Connect Centre | 56.3m | 16s | ONE Properties | DIALOG

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    60
The only time I'm annoyed by Edmonton traffic is driving south from DT to Summerside during extreme cold when it's very icy or during snow storms. I think the longest it's taken me is 2.5 hrs. but 1 to 1.5 is not unusual during the winter. A good drive during the summer is about 45 mins. Takes me about 30 mins. going the other way under perfect conditions but I leave at about 6 am.

I've driven to and in Toronto, LA, Vegas, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake, and many places in between those. LA was the most stressful because of the sheer size of the freeways, amount of cars, speed with sudden unexpected stops, and the fact I was relying on a GPS that could not accurately detect which layer of the freeway I was on and kept trying to get me to exit where there were no exits. Toronto was brutal on a couple of trips because it involved driving a minibus while pulling a trailer during rush hour downtown. Anyway, I have several pretty crazy stories of driving in all these places but I won't get into it here. The point is, Edmonton is definitely not bad. It helps that I know my way around like the back of my hand.
 
scyeg said:
The only time I'm annoyed by Edmonton traffic is driving south from DT to Summerside during extreme cold when it's very icy or during snow storms. I think the longest it's taken me is 2.5 hrs. but 1 to 1.5 is not unusual during the winter. A good drive during the summer is about 45 mins. Takes me about 30 mins. going the other way under perfect conditions but I leave at about 6 am.

I've driven to and in Toronto, LA, Vegas, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake, and many places in between those. LA was the most stressful because of the sheer size of the freeways, amount of cars, speed with sudden unexpected stops, and the fact I was relying on a GPS that could not accurately detect which layer of the freeway I was on and kept trying to get me to exit where there were no exits. Toronto was brutal on a couple of trips because it involved driving a minibus while pulling a trailer during rush hour downtown. Anyway, I have several pretty crazy stories of driving in all these places but I won't get into it here. The point is, Edmonton is definitely not bad. It helps that I know my way around like the back of my hand.
Click to expand...

It also helps that Edmonton is one of the most logically laid out cities in North America. Aside from having to weave around the river valley for crossings, everything is very straight forward. The arterials are mostly a grid, the numbering system takes very little effort to understand and from there you can know where a street is without ever having been there or looking it up. The addressing system is similar. The only other city I can think of that even approaches this level of utilitarian ease is Salt Lake City.
 
dunno said:
It also helps that Edmonton is one of the most logically laid out cities in North America. Aside from having to weave around the river valley for crossings, everything is very straight forward. The arterials are mostly a grid, the numbering system takes very little effort to understand and from there you can know where a street is without ever having been there or looking it up. The addressing system is similar. The only other city I can think of that even approaches this level of utilitarian ease is Salt Lake City.
Click to expand...
It's actually scary how well our roads are laid out. As I have been recording more and more dash cam drives for my vlog channel I'm further reminded how nice and straight most of our roads are.
 
having spent the last couple of pandemic years staycaying in Alberta, I noticed that almost all small towns have 51st St as the main street, and the main cross avenue is 50 (or 51). Seems some person, in some gov dept, at some time, made the decision that Alberta towns originate on the centre of a grid 100 x 100. What did they think would happen if the town grew past 50 blocks east or south?
 
buildings said:
having spent the last couple of pandemic years staycaying in Alberta, I noticed that almost all small towns have 51st St as the main street, and the main cross avenue is 50 (or 51). Seems some person, in some gov dept, at some time, made the decision that Alberta towns originate on the centre of a grid 100 x 100. What did they think would happen if the town grew past 50 blocks east or south?
Click to expand...

They didn't. And it worked for the most part as most places didn't outgrow the grid numbers. And then you get Edmonton, which did run out of numbers, and now we have this weird not-a-quadrant system.

This style of numbering is also not common in Southern Alberta. Didsbury is about as south as you tend to see a version of this, whether the core numbers are centred on 100 & 100, 50 & 50, or 20 & 20. Once you get more south than Dids, you either see only named streets, quadrants/east-west designation, or having the centre starting at 1st and 1st like most other places on the continent. The only place farther south I can think of that does this is Fort MacLeod, and they only do it with streets, not avenues. There may be others but it is uncommon as compared to Central/Northern Alberta, wherein it is ubiquitous.

I'm guessing this numbering system we are used to radiated outward from Edmonton, so it makes sense places in Calgary's orbit didn't do this so much.
 
I don't know if it started in Edmonton, or just became the preferred way of numbering streets around the time Edmonton was developed, which is also when much of central and northern Alberta started to develop too.

However, 50 Street and Avenues seems adequate for most small towns, so it works well. Obviously they either under-estimated Edmonton's growth potential or maybe it wasn't considered or thought about that far back.

Although, its not a huge problem and was fairly easily solved by adding the NW and other directional indicators to the address.
 
scyeg said:
The only time I'm annoyed by Edmonton traffic is driving south from DT to Summerside during extreme cold when it's very icy or during snow storms. I think the longest it's taken me is 2.5 hrs. but 1 to 1.5 is not unusual during the winter. A good drive during the summer is about 45 mins. Takes me about 30 mins. going the other way under perfect conditions but I leave at about 6 am.
Click to expand...
Man, where in Summerside are you going? The longest it has ever taken me, and that was rush hour last week, was about 1hr 20m, right after a relatively big snowfall. It usually takes me about 25-35 min, depending on where in Summerside I'm going (if it's further east, it obviously takes longer).
I've been doing this every day for the past month or so, and frequently before, since August, and leaving at 7am it takes me roughly 35min from my place (66st SW and 25ave SW, roughly) to Norquest, regardless of the route I choose.
 
ChazYEG said:
Man, where in Summerside are you going? The longest it has ever taken me, and that was rush hour last week, was about 1hr 20m, right after a relatively big snowfall. It usually takes me about 25-35 min, depending on where in Summerside I'm going (if it's further east, it obviously takes longer).
I've been doing this every day for the past month or so, and frequently before, since August, and leaving at 7am it takes me roughly 35min from my place (66st SW and 25ave SW, roughly) to Norquest, regardless of the route I choose.
Click to expand...
The question is how fast were you driving?
 
ChazYEG said:
Man, where in Summerside are you going? The longest it has ever taken me, and that was rush hour last week, was about 1hr 20m, right after a relatively big snowfall. It usually takes me about 25-35 min, depending on where in Summerside I'm going (if it's further east, it obviously takes longer).
I've been doing this every day for the past month or so, and frequently before, since August, and leaving at 7am it takes me roughly 35min from my place (66st SW and 25ave SW, roughly) to Norquest, regardless of the route I choose.
Click to expand...
What time do you leave? I leave at 4:30, but if I leave even slightly earlier it can shave like 10 mins. off my drive. I go to basically the same area (67st SW 24 Ave. SW) and have done the drive since 2016. I'm leaving from a little further north of DT but it still takes at least 45 mins. to get home during rush hour in the winter, regardless of which way I take, and I've tried them all (often in the same week). I will often check Google maps to see traffic before I choose which way to go. Sometimes the fastest route is to actually go north, hop on the Yellowhead to the east Henday and take that to 50 st.—I'll occasionally do this during the summer and if the traffic is really moving I can get back in 30-35 mins.

The 2.5 hr drive was a one-time thing several years ago during a huge snowstorm where several accidents along the way had traffic at a standstill.
 
scyeg said:
What time do you leave? I leave at 4:30, but if I leave even slightly earlier it can shave like 10 mins. off my drive. I go to basically the same area (67st SW 24 Ave. SW) and have done the drive since 2016. I'm leaving from a little further north of DT but it still takes at least 45 mins. to get home during rush hour in the winter, regardless of which way I take, and I've tried them all (often in the same week). I will often check Google maps to see traffic before I choose which way to go. Sometimes the fastest route is to actually go north, hop on the Yellowhead to the east Henday and take that to 50 st.—I'll occasionally do this during the summer and if the traffic is really moving I can get back in 30-35 mins.

The 2.5 hr drive was a one-time thing several years ago during a huge snowstorm where several accidents along the way had traffic at a standstill.
Click to expand...
Damn, we're basically neighbours 😂 . I'm on 67 and Shaw, essentially. I used 25 as a reference for distance.

I've left anywhere from 3:30 to 5:30. It usually takes be around the same as you, roughly 40 to 50 minutes, during the winter. I tend to take 109st-97ave-Connors Rd-75/66st, which seems to be the more consistent (minus the bloody rail line, and that is always a gamble taking this route).
If I were more towards the NE of DT I'd probably do the Yellowhead-Henday too. From Norquest It doesn't really make sense, as I'd have to deal with more traffic still inside of DT.

Man, that 2.5hr must have been an absolute nightmare.
 
Here is a frightening thought, constructions have superseded well past Summerside, so imagine that commute? When I chose Winter Ridge which is situated on Parkland county dide, it was the idea of country side near the city, but I'm now surrounded by development and well south of me. It is just unfathomable how we continue to sprawl for our population.
 
Here is a frightening thought, constructions have superseded well past Summerside, so imagine that commute? When I chose Winter Ridge which is situated on Parkland county dide, it was the idea of country side near the city, but I'm now surrounded by development and well south of me. It is just unfathomable how we continue to sprawl for our population.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top