04-01-2021, 08:18 AM
(04-01-2021, 06:48 AM)trainspotter139 Wrote: The grade crossing signals at Erb/Caroline operate like this for a reason, not the least of which is the multiple routing paths that the signal controller has to track. There's also the fact that Northbound and Southbound movements often overlap, especially at specific frequencies. There's heavy pedestrian and cyclist traffic at that intersection which conflicts with all directions of train movement through the intersection. Don't forget about the bus only left turn lane on NB Caroline onto WB Erb. If anything, the only movement in that intersection that has very little conflict is the left turn from SB Caroline to EB Erb (the one where you can legally do a left turn on a red).
I’m not forgetting about anything. I don’t know much about railway signalling equipment. It’s possible the design of readily available equipment is deficient and unable to deal with real-world situations.
But what I know, and what anybody who observes the intersection knows, is that Caroline St. vehicle traffic (except for the southbound right turn onto Erb westbound, and the bus left turn) does not conflict with the southbound train. If the signalling control equipment cannot be configured to understand this, then it is not fit for purpose.
I have to deal with this from the other side professionally. I build and maintain business process applications for the University of Waterloo; on a number of occasions I have had a suggestion for an improvement to which my initial reaction is basically “that would be awfully inconvenient to implement”. But on further consideration, I realize that the requests are too reasonable from the client perspective to dismiss out of hand; then after further thinking, I realize how to implement them.
So I stand by my statement. If you have expert details to share about why it’s harder than it sounds to do it properly, due to poorly designed equipment, I’m actually interested; but we don’t need expert arrogance around this issue. This is not the only area where the LRT has been implemented unreasonably. There are several other intersections where non-conflicting vehicle and/or pedestrian traffic is held for LRT movements.