11-19-2017, 11:53 PM
(11-19-2017, 11:29 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(11-19-2017, 07:33 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: I’m well aware that there is a double standard where anything involving roads is allowed to be wildly unsafe.
Anything involving roads is wildly unsafe? Seriously? While it's far from perfect, the accident stats do not bear out that claim.
No, allowed to be wildly unsafe, when compared with the safety requirements for anything on rails.
For example, you can have a sidewalk immediately next to a traffic lane full of 80km/h traffic driven by anybody smart enough to pass a driving test, separated only by a 15cm curb. By contrast, the spur line trail has to be separated from the rails by a substantial gap, well in excess of the space required for the train, which comes twice a day, cannot deviate from its route, goes no faster than a jogging speed, and is driven by professionals.
Or check out the fences separating the tracks from the sidewalk on Hayward and Courtland. Replace the LRT tracks by a general traffic lane, and those fences could come out, even though the traffic would be way more dangerous than an LRV every few minutes.
For the most part, I think the rails have it right, in that we should be designing our transportation systems not to kill people; but sometimes the safety rules are over-applied where they don’t make sense, and sometimes the contrast with some of the things allowed on the roads is pretty glaring.