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(01-04-2018, 10:45 PM)embe Wrote: [ -> ]This may be a no-brainer under the HTA, but regarding GRT buses picking up (or dropping off) at a stop:

If that stop is in the right turn lane at an intersection (and the bus, after the stop, needs to merge left back into the through lane).  Seems to be some confusion and some drivers will go around to make a right turn in front of the stopped bus regardless.

I've witnessed this a lot more lately, would it not make more sense to plan the bus stop another 30 feet or so away from the intersection to avoid this?

I've done that, as long as there's room to get back into the right hand lane in order to make the right turn.  Is it illegal?
(01-05-2018, 12:37 AM)panamaniac Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-04-2018, 10:45 PM)embe Wrote: [ -> ]This may be a no-brainer under the HTA, but regarding GRT buses picking up (or dropping off) at a stop:

If that stop is in the right turn lane at an intersection (and the bus, after the stop, needs to merge left back into the through lane).  Seems to be some confusion and some drivers will go around to make a right turn in front of the stopped bus regardless.

I've witnessed this a lot more lately, would it not make more sense to plan the bus stop another 30 feet or so away from the intersection to avoid this?

I've done that, as long as there's room to get back into the right hand lane in order to make the right turn.  Is it illegal?

Probably depends if the lane line has changed from dashed to solid; solid would be illegal, dashed would probably still be ok.
(01-05-2018, 01:09 AM)Pheidippides Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-05-2018, 12:37 AM)panamaniac Wrote: [ -> ]I've done that, as long as there's room to get back into the right hand lane in order to make the right turn.  Is it illegal?

Probably depends if the lane line has changed from dashed to solid; solid would be illegal, dashed would probably still be ok.

Is it actually "illegal" though?  I thought pavement lines were always guidelines, and not actually enforced by any law (which is why bike lanes aren't bike lanes unless there are lane restriction signs posted at regular intervals.

I think much more interesting to ask if it is unsafe or dangerous, and I don't think so, it seems like a reasonable maneuver, (perhaps depending on how much space there is, and how fast someone does it).
(01-04-2018, 10:45 PM)embe Wrote: [ -> ]I've witnessed this a lot more lately, would it not make more sense to plan the bus stop another 30 feet or so away from the intersection to avoid this?

I suggested to GRT many years ago that the stop should always be far side of an intersection and never in a right turn lane when the route goes through. To no avail.
GRT will not put them on the far side of intersections because they block following traffic, sometimes in the intersection. This can be avoided if a bus bay is present on the far side.

Putting them on the near side can be made a bit better if there's a right turn lane that buses can go straight through.

All scenarios are greatly affected by whether or not cars will yield to let buses re-enter traffic. Which I would love to have rear-facing ticketable cameras for.
Stops on the far side intersections are better. They're slightly less time-consuming than near-side stops, and encourages riders (and other people on foot, too) are crossing behind the bus, where they can be seen.

One solution might be to put the stops even closer to the intersection, where there is ambiguously no room for a car to make a right turn, and so it must wait behind the bus.
(01-05-2018, 03:49 PM)MidTowner Wrote: [ -> ]One solution might be to put the stops even closer to the intersection, where there is ambiguously no room for a car to make a right turn, and so it must wait behind the bus.

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, the problem is they're too far from the intersection, which invites people to jump past the bus.
I was on an iXpress 200 southbound at Columbia that had real trouble crossing Columbia, because it stopped to let off passengers, cars would cut in front to make the right turn, but then the car would be held up by the pedestrians crossing Columbia, and in turn this held up the bus which was trying to go straight through.
My husband rides the bus regularly and told me about the stop on Victoria at Lancaster. Heading WB, the stop used to be right before the intersection. This is bad, because it's a very busy intersection and quite often the bus will be stopped for a red light half a dozen cars back from the stop. So, people waiting at the stop start to walk toward the bus, and then there's this akward moment where the light goes green and the bus driver has to make a decision - "do I wait here way back and open the doors? Or do I just go up to the stop, and then everyone has to walk BACK to the stop?"

Then they moved the stop a bit further back from the intersection, and the problem went away.
Hmm...Bus lanes fix all these problems.

Imagine that Tongue
/\ THIS!
I dont know if anyone has mentioned this lately, but there are two crucial stops for the 7 currently closed. King/Victoria and King/William both northbound. Southbound are both open. Anyone else extremely annoyed by this?
(01-05-2018, 06:20 PM)urbd Wrote: [ -> ]I dont know if anyone has mentioned this lately, but there are two crucial stops for the 7 currently closed. King/Victoria and King/William both northbound. Southbound are both open. Anyone else extremely annoyed by this?

Both problems can be laid at the feet of GrandLinq, for the record. The Victoria stop should be open but something to do with its pedestrian access is incorrect and needs to be fixed before GRT will allow its use.

The William one is... much more involved. There should have been a stop engineered there, but somehow it was worked out to have the bus jog to Regina for a block instead, but now they don't actually want to do that, and it's a big mess.
Can we really blame the William stop problem on GrandLinq? I thought it was an issue with Transport Canada not being fond of a bus gently sweeping across LRT tracks (high possibility of collision).
Why the no turning right - the train is coming sign is not safe enough? If it's safe for cars why not for a bus, to see if it's safe to drift over.
Just theorizing on why it might have been nixed. Imagine an LRV waiting at the red light (heading NB). Aspect signal (Transit Priority) goes to white vertical bar - In Ontario, this legally means both the bus and the LRV could proceed - resulting in a crash. This has been discussed at length on UrbanToronto.

Could also be the safety hazard caused by passengers disembarking via the front doors, going around the front of the bus then getting whacked by a train.

Refresher - This was the planned setup:

[attachment=4665]

Source: http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/...nplans.asp