ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

But if the car got on the tracks at Gaukel and continued to Ontario, then it really doesn't make any difference whether there are roll curbs or not.

[danbrotherston]

Frankly, it's the engineers fault, people are always going to be selfish and break the law for their own convenience, you don't have to enable them by unnecessarily and obsessively putting in roll curbs.

Do we have any good guesses as to why they are so obsessed with roll curbs?

At corners I can imagine a reason — give vehicles a bit of leeway in making their turn. Bogus, of course, because it says that if vehicles can’t drive properly, it’s A-OK for them to intrude into the space supposedly reserved for pedestrians, but from a certain uncaring and ignorant perspective, it makes “sense”.

Between intersections, though, I really don’t understand it at all — who is supposed to be rolling up the curb and into the LRT lane? Nobody, ever, for any reason, as far as I know, right?

I really have no idea.  It's bizarre. Engineers have made plenty of pretty weak excuses for the uptown bike lanes but even those generally don't apply anywhere else and I've never had the chance to really push for answers for any of the other contexts.

FWIW, they even used roll curbs for part of the sidewalk in uptown, and surprise surprise, its the only sidewalk in uptown where I routinely see cars parked.

It is completely bizarre to me.

[jamincan]

My understanding is that it was supposed to be for emergency vehicles.

[creative]

Aren’t roll curbs at corners for people with disabilities?

[danbrotherston]

My understanding is that it was supposed to be for emergency vehicles.

Not to my knowledge, this probably refers to the sections of centre running track, where there is only a single lane, where emergency vehicles are supposed to be able to use the track in order to avoid traffic in the single through lane.  Of course these sections already have barrier curbs, and despite what some claim, emergency vehicles can mount barrier curbs, there is no reason to use roll curbs for this purpose.

[danbrotherston]

Aren’t roll curbs at corners for people with disabilities?

Curb cuts at the corner are--but that's no reason to use them for the entire block.  The roll curbs that have been used would probably not be mountable for a person in a wheelchair, or at least it would be very difficult, but are easy for cars.  Worse, the roll curb is separated from the pedestrians by a barrier curb anyway, so it cannot be for pedestrian use.

[ijmorlan]

Aren’t roll curbs at corners for people with disabilities?

Yes, but for that purpose they don’t go all the way around the corner, only where the crossings meet the sidewalk. They won’t much help a vehicle that wants to use the sidewalk to make its turn.

I wasn’t actually criticizing any specific location, although one might be able to find examples. I was just trying to imagine scenarios in which I could understand why somebody would install a roll curb, even if I disagreed, and contrast with the situation on Charles where I don’t even understand what they are trying to accomplish.

[boatracer]

I was driving around Monday afternoon around 2pm and saw an LRV parked at the City Hall Station on Duke. Thought it was strange cause I almost never see them sitting at a station like they used to. Continued on and saw another one at Central Station at Victoria. Turns out there was a train stopped with its flashers on just before the Grand River Hospital station. Not sure if it was unable to move or some other reason. There was a Keolis truck parked on the opposite track.

[KevinL]

[neonjoe]

Just now I saw an LRV at conestoga mall with a bunch of workers looking at the trucks underneath. The cladding was removed. Perhaps simulating a break down?

[boatracer]

Just now I saw an LRV at conestoga mall with a bunch of workers looking at the trucks underneath. The cladding was removed. Perhaps simulating a break down?

Or maybe it ran over something and they were looking to clear it.

[bpoland]

There's a freight train going up the spurline right now (1:50 PM). Wonder how that works with LRT testing...

[KevinL]

No doubt all pre-arranged. They can have LRVs on the northbound tracks (except in Uptown) during that.

[jason897]

The CN train talks with LRT control when they need to use the spur and they will coordinate. You can hear them on the scanner too

[ijmorlan]

No doubt all pre-arranged. They can have LRVs on the northbound tracks (except in Uptown) during that.

Southbound track, except for between the crossover at the Perimeter Institute and the Waterloo Town Square parking lot, where it is indeed the northbound track. You can actually see that the ties on the freight track are closer together than on the LRT-only track.