It’s September, and once again, our roads are beginning to see more traffic as school and our autumn routines begin. Willow Ridge provides several very important traffic corridors for local businesses and neighbouring communities which results in high volumes of traffic and an increase in road safety issues. Over the past year, our community association has worked with the City and Calgary police to help better understand and improve our traffic situation. I’d like to highlight some improvements and data for you.
In April of 2023, we worked with the City to set up traffic data collection points on both Acadia and Maplecreek Drive. We found that Acadia Drive sees roughly ~3,000 vehicles per day traveling in either direction (i.e., 3,000 northbound, 3,000 southbound), with an 85% percentile speed of 56km/h, which means that 85% of traffic traveled at 56km/h or less. Maplecreek Drive, which is a 40km zone often used as a shortcut for people wanting to bypass Acadia, saw 500 cars traveling north and 550 cars traveling south, with an 85% percentile speed of 49km/h. We continue to work with the police and the City to improve safety on Maplecreek Drive, including looking at an increased number of speed signs to remind people of the speed zones.
In addition to collecting traffic data, our CA has been advocating for increased safety at the intersection of Fairmont/Southland and Southland/Maplecreek Drive, where the pedestrian crosswalk is very unsafe. We are happy to highlight that the City has put in an advance left turn on Fairmont/Southland, as well as a controlled crosswalk on Maplecreek. While the CA does its best to advocate for traffic safety, the City is ultimately data driven and your feedback as residents is paramount to the City providing a response. To provide traffic feedback (e.g., speeding, pedestrian safety issues), you need to file a Calgary Police “Traffic Service Request” which is different than a 311 request!
If you are interested in learning more about traffic in our neighbourhood, we have some resources posted on our website, mywillowridge.ca. If you are interested in working with our CA to become an active advocate for traffic safety in our neighbourhood, please contact me at [email protected].
Jason Carling
President, Willow Ridge Community Association
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