Edmonton Roads

[craner]

Edmonton seems to have east-west transportation figured out with Yellowhead across the north and Whitemud the south.
Calgary has north-south figured out with Deerfoot down the east side and Crowchild on the west.
Now if we could just get the best of both worlds in both cities.
At least we both have our ring roads now.

[Coldrsx]

You have your N/S sorted because everyone wants to come up here

[s211]

Originally Posted by craner

Edmonton seems to have east-west transportation figured out with Yellowhead across the north and Whitemud the south.
Calgary has north-south figured out with Deerfoot down the east side and Crowchild on the west.
Now if we could just get the best of both worlds in both cities.
At least we both have our ring roads now.

I'd take Calgary's arterial system any day over Edmonton's. Edmonton has no freeway through the city of Deerfoot's scale, as just one example. The Whitemud and Yellowhead are more like Barlow Trail than Deerfoot.

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by s211

I'd take Calgary's arterial system any day over Edmonton's. Edmonton has no freeway through the city of Deerfoot's scale, as just one example. The Whitemud and Yellowhead are more like Barlow Trail than Deerfoot.

But ours are still better than Vancouvers!!! We have them beat there, eh. LOL!

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Originally Posted by s211

I'd take Calgary's arterial system any day over Edmonton's. Edmonton has no freeway through the city of Deerfoot's scale, as just one example. The Whitemud and Yellowhead are more like Barlow Trail than Deerfoot.

I'll take multiple transportation options for transit, cycling, walking and driving over your vaunted freeways anytime, Mr. 20th Century.

[Rocket252]

The best option for a North/South freeway would be expanding Capilano and Wayne Gretzky drive.

With the coliseum being demolished expanding the road from Yellowhead through Northlands can be done. Capilano/Wayne Gretzky can provide arterial access to north Edmonton via 118th ave, downtown via 98 ave and Strathcona via 82 ave.

This should have been done 30 years ago.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Rocket252

The best option for a North/South freeway would be expanding Capilano and Wayne Gretzky drive.

With the coliseum being demolished expanding the road from Yellowhead through Northlands can be done. Capilano/Wayne Gretzky can provide arterial access to north Edmonton via 118th ave, downtown via 98 ave and Strathcona via 82 ave.

This should have been done 30 years ago.

They could trench 75th south of 98 Avenue to Sherwood Park Freeway to turn it into a proper freeway, but that will never happen due to cost and expropriation requirements from the adjacent residential properties.

Would be easier to make it free-flow north of the Ada Boulevard Bridge north to the Yellowhead. Any further than that, no can do as the Fort Road work has already been done.

[DKaz]

Maybe bore a tunnel to 50 St just south of 98 Avenue where there are no residential neighbourhoods to divide and a much wider corridor to build with little exporpriation required. Straight down to Whitemud.

I also think 91 St should've been turned into a freeway as soon as SE Anthony Henday came in.

[itom 987]

Originally Posted by craner

Edmonton seems to have east-west transportation figured out with Yellowhead across the north and Whitemud the south.
Calgary has north-south figured out with Deerfoot down the east side and Crowchild on the west.
Now if we could just get the best of both worlds in both cities.
At least we both have our ring roads now.

Anthony Henday ring road says "hello"!

[s211]

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

I'll take multiple transportation options for transit, cycling, walking and driving over your vaunted freeways anytime, Mr. 20th Century.

Uh-huh, right. You might be interested to know that your so-called Mr. 20th Century takes transit, walks and bikes with one of his two bikes far more than he uses a car.

I'll take the higher road on this one and not throw pejoratives back.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

You have your N/S sorted because everyone wants to come up here

Haha - reminds me of the joke that gets told here in Calgary:
Q: What is the best thing to come out of Edmonton ?
A: Highway 2 South.

[ciudad_del_norte]

Deerfoot is different from anything we have in Edmonton not because of the ifnrastructure itself, but because the connectivity both central to the city and beyond directly into the provincial highway network. The Yellowhead is closer to it connectivity wise, but Hwy 16 is not Hwy 2, even when they finish the grade separation work. Whitemud is a decent connection in the city, but it doesn't too much farther beyond.

Calgary's network is largely because of topography (Nose Creek/Bow River Valley). Edmonton's most likely path to something similar would have been the plans for a 91 street freeway (connected up to HWY II) and extension through mill creek ravine to the interchanges in the valley near downtown. I'm personally glad that didn't happen, but do agree that it feels both like a N-S route is lacking.

Calgary has a different roadway system overall and winding a few expressways through makes a bit more sense there because the landscape means few roadways can practically continue on the same alignment for very far. Edmonton has a tighter system of more moderate arterial roadways on a fairly consistent grid. They are individually lower capacity, but there is a certain network resilience in their consistency, and they are much less disruptive to the city itself. Edmonton's more Calgary-like area is the SW along Terwillegar Drive - where you also see geographic constraints making it impractical to tie into the consistent grid one either side of the river and whitemud ravine.

Both systems have their benefits and drawbacks. I find Calgary a bit more "cut up" than Edmonton by the expressways and they are difficult to cross, especially if you aren't driving. Driving farther cross-city distances quickly in Calgary does usually feel more efficient though.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by craner

Haha - reminds me of the joke that gets told here in Calgary:
Q: What is the best thing to come out of Edmonton ?
A: Highway 2 South.

Oh, yeah, well we have WEM

[s211]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Oh, yeah, well we have WEM

[feepa]

Originally Posted by craner

Haha - reminds me of the joke that gets told here in Calgary:
Q: What is the best thing to come out of Edmonton ?
A: Highway 2 South.

Yea cute, we have the same joke here..

[foolworm]

Originally Posted by s211

I'd take Calgary's arterial system any day over Edmonton's. Edmonton has no freeway through the city of Deerfoot's scale, as just one example. The Whitemud and Yellowhead are more like Barlow Trail than Deerfoot.

It's not that bad, come on.

At the end of the day, the state of the arterial road and freeway network is to circulate traffic around more efficiently. However deficient Edmonton's may be, it does have less severe traffic than Calgary. I don't really care how many lanes or interchanges Deerfoot has if it's a parking lot anyway most of the time.

Although, it is interesting to wonder what if Edmonton's ring road had been extended further south (say to 41 Ave SW) and became rectangular like Calgary's.

[Rocket252]

For individuals living in NE Edmonton the roundabout at 66st and 167 Ave is open.

It will be interesting to see how this works compared to a regular traffic light intersection - especially when the exit lanes need to merge from 2 to a single lane.

[foolworm]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-whitemud-drive-upgrades-9.7007757

Sorely needed -- this part of town has seen massive growth over the last few years and Whitemud Drive hasn't kept up.

It's encouraging to see Enoch pitching in money as well, it'll help drive traffic to the River Cree expansion they're building.

[Coldrsx]

MUCH needed. Here's hoping they get designing out to Hwy60 and make it another high capacity option from the West.

[s211]

Originally Posted by foolworm

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-whitemud-drive-upgrades-9.7007757

Sorely needed -- this part of town has seen massive growth over the last few years and Whitemud Drive hasn't kept up.

It's encouraging to see Enoch pitching in money as well, it'll help drive traffic to the River Cree expansion they're building.

A close vote, 7-6. I wonder what the no voters were focused on.