Elbow Park Traffic Plan

Last Updated: January 28, 2006

Elbow Park Traffic Plan Complete

The Elbow Park Traffic Calming Plan is Complete

F U L L   S T O R Y

Introduction

The City of Calgary hired an independent traffic consultants from Urban Systems® to work with our community to create an effective traffic calming plan for our internal Elbow Park streets.

They helped to create a plan for our internal community streets. Links to the plan can be found at the right. The Elbow Park Traffic Plan does not include the Elbow Drive or Sifton Blvd Projects. These are projects initiated by the  Inner City Transportation Study.

The key objectives of the approach include:

The Process

  1. Study Initiation - January 29, 2002
  2. Community Information Meeting to gather information and present traffic Calming- February 27, 2002
  3. Summarize Community Issues and develop Draft Plans - Urban Systems Traffic Consultant
  4. Community Survey - distributed June 8-9, 2002. Survey return deadline June 17, 2002
  5. Community Open House - Wednesday June 12, 2002
  6. Revise plans based on input from Surveys - Urban Systems Traffic Consultant
  7. Compile Survey Results - City (71% in favour of traffic calming). Plan ti implement Plan A as Phase 1 and Plan B as Phase 2 if required. Phase 2 to be implemented with community consultation
  8. Community Meeting to present Survey results - Tuesday June 25, 2002
  9. Decision to implement only Phase 1 by City. EPRA agrees.
  10. City decides to split Phase 1 into 3 stages to be implemented over a three year period.
  11. City Administration Report - Completed Nov 29, 2002
  12. TT&P Presentation and Approval - December 10, 2002
  13. City Council Approval - December 2002
  14. Stage 1 Implementation - September/October 2003 (completed Oct 25 2003)
  15. City Council Approval for completion of project - July 2004
  16. Stage 2 Implementation - delayed to 2005
  17. Stage 2 & 3 Implementation - Completed October 2005

Neighbourhood Advisory Committee / Traffic Committee

The Neigbourhood Advisory Committee is made up of the Elbow Park residents and deals with issues for the Elbow Park Traffic Calming Plan. The representation is dispersed widely around the community and since the completion of the Traffic Plan will deal with issues as they arise.

Updates

Elbow Park Traffic Plan Complete

All speed humps, speed cushions, and traffic circles have been installed.

Data collected in 2005 after installation of all measures indicates a speed reduction of approximately 10 km/hr near the measures. Speeds over most speed humps and traffic circles are not more than 40 km/hr and mostly less than 40 km/hr.

The landscaping of the traffic circles is complete.

Curb extensions at 30 Ave/7 St are complete.

We are still waiting the installation of some bollards on curb extensions. The city now wants to install ugly signs on curb extensions instead but the EPRA is maintaining that the project started with bollards and should end with bollards.

If you have questions or comments please contact via email or phone >David Mackie.

Posted: October 9, 2006

Previous Stories

Elbow Park Traffic Plan Complete

All speed humps and speed cushions have been installed except for 32 Ave between Elbow Drive and 6 St.

Four traffic circles were installed two in a wonderful shade of orange (although the city insists it is brick red) and two in a more distinguished grey and white colour. The city has promised to review the orange circles in the spring of 2006. We have asked that they be replaced as they are not close to the colour we had chosen. We decided to build the second two circles with the grey and white pattern as we knew what we were getting as they had already been built in Mount Royal.

Anectodal evidence indicates much greater compliance with speeding on 36 and 38 Ave where pre traffic calming speed studies indicated that excessive speeds (80 km/hr) were reached at the top of the hill and further west on both streets.

Premier Way was closed for more than 3 months this summer to build phase two of the Glencoe Storm Sewer upgrade. Due to poor weather in the early summer construction was delayed. It is now open.

Sifton Blvd was closed for about 2 weeks this month (October) for installation of a new gas main. In both cases residents of Elbow Park had to put up with a huge increase of traffic on residential streets (while residents of Sifton and Premier Way/Council Way had a respite). Many drivers were unfortunately behaved in a very poor manner. Some making U-turns on 38 Ave east of Elbow Drive even knocked over peoples driveway lamposts, one residents was hit by a car in the driveway, gravel was sprayed as cars spun their tires in driveways. The problem of 38 Ave was discussed at the EPRA Annual General Meeting on Oct 18 and a number of solutions were proposed. These are being taken forward to the city (a city representative was at the AGM) to try and solve some of these measures that happened before these roadways were closed but were brought fully to a head when Sifton or Premier Way were closed.

Item still to be complete are:

If you have questions or comments please contact via email or phone >David Mackie (287-9989) or Belinda McDowell (287-7630).

Posted: October 31, 2005

Elbow Park Traffic Plan Almost Complete

Anectodal evidence indicates much greater compliance with speeding on 36 and 38 Ave where pre traffic calming speed studies indicated that excessive speeds (80 km/hr) were reached at the top of the hill and further west on both streets.

If you have questions or comments please contact via email or phone >David Mackie (287-9989) or Belinda McDowell (287-7630).

Posted: August 18, 2005

Stage 3 of Elbow Park Traffic Plan Underway

The measures for both Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan are currently being installed in Elbow Park.

Stage 2 measures were delayed to 2005. The full Traffic Plan will be complete at the end of this construction season

Some speed humps from the original plan were relocated to other locations in the community due to resident demand. Traffic circles are currently being constructed in a permanent fashion. They will have a red pattern concrete on the circle and the interior will be planted with low bushes and plants, hopefully this fall but most likely in the spring.

The curb extension on the northwest corner of 36 Ave and 12 St (Ecole William Reid) will be removed as Calgary Transit has trouble negotiating this corner safely. The other three curb extensions will be retained. Remember as school approaches that traffic congestion near our community schools causes unsafe conditions for our children. Walking to school is great exercise!

If you have questions or comments please contact via email or phone >David Mackie (287-9989) or Belinda McDowell (287-7630).

Posted: August 18, 2005

East Elbow Park and Riverdale/Lansdowne Support Traffic Calming

Results of the City Surveys

In July 2004 Alderman Erskine requested the city undertake a survey of West Elbow Park to gauge suport for the permanent installation of traffic circles. The results showed strong support (see Previous Stories below for details).

In September 2004 Alderman Erskine requested the city also undertake surveys of all residents in East Elbow Park and Riverdale/Lansdowne. The City has compiled the results which show that both areas support installation of speed humps. The return rates were again very high in both surveys - response rates are usually less than 25%.

East Elbow Park Survey Results

Question: Do you support or oppose the installation of a speed hump on 38 Avenue SW east of 5 Street SW?
Surveys delivered: 215
Surveys returned: 103
Response rate: 48%
Results Percent
Support: 61%
Oppose: 36%
No Opinion: 3%

Riverdale/Lansdowne Traffic Survey Results

Question: Do you support or oppose the installation of speed humps along Riverdale Avenue SW west of Elbow Drive SW? (please circle one)
Surveys delivered: 125
Surveys returned: 76
Response rate: 61%
Results Percent
Support: 57%
Oppose: 41%
No Opinion: 3%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakdown of results for Riverdale/Lansdowne:

Status

Curb extensions are currently being installed at Ecole William Reid and Elbow Park School and at Council Way at 12 St. A new street light was also located at 12 St and Council Way to properly light this intersection.

The traffic circle at 7 St & 32 Avenue will most likely be delayed until spring due to delays in the Glencoe Sewer construction.

The city will tender all the city-wide outstanding traffic calming measures in February 2005 as one large project for spring/summer 2005 installation. All remaining traffic measures (Stage 2 and 3) will be installed in 2005 to complete the project.

Click here to see the letter from the City of Calgary explaining the delay and the plans for 2004/2005.

If you have questions or comments please contact via email or phone >David Mackie (287-9989) or Belinda McDowell (287-7630).

Posted: October 30, 2004

Some Stage 2 Measures Delayed Until 2005

Traffic Circles and Speed Cushions Delayed

A lack of construction manpower at the City of Calgary will delay traffic calming installation in Elbow Park this year. Other communities expecting traffic calming measures will also be affected.

The traffic circles that were to be made permanent this fall will be delayed until spring 2005. The traffic circle at 32 Ave & 7 St may be made permanent during the sewer construction project this fall. As well the new traffic circle planned for 34 Ave & 13 St will also be delayed.

The speed cushions planned for 10 St and 12 St adjacent to William Reid School will be delayed until spring 2005 pending the successful test of new concrete speed cushions. The new design will be tested on 36 Ave at 13 St and at 11 St.

Download the latest plan on the right hand side of this page

Alderman Erskine Survey of East Elbow Park and Riverdale/Lansdowne

Alderman Erskine has asked the city to survey residents of East Elbow Park and Riverdale/Lansdowne areas to determine if there is enough support for traffic calming measures.

Survey results will determine traffic calming in East Elbow and Riverdale

The results of this survey will determine if traffic calming will be installed in these areas. Your opinion is absolutely important. Make sure you fill in and return the survey. The EPRA supports the wishes of the community. A previous community wide survey done by the city in June 2002 showed that 70% of residents supported traffic calming. The survey sent by Alderman Erskine is unusual.

Alderman Erskine can be contaced at barry.erskine@calgary.ca or at 268-2430.

Stage 2 Plan Approved by City

Stage 2 of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan was approved by the Landuse, Planning and Transportation (LPT) Committee July 21, 2004 and by City Council the following week.

A survey of 593 residents in "West" Elbow Park, commissioned by Alderman Erskine and administered by the City Transportation Department in July 2004 showed overwhelming support for making the traffic circles permanent in Elbow Park. The city achieved an extremely high response rate ever for a traffic survey at 63%. Of the 393 returned surveys 74% supported making the three proposed traffic circles permanent, 22% opposed and 4% had no opinion. 63% were in favour of installing a new traffic circle at 34 Ave and 13 St, 26% opposed and 11% had no opinion.

If you have questions or comments about Stage 2 please contact via email or phone >David Mackie (287-9989) or Belinda McDowell (287-7630).

Posted: September 3, 2004. Updated Oct 14, 2004

Stage 2 of Elbow Park Traffic Plan Approved by City

Stage 2 of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan was approved by the Landuse, Planning and Transportation (LPT) Committee July 21, 2004.

A survey of residents in "West" Elbow Park, commissioned by Alderman Erskine and administered by the City Transportation Department showed overwhelming support for making the traffic circles permanent in Elbow Park. The city achieved the highest response rate ever for a traffic survey at 56% with 76% of surveys returned supporting making the traffic circles permanent. 70% were in favour of installing a new traffic circle at 34 Ave and 13 St.

Construction to start in September

Construction of Stage 2 will start in September when the contract has been tendered. The traffic circles will be filled with dirt suitable for planting and will be planted in the spring with drought tolerant plants. The community is responsible for designing and maintaining the planting in the traffic circles. The EPRA will endeavour to make sure that the traffic circles remain attractive.

Speed hump locations have been agreed to by adjacent residents for all streets in the proposed Stage 2 plan except for 8A Street. Since residents rejected a speed hump on this street it will be relocated to another location. Due to holidays residents on Riverdale Ave have not yet been contacted for their approval of speed humps.

The traffic circles at 36 Ave & 6 St, 34 Ave and 7 St will be made permanent this fall. A new traffic circle at 34 Ave & 13 St will be installed permanently this fall. The traffic circle at 32 Ave & 7 St will be made permanent after the sewer project is complete on 32 Ave. Some modifications to this circle to make it more effective in the north-south direction will occur as well as measures to reduce cars cutting the corner on the inside of the circle

The speed cushion on 36 Ave and 13 St will be made more effective as well as speed humps at five locations that appear to be ineffective.

If you have questions or comments about Stage 2 please contact via email or phone >David Mackie (287-9989) or Belinda McDowell (287-7630).

Posted: August 10, 2004.

Some Facts and Information about the Elbow Park Traffic Plan

A survey sent by 4 residents of Elbow Park (calling themselves the Elbow Park Traffic Delegation) has been sent to almost all houses in Elbow Park. The EPRA nor the City of Calgary have not endorsed this survey. Some of the questions they pose on their survey are answered in this posting.

To show your support for traffic calming please respond to this survey and return it to the addresses shown on their survey. Note their group is not affiliated with the Elbow Park Residents Association.

Alderman Erskine has also sent a survey to all residents in his ward between Elbow Drive, 14 St, 34 Ave, and 38 Ave at the request of these 4 individuals. In the vicinity of the traffic circle at 13 St/ 34 Ave the survey was distributed to Council Way to include all affected houses. He asks for your support in making permanent the traffic circles. Please show your support for keeping our community safe for our kids by sending this in the envelope provided. Call David Mackie 287-9989 for more help, information, comments or if you want someone to come and pick up your survey and mail it for you.

  1. The Elbow Park Traffic Plan is not devised to block streets and shunt traffic from one street to another. It is a series of speed humps and traffic circles with the purpose of slowing down the existing traffic to safe speeds in Elbow Park.
  2. The cost of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan is currently underbudget. The city originally planned to spend $287,000 in Elbow Park over 3 years. The current projected budget is $275,500. This does not come from local tax levys and does not appear on your taxes. It is part of a now $1,000,000 yearly budget allocated to community traffic calming.
  3. Fire, EMS, and Transit have all approved the Elbow Park Traffic Plan. Fire has taken all their vehicles around the traffic circles and approved them.
  4. The community was surveyed with a multi-page survey booklet in June 2002. 71% of residents supported the traffic plan. The return rate of 40% was the highest the city had seen at the time and is higher than the previous civic election with a voter turnout of 35%. As well two other community wide meetings and an open house were held. People strongly supported the traffic calming plan. Input was taken from all of these public meetings and the plan altered to respond to concerns of residents.Click here to see the community process
  5. Both the traffic circles and speed humps have slowed traffic. Data has been collected and compared to previous speed data at the same location. The data is presented on this page below.
  6. Traffic circles increase safety significantly. Seattle has installed over 600 traffic circles and a study of accident rates show that accidents (including injury accidents with pedestrians) have decreased by 80% - 95% at locations with traffic circles. Seattle calculates that this translates into a significant saving to society through drastically reduced insurance payouts. Seattle has over 700 requests each year for traffic circles. Click here to see traffic circle information
  7. The city is responsible for all maintenance except for the plants in the traffic circles. Considering Elbow Park has the nicest community park in the city and it is taken care of by residents and not the city the track record is pretty good
  8. Traffic circles and speed humps do not divert traffic, they just slow traffic down. Studies show that these measures do not divert traffic. If we want to lessen the traffic impact of increased density to the west, and the lack of proper through routes to the city core we can either block off our community which very few want to do, or control the speed of the cars that are cutting through our community. Speed data collected on 38 and 36 Avenue show some cars travelling in excess of 90 km/hr at the crest of the hill. This is very unsafe and completely unacceptable.
  9. Traffic volumes are approximately within 10% of previously collected numbers. This is within the "noise" on the data.
  10. Traffic circles require 8 and not 16 signs at each location as stated in the Elbow Park Traffic Delegation "survey". There will be 4 yield signs at each corner (instead of stop signs) and 4 signs in the circle: one for each direction. So they require an increase of 4 signs from a 4-way to a traffic circle.
  11. Traffic has not slowed down where no speed humps or traffic circles have been implemented
  12. The city transportation department has received no complaints for the traffic plan.

Posted: July 15, 2004. Revised Sep 21, 2004

Stage 2 of Elbow Park Traffic Plan to be installed this Summer

This summer we hope to have Stage 2 of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan installed. Before construction starts we must report to the Landuse Planning and Transportation Committee (LPT) regarding the results of Stage 1.

Traffic speed data has been collected at various places in Elbow Park. Initial results show both the speed humps and traffic circles are very effective at reducing speed. Before and after speed data show a reduction in speed from 11% to 15% at speed humps.

7 St just south of 30 Ave

The 85th percentile speed is 34 km/hr. (i.e. 85% of cars are travelling ≤ 34 km/hr). Only 40 out of 1167 cars travel faster than 42 km/hr at the speed hump.

Click on graph for larger version

Speed changes at Speed Humps. Speed is 85th Percentile in km/hr
Location Description Before After % change
6 Street SW North of 32 Ave, southbound 41 35 -15%
6 Street SW North of 32 Ave, northbound 42 34 -19%
7 Street SW North of 32 Ave, soutbound, playground hours 41 34 -17%
7 Street SW North of 32 Ave, northbound,playground hours 41 34 -17%
7 Street SW North of 32 Ave, northbound, outside playground hours 43 39 -9%

Speed changes near Speed Humps and Curb Extension. Speed is 85th Percentile in km/hr.
Location Description Before After % change
36 Avenue - Speed Hump East of Elbow Dr, eastbound 50 45 -10%
36 Avenue - Speed Hump East of Elbow Dr, westbound 53 41 -23%
36 Avenue - Curb Extension William Reid East of 12 St, eastbound 42 41 -2%
36 Avenue - Curb Extension William Reid East of 12 St, westbound 51 46 -10%

Note that curb extensions have reduced speed slightly for westbound cars in front of William Reid School. This is more than expected. Curb extension are mainly for pedestrian safety by reducing the amount of roadway a pedestrian has to cross.

Data collected at traffic circles also show slow speeds. For graphs of speed data at the traffic circles click on the links below:

7 St & 32 Avenue Traffic Circle Data

7 St & 34 Avenue Traffic Circle Data

6 St & 36 Avenue Traffic Circle Data

All data shown here was collected by the City of Calgary Transportation Department May/June 2004.

As last year residents adjacent to proposed speed humps will be contacted prior to their installation. If you are close to a proposed speed hump you may contact ahead of time if you wish to request it be installed at your house. Click here to request a speed hump or phone Belinda McDowell at 287-7630 or Dave Mackie at 287-9989.

The community approved Traffic Plan can be downloaded from the right hand bar on this page.

Posted: June 20, 2004.

Stage 2 of Elbow Park Traffic Plan to Start This Spring

This spring we hope to have Stage 2 of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan installed. Stage 1 was complete last fall and we have lived one winter with the measures. Anecdotal feedback has indicated that in general there is a high level of satisfaction with most of the measures. Some have noted that a number of speed humps are too low and that the speed cushion on 36 Ave/13 St is ineffective. These have been noted by the Traffic Committee and by the city and will be rectified in the spring.

The traffic circle at 7 St/32 Ave may also need to be altered somewhat as it has proved less effective than anticipated for slowing north-south traffic according to local residents.

Traffic speed counts will be taken in various locations in the community to measure the results of the implementation. There will be traffic counts repeated at locations where data has been collected prior to installation of Stage One. As well counts will be taken at the traffic circles and at a number of speed humps both close to the device and at about 100-150 metres from the device to measure the effect upon the speed of vehicles. These measurements will give a clear indication as to whether the measures has achieved the desired speed reductions.

The concrete blocks for the traffic circles will be replaced with permanent structures. For an idea of what these may look like click here. The city is currently reviewing what types of landscaping they will allow in the traffic circles. The traffic circle at 32 Ave/7 St will be made permanent after the Glencoe Storm Sewer Upgrade is implemented.

As last year residents adjacent to proposed speed humps will be contacted prior to their installation. If you are close to a proposed speed hump you may contact ahead of time if you wish to request it be installed at your house. Click here to request a speed hump or phone Belinda McDowell at 287-7630 or Dave Mackie at 287-9989.

The community approved Traffic Plan can be downloaded from the right hand bar on this page.

Posted: February 27, 2004.

Elbow Park Traffic Plan Stage 1 is Complete

The first stage of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan has been completed. The measures installed are:

You can download a pdf file of the implemented plan at the right.

Stage 1 targeted streets near schools and playgrounds as well as streets that had high volume or speed.

Several speed humps were installed on October 25 to replace the speed cushions that were to be put on 36 Ave. The speed cushion installed at 36 Ave/13 St was not effective. The city will redesign the speed cushion over the winter. Speed cushions have slots cut in them to allow Fire and Transit to pass through. Fire requires this for 36 Ave as it is a major response route.

The traffic circles were installed in a temporary manner. If effective, they will be made permanent next spring. The design will be significantly more pleasing to the eye. They will have a short curb with vegetation planted in the centre surrounded by a low 'mountable curb' approximately 2 inches high at the exterior.

The curb extensions near the schools were installed on a temporary basis because of the lack of concrete crews. They will be made permanent spring 2004. Decorative bollards will be placed on these curb extensions. You can donate to purchase a bollard for $500. Your contribution will be acknowledged by a plaque on the bollard and your name on a plaque at the Clubhouse. Download the donation form below.

Elbow Park Beautification Donation Form

YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT

Your feedback on the effectiveness of these measures is important. Please let us know. Call or email Belinda Mcdowell (287-7630) or David Mackie (287-9989) .

Stages 2 and 3 will be implemented in the upcoming 2 years. Watch out for more news of Stage 2 planning later early in the New Year.

Please note that the work currently taking place on Elbow Drive is not part of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan. This is part of the Elbow Drive Streetscape Plan which was recommended by the Inner City Transportation Study (ICTS). The ICTS was undertaken by the city to address problems of stressed roadways in the inner city. It was comprised of a wide range of community representatives and city planners. It was reviewed by an independant Technical Review Panel. City Council approved the implementation of the ICTS in 2003. City Council also approved the implementation of the ICTS projects: 2nd & 5th Conversion (complete), Elbow Drive Streetscape Plan (in progress), Sifton Boulevard Streetscape Plan (in progress, to be complete in 2004)

Construction to Start Sep 2 2003 on Elbow Park Traffic Plan

Finally, Stage 1 of the Elbow Park Traffic Plan will start construction just after Labour day! Construction was delayed from spring due to a shortage of staff in City Hall.

Temporary installations such as traffic cirlces will be the first to be installed followed by the permanent curb extensions by the schools and speed humps during September. Unfortunately construction work near the schools will be ongoing once school has started again.

Speed humps locations have been agreed to by adjacent property owners.

As well the permanent curb extension at Council Way and 12 Street will be built this fall allowing much safter crossing at this dangerous intersection.

Plan was approved with 71% resident support

The community approved the plan with 71% of resident support from a community wide survey. Three community wide meetings including an open house, information gathering, a community wide City run survey, a number of Gazette articles, and many postings on this website were held to come up with a plan.

The response rate of the survey was more than 40%, which is the highest response rate the City has ever had for a traffic survey. An overwhelming 71% of respondants voted for traffic calming. See the list of meetings held below.

Public Meetings and Surveys

  1. Community Information Meeting to gather information and present traffic Calming- February 27, 2002
  2. Community Survey - distributed June 8-9, 2002.
  3. Community Open House - Wednesday June 12, 2002
  4. Community Meeting to present Survey results - Tuesday June 25, 2002
  5. TT&P Presentation and Approval - December 10, 2002

Stages 2 and 3 will be implemented in the upcoming 2 years. Watch out for more news of Stage 2 planning this fall.

Posted: Aug 30, 2003.

Plans Passed by TT&P! - December 10, 2002

The Elbow Park / Mount Royal Traffic Plans were passed by the Standing Policy Committee on Transporation, Transit, and Parking (TT&P) December 10, 2002!

The next step is implementation of Stage One this coming spring! Watch for more details as we get close to implementation. We will be approaching residents who are located close to proposed speed humps in early 2003 to get final approval for installation of the speed humps near their house.

Speed humps will be located at lot lines so as to reduce the impact on any one property. A small sign at each hump may be required. If you are interested in having a speedhump near your house please let us know. To contact someone to request a speed hump click here. Speed humps will be installed in a permanent manner initially. Temporary installation of speed humps is not cost effective.

I have noticed that the corner of Council Way and 12 St is very very dark at night. There are no streetlights on that corner by the crosswalk. It is very hard to see pedestrians at the corner. Please watch carefully as children cross here regularly for school and to play with friends. We will be asking the city to establish proper streetlights at this corner.

Posted: December 13, 2002.

December Traffic Plan Update

Both the Mount Royal and the Elbow Park Traffic Calming Plans will be presented to the Transportation, Transit and Planning Committee (TT&P) on December 10, 2002. The city has proposed to implement the traffic calming plan in 3 stages. If approved by TT&P and Council Stage 1 will be implemented in Spring 2003, Stage 2 in Spring 2004, and Stage 3 in Spring 2005.

The measures are NOT cast in stone. We can, to a certain extent, change the order of implementation of the measures.See the right column for plan downloads.

The city has proposed to stage the implementation for 2 reasons. 1) Lack of budget for a complete implementation, 2) inexperience with the installation of speed humps and a reluctance to install too many without feed back as speed humps will be installed on a permanent basis. Note that on 36 Ave speed cushions are being proposed. Speed cushions are speed humps with holes for wide emergency vehicles such as fire engines. This was a requirement of the Fire Department for 36 Ave which is a primpary response route for our community. This means that fire trucks need to cross only 1 speed hump to access every house in the community.

Remember a phone call to our aldermen supporting the plan go a long way to getting this up and running! Our Aldermen are : Madeleine King (Ward 8) 268-2430 if you live north of 34 Avenue, and Barry Erskine (Ward 11) 268-2430 if you live south of 34 Ave.

Please remember to drive 30 km/hr in the playground zones and be especially careful in the mornings as kids walk to school before the playground zone starts.

Walking around our community is a great way to see what is happening, get some exercise, and contribute to the environment! A much higher percentage of kids today are overweight which may lead to future health problems. Encourage your kids to walk to school. Its safe and good for them.

Posted: December 11, 2002.

October Traffic Plan Update

The City has not yet approved the traffic plan. Both the Mount Royal and the Elbow Park Traffic Calming Plans will be presented to the Transportation, Transit and Planning Committee (TT&P) in December. This is another delay beyond the community control. Implementation will occur spring 2003. Remember a phone call to our aldermen supporting the plan go a long way to getting this up and running!

Kids are back to school and the traffic volume is increasing again. Please remember to drive the speed limit in our neighbourhood and observe the playground zones along Elbow Drive, Sifton Blvd, 36 Ave (all the way from William Reid to 14th Street!), 7th Avenue by the park, 38 Ave near Elbow Park School, and on 34 Ave near St. Pats.

Also be aware that the school crossing guards have a new procedure - they will not walk into the road but will extend their stop signs from the sidewalks. Calgary is one of the last communities in Canada to adopt this method. Please watch carefully for crossing guards and help them do their job.

Posted: October 2002.

The Final Plan is Complete!

Urban Systems has compiled the results of the community survey that was distributed June 9, 2002 to all houses in the neigbhourhood.

71% of the respondants supported implementing one of the 2 traffic calming plans.

48% of the supportive respondants preferred Plan A, while 44% preferred Plan B. While the two plans were very similar in support level the opposition to Plan B was higher. Forty percent of all households (420 out of 1100 households) responded to the survey which is a very high return rate for these type of surveys. This means that Elbow Park residents are engaged in the process.

Since there was significant support for both plans the proposed Traffic Calming Plan has been proposed in two phases. Phase 1 is essentially Plan A with some changes requested by residents, and Phase 2 is Plan B. Phase 2 will be implemented, only if necessary, one year after Phase 1. Residents will be consulted before implementation of Phase 2. The city will monitor traffic patterns after implementation of Phase 1 using automatic machines to collect speed and volume data, as well as manual counters to observe compliance of traffic to traffic control measures (ie. no left hand turn signs etc.). If the data support additional measures, or other changes these can also be implemented.

Elbow Park residents gave many good suggestions, comments and ideas and a number were implemented in the final plan. In particular a number of traffic circles on T-intersections were replaced with speed humps as the circles created an access problem to some properties. Speed humps were added on 8A Street, and 7 Street between Sifton and 34 Ave. The traffic circle on 5 St in East Elbow was replaced with a speed hump and the no U-turn sign will remain. Corner bulbs were added on all 4 corners of the intersection of 12 St and 36 Ave at the request of the William Reid School Council.

All current traffic control devices (stop signs etc.) will remain.

The implementation of Phase 1 will be temporary. Traffic patterns will be monitored after installation and after 1 year. If effective the measures will be made permanent. Changes to the plan can also be made at this time. Temporary speed humps will not be installed. It is more cost effective to install permanent speed humps as they are inexpensive to install, alter, or remove.

The plan has been approved by EMS and Calgary Transit.

The plan was presented to the community on June 25 at Christ Church. The traffic consultants and city representatives were there to answer questions. About 40 residents attended. Thank you for coming out to make your comments!

Posted: July 2002.

The Proposed Traffic Plan was delivered and you responded

The proposed Traffic Calming Plans were developed specifically to address the concerns in the neigbhourhood. Two possible Traffic Calming Plans were developed and delivered by Sunday, June 9th to your house. If you do not receive one please call one of the Neighbhourhood Advisory Committee or click here for a list of emails or phone Urban Systems at 219-7405.

See right column for downloads.

The deadline for returning your questionaire was June 17, 2002.

An well attended Open House was held Wednesday, June 12, 2002 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Elbow Park Clubhouse It was busy all night and the traffic consultants, city representatives from traffic planning, and the Neighbourhood Advisory Committee were there to help answer questions, listen to concerns, and explain the plans.

The questionaire results were tabulated by Urban Systems and the results will be presented to the community on Tuesday June 25, 2002 beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Christ Church, 3602 - 8 Street S.W.

The results of the questionnaire survey will determine whether the Traffic Calming Plan will be presented to City Council for approval. If Council approves implementation of the Traffic Calming Plan, implementation will commence this summer. The cost of implementing the plan will be funded from general tax revenues, in the same way that other road construction projects in the City are funded. It will not be funded through a special local improvement levy on your taxes.

The Traffic Calming Plan is not cast in stone. Traffic calming measures will be implemented on a trial basis for a period of 6-12 months. During this trial period, traffic patterns will be monitored, and where necessary, changes may be made to make the plan more effective. At the end of the trial period, measures will be implemented on a permanent basis if they have proven effective.

After the plan is implemented, City staff will monitor traffic conditions on a on-going basis. If traffic problems persist or new problems arise, additional traffic calming measures will be considered as appropriate.

Posted: June 12, 2002.

Traffic Calming Information Night was held Wed Feb. 27

A traffic calming information night was held Wed February 27, 7 p.m. at Elbow Park School. The meeting was well attended by more than 100 community members, and Aldermen King and Erskine.

This was the first of several community meetings organized during the Elbow Park Traffic Calming Study which is to be completed by June for summer 2002 implementation. This plan is to deal with the traffic concerns of the residents in Elbow Park on inner community streets. The City of Calgary has hired two independent traffic consultants to develop this plan with our community.

Our traffic consultants, Richard Drdul and Joe Olson, presented an overview of Elbow Park and some of the basic traffic problems. They discussed the study process and followed this by a discussion of Richard's ?Top Ten Traffic Calming Measures? complete with lots of photos of actual installations. Many questions and comments came from the audience. Informative poster boards showing preliminary information about the traffic problems in our neighbourhood were shown around the gymnasium. For a more complete description of the study see www.elbowpark.com and follow the links to Traffic and New Elbow Park Traffic Calming Study. A questionnaire asking for residents input was handed out. It is hoped to have all of these back before 1 week.

Questions about how the Sifton and Elbow Drive proposed changes related to this study were raised. The Sifton and Elbow Drive projects have come from the Inner City Transportation Study (ICTS) initiated by the city and are independent traffic studies not driven by our community. The Inner Traffic Calming plan will take all these Elbow and Sifton proposed measures and their probable effects into account when designing a plan. As well the Inner plan will take into account measures in adjacent communities, particularly Mount Royal. Our plan will be presented before Council in the Spring along with Mount Royals plan, which has been approved by their community last fall.

The information gathered from this meeting, the feedback from questionnaires, and information from residents who phone the traffic hot line or email line, along with collected data has been used to formulate a traffic calming plan for Elbow Park.

Posted: March 2002.