Mayor's idea to ease Crowchild traffic gets traction

The idea ofa simple solution to the rush-hour trafficcongestion on Crowchild Trail had appeal for some Calgariansat another city open house on Thursdaynight.

The open house was held so the city could take in public feedback onhow to improve traffic congestion on the busy thoroughfare.

On the Calgary Eyeopener Thursday,Mayor Naheed Nenshi suggestedhaving only "right-in, right-out"east-west traffic at Fifth Avenue and24 Avenuenorthwest duringpeak traffichours so Crowchild traffic would flow freely with green lights.

"We really have to improve the flow of traffic on that road," he said.

Nenshi says a similar pilot project is running on Macleod Trail at Lake Fraser Gate.

He wants to wait to see how that works out before pitching the green-lightidea for Crowchild.

Ald. Druh Farrell says the city doesn't have the money for more elaborate planswith interchanges and new bridges over the Bow River, but she says other ideas are welcome.

"I would assume that every solution has a problem associated with it," she said.

"You would have to mitigate that, but jumping to conclusions doesn't help either. What I think we need to do is have an open attitude toward different creative ideas."

City planners say Crowchild Trail was designed to handle 70,000 vehicles a day, but now it tops 100,000.

To pitch your own idea on improving Crowchild, the city is accepting comments for theCrowchild Trail Corridor Study on its website until the end of the month.