Posts Tagged ‘calgary’
A Nissan dealership in Northeast Calgary is still reeling from the theft of 14 new vehicles off of its lot over the weekend. Staff first noticed the missing vehicles during an inventory count, and by Tuesday evening had increased the count from 12 to 14 missing vehicles according to posts by employees at the dealership on our forums.
Sunridge Nissan secures all of its keys like many other dealerships, but the thieves were able to gain entry to the dealership with a set of keys to the main doors. Police are not saying how the thieves were able to gain access to the keys. What they are saying is that it was organized enough that the vehicles were likely driven off the lot one at a time over several hours to avoid drawing attention.
The vehicles that were stolen include several 2011 Nissan Titan, Nissan Pathfinder, Nissan Frontier and Nissan Rogues as well as a couple 2012 Nissan Altimas. The VINs have been flagged and cannot be registered. Police are asking the public to be vigilant when purchasing any of the vehicles listed but such a large theft means the vehicles are likely headed out of the province and possibly even the country already as parts.
So far, there are no signs of the vehicles popping up in our Used Vehicle Marketplace but Calgary Police are likely already monitoring them along with other online classifieds in case they do show up.
Update: Calgary Police have recovered two of the stolen vehicles, a pair of Nissan Titans were found abandoned in a parking lot not far from the dealership.
Drivers on Deerfoot Trail may have noticed something different on their morning commute today.
The City of Calgary working in conjunction with their provincial counterparts is testing a new real time traveler information system along Deerfoot Trail. The new system will display estimated travel times on the existing message boards as well as temporary sign boards positioned along Deerfoot Trail. Travel times are calculated by monitoring cellular devices inside vehicles as they pass by detection devices positioned along the roadway.
“Providing estimated travel times will allow motorists to know their destination travel time and make use of that information for route choices,” says Troy McLeod, Traffic Manager. “In the future, this type of system could be accessed by in-vehicle navigation systems to automatically course correct travel routes.”
The trial runs from today until Nov 23 and will operate beginning at 6am until 7pm during the week and from 9am until 5pm on weekends. The City of Calgary continually monitors traffic flow on the major roadways around the city to keep Calgarians on the move.
I wonder what the signs will say right after a big snowstorm? “Estimated Travel time to City Center: 5 hours. Average Travel Speed: 3km/h.”
Photo: @johnnyfever on twitter
Found this photo making its way around twitter and thought those of you who aren’t on twitter would find it interesting. They would not hesitate to write you a ticket for doing this, but do you think this driver should be ticketed and have to pay out of their own pocket?
I also notice the angle of the car and the proximity of the rear bumper to the vehicle behind it. Clever technique to ensure a picture of the license plate can’t be taken by the ParkPlus enforcement vehicles–not that they would ticket their own though.
Photo: Heang Uy (flickr: heanguy)
If you are a habitual jaywalker, this morning may not be a good day to do it. Calgary Police and Calgary Transit officers will be out in full force starting at 6:30am targetting pedestrians who jaywalk. The goal of the blitz is to increase awareness of the dangers that jaywalking poses.
Police departments from all across Canada have been focusing on pedestrian safety after a rash of pedestrian deaths in Toronto and one just last month in Calgary. In all of these cases, the pedestrians were crossing the street at an unsafe spot.
“It’s a concern to us and that’s why we’ve decided to take this initiative,” he said, adding the idea that drivers are always to blame in pedestrian-vehicle crashes is simply untrue.
“Anybody who uses the road has a responsibility to make sure they’re using the road properly, safely and lawfully.” - Const. Peter Adria, Calgary Police Service
The safety blitz is expected to run through to the end of the morning rush hour and if the past is any indication, the City of Calgary will be getting a nice injection of revenue after this is all said and done. Last summer during a crackdown on pedestrians on 8th street and 7th avenue, officers were kept busy issuing warnings and tickets.
The tenth annual Driven car show will be rolling into Calgary on June 12th. This year it is returning the Olympic Oval after last year’s break due to the Olympic trials for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games. With capacity of around 300 vehicles, the show organizers are extremely excited to be back at this venue and they promise that this year’s show will be better than ever.
If you are interested in showing off your vehicle, check out the exhibitor info page
If you are interested in becoming a model at the show, more information can be found at the model registration page.
Link: Driven 2010 Calgary Car Show
When the Tsuu T’ina nation surprised Calgarians (and Premier Ed Stelmach) by voting against the proposal that would have saw the SW portion of the ring road cut through their reserve, the Municipal and Provincial Governments immediately began working on alternative plans. Action on the alternative plans was so swift that even the Tsuu T’ina nation seemed to be caught off-guard as Chief Sandford Big Plume held onto his hope that talks would resume. Unfortunately for Big Plume, the Province of Alberta and the City of Calgary were done talking. 40 Years of talking is too much, even for politicians.
The City took the first step to alleviate traffic pressures in the SW by constructing a roundabout on 37th street. Instead of allowing eastbound Glenmore Trail traffic to turn left across westbound Glenmore Trail traffic the new configuration has drivers making a right turn at 37th street. They then enter the roundabout to make a u-turn to continue travelling on north on 37th street. The location of the roundabout irked the Tsuu T’ina tribe–it is located right at the entrance of the Grey Eagle Casino. The City received a letter from the tribe on October 16th, dated October 2nd which warns that the Tsuu T’ina nation:
“does not consent to any road construction on or near Tsuu T’ina Nation lands not accounting for the Tsuu T’ina Nation’s rights to enter and leave lands at any point along our borders.” It goes on to say that “any interference by the city of Calgary of Tsuu T’ina Nation’s rights to enter and leave its lands at any point along Tsuu T’ina Nation boundaries constitutes a breach of our rights under Treaty No. 7.
The next part is the kicker:
“Any construction of roads by the city of Calgary or the permitting of any other buildings or development along the road is a breach of Tsuu T’ina Nation’s rights under Treaty No. 7.”
Mayor Dave Bronconnier was not deterred by the threat of legal action. “We’re not going to stop because the First Nation writes a letter asking us to stop.” He went on to reiterate that the City of Calgary will continue to provide the tribe legal access to the reserve through the Anderson Road and 37th street intersection. The mayor said the city would consult with the Tsuu T’ina nation as a courtesy. “We would seek their input, not their approval.”
Brilliant. I say if you’re going to play hardball, you better be ready to deal with the outcome. The Tsuu T’ina gambled for a better deal from the Province and City but their bluff was called. They now face the prospects of getting nothing and may even lose a key entrance to their Grey Eagle Casino. Perhaps the gambling should best be kept inside the casino.
Source: City of Calgary
When the Tsuu T’ina Nation voted against the Ring Road deal, The City of Calgary promised quick actions on a Plan B and today it has announced plans to alleviate the traffic congestion faced by commuters everyday along Glenmore Trail at the 37th street intersection. The solution, albeit a temporary one, is to no longer allow eastbound traffic on Glenmore to make a left turn to head north on 37th street. Instead, they will make a right turn to head south on 37th street where they will enter a roundabout / traffic circle to turn around and head north again. The City admits this is not a long term solution, but only one that will temporarily ease the congestion.
The good news is that construction will start as early as next week and it should not disrupt traffic as it is on a relatively quieter section of 37th street. The project is expected to take about a month to complete so we will not have to wait long to see how well it will work. The City estimates that the construction of the traffic circle and accompanying changes will cost about $250,000. A proper long term solution to the congestion in the area is a full interchange with a pricetag of $85M.
I see this as a great solution. It does not cost that much, and eliminating the left turn allows traffic on Glenmore to keep moving for an extra 20 seconds. Cars blocking the left lane trying to get into the turn lane will also no longer be an issue. However, an issue that may potentially arise is that the increased westbound traffic flow will now bottleneck at the Highway 8 intersection. The City and province needs to move quick on the 37th street Ring Road and in the mean time expand Glenmore capacity in case of any future construction or planning delays for any alternate routes.
Re-elect me! We'll needlessly close roads again next year!
The organizers may have named it the Bow River Flow, but this event made traffic do anything but flow on Memorial Drive on the weekend. It was back in April when we first wrote about Ald. Druh Farrell’s idea to completely close the eastbound lanes on a section of Memorial Drive. At the time, the plan was to have the closures occur on every sunday during the month of August. When Calgarians spoke out against this idea, City Hall decided to allow it to be closed on a single Sunday, which was this past weekend. Calgarians tried to send the message to City Hall, and Ald. Druh Farrell but their reasoning fell upon deaf ears.
The idea was to have two lanes closed so Calgarians could go down and ride their bikes, or rollerblade their way down the roadway. Others could enjoy a nice walk on the road, or even practice some tai chi on the road. Critics of the plan said that Calgary already boasts one of the largest pathway systems in North America. There are pathways on both sides of the Bow River, and on the south shore there is a large greenspace that is perfect for hosting festivals like this. Organizers of the Bow River Flow, by virtues of their actions this weekend seemed to agree that the pathways are quite excellent as they setup the festival tents along the existing pathways!
Organizers expected about 10,000 people to attend the event, but estimates show the number was closer to 1,500–the majority of which walked along the existing bike paths adjacent to Memorial Drive. People were also discouraged to congregate on the roadway due to safety concerns about them being hit by cyclists or rollerbladers. The truth is, the only danger on the roadway were people tripping over the pylons that were setup. For most of the day there were more pylons on the road than people. In fact, there were more members of the media there than people on the road.
Supporters of the event ask why there is such a strong opposition to the roadway being closed. They argue that roads are closed each year for the Stampede Parade, the Lilac Festival, and Marda Gras to name a few. The key difference is that for each of these events, the roadways are closed for a reason. The Stampede Parade route runs on the actual roads that are closed. The festival tents are setup right on 4th street for the Lilac Festival, not on the side streets. The same goes for Marda Gras, tents are setup along the road and pedestrians walk along the closed street. For the Bow River Flop–err… Flow, two lanes of Memorial Drive were closed while festival tents were setup on the bike paths. The closure of Memorial Drive was unnecessary plain and simple. I would be just as peeved if they closed Northbound Macleod Trail during the Calgary Stampede while everyone is on the grounds.
This year’s Bow River Flow was a trial run and Ald. Druh Farrell must have accepted that the idea was bad. So, lesson learned right? Yeah, no thats not how we roll in Calgary. The event was a big bag of fail as I said on twitter, and our dear old Druh is talking about EXPANDING the event. I’m at a loss for words, so this will have to suffice.
Fun Fact:
Ald. Druh Farrell voted AGAINST saving Race City. Remember that during the next election folks.
The title is a bit misleading, but we are one step closer to seeing some expansion of the roadways in the southwest portion of Calgary with Premier Ed Stelmach saying today that the province is not going to resume talks with the Tsuu T’ina Nation after the band voted against the Ring Road proposal. Instead the Municipal and Provincial Governments will work together to fund the expansion of existing roads to alleviate the traffic pressures caused by the numerous delays to the SW portion of the ring road project.
The vote was taken. The agreement was turned down. There’s no coming back,” the premier said in Calgary today.
Tsuu T’ina Chief Sandford Big Plume as recently as last week hoped talks would resume. From an outsider’s perspective it looks like Tsuu T’ina people gambled for a bigger and better deal from the Province and lost big time. Instead of a counter-offer, the Province and City have officially closed the doors to any talks and plan to build around the reserve. The band has scheduled a meeting to discuss the ring road for later this week.
However, the Tsuu T’ina First Nations are not the only group that is not ready to move on. Environment Minister Jim Prentice said today that he hopes talks will resume between the Province and the band. I think 40 years is enough talking and every year we sit around and do nothing, the traffic continues to grow. The costs to build the roadway will continue to soar.
“It’s an essential project,” Prentice said. “I hope that the province and Tsuu T’ina pick up that ball and get on with it.”
We don’t necessarily need the SW portion of the ring road. Aside from the fact there wouldn’t be a “ring” around the city, there is no harm in leaving out the portion that would have run through the Tsuu T’ina land. Instead, expanding Glenmore Trail to 6 lanes and building an interchange at 37th street and Highway 8 would keep traffic moving there for years. A 37th street tunnel (or bridge like the one over Bowness Park) would further alleviate any traffic pressures. The 37th street tunnel would be subsidized by the Tsuu T’ina First Nations because they need easy access to the Grey Eagle Casino at the corner of Glenmore and 37th street.
I wish city planning was as easy as Sim City :)
Over 700 Tsuu T’ina band members voted earlier today on the SW ring road deal and only 38% voted in favor of selling over 400 hectares of reserve land to the Alberta Government for the construction of the massive ring road project. Details of the proposal were not made public but the Calgary Herald obtained documents showing the Provincial Government offering up to $275M with a minimum $240M held in trust by the Federal Government. The band would have also received 2000 hectares of crown land on the northwestern border of the reserve in exchange for 400 hectares needed for the construction of the roadway.
“The agreement did not guarantee that the Nation would receive additional reserve land,” Chief Big Plume said in a news release following the vote, “Tsuu T’ina tried to solve that problem at the negotiating table. We regret that we were unable to do so.”
The City of Calgary will now have to work on an alternative plan with the Provincial Government and decide if the SW portion of the ring road will ever be built. Alberta Transportation planners have been looking at constructing a SW freeway like the ring road since the 1960’s and with today’s vote it may be another 50 years before we have improved north-south corridors in the Calgary area.
I’ve read on the forums about this proposal, and I think it just might work. Instead of transferring $275 to the Tsuu T’ina band, why not buy up all the properties in Lakeview along 37th street and tunnel under the weaslehead area? Of course with the alignment of the ring road running along 37th street there will be no more access to the Grey Eagle casino on the Tsuu T’ina reserve from Calgary but I say we leave that problem to the band members to deal with.
Beyond Media, Inc.
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