ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Andy]

Any wider and the sidewalk is really narrow.

The car could have just pulled off to the central parking lot. Just throw it in neutral and give it a push.

[clasher]

Any wider and the sidewalk is really narrow.

The car could have just pulled off to the central parking lot. Just throw it in neutral and give it a push.

 
No kidding, push it around the corner or into the school parking lot.

[Canard]

We don't know the nature of the failure - if something broke in the transmission then the drive wheels may have effectively been completely locked up.  Just saying...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Broken down car jammed up King street. Traffic couldn't get around so some backed up and some drove over the curb &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> tracks. <a href="https://t.co/DmbDb3UcRC">pic.twitter.com/DmbDb3UcRC</a></p>&mdash; Dan Lauckner (@vidman) <a href="https://twitter.com/vidman/status/859192459640926208">May 1, 2017</a></blockquote>

[KevinL]

No kidding, push it around the corner or into the school parking lot.

Actually, the KCI lot doesn't open directly on the intersection anymore.

[Canard]

The car could have just pulled off to the central parking lot. Just throw it in neutral and give it a push.

 
No kidding, push it around the corner or into the school parking lot.

As I suggested:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain">@Canardiain</a> People tried to push it</p>&mdash; Dan Lauckner (@vidman) <a href="https://twitter.com/vidman/status/859207134990544896">May 2, 2017</a></blockquote>

[embe]

not an enviable position to be in. Seen this before on highways as well where it just can't coast or be pushed with the drivewheels on the ground. Sometimes as simple as engaging the key and putting it in neutral but most Caddy's also have that immobilizing feature aka physical weight.

[Bob_McBob]

Taking bets on whether this breakdown will be plastered all over the news tomorrow with dire doom and gloom predictions from our favourite local Facebook personalities.

[Viewfromthe42]

It'll only add to the STOP LRT THRU PRESTON signs popping up in Cambridge.

[SammyOES2]

What's the maximum delay experienced by someone here? This is basically the absolute worst case (immovable car right before the next cross street. 30 minutes? 45? There's just not that much road for cars to pile up on and it shouldn't take that long for the backed up cars to be backed out and detoured down the side road.

If you had 2-3 police officers directing traffic I bet they could do it even faster.

And yet people really think we should design for an annual (?) occurrence that will delay a couple of dozen people less than an hour...

[NotStan]

What's the maximum delay experienced by someone here?  This is basically the absolute worst case (immovable car right before the next cross street.  30 minutes?  45?  There's just not that much road for cars to pile up on and it shouldn't take that long for the backed up cars to be backed out and detoured down the side road.

If you had 2-3 police officers directing traffic I bet they could do it even faster.  

And yet people really think we should design for an annual (?) occurrence that will delay a couple of dozen people less than an hour...

Yeah why wouldn't we box in traffic so if this happens there's a 30-45 minute delay.  Not like there's a hospital nearby that people might be trying to get to.

I expect there are going to be multiple "annual (?) occurences" that we will encounter that stress the limitations of our system.

[Canard]

If people actually knew how to communicate with one another, this would have been a non-issue. I couldn't believe in Dan's videos that there was still a line of cars there by the time a tow truck arrived. How hard is it to get out of your car, talk to the other folks and suggest people all start backing up? And have someone stand at the previous intersection, flagging, until the cops arrive?

I agree with SammyOES2 on this one, wholeheartedly - it would be foolish to design a limitation or massively expensive solution for a once-a-year occurrence.

You also may not be aware that emergency vehicles are permitted to drive along the rapidway, if required - effectively giving them an express ride/HOV Lane to wherever they are going. This is all coordinated with a radio system that everyone uses in the Region, including ion.

[KevinL]

You also may not be aware that emergency vehicles are permitted to drive along the rapidway, if required - effectively giving them an express ride/HOV Lane to wherever they are going.  This is all coordinated with a radio system that everyone uses in the Region, including ion.

I think this is actually a net gain for ambulances coming in to GRH - they now know they can come in hot and have less to worry about from a traffic perspective.

[panamaniac]

If people actually knew how to communicate with one another, this would have been a non-issue.  I couldn't believe in Dan's videos that there was still a line of cars there by the time a tow truck arrived.  How hard is it to get out of your car, talk to the other folks and suggest people all start backing up?  And have someone stand at the previous intersection, flagging, until the cops arrive?

I agree with SammyOES2 on this one, wholeheartedly - it would be foolish to design a limitation or massively expensive solution for a once-a-year occurrence.

You also may not be aware that emergency vehicles are permitted to drive along the rapidway, if required - effectively giving them an express ride/HOV Lane to wherever they are going.  This is all coordinated with a radio system that everyone uses in the Region, including ion.

I'm a bit surprised that nobody tried to get around that way - a sedan might not be able to take the curb, but surely an SUV could handle it.

[danbrotherston]

@panamaniac I agree. The level crossing at University and the tracks which got stuck on and within 10 minutes drivers of all vehicles were driving over the median through a crosswalk and (at high speed) on the wrong side of the road to go through the activated gates.

I'm surprised this didn't happen here.

SammyOES2 is absolutely right as well. It makes no sense to make the road worse most of the time (more expensive and more dangerous) just to avoid this incredibly rare relatively minor inconvenience.

[SammyOES2]

Yeah why wouldn't we box in traffic so if this happens there's a 30-45 minute delay.  Not like there's a hospital nearby that people might be trying to get to.

I expect there are going to be multiple "annual (?) occurences" that we will encounter that stress the limitations of our system.

Of course we don't want it to happen. But everything in life is a trade-off. And this isn't even in the top 1000 negative side effects of having an LRT.

And the hospital argument is especially absurd. We'd need this to happen at the exact instance an ambulance was in the section that gets blocked. Otherwise there are lots of routes into the hospital and we're talking about a very minor delay. The expected value of negative health effects from this problem are trivial. Easily dwarfed by the negative health effects of the LRT and cars already.