02-11-2022, 01:58 PM
(02-11-2022, 01:13 PM)Bytor Wrote:(02-11-2022, 11:57 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Making it one way would involve redirecting one direction of several frequent bus routes, which is what regional engineers don't want to do. I argue that they could solve this by using the LRT right of way for the other direction of buses, but apparently that's "impossible".
Our system is not designed as a street car and the tram drivers are not trained as that. Further, the unreliability of busses thanks to congestion makes it difficult to run them in between trams with even a 15 minute headway and significantly more and more so as you decrease that window. You don't make the buses routes any more efficient or reliable, you just make the trams less so.
We're talking about a 4 block segment, the delay and congestion would be minimal, and tram drivers can be trained to not run into buses that happen to be parallel to their route rather than perpendicular. The LRT is running by driver operation on this segment, not using ATP or whatever train control system they have in place, so the LRT can follow a bus.
None of these objections are remotely impossible or even difficult to overcome, meaning it is a choice not to prioritize cycling. If the region actually felt that cycling was important, they could make this work, but since they don't, they aren't going to do so.
And I'll point out again, if cycling WAS successful, it would mean significant delays for the buses, but because the region doesn't believe cycling will be successful they don't care, and more, because of their choice to refuse to invest in cycling, they will probably ensure cycling doesn't ever see significantly more traffic.