Why are the traffic lights in this city so poorly timed?

[samo147]

Originally posted by corsvette
I find that 36st n.e is terrible,you are allmost guaranteed to hit every single light red.

yea thats the worst... even when the ctrains going by the light is still red..

[nonlinear]

A: BECAUSE THIS CITY IS RUN BY GOD DAMNED IDIOTS!!!!!!


please vote in the next municipal elections

[Aleks]

McLeod from DT to Southland is awsome. I usually only have to stop once at Chinook/Glenmore on the way home from work.

[traviswithaG]

they do it so we have more oppertunitys to race .. Duh.

what are tow truck drivers going to do if they cant pull inetgra's off of trees on a daily basis ?

[benyl]

Two words.

Countryhills BLVD.

Thanks goodness for Stoney trail!

[masoncgy]

Sarcee Trail, between Glenmore & 16 Ave... UGH!!!

That clusterfuck set up at Richmond Road... then the loooooooooong ass waits at 17 Ave SW & Bow Trail....

It is quicker for me to get to Signal Hill from Sandstone by taking Deerfoot & Glenmore than it is to take the ring road & Sarcee... I've timed it... those lights on Sarcee add like 10 minutes to the trip.

[nos_efx]

All of 52nd street, especially down around the glenmore area, they've got signal lights on during late hours in the night. The lights turn red for no apparent reason at all.

By far the worse street.

[TYMSMNY]

Originally posted by masoncgy
Sarcee Trail, between Glenmore & 16 Ave... UGH!!!

That clusterfuck set up at Richmond Road... then the loooooooooong ass waits at 17 Ave SW & Bow Trail....

It is quicker for me to get to Signal Hill from Sandstone by taking Deerfoot & Glenmore than it is to take the ring road & Sarcee... I've timed it... those lights on Sarcee add like 10 minutes to the trip.

LOL... there's like 2 lights from Sarcee/16th to Signal Hill.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by benyl
Two words.

Countryhills BLVD.

Technically it would be three, because it's country hills boulevard

But agreed, this is the worst road to drive on right now, especially between Shaganappi & Beddington, such a fucking mess right now

[TKRIS]

Originally posted by Kritafo
It's considered traffic calming. I kept a clip from the Calgary Herald where a Calgarian contacted the city and was told it was "traffic calming"

Two words that drive my blood pressure through the fucking roof.
Traffic control and design manuals have huge sections devoted to this topic. Near as I can tell, the purpose seems to be solely to break up any momentum or smoothness, and generally make driving down a road as inefficient as possible.



We could solve A LOT of this countries ills by getting the fuck out of people's way.

[oilerfan4lyfe]

Originally posted by Eleanor
Technically it would be three, because it's country hills boulevard

But agreed, this is the worst road to drive on right now, especially between Shaganappi & Beddington, such a fucking mess right now

Agreed - CHB and Barlow in the NE piss me off the most - between Shag and Beddington there's only one light at least...if you go further east you'll get frustrated in a hurry wondering how you get so many red lights on your way to Deerfoot

[mr2mike]

Just outside the city on the 1A. You'd think that they would have the lights flashing yellow at night during very low traffic times. But no, the lights change even at 3am. I don't know how many people I've seen drive right through the red lights.

Definitely no concern for wasted fuel. It's used as a speed control device. Let's be honest. I'm sure someone did a study and reported it to the city. I mean why have they gotten rid of the big clover leaf's? ie: Sarcee Tr and 16th Ave NW. When I was young, this was a clover leaf. Now they sport lights. I'm sure there were others down south and in the NE but I don't remember those.

While you're on it, the rough roads in areas are also a speed control device.

[Tik-Tok]

The lights that bug me, are the dual left turn lanes.

Every single one in the city is either a green arrow, or a red. There's no normal green light in between, so that you can turn when there is no traffic.

[ekguy]

Or turning left from Macloud onto Canyone Meadows going west you always get the turning left light then as soon as you turn you get the red at the next intersection about 200 feet further. Seems stupid to me.

[TKRIS]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
The lights that bug me, are the dual left turn lanes.

Every single one in the city is either a green arrow, or a red. There's no normal green light in between, so that you can turn when there is no traffic.

I run red left turn arrows.

[masoncgy]

Barlow Trail from Memorial Drive all the way up to McKnight Blvd sucks too... so many lights... none of them are timed properly...

[prae]

Originally posted by TKRIS


I run red left turn arrows.

the lanes at crowchild & 5th ave and blackfoot & heritage are THE WORST for this.

I run those reds every chance i get. feels good man.

[sexualbanana]

This stretch of road doesn't effect too many people, but there is a stretch of lights on 18th Street SE stretching from Glenmore Trail to 76th Ave that includes 3 traffic lights. Let me explain my issue with these lights. For the sake of argument, we will be traveling north of 18th.

Light #1 is the light that allows the drivers coming from west-bound Glenmore to turn left onto south-bound 18th street (it's an off-ramp, half-clover leaf set up). Now this light is on a timer regardless of actual traffic patterns. So far, based on what I've recorded, the green light to turn south lasts 45 seconds. Which bothers me because there really isn't that much traffic turning north to warrant such a long cycle, nor does it change late at night when there is virtually no traffic. Meanwhile, the green light to go straight north-south on 18th, where there is significantly more traffic, lasts approx. 20 seconds. It's a reasonable approximation that having to drive through that light 20 times, I would hit full cycle 15 out of the 20 times.

200 metres north of that light is another traffic light for drivers exiting the strip mall to go south on 18th. Overall, the cycles on this light are short for both directions. So again, it's not uncommon to have to stop for this light.

The kicker to this whole strip, is the traffic light 75 metres north of that light at the corner of 18th street and 76th avenue. This light, from what I've gathered from years of crossing at that light as a child, is on a sensor AND a timer. But as of late, I've noticed the light seems to favor the east-west traffic of 76th avenue over the far busier north-south of 18th street. Why do I seem to think so? #1) The light for 76th avenue seems to turn green despite having absolutely no traffic in the proximity of the light.
#2)Sitting at the previous traffic light at the strip mall, I have on multiple occasions seen that the north-south light turn red then green as my light turns green, then turn red again as I approach the intersection.

Again, it's not uncommon to also sit at the first light at Glenmore Trail and watch the next 2 sets of lights cycle red and green at least twice before your light turns green. Only to run into red lights at the next two lights. No joke.

[Aleks]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
The lights that bug me, are the dual left turn lanes.

Every single one in the city is either a green arrow, or a red. There's no normal green light in between, so that you can turn when there is no traffic.

I could imagine the chaos that would insue if you allowed two cars to turn at the same time on a solid green. People can hardly handle driving in a straight line around here.

[masoncgy]

Originally posted by Aleks


I could imagine the chaos that would insue if you allowed two cars to turn at the same time on a solid green. People can hardly handle driving in a straight line around here.

Fair enough... but there are many single left turn lanes that don't give the driver the option of making a turn on a green after the oncoming has cleared... 52 St @ Mcknight Blvd is a good example... that stupid light turning left on WB McKnight only lets about 3-4 cars go and then goes red!

There are other examples too... those intersections suck.