Calgary Roads Discussion Thread

[The Yen Man]

Having driven years on Deerfoot, one of the bottlenecks on northbound Deerfoot is around the 32nd Ave and McKnight merges, and it opens up after Beddington Trail. I wonder if making it a straight flowthrough from 32nd Ave up to Beddington Trail turn off would alleviate that (so same as the flowthrough on southbound from Beddington Trail through to 32nd Ave. They do have the space to do that if they chose to.

[You Need a Thneed]

It’s discussed in the Ring Road thread, but I’ll mention it here:

Airport Traik between 36th st and Metis Trail will be opening up tomorrow.

It will be one continuous road between Harvest Hills Blvd and Stoney Trail to the east.

Anyone travelling to the airport from the south, and particularly if you are close to Stoney, should consider taking Stoney instead of Deerfoot to get to the airport.

[zamler]

Driving the downtown core is the most frustrating thing for me.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Having driven years on Deerfoot, one of the bottlenecks on northbound Deerfoot is around the 32nd Ave and McKnight merges, and it opens up after Beddington Trail. I wonder if making it a straight flowthrough from 32nd Ave up to Beddington Trail turn off would alleviate that (so same as the flowthrough on southbound from Beddington Trail through to 32nd Ave. They do have the space to do that if they chose to.

The area around the McKnight interchange is one of the much needed target areas of the planned Deerfoot improvments. Gonna be painful but so nice once it's done

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Nancy

The 37 Street Main Street project baffles me. Not just that they took out a driving lane on a street that rightfully should be a thoroughfare in order to widen the sidewalks, but they also cut down trees to make it happen. Those lanes and moneys should have been directed to a BRT service to MRU instead.

Another case study example of what the City is doing wrong. That project has the trifekta!

Adding unnecessary lights at 19th Ave? Check
Taking out 2 lanes of traffic on a thoroughfare; such that now a single car waiting to make a left hand turn will clog all of 37th St? Check
Adding intersection bump outs at 19th, 26th Aves seemingly just to further confound and impede traffic patterns and increase congestion & people cutting through the side residential streets? Check

[bob-loblaw]

The SW Ring Road opening on Saturday can't come soon enough for me.

Right now I have go through Evergreen on Fish Creek Boulevard, which has two school zones, two 40 kmh zones because of tight corners, and basically a blind crosswalk at the end of one of those corners.

What drove me bonkers was that going eastbound on Fish Creek Boulevard there are two massive potholes, about two blocks apart, created by manholes that sunk about two inches. They have been there for at least 10 months, and the city put up warning signs to slow down because of them. They put a barricade next to them on the grass so they'd be noticed, and even painted the edges of the asphalt around the manholes with fluorescent orange paint. Everyone that drives the road regularly would swerve around them so they don't trash their suspension.

I figured the city was waiting until traffic dies down on this ring road 'detour' to fix them, which I'm sure they'll do. But about a month ago, the city just went and paved over them so it's barely a bump instead of a huge divot. If it was that simple of a fix/workaround, couldn't they have done that 10 months earlier???

[Calgary14]

Thanks to those bumps on Fish Creek Blvd I'm pretty sure I am going to need new shocks. They were so bad it was surprising. I wasnt familiar with that road so I didnt know to avoid them

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by zamler

I have nothing useful to contribute at this time

You spelled ever wrong.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

You spelled ever wrong.

Wow that's harsh.

[bob-loblaw]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

Sorry folks, but this is an abomination

I drive this every day and I actually think it works pretty well.

A little off topic, but looking at your map, I noticed that 'Festuburt' is the name of the area where the Grey Eagle Casino is. I've never heard of it before, but thanks to Google Maps and Google Search, now I know it's named after a town in France where there was a battle involving Canadian troops in World War I. It makes sense given the significance of the military that trained in the area and the white regiment numbers on the hill by Sarcee.

It's nice to learn something once in a while...

[timun]

Originally Posted by Nancy

The 37 Street Main Street project baffles me. Not just that they took out a driving lane on a street that rightfully should be a thoroughfare in order to widen the sidewalks, but they also cut down trees to make it happen. Those lanes and moneys should have been directed to a BRT service to MRU instead.

Originally Posted by Ducay

Another case study example of what the City is doing wrong. That project has the trifekta!

Adding unnecessary lights at 19th Ave? Check
Taking out 2 lanes of traffic on a thoroughfare; such that now a single car waiting to make a left hand turn will clog all of 37th St? Check
Adding intersection bump outs at 19th, 26th Aves seemingly just to further confound and impede traffic patterns and increase congestion & people cutting through the side residential streets? Check

What crack are you guys smoking? You know the end result is 37th will still be two lanes each way, right? And they're going to plant hundreds of new trees along the boulevard when they're done, right?

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

I didn't say it was a surprise or scary... I just said it's an abomination- but perhaps my remark should have been something more like it is one crazy interchange. You referenced a city with likely the heaviest traffic and complex road system in NA- so the drivers are no doubt acclimatized to these types of interchanges. So instead, in the context of Calgary and what the majority of our drivers are no doubt used to- it is one crazy interchange.

It would be a lot better with a bunch of lights or something?


4 busy roads free flowing in all directions. And it's a bit of a weird one where the most common traffic flows are essentially left-hand turns (SB Sarcee onto EB Glenmore and NB Stoney onto...NB (WB) Stoney).



The only dumb thing is the 60 speed limit as Sarcee turns into Glenmore, as has been discussed ad nauseum in the other thread.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by timun

What crack are you guys smoking? You know the end result is 37th will still be two lanes each way, right? And they're going to plant hundreds of new trees along the boulevard when they're done, right?

From what I understand it is 4 lanes (2 each way), but street parking is allowed in both directions, effectively making it 2 lanes of through traffic.

[DownInFlames]

I'm oddly excited about the new extension of 68th St SE down to Glenmore. It saves so much time.

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by Ducay

From what I understand it is 4 lanes (2 each way), but street parking is allowed in both directions, effectively making it 2 lanes of through traffic.

Partially true, but it is posted as no stopping during both the AM and PM rush hours on both sides of the street. That should handle most of the worst traffic times.

[btimbit]

37 Street S.W. Streetscape Master Plan

https://www.calgary.ca/PDA/pd/Docume...aster_Plan.pdf

[Bill Bumface]

I guess we should can all the traffic engineers at the City, as it seems everyone that can get a class 5 license understands all the design considerations and can do a better job.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

I'm oddly excited about the new extension of 68th St SE down to Glenmore. It saves so much time.

I’m trying to think of another level intersection that has a cloverleaf ramp to turn left, but I can’t think of any.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I guess we should can all the traffic engineers at the City, as it seems everyone that can get a class 5 license understands all the design considerations and can do a better job.

Drive 17th Ave from 45th street to 69th street SW both ways in the morning and afternoon and tell me a child didn’t design that section of road.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I guess we should can all the traffic engineers at the City, as it seems everyone that can get a class 5 license understands all the design considerations and can do a better job.

That's any public service for you. The public understands 5% of what you do, but aren't the least bit shy about crying and screaming at you that you're doing it wrong

Preconceived notions count for more than facts