Calgary Stoney Trail [Ring Road]

I'll post em all here.

17 Ave


Peigan


61 Ave


Glenmore


114 Ave


130 Ave (grading only)


88 St/22X... this looks cool.


52 St


Deerfoot


McKenzie Lake/Cranston Blvd


Seton Blvd/Cranston Ave (nothing really new in this pic; plans call for relatively minor changes to the config of this interchange, work hasn't yet started)


Chaparral/Sun Valley

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by Acey

Only in the middle of the night or on a holiday would 16 Ave be faster. Between ~3-6 pm on a weekday Stoney would be like 50% faster, or more. I still seen a ton of trucks on 16th though, and they can't all be intra-city.

I would think there would be little difference, time-wise, most of the day. Maybe not in the middle of rush hour, but outside of that... taking Stoney is 44km opposed to 23km along 16th Ave.

Sure there are stop lights, traffic, etc., but that is a big difference in the distance.

You can also drive twice as fast on much of Stoney, negating the majority of that difference.

[MalcolmTucker]

NE Stoney was also completed way earlier than originally planned. 16th had also just been debottlenecked in a serious way. As volumes on 16th increase the bypass rate will surely increase.

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by Acey

You can also drive twice as fast on much of Stoney, negating the majority of that difference.

For sure, but I think that's why the time difference is almost 0 between the two. There's too much of a difference in the distance for Stoney to be that much faster. Over time, as inner-city traffic increases, sure, but for now the two are about the same.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Acey

I'll post em all here.

Peigan

Road —.

What's with the super-wide paved median?

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Road —.

What's with the super-wide paved median?

Future extra lanes. Wide Load corridor.

[Cage]

—...... super-wide.......extras.

We are about to get a whole new demographic to this thread once Google bots take hold of the above posts. Here come the the chubby chasers. There I nailed it! now everyone will be looking up this thread late tonight in their hot college co-ed dorm rooms.

(Channeling my inner George Takei) "Oh my!!"

I think they have to open the new WB-SB flyover (or make some other detour) so they can remove the old WB-SB loop ramp, which would allow them to finish the EB-NB flyover and thus the SB-EB loop ramp which has that diverging leading decceleration lane type of thing. This is my guess as to the order of operations, but really I have no idea.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by SubwayRev

For sure, but I think that's why the time difference is almost 0 between the two. There's too much of a difference in the distance for Stoney to be that much faster. Over time, as inner-city traffic increases, sure, but for now the two are about the same.

Take it from someone who drives.. a LOT.

In order for 16th to be equal to Stoney, you'd have to average 50 km/h the whole way through the city. AVERAGE. With the speed limits mostly at 60, you'd basically only be able to stop for one or two lights before you'd spend more time on it.

And 16th has far more than one or two lights.

Run your car computer (if you have one) sometime. Check your average speed on a long-distance (cross-city) drive through lit intersections. You're lucky if you average 30-40 in a city like Calgary.

Someone with more boredom than me should could the total number of traffic lights avoided by taking Stoney. It has to be in the 15-20 range I'd think.

Yep it's 50% faster at least. Can't wait to see the savings of a trip like Auburn Bay to Cross Iron Mills on Stoney vs Deerfoot in the afternoon rush.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Someone with more boredom than me should could the total number of traffic lights avoided by taking Stoney. It has to be in the 15-20 range I'd think.

Total is 31 traffic lights from my scan of google maps and grey matter knowledge. One could argue the count is 29 if the lights at 14th Street and Deerfoot are counted as 1 set instead of my approach of counting individually.

Between highway 1 interchanges there are no lights on Stoney. Count 1 if you want to argue the NoseHill dirt piles are still an active lighted intersection.

[freeweed]

31??? Jesus. Worse than I thought.

Presuming perfect light timing (ie: you never have to slow down for any of them) - it'd be slightly faster than Stoney. There are some 80 sections but also some 50 sections. Again too lazy to work out the math there.

But I doubt you'd hit more than 50% greens on any given day, unless it was 2am.

Hmm... now I wanna test this. Middle of an afternoon on a Saturday or something. Stoney is pretty consistent unless there's an accident or weather, so timing 16th should be easy to compare to it. I think the only real negative to Stoney is the big dip/hill around Shaganappi. Trucks slow down a lot heading east, and a LOT heading west. But they're still moving without stopping, which is a big thing in a heavy vehicle.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by freeweed

31??? Jesus. Worse than I thought.

Presuming perfect light timing (ie: you never have to slow down for any of them) - it'd be slightly faster than Stoney. There are some 80 sections but also some 50 sections. Again too lazy to work out the math there.

But I doubt you'd hit more than 50% greens on any given day, unless it was 2am.

Hmm... now I wanna test this. Middle of an afternoon on a Saturday or something. Stoney is pretty consistent unless there's an accident or weather, so timing 16th should be easy to compare to it. I think the only real negative to Stoney is the big dip/hill around Shaganappi. Trucks slow down a lot heading east, and a LOT heading west. But they're still moving without stopping, which is a big thing in a heavy vehicle.

Been there, done that many times thanks to kids sports. Hockey (winter) and baseball (spring) have given me plenty of opportunities to have to make the trek to the east side of Calgary from Tuscany at pretty much all times - from rush hour to evenings to Sunday mornings. Mind you, most of the trips involve a small backtrack into Calgary (to say 52 or 68 Street). For very off peak times (eg Sunday morning) it's pretty much a wash as to which way you go. Any other time (especially peak hours) it's a complete no brainer to take Stoney. A few weeks ago we had to do Forest Lawn (pretty much right at 52 Street and 17 Ave). Even with the backtrack west into Calgary AND the construction zone we were still faster than the parents who drove through town. Bottom line, in my experience it is definitely worth it to do Stoney not only for the time but it is a better driving experience as well.

[gmc72]

To get something accurate you should have 2 cars leave Valley Ridge at the sme time and one take 16th and the other one takes Stoney Trail. Both meet up a the side of the road on 16th east of Stoney. See who gets there first and how big the difference is. Do this for a couple of days and you should get an accurate average time.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed quite a few more heavy trucks on Stoney than there were before.

[Pruitt-Igoe]

I can't remember where but I read that with no traffic, it takes about the same amount of time to go from Stoney Trail & 16 Ave NW to Stoney Trail & 16 Ave NE, whether you take 16 Ave or Stoney. I'm remembering the time being 25 minutes. It was probably written in one of the papers after Stoney opened.

I have driven the length of 16th before, and 25 minutes with no traffic seems about right. I've only done some of the NW section of Stoney though (Deerfoot to Sarcee Trail) so I can't compare the two.

There's always traffic on 16 Ave unless it's 2 am, that's the problem. I don't understand how this is even a discussion.

[5seconds]

The Province is undertaking an 'illustrative survey' on the Tsuu T'ina reserve. They are marking the SW ring road route with stakes so that the Nation can visualise the road, and the land that will be impacted.

You can see the stakes leading from 37th street in Lakeview, and I assume the entire route will be marked (if it isnt already. I couldn't see anything beyond what was near 37th street). I was told that the markings and the route is not final, but part of the ongoing process and used for illustration purposes only at this point.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

The Province is undertaking an 'illustrative survey' on the Tsuu T'ina reserve. They are marking the SW ring road route with stakes so that the Nation can visualise the road, and the land that will be impacted.

You can see the stakes leading from 37th street in Lakeview, and I assume the entire route will be marked (if it isnt already. I couldn't see anything beyond what was near 37th street). I was told that the markings and the route is not final, but part of the ongoing process and used for illustration purposes only at this point.

Nice to see some actual progress, even if we're still 20 years away from an agreement.

[5seconds]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Nice to see some actual progress, even if we're still 20 years away from an agreement.

I'm thinking 1 year, but who knows!