Is there a better way the City can help navigate westsiders home?
By Lethbridge Herald on January 8, 2025.
POINT OF VIEW
Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Living on the westside of Lethbridge has many benefits, but it comes with the challenge of being able to actually get back home whenever an accident takes place on Whoop Up Drive.
On Wednesday, as I was heading to take the last photo of the day for the Lethbridge Herald, at around 4:45 p.m. I noticed 6 Ave South was backed up and a Lethbridge Police Service truck was headed towards Whoop-Up Drive.
At that point, I (and probably dozens of other drivers) knew I’d have to take a different route home if I wanted to make it there in time to pick up my daughter from the BLAST program at her school.
On my way back downtown, I decided to take 4 Ave South instead of 6 Ave South, and then turn onto 7 Street South as I usually do, because 6 Ave South was still backed up all the way to 13 Street. After work, I decided to head out to Highway 3 via Stafford Drive, but when I reached the set of lights by the Lethbridge Public Library, Stafford Drive was also backed up for blocks, with traffic at a standstill as others tried to avoid the bottleneck.
And, like all those other drivers, I had a decision to make.
So I turned back onto 6 Ave South, but this time to head east toward Mayor Magrath Drive, in the hopes I’d be able to reach Highway 3. But it was then that I realized I’d need to put gas in my car if I was going to make it home, not knowing how long it would take.
I drove to the Co-op gas station on 43 Street South, trying to figure out if I should just go to Coaldale and Picture Butte to reach the westside, as the deadline to pick up my daughter was rapidly approaching.
After filling up my car, I decided to take Highway 3 back to the westside and it turned out to be a good decision. Even though there was a lot of traffic, it was flowing continuously.
Until the merge lane just before the entrance to Tollestrup Construction, that is.
Even though many drivers were properly zipper-merging, which is something many don’t do when the situation calls for it, the delay was due to traffic trying to get onto Bridge Drive and having to stop whenever the traffic light at the top of the hill turned red.
This ended up being the longest part of my journey; it took me about 20 minutes, which cranked my anxiety up to about a million. Not only was I running late to pick up my daughter, but other vehicles around me were bumper to bumper and I was worried about getting into an accident.
At that moment I had no way to turn back – I was stuck in traffic. I finally reached my daughter at 6:15 p.m., which meant her caretakers had to wait an extra 15 minutes pat deadline. Thankfully, they were more than understanding.
One of the caregivers told me that her husband was already home for a while, as Whoop-Up Drive had opened back up shortly after 5. And yet I was stuck in traffic for way longer than that, trying to get to my daughter.
To say that Tuesday night’s journey to the westside was stressful would be the understatement of the year.
My daughter was worried about me, since this was the first time I was late picking her up. She was also wanting to go to her Tae-Kwon-Do class on the north side at 6:45 p.m. but the traffic delays made it impossible to have enough time to do that since we still needed to have supper first.
Unfortunately, this was only one of many times I’ve been stuck on “the other side of the river” due to traffic issues on Whoop-Up. Luckily, there were no accidents on the highway this time around, as so often happens after a collision on Whoop-Up. It seems as if the first accident all but guarantees the second, considering how often it happens.
With the population in the westside of Lethbridge continuing to increase, there has to be a better way to make sure all of us westsiders can get home within a reasonable time on a regular basis. Would that be a third way in and out of the westside? Would that be better traffic control whenever there is an accident on Whoop Up Drive or Highway 3 to avoid bottleneck situations that potentially paralyze the entire city as main roads get backed up?
I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I definitely know I’m not the only one in Lethbridge asking them.
20-19
Best idea is to sell the Lethbridge Exhibitionfiasco building for a $1 and start saving for a new bridge to the Westside?
Include that waste of an airport and I think you’ve got something. $1 for both , don’t want to overpay .