Southwest Transportation Improvements

[Daveography]

Rabbit Hill Road to be widened as south Edmonton grows
Coun. Bryan Anderson is feeling good after council approved $4.5 million Thursday to widen Rabbit Hill Road to four lanes between Anthony Henday Drive and 23 Avenue in the city’s south end.

Traffic swelled by 8,000 vehicles per day over two years at pinch-points on that road, as south Edmonton continues to grow.

Rabbit Hill Road, which is mostly twinned, still has a 1.6-kilometre section of single-lane each way that runs past the MacTaggart neighbourhood.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...ad-to-be-widened-as-south-edmonton-grows.html

Rabbit Hill Road to be twinned in growing southwest Edmonton
The twinning of a busy stretch of road in southwest Edmonton was approved unanimously at city council Thursday afternoon.

Rabbit Hill Road from Terwillegar Boulevard/MacTaggart Drive to Anthony Henday Drive will see second lanes added in each direction, although work won’t begin for another two years. The 1.6-kilometre stretch is the only section of the road that isn’t twinned.

The road is four lanes to the south where it crosses over Anthony Henday Drive, and four lanes to the north at 23 Avenue, and bottlenecks in between.

The latest traffic count numbers from 2015 show 22,500 vehicles a day on this section, up from 14,500 in 2013. The city standard for twinning is 20,000 vehicles a day, so a second lane has been needed for years.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3116869/rabbit-hill-road-to-be-twinned-in-growing-southwest-edmonton/

 

[Daveography]

Curiously little talk of LRT to this part of the city. Maybe the perception is not enough population or density to support it, but would certainly be more effective than road widening.

Here's my thoughts on how it could look, as a SW extension of the Metro Line.

Link to map on Google Maps:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p5lNR2_oFPMvxB2VEq_VauP7_cE&usp=sharing

 

[Daveography]

Updated version which includes a couple of potential alternative alignments, such as along 51 Ave and along Rabbit Hill Road:

The darker line would still be the preferred option, IMO.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p5lNR2_oFPMvxB2VEq_VauP7_cE&usp=sharing

 

[IanO]

I am still so perplexed and disappointed with the decision to not extend the Whitemud to the AHD as a full freeway. It is the fastest growing part of our city and deals with significant congestion.

 

[IanO]

Yes, Terwillegar Dr.

 

[Avenuer]

I am still so perplexed and disappointed with the decision to not extend the Whitemud to the AHD as a full freeway. It is the fastest growing part of our city and deals with significant congestion.

If I was looking to buy a place in the burbs, I don't know why SW Edmonton would be attractive. Bad traffic (the Terwillegar expressway work and Henday widening won't improve the situation much) and expensive relative to the rest of the city. I'd much prefer to look at the new areas west of the Henday (i.e. Glastonbury area) or northeast (i.e. McConachie), as both have much better transportation connections and are also more affordable.

 

[bodsbods9090]

If I was looking to buy a place in the burbs, I don't know why SW Edmonton would be attractive. Bad traffic (the Terwillegar expressway work and Henday widening won't improve the situation much) and expensive relative to the rest of the city. I'd much prefer to look at the new areas west of the Henday (i.e. Glastonbury area) or northeast (i.e. McConachie), as both have much better transportation connections and are also more affordable.

Lots of reasons to live in the southwest too if you work in Nisku or commute to Calgary.

To each their own. My wife and I just bought in the Allard area and we love it but it's not for everyone.

 

[IanO]

As someone who grew up in the SW and went to those ~2006/07 open houses and to be here 15 years later with a

If I was looking to buy a place in the burbs, I don't know why SW Edmonton would be attractive. Bad traffic (the Terwillegar expressway work and Henday widening won't improve the situation much) and expensive relative to the rest of the city. I'd much prefer to look at the new areas west of the Henday (i.e. Glastonbury area) or northeast (i.e. McConachie), as both have much better transportation connections and are also more affordable.

Having grown up in the SW, it certainly has a cachet and reputation as being incredibly desirable. The HHI, schools, access to the river, AHD, YEG are all very attractive to many.

 

[roe_]

It would be nice to have Terwillegar transformed into a proper freeway to link Whitemud and AHD, but frankly this type of infrastructure-need can never be fully satisfied. Each time huge new freeways are built to reduce travel times, new neighbourhoods to be built further and further from the core and existing roads become congested again. Induced demand is a real thing and it isn't new.

If people buy in the deep SW and work at the airport or in Nisku, the location is great. But if you want to live in Chapelle and travel DT daily, you are going to have a very long commute and I don't think the city is responsible for creating freeways to speed your journey.

 

[Foolworm]

The hope is that if people do commute downtown, they'll take transit instead -- hence the bus lanes.

The City doesn't have the resources to build both Yellowhead and Terwillegar up to freeway standard at once. Honestly if not for Twin Brooks leading to the demise of 119/122 St as a major corridor, I don't think Terwillegar would even be considered for upgrades.

 

[archited]

There is a new trend afoot and I have mentioned it before... what, with home offices, the location of where one lives becomes less significant. If you live in the suburbs and only need to commute once or twice a week, traffic becomes less of an obstacle. Here in the grand village of Oak View, California, there is a home-owner phenomenon that is prologue for the rest of North America. Every house that comes on the market now that is less than +/- $1.2 million is snapped up within 3 days of listing. I checked with a good friend who is a real estate agent and the buyers are from L.A. (some 80 miles away) and they are buying in a less expensive market with more "elbow room" and the intention of working in-office only on occasion. What does this imply for Cities like Edmonton... those who want the "outdoor" experience will be moving to places like Camrose, Vegreville, Westlock, etc. Two of the Alberta builders that I am in touch with are already exploring those possibilities.

 

[IanO]

...and yet we are seeing y/y and recent best quarters for multiple builders and infill developers.

 

[thommyjo]

Yeah. It will be interesting to seeing housing trends. My dad worked at pwc all ym childhood and we lived in Riverbend. He did the daily commute. I bused to scona for high school and experienced the terwillegar drive nightmare daily. Then my dad started his own firm and now works from home, so they live in upper windermere. He has no commute, so he doesn't care much.

I also work from home FT now and it will stay that way. But my wife and I wanted easy access to DT, Oliver, transit and the river valley/major parks. So we bought an infill, west central.

My wife is a nurse, so we could have easily lived anywhere and she could have work nearby. But the neighbourhood and location mattered. Where I have other friends buying down in edgemont who work DT and I can't wrap my mind around that haha. But they want a new home feel and can't afford over 400k.

I think communities will become more important, hence my appreciation for the new city plan to invest in more than 1 or 2 central dense areas, but to move towards neighbourhood hubs. Windermere really is a great area for shopping, parks, schools, and nice houses. And it has pretty good density with big condos, 5 story apartments, and townhomes.

 

[cliffapotamus]

^agreed. Terwillegar isn't actually that busy of a road relative to other arteries in the city. Here's data from 2018 (the earliest i could) of daily car traffic along major roads. Terwillegar only had about 46k users. Obviously all of our actual freeways do more, and places like 170th street, 97 street, Fort Road, and even the western end of Stoney Plain Road have either the same or more traffic on them; all of these have narrower right of ways and are getting much less city and public attention. I think Terwillegar is perfectly well served, especially if BRT is coming in.
I'm actually really excited for the the potential of BRT and the the SUPs being built into the leftover ROW. I've found that Southern Terwillegar and Windermere actually have decent bike paths in them, and the ravines in that area are nice. it's just a complete pain in the ass to get out there from the central part of the city because the bike networks don't connect. putting those paths and bridge in are gonna be huge for fixing that issue, and hopefully unlocking some demand for bike/alternative commuting out of the area to places like U of A and downtown.

 

[Avenuer]

There is a new trend afoot and I have mentioned it before... what, with home offices, the location of where one lives becomes less significant. If you live in the suburbs and only need to commute once or twice a week, traffic becomes less of an obstacle. Here in the grand village of Oak View, California, there is a home-owner phenomenon that is prologue for the rest of North America. Every house that comes on the market now that is less than +/- $1.2 million is snapped up within 3 days of listing. I checked with a good friend who is a real estate agent and the buyers are from L.A. (some 80 miles away) and they are buying in a less expensive market with more "elbow room" and the intention of working in-office only on occasion. What does this imply for Cities like Edmonton... those who want the "outdoor" experience will be moving to places like Camrose, Vegreville, Westlock, etc. Two of the Alberta builders that I am in touch with are already exploring those possibilities.

In my opinion, people from Edmonton likely would move to an acreage instead of into a small town. Rural Alberta is a much different culture than the city and amenities are much less, so those that want more 'elbow room' would instead opt for an acreage instead of choosing the 'middle ground' of a small city or town.

People in small cities and towns in Alberta have much different mindsets (i.e. more conservative, close minded) then our larger urban centers. Unless you are already of that mindset, you're in for a rude awakening if you decided to move to one of those places.

I, for one, would rather work from home on a nice acreage or lakefront property than to a small town/city in our province.