Quote:
Originally Posted by Full Mountain
The problem with Deerfoot is the volume exceeds the capacity of the road by a significant margin, not to mention it was originally designed as a 80km/h road but has only had minor fixes done to accommodate the new 100km/h speed limit.
|
Trust me, there is no 80km/h design speed sections on Deerfoot Trail, period. The thought that they would intentionally increase the speed limit BEYOND the design speed is just asking for lawsuits. What you're seeing is minimum design standards though. It seems extreme compared to the wide open prairie highways, of course.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mwalker_mw
Now, if the numbers support the general sentiment, my next question would then be: Why has such a critical artery been left to get to this state? Especially in a city that generally is not shy about spending on roads upgrades.
|
Two things - First, they're spending so much money on Ring Roads right now in Alberta that other projects have to wait. Second, and this one is opinion only, but I imagine Alberta Transportation would love to dump the maintenance of Deerfoot back on the City of Calgary (which could possibly happen in the next couple years), which means they don't have to spend any extra money on upgrades (or at least less money).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mwalker_mw
Could a cultural shift be created towards the 'acceptable' behavior one sees in Germany and similar where faffing about in the left lane is seriously frowned upon (or so I've heard)? Or is our only option to keep building out to accomodate the slowest members of society?
This is why I'm wondering about numbers. Is it theoretically possible with idealized drivers to fit current peak volumes at full speed on that road? The next thought being, what if this whole driverless car thing takes off? Within 20 to 30 years we may have that idealized driver at the wheel of every vehicle. Should we be designing capacities to that target instead?
|
The acceptable behavior only works when the road isn't badly congested.
Capacities of roads are designed with bad drivers in mind, and will always have to be. You can't design for something you can't even be sure will happen in the lifespan of the road you're building.
Sometimes you have to strike that balance of cost and volume, and so they willingly design chokepoints with a minimum level of service (think the Anderson Deerfoot interchange or the Crowchild Bow Memorial mess). Obviously if the budget is there they will be able to better accomodate growth but it's not a perfect world.