Ring Road To Nowhere

[Canadianman]

Drove just over the overpass at 69th st/Discovery Blvd. Lights aren't working yet, but it shaved about 6 minutes off my 10 minute drive to drop the kids off at dayhome.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Joborule

I wonder since many may want to do this, how Crowchild interchange is gonna handle the influx of new traffic patterns? It's such a tight interchange, that it's hard to upgrade it to be free flow in all direction essentially. It may give more incentive to have Sarcee Trail be free flow itself, and have interchanges at both Richmond and Bow Trail, to handle the traffic that may prefer to enter downtown via Bow Trail.

Sarcee to bow would be real slow. Its basically quicker to go to 17th then 26th/33rd St to cut over to bow.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Sarcee to bow would be real slow. Its basically quicker to go to 17th then 26th/33rd St to cut over to bow.

You shut your mouth with ideas like that. Us Westsiders don't want to have to contend with a bunch of lowly SouthWest folks cutting up to take Bow / 17th into downtown. Those roads are busy enough.

Honestly though, I can't imagine that big of a detour would save any time, esp, if 14th is relieved of some of the logjam.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ducay

You shut your mouth with ideas like that. Us Westsiders don't want to have to contend with a bunch of lowly SouthWest folks cutting up to take Bow / 17th into downtown. Those roads are busy enough.

Honestly though, I can't imagine that big of a detour would save any time, esp, if 14th is relieved of some of the logjam.

I do think the design here for this portion of the ring road was poor. Its just going to move back ups to different spots (glenmore eastbound to northbound crowchild or bow/17th) or people will realize no time is saved and just take 14th anyway.

Strictly for downtown commuting though. Very helpful if you are heading to the NW.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Acey

There's not enough volume there, nor enough traffic trying to get across, to grind it a halt like the Deerfoot or Glenmore weaves. Not even close.

Don't get me wrong, this is not ideal by any means and the original barrier should have been kept but I'm not calling this hell on earth until I see it in action.

I just meant the accidents would grind it to a halt


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[you&me]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

So you think the ring road will be a faster route for someone from Woodbine getting to downtown than 14th st? The East-West routes into downtown from Sarcee are going to be parking lots.

You didn't say Woodbine in your last post, only SW; there are a few people that live south of Fish Creek () and they'll likely find the ring road much faster to get DT than 14th... The people in Woodbine can hopefully appreciate the lower volumes on 14th as some of those deep southerners stay on the ring road.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

Drove just over the overpass at 69th st/Discovery Blvd. Lights aren't working yet, but it shaved about 6 minutes off my 10 minute drive to drop the kids off at dayhome.

What's different about this today since yesterday? Have they opened more lanes? As of last night, this was still a mess and traffic was backing way up 69th.

[InglewoodFan]

At 08:30, still not open at Sarcee and Glenmore. They do have what looks to be a chicane mini-exit at the bottom of the SB Sarcee to EB Glenmore ramp that takes you across to the incoming highway 8 lanes to get to the 37th St exit. And as expected I saw a lifted black Ram use it to blow by the bit of traffic there was on the two left lanes coming off the ramp.

[bossy22]

Drove my son to school at the 69th street overpass was open. Yahoo, no more flag people. I'm coming from hwy 8 into Altadore. It shaved about 5 minutes because it was still one lane under the over pass. Then it gets interesting with people trying to pass before the merge to Glenmore. Coming home was way faster, I saved about 12 minutes. Heading West with more lanes open and no flag people.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

So you think the ring road will be a faster route for someone from Woodbine getting to downtown than 14th st? The East-West routes into downtown from Sarcee are going to be parking lots.

That's not what you said, nor what I'm saying.

I disagree with the notion that the only utility of the southwest leg is for traffic "from the SW to the NW".

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I think going the ring road to glenmore to Crowchild will be quicker than 14th to crowchild.

Oof, Glenmore EB to Crowchild NB is an awful interchange for even moderate amounts of traffic, it's a joke of an interchange, you can maybe fit 6 or 7 cars tops at the light. That is going to cause all sorts of issues if people collectively think they can rely on it for their morning commutes.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Oof, Glenmore EB to Crowchild NB is an awful interchange for even moderate amounts of traffic, it's a joke of an interchange, you can maybe fit 6 or 7 cars tops at the light. That is going to cause all sorts of issues if people collectively think they can rely on it for their morning commutes.

Yah I agree. Which is why people will stick with 14th I think.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

At 08:30, still not open at Sarcee and Glenmore.

Opening ceremony not till noon. Removing barriers from all the accesses ends up taking a few hours, so presumably everything will be good to go for the PM rush.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Oof, Glenmore EB to Crowchild NB is an awful interchange for even moderate amounts of traffic, it's a joke of an interchange, you can maybe fit 6 or 7 cars tops at the light. That is going to cause all sorts of issues if people collectively think they can rely on it for their morning commutes.

Yeah, going from eastbound Glenmore onto Crowchild is a disaster and I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed yet. I actually wish that they would have made a ramp from eastbound Glenmore onto Richard Road so that it could alleviate some of the mess.

[Acey]

I'm not sure how much that would help, and I don't really see room for that without bulldozing houses. The Glenmore/Crowchild disaster of an interchange would require bonkers levels of ingenuity for any meaningful change to be made without demolishing houses there.

Our only hope, IMO, is to go hard on fixing Sarcee, interchange at Sarcee/Bow, and a massive GE5-type project to freeflow Bow from Sarcee into downtown.

[Fuzz]

I don't drive down there often, but isn't the biggest issue EB Glenmore to NB Crowchild? Could you do a flyover like this, to fix that movement?

[powderjunkie]

They’ll probably need to look at EB Glenmore onto NB Crowchild...making it a double left turn with another lane to get into Lakeview?


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[powderjunkie]

Lol the recent posts didn’t load for me...

I wonder if the could do a traffic circle centred under where the flyover intersects Crowchild? The hill from Lakeview to their might be tough


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[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I don't drive down there often, but isn't the biggest issue EB Glenmore to NB Crowchild? Could you do a flyover like this, to fix that movement?

I would actually design the turn so that you go from eastbound Glenmore to northbound Crowchild after passing under Crowchild, turning right and into northbound Crowchild. The Crowchild Northbound traffic to eastbound Glenmore can be moved south of this new ramp.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

They’ll probably need to look at EB Glenmore onto NB Crowchild...making it a double left turn with another lane to get into Lakeview?


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That was my thinking... While a flyover would be a better solution, a longer exit lane would allow for more cars to get off from EB Glenmore onto Crowchild.

I don't know about a double left turn from the exit onto NB Crowchild though; I think there's only one through lane onto Crowchild north, with the other lane on the overpass being a dedicated turn lane from Crowchild onto WB Glenmore (Plus Crowchild at that point is two lanes from WB Glenmore > NB Crowchild, which is only 3 lanes, so there isn't room on Crowchild for two more lanes coming from the overpass).