Quote:
Originally Posted by Juventus3
It makes absolutely no sense. Every other city in this world except Calgary is able to build an interchange with sufficient on and off ramps. Is the point of an overpass not to rid the need of lights?
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Would you care to give an example of one that is built in that size of space and for that budget that doesn't have lights?
Major US cities are in the process of adding a rapid red-green only light system to the on ramps to meter traffic. Others are adding lights.
And in Calgary, take Glenmore-Blackfoot as an example. It used to be gridlock on SB Blackfoot and EB Glenmore. Add a set of lights on BF and time them with the others, and you have a few second delay for a few people that saves hundreds from gridlock. And look at Anderson-MacLeod. Yes, there are lights on Anderson. But going EB-WB on Anderson is a breeze now compared to what it used to be.
The traditional cloverleaf only works in areas with low traffic flow- like Winnipeg on the Perimiter highway. Once you add in all the bridges, overpasses and flyovers to remove the lights you not only double the amount of real estate you need (which as we all know is expensive in this city), but you also multiply the construction costs by a factor of 8 or 10.
I already pay enough taxes, and I would rather have 10 interchanges built than to have only 1 super interchage. What would NB and WB Crowchild have looked like for traffic problems had they only built one of those interchages. (Hint- traffic currently ties up at the last set of lights.)
