Calgary city council is debating whether to add traffic lights to Metis Trail in order to save some cash down the road.

Metis Trail is currently designated as a skeletal road, meaning, like Glenmore Trail, it has interchanges and few traffic lights to move heavy volumes of traffic.

Aldermen were asked Wednesday to drop Metis to an arterial in a move that would save $250 million in future interchanges.

It would also would mean more traffic lights on the road that ferries thousands of transport trucks around the Calgary airport.

Alderman Jim Stevenson said he believes adding lights to Metis Trail would be a big mistake.

“No one wants another Macleod Trail up there,” he said. “We want to make sure traffic is moving and there's no question an arterial can move the traffic. The problem is, at what point can't it move it?”

Alderman Brian Pincott said he favours keeping Metis Trail as a skeletal road.

“Just making it a big expressway is saying, 'You know what? Okay, so we're going maybe make it work better for trucks,’ but we're guaranteeing it will never work for the tens of thousands who live there.”

The change in status lost on a tie vote but will be discussed again in July.