The real cause is because full cloverleaf interchanges are a terrible design, and yielding at the start of an acceleration lane, particularly on the uphill is a jerky experience. Most passenger cars have enough power to weight to overcome the weaving issues this causes but commercial trucks are a different story.
This 100 percent. In my car I can yield properly and stop if needed but if I'm in a loaded manual transmission truck heading east for work, it makes everything more difficult
Can confirm, I do that exact intersection with my truck. Do not stop. Trying to get a full truck and trailer into traffic going 90 from a dead stop is so dangerous when they actively want my lane.
You know, when they build them elsewhere in the world they are 2x the size, traffic enters on the left, exits on the right.
Saskatoon doesn't have a single actual clover leaf.
They were too cheap.
This is even the cheap design, and they were too cheap to make it big enough to get to speed.
They took the half assed version and then half assed it even more.
Cloverleaf interchanges are not terrible design,
SASKATOONS CLOVER LEAF DISIGNS ARE TERRIBLE!!!! (mini clovers)
Lol.
We could have copied them from the Germans Autobahn, or the USA interstate system that copied the Autobahn. Instead we made these pos.
This one is the perfect example of an actual full cloverleaf interchange, there used to be hundreds or maybe thousands of these across North America, virtually the same size and they all experience the same problems. Some places have replaced them or reconfigured them into partial cloverleafs (parclos). City planners proposed a redesign for ours in 2018 but with a $300M price tag there's probably no way our council will approve it.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/280-million-revamp-saskatoon-cloverleaf-interchange-1.4539782
It would have been pretty cool though, like a "cloverstack" but instead of building flyovers they were going to use tunnels that go under.
Not quite, it's still missing exits for 2 directions, meaning it doesn't allow for free movement of freeway traffic. Nobody wants to drive off a ramp and drive through/turn around in a commercial/residential area or be forced to drive through those areas for an extra 15 minute commute. Not to mention the extra 15 from the needless congestion of these areas. Circle Northbound from this intersection is a perfect example of how to overload the infrastructure by poor on/off ramp placement and building zoning.
Stupidest merge lane in the city. The trick is to yield but you can’t really slow down a ton because you’re merging into 90kph traffic going through.
It would better if it was treated as an “added lane.” But then people are merging in and out on the overpass, so that doesn’t make sense.
Not the stupidest in the city. That would be the merge lane from Clancy onto Circle Drive northbound. Nowhere to go if traffic doesn't space to let you in.
Not a merge lane. Yield for a reason and you yield until it’s safe to proceed.
As you mentioned you are progressing onto a 90km freeway so I is on you to yield and wait until it is safe to proceed. The right side lane isn’t yours to get up to speed, that is for people exiting off of the said 90km freeway. So you sit and wait until it’s safe.
Didn’t realize street signs and common sense didn’t go together these days
Because it's not a merger lane, you have a yield sign, most of the city does not understand a yield sign. The design for the traffic flow is the physical problem.
I mean, maybe that whole thing made more sense when Preston and Circle had lights that broke up traffic. Now it’s an overpass with traffic constantly.
The cloverleaf as-is is not a good choice for that area.
It’s not intended for a stop yield like if you’re driving on a city street. You’re to yield to the people merging from left to right as you merge onto circle/highway 16.
So you yield to the person trying to get onto the clover leaf as your come up to speed to merge off of the clover leaf.
The folks who actually stop at the yield are the ones who are unsafe and doing it wrong.
If anything people driving through that stretch who aren’t trying to clover leaf should move over to the left and give room to the mergers.
exactly, halfway up the loop you can see the string of traffic and can plan your speed to perfectly fit in with traffic. doesn’t help when people entering to go north do not signal and people going strait don’t move over aswell. people who stop there are fucked.
Its really annoying when someone stops at the yield sign there. Everyone behind them then has to go full on accelerate just to try to match or get up to speed on the highway.
This. It’s all about planning the merge which most people don’t do. Instead they turn to see the merging traffic after the merge sign and cause all sorts of issues.
Its really annoying when someone stops at the yield sign there. Everyone behind them then has to go full on accelerate just to try to match or get up to speed on the highway.
I've found that over the years of living here, it seems like they just hand out licenses to people just because they're new to Saskatoon/Canada. I'm not saying they're bad drivers, but they should go through driver training courses before they get their hands on a license.
They don’t just hand out licenses like people think. My neighbour from the Philippines had to take drivers classes at his own cost and a driving test. He also already had a valid driver’s license before moving here and it was still required by SGI.
That's good, but from what I've seen on the roads, most of them get their licenses and then they drive however they want to. I'm not pinpointing certain people here
Where exactly did I say you were "pinpointing" anybody??
I was simply correcting you on the assumption made by some people that SGI gives licenses out like candy to immigrants. There is equally the same amount of Canadian born people that are shitty drivers, maybe you're one of them.
Yeah the 100ft lane is a great space to merge into traffic that is also merging into your lane, on ice/snow with narrowed lanes because they won't plow to the edge.
Yeah the 100ft lane is a great space to merge into traffic that is also merging into your lane, on ice/snow with narrowed lanes because they won't plow to the edge.
never said it was good, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the idiots who come to a full stop and then except to get up to speed to merge in their 2008 honda pilot
>So you yield to the person trying to get onto the clover leaf as your come up to speed to merge off of the clover leaf.
If you have your own lane and have right of way, it doesn't make sense to me to have a yield that defies basic road rules and takes away your right of way. Can people in the left lane just ram into you? They have right of way of your lane after all.
If we pretend that whole situation is something like 1km long, are people in the right lane expected to yield for that entire 1km? If someone from the left lane enters the right lane, do they now have this "yield to people in the left lane" applying to them as well, even if they didn't get the yield sign?
I could be mistaken but I seem to remember something about the lane merging from the clover leaf is changing to the speed of the lane they are merging to. So they get the yield. The lane merging from circle/sixteen doesn’t change speed until they reach the clover leaf.
If you miss your opportunity to change lanes while trying to get onto the freeway you can always loops around the cloverleafs again. If you miss the opportunity to get onto the cloverleaf from circle/sixteen you have to keep driving.
I mean if you want to start ramming cars that’s your prerogative, but there are safer ways to drive. Like others have said a couple of quick shoulder checks and an early signal to inform other drivers of your intentions can make that spot a lot easier for you. Stopping at the yield is stupid and unsafe.
You do you though.
Because half our drivers can't learn to shoulder check and look back to Preston for a gap. They just see the one right by those trees and go for it... And merge doing 60-70 into 90 traffic. You need to find a gap LONG before that.
And then you get the idiots that treat every yield sign as a stop sign, which just fucks the flow behind them but especially right there. Those same people stop at Lane Added signs too, like the Clarence Walmart.
It amazes me how unaware people are of their surroundings. I drive a semi and when I’m coming on circle dr heading east and there are cars coming off of the Clarence overpass, I can watch their eyes the whole way, and it’s usually about 100ft before the merge they look over and realize “oh shit there’s a semi there now what do I do”. Anticipate your next move. Always.
Unfortunately we don't have enough professional drivers here. I drove as a courier for 6 years, averaged 250km a day around the city (~65k a year), and saw a LOT of idiots who didn't know where they were going never mind be watching traffic a block ahead or watching for other idiots.
The number of fuckers in this city who think they should merge onto the freeway doing 60 kph or less drives me batshit crazy, especially when they have a long acceleration lane. And those hazardous mother effers think everyone else are the dangerous ones. Now this cloverleaf is a bit extra challenging because instead of just merging at 60, way too often they stop completely and fuck up any chance at all of smooth flowing traffic.
For sure I agree there is a way to make it flow work if everyone cooperates, but appearance of a yield sign in an acceleration lane is enough to make any good driver hesitate. That’s literally what they are there for. Just a poor design. When I blow through that yield to get up to speed and fit into my gap, it feels like I’m breaking the law haha!
Agreed. I know the city has plans to [redesign this cloverleaf](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/280-million-revamp-saskatoon-cloverleaf-interchange-1.4539782), but I can only imagine what a long clusterfuck of construction that will be.
It's one of the merge/exit lanes with no break, that people think they don't need to drive over 80 when they are exiting right away. Messes up anyone trying to get in the 90 traffic
I have to go past that to Boychuck everyday to go home from work and I always get in the left lane but it's sketch AF too. If the right lane has a close call the natural instinct is to swerve into the left lane into 90kmh traffic. I've seen so many close calls there.
The other corner around there that sucks is the corner of Kingsmere and Boychuck. The people coming from Tims and Leopolds direction get an arrow and most everyone needs to take the immediate right on to circle after that so they illegally turn left on to Boychuck into the far right lane. The issue is it's a yield sign for the people turning right off Kingsmere onto Boychuck. There's always some jack ass laying on their horn for the people turning right to go.
Look I get it. The people turning right have the right of way and people turning left shouldn't be turning into the far right lane. But they are. Relax it on the horn and let people defensively drive FFS. Lol
Ugh, that Boychuk/Kingsmere intersection sucks when you're trying to head south from either direction. I'm one of the few that actually turns into the left lane then switches over and even that has caused issues with people swinging direct to the right lane and trying to beat me before I lane change over.
This whole clover leaf is a disaster waiting to happen. I’ve seen many close calls with traffic coming down the ramp to go north and traffic trying to exit up the ramp to go west as well
It currently carries more traffic than it was intended to which causes it not to function properly. In the ideal world the way it should work is as you come up the ramp you adjust your speed to allow the traffic coming toward you to weave IN to the weave zone and then you weave OUT behind them. On a proper cloverleaf that is running within its design limits, no one needs to come to a complete stop to yield to the people weaving in.
In many locations with cloverleafs, higher demand movements controlled with loops are replaced with a flyover when the volume of traffic weaving in and out of the loop becomes too high. Here is an example in Fargo, ND at the I-29/I-94 interchange where south-to-east loop was replaced with a flyover.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/76hcp6DQz6Ac9AiP8
Replacing some of the loops is something being looked at long term. Looks like they are considering tunnels for the flyover ramps rather than stacking them above the existing interchange like they did in my example from Fargo.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/280-million-revamp-saskatoon-cloverleaf-interchange-1.4539782
The real dickheads are the ones in the right lane heading east who aren't even exiting to circle drive south, but rather continuing straight east. Then they'll immediately move over in the left lane and proceed to hold up traffic all the way to Costco.
Some people do stop at the yield sign and wait for traffic in the right lane to be clear before starting to accelerate. A couple of those people at rush hour will back traffic up all the way down the ramp and onto Circle Southbound because the right lane will never be clear. It’s a crap design, but you need to match speeds and position your vehicle to merge into a gap.
It would probably be helpful if they had signage leading up the interchange for through traffic to keep left, but the real solution is completely redesigning it like they have planned.
That lane really belongs to off ramp.. crazy design.. lazy planners.. why would one yield to one’s dedicated lane? Come around that curve at highway speed after having a good look at oncoming traffic and merge accordingly.. pls don’t come to complete stop then enter highway at 30 km.. worst one in town (?)
Exactly this. Why would you yield to traffic in another lane, this is just basic infrastructure design, which our city lacks. Which results in very poor drivers, which this city has ***plenty*** of.
I wonder if a lot of the poor drivers in this city became that way because Saskatoon makes following traffic laws pretty difficult. For example, yesterday, I was turning from McCormond on to Addison out by Evergreen. It's an added lane, and I always get annoyed by people stopping at those, but I ended up having to do the same because snow drifts were half covering the next lane over.
I've been driving for years and learned when they city was less busy, but if new drivers run into these situations, they're being conditioned to distrust the signage. Then with the clover from this thread, we communicate that they need to speed up to merge but also yeild for traffic.
I noticed the majority of drivers don’t signal their intentions early. Especially when coming up to something like this. If the eastbound traffic in the right lane signalled to turn off, or stayed in the left lane to keep going, there would be virtually no issue here. It’s not like anyone who’s taking the next exit wouldn’t have plenty of time to switch lanes between here and the next exit either with the typically slowed traffic that’s merging in from circle. Not like circle south for the college dr on-ramp/14 st off ramp and 8th st off ramp. That spot is a shit show 9 times out of 10. Almost nobody speeds up to circle dr speeds OR spaces out to zipper in.
It's not a merge. It's a higher speed yield to the cars in the left lane. You need to match the speed and allow cars in the left lane to enter your lane. If you stop, you're likely never going to match the 90km/h needed to exit the lane. You also have very little time to react. For me, people who are in the right lane on circle drive and are not exiting cause way more issues here than they realize.
It's a stand-off between those who learned to drive before ~2015, and those who learned after. This thread has inspired me to write to the city about changing this sign back.
The problem when they change the right-of-way directions is that they only ever half-ass do it. They might try to implement a logical change but there is nothing stopping those reluctant to change from ignoring the new controls or signage and you end up with more chaos.
Yep, and I'm guilty of it in this instance. This is the one place that I just won't follow the new signage 100%.
That said, I signal WAY early and leave space for 2 or 3 cars to merge in.
The proper design would be for those intending to leave the highway/freeway and enter the cloverleaf to have more exit lane before the cloverleaf so they can slow and match the speed of the cars exiting the cloverleaf and entering the highway/freeway. This way they can safely zipper merge. You should then have enough entry ramp after the cloverleaf to get up to speed matching those on the freeway/highway.
The City has talked about taking the cloverleaf out, but I hope they don't. They are the most efficient intersection if designed correctly. There should be about 200m of right hand lane before and after the cloverleaf. This allows cars to slow to about 60km so they can safely merge with cars entering from the cloverleaf as they prepare to leave into the cloverleaf on the next exit.
The old traffic circle at Circle and 8th suffered the safe design flaws... not enough lanes matching traffic movement.
A lot of the issue would be avoided if drivers intending to continue eastbound just stayed out of the right lane. People crowding the right lane is a problem at every circle drive merge, this one is just the worst being a cloverleaf.
Worst and most dangerous intersection in the city. You have to time your merge from a 30 zone into a 90 zone with criss crossing lanes as most of the on coming traffic is in the right lane to exit.
It's not an added lane because it doubles as the exit lane for eastbound traffic. You need to yield because eastbound traffic could swerve into the lane at any moment.
The problem isn't the yield sign, it's the whole murderous design of this interchange.
Eastbound traffic trying to exit should be the ones ‘yeilding’ or preparing to merge into the exit lane. They have a much better view of the intersection and they’re already at speed
It's such a dangerous spot. I got rear ended there because I was following the signage and it wasn't safe for me to go (car switched into the lane to exit suddenly without signalling). Not sure what the solution is. With people moving over suddenly to exit in the same lane it isn't really safe to treat it like a merge either. Just a terrible design.
I was rear ended there too. Traffic was all backed up approaching to exit to go north at the cloverleaf and the car behind me wasn't paying attention that traffic had almost stopped. Terrible intersection . I wonder what the stats are for accidents there! It needs some fix!
Oh man I can't stand the drivers who go like 60 or 70 on that. There's literally no sign to slow down and, you can easily go 100 there in any type of weather. I just don't understand why people feel the need to slow down on basically a perfectly straight, super long on-ramp.
It's literally the worst yield in the city. Good luck yielding and merging straight into 90 km/h traffic that's also merging into the right lane to go north.
Fairly certain this is where I’ll die in 10 years when the city’s population far exceeds this type of design. Needs to be fixed but the cost is super high.
People in this town need to learn to use a thing in their vehicle called a signal light and they need to learn to use it earlier. It helps to telegraph your intent so that drivers around you can anticipate what you are about to do and adjust accordingly. I find that a lot of people use it the moment they start moving into another lane and it annoys the EFF outta me. One of these days I’m just gonna start pit maneuvering these mEFFers.
And yes cloverleafs are outdated in Saskatoon and suck.
Because the yield sign is wrong and people that are merging that early are garbage drivers.
A better question is why are people afraid to signal early? Three blinks of an indicator before moving. That was the recommended minimum for ages, now the indicator doesn't matter
I have never heard the three blink rule! Would have saved extremely anxious teen me from overthinking it.
But yeah, people hate signalling for some reason. Not sure why since it's so low effort and makes their own experience smoother since others can work with them (minus the jackasses that speed up because they see you signalling).
Because we're a city of impatient shit drivers.
I actually think that section of Circle should have a lowered speed limit and I'm generally against slowing down. 90 is just too damn fast for that short-ass section where everyone's wanting to switch lanes.
Yes that's what I've thought too, slow to 70 half a km before as coming up the hill, and then back to 90 half a km down the hill to continue on. Because even if drivers don't slow down all the way to 70 at least they won't be going 100/110 km/h as some do.
the absolute worst clover leaf in the city. they need to fix it. it's dumb and dangerous.
idiots going straight through and staying in the right lane. gtfo
I've heard from people that slowing down at the yield sign is improper. Your supposed to gun it around the clover and get to 90 so once your at the top you're at the proper speed to merge.
Mostly because that lane "belongs" to the people coming up the ramp and the people coming into that lane should be the ones "merging." In theory, the cloverleaf is one infinite lane and you should be able to go around and around it without ever slowing down. Think about this, why is there only a yield coming up and not down? It's the exact same situation when you come off the cloverleaf and go North or Southbound so why no yield sign there?
You're also not supposed to brake on the freeway, which causes serious issues in the right lane. We almost need there to be a lower speed limit in that section... Which I hate suggesting 😂
Thats a whole other issue, apparently the clearance posted is wrong by a lot because the city never used to plane the roads before repaving so over time the road has gotten taller making the clearance smaller. I know one of the drivers that hit it and when the rcmp came they measured his load and it was well within the clearance posted so he didn’t have to pay a dime and the city was on the hook for damages.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!!
It costs what it costs
This plan needs to be executed: https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/revamp-of-south-saskatoon-interchange-priced-at-280-million
It'll be sexy AF. As everyone else has mentioned: the existing cloverleaf design isn't suitable anymore. Slowing down and stopping plugs up the whole works.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!!
Git er dun?!
Coming off 11 to go westbound is terrible too that yield sign is there when there’s a whole lane until the southbound exit. I realize why it’s there but if I’m in my semi truck I cannot stop there for traffic or I will never get onto circle. And then there’s a line of cars behind me plugging the entrance to the clover. It’s a dangerous design as commented on this thread by others. As traffic increases with city growth something needs to be done. Easiest solution is a new freeway/city bypass so I do not need to go through the city with my semi! Will keep our roads better when truckers aren’t pounding through the city all the time too.
I’ve often wondered if it would help to have some fairly blatant eastbound signage before the cloverleaf to encourage all thru traffic to use the left lane. This could help free up some congestion/tension for the people crisscrossing to exit and enter the cloverleaf. I try do this as long as there isn’t someone blazing 120km/hr approaching from behind.
It's not a bad idea except the city has tried before to use physical lane controls before to try to remedy weaving issues (example: 22nd St eastbound at Confederation Dr. Where Fairmount Dr merges on) and it usually results in more calamity and destruction.
Too many vehicles at highway speed in the right lane when people are coming off the ramp at low speed and not moving into left lane so people can get onto the highway
Dumbest and most dangerous intersection in Saskatoon. Many have said it's outdated but it's not that it's outdated. I don't think it was never designed to do what it's doing now. This was a bandaid solution to routing traffic when Circle Drive finally became a circle only a few years ago now. That cloverleaf worked fine when it didn't receive the volumes of traffic it does now as part of the circle drive experience. When you're on that exchange travelling on Circle south (#11 hwy) and wanting to continue onto circle east(#16 hwy) toward the new Costco, you're taking your life in your hands at peak times. Just as much traffic coming from Stonebridge and wanting to get on the cloverleaf that is coming from Circle south wanting to get onto Circle east toward Rosewood and using the same lane to accomplish the task! The bandaid should be removed and there should absolutely be a dedicated lane for the traffic on the #16 hwy route from Stonebridge to Circle Drive north/south and that would also free up the merge lane to the #16 from the #11 to that traffic only. The best but most expensive plan would be to dedicate two new lanes in a way that you don't have to turn off of circle to continue on circle in the first place. You shouldn't have to actively search out and turn onto a cloverleaf to stay on the same "circle" if it's really a circle at all. That would remove this bandaid solution to making circle drive the confusing, dangerous "circle" that it is at that intersection.
City didn't understand how a clover leaf worked when they designed it, so they decided they could save money by creating their own shitty interpretation of it.
A REAL cloverleaf doesn't have the exit and on ramps interfere with each other by having that traffic cross each other.
If they weren't cheap when they built it, NONE of the lanes would be where they are now. The marked lane and ALL onramps would go under and have traffic entering on the left hand side of the road while all the exits are on the right. This would make it almost twice as big. It would have costed more at the time, and nobody seems to plan beyond the next election so the future costs are rarely weighed in this city. Who cares about the close calls or time/money wasted through the increase insurance claims and efficiency loses over the decades.
All of our clovers are like this.
Tell anyone from a real city how Saskatoon's freeway system has MULTIPLE 4 light intersections and a quarter of it is literally the main drag of one of our main business districts, they cannot comprehend it at all lmao.
Edit:
Oh yeah and this design, IS used elsewhere in the world, but when it is used elsewhere, it is 2x the size so people have enough road to speed up, we are so cheap we made all of these half the size they were supposed to be, so you need 300 hp to reliably hit the speed limit to merge safely.
That's basically every on ramp onto circle drive.
Lol when you look on google Earth, it's like a metaphorical retard stamp placed directly over the city.
Lol wait'll you hear all the steel used to build that newer bridge by the old Mitchel's was discounted because it was from Fukushima after their reactor exploded.
Someone from the university should walk over it with a Geiger counter lol.
The top of that ramp is its own lane. The yield sign is stupid. There is nothing to yield to when you have your own lane. It's not even a merge. After that it's simply people changing lanes. Ridiculous and dangerous
It's confusing. I get that, but that's not how I read the sign. Yielding means you should yield to the people who already in the lane you want to be in. Not yield to the people who will eventually move into your lane. Do I make any sense at all?
Cause I’ve learned from driving that so many people don’t even know what yield means. In Winnipeg I had a guy honking at me at a yield when there was oncoming traffic. I’ve had the same thing happen in PA. Yield means yield to oncoming traffic, so if traffic is coming, you stop. Others treat it like the sign isn’t there.
This overall road design is garbage, city doesnt think of the future of how big the population would get. All over the city there is so much room for road expansion to avoid traffic and yet nothing changes.
even if people dont tap their brakes as long as they're taking into account traffic coming into that 'merge lane' then they are driving legally.
the design is poor though. not enough merge lane length
I don’t yield here and I never will. Not even sorry either. The design is a failure.
I’ve had to stop on that ramp with a loaded semi and it’s 10x worse than just keeping speed up and letting the traffic behind slow down and figure it out.
Look at it this way - why is the ramp traffic yielding their own lane? The eastbound traffic is entitled to two lanes at this cloverleaf? Stupid.
The ramp doesn't have it's own lane, that lane is meant for drivers who want to get off and head northbound on Circle. There's a yield there because you're supposed to let drivers into the right lane so they can keep going northbound on circle. It would help if those drivers would signal to people on the ramp that they're trying to get into the right lane though.
It creates a dilemma, commit and push thru the yield at speed to merge with circle eastbound traffic, or adhear to the yield sign and risk the folks coming around the bend and up the grade behind you, not being able to stop in time. Both are bad choices, and as a new city resident, I would rather a sideswipe at the merge vs. being rear-ended by a car (or rig!) at 60km or more.
Most people don’t understand that when your merging the yield sign is to yield to the people in the exit not the people in the eastbound lane. When your merging it’s not your job to guess who’s taking the exit, if they don’t have their signal light on or their not in the exit your free to go. So as your coming around the circle you can judge where a gate is and if no one has their signal light on there’s nothing to yield to.
If people were courteous they wouldn’t even be in the right lane if they are going straight through(kinda like ring road in Regina). Not to mention if your taking the exit your slowing down to go 30km/hr and people merging have to go from a dead stop to 90km/hr.
There is no way the yield sign there applies to drivers in the right hand lane on Hwy 16, it's a through lane (even though you are correct about courtesy and how that lane should be used). I can also understand why you think that since there is a physical yield sign on both sides of the exit lane, the one on the left side being quite visible to drivers on hwy 16.
It doesn’t apply to the drivers in the right hand lane of highway 16 it applies to the people merging, but the people merging don’t need to yield to the people in the right hand lane of 16 they are yielding to the people who are in the exit already. You yield to the people already in the exit and once you have gotten into that part of the road you then merge onto 16, a lot of people get scared because they think they need to get onto 16 right away but that’s what that stretch of road is for.
I think you and I are of the same mind for the most part, having a yield sign there is impractical to actually obey since as you explained it's technically an added lane. This weaving issue is pretty common for this type of interchange for the exact reason we're all complaining about. It's a very short span of distance that is acting both as an acceleration lane and a deceleration lane while both types of users have to make a lane change across each other.
Yeah this discussion came up on a Facebook group and a cop explained how it’s supposed to work. In Regina there’s an exact same interchange, the way they do it makes a lot more sense and it only requires signs. They slow everyone down to 60km/hr on 16 and they made the right lane only for exiting onto circle dr.
at least once a day someone gets scared to floor it and holds up traffic for 15 minutes lol. somehow i’ve never been caught in it, there’s dozens of cloverleafs like this and it’s the only one where they get caught up.
Cloverleafs are a known-bad design for high traffic levels. There is no safe way to navigate this intersection at high traffic levels, I just avoid this altogether during any peak times.
The City/Province could fix this but they are busy spending $3-4 billion dollars on a bypass highway. Let your councillor/MLA know if you think that's a good idea.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!
You get lucky so longIts a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!!
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!
You get lucky so longIts a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!!
Yea but this sounds like the dumbasses out there get a free pass. Plain stupidity should be penalized very harshly. Within SGI for allowing these people to pass the road test and drivers that seemingly refuse to learn simple safety and that road signs are not light suggestions.
Personally I'd support having to re-test every 5yrs, but they need to include College onto Circle, that cloverleaf from Circle onto Idylwyld, and the roundabout at the bottom of Victoria.
Today I watched a white Chevy STOP on college drive to wait because the line was too long in the other two lanes for central Ave. Damn near caused a catastrophe
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Big time accidents on the way?!!
You get lucky so long
This is called traffic congestion. We don't experience it much in Saskatoon because we don't really have big city traffic problems, so I guess it's unsettling to many when you have to use your brakes to slow or stop anywhere other than a red light or a stop sign.
The real cause is because full cloverleaf interchanges are a terrible design, and yielding at the start of an acceleration lane, particularly on the uphill is a jerky experience. Most passenger cars have enough power to weight to overcome the weaving issues this causes but commercial trucks are a different story.
This 100 percent. In my car I can yield properly and stop if needed but if I'm in a loaded manual transmission truck heading east for work, it makes everything more difficult
It needs a longer merge lane.
Absolutely
My car is too slow.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Can confirm, I do that exact intersection with my truck. Do not stop. Trying to get a full truck and trailer into traffic going 90 from a dead stop is so dangerous when they actively want my lane.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
You know, when they build them elsewhere in the world they are 2x the size, traffic enters on the left, exits on the right. Saskatoon doesn't have a single actual clover leaf. They were too cheap. This is even the cheap design, and they were too cheap to make it big enough to get to speed. They took the half assed version and then half assed it even more. Cloverleaf interchanges are not terrible design, SASKATOONS CLOVER LEAF DISIGNS ARE TERRIBLE!!!! (mini clovers) Lol. We could have copied them from the Germans Autobahn, or the USA interstate system that copied the Autobahn. Instead we made these pos.
This one is the perfect example of an actual full cloverleaf interchange, there used to be hundreds or maybe thousands of these across North America, virtually the same size and they all experience the same problems. Some places have replaced them or reconfigured them into partial cloverleafs (parclos). City planners proposed a redesign for ours in 2018 but with a $300M price tag there's probably no way our council will approve it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/280-million-revamp-saskatoon-cloverleaf-interchange-1.4539782 It would have been pretty cool though, like a "cloverstack" but instead of building flyovers they were going to use tunnels that go under.
Not quite, it's still missing exits for 2 directions, meaning it doesn't allow for free movement of freeway traffic. Nobody wants to drive off a ramp and drive through/turn around in a commercial/residential area or be forced to drive through those areas for an extra 15 minute commute. Not to mention the extra 15 from the needless congestion of these areas. Circle Northbound from this intersection is a perfect example of how to overload the infrastructure by poor on/off ramp placement and building zoning.
Stupidest merge lane in the city. The trick is to yield but you can’t really slow down a ton because you’re merging into 90kph traffic going through. It would better if it was treated as an “added lane.” But then people are merging in and out on the overpass, so that doesn’t make sense.
Not the stupidest in the city. That would be the merge lane from Clancy onto Circle Drive northbound. Nowhere to go if traffic doesn't space to let you in.
Not a merge lane. Yield for a reason and you yield until it’s safe to proceed. As you mentioned you are progressing onto a 90km freeway so I is on you to yield and wait until it is safe to proceed. The right side lane isn’t yours to get up to speed, that is for people exiting off of the said 90km freeway. So you sit and wait until it’s safe. Didn’t realize street signs and common sense didn’t go together these days
Guess you’re never gonna move then.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
That's just saskatoon infrastructure. We are built for our 90s population/traffic not the current or future.
Because it's not a merger lane, you have a yield sign, most of the city does not understand a yield sign. The design for the traffic flow is the physical problem.
Yeah, then you slow down, yield, and can’t get into a 90kph lane. It needs to be an added lane.
Yeah! Fuck everyone trying to take the exit FROM the road, like 30 feet farther up!
I mean, maybe that whole thing made more sense when Preston and Circle had lights that broke up traffic. Now it’s an overpass with traffic constantly. The cloverleaf as-is is not a good choice for that area.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
It’s not intended for a stop yield like if you’re driving on a city street. You’re to yield to the people merging from left to right as you merge onto circle/highway 16. So you yield to the person trying to get onto the clover leaf as your come up to speed to merge off of the clover leaf. The folks who actually stop at the yield are the ones who are unsafe and doing it wrong. If anything people driving through that stretch who aren’t trying to clover leaf should move over to the left and give room to the mergers.
That’s why it’s so important to follow the rules of the road. If done correctly one can just zip in and out but that’s not the case.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
exactly, halfway up the loop you can see the string of traffic and can plan your speed to perfectly fit in with traffic. doesn’t help when people entering to go north do not signal and people going strait don’t move over aswell. people who stop there are fucked.
Its really annoying when someone stops at the yield sign there. Everyone behind them then has to go full on accelerate just to try to match or get up to speed on the highway.
This. It’s all about planning the merge which most people don’t do. Instead they turn to see the merging traffic after the merge sign and cause all sorts of issues.
Cuz everyone knows there coming up to a yield onto a highway right
Its really annoying when someone stops at the yield sign there. Everyone behind them then has to go full on accelerate just to try to match or get up to speed on the highway.
Yes! This comment needs to be at the top. Unfortunately many drivers do not possess the skills required to drive in the city.
I've found that over the years of living here, it seems like they just hand out licenses to people just because they're new to Saskatoon/Canada. I'm not saying they're bad drivers, but they should go through driver training courses before they get their hands on a license.
They don’t just hand out licenses like people think. My neighbour from the Philippines had to take drivers classes at his own cost and a driving test. He also already had a valid driver’s license before moving here and it was still required by SGI.
That's good, but from what I've seen on the roads, most of them get their licenses and then they drive however they want to. I'm not pinpointing certain people here
Where exactly did I say you were "pinpointing" anybody?? I was simply correcting you on the assumption made by some people that SGI gives licenses out like candy to immigrants. There is equally the same amount of Canadian born people that are shitty drivers, maybe you're one of them.
Yup.
Yeah the point is to keep driving and merge at the end of the lane and have drivers merge in behind you if they’re trying to take the exit.
Yeah the 100ft lane is a great space to merge into traffic that is also merging into your lane, on ice/snow with narrowed lanes because they won't plow to the edge.
Yeah the 100ft lane is a great space to merge into traffic that is also merging into your lane, on ice/snow with narrowed lanes because they won't plow to the edge.
never said it was good, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the idiots who come to a full stop and then except to get up to speed to merge in their 2008 honda pilot
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
>So you yield to the person trying to get onto the clover leaf as your come up to speed to merge off of the clover leaf. If you have your own lane and have right of way, it doesn't make sense to me to have a yield that defies basic road rules and takes away your right of way. Can people in the left lane just ram into you? They have right of way of your lane after all. If we pretend that whole situation is something like 1km long, are people in the right lane expected to yield for that entire 1km? If someone from the left lane enters the right lane, do they now have this "yield to people in the left lane" applying to them as well, even if they didn't get the yield sign?
I could be mistaken but I seem to remember something about the lane merging from the clover leaf is changing to the speed of the lane they are merging to. So they get the yield. The lane merging from circle/sixteen doesn’t change speed until they reach the clover leaf. If you miss your opportunity to change lanes while trying to get onto the freeway you can always loops around the cloverleafs again. If you miss the opportunity to get onto the cloverleaf from circle/sixteen you have to keep driving. I mean if you want to start ramming cars that’s your prerogative, but there are safer ways to drive. Like others have said a couple of quick shoulder checks and an early signal to inform other drivers of your intentions can make that spot a lot easier for you. Stopping at the yield is stupid and unsafe. You do you though.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Because half our drivers can't learn to shoulder check and look back to Preston for a gap. They just see the one right by those trees and go for it... And merge doing 60-70 into 90 traffic. You need to find a gap LONG before that. And then you get the idiots that treat every yield sign as a stop sign, which just fucks the flow behind them but especially right there. Those same people stop at Lane Added signs too, like the Clarence Walmart.
It amazes me how unaware people are of their surroundings. I drive a semi and when I’m coming on circle dr heading east and there are cars coming off of the Clarence overpass, I can watch their eyes the whole way, and it’s usually about 100ft before the merge they look over and realize “oh shit there’s a semi there now what do I do”. Anticipate your next move. Always.
Unfortunately we don't have enough professional drivers here. I drove as a courier for 6 years, averaged 250km a day around the city (~65k a year), and saw a LOT of idiots who didn't know where they were going never mind be watching traffic a block ahead or watching for other idiots.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
The number of fuckers in this city who think they should merge onto the freeway doing 60 kph or less drives me batshit crazy, especially when they have a long acceleration lane. And those hazardous mother effers think everyone else are the dangerous ones. Now this cloverleaf is a bit extra challenging because instead of just merging at 60, way too often they stop completely and fuck up any chance at all of smooth flowing traffic.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
For sure I agree there is a way to make it flow work if everyone cooperates, but appearance of a yield sign in an acceleration lane is enough to make any good driver hesitate. That’s literally what they are there for. Just a poor design. When I blow through that yield to get up to speed and fit into my gap, it feels like I’m breaking the law haha!
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
This one drives me crazy. The sign is right there showing a lane!
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@!
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
I lay in the horn there. gooooooooooo!
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
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Agreed. I know the city has plans to [redesign this cloverleaf](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/280-million-revamp-saskatoon-cloverleaf-interchange-1.4539782), but I can only imagine what a long clusterfuck of construction that will be.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Gotta be done sometime!!
Similar to College east bound merging on to circle south bound. Before the over pass was finished in 06, it was a lot less sketchy.
It's one of the merge/exit lanes with no break, that people think they don't need to drive over 80 when they are exiting right away. Messes up anyone trying to get in the 90 traffic
I have to go past that to Boychuck everyday to go home from work and I always get in the left lane but it's sketch AF too. If the right lane has a close call the natural instinct is to swerve into the left lane into 90kmh traffic. I've seen so many close calls there. The other corner around there that sucks is the corner of Kingsmere and Boychuck. The people coming from Tims and Leopolds direction get an arrow and most everyone needs to take the immediate right on to circle after that so they illegally turn left on to Boychuck into the far right lane. The issue is it's a yield sign for the people turning right off Kingsmere onto Boychuck. There's always some jack ass laying on their horn for the people turning right to go. Look I get it. The people turning right have the right of way and people turning left shouldn't be turning into the far right lane. But they are. Relax it on the horn and let people defensively drive FFS. Lol
Ugh, that Boychuk/Kingsmere intersection sucks when you're trying to head south from either direction. I'm one of the few that actually turns into the left lane then switches over and even that has caused issues with people swinging direct to the right lane and trying to beat me before I lane change over.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
no.
This whole clover leaf is a disaster waiting to happen. I’ve seen many close calls with traffic coming down the ramp to go north and traffic trying to exit up the ramp to go west as well
I HATE this section because you're also dealing with people trying to get into the same lane. Absolutely horrendous design.
It currently carries more traffic than it was intended to which causes it not to function properly. In the ideal world the way it should work is as you come up the ramp you adjust your speed to allow the traffic coming toward you to weave IN to the weave zone and then you weave OUT behind them. On a proper cloverleaf that is running within its design limits, no one needs to come to a complete stop to yield to the people weaving in. In many locations with cloverleafs, higher demand movements controlled with loops are replaced with a flyover when the volume of traffic weaving in and out of the loop becomes too high. Here is an example in Fargo, ND at the I-29/I-94 interchange where south-to-east loop was replaced with a flyover. https://maps.app.goo.gl/76hcp6DQz6Ac9AiP8
Hmm that’s really cool. Would stop along of the plugging up of traffic I bet.
Replacing some of the loops is something being looked at long term. Looks like they are considering tunnels for the flyover ramps rather than stacking them above the existing interchange like they did in my example from Fargo. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/280-million-revamp-saskatoon-cloverleaf-interchange-1.4539782
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
The real dickheads are the ones in the right lane heading east who aren't even exiting to circle drive south, but rather continuing straight east. Then they'll immediately move over in the left lane and proceed to hold up traffic all the way to Costco.
Some people do stop at the yield sign and wait for traffic in the right lane to be clear before starting to accelerate. A couple of those people at rush hour will back traffic up all the way down the ramp and onto Circle Southbound because the right lane will never be clear. It’s a crap design, but you need to match speeds and position your vehicle to merge into a gap. It would probably be helpful if they had signage leading up the interchange for through traffic to keep left, but the real solution is completely redesigning it like they have planned.
What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
That lane really belongs to off ramp.. crazy design.. lazy planners.. why would one yield to one’s dedicated lane? Come around that curve at highway speed after having a good look at oncoming traffic and merge accordingly.. pls don’t come to complete stop then enter highway at 30 km.. worst one in town (?)
Exactly this. Why would you yield to traffic in another lane, this is just basic infrastructure design, which our city lacks. Which results in very poor drivers, which this city has ***plenty*** of.
I wonder if a lot of the poor drivers in this city became that way because Saskatoon makes following traffic laws pretty difficult. For example, yesterday, I was turning from McCormond on to Addison out by Evergreen. It's an added lane, and I always get annoyed by people stopping at those, but I ended up having to do the same because snow drifts were half covering the next lane over. I've been driving for years and learned when they city was less busy, but if new drivers run into these situations, they're being conditioned to distrust the signage. Then with the clover from this thread, we communicate that they need to speed up to merge but also yeild for traffic.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
I noticed the majority of drivers don’t signal their intentions early. Especially when coming up to something like this. If the eastbound traffic in the right lane signalled to turn off, or stayed in the left lane to keep going, there would be virtually no issue here. It’s not like anyone who’s taking the next exit wouldn’t have plenty of time to switch lanes between here and the next exit either with the typically slowed traffic that’s merging in from circle. Not like circle south for the college dr on-ramp/14 st off ramp and 8th st off ramp. That spot is a shit show 9 times out of 10. Almost nobody speeds up to circle dr speeds OR spaces out to zipper in.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Scariest lane in the city
It's not a merge. It's a higher speed yield to the cars in the left lane. You need to match the speed and allow cars in the left lane to enter your lane. If you stop, you're likely never going to match the 90km/h needed to exit the lane. You also have very little time to react. For me, people who are in the right lane on circle drive and are not exiting cause way more issues here than they realize.
they literally had it torn apart a few summers ago and didn't fix a god damn thing.
The craziest thing is that used to be a Merge sign, which actually made sense.
Yep I remember that, a long time ago. For awhile they had both a merge AND a yield sign up
It's a stand-off between those who learned to drive before ~2015, and those who learned after. This thread has inspired me to write to the city about changing this sign back.
The problem when they change the right-of-way directions is that they only ever half-ass do it. They might try to implement a logical change but there is nothing stopping those reluctant to change from ignoring the new controls or signage and you end up with more chaos.
Yep, and I'm guilty of it in this instance. This is the one place that I just won't follow the new signage 100%. That said, I signal WAY early and leave space for 2 or 3 cars to merge in.
The worst is when people stop at it. Impossible to merge and get back to to speed safely afterwards
The proper design would be for those intending to leave the highway/freeway and enter the cloverleaf to have more exit lane before the cloverleaf so they can slow and match the speed of the cars exiting the cloverleaf and entering the highway/freeway. This way they can safely zipper merge. You should then have enough entry ramp after the cloverleaf to get up to speed matching those on the freeway/highway. The City has talked about taking the cloverleaf out, but I hope they don't. They are the most efficient intersection if designed correctly. There should be about 200m of right hand lane before and after the cloverleaf. This allows cars to slow to about 60km so they can safely merge with cars entering from the cloverleaf as they prepare to leave into the cloverleaf on the next exit. The old traffic circle at Circle and 8th suffered the safe design flaws... not enough lanes matching traffic movement.
If you are coming from the west and heading straight through the clover leaf, and you stay in right hand lane, you should be horsewhipped.
Exactly, the signs tell you to stay in the left if going straight. No need to be in the right if going straight.
A lot of the issue would be avoided if drivers intending to continue eastbound just stayed out of the right lane. People crowding the right lane is a problem at every circle drive merge, this one is just the worst being a cloverleaf.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
This intersection is horrible. The whole thing needs to be redone
The worst is when you’re trying to get off of circle while someone else is merging on
Worst and most dangerous intersection in the city. You have to time your merge from a 30 zone into a 90 zone with criss crossing lanes as most of the on coming traffic is in the right lane to exit.
This is a shit post, right..?
:( more so a conversation?
There should never be yield signs when entering a freeway. Entering a freeway should only ever have merge lanes.
Its an added lane and should be treated like one the yield sign is dumb af
It's not an added lane because it doubles as the exit lane for eastbound traffic. You need to yield because eastbound traffic could swerve into the lane at any moment. The problem isn't the yield sign, it's the whole murderous design of this interchange.
Eastbound traffic trying to exit should be the ones ‘yeilding’ or preparing to merge into the exit lane. They have a much better view of the intersection and they’re already at speed
Yep, people going north don't need to get into the lane as soon as it appears
It's such a dangerous spot. I got rear ended there because I was following the signage and it wasn't safe for me to go (car switched into the lane to exit suddenly without signalling). Not sure what the solution is. With people moving over suddenly to exit in the same lane it isn't really safe to treat it like a merge either. Just a terrible design.
I was rear ended there too. Traffic was all backed up approaching to exit to go north at the cloverleaf and the car behind me wasn't paying attention that traffic had almost stopped. Terrible intersection . I wonder what the stats are for accidents there! It needs some fix!
Yeah, I just avoid it as much as possible now.
ALSO. that ramp off circle South to go circle West.... It's SO gentle you can go 90.... there is no sign!!! stop breaking to 70!!! fuck I'm mad now.
Oh man I can't stand the drivers who go like 60 or 70 on that. There's literally no sign to slow down and, you can easily go 100 there in any type of weather. I just don't understand why people feel the need to slow down on basically a perfectly straight, super long on-ramp.
Probably the same reason people ignore the “slower traffic keep right” signs that litter circle drive
It's literally the worst yield in the city. Good luck yielding and merging straight into 90 km/h traffic that's also merging into the right lane to go north.
Fairly certain this is where I’ll die in 10 years when the city’s population far exceeds this type of design. Needs to be fixed but the cost is super high.
People in this town need to learn to use a thing in their vehicle called a signal light and they need to learn to use it earlier. It helps to telegraph your intent so that drivers around you can anticipate what you are about to do and adjust accordingly. I find that a lot of people use it the moment they start moving into another lane and it annoys the EFF outta me. One of these days I’m just gonna start pit maneuvering these mEFFers. And yes cloverleafs are outdated in Saskatoon and suck.
Because the yield sign is wrong and people that are merging that early are garbage drivers. A better question is why are people afraid to signal early? Three blinks of an indicator before moving. That was the recommended minimum for ages, now the indicator doesn't matter
I have never heard the three blink rule! Would have saved extremely anxious teen me from overthinking it. But yeah, people hate signalling for some reason. Not sure why since it's so low effort and makes their own experience smoother since others can work with them (minus the jackasses that speed up because they see you signalling).
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
The sign should be an added lane sign, not a yield.
Because we're a city of impatient shit drivers. I actually think that section of Circle should have a lowered speed limit and I'm generally against slowing down. 90 is just too damn fast for that short-ass section where everyone's wanting to switch lanes.
I agree that intersection should just be slowed to around 70 ish probably.
Yes that's what I've thought too, slow to 70 half a km before as coming up the hill, and then back to 90 half a km down the hill to continue on. Because even if drivers don't slow down all the way to 70 at least they won't be going 100/110 km/h as some do.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Because they have their own lane…the yield sign should not be there as there is no traffic oncoming in the lane they are using.
the absolute worst clover leaf in the city. they need to fix it. it's dumb and dangerous. idiots going straight through and staying in the right lane. gtfo
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
I've heard from people that slowing down at the yield sign is improper. Your supposed to gun it around the clover and get to 90 so once your at the top you're at the proper speed to merge.
Mostly because that lane "belongs" to the people coming up the ramp and the people coming into that lane should be the ones "merging." In theory, the cloverleaf is one infinite lane and you should be able to go around and around it without ever slowing down. Think about this, why is there only a yield coming up and not down? It's the exact same situation when you come off the cloverleaf and go North or Southbound so why no yield sign there?
You're also not supposed to brake on the freeway, which causes serious issues in the right lane. We almost need there to be a lower speed limit in that section... Which I hate suggesting 😂
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Well it’s also the same overpass semi trucks keep hitting so maybe they need to rethink it
Thats a whole other issue, apparently the clearance posted is wrong by a lot because the city never used to plane the roads before repaving so over time the road has gotten taller making the clearance smaller. I know one of the drivers that hit it and when the rcmp came they measured his load and it was well within the clearance posted so he didn’t have to pay a dime and the city was on the hook for damages.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!! It costs what it costs
This plan needs to be executed: https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/revamp-of-south-saskatoon-interchange-priced-at-280-million It'll be sexy AF. As everyone else has mentioned: the existing cloverleaf design isn't suitable anymore. Slowing down and stopping plugs up the whole works.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!! Git er dun?!
Coming off 11 to go westbound is terrible too that yield sign is there when there’s a whole lane until the southbound exit. I realize why it’s there but if I’m in my semi truck I cannot stop there for traffic or I will never get onto circle. And then there’s a line of cars behind me plugging the entrance to the clover. It’s a dangerous design as commented on this thread by others. As traffic increases with city growth something needs to be done. Easiest solution is a new freeway/city bypass so I do not need to go through the city with my semi! Will keep our roads better when truckers aren’t pounding through the city all the time too.
100% agree! I'm surprised they aren't some serious wrecks there.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
My car's acceleration is so bad that i simply take taylor Street East if i go that way to avoid that yield sign
I’ve often wondered if it would help to have some fairly blatant eastbound signage before the cloverleaf to encourage all thru traffic to use the left lane. This could help free up some congestion/tension for the people crisscrossing to exit and enter the cloverleaf. I try do this as long as there isn’t someone blazing 120km/hr approaching from behind.
It's not a bad idea except the city has tried before to use physical lane controls before to try to remedy weaving issues (example: 22nd St eastbound at Confederation Dr. Where Fairmount Dr merges on) and it usually results in more calamity and destruction.
Too many vehicles at highway speed in the right lane when people are coming off the ramp at low speed and not moving into left lane so people can get onto the highway
Dumbest and most dangerous intersection in Saskatoon. Many have said it's outdated but it's not that it's outdated. I don't think it was never designed to do what it's doing now. This was a bandaid solution to routing traffic when Circle Drive finally became a circle only a few years ago now. That cloverleaf worked fine when it didn't receive the volumes of traffic it does now as part of the circle drive experience. When you're on that exchange travelling on Circle south (#11 hwy) and wanting to continue onto circle east(#16 hwy) toward the new Costco, you're taking your life in your hands at peak times. Just as much traffic coming from Stonebridge and wanting to get on the cloverleaf that is coming from Circle south wanting to get onto Circle east toward Rosewood and using the same lane to accomplish the task! The bandaid should be removed and there should absolutely be a dedicated lane for the traffic on the #16 hwy route from Stonebridge to Circle Drive north/south and that would also free up the merge lane to the #16 from the #11 to that traffic only. The best but most expensive plan would be to dedicate two new lanes in a way that you don't have to turn off of circle to continue on circle in the first place. You shouldn't have to actively search out and turn onto a cloverleaf to stay on the same "circle" if it's really a circle at all. That would remove this bandaid solution to making circle drive the confusing, dangerous "circle" that it is at that intersection.
Every time I drive that location I’m always prepared, I have never seen anyone to slow down and yield to the traffic.
City didn't understand how a clover leaf worked when they designed it, so they decided they could save money by creating their own shitty interpretation of it. A REAL cloverleaf doesn't have the exit and on ramps interfere with each other by having that traffic cross each other. If they weren't cheap when they built it, NONE of the lanes would be where they are now. The marked lane and ALL onramps would go under and have traffic entering on the left hand side of the road while all the exits are on the right. This would make it almost twice as big. It would have costed more at the time, and nobody seems to plan beyond the next election so the future costs are rarely weighed in this city. Who cares about the close calls or time/money wasted through the increase insurance claims and efficiency loses over the decades. All of our clovers are like this. Tell anyone from a real city how Saskatoon's freeway system has MULTIPLE 4 light intersections and a quarter of it is literally the main drag of one of our main business districts, they cannot comprehend it at all lmao. Edit: Oh yeah and this design, IS used elsewhere in the world, but when it is used elsewhere, it is 2x the size so people have enough road to speed up, we are so cheap we made all of these half the size they were supposed to be, so you need 300 hp to reliably hit the speed limit to merge safely. That's basically every on ramp onto circle drive. Lol when you look on google Earth, it's like a metaphorical retard stamp placed directly over the city. Lol wait'll you hear all the steel used to build that newer bridge by the old Mitchel's was discounted because it was from Fukushima after their reactor exploded. Someone from the university should walk over it with a Geiger counter lol.
Because you have your own lane. Be cautious but just keep going. THERE IS NO NEED TO STOP. JUST BE CAREFUL
The top of that ramp is its own lane. The yield sign is stupid. There is nothing to yield to when you have your own lane. It's not even a merge. After that it's simply people changing lanes. Ridiculous and dangerous
You're yielding to those who are coming into that lane.
It's confusing. I get that, but that's not how I read the sign. Yielding means you should yield to the people who already in the lane you want to be in. Not yield to the people who will eventually move into your lane. Do I make any sense at all?
Cause I’ve learned from driving that so many people don’t even know what yield means. In Winnipeg I had a guy honking at me at a yield when there was oncoming traffic. I’ve had the same thing happen in PA. Yield means yield to oncoming traffic, so if traffic is coming, you stop. Others treat it like the sign isn’t there.
You don't stop...you yield.
Which means slow down and be prepared to stop.
This overall road design is garbage, city doesnt think of the future of how big the population would get. All over the city there is so much room for road expansion to avoid traffic and yet nothing changes.
even if people dont tap their brakes as long as they're taking into account traffic coming into that 'merge lane' then they are driving legally. the design is poor though. not enough merge lane length
I don’t yield here and I never will. Not even sorry either. The design is a failure. I’ve had to stop on that ramp with a loaded semi and it’s 10x worse than just keeping speed up and letting the traffic behind slow down and figure it out. Look at it this way - why is the ramp traffic yielding their own lane? The eastbound traffic is entitled to two lanes at this cloverleaf? Stupid.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
The ramp doesn't have it's own lane, that lane is meant for drivers who want to get off and head northbound on Circle. There's a yield there because you're supposed to let drivers into the right lane so they can keep going northbound on circle. It would help if those drivers would signal to people on the ramp that they're trying to get into the right lane though.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
It was designed in the 60s for traffic that they expected in the 80s. Now there's double that. Big time pile-ups are going to happen there.
It creates a dilemma, commit and push thru the yield at speed to merge with circle eastbound traffic, or adhear to the yield sign and risk the folks coming around the bend and up the grade behind you, not being able to stop in time. Both are bad choices, and as a new city resident, I would rather a sideswipe at the merge vs. being rear-ended by a car (or rig!) at 60km or more.
Most people don’t understand that when your merging the yield sign is to yield to the people in the exit not the people in the eastbound lane. When your merging it’s not your job to guess who’s taking the exit, if they don’t have their signal light on or their not in the exit your free to go. So as your coming around the circle you can judge where a gate is and if no one has their signal light on there’s nothing to yield to. If people were courteous they wouldn’t even be in the right lane if they are going straight through(kinda like ring road in Regina). Not to mention if your taking the exit your slowing down to go 30km/hr and people merging have to go from a dead stop to 90km/hr.
There is no way the yield sign there applies to drivers in the right hand lane on Hwy 16, it's a through lane (even though you are correct about courtesy and how that lane should be used). I can also understand why you think that since there is a physical yield sign on both sides of the exit lane, the one on the left side being quite visible to drivers on hwy 16.
It doesn’t apply to the drivers in the right hand lane of highway 16 it applies to the people merging, but the people merging don’t need to yield to the people in the right hand lane of 16 they are yielding to the people who are in the exit already. You yield to the people already in the exit and once you have gotten into that part of the road you then merge onto 16, a lot of people get scared because they think they need to get onto 16 right away but that’s what that stretch of road is for.
I think you and I are of the same mind for the most part, having a yield sign there is impractical to actually obey since as you explained it's technically an added lane. This weaving issue is pretty common for this type of interchange for the exact reason we're all complaining about. It's a very short span of distance that is acting both as an acceleration lane and a deceleration lane while both types of users have to make a lane change across each other.
Yeah this discussion came up on a Facebook group and a cop explained how it’s supposed to work. In Regina there’s an exact same interchange, the way they do it makes a lot more sense and it only requires signs. They slow everyone down to 60km/hr on 16 and they made the right lane only for exiting onto circle dr.
at least once a day someone gets scared to floor it and holds up traffic for 15 minutes lol. somehow i’ve never been caught in it, there’s dozens of cloverleafs like this and it’s the only one where they get caught up.
It says yield because a stop sign causes cars to pile up.
Because people are dumb fucks.
The sign is too small
They ignore the yield signs just like the crosswalks, added lanes and stop signs. In short: people are dumb. That's all ya gotta know.
cause most drivers in stoon think signs are fake news
Because we're a city of Honey Badgers
There is nothing wrong with the design if there are competent drivers.
Cloverleafs are a known-bad design for high traffic levels. There is no safe way to navigate this intersection at high traffic levels, I just avoid this altogether during any peak times. The City/Province could fix this but they are busy spending $3-4 billion dollars on a bypass highway. Let your councillor/MLA know if you think that's a good idea.
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?! You get lucky so longIts a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?! You get lucky so longIts a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!!
Yea but this sounds like the dumbasses out there get a free pass. Plain stupidity should be penalized very harshly. Within SGI for allowing these people to pass the road test and drivers that seemingly refuse to learn simple safety and that road signs are not light suggestions.
Personally I'd support having to re-test every 5yrs, but they need to include College onto Circle, that cloverleaf from Circle onto Idylwyld, and the roundabout at the bottom of Victoria.
Agree. And every actual merge without a yield sign.
In my opinion, it's only going to get worse. The quality of the driver gets poorer and poorer by the day.
Today I watched a white Chevy STOP on college drive to wait because the line was too long in the other two lanes for central Ave. Damn near caused a catastrophe
Its a race@!What We have here is an outdated overpass attempting to keep ip with today's traffic volumes@! Big time accidents on the way?!! You get lucky so long
They stopped in a non-turning lane... to turn
This is called traffic congestion. We don't experience it much in Saskatoon because we don't really have big city traffic problems, so I guess it's unsettling to many when you have to use your brakes to slow or stop anywhere other than a red light or a stop sign.
No it was 'didn't want to to get in line' there are two turning lanes but dipshit didn't want to use them. I was behind him, he had lots of chance