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Intersection at Highways 11 and 20 is dynamite; frustrating

A great big ‘thank you’ to our MLA, Kerry Towle, for supporting Sylvan Lake residents on the 781-11 issue.

Dear Editor,

A great big ‘thank you’ to our MLA, Kerry Towle, for supporting Sylvan Lake residents on the 781-11 issue.

On about Aug. 14 I was travelling north on 781 and arrived at Highway 11. I made a right turn and proceeded east to the Highway 20 intersection and them made a left turn onto 20. There was a red light right in front of me. While I was waiting for a green light, the driver in front of me got all upset after waiting and suddenly gunned his engine and shot through that red light.

The intersection was loaded right up with traffic and traffic was crossing in front of us! This intersection is dynamite!

Before I actually arrived at 11/20, I looked at the traffic lined up to the north, and it was lined up as far as you could see from Highway 11, which meant it could be almost to Memorial Trail.

On one other occasion at 11/20, I was waiting for a light change to proceed north and when the light did change the driver behind me got all excited and whipped out around me and passed me on the right — all this on a one lane intersection. Talk about frustration!

All of this took place about 5:30 in the afternoon.

This intersection (11/20) definitely cannot stand anymore traffic. We definitely need 11/781 opened up with a good set of lights. We positively need all three roads open to handle traffic safely in and out of Sylvan Lake — 11/20, 11/781 and 11 and 60th Street.

Going back to 11/20, there is a lot of large oilfield trucks coming from Red Deer every morning and returning late in the day. They take up a lot of road and I’ve noticed a lot of cattle liners using 11/20.

I have sat and watched traffic at 11/20 anywhere from 6:30-9 a.m. and again in the late afternoon from 4-6:30 p.m. and with the regular traffic, and all the commuters to and from Red Deer, and all the truck traffic, this is one very busy area!

I saw the RCMP reported a three vehicle collision at 11/20 just recently. When is the Department of Highways ever going to wake up and agree that sometimes the public does know what they are talking about. Sometimes the public are actually right.

Memorial Trail is a waste of good taxpayers dollars. (Four sets of lights involved.) Memorial Trail could be used for casual use, nothing else.

An intersection at Highway 20 and Memorial Trail would be a disaster. You would see traffic piled up from Memorial Trail to Highway 11.

If anybody doubts any of the information I have supplied here, I would be happy to oblige them by sitting out at 11/20 any time in the early morning or late afternoon and watching the traffic with them!

I have lived in and near Sylvan Lake all of my life since 1931. I spent 30 years in the trucking business, building roads and hauling in the oil patch. I’m no stranger to traffic.

Can you imagine leaving one set of lights at a major intersection and travelling approximately one half mile picking up speed to 100 km/h, then breaking over a hill and seeing below you another major intersection with traffic lights. Try handling this while driving a truck weighing over 100,000 lbs. Maybe Ric McIver (Transportation minister) would like to demo this for us.

Al Hallgren,

Sylvan Lake