So here we are again first snow of the year!

[SCPD]

Sounds like it is busy out there. Took me an extra 10 min's to walk the 7 blocks to work.
Oh and hello again everyone it has been a while, yes the Toad is still around. Mostly being VE6SKY and not ScannerToad...

I noticed something this morning... I have been neglecting Fire and Ems for so long as I listen to police 90% of the time.

What is up with the "Calgary" in front of the unit names?
I know there are some units in Airdrie and Cochrane but is it so many that they need to put Calgary in front of the call sign.

PS: Anyone up for a hot cup of coffee and or a pint? It has been so long since I have seen any of you guys!

 

[Jay911]

My commute did not fail to entertain me. Calgarians are living up to my expectations. I followed a guy in a Jeep Wrangler with off-road tires doing 39 km/h along paved, plowed Highway 22 for half an hour this morning. On the other hand, on Stoney, an F250 sped past me, pulled into my lane, and almost lost control - then pulled back into the other lane and jumped on her brakes because of the construction slowdown at Shaganappi. Did 3 lazy pirouettes before coming to a stop.

 

[jerry092975]

WOW snow....all we get is rain

 

[RedsunsDriver]

Definitely a good storm to cause chao in the city.
Was monitoring EMS/FIRE last night and heard a few accidents on Deerfoot at around 11pm.

Transit was running fine for me, just took an extra 10 minutes because the bus driver was driving pretty slow. (oh well, wasn't in a hurry to get to work)

 

[RedsunsDriver]

Any of you guys know the frequencies of the City's plow trucks? (if they have a radio)

 

[Jay911]

I would think that the City units are on whatever the rest of the city is on. No one has ever located them since they disappeared from EDACS. I would bet they're on iDEN since Transit went there.

The crews responsible for Deerfoot Trail and Stoney Trail are Carmacks crews, on the Nextcom LTR trunk. I listen to them all the time.

 

[SCPD]

Caltronics has a bunch of new stuff popping up since I last listened.
I hear lots of drivers, perhaps some tow trucks or private shoveling units.

I also thought I heard PCL construction which I am trying to find because they are here at SAIT. They have like 6 cranes I would like to have a listen to.

 

[EJB]

My commute did not fail to entertain me. Calgarians are living up to my expectations. I followed a guy in a Jeep Wrangler with off-road tires doing 39 km/h along paved, plowed Highway 22 for half an hour this morning. On the other hand, on Stoney, an F250 sped past me, pulled into my lane, and almost lost control - then pulled back into the other lane and jumped on her brakes because of the construction slowdown at Shaganappi. Did 3 lazy pirouettes before coming to a stop.

Wow. I figured you guys would know how to drive in the snow since you seem to get it more often than us here in the centre of the Universe, lol.

I think Jay grew up here and he prob knows what it is like on the roads here, 2 cm's is a disaster!
Thank goodness it did not snow much at all the last 2 years at all, when it did once in Feb it took me 3 hrs to do my commute.

 

[Jay911]

I was a very green driver when I left the GTA ... 17 1/2 years old. But I'd already "almost" rolled a car. :lol:

Albertans (and I'm sure other locales' drivers) seem to come in two flavors: Oblivious (meaning they drive the same speed regardless of what's in front of them or the conditions beneath them, most often these people are driving Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes, or other high-end cars and SUVs), and petrified. An example of an Oblivious (besides the F250 mentioned above) was one of the ones I heard on the news several years ago after a multi-vehicle (>30) pile-up on the Trans-Canada here. "There was this fog and I kept going and all of a sudden I started hitting traffic cones and then bam, right into the semi." Petrified is the overcautious person, scared of driving on even the lightest trace of precipitation of any kind, or even if the skies are gloomy (even if that's just because the sun is behind a cloud). I think someone has hired a herd of Petrifieds to drive directly in front of me on my way to and from work each day. A 74km trip which normally takes me roughly 65 minutes tonight took me 115, largely because I was being cautious on roads with questionable ice content, but partially because of the Petrified stampede.

 

[robertmac]

Nothing changed

Specifically, in Calgary, a lot has been made of the "new" way of ploughing the roads, ie similar to Ontario. However, this used to be done in Alberta years ago by the Department of Highways. We have had less snow in the past few days than we had a year ago, but the roads and traffic is the same or worse! The city [or province] spends ? thousands of dollars for computers and sensors to say how long it will take to travel from point X to Z. But, in the past 2 days, I have seen only one sander/plough. Me thinkith the money would be better spent on sanders and new technology in melting ice. In 2010 [almost 2011], we still do not have an effective way for dealing with ice covered roads!

 

[kayn1n32008]

I was a very green driver when I left the GTA ... 17 1/2 years old. But I'd already "almost" rolled a car. :lol:

Albertans (and I'm sure other locales' drivers) seem to come in two flavors: Oblivious (meaning they drive the same speed regardless of what's in front of them or the conditions beneath them, most often these people are driving Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes, or other high-end cars and SUVs), and petrified. An example of an Oblivious (besides the F250 mentioned above) was one of the ones I heard on the news several years ago after a multi-vehicle (>30) pile-up on the Trans-Canada here. "There was this fog and I kept going and all of a sudden I started hitting traffic cones and then bam, right into the semi." Petrified is the overcautious person, scared of driving on even the lightest trace of precipitation of any kind, or even if the skies are gloomy (even if that's just because the sun is behind a cloud). I think someone has hired a herd of Petrifieds to drive directly in front of me on my way to and from work each day. A 74km trip which normally takes me roughly 65 minutes tonight took me 115, largely because I was being cautious on roads with questionable ice content, but partially because of the Petrified stampede.

The oblivious and petrified can be grouped into one catagory: Unskilled. It seems most of the people in Edmonton seem to be a combination of both of those and the skilled are a very small minority.

Last night coming home from work I had a lady flip on her turn signal and hammer on the brakes 200+ metres from an intersection going from 50km/h-10km/h just to change lanes with no traffic other than me behind her at a safe distance. Although I was able to avoid hitting her it was some what of a close call. I even watched a pickup blow through a red light, he entered the intersection after the light turned red.


Since the snow fell I have been driving a 2wd 3/4t with zero weight on the rear end. No slipping or sliding, although the roads have not been too slippery, but intersections are a little slick. This afternoon I got my 1ton 4x4 diesel back from the dealer and although it does have traction control it only kicks in if I hammer on the pedel while taking off from a light and the tow/haul package allows me to use compression rather than brakes to do most of my braking. Thankfully I am going to be out of town for a couple of weeks and will not have to deal with city traffic.

People need to remember 4 things:

1. Dont use cruise control.

2. Braking distances are close to double.

3. Just because the pavement is bare on both sides of the dotted white lane divider, stay in your lane, even if it means driving on snow.

4. Slow the hell down and leave more space between you and the person in front of you

 

[EJB]

The oblivious and petrified can be grouped into one catagory: Unskilled. It seems most of the people in Edmonton seem to be a combination of both of those and the skilled are a very small minority.

Last night coming home from work I had a lady flip on her turn signal and hammer on the brakes 200+ metres from an intersection going from 50km/h-10km/h just to change lanes with no traffic other than me behind her at a safe distance. Although I was able to avoid hitting her it was some what of a close call. I even watched a pickup blow through a red light, he entered the intersection after the light turned red.


Since the snow fell I have been driving a 2wd 3/4t with zero weight on the rear end. No slipping or sliding, although the roads have not been too slippery, but intersections are a little slick. This afternoon I got my 1ton 4x4 diesel back from the dealer and although it does have traction control it only kicks in if I hammer on the pedel while taking off from a light and the tow/haul package allows me to use compression rather than brakes to do most of my braking. Thankfully I am going to be out of town for a couple of weeks and will not have to deal with city traffic.

People need to remember 4 things:

1. Dont use cruise control.

2. Braking distances are close to double.

3. Just because the pavement is bare on both sides of the dotted white lane divider, stay in your lane, even if it means driving on snow.

4. Slow the hell down and leave more space between you and the person in front of you

We have been very lucky the last few years when it comes to snow.
The Mto are already doing road and weather reports but have nothing to do so far, its close to +10 here and ex[ected to rise to +15 by Tuesday then drop to zero.
I am close enough to the lake that often the boundary between rain and snow is further north along the 401, (I live near the QEW) but traffic grinds to a halt here even in just plain rain.
On the rare occasions that it goes below -18 or so as you probably know better than most GTA'ers, salt doesnt work and the roads those days are freaking dangerous.
The MTO here is pretty quick with salt but where I grew up in Montreal they used sand and gravel and/or a mix when it got really cold,

Out in Calgary what do they use when it salt is no longer effective?

Thanks guys, at least you get chinooks right? This cold blast will be gone by next week ;-)

 

[EJB]

I was a very green driver when I left the GTA ... 17 1/2 years old. But I'd already "almost" rolled a car. :lol:

Albertans (and I'm sure other locales' drivers) seem to come in two flavors: Oblivious (meaning they drive the same speed regardless of what's in front of them or the conditions beneath them, most often these people are driving Lexus, Infiniti, Mercedes, or other high-end cars and SUVs), and petrified. An example of an Oblivious (besides the F250 mentioned above) was one of the ones I heard on the news several years ago after a multi-vehicle (>30) pile-up on the Trans-Canada here. "There was this fog and I kept going and all of a sudden I started hitting traffic cones and then bam, right into the semi." Petrified is the overcautious person, scared of driving on even the lightest trace of precipitation of any kind, or even if the skies are gloomy (even if that's just because the sun is behind a cloud). I think someone has hired a herd of Petrifieds to drive directly in front of me on my way to and from work each day. A 74km trip which normally takes me roughly 65 minutes tonight took me 115, largely because I was being cautious on roads with questionable ice content, but partially because of the Petrified stampede.

I can relate
Last yr during the Olympics we had our first real storm, a 12-15 wet dump of snow on a Monday. If you know the GTA well as I think you do, I work in Rexdale near the 409/401 and on bad days I bite the bullet and take the 407 right to its end at Ikea on Plains Rd in Burlington, just north of the Skyway. This route is more direct than the freeway (QEW-403-401-427-409, or QEW-427N-409).

To get to the 407 I took the 403 thru Mississauga, that took over an hour, then the 407, a 25 KM trip that on normal days takes 15 min took 2 hours!
Cars slid off the road, people like you mentioned were either gunning it at normal speeds which is dangerous or others sat in the fast lane and did 30 clicks.

It was worse with a bladder full of coffee if you know what I mean.

 

[OldDeadOne]

Thank God,you can keep all the snow,I don't even want to see it,hear it,or feel it in my neck of the woods,I HATE SNOW and winter in particular. I'm a warm weather sort of dude and that cold stuff sucks lol.

 

[HDMechanic]

The roads around Calgary are cleared quite well considering the traffic. You should see the roads in the kooteanys in the winter. First off if your luck if it snow the night before to see the plows on the main roads by 9 in the morning. Then when the due get to clearing the roads they leave a nice layer of compacted snow on the road. Guess they don't want to wear the cutting edges on the plow now. Then if you are really lucky they will put the ice cutting blade on the plow and go down the cut nice groves in the compacted snow that holds the gravel they lay down on the road. makes a really nice sound two that drowns out any radio or conversation going on in the vehicle. I hope the attached picture if it works helps make you think the roads in Calgary are well cleared. At least you can see the black top here in Calgary on the major routes.

 

[OldDeadOne]

Man that picture is so sad.

 

[robertmac]

Looks like the side streets

That pic looks just like the road out front of my house, except it doesn't have the grooves and the sand. Oh, well, warming up by next week end.

 

[EJB]

Thank God,you can keep all the snow,I don't even want to see it,hear it,or feel it in my neck of the woods,I HATE SNOW and winter in particular. I'm a warm weather sort of dude and that cold stuff sucks lol.

I absolutely agree with you, there were flurries in Toronto earlier today.
You are probably going to see some white stuff later this week. Weather moves W-E and since you are over 1.000 feet above sea level these extremely warm 70 degree days are going to be over soon.
7-Day Forecast for Latitude 38.06°N and Longitude 81.12°W

I betcha you guys had more snow than we did last year, all told our winter snow total was less than 25 inches. The entire east coast repeadedly had snow totals around 1o inches or more numerous times.

It is about 40 here and windy, cold by our standards but as I see in Calgary it is -18 C or about 0 F.
But when we freeze they are going to have a chinook and the snow will be gone.

 

[kayn1n32008]

The roads around Calgary are cleared quite well considering the traffic. You should see the roads in the kooteanys in the winter. First off if your luck if it snow the night before to see the plows on the main roads by 9 in the morning. Then when the due get to clearing the roads they leave a nice layer of compacted snow on the road. Guess they don't want to wear the cutting edges on the plow now. Then if you are really lucky they will put the ice cutting blade on the plow and go down the cut nice groves in the compacted snow that holds the gravel they lay down on the road. makes a really nice sound two that drowns out any radio or conversation going on in the vehicle. I hope the attached picture if it works helps make you think the roads in Calgary are well cleared. At least you can see the black top here in Calgary on the major routes.

HD where was that picture taken? oddly enough it looks alot like the oilpatch out west near Hinton. LOL

Yesterday i took the truck out to Reddeer, had to put a bunch of KM's on it to test it before i go to Cold Lake today, and QEII was mostly bare, only place i had any issue was when i came out of the scale in Leduc, got a little squirrly as i got back on the hiway, LOL. other than that the 400Km i drove yesterday was uneventful... Well except for the idiot that ened up in the median backwards... atleast Calgary gets chinooks, Edmonton does the 'let it melt' kind of snow removal... and it sucks. thank god for 4x4. will see how long it takes before i have to use it in the city.

 

[HDMechanic]

The picture was taken on highway 23 south of Revelstoke.