February 2013 Newsletter

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After the frantic months of December and January, February might seem bland. But this couldn't be further from the truth. You might sit down with some friends to watch the Super Bowl, or sit down to a Valentine's Day dinner with your sweetheart, or spend a long weekend with your family, and hopefully you will see a groundhog emerge from his den on a cloudy day.

Hopefully you will also take some time to join me in some meaningful dialogue at Aldertalk this February. We are getting good crowds out, as usual, and January was no exception. The next edition of Aldertalk will be held at the Lake Bonavista Recreation Centre (1401 Acadia Drive SE) from noon to 2pm on February 16th, 2013. You can always visit calgary.ca/aldertalk to get a description of the event, and to view the schedule of upcoming Aldertalk sessions.

While you are checking out the Aldertalk page of my new website, have a look around at the other pages too. This upgraded version of the Ward 14 Aldermanic site is much more comprehensive than its predecessor, and I still have a few tricks up my sleeve for the future. Along with a ton of information on Aldertalk, Ward 14 communities, and yours truly, there will be constantly updated posts consisting of everything from these monthly newsletter columns, to notices of motion, to urgent news. The official address is calgary.ca/ward14, but the City of Calgary website always makes it easy to find things using the search tool. I hope you find the content of this new website useful.

I've mentioned the Lake Fraser Gate Pilot Project in the past. It was a trial run of some restrictions on left turn signals at the intersection of MacLeod Trail and Lake Fraser Gate S.E. There are about 4800 vehicles / hour that pass this intersection during the morning rush hour, and the project was an attempt to alleviate some of this congestion.

By the time you read this, your opportunity to give feedback on this pilot project via the 3-1-1 call centre will likely be over, but I encourage you to contact me if you have any other feedback to share. So far, the comments have been mostly positive with regards to the changes made at the intersection, but it is of critical importance that we have all the information possible in the decision making process, because ideas such as these have the potential to very inexpensively alleviate traffic woes all around Calgary.

The Lake Fraser Gate Pilot Project illustrates the most cost effective option to reducing commute times that the City has in its arsenal. The turn lane restrictions cost roughly $30,000, in comparison to the roughly $30 million cost of an interchange. It's a promising solution at 1% of the cost of an interchange with much less construction headache. Obviously, I would love to take the idea and roll with it, but as I mentioned before - the more feedback the better. Thank you to everyone who has already given their input, and special thanks to the businesses of Lake Fraser Drive for their patience and understanding.

I can always be contacted at 403-268-1653, by email at eaward14@calgary.ca, and through the online contact form.

That's it for February. Look for another edition in March.​