Roadways! They’re supposed to be clear paved routes for vehicles to safely pass through. In Calgary, Canada, however, the local road authorities occasionally diverted from this idea. They built giant pits to trap vehicles that dared to venture the wrong path.
There are all kinds of access control measures you can use to block a roadway. There are tire spikes, bollards, and boom gates if you desire to have selective access for some vehicles and not others. But seldom do we see authorities building actual traps to ensnare vehicles, while damaging them in the process.
The City of Calgary believed it had a good reason to do this. The intention was to create “transit-only” areas where public buses could travel, but personal vehicles could not. Thus was spawned a trap to capture the cars of unwary drivers going the wrong way.
Gotcha
The traffic control devices were commonly referred to as “bus traps.” It was a somewhat confusing name, as city buses were perfectly capable of passing over the traps unscathed. Instead, they were intended to stop commuter cars from entering designated transit-only lanes.
The design was quite simple. The traps consisted of a pit dug into the roadway, roughly a foot deep or so. The trap was reinforced with iron plating around the edges. Multiple large rollers span the trap which add a further obstacle to any vehicles that might happen to fall into it. They make it far more likely a vehicle will get stuck and be unable to reverse out of the trap. The traps worked by a very simple method—city buses were wide enough to drive over them without falling in. Regular commuter vehicles were narrower, and would get stuck.
After their installation in the 1970s, the bus traps soon became notorious in Calgary, trapping unaware drivers on the regular. All despite massive signs on each one, reading “DANGER: DO NOT ENTER. ROAD IMPASSABLE. VEHICLE TRAP IMBEDDED IN ROADWAY.” Of course, nobody is quite as good at missing an obvious road sign as a driver who has already decided where they’re going.
The traps had their drawbacks. They were intended to prevent regular traffic from using transit-only lanes. But, in the event somebody tried to drive through anyway, they’d end up blocking the very lane that the trap was supposed to keep clear.
The bus traps proved controversial, and not only because of their ability to trash cars that got stuck in them. The traps were often installed within neighborhoods on sections of road that were incredibly tedious to detour around. Oftentimes, a driver’s desire to take the shortcut got the better of them, before shortly bringing their vehicle to grief.
By 2024, the city had changed its position, noting the traps were not an ideal solution. “Ending up in a bus trap resulted in damages and costs as well as being a scary experience for drivers,” read the city’s statement. “They’re also counterproductive because transit service is interrupted when a vehicle is stuck in the exact lane that was meant to be kept clear.” Beyond these obvious problems, the traps had other drawbacks, too. They prevented the city’s smaller shuttle buses and emergency vehicles from using transit-only lanes, as well.
I swear I see this at least once a week. #yyc @CalgaryPolice @calgarytransit Bus trap at Centre and Beddington Trail pic.twitter.com/5aiPgaYCEq
— Tremaine (@tremaine) July 5, 2019
Another chapter of the bus trap series. pic.twitter.com/a5COgW5Lkk
— ???????? That AC Fan at CYYC (@JesseLiOH) October 30, 2023
It was eventually decided that the traps would be removed. The last seven were filled in during the early months of 2024. The city was still adamant that drivers were not to use transit-only lanes as shortcuts or for regular travel, but the punitive traps would no longer be in place. Instead, the city switched to simple signage to indicate the status of transit-only roads, with traffic cameras a potential addition if more enforcement was required.
Calgary isn’t the only city to have explored the use of bus traps. The city of Hillerød in Denmark used similar constructions for much the same reason. Meanwhile, those boisterous Australians have a creative version all their own—with sump-smashing devices installed on the Adelaide O-Bahn.
Canada’s bus traps are now gone, a memory of an era when traffic enforcement was punitive and brutal. These days, cities like to avoid bent metal and broken glass, preferring to snap photos and send fines instead.
Image credits: City of Calgary, DanOCan via YouTube Screenshot
These are the real reason monster trucks were invented.
The feed of the World Bollard Association shows that people will try to get away with driving where they’re not supposed to drive, time and again. https://bsky.app/profile/worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
I gotta admit, that was most entertaining.
I just love that there is a “World Bollard Association” – can any random bollard enthusiast join?
The “Caution: bollards will rise” one got me in particular. Beautiful.
The BMW could have just jumped half the wheels onto the sidewalk, though I suppsoe that would require awareness.
And a 1/2 psi change in tire pressure
These things sound like a way better way to catch BMWs than just trying to stab them with a spear.
Imbedded?
Drivers who don’t see the pit kinda get what they deserve. They shouldn’t be driving anyway.
These look like they could seriously injure motorcycle riders.
If you’re dumb enough to drive a motorcycle into a pit…I mean what are we doing here? lol
You underestimate how shitty most motorcycle headlights are at night.
I agree with you, but even my ’77 Honda threw enough light to make a 4’x8′ road sign visible.
shoot, I didn’t see your near identical comment..
I don’t but am fully aware even those headlights more feebler that I ever experienced could light up that 8 foot x 4 foot sign.
pfft…
That looks like a springtime pothole in Montreal.
Boy, oh boy are we having a bumper crop this year!
Nashville achieves the same effect with massive potholes in freeway lanes of black on black asphalt.
Try seeing them at night.
This was an educational and entertaining article! Thanks very much Lewin! 🙂
This isn’t as good as when Houston had car traps on the Katy Freeway. The roads would run under the freeway, often as much as 50′ below grade, and swallow sometimes dozens of cars when the rains started coming down and the roadways flooded. I distinctly remember watching the morning news as a reporter stood next to the underpass for the Beltway 8 feeder under I-10 talking about the confusion of the back end of a car sticking up out of the water. Later, when the water drained, that car was found to be sitting on top of like six or seven other cars. Luckily, they fixed most of that with the I-10 expansion.
Sounds like the solution was to buy an old bus and commute in it. Mercedes could have cruised the mean streets of Calgary without a care in the world.
Very true!
I want to try one of these to see if keeping the wheels on one side and in 4 low would be possible.
I had the same thought, would someone with locking differentials see this and say, “Challenge accepted.”
YES! Yes they would.
I also thought the same thing. Although perhaps an even more interesting challenge would be to have a very low to the ground car with a full skid plate, just drive right on, and see if you could glide across on the rollers and out the other side.
oh that is an Idea!
I have a track car with steel bars laced underneath the body to stiffen the frame.
Also creates easy jacking points under a very low car, which is very nice.
Driving over illegally abrupt speed bumps, or “vertical potholes”, it just grinds over them sounding like a bus crushing a VW.
I can’t imagine anyone drove into these deliberately, but at night, especially in the rain, who knows?
Stop signs locally are being placed so high you can’t see them through car windows, like many fast food places do with menus now.
They are also placing stop signs at nonsensical locations, so wildly unexpected.
I drove through some of these repeatedly before I realized they were there.
Many railroad tracks cuts are done exactly like road turnoffs with radiused curbs.
Not hard to see in sunlight, but easy to turn into at night in the rain.
Some versions of these traps are much more destructive.
I can’t imagine what geniuses thought this was a good idea, but I imagine it causes massive sabotage of the bus system.
Probably won’t help next time they need public funds either.
I’d dig my own pits far enough apart that commuter cars could pass between them but busses would get trapped. What’s fair is fair.
Let me tell you in Calgary, these would actually provide, and I’m sure did provide incentive to add a lift and some offset wheels to the most popular commuter vehicle, the F-150 because then its clear sailing into the sunset through the shortcuts that all those beta cucks in *cars* can’t use.
Yeah, but then 1CM of snow would have you ass up an embankment on Deerfoot Trail anyway.
Should have made them big enough to completely swallow vehicles. Problem: solved.
Actually welding the bars up so they’d cease to function as rollers would make it far more effective at keeping the lane clear (since a car could simply be backed out and even still it’s a mistake people would only make once) if less effective at generating fine revenue.
Clearly designed by the same evil souls that fine people for having a lawn mower in the back yard.
It’s no mystery that BTK found torturing citizens as a civil servant more destructive and satisfying than actual murder.
I sympathize with the trickiness of creating a travel path only for certain types of vehicles, but any solution that requires multiple signs, flashing lights, and warnings of impending doom or fines is a terrible design regardless of whether or not it ensnares the offending car. I seriously want someone who set it up to look at the last image in the article and tell me this is a well designed transit solution.
https://www.dictionary.com/e/imbed-vs-embed/
That was erking me.
(ugh I just gave myself a twitch at my own joke)
Half of the people who got caught in these things were probably distracted wondering if “imbedded” is the same as “embedded”.
I’ve seen too many vehicles try driving on the railroad tracks in Philly to know that these traps would be gong show anywhere else in the world.
Nice idea, other than using something that causes the passageway to be become even more blocked off if it works correctly. Causing the issue it was supposed to prevent in the first place.
How many Bus drivers had to wait around for a tow truck or someone with a winch, to removed the “trapped” car, before they could continue on their way?
Where I live, someone would get stuck as soon as the last person got winched out. The road would be continuously blocked and no amount of signage would help.
A little different here in the south. It wouldn’t take long for it to get filled with dirt or gravel. People love to ‘fix’ problems like this.
I’m surprised nobody was depositing handfuls of nails on either side of the traps to level the playing field. Canadians are so polite.
Honestly, I would not equate “transit” with bus only. So a a Sign that says “Transit Only” would mean nothing to me. Sure if I stop and think about it I’d probably figure it out. Maybe it is obvious to people who live their lives int he city or are from Canada.
“Hey, I’m driving a Transit!”
https://tenor.com/view/popcorn-truck-pothole-gif-27668329
True story, my dad’s secretary at one point complained that she couldn’t trade in her car for a new one, because she had an ’89 Escort and none of the gas stations around them sold 94 gasoline. She assumed the octane rating corresponded the car’s model year, and could never figure out what people who owned other years did for gas
People I know see me as the car guy and often come to me with car questions. One of the most frequent questions I get is, “what’s this noise coming from my car?”. On several occasions, when I asked if they’d checked their oil they just looked at me confused and wondered what I was even talking about. When I probed further into their oil situation for details about oil change intervals, oil change frequency, what kind of oil they used, etc. I learned they didn’t even know oil changes were a thing.
My ex’s mom didn’t know you could replace windshield wiper blades.
Brakes are another thing, too. I’ve seen brake pads worn all the way through the backing plates and rotors worn down to the vanes. Even the caliper pistons were worn. They said, “The other day I noticed my brakes don’t seem to work as good as they used to.”
I traded a car to someone I did not want to part with, but they insisted to close a deal.
High revving early Fiat Spider, ran perfect except for a minor oil leak I made him aware of.
So I run into him and two thugs I already knew and they start at me about conning him with a bad car.
First time I heard of an issue.
I point out all it needed was to add oil until you fixed the leak.
Guy says he wasn’t going to keep adding oil all the time.
Suddenly the thuggos are staring at him!
You stopped adding oil to the car?!!!
Perfectly good car!
You can’t let being wrong about something stop you from being an asshole over it. That’s unamerican! You have to double down, the people who know better are outnumbered by those who don’t.
His thuggy friends were mad at him when they realized he destroyed the engine.
That was satisfying, though I’m still mad he destroyed the car.
He’s the one that insisted on getting the car to begin with.
I think my old ’70 Newport could negotiate these traps without getting stuck. The track width was approximately the same as the distance between Gaspe to Kamloops.
Thanks to Farley Mowat describing the eastern Canadian seaboard in Grey Seas Under, this American knows approximately where those two places are. Don’t think the Foundation Franklin ever got to BC. Sure did get practically everywhere on Canada’s eastern seaboard, though!
I don’t know what any of that is. I’m just a map nerd.
It’s an entertaining read about a Canadian ocean going tugboat that salvaged ships pretty much everywhere in western North Atlantic. Only slightly stylized by Mowatt since what that boat and its people did is wild enough.
Somehow, I would have thought maybe Hanoi would have tried this first
Maybe if it was combined with spike strips.