Deerfoot Trail study aims to make busy Calgary roadway safer, less congested
Busiest days see about 170,000 vehicles travel on major north-south route
Calgary's Deerfoot Trail sees about 170,000 vehicles on its busiest days, and the city is undertaking a new study to make the roughly 40-kilometre route safer and more efficient.
"There's all kinds of things that we're going to be looking at," said project manager Stephen Power.
Potential measures include adding lanes and creating alternate routes running parallel to the major north-south thoroughfare, he said.
The city is also considering other options, Power said, including the possibility of a toll system, the creation of an app to let drivers know when and where congestion is occurring and taking steps to encourage car-pooling.
A series of public engagement sessions will be held across the city starting in the middle of June.
"If you go down Deerfoot mid-day, it operates quite well. If you go at 8 o'clock in the morning, it's clogged up," said Power.
"So it's a little bit of demand, it's a little bit of design, it's a little bit of the rest of the network not really supporting it."
The public engagement sessions will be held:
- June 14 at WillowRidge Community Association (680 Acadia Dr. S.E.) from 5 to 8 p.m.
- June 15 at St. Jerome Elementary School (11616 Panorama Hills Blvd. N.W.) from 5 to 8 p.m.
- June 16 at Dover Community Association (3133 30 Ave. S.E.) from 5 to 8 p.m.
- June 20 at Sheraton Cavalier Hotel (2620 32 Ave. N.E.) from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- June 20 at Douglasdale Elementary School (400 Douglas Park Blvd. S.E.) from 5 to 8 p.m.
- June 28 at Thorncliffe Greenview Community Association (5600 Centre St. N.) from 5 to 8 p.m.
City councillors and Alberta MLAs also plan to host a separate town hall on June 23 at First Alliance Church (12345 40 St. S.E.) from 7 to 9 p.m to get public input on Deerfoot Trail south of Glenmore Trail, specifically.