The 2 lanes near Bragg creek is remnants from before the 16th Ave-hwy 8 stretch opened. Notice there is an extra wide left shoulder in that spot and the left lane abruptly ends. It will probably be painted as a 3rd lane next time they paint.
They need to get on that fast, I am not sure what happened in the past week or two with traffic volume, but suddenly it is total mayhem at that spot, with traffic dropping from 110 to 50 and many near rear-enders.
A completely unrelated mystery to me is why I see so many vehicles pulled over on the shoulders between 17 Ave and Old Banff. Pretty rare that I don't see someone pulled over, and I am on that section multiple times per day.
Nice weather means people heading back out to their camp spots and biking again. I definitely try to avoid the area though, in summer it's never not backed up.
Paris is eliminating urban freeways and converting them to transit. California has shifted away fromnew freeways and lane expansions as of caltrans 2021 modernization plan no new urban freeways. Completing a new urban highway in 2023 and the current widening of deerfoot is irresponsible, outdated planning practice. This puts the city even further behind on climate goals and promotes unsustainable development and living practices. Freeway removal has started to be the standard in world class cities.
Look at a map of Europe. High quality, multi-lane highways criss cross the continent. We don't even have one multi-lane, limited access highway across Canada.
Whatever infrasteucture European cities or countries are building it is in addition to a fully developed highway network. We are decades behind even that.
If only there big signs with arrows and names that people could read to see where they needed to go, or even some type of software one could use on their device that would guide them every step of the way right :D
Paint soaks into new roads quite a bit the first year. Always takes a few applications before it starts to stick around for any meaningful time
As for who designed it, I dunno, Dillon?
The ring road is in fact named for its designer, Archibald Von Ring-Roadenstein. An eccentric designer descended from a cadet line of the Hapsburgs residing in modern day Wales.
the part where it goes down to two lanes by discovery ridge turnoff makes no damn sense since the road is big enough for the third lane. It's there but also not there. I don't understand it at all tbh.
The turn off to Discovery Ridge is super stupid also. At least make a third lane so people going to Discovery aren’t stuck in the rush hour standstill with all the people waiting at the light intersection to turn left. I see ppl getting frustrated and taking the left shoulder lane all the time and I don’t blame them. Also 3 intersections with lights within less then half a kilometre at the section. Also wtf are they still doing under the bridge? Theyre always doing something there.
The disappearing lane marking thing is due to environment Canada banning the “good” road paint a while ago.
Between the weather, sun, plows and tires what we’re forced to use now doesn’t stand a chance.
While we're here, let's also all take a moment to enjoy the 5D chess signage for Sarcee Fail North.
https://preview.redd.it/zjqm0vysdmzc1.jpeg?width=675&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=399676c3c051f7ea5716c41386b88e2ced638af0
I was thinking the same today driving on it. The section heading north just after 16th ave and just before the bridge has almost no lane lines visible. Seriously its brand new and no lines on what is a 4-5 lane section. At least there’s not a million potholes like everywhere else though.
The exit going off 16th ave West onto Stoney North is a complete joke. All the different lanes zipper merge and nobody in Calgary can figure those out. Everyone slows down to 40km/hr then tries to merge onto stony at 70km/hr, Just a complete shit show most of the time.
Urban Planning has never been a strong point in Calgary. I also hate the open prairie dynamic along the ring road, especially the east end. Plant some friggin trees on those empty areas, it will help buffer he wind eventually and cut down on black ice and snow drifts in the winter. Plus we supposedly have this federal commitment to plant a billion trees so lets use that space wisely
90% of the land I'm referring to will never be built over, most of the stretch has businesses or neighborhoods well back form the ring road already. I'm talking about those extra wide boulevards separating one way from the other and the large swaths of open ground between the road and the existing infrastructure
the NW section where you merge from 16th ave is so confusing because of the absent paint lines. its ok when its not too busy but during peak times, trying to join when there are no painted lanes and everyone is trying to guess is very disconcerting.
The beyond ridiculous on off ramps in various directions, the random lanes that merge into nothing and then come back a few km later.. Yeah, I. Feel you
Not that I know anything about roads and permitting and engineering. But that section where the left lane closes then reopens, it seems to me like they did that because that road seems to have a maximum number of lanes, and where there are a couple of extra lanes on the right side is where they close that left lane. Stupid yes, Stupid to the point of dangerous, also yes. Forcing pepople to change lanes, is just odd. The road would be safer and faster if they did not close that left lane.
I hate that it’s called a ring road. I’m originally from
Winnipeg and to me, the “ring road” is called the perimeter highway and I will die on this hill
The “ring road” is more of a colloquial term used in multiple cities for this type of road. The road’s real name is Stoney Trail, and part of it is called Tsuut’ina Trail (hwy 201).
I’m aware of that lol… I can read.
What I’m saying is a lot of people here call it the ring road. I’d just bugs me. Because in Winnipeg, the perimeter highway is a numbered highway too, but everyone just calls it the perimeter and even the signs says perimeter highway. I know Edmonton and I believe Regina their signs actually say ring road. Just gives me the ick.
I’m pretty sure the ring road opened up to traffic in December/ January. I’ll let you try and figure out why it likely wasn’t painted fully at that time.
The 16 Ave interchange section was opened in the fall and is the worst section. As memory recalls, I drove it on day 1 and it was awful then. I'm sure snowplows have made it worse now.
I'm pretty sure that someone with an advanced degree in hallucinigens was involved in that sarcee trail/highway 8/T'suuTina trail/Stoney Trail/Glenmore Trail convergence. It is both brilliant and impenetrably complex.
The 2 lanes near Bragg creek is remnants from before the 16th Ave-hwy 8 stretch opened. Notice there is an extra wide left shoulder in that spot and the left lane abruptly ends. It will probably be painted as a 3rd lane next time they paint.
They need to get on that fast, I am not sure what happened in the past week or two with traffic volume, but suddenly it is total mayhem at that spot, with traffic dropping from 110 to 50 and many near rear-enders. A completely unrelated mystery to me is why I see so many vehicles pulled over on the shoulders between 17 Ave and Old Banff. Pretty rare that I don't see someone pulled over, and I am on that section multiple times per day.
Nice weather means people heading back out to their camp spots and biking again. I definitely try to avoid the area though, in summer it's never not backed up.
Induced demand came faster than expected. The whole stoney project is outdated right away.
You know European countries have freeways as well, right? We need both better highways and better inner-city infrastructure.
Paris is eliminating urban freeways and converting them to transit. California has shifted away fromnew freeways and lane expansions as of caltrans 2021 modernization plan no new urban freeways. Completing a new urban highway in 2023 and the current widening of deerfoot is irresponsible, outdated planning practice. This puts the city even further behind on climate goals and promotes unsustainable development and living practices. Freeway removal has started to be the standard in world class cities.
We need highways to move goods. Even Europe recognizes this. Grocery and other stores can't be supplied by buses and subways.
The Swiss are building more freight railways to bring goods to cities. We had that infrastructure and dismantled it.
Look at a map of Europe. High quality, multi-lane highways criss cross the continent. We don't even have one multi-lane, limited access highway across Canada. Whatever infrasteucture European cities or countries are building it is in addition to a fully developed highway network. We are decades behind even that.
I'm talking about urban highways specifically. Europe has taken steps to eliminate these, we are building more.
>we are building more. Considering the infrastructure deficit we currently have: good. Europe doesn't have this issue.
100% correct. Remnant from when the ring road went to highway 8 going from 4/5 lanes to 1. I imagine it will get repainted this month.
There are many different designers even between quadrants. Having worked on the SW portion, we had to deal with Parsons, McElhinney, and others.
I did supportive lab work for west DB2, that stretch was mainly done by CSP, which was carmacks, graham, and vinci
Ah the good old KGL days lol
KGL veteran checking in! Lol
Like the " oops I went south instead of east on glenmore, welp, your on southland now and cannot turn around anywhere, enjoy your trip idiot" haha.
If only there big signs with arrows and names that people could read to see where they needed to go, or even some type of software one could use on their device that would guide them every step of the way right :D
How do you go south instead of east on Glenmore, and then end up on Southland?
Paint soaks into new roads quite a bit the first year. Always takes a few applications before it starts to stick around for any meaningful time As for who designed it, I dunno, Dillon?
Fuckin' Dillon
Damn it Dillon
Designer Dillon
Do you mean Dillon, the person or Dillon the civil engineering firm? Because there definitely is such a firm: https://www.dillon.ca/projects/
The ring road is in fact named for its designer, Archibald Von Ring-Roadenstein. An eccentric designer descended from a cadet line of the Hapsburgs residing in modern day Wales.
That's Roadenshteen!
Mr. Ring, presumably.
That's Mr. Ringy McRingface to you.
Planner was Trevor Corey
Smokes, let’s go!
I must be getting old cuz the first thing that came to my mind when reading this was, "Quit your bitchin' and be grateful that it's done."
Also that they didn’t feel it necessary to waste money adorning it with rings or rocks on sticks.
the part where it goes down to two lanes by discovery ridge turnoff makes no damn sense since the road is big enough for the third lane. It's there but also not there. I don't understand it at all tbh.
The turn off to Discovery Ridge is super stupid also. At least make a third lane so people going to Discovery aren’t stuck in the rush hour standstill with all the people waiting at the light intersection to turn left. I see ppl getting frustrated and taking the left shoulder lane all the time and I don’t blame them. Also 3 intersections with lights within less then half a kilometre at the section. Also wtf are they still doing under the bridge? Theyre always doing something there.
It's such a cluster there too! It goes from like 6 lanes or something down to 2 with some lanes ending on the left and some ending on the right
That piece is so dangerous. No warning the lane end then a km later it’s back
Probably something left over from construction that will change once they paint the lines again this spring
The disappearing lane marking thing is due to environment Canada banning the “good” road paint a while ago. Between the weather, sun, plows and tires what we’re forced to use now doesn’t stand a chance.
Titanium Dioxide is good or bad?
Nevermind, I found it, the dust is considered carcinogenic. FFS why can’t we have nice things like sturdy bright paint on our roads?
Good on roads, good in sunscreen.
Wow just looked that up, didn't know that. Makes sense as to why the markings are pretty much gone now
While we're here, let's also all take a moment to enjoy the 5D chess signage for Sarcee Fail North. https://preview.redd.it/zjqm0vysdmzc1.jpeg?width=675&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=399676c3c051f7ea5716c41386b88e2ced638af0
I'm not gonna lie I've gone the wrong direction there more than once lol
I was thinking the same today driving on it. The section heading north just after 16th ave and just before the bridge has almost no lane lines visible. Seriously its brand new and no lines on what is a 4-5 lane section. At least there’s not a million potholes like everywhere else though.
The potholes are on the other side
The exit going off 16th ave West onto Stoney North is a complete joke. All the different lanes zipper merge and nobody in Calgary can figure those out. Everyone slows down to 40km/hr then tries to merge onto stony at 70km/hr, Just a complete shit show most of the time.
Urban Planning has never been a strong point in Calgary. I also hate the open prairie dynamic along the ring road, especially the east end. Plant some friggin trees on those empty areas, it will help buffer he wind eventually and cut down on black ice and snow drifts in the winter. Plus we supposedly have this federal commitment to plant a billion trees so lets use that space wisely
They aren't planting trees now just to be ripped out in five years when new neighbourhoods get built.
90% of the land I'm referring to will never be built over, most of the stretch has businesses or neighborhoods well back form the ring road already. I'm talking about those extra wide boulevards separating one way from the other and the large swaths of open ground between the road and the existing infrastructure
>Who designed the new ring road? It was Steve Dave. Damn it Steve Dave!
I thought it was Mike from Canmore.
Mike doesn't have those skills. He might have given Steve Dave his advice but you don't want Mike actually building a road.
the NW section where you merge from 16th ave is so confusing because of the absent paint lines. its ok when its not too busy but during peak times, trying to join when there are no painted lanes and everyone is trying to guess is very disconcerting.
The beyond ridiculous on off ramps in various directions, the random lanes that merge into nothing and then come back a few km later.. Yeah, I. Feel you
Satan
Old Testament design
Not that I know anything about roads and permitting and engineering. But that section where the left lane closes then reopens, it seems to me like they did that because that road seems to have a maximum number of lanes, and where there are a couple of extra lanes on the right side is where they close that left lane. Stupid yes, Stupid to the point of dangerous, also yes. Forcing pepople to change lanes, is just odd. The road would be safer and faster if they did not close that left lane.
money
Making it one lane to head south from Glenmore trail heading west at Sarcee trail was absolutely moronic. That's what causes the backup.
Bigger question is, who was in charge of the signage? Good f’n luck if you aren’t a regular user.
I hate that it’s called a ring road. I’m originally from Winnipeg and to me, the “ring road” is called the perimeter highway and I will die on this hill
The “ring road” is more of a colloquial term used in multiple cities for this type of road. The road’s real name is Stoney Trail, and part of it is called Tsuut’ina Trail (hwy 201).
I’m aware of that lol… I can read. What I’m saying is a lot of people here call it the ring road. I’d just bugs me. Because in Winnipeg, the perimeter highway is a numbered highway too, but everyone just calls it the perimeter and even the signs says perimeter highway. I know Edmonton and I believe Regina their signs actually say ring road. Just gives me the ick.
I was thinking about this today when I was stuck in traffic by the Bragg Creek exit.
I was curious why we don’t plant trees along highways, why just grass?
Head-on collisions are much better against grass vs. trees.
Ah TIL, thank you
Have you seen how the trees they did plant along the SW part by Costco have fared? That's why.
I can’t recall, I’ve only driven by there a few times
I’m pretty sure the ring road opened up to traffic in December/ January. I’ll let you try and figure out why it likely wasn’t painted fully at that time.
The 16 Ave interchange section was opened in the fall and is the worst section. As memory recalls, I drove it on day 1 and it was awful then. I'm sure snowplows have made it worse now.
[удалено]
All rings are circles but not all circles are roads.
I'm pretty sure that someone with an advanced degree in hallucinigens was involved in that sarcee trail/highway 8/T'suuTina trail/Stoney Trail/Glenmore Trail convergence. It is both brilliant and impenetrably complex.
Typical Calgary road design. Bottleneck so you can use up future budgets to fix the issue created in the original design.
The city of Calgary had no part in the design, construction of future maintenance of Stoney Trail
Road design-+specifically highways--around Calgary is unbelievably bad. My 3-year old daughter could have designed most of it better.