There are many signals that your small town is growing up, everything from the height of buildings to the length of the lineup at Costco, but I’ve found nothing tends to scream big city like traffic congestion.
Given my daily commute is a walk through Sheep River Park, I’m wholly unqualified to comment on Okotoks’ traffic situation, at least as it pertains to the morning and afternoon rush, but when I do get out there, I’m finding that I’m stopping at more lights. Maybe that’s because there are more of them out there.
I remember someone suggesting on social media a while back that it can take them up to 30 minutes to navigate the full length of the Northridge/Southridge Drive corridor, which seemed like an extraordinary amount of time to get from Sobeys to Safeway, but I do find the main drag can be a slower go these days, particularly at the north end.
I used to think that when I made it through the light at Milligan Drive that I was almost out of town, but the addition of two traffic signals between Banister Gate and 338 Avenue has forced me to alter that way of thinking.
The new light at the entrance to Wedderburn makes perfect sense as that neighbourhood will require its own access point to Northridge as it continues to develop, but the light just to the south of it has me scratching my head.
It's not a full-blown intersection, offering only limited turns and a pedestrian crossing. A right turn in or out of the strip mall certainly doesn’t require a signal, most northbound traffic has already turned at D’Arcy Ranch Drive and when it comes pedestrians, they have safe passage across Northridge via intersections a couple hundred metres in either direction, so this crossing seems like overkill.
It's like the Town got a two-for-one sale on traffic signals and didn’t want to waste the second one. I have that exact same feeling when it comes to pizza, and even though I know I don’t really need that additional pie, it invariably gets eaten. I just assumed that engineers had greater willpower.
Although I joke about the newest signal, I must say that Okotoks has done a pretty darn good job of keeping traffic out of neighbourhoods and funneling it onto Northridge/Southridge Drive, while also minimizing the number of stop lights along the way.
Yes, there are more lights than any driver would like to see, but it’s hard to pick out many of them and say they’re not necessary. Two access points for the entirety of the massive Cimarron neighbourhood seems like pretty efficient traffic flow to me.
That’s what makes the additional signal at the north end seem so curious, although in fairness, it’s also the least likely traffic light to bring you to a stop.
And, frankly, it’s the least of our worries as development already on the books is going to add a whole bunch more vehicles to Northridge/Southridge, making everyone’s commute incrementally slower in the years ahead.
It’s another not so subtle sign that Okotoks isn’t a small town anymore.