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Originally Posted by Koolfire
Yes, I agree, but Freeweed wants to think they don't plan.
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No, I think they just plan extremely poorly and for the extreme short term. These are things that seemed obvious when I first looked at the neighbourhoods when they were 1/4 built. Seriously, the entrance to Tuscany alone is so bleeding obvious what should have been done - and that's just a single example.
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I think he's just bitter because he lives in that area.
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No, these just happen to be the neighbourhoods I'm most familiar with, because I spend most of my time around them. There are plenty of similar examples around the city that I've heard of, I just don't have as much direct experience.
The intersection I get stuck at most often (Royal Birch Blvd/CHB) is already backed up on a regular basis. It's been rebuilt TWICE since I moved there 4 years ago, and it's finally dawned on our city planners that it needs a complete overhaul yet again due to the new commercial/industrial complex to the north. Which has been on the books for many years now. Unfortunately there isn't really enough available land to build a proper interchange/intersection there now, because things were allowed to be built too close to it. Poor planning, plain and simple - and the expense/hassle of a THIRD(!) rebuild of that single intersection is just icing on the cake. I won't even get into the stupidity of having bus stops immediately after major turns on this intersection, which helps back it up even more.
This is why new areas in this city cost so damned much. We keep re-doing major infrastructure pieces in a very short period of time (hi Crowchild @ Stoney, under construction for 5 years running), because no one plans for more than the immediate needs. A few things, like the TUC, were accounted for decades ago - but even then, proper interchange alignment was never fully planned. Tuscany is all the evidence you need to realize that someone was asleep at the wheel when they let that neighbourhood be built.
This would be like building water and sewer lines for 1/5th the capacity of the eventual built neighbourhood, then ripping them out every few years and replacing as the neighbourhood grows. Oh, and having to route them all over the place because no one thought to retain proper utility ROWs. Sheer lunacy.
I'm not advocating the city master plan everything down to the last curb here. But it's a pretty simple matter to grid out the major roadways around a new neighbourhood, decide on access points, and build according to the eventual built number of homes. Even if those homes might take a decade to build.
That being said, we're learning. The NW ring road has all future connections laid out (and earthworks done, even). It should be a pretty straightforward matter of hooking up new roads as needed. The other legs are planned even better.
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