2015.Season - E05 - Deerfoot Trail - Calgary Alberta

[@chalkfarm11]

Thanks for making this. Starting to drive soon and it's nice to get a feel for how this freeway is.

[@mgnjhns5541]

I absolutely love your videos and DJ skills. I'm getting my Class 1 licence and have saved several of your videos around this year. So much nostalgia in these mixes. Brings me back to the good old raving days

[@TransCanadaPhil]

yeah I used to go to raves and stuff back in the late 90s and early 2000s a lot.

[@maggie5197]

I relate to this so much, listening to trance and watching the sunrise during my morning drives.

[@TheSolarcatcher]

Very nice and very ambitious video. There's a lot of ground that you covered, but you did it well. I enjoyed it, especially the dawn landscapes.

[@tomsmith5584]

Another fun fact: 45% of workers in downtown Calgary ride the CTrain. It is the third busiest light rail system in North America after the Toronto streetcar system and the Guadalajara light rail in Mexico.

[@lostwizard]

That interchange at 16th Avenue is actually not as bad as it could be. By splitting the diamond up like that, it actually allows higher throughput on the *through* lanes of 16th Avenue because it allows timing the east and west bound lights differently. That was critical when it was built since there was no bypass alternative for the TCH at the time. Obviously, as the city has developed since then (decades!), the amount of conflicting turning traffic has changed dramatically to the point that it doesn't work as well as one would like. However, as bad as it is, it's not the worst bottleneck (or most dangerous) related to the Deerfoot. (See Glenmore and Anderson/Bow Bottom.) There may well be plenty of land to build a stack interchange at 16th Avenue but that costs a huge amount of money and there are more pressing infrastructure projects that need to be completed. Also, whatever is done has to be done in a way that doesn't conflict with either Memorial or 32 Avenue which are close enough to be a concern. And that leaves aside the fact that the city doesn't own or maintain any of the interchanges along Deerfoot or Stoney - those are fully provincial jurisdiction and have been for quite a long time. The province has been concentrating on the major bottlenecks but 16th Avenue is not at the top of that list. Note that I'm not saying nothing should be done. Only that it isn't as simple of a problem as it might first appear and that the city itself has no say in the matter.

[@summersky77]

This was definitely filmed on a weekend early morning if it was April. There's NO way this would have been possible at that hour on a weekday moving so freely with so few cars on the road.

[@TransCanadaPhil]

ZYC yup, it was filmed around 6am in April when I came to Calgary to go to the Calgary Expo as I usually do every year.

[@summersky77]

Hey Phil, I subbed to your channel. I'm originally from Vancouver (grew up in the east end) and now live in Calgary. I lived in Winnipeg for 3 years and saw your Winnipeg footage, Almost brought tears to my eyes. Best years of my life were there. Thanks for your hard work putting these together and uploading them! :)

[@landongendur]

I had no idea that Calgary's downtown parking was only 2nd to New York in terms of expense! Yikes! 8:26 - no thanks! lol

[@TransCanadaPhil]

yup, pretty amazing stat!

[@Footy_700]

6:00 downtown skyline 🏙 5:50 glenmore trail freeway

[@fredflintstone7783]

There seems to be a contest going among the engineers in Calgary. It seems that no two major intersections can be "the same".And they are definitely designed to slow down and "parcel out" traffic.The roads are "overfull" during "rush hours".

[@TransCanadaPhil]

+Alex Jones Deerfoot Trail is definitely an interesting freeway because of all those differences. I know people in Calgary express concern about it, but as an outsider from Winnipeg, I always find it a neat road to drive :-D Although I do scratch my head a bit about the Interchange at 16th Ave with the 4 separate sets of traffic lights and all the free land around and wonder, "why isn't there a cloverleaf or stack here?"

[@highwaysbyways4281]

They're putting in a diverging diamond interchange on MacLeod Trail and 162 Ave. S I wonder if a DDI would work well at Deerfoot and 16 Ave. N as well?

[@tyfrank3427]

I think given the terrain and the distance between carriageways, a 3 level diamond is the best solution for the 16 Ave and Deerfoot interchange. They can build a new high level bridge over the centre above the current diamond and it would be a freeway flyover allowing free flow of 16 Ave over the diamond and interchange traffic would be the only traffic on the diamond grade separating both the Deerfoot and 16 Ave. That would be a much better solution and will be well fit to the terrain and the current interchange, while making 16 Ave a full free flow road at this point. It will also reduce the grade of 16 Ave through the nose creek valley, which is quite steep.. The 4 lane sections of the Deerfoot over Anderson and Glenmore need to be widened for sure. They are older sections and the south end was upgraded around 2000 which is why it is wider. South of Anderson the Deerfoot was originally a 4 lane signalized expressway and not the freeway it is today. The Anderson Road interchange was originally designed for the volumes to be less on the Deerfoot as that was the end of the city when it was built.

[@WatchMeTravelBC]

Great footage my friend.

[@chriss948]

very nice! thanks for sharing your ride!

[@chalkfarm11]

Nice song choice btw!

[@schwenda3727]

I would've imagined Toronto, Montreal, or even Vancouver being more hateful & unfriendly to the automobile than Calgary is! Then again, looks like Canada as a whole didn't make as many mistakes as 'Merica did when it came to forcing a few potentially misplaced high capacity roads sliced through urban cores just to (temporarily) solve a traffic problem! Nice footage! Wonder which city you're touring next!

[@TransCanadaPhil]

Schwenda Productions I've got a lot more coming in August, I"ll be doing another cross country western Canada tour. Including the Freeways of Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, The BC interior, and the Icefield Parkway in Banff/Jasper National Park.

[@schwenda3727]

Certainly can't wait. In the meantime, I'm going to be dropping my own footage from multiple joyrides around my hometown of St. Louis & slightly beyond; show people something the news people didn't last year; our excessive-sized freeway network for a metropolitan area our size (2.5-3 million)

[@jonnybobbo]

mcpish not many freeways in Regina (at least like Deerfoot here). Only one really is the Ring Road, with Lewvan Drive being the next closest, but you still have a fair number of traffic intersections to contend with on Lewvan. Lived in Regina 28 years, but still consider Calgary my favourite place to live (went to college in Calgary). Never really cared for Deerfoot traffic, haha, but, love your videos and can only dream of being able to take these road trips and take video of them. Feel inspired (if not a little "home sick") watching your videos :)

[@TransCanadaPhil]

jonnybobbo I'll definitely be getting the Ring Road in Regina, along with Circle Drive in Saskatoon.

[@HHoef]

Great video! I like your mixing (its really good!), and love your style of music. Tried to count the busses but didnt manage.. 2?

[@TransCanadaPhil]

thanks, lol you're the first person to play the game. Sorry though, its not 2.

[@HHoef]

mcpish am i allowed to try again? Or isnt that fair ;)

[@TransCanadaPhil]

yup go ahead, no one else is guessing.

[@HHoef]

It must be 3 (at least i hope so) i really didnt count more

[@TransCanadaPhil]

yup, u win. you have my adulation and respect. right in the first half of the video there are three overpasses and each time a bus is passing by just as i go under. weird coincidence.

[@cindywhitton5347]

Does the c train go over deer foot

[@TransCanadaPhil]

No it doesn't actually. It runs parallel to Deerfoot in the North part of town along 36th St NE, and in the south part of town it runs along Macleod Trail.

[@tyfrank3427]

Cindy Whitton it does cross Deerfoot at Memorial Drive. You'll notice there's 4 overpasses there. The inside ones are The NE leg of the C Train

[@Footy_700]

12:11 airport/ country hills blvd delacour

[@Footy_700]

12:26 Stoney trail / hwy 201 ring road

[@Footy_700]

1:35 merging on to Deerfoot trail / hwy 2 max 100 kmph

[@Footy_700]

21:43 songs 22:00 bye 👋

[@marschocolatebar7953]

The sky is so pretty 😍

[@TransCanadaPhil]

I like recording videos just before dawn if I can. You are right, the lighting looks best around that time of day :-D

[@summersky77]

Southern Alberta skies over Calgary are amazing. Nothing else like it.

[@Polschinski]

Dat sunrise!

[@cityboyis2]

16ave intersection is a mess because the city of calgary does whatever it can to not spend money on the NE quadrant of the city. It is looked down by the big shots in city hall that live in the south end of the city. Sad but true.

[@Footy_700]

9:32 northwest nose hill park seen near my house 🏠

[@Footy_700]

15:50 64 ave

[@matthewbrezina2594]

Which month was this filmed in? Bare trees but no snow, unusual for calgary haha

[@TransCanadaPhil]

This was in April

[@summersky77]

It's actually quite common. Very common view to see no snow on the ground and bare trees. You haven't been here much.

[@matthewbrezina2594]

ZYC I just went 2 weeks ago, no snow from Lethbridge to Claresholm and plenty after that

[@summersky77]

Ok...but that was then. You obviously haven't spent any significant amount of time in Calgary...just drawing conclusions on what you've seen in short periods. Remember, this was shot in April. Not January.

[@matthewbrezina2594]

ZYC Your taking this way too seriously... but yes, April and October are the most likely to be free of snow during bare tree season. Also noticed there is snow around 1:18, in the ditch as he merges onto deerfoot.

[@Footy_700]

13:48 back on Deerfoot trail sb

[@Footy_700]

19:00 Blackfoot trail 17 ave

[@Footy_700]

16:34 McKnight blvd

[@Footy_700]

13:15 merging on ring road hwy 201

[@Footy_700]

19:50 Barlow trail peigan trail

[@Footy_700]

17:44 highway 1 Banff

[@Footy_700]

18:38 memorial drive

[@myles7040]

blessed

[@Footy_700]

14:45 airport

[@glenmoretrailseandswentert3042]

Deerfoot Trail Was To Has Never Beautiful Calgary

[@tsp11boy]

did you ever take viacanada rail?

[@TransCanadaPhil]

tsp11boy yes i've taken via a few times. Once from Winnipeg to Toronto and another from Ottawa to Montreal.

[@Footy_700]

17:14 32 ave