Beautiful Day aint it..

[burn_this_city]

Whats with the power outages the last two times it snowed..? I realize we don't normally get alot, but honestly this is a little rediculous.. The lights and Shepard and Glenmore were out this morning, and traffic heading east on Glenmore was backed up outta sight.. Why can't the cops direct traffic instead of no showing while everyone idles for an hour and half on their way to work??

[Resolute 14]

Probably becuase cops have to deal with all the accidents and other problems.

Speaking of which, I can't believe I just made it from Cranston to Kingsland without encountering a single problem or delay. I must have found the only route in the city that isn't completely screwed up.

[worth]

2 set of lights on 22x were out this morning at around 6:30. Probably don't have enough cops to send to all the lights.

[llama64]

I heard a brief mention of the power outages on the radio this morning. Apparently has to do with the humidity affecting transformers. The hardest hit communities seemed to be the older ones so I'm wondering if the weather just caused failing infrastructure to finally give out.

Either that or those darn deceptacons are up to no good...

[burn_this_city]

They should be hitting up the major intersections to get traffic moving.. I saw a cruiser drive through the ones at glenmore while I waited, so I don't completely buy the "they are too busy argument". As for the transformers, imagine we lived in the east where it snows like this on a weekly basis.. I think enmax better start spending some money proping up this sagging infrastructure..

[Ozy_Flame]

nm

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

They should be hitting up the major intersections to get traffic moving.. I saw a cruiser drive through the ones at glenmore while I waited, so I don't completely buy the "they are too busy argument". As for the transformers, imagine we lived in the east where it snows like this on a weekly basis.. I think enmax better start spending some money proping up this sagging infrastructure..

I came straight down McLeod this morning and the set of lights before the graveyard and after the graveyard were shut down. There were cruisers at both sets of lights with their lights going but not directing traffic. I think when a light is completely out of commission they must not be able to get out of their cars or something. Maybe a safety regulation?

[ken0042]

I was thinking about the lack of police directing traffic the other day, and wonderring why nothing was being done.

I wonder if the police need to be called by Enamx to take care of a traffic situation, and Enamx maybe isn't calling them because now they would get a bill for additional police work. It's the only reason I can see, because it's all silly. The police and Enamx are both funded by our tax dollars, and even if there's 200 people who are 10 minutes later because of the lack of police, and those people each earn $20 an hour at their jobs, the lost time would more than pay for the police to show up.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I was thinking about the lack of police directing traffic the other day, and wonderring why nothing was being done.

I wonder if the police need to be called by Enamx to take care of a traffic situation, and Enamx maybe isn't calling them because now they would get a bill for additional police work. It's the only reason I can see, because it's all silly. The police and Enamx are both funded by our tax dollars, and even if there's 200 people who are 10 minutes later because of the lack of police, and those people each earn $20 an hour at their jobs, the lost time would more than pay for the police to show up.

Just imagine the fuel consumption having 10,000 cars idling all the way down Glenmore this morning..

[Cowperson]

Durango not happy this morning.

Durango had to slow down. A lot.

Durango hate slushy snow on highways.

Dangerous driving conditions south of the city.

Cowperson

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I was thinking about the lack of police directing traffic the other day, and wonderring why nothing was being done.

I wonder if the police need to be called by Enamx to take care of a traffic situation, and Enamx maybe isn't calling them because now they would get a bill for additional police work. It's the only reason I can see, because it's all silly. The police and Enamx are both funded by our tax dollars, and even if there's 200 people who are 10 minutes later because of the lack of police, and those people each earn $20 an hour at their jobs, the lost time would more than pay for the police to show up.

Why would Enmax have to call the police? This is seriously the only reason you can see that there isn't a cop at every intersection directing traffic???


As for the two power outages, come on people, they had some pretty big problems in the south yesterday, and they get it all temporarily fixed, and then they get hit by we heavy snow, I don't think it's unreasonable that that would cause some problems.

[BlackArcher101]

Some people don't like to be inconvenienced I guess.

I don't see why a cop should go to every intersection without active traffic control and control things him/herself. It's not the lack of them being there that ties up the traffic, it's the doofus that doesn't know how to properly act at an uncontrolled intersection. It isn't the cops responsibility to get you to work on time, it's to keep you safe. As well, you can be guaranteed in an outage there are more calls that normally don't happen often, such as false security alarms.

I have frequently seen utility companies "rent" a cop to control traffic when there is scheduled maintenance (like replace a left turn signal).

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Why would Enmax have to call the police? This is seriously the only reason you can see that there isn't a cop at every intersection directing traffic???

Once again, nobody besides the "they can't be at every intersection" crowd is suggesting they be at every intersection. I'm talking about major intersections. Monday coming into work I watched Global show the lights being out at Barlow and 114th for over 90 minutes. Which in turn caused Deerfoot to jam up. 100's if not 1000's of people affected.

Can you explain why there was absolutely no police presence? I am just spitballing; hopefully somebody might be able to answer for us.

[You Need a Thneed]

With a heavy, wet snow like this, power is going to knocked out in places. There's nothing they can really do. I'm sure the cops have lots of accidents to attend to, so directing traffic at an intersection isn't the first priority. Plus, cop cars have just as much difficulty getting around as anyone else. They can't get somewhere instantaneously.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Once again, nobody besides the "they can't be at every intersection" crowd is suggesting they be at every intersection. I'm talking about major intersections. Monday coming into work I watched Global show the lights being out at Barlow and 114th for over 90 minutes. Which in turn caused Deerfoot to jam up. 100's if not 1000's of people affected.

Can you explain why there was absolutely no police presence? I am just spitballing; hopefully somebody might be able to answer for us.

Tru dat.

It's ridiculous that the cops don't immediately head to major intersections when something like this happens. Especially an intersection like 114 and Barlow. With all the truck traffic, treating it like a 4 way stop will back it up for hours. Especially in rush hour.

[Tron_fdc]

I saw a guy jump out of his car and start directing traffic at a set of lights once, when they were completely out. Before he came along people were basically edging out into the intersection, almost smashing into each other, because they had no idea how to navigate a major intersection with no lights. The guy started directing, people paid attention, and everything started running fairly smooth.

A cop came by and yelled at the guy, sent him on his way, and then turned on his cruiser lights and sat back in his car. This allowed people to get back to almost hitting each other.

Didn't make a lot of sense to me. The only reason I could think of for the cop to get back into his car was because of the danger to himself but seriously...it was pretty obvious what was happening with no one in control of things.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

With a heavy, wet snow like this, power is going to knocked out in places. There's nothing they can really do. I'm sure the cops have lots of accidents to attend to, so directing traffic at an intersection isn't the first priority. Plus, cop cars have just as much difficulty getting around as anyone else. They can't get somewhere instantaneously.

So what does that mean? That they can't get there at all? IMO, directing traffic at major intersections is more important that attending to a fender bender between two idiots that were driving too fast for conditions.

Besides, isn't there some kind of contingency plan for a minor emergency like this? Don't they have at least 5 or 10 officers that are on call at any given time?
It just doesn't sound too far fetched that within 30 minutes, an officer can be at an intersection.
But then I remember that we live in a city that openly admits that they wait for chinooks to clear the roads. Why would something like this be any different?

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by fotze

I for one welcome our new cost-cutting cop overlords. I say save monay especially on things that don't affect me.

What they SHOULD be doing is setting up more cameras at these intersections, turning off the lights from time to time, and handing out tickets to people that don't go through the intersection properly. It's a win-win!!! Less police presence, more revenue!!!

[Madman]

The lights were out at 194ave and Macleod this morning. People were being very cautious and slowing down to 75km/h to speed through them without a hint of of knowing how to handle the situation.

Do people honestly think the best behaviour at an intersection with blacked out traffic lights is to speed through like its green??

As I stopped at the lights, I counted at least 3 near death misses. Hopefully everyone got to work that extra 13 seconds sooner.

[burn_this_city]

The best solution would be to build a Tim Hortons on the corner of every major intersection. So the yuppies can get their coffee every morning, and the cops will be in line of sight in the event of an emergency like this..