City staff have a plan to streamline traffic at SaskTel Centre events

A few tweaks to traffic lanes will get people to events at the SaskTel Centre a lot faster, according to a new report from Saskatoon's transportation department.

This past winter, the city undertook a review of traffic flow during major events at the venue after getting complaints that delays from congestion were so bad, people were missing the start of events.

City staff examined traffic at two Saskatchewan Rush games in January and February and made the following observations:

• There was congestion at Apex Street and Thatcher Avenue with traffic coming southbound, northbound and eastbound, along with pedestrians crossing.
• The northbound left turn lane on Idylwyld was backed up due to congestion on Marquis Drive.
• All eastbound traffic on Marquis Drive wanted to turn right on Bill Hunter Avenue, and vehicles turning left from Highway 16 trying to merge into the curb lane were backing up into the Highway 16/Marquis Drive intersection.
• Pedestrians dropped off on Apex Street east of Thatcher were being forced to walk on the road because there are no sidewalks.

With that in mind, staff made a few adjustments at two subsequent games in March and April.

First they tackled the Thatcher/Apex intersection, creating two left-turn lanes from Thatcher onto Apex, and making Apex one-way, with two lanes during the event, to funnel vehicles to the southeast parking lot.

Difference of 25 minutes

That resulted in traffic clearing at the Marquis/Thatcher intersection about 25 minutes earlier than usual, the report said, adding "SaskTel Centre staff observed a large shift in the timing of typical food and drink sales prior to the start of the game."

At the second game, staff created two right-turn lanes from Marquis onto Bill Hunter. Once the northwest parking lot was full, traffic was redirected further along Marquis to turn right on Thatcher and head for the southeast lot.

These changes resulted in the backed-up left-turn queue on Highway 16 dissipating about "20 minutes earlier than the previous Rush game," the report says.

The report also recommends a couple of long-term improvements, including:

• Paving a gravel portion of Apex, just north of 60th Street.
• Adding sidewalks on Apex between Thatcher and Idylwyld, and on Thatcher north of Marquis.
• Additional winter maintenance for sidewalks.

The report will be tabled at Monday's transportation committee meeting and forwarded to city council.

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