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A particularly grating omission, ok, glaring omission (so as not to be misinterpreted on a bike forum) is the absence of a usable bike connection between the junction of 96 St with Spruce Meadows Green SW on to Spruce Meadows Trail, which used to be Highway 22x, and directly joined to 96 St.
It used to be you could bike up from Woodbine, up 37 St (hair-raising narrow road) to Highway 22x, bike west to the junction with Highway 22, then bike south to Millarville, Turner Valley, whatever; then on the way back turn east on 274 Ave for a variant return and come out on 96 St onto Highway 22x; and merely crossing the twinned Highway 22x (there was a good, safe, well-signed cross-road there) would get you back to 37 St and a direct route back home.
But now, you would come out of 96 St, and you are stuck going a huge detour east, as 2wheeler has stated, to Spruce Meadows/James Mckevitt Trail. A tantalizing point shortly after leaving 96 st eastward on Spruce Meadows Green is where Spruce Meadows Green passes within a few feet of the ramp loop from Spruce Meadows Trail to Northbound Stoney Trail. I have been tempted to do the Cross Country/Gravel Bike option across the grass to make the leap, but it is only a dry weather option and might actually be more hazardous than it looks.
@2wheeler: “It’s my understanding that Deerfoot has a special legal designation allowing the Province to prohibit cycling”. I didn’t know about that. That’s good to know, that Deerfoot is a special situation where the Province has stepped in to prohibit cyclists. That implies that without this special requirement bicycles can retain their eligibility to use any road where vehicular traffic is allowed. Do you have any information whether bicycles are allowed on, say, Anderson Road? For some reason I just assumed once the speed limit is 80k/h, it is a freeway, and bicycles weren’t allowed.
@2wheeeler: I’m really hoping your view actually is or becomes reality. But my worry is that a Ring Road, like Deerfoot Trail, cannot legally allow bike traffic, even if at this stage of uncompleted construction the traffic volume feels safe to us. In other words, possibly that avenue of access is already taken away (legally, anyway).
@2wheeler: when was the last time you rode the 201 shoulder to Fish Creek, and 146 to 39th?
I agree right now with light traffic and wide shoulder it’s really safe. My worry is that we’re currently under the radar, but will be seen as the scofflaws once they get their act together and start viewing that portion of 201 south of 130Ave as the legitimate part of Ring Road once it’s connected at 162 Ave and 22x.
@2wheeler: Yeah, that’s exactly what I was talking about. I wasn’t clear, from how you worded it, have you actually ridden the shoulder of 201 South, illegally, or were you contemplating it. If you did it, how far to 37st did you get? I’ve got an email in to my ward Councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart which has triggered a request for information to the Provincial Ring-Road Information source, but still awaiting reply.
Never mind provincial transportation minister — this is a City of Calgary transportation infrastructure deficiency, not to mention Parks & Recreation. Perhaps Fish Creek Park pathways might be involved, in which case it would be Provincial Park jurisdiction,I guess, but why could they not have left a bike accessible lane on the 37 street bridge across Fish Creek? It would have been so inexpensively done.
So: we are still in the dark, with the Ring Road/Tsuu T’ina Trail pretty well complete except the connections from Fish Creek Blvd to Stoney Tr/Hwy 22x which looks almost physically completed but still closed. I used to bike up 37st bridge to 22x up to last fall to access that really nice wide shoulder on 22x for fast road biking maybe all the way to Bragg Creek or Turner Valley. But now 37st is Ring Road I guess bikes won’t be allowed. How do we get to 22x? As previous posters have said, it seems really irresponsible to build the ring road infrastructure on top of existing bike networks withou thinking of where those bikers would go. I asked my city rep in 2019 but I got no feedback.
(I thought I’d submitted this, but nothing shows; I’m trying again, and if this is a duplicate, please forgive me)
Access from Woodbine (or Woodlands, or actually also Braeside Cedarbrae and adjacent communities south of Anderson) used to be straightforward via 37 Street for years. With ongoing improvements, it was still possible to go up the widened highway past the new bridge over Fish Creek, right at the lights to 146 Avenue and catch the old 37 Street portion south to the Highway, if a little hairy because of the narrow or non-existent shoulder and sometimes aggressive traffic.
An alternative and safer route was through Evergreen to 24 street which connected at the end to the Highway.
Now the connection to the final portion of 37 Street is via a winding connector which is temporary until the new 37 st highyway punches through directly to Highway 22x; the last bit of the old 37 St is still dangerous because of the narrow shoulder and heavy through traffic.
But 24 Street at Evergreen has now been cut off from the Highway 22 access.
What are our alternatives now and in future if we want to cycle south of the city? Taking your bike by car to the highway seems like a council of despair.
When the 37 St Highway west of Woodbine is completed straight through to Highway 22x (Ring Road) will there be an option for cyclists to bike by road up the hill using the new 37 street route, at least until the top of the hill, then divert off to the old 37 street, which then will have much less traffic and be safer? And will there be access from there to the highway? Perhaps Bike Calgary can lobby for such access to be accomplished.
Su-Chong Lim
