Ring Road To Nowhere

[Ashartus]

Or complaints about that stupid 60 zone on Glenmore before 37th. They should just go back to the configuration where you take the Westhills Blvd exit to get to 37th from Sarcee, wouldn't be much longer. I can count on the fingers of 1 hand the number of vehicles I've actually seen use that merge lane from Sarcee to 37th.

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

Or complaints about that stupid 60 zone on Glenmore before 37th...

This is intentionally setup to be a future money printer for the police for writing speeding tickets.

I just don't understand why a major roadway like this (and many others like Crowchild) has multiple speed limits that go up and down, they are designed this way to try to catch people who are not paying attention...

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

This is intentionally setup to be a future money printer for the police for writing speeding tickets.

I just don't understand why a major roadway like this (and many others like Crowchild) has multiple speed limits that go up and down, they are designed this way to try to catch people who are not paying attention...

That mixed with poor road planning would be my guess.

[Jay's Beagle]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

Or complaints about that stupid 60 zone on Glenmore before 37th. They should just go back to the configuration where you take the Westhills Blvd exit to get to 37th from Sarcee, wouldn't be much longer. I can count on the fingers of 1 hand the number of vehicles I've actually seen use that merge lane from Sarcee to 37th.

Think it had something to do with the Casino. Which, that argument doesn't make sense anymore with the opening of Tsuut'ina parkway.

When I was living in discovery that stretch was such a pain. You would slow down and people would lose their minds and blow past you. Cops have set up there a few times and its a gravy train because of the annoyance of a few drivers who keep 80 going or speed up.

[Mazrim]

The reason the silly merge and 60 speed limit is there is politics, plain and simple. By the same token, everyone who drives that road should complain on a regular basis to their MLA. Public pressure can easily override politics if enough people do it. Now that the Parkway is open there's no reason for that merge to be there.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

Or complaints about that stupid 60 zone on Glenmore before 37th. They should just go back to the configuration where you take the Westhills Blvd exit to get to 37th from Sarcee, wouldn't be much longer. I can count on the fingers of 1 hand the number of vehicles I've actually seen use that merge lane from Sarcee to 37th.

Originally Posted by Jay's Beagle

Think it had something to do with the Casino. Which, that argument doesn't make sense anymore with the opening of Tsuut'ina parkway.

When I was living in discovery that stretch was such a pain. You would slow down and people would lose their minds and blow past you. Cops have set up there a few times and its a gravy train because of the annoyance of a few drivers who keep 80 going or speed up.

Originally Posted by Mazrim

The reason the silly merge and 60 speed limit is there is politics, plain and simple. By the same token, everyone who drives that road should complain on a regular basis to their MLA. Public pressure can easily override politics if enough people do it. Now that the Parkway is open there's no reason for that merge to be there.

We need to fight the power and make this happen. This is so unnecessarily stupid. That's the whole point of the Tsuut'ina Parkway interchange.

EDIT: Wait, is SB Sarcee to Tsuut'ina Parkway actually open yet?

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Weitz

That mixed with poor road planning would be my guess.

The road was planned correctly, even constructed correctly, and then political influence/important people complained and it was subsequently changed.

Don't forgot they poured the entire barrier then nuked it.

Originally Posted by Joborule

EDIT: Wait, is SB Sarcee to Tsuut'ina Parkway actually open yet?

Yup, though it doesn't yet connect to Westhills Way.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Acey

Lights are required because they're also adding a protected dual left turn from southbound Shag into Hidden Valley, a movement that currently doesn't exist. Overall, this is a massive win if you live in Hidden Valley and a mild inconvenience if you're through-traffic on Shag, which is more than negated by the reduced delay from the bridge over Stoney being increased from 1 to 3 lanes.



The original plan, even after the completion of Stoney NW in 2009, was for the opposite of what you suggest, for Hidden Valley Drive to bridge over top of Shag and join it from the south side. Also, the Shag/Stoney interchange to be a soaring 3-level complex that looked closest to what was built in 2016 at Henday/Yellowhead NE in Edmonton. As absurdly expensive a fairy tale as any I can recall seeing in the ring road plans.

The city, since 2009, has downgraded Shag's overall importance. Why the mega interchange isn't happening, per the city's Q&A:



Given the reduced importance of Shag, elevating the road doesn't do much for you besides incite Capitol level riots from people who definitely didn't sign up for that, a distinct contrast from the people who bought properties backing onto Stoney Trail's transportation and utility corridor and were surprised a freeway is going up there.

Having lights there is much more than a minor inconvenience for shag traffic. An overpass for the traffic Hidden Valley traffic should be a requirement.

[bob-loblaw]

Originally Posted by Weitz

When did this happen?

The post you quoted is from the 12th and i made that turn twice on the 11th.... not a single sign stating that is closing.,.

So you cant turn from 101st to highway 8 anymore? They had signs up for weeks about lower springbank road closing from 101st to 85th....

It's probably my fault. I posted here that there were lights that weren't being used at the old intersection because 101 St and hwy 8 was bad so they should move them over. Then, when I was going home on Friday, there was a sign saying it was closing that night. I thought it was to improve the inters, then on Monday morning I saw the barricades and saw it was closed permanently. What a joke. I'm pretty sure they didn't even have it on the website.

It's even worse now. Here's the options to get back to Glenmore or Stoney:

- People turn right onto WB highway 8 at 101 street, go past the bridge, then turn off the road on the shoulder and turn left back onto Hwy 8 eastbound.
- Google Maps suggested I use the residential roads south of 17th Ave otherwise so I tried it once. EB to 17th, South on 85th street at 50 kmh, then 40 kmh through a residential area, two roundabouts, two playground zones (one with radar built into street signs, wtf).
- EB on 17th Ave to 69th southbound to Stoney.

All alternatives suck.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Having lights there is much more than a minor inconvenience for shag traffic.

I maintain that delay from this intersection will be mostly negated by the new bridge over Stoney. I have no proof of this but the city does, as they have run it in sim.

There are objective measures for levels of service in an at-grade intersection, and things have to be kept in perspective. Think about the worst intersections in the city like Sarcee/Bow and Macleod/25 Ave. Those would be an absolute F... Shag/Hidden Valley will most likely be a B ("slight delays") or C based on average delay, defined as "acceptable delay" in most manuals i.e. minor inconvenience.

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

An overpass for the traffic Hidden Valley traffic should be a requirement.

It's because of the aforementioned downgrade of Shag that it's definitely not a requirement; with its previous designation an overpass would have been tentatively planned regardless of volume.

The adoption of the Calgary Transportation Plan by City Council in 2009 that changed the classification of Shaganappi Trail from a Skeletal Road (freeway type of road) to an Arterial Street made the existing 1970 Shaganappi Trail Corridor Study outdated. The old plan classified Shaganappi Trail as a freeway which no longer fits within the City of Calgary’s long-term transportation plans.

This is the classification change that nullified plans for a 3-level Stoney/Shag interchange, though a westbound to southbound flyover is still possible based on how they built the original interchange.

[Wormius]

I live in HV and while it’s faster from my location to do 14th -> Country Hills -> Shaganappi NB or SB, on the rare occasion I would want to travel from HV to Shaganappi NB, I don’t understand the left-turn only situation there. I am glad they’re fixing it, but why not just allow the right-turns to Shaganappi NB? I have done it a few times because the alternative would have been unimaginably meandering in nature.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I live in HV and while it’s faster from my location to do 14th -> Country Hills -> Shaganappi NB or SB, on the rare occasion I would want to travel from HV to Shaganappi NB, I don’t understand the left-turn only situation there. I am glad they’re fixing it, but why not just allow the right-turns to Shaganappi NB? I have done it a few times because the alternative would have been unimaginably meandering in nature.

Alberta Transportation are very strict about following certain parameters of the highway design guide for roads near Stoney/Henday interchanges, which is the vast majority of what we complain about here. In this case, the intersection is too close to the interchange for them to be happy with it, which is more or less what is stated in this news article. The concern is that you have to skip over the right lane in a very short distance to get to the left lane to go north on Shag. How many collisions it would create over a 10 year period or something is hard to say, but I can see why they said no. They could have just forced anyone turning right to exit to EB Stoney, but for whatever reason didn't want to allow that either.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

This is intentionally setup to be a future money printer for the police for writing speeding tickets.

I just don't understand why a major roadway like this (and many others like Crowchild) has multiple speed limits that go up and down, they are designed this way to try to catch people who are not paying attention...

Have you considered a new set of front parking sensors to deal with this? Just have to pay attention for photo radar trucks; the one on NB Crowchild SW as you pass by ABOM is particularly sinister because there is zero opportunity to see it and traffic flow outside of rush hour moves faster than the PSL.

[Acey]

It will potentially be utilized as a cash grab, but it is blatantly clear that it was not originally designed to be one, for all the reasons I've spent 5 pages describing.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Acey

It will potentially be utilized as a cash grab, but it is blatantly clear that it was not originally designed to be one, for all the reasons I've spent 5 pages describing.

Not potentially utilized, it is. They routinely set up laser in the painted area between the lanes coming from the flyover and the lanes coming from Highway 8. AND they set up photo radar right under the 37th St bridge.

Funny enough, I was replying to luckypucker and they actually called the exact spot several pages ago:

Originally Posted by lazypucker

As much of a cluster#### as it is over at the Sarcee to 37th section of EB Glenmore, where can the cops hide? The only way is to park their SUV in that painted no-go area in the middle of that 5-lane merge, and it will be a multi-car collision disaster waiting to happen...

Just a bad administrative decision, not that such a thing is novel in our city.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Not potentially utilized, it is. They routinely set up laser in the painted area between the lanes coming from the flyover and the lanes coming from Highway 8.

Sure, that doesn't matter. The point I was obviously addressing is whether or not it was constructed and designed this way on purpose. It was not designed this way, nor initially constructed that way. If people want to rip through there at 40 over, of course they'll consistently set up there.

[Calgary14]

What exactly are they doing at Spruce Meadows Way (ring road connector)? it's closed for a month now

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

What exactly are they doing at Spruce Meadows Way (ring road connector)? it's closed for a month now

Connecting the ring road, duh.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Connecting the ring road, duh.

It already connects....

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Acey

It was not designed this way, nor initially constructed that way.

I agree with that, we got a taste of what it was supposed to be when it was first opened, and then too many people whined that they couldn't exit to 37th and we ended up with this mess.