ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[trainspotter139]

Why?

Metrolinx designed many parts of the vehicles including the pre-programmed signage (which when we got them was entirely programmed for Eglinton Crosstown stations), bilingual default vehicle announcements (stand clear of the doors/Se tenir à l'écart des portes, etc).

[jason897]

Why?

Metrolinx designed many parts of the vehicles including the pre-programmed signage (which when we got them was entirely programmed for Eglinton Crosstown stations).

Like this one when I snuck a peek inside 507 while it was at Conestoga the other day?

   

[trainspotter139]

Metrolinx designed many parts of the vehicles including the pre-programmed signage (which when we got them was entirely programmed for Eglinton Crosstown stations).

Like this one when I snuck a peek inside 507 while it was at Conestoga the other day?

Exactly

[danbrotherston]

To be fair, I don't think bilingual signage is a bad thing.

[trainspotter139]

To be fair, I don't think bilingual signage is a bad thing.

It's not, but it can be a burden for smaller systems to maintain.

[Canard]

A new commercial has been released!

[EdM]

Like this one when I snuck a peek inside 507 while it was at Conestoga the other day?

I just saw an LRT signed "Keele / Short Turn" at Queen and Duke 

[trainspotter139]

Like this one when I snuck a peek inside 507 while it was at Conestoga the other day?

I just saw an LRT signed "Keele / Short Turn" at Queen and Duke 

LOL there's only a couple that have been reprogrammed for ION stations. Apparently 506 isn't one of them.

[Canard]

I asked; they’ve been provided templates from Toronto’s Outlook for the moment.

[ijmorlan]

To be fair, I don't think bilingual signage is a bad thing.

It's not, but it can be a burden for smaller systems to maintain.

Maintaining stop names and destinations shouldn’t be a problem. All that is needed is to translate any new stops and destinations when they come up. I don’t see how this can be a burden for any size of system: if you can afford to build a stop, you can afford to hire a translator to translate the 1-3 word stop name.

Ad hoc messages are more of an issue. If there is some explanation of an outage or something, it might be non-standard, especially if associated with some sort of emergency. Expecting a small system to have somebody bilingual on hand all the time to translate ad hoc messages doesn’t seem particularly reasonable.

[Canard]

There is no burden.

It’s awesome it’s bilingual, I love that.

[KevinT]

Today around 12:15 p.m. I was driving southeast on King and there was a multi-vehicle accident ahead of me just past Pine St in front of Grand River Hospital. Nobody knew quite how to proceed until a car took to the tracks to get around the blockage, followed by a bus and several more cars. When my turn came I turned left onto Pine instead -- I just couldn't get myself to drive on the tracks, even though I knew from the radio that all the LRVs were on lunch break. Of course even then I was breaking a law, as the intersection is signed No Lefts. An alternative was to turn right into the Emergency parking lot and turn around in there, then either head across to Pine or turn left/northwest onto King, but the Emerg lot looked busy and I didn't want to interfere with any genuine emergencies. Per the radio it cleared up in 10 minutes, but it was quite a messy hiccup for the time that it lasted.

I think that the accident drivers could simply have moved ahead and into the hospital garage driveway before getting out to swap their insurance details, much like when you have an accident on a 400 series highway and are advised to move immediately to the shoulder if at all possible, but sadly as near as I could tell they just got out and stood around blocking traffic while waiting for the police to arrive. Perhaps this should be part of the ION educational campaign?

[panamaniac]

Today around 12:15 p.m. I was driving southeast on King and there was a multi-vehicle accident ahead of me just past Pine St in front of Grand River Hospital.  Nobody knew quite how to proceed until a car took to the tracks to get around the blockage, followed by a bus and several more cars.  When my turn came I turned left onto Pine instead -- I just couldn't get myself to drive on the tracks, even though I knew from the radio that all the LRVs were on lunch break.  Of course even then I was breaking a law, as the intersection is signed No Lefts.  An alternative was to turn right into the Emergency parking lot and turn around in there, then either head across to Pine or turn left/northwest onto King, but the Emerg lot looked busy and I didn't want to interfere with any genuine emergencies.  Per the radio it cleared up in 10 minutes, but it was quite a messy hiccup for the time that it lasted.

I think that the accident drivers could simply have moved ahead and into the hospital garage driveway before getting out to swap their insurance details, much like when you have an accident on a 400 series highway and are advised to move immediately to the shoulder if at all possible, but sadly as near as I could tell they just got out and stood around blocking traffic while waiting for the police to arrive.  Perhaps this should be part of the ION educational campaign?

I thought the rule nowadays was to move vehicles out of the way as long as nobody is hurt and the vehicles can be driven.  Am I mistaken?

[Markster]

Today around 12:15 p.m. I was driving southeast on King and there was a multi-vehicle accident ahead of me just past Pine St in front of Grand River Hospital.  Nobody knew quite how to proceed until a car took to the tracks to get around the blockage, followed by a bus and several more cars.  When my turn came I turned left onto Pine instead -- I just couldn't get myself to drive on the tracks, even though I knew from the radio that all the LRVs were on lunch break.

Did the car have to hop the curb separating the tracks? Did they drive down the tracks to the next intersection?

[danbrotherston]

Today around 12:15 p.m. I was driving southeast on King and there was a multi-vehicle accident ahead of me just past Pine St in front of Grand River Hospital.  Nobody knew quite how to proceed until a car took to the tracks to get around the blockage, followed by a bus and several more cars.  When my turn came I turned left onto Pine instead -- I just couldn't get myself to drive on the tracks, even though I knew from the radio that all the LRVs were on lunch break.  Of course even then I was breaking a law, as the intersection is signed No Lefts.  An alternative was to turn right into the Emergency parking lot and turn around in there, then either head across to Pine or turn left/northwest onto King, but the Emerg lot looked busy and I didn't want to interfere with any genuine emergencies.  Per the radio it cleared up in 10 minutes, but it was quite a messy hiccup for the time that it lasted.

I think that the accident drivers could simply have moved ahead and into the hospital garage driveway before getting out to swap their insurance details, much like when you have an accident on a 400 series highway and are advised to move immediately to the shoulder if at all possible, but sadly as near as I could tell they just got out and stood around blocking traffic while waiting for the police to arrive.  Perhaps this should be part of the ION educational campaign?

I thought the rule nowadays was to move vehicles out of the way as long as nobody is hurt and the vehicles can be driven.  Am I mistaken?

AFAIK, this is always the rule, vehicles which are safe to move, and individuals with no immediate injuries have no reason to continue blocking a road, single lane or not.

Of course, it's easy to look at those drivers involved and question their apparently selfish choices to block a road, it's a little different to be in shock with adrenaline rushing from a collision, even a minor one.

That being said, I'd bet big money that it doesn't matter one iota if trains are running, drivers will still use the tracks to get around.  After all, those same drivers will use a bike lane, or a sidewalk, or my front freaking lawn to get around just the same.