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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
(12-18-2018, 05:15 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote:
(12-18-2018, 05:10 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I've heard that too, but it's clearly not true.

But it's irrelevant anyway, because there are no curbs at the intersections, and the ambulance can enter at the intersection at each end.

He actually went out and measured the ground clearance on his rig, and the curb in front of my home would have torn off the exhaust. I read a lot about ambulance procurement and there is often a curb clearance defined in the RFQ, so I don't really understand how the region ended up with vehicles with such a low ground clearance.

They're just based on off the shelf vehicle.  The average F-150 pickup has no problem jumping the LRT curbs...the ambulances are bigger than that.

For that matter, they frequently go over curbs in their day to day business.
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(12-18-2018, 05:21 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: For that matter, they frequently go over curbs in their day to day business.

On most curbs though they go up and stay up. With the curbs for the LRT right-of-way on King St they can go up and back down with the curb riding high between the wheels, which is fairly unique. As you've just said however, "But it's irrelevant anyway, because there are no curbs at the intersections, and the ambulance can enter at the intersection at each end." I 100% agree with you!
...K
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Unless they get backed up mid block!
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(12-18-2018, 07:09 PM)creative Wrote: Unless they get backed up mid block!

If they get backed up mid block then that is entirely on the ambulance or fire truck driver misjudging the speed of traffic clearing the way ahead and on car drivers for not pulling completely over or continuing forward if pulling over isn't possible. The lanes on King are also designed such that an emergency vehicle should be able to pass even if there are vehicles pulled over.
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Here's something I've seen several times, and I was finally able to get it on video since I was a passenger. The actual train signals on University Ave are timed quite well other than triggering too early, but the traffic lights stay red for ages after the signals end. Aside from the inconvenience of having to wait for nothing, almost every time at least one driver goes through the red light. This time they stopped before actually crossing the tracks. If you look closely, there's a 20 second pedestrian signal across University Ave in the middle of the delay starting around 1:00, but the light still stays red long after it ends.

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The regional engineers really haven't the faintest clue how to time lights for pedestrians. This much is plainly obvious.

But this is extreme....

How can we fail this hard at EASY things!
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I would send this link to ION and the Region of Waterloo! I remember being stuck here in June and wondered why, lol
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Any time I’m lucky enough to see a train here while biking on the trail, this is what happens. It’s insane. It’s like the interrupt to the Region’s light system isn’t resetting into the cycle correctly.
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(12-18-2018, 11:17 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: Here's something I've seen several times, and I was finally able to get it on video since I was a passenger. The actual train signals on University Ave are timed quite well other than triggering too early, but the traffic lights stay red for ages after the signals end. Aside from the inconvenience of having to wait for nothing, almost every time at least one driver goes through the red light. This time they stopped before actually crossing the tracks. If you look closely, there's a 20 second pedestrian signal across University Ave in the middle of the delay starting around 1:00, but the light still stays red long after it ends.


I've witnessed this several times too in the past few months but always from behind the wheel so I've never filmed it.  When I saw it it also locked out the pedestrian crossing, so even they weren't allowed to cross despite repeat frustrated button pushings.  I suspect this is one of those stupid cross-organizational issues where each side blames the other, with the rail guys saying "hey, our output to your box is just fine" and the traffic guys saying "no, our input from your box doesn't clear properly".  Just shake hands, send out one tech each, and solve it guys!

I called the region once to report it but after keeping me on the phone for several minutes to take down my name, address, phone number, pants size, and sexual preference; I had to explain the issue several times over and then the lady on the other end just consulted a chart and said "Oh yes, they're testing in that area today" and hung up on me.  Completely useless.
...K
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Question for those who train spot or who listen to the live feed on the scanner. Does the feed sound super chopped up and difficult to hear on your end? Is it worse on mobile? I was out and listening in yesterday on my phone and I could barely hear anything from some of the vehicles.
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(12-19-2018, 11:44 AM)Lens Wrote: Question for those who train spot or who listen to the live feed on the scanner. Does the feed sound super chopped up and difficult to hear on your end? Is it worse on mobile? I was out and listening in yesterday on my phone and I could barely hear anything from some of the vehicles.

Reportedly it's been bad for the past month or two.  I've been using a private feed that's pretty solid, but my friend is concerned about his upstream bandwidth so it's exclusive to just he and me.  :-(
...K
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Yes; it’s been awful for months. I mentioned it to him (the author of the site) but he said it’s that the radio transmissions are sometimes choppy. I don’t buy it but didn’t push it as it’s free and he did it out of kindness.
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Regarding the emergency vehicle situation, I could see a dicey situation where there are too many cars and a train on the side (moot point if the ambulance cannot mount the curb anywase) causing gridlock etc.

You'd think they've thought this all through though!
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It's a great day for trainspotting! At least 502, 512, 513, and 514 are out this afternoon running along the whole line, and maybe 511. 508 was possibly out this morning. Nice weather too Tongue Could also be others but I had to go do stuff and didn't catch all of them up close.
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(12-19-2018, 04:12 PM)Momo26 Wrote: Regarding the emergency vehicle situation, I could see a dicey situation where there are too many cars and a train on the side (moot point if the ambulance cannot mount the curb anywase) causing gridlock etc.

You'd think they've thought this all through though!

Not sure what the train has to do with it, they can proceed, but in any case, when it comes to syncing with the train, my recollection is that ambulance (and other emergency services) dispatchers are going to be able to speak to the LRT control centre.
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