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| (I screen shot this photo from Google Maps) |
Eventually I established a route of taking Deerfoot to Glenmore to and from school everyday.
Coming into school wasn't too bad. If the weather was nice and I planned my schedule appropriately, it usually only took me 35 minutes to get to school. However, coming home was another story. If I left Mount Royal anywhere from 3pm-6pm I knew that it was taking me at least an hour to get home. Nothing is worse than sitting in stop and go traffic for an hour when you have tons of homework you could be doing. I decided early on that this driving thing to and from school wasn't for me.
Last year was the last straw. For the first 4 months of school, parking in any of the pay lots was totally unrealistic. I could never find a spot! and parking anywhere residential around the school will result in you getting a nice ticket. So I was forced to make a 35minute drive into school, then a 25 minute walk from my car to the school. Then another 25minute walk to my car after school, followed by an hour and 15 minute drive home. I was spending 2-2.5 hours a day just getting to/from school!
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| My drive to school one morning-Deerfoot |
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| The same day as the picture above! Except this was my drive home |
Luckily this year I have the opportunity to live in Calgary near the school. It is still a 25minute walk to get to school, but I'll take that over what I had to do for the first two years. Since then I officially try to avoid driving in Calgary as much as possible. I don't even bring my car here when I don't have to. I utilize my Upass as much as possible and walk! I've also been looking into the Car2Go program.
I'd love to hear other peoples terrible transportation stories! I know it takes people just as long to get to/from school even in places within the city.
I understand where you are coming from. 2-3 times a week I drive from Mount Royal to Chestermere. The catch is that the commute starts at 4:50 and even worse, I have to be in Chestermere at 5:30. This is almost impossible and I have never arrived earlier than 5:45. The stop and go traffic is frustrating at the very least. I believe that a huge contributor to the stop and go traffic are people who insist on driving to the very end of the merge lane, causing commuters to stop and let them in. If every person on the road let at least one person in early in the merge lanes, stopping would be minimal and every one would be better off. This is not the case, as selfish people continue to drive to the front, which in turn actually slows every thing and every one down.
ReplyDeleteI can feel your pain. I may not live as far away as you do... but I certainly live in a area that is a lot farther than most people who live near the school. I live in McKenzie Lake... which is the far southeast, basically almost the edge of Calgary. My main route in the morning is usually deerfoot, glenmore and crowchild. At first when I started driving and didnt know any roads... taking deerfoot was not as fun because I was still scared of driving on it. Not only that but the traffic just made me want to shoot myself in the head. A few times I would be late for school because of traffic and so it was brutal. Glenmore could either be just as bad or not.. it always depended on a certain time in the morning. Luckily now a days I know some back roads that will take me to school a lot faster.. that 1 hour drive turns into a 30 min drive! (:
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