A Calgary man has reportedly spent years using one of the city’s busiest arterial roads as a makeshift driving range, and until last week, it appears no one intervened. Video footage captured by a community cleanup volunteer shows a man on the balcony of a white house near the Centre Street Bridge striking golf balls directly onto Memorial Drive, a four-lane road that carries tens of thousands of vehicles daily. The footage was posted to Reddit on May 3rd and has since generated over 150 comments, along with renewed calls for bylaw enforcement. “I hear what sounded like a branch falling,” wrote the volunteer, who runs a community initiative called Cleaning Up Calgary. “Then I look around, see nothing, and then I hear it again.” The source wasn’t falling branches. It was golf balls landing near their feet while traffic passed metres away.
A Pattern, Not an Incident
What distinguishes this from an isolated complaint is the apparent timeline.
The same volunteer had cleaned that stretch of riverbank nearly two years earlier and found golf balls scattered in the brush. At the time, they considered it an anomaly.
“I thought, maybe somebody could be doing this, but disregarded it cause that’s crazy,” they wrote.
If the behaviour has been ongoing, it raises a straightforward question: why has no enforcement action been taken?
Golf balls hit at driving-range speeds can exceed 100 km/h. On Memorial Drive, a ball striking a windshield or a cyclist could cause serious injury. The Centre Street Bridge area is also a well-used pedestrian and cycling corridor, with the Bow River pathway running directly below.
What the City Says
Under Calgary’s Traffic Bylaw, discharging projectiles in a manner that endangers others on a roadway can carry significant fines. Criminal Code provisions related to criminal negligence causing bodily harm could also apply if a person or vehicle were struck, though no charges have been laid.
On Camera
According to the volunteer’s account, the man appeared aware he was being observed, and continued regardless.
“He aimed a few more my way and I started filming, then probably stopped when he saw my phone.”
The volunteer was participating in a spring cleanup event near the river. They reported collecting 121 pounds of garbage from the site, along with what they described as a substantial number of golf balls buried in the brush, physical evidence, they say, of repeated long-term activity.
The video is being circulated on social media and reviewed by community members and local watchdog groups.
An Enforcement Gap on a Corridor Under Revitalization
Calgary bylaw frameworks exist precisely to address situations like this, unusual, but with clear potential for harm.
Memorial Drive is currently undergoing a phased revitalization, with significant city investment in improving the corridor as both a transit route and a recreational gateway. An undocumented hazard operating along it unchecked, however unconventional, is the kind of gap those frameworks are designed to close.
The volunteer who filmed the incident can be reached at CleaningUpCalgary@gmail.com. Calgary Dispatch will update this story as responses are received from city authorities.
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