Calgary Roads

[Bigtime]

The 10th street and memorial intersection always sucks, so I usually avoid it in any of my commutes.

I would assume most people would choose to do the same, and especially on a day where it will only be two lanes.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by automan

Whenever I drive through the area, I find it's the 10th st. intersection that is the problem not the few blocks before or after. I'll bet if they closed 2 lanes through the 10th st. intersection traffic would have been backed up. Restricting that intersection is one of the problems with Druh's proposal.

AFAIK the proposal only asks for closing 2 lanes east of tenth to the prince's island area

[automan]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

AFAIK the proposal only asks for closing 2 lanes east of tenth to the prince's island area

The Calgary Sun is claiming that Druh proposes "to close the south lanes of Memorial Dr. on Sundays in August between 3 St. and 10 St. S.W." I wasn't at the city hall meeting so I don't have first hand knowledge. Hopefully the closure does start at 6 or 7st. and end well before it impacts the Center st. intersection.

[Full Mountain]

I would imagine that it will start at the turn for the prince's island parking lot (the first point where traffic can cross over to the other side) and end roughly where the lane reversal starts or at some point prior to tenth but after the end of the median

[freeweed]

I'll just be happy if this can just become standardized somehow. It's trivial to plan around if you know that road X is closed/congested during Sundays in August.

It's non-trivial to have to sit and look for details of road closures on the City's website, assume they're accurate, and plan based on that. Or worse (which is how it normally works), drive somewhere only to find it's closed today for something or other, so you backtrack/detour to a different road, only it turns out that road is backed up because 3/4 lanes are closed for construction work (hello 9th Ave!!!), so eventually you waste an hour idling and polluting.

I've lived in a city with regular, expected road closures/restrictions. It's a non-issue if they're regular - you just drive around them. Hell, if Memorial is closed at 10th and you're heading east, just turn right on 10th, left on 5th Ave, and bam, you're done. Take the flyover and head down 4th Ave for the reverse. And the core is never busy on Sundays (barring major construction work).

[SubwayRev]

My understanding is that the closure will begin where the lane reversal does, just east of 10th St., and east of the C-Train overpass. It will end at 3rd St., where the Calgary Curling Club is. If two lanes can be closed on a weekday without any problems, there won't be any problems on a Sunday.

[Jimby]

There's a new Beltline sinkhole. Global TV said a vehicle fell in the hole and had to be lifted out by a crane. I can't find anything on Global's website about it.

[mersar]

From what they said its across the road from the one beside Centuria.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[mwalker_mw]

We have HOV lanes? Seriously? I mean, there's the few short bits for bus only turns and priority signals... and that bit on crowchild coming up to bow trail... but, where is there actually a real HOV lane as seen in other cities?

Chabot is right - before you start fining people, educate them.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[Smevo]

The HOV lane on Centre Street N is counter-productive being the far right lane. Instead of being faster, you end up getting stuck behind a city bus making stop after stop. I usually use the reversed lane even when I have the extra passenger(s).

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[mersar]

Yep. Both the city's page, its Calgary Transit's page show the lane which runs from 3rd Ave South to 20th Ave North. Mostly intended for transit, with the route also setup with signal priority for CT to use.

[Bigtime]

Check out this piece of shit editorial from Naomi Lakritz in today's paper:

All a-Twitter about Druh's street party

By Naomi Lakritz, Calgary HeraldMay 15, 2009

"Twitter," says Twitter's website, "is a service for friends, family and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

What am I doing? Well, stay tuned, Herald readers, because I'm down here on Memorial Drive on a hot Sunday morning in August, waiting for Ald. Druh Farrell's block party to start, and I am so excited about the prospect of partying on this patch of previously boring and unremarkable pavement that I got up at 5 a. m., just so I wouldn't be late.

This is the block party to end all block parties--and it's right in the middle of a major metropolitan crosstown street.

If it's a smashing success, other cities will be sooooo envious. I bet next year the entire Trans-Canada Highway will be closed for four hours on a Sunday so the whole country can party from coast to coast! There'll be a rip-roaring time in Rogers Pass, that's for sure! Oh, better log on to my Twitter account; looks like we're getting underway here.

8:50. City workers have blocked off the street. Traffic is grudgingly funnelling itself into one lane each way.

9:01. Can't wait to start partying hearty. It's a chance to meet other Calgarians. May even make lifelong friends in the next 20 minutes!

9:10. Druh Farrell says this party will "get people active." They better get here soon. In three hours and 50 minutes, they have to go back to being passive.

9:30. Pavement's hot. That's good. The snow and ice from last December's mother of all storms are gone. See? City officials knew it would melt and they were right. Who needs plows?

9:50. People are milling around aimlessly. This party is supposed to lend Calgary vibrancy. Nobody's vibrating. Everybody's wilting.

10:05. The sun is higher now. According to KOMOnews.com,Seattle, "the pavement does a great job of absorbing the energy from the sun." Too true. Pavement scorching soles of shoes. 10:10. City transportation general manager John Hubbell says 850 cars travel one way at peak times Sundays. Zero cars now travelling either way.

10:12. Traffic gridlocked. Fumes filling the air. Emissions going into the atmosphere. Global warming intensifying. David Suzuki fuming. Ice caps melting.

10:15. Tired of milling around aimlessly near the curling club. Never was a curling fan, anyway. Time to head to 10th Street and mill around aimlessly there.

10:25. Good news. Toronto Star says Dutch firm is siphoning heat from roads to heat homes and offices. Help yourselves to Memo-rial Drive asphalt, Dutch firm. Send tulips in trade.

10:45. Am milling around aimlessly at 10th Street. Crowds doing likewise. No lifelong friendships forged yet.

11:00. Star article says: "If you've ever blistered your bare feet on a hot road, you know how asphalt absorbs the sun's rays." Yes!!!!

10:40. Rap music blaring from gridlocked car. Where's Ric McIver? Shall we dance to the rap rhythm, Ric?

10:55. Sick of dancing. Nobody's making lifelong friendships. Everyone's talking to the people they came with, who they already know. What's the point of that?

11:10. The Dutch firm took solar energy from a stretch of road to help heat an apartment block. Lots of hot air on Calgary city council. Could we siphon that?

11:30.Wow! Look at the traffic backed up! They paved paradise all right --and then Druh put up this parking lot!

11:45. Need a bottle of water. Forgot. Mustn't drink bottled water. Do not want to look politically incorrect at Druh's trendy party. What to do?

12:00. Dehydration setting in. Step onto someone's lawn and run through their sprinkler open-mouthed instead.

12:05. Are we having fun yet?

12:06. No.

12:07. Not yet.

12:25. Ald. Joe Connelly said supporters of Druh's party are "out to make a political statement, that cars are bad." Partygoers drove here in cars to help them make this statement.

12:30. Joggers on river path under trees appear to be having more fun than pavement party-types. Nice cool river breezes don't reach over here. Never mind. Party on.

12:32. Can we go home now?

12:35. Druh said after angry debate in council over Memorial Drive closure: "No matter how fiery the debate is, council usually gets it right." They do?

12:55. City workers show up to remove barriers. Never so happy to see anyone in all my life! They look happy, too. Contemplating overtime on their pay-cheques.

1:00. Lovely party, Druh. Thank you for inviting me. We must do this again real soon. When? How about the third Sunday in August 2084? Can't wait. I'm all atwitter.

nlakritz@theherald. canweSt.coM
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Link
_________________________________________________________________

Where do I start, how about a bunch of rolleyes?

So apparently the Herald editorial board can criticize the Plan It document for attempting to see the future but they can predict it themselves!

[Beltliner]

Hold it! Wait! This divination just in from Carnac:

"Lindsay Lohan's underwear...a Stephen Harper smile that doesn't look like a deformed rictus his handlers are making him wear...a story The Fishwrap doesn't torque..."

[opens envelope]

"Ah--three things you'll never see in public."

[reflexzero]

Well, scorching pavement is pretty unpleasant to be around on foot.

I think the idea is to recreate the Red Mile from a few years back, in sort of a Fisher Price - Gucci Greenpeace way, and I imagine there will be arts vendors and pretend eco-heads hawking their crap for ridiculous prices.

While on the topic of roads and the environment, the world's most briliant TV presenter had this to say, enjoy:

I don’t understand why people buy Toyota Prius, it’s a typical scam, Toyota is using our concern about environment to sell us rubbish and make loads of money. To make that Prius as “economical” as possible, Toyota goes to the ends of the earth, literally. The nickel they need to make the battery comes from a mine in Canada, to separate the nickel from the mine, it will produce a lot of acid rain, ok, doesn’t matter, then they load the nickel to an enormous cargo ship and send it to Europe to refine it and then send the nickel to China and turn it into a sort of foam, then send it to Japan to put into the battery in a Prius car. Think about those, how much environmental damage have they already done in the process of produce a Prius?!!! Ok, if that sounds fine to you environmentalists, and you finally spent a lot of money and bought one, the life of the battery is short and the maintenance cost is higher than normal car. Ok, if that still sounds fine to you environmentalists, and you finally finish with the car and throw it away, the battery in the car will continue to poison the planet, the poison will go to the water, the soil, the fish, the food, many people will be poisoned and dead. A recent study shows that in the long term, a Prius does more environmental damage than a Land Rover Discovery. In conclusion, the planet is killed, and the people are killed, just so you environmentalists can buy a Toyota Prius and pretend that you are nice people and concerned about the environment.

It's Friday!

[mwalker_mw]

re: Centre Street HOV.

Thanks Frink.

Sadly, I've driven up there a few times and not even noticed (never at rush hour though). I imagine it is signed, but does it have regular Diamonds on the pavement or anything along those lines. I'm used to the freeway style ones where there is a distinct entry and exit and complete separation of the lane. With the sheer number of streetsigns I generally put the ones that aren't critical (Stop, Yield, etc.) or that don't directly affect me (i.e. looking for street parking) on ignore. I really suspect that the number of people ignoring the lanes HOV status are more due to ignorance than a deliberate decision to thwart the system.

[MonctonGoldenFlames]

All a-Twitter about Druh's street party

ha! love the article! i really hope druh's self-serving goals come back to bite her on this one. it actually makes me quite jealous, maybe i should run for council so i can arrange summer parties directly in my neighbourhood while closing the major street that runs thru it. 2 birds, 1 stone really....close major road to half it's capacity and as a result, less traffic thru my backyard, plus i get a wicked awesome party a large berm away from the river!

[MalcolmTucker]

^ The thing is, most of the time a neighborbood association or BRZ just applies to close the road, pays the fees and it is done. It doesn't go to council at all. Council passed a policy back in the day to govern all this stuff.

The people trying to stop it were trying to make the statement. The only reason this became an issue is the next mayoral race will likely be McIver vs Druh vs third party.