On the Friday of the July long weekend, I came down the hill and approached the traffic lights. From the time I first stopped for traffic at 3:50 p.m., until I crossed the intersection it took 20 minutes. I imagine it got worse around 6 p.m.
Calgary officials say the city has no traffic lights that take more than seven cycles to get through, in the worst non-construction rush hour. Compared to other years, this didn’t even seem to be a busy weekend in Sundre, yet it was worse than the worst light delay in Calgary.
The first thing I noticed was that at most five cars could get through the intersection on one light and that the north-south direction had no cars passing through for at least half of the light cycles, and their light cycle appeared to be just as long as the east-west cycle.
That is the quick fix — double or triple the length of the east-west green light cycle, and slightly shorten the north-south green light. Then, for the price of some paint, make it two lanes going east-west through the intersection, funnelling down to one lane at the first traffic circle.
Allow right turns on red, going all four directions. Then for a lot more money, tear out the traffic circles and allow street parking again. This solves the problem of a lack of parking and fast cars going by too near the sidewalk. We are only using one lane for driving anyway, so use the other for something useful.
Bob Wilson,
Calgary
