ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

GRT has posted another video of ION collision close calls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Uvkarr...verTransit

You know, they put it to fun music, but this just makes me mad. Having been thrown off my feet by an emergency brake action, these represent potential an actual injuries, caused by drivers paying so little attention they missed the 60 foot long LRV next to them.

These drivers kill people, and then complain they appear out of nowhere, and our politicians pander to these idiots. I wish people would treat this with the seriousness it deserves.

[ijmorlan]

GRT has posted another video of ION collision close calls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Uvkarr...verTransit

You know, they put it to fun music, but this just makes me mad. Having been thrown off my feet by an emergency brake action, these represent potential an actual injuries, caused by drivers paying so little attention they missed the 60 foot long LRV next to them.

These drivers kill people, and then complain they appear out of nowhere, and our politicians pander to these idiots. I wish people would treat this with the seriousness it deserves.

Yeah, I’m not sure they should be so quick to apply the emergency brake. Ideally, the emergency brake would be applied only if injuries on board the LRT are less likely with it than without. Of course, turning this into training is another matter, given that they probably have less than 1s to decide what to do in a typical scenario.

[danbrotherston]

GRT has posted another video of ION collision close calls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Uvkarr...verTransit

You know, they put it to fun music, but this just makes me mad. Having been thrown off my feet by an emergency brake action, these represent potential an actual injuries, caused by drivers paying so little attention they missed the 60 foot long LRV next to them.

These drivers kill people, and then complain they appear out of nowhere, and our politicians pander to these idiots. I wish people would treat this with the seriousness it deserves.

Yeah, I’m not sure they should be so quick to apply the emergency brake. Ideally, the emergency brake would be applied only if injuries on board the LRT are less likely with it than without. Of course, turning this into training is another matter, given that they probably have less than 1s to decide what to do in a typical scenario.

I mean, I have zero qualms about prioritising not injuring LRV passengers at the cost of maybe injuring vehicle drivers....and I say that fully acknowledging I am more often an LRV passenger.

But there's more than just potential driver injuries at stake, leaving aside passengers...hitting a vehicle could send it into pedestrians nearby--maybe even waiting transit riders, to say nothing of the hours of delays that will ensue for every transit rider when a crash does occur (which ONLY affects transit riders, not drivers of course).

What I think should happen is that every driver who does this gets ticketed. Leaving aside a more serious (as in, not a joke, the way our licensing currently is) enforcement scheme, they could probably ticket 2-3 dangerous drivers a day, at that rate, we'd have a real enforcement mechanism on our hands...

Instead, we ignore this problem and put out goofy videos like this and pointless educational campaigns...meanwhile we spend a fortune to heavily police the passengers on the train on the fear that someone might get away with stealing 3.25 (and stealing it from someone OTHER than the parking enterprise).

Man...I get angry thinking about this bullshit...

[ijmorlan]

What I think should happen is that every driver who does this gets ticketed. Leaving aside a more serious (as in, not a joke, the way our licensing currently is) enforcement scheme, they could probably ticket 2-3 dangerous drivers a day, at that rate, we'd have a real enforcement mechanism on our hands...

Makes sense. They have video of the offence, so ticketing the vehicle owner shouldn’t be a problem.

And I am utterly uninterested in the whole “but who was driving?” argument. OK, either report that the vehicle was stolen at the time, or recover the fine from the driver. Vehicle owners have to be responsible for the authorized operation of their vehicles. Same comment applies to red-light cameras, speed cameras, and any other automated enforcement mechanism.

One strange thing I noticed: the footage in the video is of very low quality. Yet run-of-the-mill surveillance cameras provide HD colour footage. Did they deliberately reduce the quality for some reason? I can see why they might blur license plates or other identifying marks, but reducing the quality of the entire clip seems like a strange decision.

[danbrotherston]

What I think should happen is that every driver who does this gets ticketed. Leaving aside a more serious (as in, not a joke, the way our licensing currently is) enforcement scheme, they could probably ticket 2-3 dangerous drivers a day, at that rate, we'd have a real enforcement mechanism on our hands...

Makes sense. They have video of the offence, so ticketing the vehicle owner shouldn’t be a problem.

And I am utterly uninterested in the whole “but who was driving?” argument. OK, either report that the vehicle was stolen at the time, or recover the fine from the driver. Vehicle owners have to be responsible for the authorized operation of their vehicles. Same comment applies to red-light cameras, speed cameras, and any other automated enforcement mechanism.

One strange thing I noticed: the footage in the video is of very low quality. Yet run-of-the-mill surveillance cameras provide HD colour footage. Did they deliberately reduce the quality for some reason? I can see why they might blur license plates or other identifying marks, but reducing the quality of the entire clip seems like a strange decision.

I agree (and in the UK they can fine the owner if the driver refuses to identify the owner), but it would take a change to provincial law in order to hold owners responsible in the manner you identify. Red-light cameras (and speed cameras, and parking tickets) are an explicit carve-out rather than a broadly permissive law. I don't even think the carveout is broad enough to ticket illegal turns only red light violations.

But given that it's something the province must do I understand that GRT/Region/etc. cannot do themselves. But there is nothing to stop WRPS from contacting the driver and requesting that they identify who was driving at the time, nothing besides WRPS disinterest in enforcing the rules of the road.

Yeah, I also noticed the quality is very low. I expect this is nothing more than bureaucratic bullshit leading to garbage cameras being used. There is no motivation to spring for better cameras. It is a shame because WRPS could more easily hold people accountable for their dangerous driving...oh, here's a picture of the registered vehicle owner, and here's a high quality HD image of the driver who cut off the LRT, compare the two.

FWIW....dash cams in general are pretty trash. A base model GO Pro will capture a significantly better image for around the same cost as a mid-range dash cam, but have none of the "dashcam" features. It's nothing short of a failure of capitalism causing this--there's like two manufacturers of dashcam chips and sensors and rolling your own camera is difficult, so every dashcam just grabs one of these off the shelf components, and they're both trash.

[dtkvictim]

FWIW....dash cams in general are pretty trash. A base model GO Pro will capture a significantly better image for around the same cost as a mid-range dash cam, but have none of the "dashcam" features. It's nothing short of a failure of capitalism causing this--there's like two manufacturers of dashcam chips and sensors and rolling your own camera is difficult, so every dashcam just grabs one of these off the shelf components, and they're both trash.

I mean, I know nothing about the dashcam industry like you seem to, but I think I disagree with your conclusion. I have watched thousands of dashcam videos (bit of a hobby I guess), and these days I would say the average camera in a car qualifies as "good". Especially in the last few years, the average quality has greatly increased.

This footage is like pre-2010 Russian dashcam quality. The only real excuse for this quality is if they are cheaping on storage/retention costs with what looks like a ton of compression, though I would still disagree with that decision. If all of their platform and bus footage is the same quality, then that is probably the reason.

[danbrotherston]

FWIW....dash cams in general are pretty trash. A base model GO Pro will capture a significantly better image for around the same cost as a mid-range dash cam, but have none of the "dashcam" features. It's nothing short of a failure of capitalism causing this--there's like two manufacturers of dashcam chips and sensors and rolling your own camera is difficult, so every dashcam just grabs one of these off the shelf components, and they're both trash.

I mean, I know nothing about the dashcam industry like you seem to, but I think I disagree with your conclusion. I have watched thousands of dashcam videos (bit of a hobby I guess), and these days I would say the average camera in a car qualifies as "good". Especially in the last few years, the average quality has greatly increased.

This footage is like pre-2010 Russian dashcam quality. The only real excuse for this quality is if they are cheaping on storage/retention costs with what looks like a ton of compression, though I would still disagree with that decision. If all of their platform and bus footage is the same quality, then that is probably the reason.

I mean...everything is relative, pre-2010 dashcams and LRT cameras are clearly much worse than the HD video you get from a modern midrange dashcam.

But if you compare it with the video you get from even the base model GO Pro (about the same price point)...you can see it's actually quite bad, especially with weak lighting and motion. I'm not an expert in the field but this is a pretty good summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AnyhHl3...usTechTips

Storage is cheap, even when using dedicated IPTV recording hardware and storage. The problem is they probably aren't doing this. They are probably using a custom built solution, one that has probably been in use for more than a decade (because you have to amortise the investment in a custom solution).

[Bytor]

Does anybody remember what the reason given was why we only got trams every 10 minutes at peak instead of 8 minutes?

[neonjoe]

Originally it was to allow for vehicles to be taken out of service to repair the welding issues. Probably now, because there’s always a few damaged from drivers.

[danbrotherston]

It's more than just the ION which has seen pre-pandemic service cancelled.

Honestly, the damage done to transit is insane...even though ridership has returned, investment has not.

[bravado]

It's more than just the ION which has seen pre-pandemic service cancelled.

Honestly, the damage done to transit is insane...even though ridership has returned, investment has not.

Politicians see it as a one-time budget expense, not an ongoing investment. What a short-sighted mess.

[Bytor]

Originally it was to allow for vehicles to be taken out of service to repair the welding issues.

We had a loaner for that, which eventually became wholly ours after the court settlement

Probably now, because there’s always a few damaged from drivers.

Except for the one that was recently hit by a cement truck, replacing a fibreglass panel only takes a day or two mostly dependent upon scheduling of the mechanics rather than how long it takes to do.

Also, the 10 minute service plan only needs 10 trams on the tracks at one time. Minus 515 subbing in for whichever one is currently getting rewelded, that's still 4 free trams at any one time.

The original 8 minute service plan only need 12 of the 14 on the tracks at any one time.

[Bytor]

Ah hah! Googling has finally turned up a reason Article from April 2020 https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...hener.html

It was apparently due to issues with the trams, and Peter Zinck said there was no timeline but thought it would be "months" before the issues were corrected.

I've emailed the interim transit commissioner, Neil Malcom and a few Regional Council members asking for an update on this and how soon we can expect 8 minute frequencies since 2-3 years should have been enough time to solve an issue only needing months.

[ijmorlan]

It's more than just the ION which has seen pre-pandemic service cancelled.

Honestly, the damage done to transit is insane...even though ridership has returned, investment has not.

Politicians see it as a one-time budget expense, not an ongoing investment. What a short-sighted mess.

To be fair, the same applies to the road network: if we properly maintained it, it would be even more unreasonably expensive than it already is.

[bravado]

Politicians see it as a one-time budget expense, not an ongoing investment. What a short-sighted mess.

To be fair, the same applies to the road network: if we properly maintained it, it would be even more unreasonably expensive than it already is.

Oh man that's my dream... imagine if the average voter heard about how expensive the roads are as often as they heard about how expensive the LRT is.