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Post by Gokhan on Dec 10, 2008 17:33:01 GMT -8
Or at least the street needs to be sunk under that awful Washington/Flower intersection - something will need to be done to fix that mess. It is the most glacial part of the Blue Line. i still cannot understand why they went and made a median running alignment there. they could have easily just kept the line going down the western lane since the parcel at the north east corner was already taken perhaps it was mitigation to keep the McD's at washington and olive open... Side-running light-rail is usually problematic. The reason it works on Flower is because it's one-way, not busy, and there aren't many crossings. I think the only real problem at Flower/Washington is signalization. Perhaps they should put gates at this intersection and solve the problem once and for all.
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Post by jejozwik on Dec 10, 2008 17:50:14 GMT -8
i could see how it may adversely effect the shops on the north side of washington, but having all the vehicle traffic on one side just makes more sense to me, you would effectively cut down half the chance of running into things.
how would you gate off a train running with traffic west to east? north south traffic has a red light. unless there running reds, and then who is to say they wont run the gate too
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 10, 2008 19:04:03 GMT -8
i could see how it may adversely effect the shops on the north side of washington, but having all the vehicle traffic on one side just makes more sense to me, you would effectively cut down half the chance of running into things. how would you gate off a train running with traffic west to east? north south traffic has a red light. unless there running reds, and then who is to say they wont run the gate too I think there are safety issues with trains running next to a sidewalk and with the automobile turns as well but not to say that it can't be done. Again, the problem there is merely signaling. The gate would go exactly on the same place as the "WAIT HERE" line on westbound Washington. (See the figure below.) This would effectively grade-separate the Blue Line entirely at Flower/Washington and the Blue Line would always have the priority. Expo would still follow the signals. Alternatively, they could give signal preemption to the westbound Blue Line with the current traffic lights.
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Post by JerardWright on Dec 11, 2008 19:46:50 GMT -8
This memo is usually given in a packet to the Governance Council Members as a monthly operations report. ON TIME PERFORMANCE for October 2008 Red/Purple Line: 98.94% Blue Line: 98.36% Green Line: 98.32% Gold Line: 99.53% ON TIME PERFORMANCE for Year to Date FY 2009 Red/Purple Line: 99.14% Blue Line: 98.21% Green Line: 98.98% Gold Line: 99.43% As of right now, the Gold Line Light Rail has the best on-time performance.
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Post by bobdavis on Dec 11, 2008 20:41:29 GMT -8
As a Gold Line booster (wrote to PUC commisioners to help get construction moving, rode first revenue train) I was pleased to see my favorite local railway come out ahead of the completely grade-separated Red/Purple line. I'll avoid snide comments and just let the numbers do the talking.
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 11, 2008 20:47:28 GMT -8
The table above confirms that the problem at Flower/Washington is a psychological one and not a real one. This is one intersection where the trains don't have signal priority; so, on the average trains have to wait for about 45 seconds for the light to turn green. People perceive this as a big problem, while it is no more or no less than a 45-second delay, just like the slow-down for the Gold Line at Marmion Way is no more or no less than a 1-minute delay.
In the case of the Blue Line, they could easily improve this by giving signal priority to the trains. Then you shave another 30 seconds or so from the trip time.
For the Gold Line, it's very difficult because they have to go through the political process of CPUC and deal with the NIMBYs. So, they will likely live with the 1-minute delay for the foreseeable future.
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Post by bluelineshawn on Dec 11, 2008 20:55:50 GMT -8
Jerard those on time performance percentages seem awfully high. What is Metro's criteria for "on time"?
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Post by JerardWright on Dec 11, 2008 21:03:04 GMT -8
On time is defined as: "Trains leaving all timecheck points on any run no earlier than 30 seconds nor later than 2 minutes of the scheduled run time."
Buses, because they have a greater potential for delay has there On time definition as: "Buses leaving all timecheck points on any run no earlier than 60 seconds nor later than 5 minutes of the scheduled run time."
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Post by jejozwik on Dec 12, 2008 7:59:10 GMT -8
just because the train % on time is high does not mean it is not slow.
thats great to see that the train performance is high, but the train is still very slow at flower and washington, and marmion way. slow moving trains are much more noticeable then a train that is a min behind schedule.
its nice to see the the schedules reflect that the trains are horribly slow in these locations, but these numbers are not the issue
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 12, 2008 8:30:03 GMT -8
Again, it's only about a minute delay on Marmion Way and at Flower/Washington, and horribly slow is neither a scientific description nor an informal objective description of the delay at these locations. It just reflects the psychological perception of the extra minute spent at these locations. For some people this is a lifetime, for others just an extra minute on the train.
They are spending about $10 million for Flower/Washington with the Expo Line. Most of this money is going to the automatic train-control system that will prevent the Blue and Expo Line trains colliding, especially at the rail - rail crossing there between the northbound Expo and southbound Blue. But it's possible that the Expo and Blue Lines will also benefit signal priority that will turn the Washington Blvd light red when either an Expo or a Blue train is approaching.
On Marmion Way the problem is the narrowness of the right-of-way. The 60-ft-wide right-of-way minus 30-ft-wide tracks leaves 30 ft for the car lanes and sidewalks. This results in a single, extremely narrow, 6-ft-wide car lane in each direction. You can't close the perpendicular streets because with such a narrow single lane, people wouldn't be able to access their driveways. The best-case scenario here would be 25-MPH operations but they went with 15 MPH instead, which is quite livable for only 0.67 miles, resulting in no more than 1 minute of delay.
If we could only put the Farmdale issue behind us, then the Expo Line would be designed as good as the state-of-the-art, highly efficient Gold Line.
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Post by bobdavis on Dec 12, 2008 12:58:55 GMT -8
We live in an age when so many people seem to have a chronic case of "ants in the pants". Those of us who travel the freeways see these dingbats changing lanes (with minimum clearance) to gain a few yards on the other cars. One observer commented "Back in the old days, if someone missed the stagecoach, he'd just bunk down at ye olde wayside inn until the next one came along. Nowadays, some folks get uptight if they miss one section of a revolving door." My wife and I, when we see someone racing along, endangering life and limb and auto parts (theirs and other people's), one will comment "His pager must have gone off" and the other will say, "Yup, it was the hospital calling--his brain transplant is ready."
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