[wacko]

I'm from Regina, and I don't often drive elsewhere in the province. However, the last three days I was driving in and through Saskatoon for work, so I thought I'd pass on my observations.

Getting to the downtown office was easy via the College Drive bridge (which I've since learned is actually called University Bridge). However, turning right onto Idylwyld from 25th Street was awkward, since I had to watch for potential trains as well as oncoming traffic, while taking care not to stay on the tracks. Railway tracks simply shouldn't ever be located that close to a road, especially at an intersection.

Coming back from Lloydminster yesterday, I thought I'd try out Circle Drive West. Firstly though, I have to state that the intersection with Idylwyld North remains the clusterfuck it's always been. Maybe it was the time of day (about 12:30 pm) but there was quite a number of vehicles waiting to turn left or right onto Circle Drive. By far the best solution would be for the city to expropriate all surrounding land, raze everything, and construct a proper interchange from scratch, but of course that will never happen.

Once past the lights, Circle Drive West was actually pretty nice to drive on, breezing along at 90 kph. Though I must ask, what's up with the at-grade intersection at Laurier Drive? The bends in the vicinity of 11th Street were also rather interesting.

After Valley Road, a third lane appears, which might be somewhat confusing for out-of-towners. They might decide to move right to allow faster traffic to go by, only to later find they have to move back left, and then left again to stay on Circle Drive to Hwy 11. From a traffic flow perspective, it would've been better to have two lanes continuing east with a seamless connection with Circle Drive East, while building another full interchange with Idylwyld. But of course that's a pipe dream also.