Ring Road To Nowhere

[you&me]

Originally Posted by GGG

I would suspect that high tension cable barriers have worse outcomes for the people that hit them then cruising to a stop in a snowy or grassy ditch.

Signs are made to fail on impact.

Anytime you take something going fast and slow it down rapidly you increase risk of injury.

As Jeremy Clarkson said: "Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you."

[Acey]

HTCB is expensive, complicates snow removal and mowing, and needs to be maintained after a significant number of nuisance PDO (property damage only) crashes, most of which are unreported.

From a cost-benefit perspective, it is therefore a waste of money and detrimental to maintenance of the roadway if it is installed where it is not needed. There is often talk about how dangerous it is for motorcycles, but studies from multiple jurisdictions have struggled to find a direct correlation and tend to vaguely summarize it as "motorcyclists have a very high chance of fatal injury upon colliding with a barrier regardless of type".

[curves2000]

Any thoughts on the design decision on Old Banff Coach road to loop southbound in order to go northbound? There appears to be plenty of land available and the merging option doesn't appear to be causing any issues with drivers who would want to go onto TCH/16 Ave?

Also, the lack of a southbound access onto the ring road by Old Banff Coach Road, was that decided to be nixed because of access at Bow Trail and via 101 Street? I can understand not wanting to have exit ramps too close together but a lot of the growth on the West Side is happening along/near Old Banff Coach Road. Could access along 101 Street be limited in the future?

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Any thoughts on the design decision on Old Banff Coach road to loop southbound in order to go northbound? There appears to be plenty of land available and the merging option doesn't appear to be causing any issues with drivers who would want to go onto TCH/16 Ave?

Also, the lack of a southbound access onto the ring road by Old Banff Coach Road, was that decided to be nixed because of access at Bow Trail and via 101 Street? I can understand not wanting to have exit ramps too close together but a lot of the growth on the West Side is happening along/near Old Banff Coach Road. Could access along 101 Street be limited in the future?

Pure speculation on the first one, but perhaps that leads to a longer ramp due to the road beginning to drop down into the valley at this point? Steeper is not an option, maybe the mainline drops faster than the ramp could catch up to it with a regular NB ramp?

Second point, perhaps it's possible to add future access to SB Stoney from Old Banff Coach by doing something like they did at the Tuscany Blvd ramps. Have a feeder road parallel to mainline Stoney and connect via the Bow Trail interchange. Not ideal (I know from experience, living in Tuscany) but it might work.

[Dentoman]

From a purely visual point of view, there is significantly less traffic on Sarcee northbound approaching 16th Ave during rush hour now that Stoney is open

[Mr.Coffee]

Speed limits are too slow, generally speaking, on pretty much the entire stretch of this road.

[Acey]

Well yeah... but apparently it's "unsafe" and for a city as rich as Calgary we should be building better roads...

Keep in mind though, one limiting factor is noise. This isn't QEII, and there are lots of adjacent residential areas who signed up to live next to a freeway at 100 kph, not the autobahn.

Rural freeways are a different story and I'll be the first in line to advocate for 130 on those barren stretches of Highway 4, etc

[calf]

Originally Posted by Dentoman

From a purely visual point of view, there is significantly less traffic on Sarcee northbound approaching 16th Ave during rush hour now that Stoney is open

I think next week will be the big tell when kids are back in school/more people are back in the office.

That all being said, took the new road on my commute home today...what's normally 25-35 minutes during rush hour taking Sarcee was just under 20 today

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Acey

Well yeah... but apparently it's "unsafe" and for a city as rich as Calgary we should be building better roads...

Keep in mind though, one limiting factor is noise. This isn't QEII, and there are lots of adjacent residential areas who signed up to live next to a freeway at 100 kph, not the autobahn.

Rural freeways are a different story and I'll be the first in line to advocate for 130 on those barren stretches of Highway 4, etc

I have as much sympathy for them as I do for the people who bought houses by the airport then piss and moan that the planes are too loud.

[Acey]

Nobody anywhere has particularly high limits on urban freeways for a multitude of reasons, including every state Alberta so badly wants to be. If you're modelling for much higher speeds, you now have to put more money into mitigation which increases project cost.

[puffnstuff]

I dont think we should have higher speed limits with how incredibly bad people drive.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Acey

Keep in mind though, one limiting factor is noise.

I was in Weaselhead this last weekend, and the increased noise from Stoney was very apparent. I assume residents who live around there will eventually block it out, but as a visitor it definitely killed some of the natural vibe of the area.

[Bill Bumface]

I've played tennis a few times at Deerfoot Athletic Park. If the wind is toward the courts, it's unreal how loud traffic is, even without any obvious engine noise. I always pictured an EV world as being so nice and quite, but the tire/wind noise is insanely loud on a 100km/h road.

[The Fisher Account]

My trip from Walden to Coach hill used to take around 35-40 minutes before the ring road.

Made it in 19 yesterday. Good infrastructure is delightful.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Acey

Well yeah... but apparently it's "unsafe" and for a city as rich as Calgary we should be building better roads...

Keep in mind though, one limiting factor is noise. This isn't QEII, and there are lots of adjacent residential areas who signed up to live next to a freeway at 100 kph, not the autobahn.

Rural freeways are a different story and I'll be the first in line to advocate for 130 on those barren stretches of Highway 4, etc

I already have to wear noise-cancelling headphones when I’m on my back deck due to cars ripping down the SW ring road at 120k. And no, this isn’t part and parcel of living in an urban environment. At various times I’ve lived in the beltline, in close proximity to Crowchild, and on the Macleod Tr / South LRT line corridor, and none of those locations were anywhere close to as noisy as my current house 500m from the ring road. Cars doing 100+ are way louder than cars doing 80-90. Especially the dick-wads on motorbikes who use the RR as a race-track.

It would help if they enforced the speed limit. I drive the SW RR almost daily, and I’ve never seen any speed enforcement. Maybe it’s a jurisdictional grey area through the Tsuu Tina. Which would explain why it’s used as racetrack on summer evenings.

[Fuzz]

The Tsu Tina exchanged that land with the province, there shouldn't be any jurisdictional gray area.



And I get to hear motorbikes race up McKnight every summer evening, blocks from a police station. I think it's that nobody cares.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I have as much sympathy for them as I do for the people who bought houses by the airport then piss and moan that the planes are too loud.

A lot of people have lived in my neighbourhood for 30-40 years. Sure, there was always a ring road plan on the books. But I doubt anyone buying a house in 1985 would have anticipated the kind of noise we’re getting from the SW RR today. In particular, they couldn’t have anticipated the dude-bro culture of modding cars and bikes to make them louder that has become popular in the last 10-15 years, and the seeming inability of cities to do anything to enforce the noise bylaws these drivers break.

As Acey points out, cities the world over typically have lower limits on roads that run through and along cities than roads that connect cities through rural areas.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

A lot of people have lived in my neighbourhood for 30-40 years. Sure, there was always a ring road plan on the books. But I doubt anyone buying a house in 1985 would have anticipated the kind of noise we’re getting from the SW RR today. In particular, they couldn’t have anticipated the dude-bro culture of modding cars and bikes to make them louder that has become popular in the last 10-15 years, and the seeming inability of cities to do anything to enforce the noise bylaws these drivers break.

As Acey points out, cities the world over typically have lower limits on roads that run through and along cities than roads that connect cities through rural areas.

Out of principle, I don't feel bad for anyone who bought a house in 1985. Just take your $300,000 + in profit and move.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

It would help if they enforced the speed limit. I drive the SW RR almost daily, and I’ve never seen any speed enforcement. Maybe it’s a jurisdictional grey area through the Tsuu Tina. Which would explain why it’s used as racetrack on summer evenings.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The Tsu Tina exchanged that land with the province, there shouldn't be any jurisdictional gray area.

.

Is speed enforcement on the two Ring Roads a City or a Provincial responsibility? They are not City roads technically so not sure if it would be CPS or RCMP? I think the answer is City responsibility since they used to have photo radar (City ran) on them but the Province banned that recently so now it would be 100% old school speed enforcement on the Ring Roads.

[Bill Bumface]

I feel bad for people living along Memorial in Bridgeland. The speed limit is 50, but it's built like a freeway and bikes/cars go racing up and down all summer. Those condos have no AC, and the side facing the road is south facing. So windows open and suffer the noise, or windows closed and sweat yourself to death.

Yes, I'm sure they'd all love to have enough money to not live there, but maybe it's also reasonable people don't drive wide open throttle going 150 in the city on a regular basis.