ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

That sign is not posted at the King St. entrance. Looks like that sign is posted for pedestrians trying to exit the plaza. Doesn't do much for people entering at King and Wellington. Even the construction fencing around the perimeter of the plaza bordering the construction area is littered with gaps which I am guessing is purposeful. Good ol' path of least resistance is in effect.

As far as I can see, there is no signage at all on the Victoria St side.

   

[jamincan]

Caroline was closed at Allen again this evening. It wasn't clear why, unfortunately.

[Elmira Guy]

@ trainspotter139

Agreed. I'm not suggesting there shouldn't be transparency and accountability, but this story smells a little bit.

[MacBerry]

Also sad to see no room left for the Bombardier badge.



Thank goodness!

[Canard]

Badge comes later - can't say why but they didn't want it on around the time of the open house.

[SammyOES2]

I just want it to be consistent. I want to go through (it's exciting!), but I can't, because I won't break the rules. So it pisses me off when I see others doing it without a care in the world. So they should either say "everyone can go through!", or "no one can go through".

So far the answer I have received is "no one can go through".

I have a hard time with attitudes like this.  If it doesn't effect you, just let it go.  Life is full of decisions to take 'risks' like this and face trade offs in things like personal safety and financial risk (fines) for saving time or effort.

If you don't want to take the risks (for whatever reason), fine.  But I don't see how other people doing it in these cases affects you.  TBH, I have more of a problem (although not much of one) with taking people pictures and putting it up on Twitter in some sort of public shaming.

[Canard]

Then take your own advice and don't look. It doesn't affect you.

For what it's worth, I've received further correspondence from GrandLinq - they're now aware of the problem and are investigating what can be done to prevent further trespassing.

Full access is expected in July.

[tomh009]

Putting up signs might be a good start. With no fences and no signs it really doesn't look like it's off limits to pedestrians.

[SammyOES2]

Then take your own advice and don't look. It doesn't affect you.

For what it's worth, I've received further correspondence from GrandLinq - they're now aware of the problem and are investigating what can be done to prevent further trespassing.

Full access is expected in July.

Oh, I see. I didn't realize you were the only one that could say their opinion here.

Edit: But by the way, your posting people's pictures on Twitter is much more of an effect on them then their walking somewhere you don't want them to.

[Canard]

Oh, I see. I didn't realize you were the only one that could say their opinion here.

???

Edit: But by the way, your posting people's pictures on Twitter is much more of an effect on them then their walking somewhere GrandLinq doesn't want them to.

Funny how we'd have no issue with this if it was a car that had driven through and got hung up.... which we did.

[Andy]

Grand Linq won't want to get sued, have their construction impacted, or have their supplies stolen. I can't see them caring about pedestrians on the construction site when its inactive, so long as that doesn't happen. Of course they can't openly admit any of that, since it would fall into the getting sued category.

It's like how they closed the Waterloo street pedestrian access across the rails. They put up a fence shortly after some complaints, but within the day there was already a gap. The gap hasn't been closed since. If someone hurts themselves climbing over the rocks, that's their choice. Grand Linq has done enough to advise the public it's an active construction site and to keep out.

[SammyOES2]

Edit: But by the way, your posting people's pictures on Twitter is much more of an effect on them then their walking somewhere GrandLinq doesn't want them to.

Funny how we'd have no issue with this if it was a car that had driven through and got hung up.... which we did.

You're not representing GrandLinq here or on Twitter.  If they care, they can deal with it.  (My guess is that they don't particularly care in cases like you're posting about beyond not wanting to be sued).

I have no idea what you're talking about with the car.

[Canard]

I have no idea what you're talking about with the car.

All I meant was that many months ago, people were driving through "closed" signs and getting their cars hung up on drop-offs.  I was actually biking around Erb/Caroline one time last fall and watched it happen one evening!  And people were posting all kinds of photos, making fun of the "idiot drivers" whenever it was happening - maybe not so much so on here, but on the facebook group and twitter, for sure.  It just seems unfair that there's this huge double-standard thing going on.

I'm really upset about this whole thing and I'm very sorry if I've offended anyone.

Here's something fun:

   

This was two years ago to the day - that was the only track in all of Waterloo Region, a little test piece up at R+T Park in the staging yard. Look how far we've come!

[jamincan]

FWIW, I don't think you have a reasonable expectation of privacy when you're on the street. There were loads of people complaining when some folks at Grandlinq started saying that they weren't allowed to take pictures of the construction workers (you are allowed, fwiw). How is taking pictures of trespassers on a construction site any different than taking pictures of the workers? The only material difference to me is that the trespassers aren't supposed to be there, but I don't think that provides them with an expectation of privacy.

[ijmorlan]

I have no idea what you're talking about with the car.

All I meant was that many months ago, people were driving through "closed" signs and getting their cars hung up on drop-offs.  I was actually biking around Erb/Caroline one time last fall and watched it happen one evening!  And people were posting all kinds of photos, making fun of the "idiot drivers" whenever it was happening - maybe not so much so on here, but on the facebook group and twitter, for sure.  It just seems unfair that there's this huge double-standard thing going on.

I'm really upset about this whole thing and I'm very sorry if I've offended anyone.

Moving up a few levels away from all the details, I think what is challenging about this is that the situation is not, in fact, ethically simple.

It’s very easy to say “never go in a closed site: it’s dangerous and illegal!”. But in real life, many closed sites aren’t really closed, or don’t need to be closed, or don’t look closed. Even sites that are actually for real closed aren’t all dangerous. On top of this, avoiding some sites is easy, while doing so with others imposes a substantial detour, especially to pedestrians and to a lesser extent bicycles.

So moving back down to the details, everybody was laughing at the cars that got stuck because we had these people in nice climate-conditioned mobility enhancement devices too impatient to turn around and go back, or even check on conditions before proceeding. The pedestrians in the picture, by contrast, are apparently doing nothing dangerous, and it seems to turn out that the site isn’t even clearly signed as closed, so what is the complaint, other than just “they aren’t following the rules” disconnected from any actual or likely harm to anybody?