ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Markster]

I was told yesterday that ION will require Benton to be widened by a full car lane between King and Charles, meaning a significant bite will be taken out of Speakers Corner.  The sculpture in the plaza will need to be moved.  I had been hoping that this would be limited to the chunk that has already been taken in front of the Downtown Crepe Café, but apparently not.  

ION made me sad all day!

Looks more like a shaving of a few curbs and sidewalks to me, but I guess it depends what we define as a "significant bite":
http://www.rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo...df#page=12

http://www.rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo...df#page=13

Considering there was a plan initiated in 2010 to give Benton St a road diet, any interim measures that increase the width of the road seem particularly counter to our city/region's goals.

Now the plan for the Benton Street Extension is history and the Region of Waterloo is planning to reconstruct Frederick Street between Weber and King in 2012. Benton Street between King and Courtland will be resurfaced in 2013.

...

Margaret Santos, an architect and member of the region’s Pedestrian Charter Steering Committee, says the Benton-Frederick street corridor “is an opportunity to have one of the best public spaces in the downtown.”

The roadway is so wide now there is lots of room to create a promenade in the core.

“Nice broad sidewalks with lots of trees,” Santos says. “There is lots of room for bike lanes, trees and wide sidewalks. It would be a pity not to see that happen.”

But like so many things, once the Rapid Transit project got started, full priority was given to it, and the RT team, in the interest of quick tendering and construction, prioritized matching existing conditions over incorporating future (not yet fully fleshed out and supported) plans.  You can see also the Erb/Caroline intersection, which fails to integrate any bicycle provisions despite years of expectations for just that.

Seeing the 5 lane cross-section at Charles grow to 6 lanes seems like a step back.

[Canard]

I do not see any expropriation at all of the Speakers Corner area on the plans. What am I missing?

[Markster]

I do not see any expropriation at all of the Speakers Corner area on the plans. What am I missing?

See approximately the highlighted area.
   

[KevinL]

I do not see any expropriation at all of the Speakers Corner area on the plans. What am I missing?

See approximately the highlighted area.

That doesn't seem to get close enough to the public art to require its relocation.

[Markster]

I suspect that the art to be moved is not the mirror column thing, but rather the engraved wall featuring the mirror column art (streetview)

Walking through the area, the road widening has created a serious bottleneck around there.  It feels like the widening on the ground has exceeded the widening depicted in the drawing.

[EDIT] hmm, I'm actually thinking of the stone bench/garden area in front of the Benton parking garage.

[Canard]

The traffic bottleneck there is now because the current configuration has the Westbound left lane (of two lanes) turning mandatory South on Charles (left turn only, not straight through and left). So the number of lanes goes from 2, to 1, and back to 2 lanes on Benton, and causes a massive clog that backs up through King, and eventually to Duke, because the lights are so close together.

This will likely go away when the 2>1 point moves further back down Frederick at Duke - the next light is way up at Centre in the Square.

[Markster]

Ha. I was talking about the pedestrian bottleneck on the sidewalk that has been drastically cut back for the road widening.

[ert86]

Saw them paving something in front of Cameron Heights today while i waited for a bus on King.

[Canard]

Part of Erb Street could turn two-way for the summer - CTV News (Video)

Business owners anxious - CTV News (Video)

[Pheidippides]

Looks like the demolition permit for 910 King St W, Kitchener has been issued and there is a Sittler demolition sign on the building now.
   

I think another TPSS is to go here?

[Pheidippides]

The traffic bottleneck there is now because the current configuration has the Westbound left lane (of two lanes) turning mandatory South on Charles (left turn only, not straight through and left). So the number of lanes goes from 2, to 1, and back to 2 lanes on Benton, and causes a massive clog that backs up through King, and eventually to Duke, because the lights are so close together.

This will likely go away when the 2>1 point moves further back down Frederick at Duke - the next light is way up at Centre in the Square.

Speaking of bottlenecks, and I'm not even sure if that would help with traffic flow because of the nearby signals at Charles and Duke, but I've wondered why the King/Victoria lights haven't just been switched to a pedestrian activated only cycle since you can't go south or north on King at the moment. It just seems really odd to see cars queued up going east/west waiting for exactly nothing to happen north/south (with the exception of pedestrians).

[Canard]

Yep, huge waste of energy and source of unnecessary pollution and wear and tear with having hat much traffic decelerate, stop, idle and accelerate again, for nothing - not to mention the accumulated time wasted waiting for the light. Agreed it should be an instant-activate pedestrian request (after a manditory timer, if the cycle was just activated previously, of course).

[Viewfromthe42]

Yep, huge waste of energy and source of unnecessary pollution and wear and tear with having hat much traffic decelerate, stop, idle and accelerate again, for nothing - not to mention the accumulated time wasted waiting for the light. Agreed it should be an instant-activate pedestrian request (after a manditory timer, if the cycle was just activated previously, of course).

I don't think there are any pedestrian buttons there, one of the non-beg intersections in the region. Visually, it can look bad, but when I'm waiting for the bus and watching, or especially right at the curve, I can see all the cross-Victoria lights synched up. So, as a driver (especially going west), you stop at Victoria instead of a guaranteed stop at Charles or John. When you have the heavy lane-reduction traffic in the afternoon, there's no ability to pump more cars through Victoria when Duke or Charles get priority, and so leaving Victoria open still produces near-identical delays and pollution. What it doesn't do, despite attempts even in the current rush hour mess to do so, is allow traffic to sit in the intersection. As a pedestrian, it's very intimidating and hostile to be crossing at a crosswalk with a driver who caught themselves in the intersection wanting to edge onto the crosswalk and into your path. Some drivers do this, but if King became beg-only and out of sync with the other intersections, this intersection would be filled with cars waiting for downstream red lights to go green.

[SammyOES]

One thing I really like about this forum is how what seem like obvious things usually have both the pros/cons/reasons explained behind them.

Not that I always agree with people, but its good to have it reinforced that most of the time we see something 'obviously stupid' there are probably at least some good reasons behind the decision we're just not aware of / thinking about.

[Markster]

The RideIONrt Instagram posted a sweet aerial video.  It shows significant track work underway between KCI and Wellington St.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFRgCLIzR9H/