(12-07-2017, 04:12 PM)GtwoK Wrote: [ -> ]IIRC, didn't the renderings if this projects use the terracotta red colour? I could've sworn they did. Whether that is indicative of what the final design will be remains to be seen.
Yeah, all the renderings have shown that dull brown.
I really wonder if they just hire some designer, they do one project, and then they fire them. And then for the next project, they hire someone new again... and they do something totally different.
Why is it so hard to get this stuff consistent? Is there not some group of engineers (or one engineering manager) that understands how important this is?
(12-07-2017, 04:12 PM)GtwoK Wrote: [ -> ]IIRC, didn't the renderings if this projects use the terracotta red colour? I could've sworn they did. Whether that is indicative of what the final design will be remains to be seen.
The final colour is in place in a few locations, it is a brownish concrete, not nearly so strongly stated as the red. The later renderings had the final colour, although it looks even less bold in real life than the renders.
I do not understand what some group of people have against colour of any kind on the ground.
I fully expect that it will be brown and not at all visually recognizable, because the BIA will not want it to stand out and ruin the "character" of UpTown. Which will lead near-inevitably to a car driving into what they think is a parking lane, and mowing down a cyclist in what is actually a "protected" bike lane.
OK, the LRT people are officially jerks. All through Waterloo Park and UW Campus, all the crossings are blocked off for “testing”. Meanwhile, is a single road closed for the same reason? Of course not!
It's somewhat understandable. The roads are indeed blocked off - each time the LRV comes, the existing systems will block the road. No systems exist for the park, and the unpredictable nature of testing likely means that they can't just trust that open pathways won't put people's safety at risk. Would I want mitigations? Of course. But I can understand why the mitigation isn't "keep everything open".
Or, they could have made sure the trail crossing barriers were working before testing started. Or found a way to activate them manually when a test is coming through.
This needlessly cuts off travel options for many people. Can't say I can support that very easily.
(12-08-2017, 10:32 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]It's somewhat understandable. The roads are indeed blocked off - each time the LRV comes, the existing systems will block the road. No systems exist for the park, and the unpredictable nature of testing likely means that they can't just trust that open pathways won't put people's safety at risk. Would I want mitigations? Of course. But I can understand why the mitigation isn't "keep everything open".
The crossings in the park and at the university have the same crossing gates as the roadways. They made them work for the roadways they could have made them work for the ped crossings. There only reason why this wasn't done is "vehicle traffic is more important".
And please don't suggest that the road crossing gates are the same as semi-permanently closing the ped crossings. Especially since given they're a fence that will not open, I simply expect people to jump the relatively low barriers, because it's the obvious thing to do.
(12-08-2017, 10:10 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ]OK, the LRT people are officially jerks. All through Waterloo Park and UW Campus, all the crossings are blocked off for “testing”. Meanwhile, is a single road closed for the same reason? Of course not!
Did I miss something? I biked across the tracks at UW this morning without an issue.
(12-08-2017, 10:32 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]It's somewhat understandable. The roads are indeed blocked off - each time the LRV comes, the existing systems will block the road. No systems exist for the park, and the unpredictable nature of testing likely means that they can't just trust that open pathways won't put people's safety at risk. Would I want mitigations? Of course. But I can understand why the mitigation isn't "keep everything open".
I don’t think it is at all understandable.
All the crossings, including the ones in the park, have crossing protection bells, lights, and gates; if the issue is that they aren’t working yet for the non-road ones, that is simply incompetent planning from the team. If they can get the road crossing ones working 3 months after service was supposed to begin, they can get the non-road ones working too.
Or, they can flag the crossings as I understand they have been doing for the testing anyhow.
Also, my understanding is that testing starts out with slow-moving vehicles. Remember, railway crossings aren’t potentially dangerous because trains are magically dangerous: the danger comes from a combination of high speed and inability to stop. The LRVs have neither of these issues to the same extent as many freight trains, and they don’t have them at all during the slow speed testing phase.
(12-08-2017, 10:50 AM)timc Wrote: [ -> ] (12-08-2017, 10:10 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ]OK, the LRT people are officially jerks. All through Waterloo Park and UW Campus, all the crossings are blocked off for “testing”. Meanwhile, is a single road closed for the same reason? Of course not!
Did I miss something? I biked across the tracks at UW this morning without an issue.
I came up through the park around 08:20, and I turn down the road that goes under the bridge between the two parts of DC just before the E5 crossing, so I didn’t actually get a good view of the crossing further north. I’m curious when you went through, and which crossing you used? It’s possible they (or somebody!) removed the barriers later.
(12-07-2017, 03:55 PM)KevinL Wrote: [ -> ]I like the idea of a standard colour, but that green seems a bit too bright and stark for my taste.
Perhaps it's my love of the terra-cotta red used in the Netherlands. Distinct, but understated.
I liked the Netherlands red as well, but the argument for the green is probably the high contrast it grants to riders in the lane -- many, many cyclists take to the road without any reflective aids.
(12-07-2017, 05:19 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: [ -> ]I would also have preferred barrier curbs, although I'm not convinced they would have stopped all parking.
At least a barrier curb punishes the illegal parker's vehicle.
(12-08-2017, 10:32 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]It's somewhat understandable. The roads are indeed blocked off - each time the LRV comes, the existing systems will block the road. No systems exist for the park, and the unpredictable nature of testing likely means that they can't just trust that open pathways won't put people's safety at risk. Would I want mitigations? Of course. But I can understand why the mitigation isn't "keep everything open".
There aren't open pathways anymore. All crossing's got's gates, but only the trail ones are blocked off.
The crossings were blocked with four panels of orange plastic crash barriers that warned, "LRT testing in progress". They were removed around 3:00pm today. Not sure if pedestrians were crossing around the barriers. Lots of white hard hats on campus too.
I don't think a link to
this article from the Record about potential pilot segregated bike lanes in Waterloo was posted yet.
plam was good enough to alert us to the consultation sessions this coming Tuesday and Thursday. The article includes a map of the study area, which is the universities and Uptown, more-or-less, and a bit further east. I think the pilot lanes' usage will inevitably be hampered by the fact that they will be short. Apparently there is only funding for five kilometres of lanes. My first thought was that Weber and University should get them, but who knows.