Quote:
Originally Posted by CoryB
Even at peak traffic times, think Red River Ex, the existing Portage and Perimeter setup handles flows fairly well. I think the change to a diamond likely won't be an issue. The construction of Costco at Portage Ave and Festival Dr though could be an issue. That said there is a plan to extend Festival Dr north to the Headingley by-pass/CCW which would help move traffic away from the site. Even a short Festival Dr/CCW connection would be a huge change for the start. Sadly, CCW is just out of scope of the current review of the Perimeter.
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I'm worried there's going to be a lot of opposition to any changes at Portage and the Perimeter, as well as at Pembina.
I've seen a ton of near misses from weaving issues on the SB Perimeter bridge over Portage, both very heavy traffic movements. Having people in the right lane on the Perimeter driving 50 while people are flying past in the left lane at 110 is objectively dangerous and bad design.
There's a reason why cloverleafs are almost never built anymore, especially for highway to arterial interchanges (neither Portage nor Pembina are highways where they meet the Perimeter). A diamond is not ideal, but conversion to a parclo would make much more sense.
The SB Perimeter to WB Portage is also messy, with large double length semis coming off and weaving with traffic trying to get to the Iceplex/Downs area.
The number of people who drive straight through the mandatory exit into the weaving lane on WB Portage is also fairly high.
While the current set up may handle flows "fairly well", properly designed infrastructure should be as safe as possible and leave room for user error. There's also no pedestrian or cyclist access. I see people trying to walk through the area quite often thanks to the lack of transit service. Dangerous as hell. No need to stick with an outdated 60s design just to avoid two traffic lights on Portage.