans re-design it.

[Daradon]

Hmmmm, the busiest freeway in Alberta and close to Canada and NA has a high fatality rate...

[Marvelous]

Maybe there should be a review of what they teach in driving schools?

I have heard that some driving schools are teaching if someone is tailgating you, let the foot off the gas until they get far enough back... even if this takes going down to 30. I wonder many times if this tactic is being used in the left lane.

I thought in a rearend collision, it is not the fault of the person who got hit from behind so why would you need to worry about someone tailgating? For sake of yourself avoiding an accident, go into the right lane to let them through. Let the police enforce the speed limit.

It might come down to how are we educating our drivers.

I strongly doubt lowering the speed limit will have any effect except increasing general driver frustration.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by 4X4

The interchange at southland is a total disaster for SB motorists...

Not to mention the interchange of Deerfoot NB, Anderson and Southland -- same problem.

And then there is the NB Deerfoot & Memorial / 17th Interchange. Pretty much inadequate for the volume of traffic it receives.

I could go on, but I think most of you already know the score. Like Cow said, do something about the congestion first before worrying about "safety reviews".

[ken0042]

The problem is quite simple in my mind. The road was designed for 100,000 cars, now it has 160,000 or 60% more. Make the road 60% bigger (2 more lanes) and 60% smarter (no more weaving traffic at Southland/Anderson and 17th/Memorial) and the problem goes away.

Make the speed limit 80 and those who do 120 now will still do at least 110, and you'll have a new batch of people doing 75.

[Cowperson]

Am I being too bold in stating that a road at 160% of capacity would be back at 100% or less if this city had an adequate ring road system to allow traffic on one of North America's busiest north/south corridors - and a key lynchpin to heading west to Vancouver - to go around the community instead of transitting the gut of it?

In any event, those nutty tight corners between Max Bell and the Herald need to be straightened out as well.

Cowperson

[Daradon]

^^^ I Like your nuttiness

of course, that is probably the kiss of death


We can all dream, it's not entirely the cities fault, we grew too fast.
Blame King Ralph.

Course now that is a popular theory...

Fricken socialists being right all the time.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by ken0042

The problem is quite simple in my mind. The road was designed for 100,000 cars, now it has 160,000 or 60% more. Make the road 60% bigger (2 more lanes) and 60% smarter (no more weaving traffic at Southland/Anderson and 17th/Memorial) and the problem goes away.

Make the speed limit 80 and those who do 120 now will still do at least 110, and you'll have a new batch of people doing 75.

You up the capacity by 2 lanes and then people who were taking alternate routes such as McLeod, Edmonton Trail, Centre Street and Barlow move back on to Deerfoot and your extra capacity is gone. Its still an overall improvement, but you'll be back over capacity almost instantly.

Originally Posted by Teh_Bandwagoner

I'd like to think the Province would learn some lessons after the messes they see in Calgary in Edmonton, but then I see some of the design work they're doing on Stoney Trail and just shake my head.

I'm just curious what they are doing on Stoney that sucks so bad? I was glad to see that Scenic Acres Link and Tuscany Blvd will be combined into one interchange so you don't end up with a Deerfoot/McKnight and Deerfoot/64th Ave situation where interchanges are WAY too close together.

[Resolute 14]

Needs are three:

1. Ring Road, as Cowperson mentions.

2. Better interchanges. Especially at the weave zones. It boggles my mind that for all the money they spent on Deerfoot Meadows, which included upgrades to the southland exit, that they didn't include building a merge ramp from Southland to Deerfoot Southbound over the exit ramp on Anderson/Bow Bottom. That alone would have taken away half of that bottleneck.

3. Modified red light camera boxes used as photo radar placed every 5km up Deerfoot, with cameras in random spots. While it wouldnt lead to many tickets (too many cars), it would scare some drivers into slowing down to the limit.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by 4X4

The interchange at southland is a total disaster for SB motorists...


The real problem on Deerfoot are slow people in the fast lane. It aggrivates faster drivers and they often use the middle or right lane to get around the dum dum going 90 in the left lane.

Yes it is and yes the problem is that people who just need to go straight along Deerfoot are held up by people who are trying to merge 3 lanes over from the fast lane, just kills me…Glenmore is a huge problem as well for north bound when it only goes down to too lanes on the bridge and the problem is that it is going to be almost impossible to fix

[flambers]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

You up the capacity by 2 lanes and then people who were taking alternate routes such as McLeod, Edmonton Trail, Centre Street and Barlow move back on to Deerfoot and your extra capacity is gone. Its still an overall improvement, but you'll be back over capacity almost instantly.
.

Highway 401 in Toronto is a good example of a road that handles way--way more traffic than Deerfoot and it flows much better. I believe it has 5 lanes plus it handles the merge lanes properly.