ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Spokes]

Did anyone check out the station tours this past weekend? We were out of town and couldn't make it.

[jamincan]

How something is designed gives cues about how it should be used. If a door has a handle that looks like it should be pulled, people will pull on it, even if there is a sign that says push right above it. Red generally means stop, green generally means go - it's why newer standards encourage use of the green running man symbol instead of the red exit text. This same principle is true for our built environment. People rarely follow the speed limit posted on Westmount north of University because of the street is designed for speeds far in excess of the limit. Conversely, speeding is rarely a problem on King Street, as the street is designed for a low limit.

Similarly, if certain behaviour is desired, it is poor design to rely on rules or procedures to achieve the desired outcome. If a machine cannot safely operate in both Mode A and Mode B, it should have an interlock preventing that mode of operation, not rely on rules or signage. If you don't want people to walk on the grass, you either need to fence of the grass, or make the path follow the desire lines so people have no reason to go on the grass. If you don't want people to illegally download music, give them the option to obtain the music legally online.

Sure, we can point out that people are breaking rules and laws, and if only they would stop, our problem would be solved, but that's just hand wringing and doesn't do anything to address the actual problem. We also have the option of considering how people are going to use our infrastructure when we design it, and anticipate their behaviour and take steps to either accommodate their desired behaviour, or prevent it where it is problematic. This is where the LRT already has scores of deficiencies. When driving up King and the tracks switch from the outside of the lane to the inside and vice versa, the design is presently not sufficient to make it intuitively clear where drivers are intended to go, and in fact, there are several cues that point them in the wrong direction. Until this is addressed, we will continue to see drivers stuck on the LRT tracks in those areas. The design cues at the Frederick Station explicitly invite pedestrians to access the station from both sides; until the design is adjusted to correct these cues, there will be issues with people complying with signage.

This is not something that is unique to ION by the way, but is found throughout the public sector as well as industry.

[KevinT]

How something is designed gives cues about how it should be used.

<snip>

Very well said, all of it, including the snipped paragraphs.

[Canard]

Meanwhile, the Rapid Transit team have captured the shot I dreamed about taking back when construction first started, but abandoned when I learned of how nearly impossible it is to fly a drone within the Region:



More of this, please!!

[Spokes]

I saw that on facebook. So nice!

As an aside, I still haven't seen an LRV out testing yet, but the other day I come home to this from my wife: "oh hey, I saw an LRT train when I was out today." Seriously?!?! hah

[Pheidippides]

Ph - you are making the assumption that the (very narrow) width of concrete is suitable for passage.  It likely is (very) not and would present a safety hazard.

I agree that the current median is not intended for walking on, my point was that it should have never have been built that narrow to begin with. What’s more of a safety hazard is people using a space for purposes other than it was designed and intended.
 
They have created a safety hazard by not thinking about how humans will actually use the space. No one getting off the train and heading to KPL or Centre in the Square etc. is going to take a huge distance and time penalty (94m penalty for one-car train, 156m penalty for a two-car train) to walk back to King, cross the street, and walk back towards Duke.
 
They will take the shortest path sign or no sign.
 
Platform is 2.7m wide where it currently ends.
Platform narrows to 1.3m in middle.
Platform end is 1.5m.
   

 
They needed to add 27.3sq.m to the median to make it the same width as the end of the platform.
   
 
Which they could have easily have accommodated on the other side (it wouldn’t even take away from usable sidewalk space since no one can walk between the utility boxes and the road anyway):
   

[jeffster]

Meanwhile, the Rapid Transit team have captured the shot I dreamed about taking back when construction first started, but abandoned when I learned of how nearly impossible it is to fly a drone within the Region:



More of this, please!!

Drones are super hard to fly, as well a regulation, but this video was pretty good. No love for the music, though...

[Canard]

New drones are super easy to fly. You don’t even fly them anymore - you add waypoints and they fly themselves, so you can focus on the cinematography.

Ph - you should work for the Region! What was he Project Team’s response when this issue was brought up at the public consultations?

[ijmorlan]

Ph - you should work for the Region! What was he Project Team’s response when this issue was brought up at the public consultations?

I don’t believe there were any public consultations on the detailed design. For that matter, I’m not aware the issue of bike lanes on King St. was even discussed at the public consultations.

[ijmorlan]

Ph - you are making the assumption that the (very narrow) width of concrete is suitable for passage.  It likely is (very) not and would present a safety hazard.

I agree that the current median is not intended for walking on, my point was that it should have never have been built that narrow to begin with. What’s more of a safety hazard is people using a space for purposes other than it was designed and intended.
 
They have created a safety hazard by not thinking about how humans will actually use the space. No one getting off the train and heading to KPL or Centre in the Square etc. is going to take a huge distance and time penalty (94m penalty for one-car train, 156m penalty for a two-car train) to walk back to King, cross the street, and walk back towards Duke.
 
They will take the shortest path sign or no sign.
 
Platform is 2.7m wide where it currently ends.
Platform narrows to 1.3m in middle.
Platform end is 1.5m.


 
They needed to add 27.3sq.m to the median to make it the same width as the end of the platform.

 
Which they could have easily have accommodated on the other side (it wouldn’t even take away from usable sidewalk space since no one can walk between the utility boxes and the road anyway):

Thanks for the detailed analysis. This gives me some hope that it might be corrected in the future; since it appears it can be fixed without changing where the tracks are, it could be done as part of a future renovation of the street. We just need to get the road designers to understand that there is a problem.

In the meantime, people will probably walk on the tracks. Fortunately, that isn’t that bad in this case: either they just got off a train and are leaving the stop, in which case they can walk behind the departing vehicle, with another not due for several minutes; or they are walking to the stop, in which case they will normally be facing train traffic, which furthermore needs to stop at the station before proceeding. Not ideal, but also nowhere near as dangerous as walking in a motor vehicle lane.

[KevinL]

The trickiest bit there is that some lubricator equipment is in the middle of that median. I'm not sure how easily that can be relocated in order to ensure accessibility-compliant passage.

[bgb_ca]

Not sure if they are ramping up testing even more, but I saw not 1, not 2, but 3 different LRVs traveling on King Street near Allen station while waiting 10 mins for a route 7 just now. (2 sb, 1 nb)

[creative]

“They have created a safety hazard by not thinking about how humans will actually use the space. No one getting off the train and heading to KPL or Centre in the Square etc. is going to take a huge distance and time penalty (94m penalty for one-car train, 156m penalty for a two-car train) to walk back to King, cross the street, and walk back towards Duke.”

I totally agree. This is also why people who drive cars do not want to park in a garage 2 or 3 blocks from the market. It’s inconvenient!

[bgb_ca]

And the final 2 are on the way

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.4923701

[timio]

New Years parade of all 14 from end too end?