10-12-2017, 08:17 PM
(10-12-2017, 04:29 PM)KevinT Wrote: The problem with the green path is that there's no feasible way to make it safe. Arriving trains are decelerating in this zone and carry a lot of energy into a pedestrian collision, as do departing trains accelerating out. You'd have to spread the tracks even wider apart than they are at the platforms in order to fence in the path, with additional room (wider yet!) to squeeze in a post for the signals and crossing gate where the mid-track path tees into the red line crossing.
Not every desire line can be turned into a practical solution.
This doesn’t make sense. Part of the green path is already going to be in use — the short bit immediately south of the platform. It doesn’t make sense that being slightly further away from the station (not even far away at a location where LRVs are going full-speed) would be a problem.
I agree that crossing arms to control access from the middle path might require some cleverness to fit it but given the proximity to the station, the total lack of crossing arms in other parts of the system, and the design of Allen Station it is not believable that this couldn’t have been made to work one way or another. This is especially true if, instead of proposing a change now, we take my observation as a criticism of the design, including the exact location of the tracks, which could have maintained the spacing used in the station area, or even a wider spacing, further south until past the E5 crossing.
On top of all that, part of the criticism is that what was built is unsafe or will lead to unsafe behaviour. So criticizing a whole class of alternative detailed designs for being unsafe is really missing the point.