WTF Happened to Calgary Traffic?

[ehos]

I lived in Calgary 3 years ago, and I thought the traffic was nuts back then.

But recently I crossed through, and it's INSANE now. There was triple lanes crawling around at 6:40AM! What? All the way to 196Ave (I was on Deerfoot, but still..).

And Memorial wasn't even moving. I thought it was an accident, but I came back at 7:30ish PM and SAME TRAFFIC!

WHAATTTTT??

[Loose]

well, oil prices shot up, the economy got good, and calgary got flooded full of people while the roads stayed the same.

[QuasarCav]

Massive population growth compounded by lack of investment in the roads system for the last 30 years.

Bronco(the mayor) is putting alot of cash into roads right now but It will be a while before it all settles down.

And 50-60% of Calgary vehicles are trucks, vans and SUV's.

[EnRich]

The roads are fucking terrible in this city... What makes it even worse are the drivers... Most ppl in this city cant drive... I spend alot of time on the roads, and shit do alot of ppl piss me off... I mean who the fuck brakes to after you switch lanes for no reason, or switch lanes and go as fast as the car beside... like wtf... I could kill some of you ppl for doin that...

[Gspotracer]

Yeah, the problem will only get worse before it gets better, if its not an accident holding up traffic its construction.

[finboy]

time to start evicting people from calgary,

[Fluidic]

I hate all Calgary drivers except for me. This city needs to take some lessons from Denver, CO. (essentially our sister city). That city has some great roads.

[barmanjay]

At least we're not living in Van,... one of the main reasons why I left Van,.... intolerable rush hour traffic!

[86max]

Originally posted by finboy
time to start evicting people from calgary,

[eb0i]

I still remember the years of past when most of the city roads were empty on any given night, but now I can come out on a Wednesday night and there's so much traffic compared to the yester years.

[statick]

maybe its time for ppl to populate a city like...moose jaw

[badseed]

Originally posted by finboy
time to start evicting people from calgary,

[GTS Jeff]

meh edmonton is worse. we dont get quite the same traffic jams, but the roads here are smaller, older, and have lower speed limits. there are like 3 roads where u can go faster than 80kmh here.

another pissoff is how SLOW edmontonians drive. everyone goes 5 under the limit here.

[Barking_Spidre]

Originally posted by ehos
But recently I crossed through, and it's INSANE now. There was triple lanes crawling around at 6:40AM! What? All the way to 196Ave (I was on Deerfoot, but still..).

Was that on a weekday? I drive into the construction sites off of memorial to work everyday from airdrie, and its NEVER backed up.
It's about that exact same time as well, 6:40 - 6:50 ish.
Odd that you experienced that..

[Akagi Redsuns]

It's not the speed that people travel at that irks me. It's the rate of acceleration after the light turns green after it's been red. It's like people just take thier foot of the brakes and let the idle speed of the engine coupled to thier automatic transmission dedicate thier rate of acceleration. Pathetic. Mr. Nissan Maxima with 200+ HP can't even outaccelerate a loaded transit bus today. Took a good 2 blocks to get up to the speed limit of 60 on McLeod Tr...like WTF? If people accelerated half decently brisky, it wouldn't be so clogged. Driving in Calgary frustrates me beyond belief.

[ehos]

Originally posted by Barking_Spidre


Was that on a weekday? I drive into the construction sites off of memorial to work everyday from airdrie, and its NEVER backed up.
It's about that exact same time as well, 6:40 - 6:50 ish.
Odd that you experienced that..

It was Wed and Thursday. One day I can see it but, both days??

I don't know how people get out of downtown or into it. Do they still allow parking on the side of the roads? (ie 12th Ave, it's not downtown, but there's a lot of apartments/housing there).

PACKED!

[XINC]

Actually your traffic here is nothing compared to Toronto.
However, I'll have to agree with the fact that Calgary has some of the worst drivers in the world, and a lot of people with road rage... (I know because, I do get annoyed sometimes, at slow merging traffic, even when you leave like 20-30metres in front of you and the merging party decides to slow down some more)

Then you get the odd cowpoke who decides to scream down deefoot at about 160km/h and then decide to slam on his brakes narrowly avoiding a collision with some law abiding driver...

Truthfully there are many great and skilled drivers here, but equally there are some miserably poor drivers as well... and it is those poor drivers who would get eaten alive in traffic back out east, and in Vancouver... heck any large city for that matter.

[hjr]

Originally posted by EnRich
The roads are fucking terrible in this city... What makes it even worse are the drivers... Most ppl in this city cant drive... I spend alot of time on the roads, and shit do alot of ppl piss me off... I mean who the fuck brakes to after you switch lanes for no reason, or switch lanes and go as fast as the car beside... like wtf... I could kill some of you ppl for doin that...

dude, im not sure if you have been in any other city in canada, but calgary has one of the best road systems around. edmonton, lame. vancouver, lame, toronto, lame.

sure the roads get backed up but it really isnt that bad....

[spyguy]

Originally posted by barmanjay
At least we're not living in Van,... one of the main reasons why I left Van,.... intolerable rush hour traffic!

Gotta agree with you there, I'm living in vancouver now and the traffic is crazy during rush hour. but one thing I love about vancouver drivers, they all speed. I haven't been on a road where no one drives less than 20 over the speed limit! I recently visited calgary and man I've noticed how SLOW ppl drive there...

[cloud7]

Originally posted by spyguy


Gotta agree with you there, I'm living in vancouver now and the traffic is crazy during rush hour. but one thing I love about vancouver drivers, they all speed. I haven't been on a road where no one drives less than 20 over the speed limit! I recently visited calgary and man I've noticed how SLOW ppl drive there...

People there are way too many speed traps and photo radars in Calgary (even in the rush hours)... people do speed but generally keep it under 10 over to avoid getting caught.