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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
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12-15-2016, 11:46 AM
(12-14-2016, 08:18 PM)p2ee Wrote: I saw crews working this morning at King/Fredrick. It was around -10, even cooler with the wind chill. I hope they are being compensated fairly for working in that weather. I wouldn't want to stay out more than 10 mins in that weather. There was a group out this morning filling the trail gaps near the Davis Centre station this morning! I wouldn't have expected them to be applying asphalt at -11°C, but there they were. 
12-15-2016, 05:04 PM
Interesting what is happening in uptown today. Snow has not been removed from the rapidway on the east side of king and only partiially removed from new parking spots along the west side of king from William to willis. As a result cars cannot get in to the spots completely and are instead now parking so they straddle the parking spot and travel lane. Which means, when wider vehicles need to pass each other on king in this stretch they need to slow to a stop and one has creep in to the snow bank and up and on to the rapidway. It is not causing huge delays, but is slowing GRT and other larger vehicles a bit.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
12-15-2016, 05:23 PM
Given the enormity of today's snowfall I guess it's not unexpected that there would be some hiccups here and there. Sounds like they just need to figure out how to plough the spots, just like they do everywhere else.
12-15-2016, 05:51 PM
They do and don't do this successfully. Parallel parking in UpTown is always hideous in winter. I can remember last winter sitting in Princess Cafe, watching a pickup truck (whether the "farm" plate was an indicator of what would transpire, I don't know) try to jump the 3-4' plowrow, getting stuck, and winding up hitting both the vehicle in front and behind it enough times to move each of them visibly, before eventually unstranding themselves and running off.
On the plowing vein, you can check the streets perpendicular to King near UpTown and find ones where a single car can barely fit, and if you wind up halfway down the street with an oncoming car, someone either has to get into a driveway or back all the way out.
12-15-2016, 05:58 PM
Oopsie
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just a friendly reminder that there is No pickup window at this pizza place. Please park on the street and get your nails done. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/uptownopen?src=hash">#uptownopen</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qb1Bwuh0L3">pic.twitter.com/Qb1Bwuh0L3</a></p>— All My Nails Salon (@AllMyNailsSalon) <a href="https://twitter.com/AllMyNailsSalon/status/809190958634041348">December 15, 2016</a></blockquote>
12-15-2016, 06:20 PM
Not an unforgivable error, either - probably someone who finally returned to UpTown after 10 months of construction, just thought the entrance was unploughed and went through it.
12-15-2016, 08:11 PM
In Toronto during winter it's not unusual for streetcars to be forced to stop due to parked cars being so far out from the curb (thanks to snow) that they block the lane. I think they eventually tow the cars but it can cause serious delays. Is there any risk of that happening here?
12-15-2016, 08:20 PM
(12-15-2016, 08:11 PM)goggolor Wrote: In Toronto during winter it's not unusual for streetcars to be forced to stop due to parked cars being so far out from the curb (thanks to snow) that they block the lane. I think they eventually tow the cars but it can cause serious delays. Is there any risk of that happening here? I can't think of any places where the ROW neighbours a parking lane, so I doubt it.
Yeah, Kevin's right - not an issue here, but a lot of the recently-installed US "Streetcars" are struggling with this, due to their designs - KC, Cinci, Atlanta, DC... - there are all lots of news articles like these floating around about hem:
12-15-2016, 09:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-15-2016, 09:38 PM by danbrotherston.)
Typical, they refer to the crash as an "accident".
Regardless, it shouldn't be an issue on our line as there is no place where parking is adjacent to the LRT, and in fact zero shared ROW. The only thing I do see happening is drivers choosing to park on the street car LRT to run in somewhere, but we will see. That being said, I honestly feel the correct solution to the above problems should be a ram on the front of the LRV. Push them out of the way. Passengers have places to be, and drivers who park illegally should have no expectation of returning to an undamaged vehicle. But that's my opinion, not shared by all.
I have finally got all 250 photos I shot on Nov 26 for the system, including the open house.
You can find them at https://www.flickr.com/photos/drum118/al...0590612016 As for parking issues, some systems have not allow enough clearance for parking and the tram. Washington DC is one system and have seen it first hand. One issue that may show up is people parking on the ROW to do the quick pickup/drop off and should be hit with a huge fine. From what I have heard, both Cinci and Kansas City are experiencing very little parking issue at all.
12-16-2016, 07:28 AM
(12-15-2016, 09:38 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Typical, they refer to the crash as an "accident". If it was a freight line, nobody would disagree with you! Although to be fair, the laws of physics pretty much mandate your solution there. One thing that confuses me about our system is that in some places the LRT lane is separated from the traffic lanes by an actual curb, the usual 15cm or so in height, and in other places it’s just the almost flat curb that just has a slight depression to form a channel for water flow. For example I’m thinking King St. southbound south of Allen for the first, and King St. northbound north of Allen for the second. The flat one almost seems to invite incursion whereas the full curb, while not exactly preventing incursion, I think makes it absolutely crystal clear where vehicles are supposed to be. |
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