Anthony Henday Drive

[Black Star]

They should have done this travel experiment with the Henday and Yellowhead during rush hour.

I'm pretty sure the Henday would be much faster.

[hilman]

They did this morning, results will be on at 5 and 6 pm.

[Jaws]

My assistant lives in the far NE and it took her 20 min to make it to the office (51 Ave/91 St) this morning. It has cut her commute time in half.

[Kevin_foster]

Major bottlenecks in the morning rush and evening rush at around Campbell Road.

Thankfully the right hand lane going East IS the exit for Campbell Road, so easy for me - I just feel bad for the poor suckers that go from 3 lanes to 2 lanes. Why only 2 lanes??

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Landlocked

I'm thrilled that your commute time has been cut down. A side benefit is that it's also likely a much safer route now; the less intersections you need to navigate the better.

Not my commute perse, as I work downtown and live near Capilano so my commute now is pretty fantastic (CoE doing everything in it's power to mess that up notwithstanding) but we visit the inlaws 3-4 times a week in StAb.. Which means an afternoon rush hour drive out there from our home.

It's pretty great regardless.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by Acey

CTV is doing some experiment this afternoon on taking Yellowhead across the city vs Henday, which nets about 5-10 minutes of savings and a whole let less irritation. In practical commuter usage, this is not a common trip... and there's much bigger than 10 minute savings to be had on St. Albert-Sherwood Park trips for example, or Southeast Edmonton to St. Albert, Clareview to South Edmonton, on and on.

We're inevitably going to see "Henday saves only 6 minutes over Yellowhead, was it worth $2B?!" on the news tonight but hilman's commute that is now 20+ minutes shorter, and that of many others who will save even more than that... those are the trips that demonstrate the real effectiveness.

I hope someone does question that, and I hope someone is smart enough to respond with something like:

Average volume 50 000 vehicle/day (for example) x 6 minutes = 300 000 minutes saved per day (5000 hours).
5000 fewer hours of engine run time per day x amount of fuel burned per hour = amount of fuee saved per day. Can also equate to GHC reductions.
5000 hours/day time savings PLUS $$$ fuel saving = net benefit to the Edmonton economy per day.

Then compare to total cost and see how it looks.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

According to tonight's CTV story, Henday is faster than Yellowhead by 10 min during rush hour. Story should be online sometime this evening.

Originally Posted by lubicon

Then compare to total cost and see how it looks.

While that's a valid argument, it's not one that would be wise to use. One could simply counter and say that a mere $20m of improvements to Yellowhead would be enough to save 6 minutes on a cross-city commute which is probably a valid statement.

The fallacy in CTV's tests is that the majority of commuters are not doing Yellowhead from Henday to Henday, but rather an immeasurable number of intra-city trips that use only some portion of Henday. The average person who now uses NE Henday for their commute (as opposed to some combo of YHT, Capilano, Victoria, etc. that they previously used) is saving far more than 6 minutes on average, I'd guess something more like 10+ minutes. Because of this uncertainty, any fuel/GHG/commuter delay calculation is pretty hard but the savings in any of these metrics is far greater than a 6 minute average savings would net.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Henday vs Yellowhead - rush hour
http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=965599&binId=1.1203428&playlistPageNum=1

Henday as a Yellowhead bypass is still a valid test. More than a few drivers consist of commercial cross-country traffic to/from the BC coast, or just everyday commuters who just want to travel between Sherwood Park and Acheson or St. Albert, or getting onto Hwy 28. As it is, a common bypass route that I know of has been Hwys 15 and 37, which can be a clusterfunk at the best of times.

I agree that it's a valid test and that there are indeed people/trucks making that particular trip, given that it's technically the primary purpose of the ring. My point is that the way they present that 10 minute figure is as if those are the only savings that could be realized from NE Henday, which we know to not be the case but general plebs will see the CTV piece and may think so. In fact, I know some think so based on the comments.

Therefore, what I'm stating to be unwise is using the 10 minute figure as primary ammo arguing in favour of Henday construction.

Originally Posted by Kevin_foster

Why only 2 lanes??

NW leg was the last ring road leg to be built before the province decided to start doing it properly the first time around instead of relying on the fact that the expansion will be relatively inexpensive because grading/drainage etc. would already be done. The next leg to open, Stoney Trail SE, was built properly as was NE Henday obviously, and the plans for the finals 2 legs of Stoney are 10 lane type of bonkers.

Just kinda sucks that Edmonton got the worst of it.

[Landlocked]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Not my commute perse, as I work downtown and live near Capilano so my commute now is pretty fantastic (CoE doing everything in it's power to mess that up notwithstanding) but we visit the inlaws 3-4 times a week in StAb.. Which means an afternoon rush hour drive out there from our home.

It's pretty great regardless.

I knew about your family obligations and that the commute wasn't work related. It's honestly the reason I am happy for you. Though I'd never refer to time with family as a burden, sometimes the travel to and from can be, especially when the travel cuts into that quality time.

[adam-machiavelli]

Originally Posted by s211

Hell, no.

Edmonton may be an ok place to get "around", but not get through.

It's access to the central core from outlying regions is amongst the worst I've seen for a city of its size.

Is that coded talking points for "did not wreck its downtown with freeways"?

[s211]

Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli

Is that coded talking points for "did not wreck its downtown with freeways"?

Not at all.

Using Calgary as an example, the Deerfoot/Memorial and Crowchild/Bow connections are fantastic for getting around the city and into the core (rush hour congestion notwithstanding). And none of those free-flow roads penetrate the core. Edmonton's a mess of traffic lights and disconnected roads to get anywhere once you're off the Yellowhead or Whitemud.

I'd hate to live in the SW, say Terwilligar, and commute downtown every day.

[Rogie]

Originally Posted by s211

Not at all.

Using Calgary as an example, the Deerfoot/Memorial and Crowchild/Bow connections are fantastic for getting around the city and into the core (rush hour congestion notwithstanding). And none of those free-flow roads penetrate the core. Edmonton's a mess of traffic lights and disconnected roads to get anywhere once you're off the Yellowhead or Whitemud.

I'd hate to live in the SW, say Terwilligar, and commute downtown every day.

The price you pay for a beautiful river valley.

I'm proud that Edmonton didn't go the freeway route just as Vancouver didn't.

Originally Posted by Rogie

The price you pay for a beautiful river valley.

100% disagree. Yellowhead being a freeway would have zero impact on the river valley, nor would a freeflow spur off it into downtown like 97 St. Capilano and Baseline being freeways would have negligible impacts and we'd still have miles and miles of beautiful river valley.

It only gets nasty when you try to do that horrific Jasper Freeway concept thing up Mackinnon Ravine that was planned in the 60's.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

A freeway from Yellowhead to downtown makes little sense. If a freeway to downtown absolutely had to be built, it would be from the QE2 because of the airport. In fact, part of the mega-freeway plan from several decades ago was to extend 91 St through the Mill Creek Ravine, which was thankfully aborted.

[hilman]

When I lived in Calgary their road system was horrendous, the Deerfoot was good on off peak hours but during rush hour I would frequently be going 30 kph or less. And don't even get me started on the Crowchild, Sarcee or the Memorial.

[sdimedru]

Any regular users of the NE leg comment on traffic volumes? I've been using it from 97st ->YHD->Broadmoor and back all week at appx 7-730am and then 430-5pm.... holy moly I'm surprised at the amount of volume?

I'm guessing its just my travelling occurring at peak times? I suppose it supports the need for that segment.

[hilman]

The volume is quite high/steady but is three lanes (or more) from Manning Drive South so the traffic moves smoothly. I usually set my cruise at 110 or so and it is smooth sailing all the way to the Whitemud. The newly added third lane on the Whitemud really helps as well, especially when people are trying to merge on.

It takes me around 8-9 minutes to get from 167 ave/66 street to the YHD overpasses and 14 minutes to get the Whitemud.