03-31-2021, 09:27 AM
(03-31-2021, 08:40 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:(03-31-2021, 07:11 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I mean, yes, they do hold up traffic for a short time, and yes, drivers do seem to be offended by that, but it in no way holds up the LRT. Building massive overpass structures in those locations would have cost at least 100 million dollars and created large imposing obstacles in the built environment. And the ONLY beneficiary would be driver, it would be yet another subsidy paid to motordom. Worse, the cost would have been assigned to transit. And all to avoid what is a completely reasonable level of delay.
Before spending money on grade separations, they should start by improving the design of the existing crossings. For example at Erb/Caroline, there is no conflict between southbound LRT traffic and Caroline St. traffic. So why does the entire intersection come to a halt when a southbound LRT goes through? Also, when a northbound LRT goes through the crossing protection starts way too early, while it’s still in station. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic has to stop (which is fine); but for no reason at all other than laziness in designing the crossing protection (which is not fine). As a driver, I don’t mind stopping for pedestrian, cyclists, LRVs, and other motor vehicles; but I do object to stopping for nothing at all.
"I do object to stopping for nothing at all"...lol...pedestrians know that pain well:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.453789,-...384!8i8192
Trust me, I have nothing nice to say about the folks at our region which program our signals. There's many many pedestrian signals which can be walk, while the train goes by, I pretty much ignore them all. Caroline is an utter disaster.
That being said, I don't think there's much room for improvement at the other intersections mentioned. The point is to avoid holding up the LRVs, so the signals must start flashing and arms come down 5-10 seconds before the arrival of the LRV, because the signal for the LRV won't trigger until the gates are fully down.
I *WOULD* argue that we don't need full railway gates, and we should be able to manage with just faster, lighter weight traffic signals, but given the drivers in the city, and their propensity for hitting LRVs, I don't think I can really stand behind such a claim.