Calgary Roads

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by freeweed

This makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever. Keeping the road open will, if anything, give BETTER access to the XRT PnR lots. Closing it means a very long drive to get into them, and as one who drives by it just about every day, believe me when I say Crowfoot is 100x easier to park at. The RRROCA (say it as a word, it's fun!) folks have this completely backwards. Closing the road means LESS traffic into RR/RO. Period. That's their whole argument, isn't it? That the closure makes traffic patterns a pain in the ass?

Good to hear of another forumer moving in. RO is one of the nicest new suburbs in the city (but I'm biased ) in terms of transit access, freeflowing roads, proximity to the mountains, shopping, you name it. And everything happening to date, and for the next 3 years, will only make it better.

Except the closure; it's really too bad that there's no affordable alternative. It's really going to screw with traffic. Having 2 traffic signals within 200m of each other, followed by a 4-way 150m later (Royal Birch Blvd) - someone should be shot for such shitty planning. But, such is life in suburbia. At least we don't have to put up with a kilometer-long detour like the folks in Tuscany, again entirely due to stupid, stupid planning.

Can't wait to hear all the screaming and complaining when this one goes into effect. It actually won't be that bad if you're going SB on Stoney, but it will suck if you are going to be heading NB (or coming into Tuscany from the north). Still, if the speed limit is going to be 60 then it will only add a minimal amount of time to the drive, not a big deal. But knowing the City they will make it 50 which everyone will promptly ignore.

Hell, the speed limit on Stoney has been 60 for so long now that we're used to it. We probably won't even notice the difference.

[Stang]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Can't wait to hear all the screaming and complaining when this one goes into effect.

I'm actually looking forward to it. Maybe I'm not bothered because 90% of my trips are heading/coming from the south, but I honestly can't see it taking much longer at all.

Plus, when the interchanges at Crowchild and Scenic Acres/Tuscany are both completed (I see them as connected as one wouldn't happen without the other), I'd guess that the average trip to Crowfoot will actually take less time.

That being said, I have retained the RR/RO anti-closure group to calculate my added costs, and it looks like I'll be paying $1000 more per year in gas.

[kap384]

Originally Posted by freeweed

This makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever. Keeping the road open will, if anything, give BETTER access to the XRT PnR lots. Closing it means a very long drive to get into them, and as one who drives by it just about every day, believe me when I say Crowfoot is 100x easier to park at. The RRROCA (say it as a word, it's fun!) folks have this completely backwards. Closing the road means LESS traffic into RR/RO. Period. That's their whole argument, isn't it? That the closure makes traffic patterns a pain in the ass?

Good to hear of another forumer moving in. RO is one of the nicest new suburbs in the city (but I'm biased ) in terms of transit access, freeflowing roads, proximity to the mountains, shopping, you name it. And everything happening to date, and for the next 3 years, will only make it better.

Except the closure; it's really too bad that there's no affordable alternative. It's really going to screw with traffic. Having 2 traffic signals within 200m of each other, followed by a 4-way 150m later (Royal Birch Blvd) - someone should be shot for such shitty planning. But, such is life in suburbia. At least we don't have to put up with a kilometer-long detour like the folks in Tuscany, again entirely due to stupid, stupid planning.

EXACTLY. How bloody painful is that going to be I think my biggest argument against the closure would be that dumbass bit of road design.

[mersar]

And another intersection that I'm starting to think really needs to have something done to it: Shaganappi at John Laurie. Its pretty unlikely there will ever be an interchange there, but even just adding a third lane before the intersection so one dedicated lane can feed the turn from NB to WB which a lot of the traffic is taking, would probably make a huge difference there. Took nearly 20 minutes today to get from Crowchild past John Laurie and it was all congestion, and its been like that a lot.

[freeweed]

Shag @ JL has been getting worse every year and it's close to capacity if there's any turning traffic. Even worse can be WB JL to SB Shag - you can sit through 5, 6, even 7 lights before getting through that. And it can back up an entire lane of JL for many, many cars beyond the turning traffic. At least there's that extra lane on the right...

That one is screaming for an interchange - why do you think there won't be one? Proximity to the park? I always thought the city had left enough room there. That certainly would be one of the rare cases where I'd be willing to lose a small amount of the park to clean up that area.

[Beltliner]

^^^ My read of the Shaganappi x John Laurie road allowance suggests that there's room there for a diamond interchange or a SPUI; a Parclo AB might be a tight squeeze, but doable.

[mersar]

They've started ripping out the lanes on Crowchild that have been the main EB alignment, likely as the road is wide enough for 4 lanes but the road only will have 3 when its done. They were also installing another overhead sign on the off ramp and it looked like a paving crew was up on the north side of the connector bridge so hopefully they are starting the final paving.

[mersar]

And some good news:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------------------------------------------

As of 12:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8, two lanes on the east side of 4 Street SW between 10 Avenue and 11 Avenue have been reopened.

All four lanes had been closed since Friday, April 24 when a sinkhole was detected near the road adjacent to an excavated construction site.

Investigation and engineering reports have determined that the sinkhole is isolated to an area immediately adjacent to the construction site up to and including the sidewalk but does not extend beneath the surface of the road.

The two lanes on the west side of 4 Street SW will remain closed to remain a safe distance from the sinkhole while The City works with the construction site owners to determine what needs to happen in order to remediate the sinkhole to ensure the engineering safety of the excavation and the adjacent road.

The City would like to thank motorists and local residents for their patience and understanding.

[jeffwhit]

What the hell is going on on Marlborough Drive NE? I was finally going to go to Los Tortillas and got cockblocked by the road closure. boourns.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[Beltliner]

^^^ The docs going to Standing Committee next week are here, here, here, and here.

If the City is seriously contemplating making future HOV lanes contingent on expanding expressway capacity, then once you factor out the inner-city HOV lanes on the table, that's about {400 total lane-kilometres x $900K per lane-kilometre = } $360-million up front plus {400 total lane-kilometres x $2K per lane-kilometre = } $800-grand a year in state of good repair costs. Perhaps a necessary evil, but hardly an inspiring use of tax dollars.

[freeweed]

As long as our HOV lane use is done with some thinking, I'm all for it.

1. There's zero need to designate lanes as HOV at 3am. Have times on the damned things, likely corresponding to the morning and afternoon rushes. It's unbelievable how many cities have HOV lanes sitting empty most of the day.

2. JL as HOV? Surely they're joking. Maybe if a 3rd lane was added. Expanding on that, anyone who takes a 2 lane road and designates 1 as HOV is clinically insane and a sociopathic asshole. Nothing like turning your expressways into single lane residential roads. Hmm, reading deeper that seems to be the plan. All I can say is, don't screw this up, Calgary. I've seen it happen.

3. Goes without saying that major bus routes should be looked at early on, too. Let transit users fly by everyone else stuck in a lineup and you'll see transit use skyrocket.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by freeweed

2. JL as HOV? Surely they're joking. Maybe if a 3rd lane was added. Expanding on that, anyone who takes a 2 lane road and designates 1 as HOV is clinically insane and a sociopathic asshole. Nothing like turning your expressways into single lane residential roads. Hmm, reading deeper that seems to be the plan. All I can say is, don't screw this up, Calgary. I've seen it happen.

Exactly my thoughts too, they would have to add a lane each way.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[Bigtime]

Incoming Rant...

So today was the annual Mother's Day Run & Walk, the following roads were closed at certain points:

-9th avenue
-10th avenue
-11 avenue
-12 avenue
-4 street SW

It was damn near impossible to get from our end of the beltline over to the west end and points onward.

So if that isn't a big deal what is the big deal about closing only 2 of 4 lanes of Memorial for one Sunday in August?

Fucking stupidity!

end rant.

[Jimby]

I was a prisoner in my cul de sac for the duration of the race. Good thing I didn't have to go anywhere by vehicle.

[freeweed]

I'm not a fan of those stupid races, because it seems like one is on literally every weekend. And usually Sundays, the one day a week when I occasionally drive into the office early in the morning. Seems like there's always something blocking Memorial or Bow Trail (whatever it's called as you exit downtown from 4th Ave).

I remember one time a few summers back, I was so irritated at it. When driving back into downtown (don't ask) several hours later, there looked to be just a few walkers left but the roads were re-opened. I looked over at my passenger and said "thank GOD they finally cured it".

A city with hundreds of kms of paths, and yet we need to close half the roads in the core every Sunday just to deal with the latest fad.

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by freeweed

A city with hundreds of kms of paths, and yet we need to close half the roads in the core every Sunday just to deal with the latest fad.

Latest fad?

You do realize that there were 15,000 people out for the race/walk on Sunday and raised close to $600,000 for the Calgary hospitals right?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by h0twired

Latest fad?

You do realize that there were 15,000 people out for the race/walk on Sunday and raised close to $600,000 for the Calgary hospitals right?

That is why I want my rant to be very clear, I had NO problem at all with the Mother's Day Run & Walk. I simply used it as an example of an event that causes much more traffic chaos than 2 lanes of Memorial being closed for one Sunday in August.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.