Deerfoot Trail Improvements

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Set up some stands (lots of room around this area) and charge admission to watch for the first few months. Sell out crowds.

Just like this:

https://goo.gl/maps/XqmU9aD9XhTioujC8

We should also be doing a lot more of this:

https://goo.gl/maps/e5j1nKF198W9YEJS7

and a lot less of this:

https://goo.gl/maps/XMSTVGbtD2ffyXXu7

Our obsession with putting endless numbers of traffic lights on interchanges is baffling, and really bad for the environment.

[Wormius]

Whenever I see congestion like that, I always want to see what is happening at the head of that traffic. Are there like, ill-timed traffic lights somewhere or some guys on Bird scooters doing 20..

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by nik-

This gives me incredible "sudden need to take a ####" anxiety.

Hope you didn't miss your exit, or you better have good control!

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Just like this:

https://goo.gl/maps/XqmU9aD9XhTioujC8

We should also be doing a lot more of this:

https://goo.gl/maps/e5j1nKF198W9YEJS7

and a lot less of this:

https://goo.gl/maps/XMSTVGbtD2ffyXXu7

Our obsession with putting endless numbers of traffic lights on interchanges is baffling, and really bad for the environment.

If you look at your second link and move around that highway, all the higher volume interchanges have traffic signals on the roundabouts. A roundabout can only handle so much volume before it fails and signals need to be installed, so it's worth keeping that in mind when saying a roundabout is a one-size fits all solution.

Free flowing interchanges are very expensive to build, and if you're worried about the environment, you should consider the embodied carbon cost of excessive concrete and steel bridges and asphalt and concrete lane kilometers constructed when it comes to free flowing interchanges versus more compact intersections using signals. Most signalized cross roads at interchanges perform quite well since the biggest volumes (the main road the cross road no longer interacts with) are removed from the equation.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Hope you didn't miss your exit, or you better have good control!

Doing drive by shootings without any firearms.

[sec304]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I think they really, really need to reduce the number of on and off ramps in close proximity to each other. There is no way you're going to enjoy smooth traffic flow when you have people both sharing the same lanes to decelerating to 50kph to exit and accelerating to 100kph to get with the flow of traffic. McKnight/64th/Beddington are all way too close to each other. Look at how fast traffic speeds up even during rush hour once you get past though 3.

They need to have the McKnight/North Deerfoot merge lane continuous to the 64th Ave exit. That would hopefully remediate the actual stooping of the traffic to merge. But most people are idiots so...

[bob-loblaw]

I checked out the proposals for the south last week. I thought they're kind of guiding to on the Memorial/17th and Anderson/Bow Bottom ones by putting the cheapest and most practical ones as being the last option.

I would think creating collectors for the the clusters of southland/Anderson/Bow Bottom well in advance would improve flow.

I'd do that in the north with McKnight/64th/Beddington and make you go into collector lanes south of McKnight going NB from Deerfoot.

Also, I'm not sure why when you're going EB on McKnight to NB Deerfoot they have lights so you have to cross WB McKnight. Can't they just create the SE portion of the cloverleaf and make instead? It's that way on the other side of that interchange. Put alternatiing stop lights onto NB Deerfoot to control the flow there.

[Fuzz]

Someone, at some point considered that...


https://goo.gl/maps/d68Fa5r3a1enMY1F7


They would have to extend the merge lane to 64th, which they should anyway, but it ends up being a lot of merging/lane crossing in a short distance. Not that it matters considering the slow speed...

[Joborule]

Well, creating an auxiliary lane between 64 AV & McKnight for NB traffic has been recommended to be done in the short term.

I am surprised with their suggestion with McKnight. I'm not quite sure about it myself either. They (the city) did have a plan to handle the left hand turns from NB Deerfoot issue at 12 ST NE, but I'm assuming that future traffic projection for that interchange doesn't require it to be free flow going eastbound. Therefore the suggestion configuration can resolve that issue.

In the link below, if you scroll down to "Five short-term recommendations", you can see what they want to do within the next few years. A NB exit from 11 ST NE onto NB Deerfoot, as well work on 32 AV & 12 ST NE is included.

https://www.calgary.ca/Transportatio...ail-Study.aspx

[Northendzone]

i personally think one good idea for deerfoot would be ahve the same number of lanes all the time - rather than having 3 then a funnel to two for a bit then three again....

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Locke

WTF is a 'Basket Weave?' I'm looking at this and if they're thinking what I think they're thinking that looks like a nightmare?

Can we get someone who knows more about this to explain it?

Because that stretch of Deerfoot at the moment is a Debacle of Monumental Proportions.

A basket weave is where the exit and entrance lanes on closely located interchanges are grade separated. Think of how the on-ramp from MacLeod/5 Street onto Glenmore is bridged over the off-ramp from Glenmore onto Elbow.

And that is exactly how the Anderson/Southland merge should be done. It was also a major screw-up on the city's part not to insist the developer of Deerfoot Meadows at least partially pay for it back when they had to help cover the other upgrades when that mall was built.

[Northendzone]

Anderson/Bow Bottom/Southland is a mess for sure.

In some ways the way the exit is at Deerfoot Meadows does provide drivers with an opportunity to use the exit to jump ahead of traffic on deerfoot and then merge back in 2k ahead of where they might have been.

Traffic on Deerfoot has always opened right up after Anderson/BB. I beleive this has a lot to do with folks in the fast lane, waiting until the last minute to exit off deerfoot.

[Resolute 14]

That is definitely part of it, but the larger problem is bottlenecks. Both the fact that Deerfoot NB drops to two lanes for 100 metres, and the fact that at rush hours, traffic is entering Deerfoot from Douglasdale faster than it can exit to Anderson. So the right lane of Deerfoot completely dies. That's why that stretch needs the basketweave - get rid of both bottlenecks at once.

[Northendzone]

i was thinking that a left hand merge from EB Southland to SB deerfoot might provide an option that would help open up the area little more.

But not sure if you could fit that in that area and of course left hand merge lanes are not common in these parts

[Northendzone]

i was thinking that a left hand merge from EB Southland to SB deerfoot might provide an option that would help open up the area little more.

But not sure if you could fit that in that area and of course left hand merge lanes are not common in these parts

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Both the fact that Deerfoot NB drops to two lanes for 100 metres, and the fact that at rush hours, traffic is entering Deerfoot from Douglasdale faster than it can exit to Anderson.

That is part of my concern with the current plans, nothing for Douglasdale. In the afternoon there are a lot of people exiting NB from Douglasdale, and you end up with another jam.

Ideally I'd like to see Quarry Park connect to Southland with a new river crossing. That would ease a lot of that traffic.

[kermitology]

Every part of me thinks this is a likely outcome of this project:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1192568535009988608

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by ken0042

That is part of my concern with the current plans, nothing for Douglasdale. In the afternoon there are a lot of people exiting NB from Douglasdale, and you end up with another jam.

Ideally I'd like to see Quarry Park connect to Southland with a new river crossing. That would ease a lot of that traffic.

Although it's not obvious in the images, in concept #2 and #3 they feature collector lanes that would begin from Barlow Trail.

#2


#3

[powderjunkie]

I feel like making Peigan Trail a legit freeway to get people over to Stoney would take a lot of pressure off of the stretch of Deerfoot that is west of the Bow River.

1 big interchange (Barlow, Peigan, 26 St SE, Deerfoot), and 2 regular interchanges (36 and 52), all with ample space for the work. The best part is how little it would disrupt everything else during construction.

Deerfoot will never be a great freeway. Maybe it shouldn't. AV's might help solve the problem...or they won't. But it's always painful financially and timewise to add '1 more lane' and the benefits only last for so long.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by ken0042

....Ideally I'd like to see Quarry Park connect to Southland with a new river crossing. That would ease a lot of that traffic.

not sure how this could be done due to all the homes in riverbend/douglasglen