Who drives the 2a south home?

[Maxt]

Story in the Western Wheel, the MD and the Province are going to install a set of traffic lights on the 2a at Dunbow road.. Another section of a 110 km/hr freeway being strangled to death.:banghead: ....

[xnvy]

I don't drive it home anymore but I used to drive it to and from school. I don't understand why that section of road needs lights, in the ~6 years that I used to use it everyday I probably only saw congestion a handful of times.
Government is :nut:

[rookie101]

I live in Okotoks and work in south Calgary and have never seen a problem there. That is just messed up.:thumbsdow

[ercchry]

i use to drive it and at least once a week some stupid house wife from heritage point would get destroyed trying to cross there

[Masked Bandit]

I would hate to see them installed but it's not a big surprise. That's a very high traffic area. An overpass would be the RIGHT thing to do but that's not going to happen.

[Maxt]

I've been driving it for about 18 years, I have never witnessed any kind of close call or accident there. They cite one fatality there as the reason, yet there are traffic signalled intersections in Calgary with more than one fatality, so I don't know how they automatically assume lights are going to make it safer.
The overpass is the right idea, they should have built one there instead of the one new one near High River that sees one car per hour.

[ercchry]

you mean the aldersyde overpass? cause i take that one DAILY... along with a steady stream of cars... you sure you drive this road? you sleeping, or just unaware when you do it?

[Maxt]

No not the Aldersyde overpass, there is new one south of that, just at the tip of High River that links up with the Tongue creek road.

[rob the knob]

where on map?

[ercchry]

Originally posted by rob the knob
where on map?

http://goo.gl/maps/nhbUp

[Maxt]

Why they didnt go after the developer of Heritage Pointe for more overpass money is kinda stunned to.. I think the MD really just wants to install a speed on green camera there.:nut: ..

[Mibz]

The best part is that the entire stretch between Dunbow and 194th will turn into an 80 zone, just like they did between 162nd and 194th. Gonna be a loooooooooot of tickets.

[ercchry]

meh, ring road isnt that far out... take the 2a completely out of play

[Maxt]

Originally posted by Mibz
The best part is that the entire stretch between Dunbow and 194th will turn into an 80 zone, just like they did between 162nd and 194th. Gonna be a loooooooooot of tickets.
yup..funnily enough, I got a ticket on the 2a just south of Shawnessy, the same day they switched it from 110 to 80 way back when.. She actually thought it was pretty funny giving me a ticket, and how fun it was to hand out so many in such a short period of time.. Thats what happens when you reduce a road by 30 km/hr overnight.:banghead: The ticket was withdrawn by the crown for having so many errors on it..:poosie:
Its funny how the City can call it an "upgrade" yet have to knock the speed limit down, I think there is a problem with their construction nomenclature.

[Maxt]

Originally posted by ercchry
meh, ring road isnt that far out... take the 2a completely out of play
Right.... I'll be lucky if that happens in my life time..

[ercchry]

well... deerfoot to 22x at least... i hope... how long can this construction actually continue for? :cry:

[Mibz]

Originally posted by ercchry
how long can this construction actually continue for? :cry: Hahaha. Hahahahahahaha. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[dubhead]

Originally posted by Mibz
The best part is that the entire stretch between Dunbow and 194th will turn into an 80 zone, just like they did between 162nd and 194th. Gonna be a loooooooooot of tickets.

Or watch them drop it from 110 to 70 for the lights like on 16th ave and garden road east of the city. Its just for the lights too as it goes back up to 90 immediately following them :banghead: Defiantly a regular fishing hole to fill quotas

[GoChris]

I take #2 to Okotoks and back everyday. I'd shoot myself if I had to stop at anymore the lights. Lights on the 2a side will suck. Okotoks people are crazy for lights, hate that town.

[Masked Bandit]

I never even thought about the drop in speed limit to 80. That would suck! We go to Okotoks quite often for Costco & such and that would drive me nuts. No reason they can't keep the limit at 100 though. For years there were lights on Deerfoot @ Douglasdale and the limit was 100.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by Masked Bandit
No reason they can't keep the limit at 100 though. For years there were lights on Deerfoot @ Douglasdale and the limit was 100. I genuinely think that intersection slipped under the radar. I'm pretty sure Calgary or Alberta traffic law or best practices say that you can't have a traffic light in anything above an 80 zone, otherwise there would be no reason to drop MacLeod from 110 to 80 until 194th. It's a safer stretch of road than just about anywhere on the QE2. Unless they just wanted to write tickets.











Oh.

[btimbit]

Christ, worth it to hop over to Deerfoot and just avoid it, the lights at 194th are bad enough

[Maxt]

I tried driving it at exactly 80 today from shawnessy to the end of the construction at 210 ave, it was like watching frozen syrup pour.. It'll be like poking your self in the eye with a fork if they make it 80 up to Dunbow road.
This should be upgraded back to 110 all the way really, since it will be a 22x/ring road access freeway.
I wrote Larry Spilak an email, the reeve of the MD, since he was the one all smiles about it in the Western wheel article. While I did get a reply, it was somewhat a pat on the head, canned response with a lot of passing the buck to Alberta transportation which was kind of lame. Yet the story says the MD approached Alberta Transportation in the first place.
http://www.larryspilak.com/contact/index.html

Drive it at 80, then do some of us a favor and voice your displeasure to Mr. Spilak.

[btimbit]

Thanks for the link Maxt, I'll write him as well. Everyone else against it send him a quick message too

Found the article

http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20120620/WHE0801/306209974/0/whe

Says the city wants on at 210th as well!?!?!? What the actual flying fuck?

At least it sounds like Alberta Transportation is against it



"Alberta Transportation spokesperson Trent Bancarz said they don’t like to put traffic lights on provincial highways. “It’s something we don’t commonly do,” Bancarz said. “Lights on a highway can cause more problems than they solve. People don’t expect it and there is variable speed traffic.” He said lights on busy highways can cause rear-end accidents, and collisions with turning cars. The speed on the highway at that intersection is 110 kilometres per hour. “It is hard to judge speeds turning right onto a highway,” he said."

[Masked Bandit]

Lights at 210 & Dunbow would likely be the end of us spending our money in Okotoks for a lot of things. We go down there for Costco, bowling and a few other things because its quicker than getting to similar merchants in Calgary. If the "quicker" factor is removed, it's back to spending our money in Calgary.

Saying that the intersection needs lights because of one fatality in 2011 doesn't make sense either. We have lights all over Calgary and we have fatal car collisions all over Calgary.

[Mibz]

All part of the city's plan to segregate us Dirty Southerners. Ward 14 is gonna be District 9 soon enough.

Poor planning on their part. WE'VE GOT THE IHOP!

[DEATH2000]

Ive turned across that road to go into Heritage Pointe on a few occasions and never had an issue. I find their is larg enough gaps in traffic to make the turn safely if you wait a bit.

Cant imagine why people would be in such a rush to turn left into oncoming traffic three lanes wide travelling at 120-140kmh (I know what the speed limit is, and I know what speed people actually do in that stretch).

[Maxt]

I went through there today as well, even turned left to Okotoks and had no problem in a one ton truck.
From the sounds of it, the person killed there was crossing, not turning though, driver error...One driver makes a bad decision and suddenly we have to strangle a free way.. Something else at play here, political points or something...

[btimbit]

Originally posted by Maxt
I went through there today as well, even turned left to Okotoks and had no problem in a one ton truck.
From the sounds of it, the person killed there was crossing, not turning though, driver error...One driver makes a bad decision and suddenly we have to strangle a free way.. Something else at play here, political points or something...

I've been through there, plenty of times, each different directions, and never had trouble.
What these people need to realize is that accidents are just that. Accidents. People can get killed there, light or not. Definitely just a politician trying to get some public safety points.

Haven't gotten a reply to my message yet

[cam_wmh]

Originally posted by ercchry
i use to drive it and at least once a week some stupid house wife from heritage point would get destroyed trying to cross there

What do you mean by destroyed?

I used to drive it at least twice a week. Even headed to STS a few times before Christmas, it was a breeze.