05-03-2021, 07:42 PM
(05-03-2021, 06:48 PM)ac3r Wrote:(05-03-2021, 05:00 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I dunno...have you seen Phase 1 ION?
While you might argue that some things weren't "missed"--that only bad choices were made i.e., not providing pedestrian access to transit stations. But other things absolutely were missed (Traynor access).
The LRT was a result of the region wanting to spend as little money as possible in order to reap the rewards of claiming they built an amazing rapid transit system as fast as possibly. It was a colossal fuck up, but they stood to make a lot of money off of it...which sadly is all that matters in the end. There's plenty of places along the LRT that could be improved, but alas, it would have cost money. The LRT was built to build condos and offices. Pedestrian access? No. Being able to turn a corner faster than a snail? No. They did the bare minimum.
Around these boards, when people talk about mistakes or omissions from Ion they almost always are referring to definite screw-ups, not “wouldn’t it be nice to have a subway”. The incremental cost of the things that are pointed out around here is usually in the range of zero to trivial. They didn’t leave off the Traynor crossing because of cost-cutting; that was pure incompetence. East/north end access to Frederick station? Didn’t think about what was required and apply creativity to get a better result. And so on.
Probably by spending a bit more there are some areas that could have been improved, but even there, those issues aren’t why the LRT operates like a snail. There is almost straight track along Courtland that sees them move at a jogging pace, for example. Topping out not at the typical speed of traffic but at the speed limit on road sections is policy, not design.