River turns west towards downtown. North Calgary In north Calgary, the freeway climbs along the east side of Nose Creek, a tributary of the Bow River. From Memorial Drive, it passes the Vista Heights neighbourhood to 16 Avenue NE (Highway 1/Trans-Canada Highway); this section has been largely unchanged since its completion in 1975. The six lane freeway enters light commercial development north of 32 Avenue NE and passes McKnight Boulevard, providing access to airport-related light industrial areas as well as Nose Hill Park, which is visible to the west.. Access to Huntington Hills and Deerfoot Mall are then provided by an interchange at 64 Avenue NE. Beddington Trail splits to the northwest from Deerfoot, following Nose Creek into a large residential area of north Calgary that includes the neighbourhoods of Country Hills, Panorama Hills, and Hidden Valley. The speed limit on Deerfoot increases to 110 km/h as development tapers in an increasingly rural area of north Calgary. After West Nose Creek Park, an interchange with Airport Trail serves as the primary access for Calgary International Airport, and to the west, the neighbourhood of Harvest Hills via 96 Avenue NE. North of Airport Trail, the freeway curves northeast through light commercial areas across Country Hills Boulevard and ends at an interchange with Stoney Trail. It continues north to Airdrie as the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. Traffic and collisions Deerfoot Trail is Alberta's busiest highway by a significant margin over Glenmore Trail, with peak daily congestion lasting as many as four hours. Its most travelled stretch is between Memorial Drive and 16 Avenue NE (Trans-Canada Highway) as traffic from Calgary's northern and eastern suburbs converge to travel via Memorial Drive into downtown, in addition to traffic transiting the city and other intra-city trips. The freeway was designed to carry approximately 65,000 vehicles per day but carried 173,500 vehicles between Memorial Drive and Highway 1 in 2019. In late 2013, the southeastern segment of Stoney Trail was opened to traffic. In conjunction with the northeast portion which opened in 2009, it formed a full eastern bypass of Calgary providing an alternate route for traffic transiting the city. Traffic levels on Deerfoot Trail decreased in the year following the opening, but have since risen to pre-Stoney levels. In a 2016 study, Calgary ranked tenth in traffic congestion among major Canadian cities, with drivers spending nearly 16 hours of the year in standstill traffic. The