Ring Road To Nowhere

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

Eastbount on Highway 8 is the same story. I followed the signs to the rightmost lane and there was no exist, had to travel all the way to 37st to turn around.

There are three options, left, center and right, and none of them three clearly state which goes to the southbound ring road (is it Tsuut’ina Trail or Tsuut’ina Parkway?).

Coming eastbound on Highway 8, the signs say Stoney Trail and you stay left. Tsuut'ina Parkway, Sarcee and Glenmore exit to the right. Stoney Trail becomes Tsuut'ina Trail as it turns south.

[lazypucker]

I drove through the new stretch today, it was great. I can get to the new Costco from Sarcee/Richmond Road in less than 5 min (OK, I was going like 130, but still).

The road is great. But the signage and the names chosen for the roads are confusing - Stoney Trail, Tsuut'ina Trail, Tsuut'ina Parkway? Are they the same road, or different roads?

[Acey]

Stoney Trail and Tsuut'ina Trail are the same thing, that is Highway 201. Tsuut'ina Parkway is a different thing, a cross street that is currently closed until development is done in the area. It was originally to be called Strathcona Street... but was later changed. They could have called it anything other than Tsuut'ina for the sake of clarity through that area, but that would have made too much sense.

[Ducay]

I understand why the nation didn't want the Stoney name running through their land and why we had no choice but to accept......but man, what a terrible decision in naming across the board.

You boys thought 3 unconnected Barlows was bad? HMB, Stoney wants to have a word with you

[Acey]

My stance is this:

1) Rename Tsuut'ina Parkway to literally anything else
2) Extend the Tsuut'ina Trail name from Glenmore to 22X
3) Stop referring to freeways solely by their name

[curves2000]

I drove the road the other day with my parents yapping in my ear but a few thoughts. If I am wrong about anything, I apologize as my memory might not have been as strong as I thought about the road.

How is it that in 2020 we still don't have sections of this ring road that have the safety cable coming down the middle? This prevents cars from crossing the medium into another lane or spinning in and out of the existing direction lane? This road cost a fortune, how are we skipping on safety?

The signage as per a lot of Calgary and Canadian roads is just **** awful. This is a very wide road with multiple lanes yet when your driving at 100, they have some small sign on the side of the road on the right side indicating coming onramps. These signs should be plentiful and should indicate what is happening across the entire width of the roadway.

I have always found it so comical with all the driving I have done in Europe and in the USA just how bad we are with design in Calgary. I always use the example of finding the airport in Calgary. If I didn't know where I was going, the lack of signs, the poorly placed signs and the lack of general directions on getting to the airport from major routes would be SO FRUSTRATING. The same logic would apply to other major places around town including hospitals, universities and more.

Another issue I had was when I drove southbound on 201 headed toward Anderson, I took the eastbound turnoff for Anderson. The lane requires a quick, strong merge onto Anderson with a fairly short lane. When I drove the road there wasn't much traffic but honestly w**?? Did we run out space or something?

I love how we have huge swaths of land doing absolutely nothing and than have lanes and signs where they try to save as few bucks.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by curves2000

How is it that in 2020 we still don't have sections of this ring road that have the safety cable coming down the middle? This prevents cars from crossing the medium into another lane or spinning in and out of the existing direction lane? This road cost a fortune, how are we skipping on safety?

HTCB, high tension cable barrier. The median is the widest in human history at 90 meters, you could deviate into the median and cook breakfast before you reached the other side. Is there a specific section you're talking about?

Originally Posted by curves2000

These signs should be plentiful and should indicate what is happening across the entire width of the roadway.

All advance exit signs are on cantilever gantries overhead the road.

Originally Posted by curves2000

Another issue I had was when I drove southbound on 201 headed toward Anderson, I took the eastbound turnoff for Anderson. The lane requires a quick, strong merge onto Anderson with a fairly short lane.

This is the second time I've heard this. I'll have to check it out.

[Madman]

Being a born and raised southern Calgarian, Westhills has always felt like driving to Golden, so not somewhere we typically ventured to. We decided to go check out the new road yesterday and I was genuinely blown away, not only from a quality standpoint, but from hopping on at Fish Creek Blvd we were at Westhills in like 5 minutes - in was actually quite shocking that it is that close when you can drive directly.

It really is going to be a game changer when the entire thing is done.

[Weitz]

Getting to a costco in 8-10 minutes is a game changer.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Getting to a costco in 8-10 minutes is a game changer.

This guy West Hills. Worst part of the "before times" was that even when you slogged out the 25 minute drive to a Costco, you were rewarded with the insanity that was Heritage Costco or Beacon Hills.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Ducay

This guy West Hills. Worst part of the "before times" was that even when you slogged out the 25 minute drive to a Costco, you were rewarded with the insanity that was Heritage Costco or Beacon Hills.

When we were looking at houses, we had Sherwood in the mix because it was right next to Beacon Hills for shopping (having never actually been there). So glad we didn't actually buy there, that is the most chaotic shopping complex I've ever seen

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Madman

Being a born and raised southern Calgarian, Westhills has always felt like driving to Golden, so not somewhere we typically ventured to. We decided to go check out the new road yesterday and I was genuinely blown away, not only from a quality standpoint, but from hopping on at Fish Creek Blvd we were at Westhills in like 5 minutes - in was actually quite shocking that it is that close when you can drive directly.

It really is going to be a game changer when the entire thing is done.

This is great to hear. I also grew up in the deep south, Evergreen Estates, and going anywhere on the west side was horrific and not something I tried to do often. For a year during University I worked at the Glencoe golf course and had to drive up and down 14th, Glenmore and highway 8 and it was awful but it was a great job. Luckily my hours my such that I avoided the worst traffic but it still sucked.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ducay

This guy West Hills. Worst part of the "before times" was that even when you slogged out the 25 minute drive to a Costco, you were rewarded with the insanity that was Heritage Costco or Beacon Hills.

Nah I avoid West Hills like the plague. I used to only go for the movie theatre but now I go to Market Mall.

[Calgary14]

How long on a typical weekend, with average traffic, from West Springs to the new Costco?

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Acey

The road is classified as an "urban freeway divided" which has a maximum design speed of 110. And then

Schedule 18 calls it rural, not urban. A notable difference.

Originally Posted by Acey

Keep in mind that certain other roads in Alberta were allowed to grandfather their high limits after the new standards were introduced, making Stoney/Henday seem further "overbuilt".

As one example, compare Schedule 18 K values with AT's design guide or TAC and you'll see it's overkill. This is a consistent trend in Schedule 18 to make the road "safer".

Originally Posted by Acey

tl;dr: Stoney/Henday are built properly, and everything else sucks.

I disagree only because the road feels too open. The barrier free requirement and inflated "110" design standards makes everything that would slow a driver down non-existent. The 85th percentile speed on Stoney is probably Coquihalla bad.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Acey

Stoney Trail and Tsuut'ina Trail are the same thing, that is Highway 201. Tsuut'ina Parkway is a different thing, a cross street that is currently closed until development is done in the area. It was originally to be called Strathcona Street... but was later changed. They could have called it anything other than Tsuut'ina for the sake of clarity through that area, but that would have made too much sense.

Originally Posted by Acey

My stance is this:

1) Rename Tsuut'ina Parkway to literally anything else
2) Extend the Tsuut'ina Trail name from Glenmore to 22X
3) Stop referring to freeways solely by their name

I've yet to drive the new stretch. Acey, are you saying the new signage does NOT refer at all to 201, just the road name? That's idiotic if so. At least if the sign said '201' along with the name you would know it is the ring road and not a collector.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Acey

My stance is this:

1) Rename Tsuut'ina Parkway to literally anything else
2) Extend the Tsuut'ina Trail name from Glenmore to 22X
3) Stop referring to freeways solely by their name

Welcome to my world...

[Old Yeller]

Google Maps has the updated road on it now, however it's not currently smart enough to plot faster routes on it... it still wants me to go 14th to Glenmore to Sarcee to get to Westhills.

[Madman]

There are the standard 201 badges beside all the names.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Acey

HTCB, high tension cable barrier. The median is the widest in human history at 90 meters, you could deviate into the median and cook breakfast before you reached the other side. Is there a specific section you're talking about?

hahah, so true. We drove down it yesterday from 146 to Glenmore. Man is that fantastic but ya, the lane travelling the other way is unbelievably far away.

So effin bizarre coming southbound from Glenmore and turning eastbound onto Southland to get to Braeside. It's awesome.