05-16-2019, 09:08 AM
(05-15-2019, 09:40 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Of course it’s also true that they probably shouldn’t have done so many curb lane tracks. Why are most of the one-direction segments curb lane running? What is it about one rather than two LRT lanes that makes the side rather than the centre of the road the right place for them?
Turning radius. Unlike the TTC's painful 12 meter radius curves that require concessions in the vehicle design, our system has a more standard 25 meter minimum radius. In theory this lowered the vehicle complexity and kept their costs down. Unfortunately you can't get from road center to road center with a 25 meter radius, so they swing wide into the curbs instead and just stay there. The other approach would be to kick right to turn left and vice versa, or immediately swing from the curbs back to the center, but this would block more lane space and push stop lines back, and I guess it was rejected for that reason. This choice also makes for the curious reverse running sections on Francis and Allen where the train is on the wrong side of the road for the direction it's travelling. Fortunately those sections are short.
...K