Red lights, Edmonton Trail and southbound workers: 3 questions about Calgary traffic answered

In a story posted last fall, we took a look at a couple of pain points that residents often mention to Calgary Eyeopener host Angela Knight — the intersection of 10th Avenue and 14th Street S.W. and the intersection at Macleod Trail and 25th Avenue S.W.

In the former case, it was speculated that the traffic light was put into that location to deliberately slow down traffic as drivers came under Ninth Avenue. Not the case, the city told us: it was put in place because it had removed a traffic median at that intersection. So, for safety reasons, they needed to install a traffic signal.

While that mystery and several others may have been solved, readers unearthed countless others. Some sent questions via email and others we saw posted to social media.

So, to start out with, we chose some of those questions and posed them to city officials. Here's what we found out.

1. Why do I keep hitting so many red lights on my commute?

Here's one of the big questions that kicked off our fact-finding mission. Calgary's traffic management centre says it's all part of the plan — like many large jurisdictions across Canada, Calgary uses "traffic flow theory" to reduce overall delays.

We made a video to explain it in more detail. 

WATCH | How traffic systems in major cities attempt to use red lights to get you to the office sooner:

How red lights keep traffic moving

2 years ago

Duration 5:25

Strategic red lights can actually keep traffic moving faster. CBC Calgary’s Joel Dryden finds out how the city is using technology to time red lights and reduce congestion.

2. What's going on with Edmonton Trail?

We read complaints online about the plans for Edmonton Trail between 16th Avenue and 8th Avenue N.E., where four new lights have been installed.

The big concern is that, paired with major developments in this area, the flow of traffic has been impeded into downtown on this major road.

The city explains that Edmonton Trail is classified as an "urban boulevard" under Calgary's transportation plan, meaning that pedestrians are expected to be accommodated at a high standard.

Roads like Edmonton Trail — where there's lots of high traffic volume, and undivided, multi-lane cross-sections — have a higher share of serious pedestrian collisions and fatalities.

Thus, the new lights. The city says it doesn't expect these lights to force more traffic on residential roads, and the signals only change if a vehicle or pedestrian is waiting to cross.

3. Does this intersection favour southbound workers?

At the intersection of 16th Avenue and Centre Street N., some drivers have suspicions that those heading into the downtown core have more time at traffic lights than those heading north.

"Heading northbound, sometimes people are talking on their phones, playing with the phones, head down. All of a sudden now, only one, two cars will get through," said Lorne Cowan, who takes Centre Street up to McKnight Boulevard in the mornings. "But coming the other way, going southbound, you can get 11 cars through."

It's not Cowan's imagination. At those intersections, there's a certain amount of time allocated to each signal cycle. When the city is prioritizing clearing congestion, and they increase duration in one direction, it's reduced for another.

"Every effort is required to efficiently serve the demand for all turning movements, which varies by time of day. However, trade-offs have to be considered when corridor progression is the priority," the city says.

• Any other burning questions about Calgary traffic? Email reporter Joel Dryden at joel.dryden@cbc.ca