adys123
Active Member
You'd be surprised...
|
|
|
MrGoose
Active Member
Eglinton can still be grade separated. If you shut the eastern section down, the ROW to build an elevated line exists so long as you remove a couple of left turns.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Golden Mile will be lucky to have 1-2 buildings built and occupied by 2031.
I'm not overly concerned about capacity on the surface section in the short term. The Crosstown can at the end of the day run 90 metre trains, which can hold about 700 people. It's also at the "end" of the line which isn't as busy, and as of right now doesn't have a ton of huge traffic generators along it as it's mostly surrounded by huge commercial plazas.
Over time it'll get busier, particularly between Laird and Don Mills, but eventually the Ontario Line will act as a relief valve as well.
Once Golden Mile reaches full build-out it may have more issues, but that's not likely until the 2050's or so to be honest. Golden Mile is also deceptively dense as it's a lot of high-rise applications but also a lot of open space and the south side of Eglinton as of today is still mostly designated for employment. The median total density within walking distance of the LRT isn't going to be as high as it may appear.
I'm not overly concerned about capacity on the surface section in the short term. The Crosstown can at the end of the day run 90 metre trains, which can hold about 700 people. It's also at the "end" of the line which isn't as busy, and as of right now doesn't have a ton of huge traffic generators along it as it's mostly surrounded by huge commercial plazas.
Over time it'll get busier, particularly between Laird and Don Mills, but eventually the Ontario Line will act as a relief valve as well.
Once Golden Mile reaches full build-out it may have more issues, but that's not likely until the 2050's or so to be honest. Golden Mile is also deceptively dense as it's a lot of high-rise applications but also a lot of open space and the south side of Eglinton as of today is still mostly designated for employment. The median total density within walking distance of the LRT isn't going to be as high as it may appear.
MrGoose
Active Member
There are 5 places where a side street intersection with Eglinton has a left turn intersecting with the LRT. We can remove these left turns in favor of protected left turns at the nearest arterial-arterial intersection and halve the amount of traffic conflict points
Swift / Credit Union Dr
Eglinton Sq / Entrance to Golden Mile Plaza
Simott Dr
Rosemount Dr and Ionview Dr
Swift / Credit Union Dr
Eglinton Sq / Entrance to Golden Mile Plaza
Simott Dr
Rosemount Dr and Ionview Dr
MisterF
Senior Member
As with the other east-west lines, a significant percentage of riders will be going towards downtown. So the Ontario Line, Stouffville Line, and Kitchener/UP Express will go a long way towards alleviating capacity concerns on Eglinton.
KevinT
Active Member
ION doesn't have the same ATC system, that's one of the reasons it was delayed. Waterloo Region was counting on just using what Crosstown had (which should have had its trains and system in-hand ahead of ION), but the ATC wasn't spec'd yet so Waterloo Region had to go out and source their own. The region unintentionally ended up being the launch customer for the Flexity Freedoms, which is where a lot of ION's delays came from. Not that you'd ever hear Metrolinx / Del Duca fess up to that, they were too busy pointing the finger at Bombardier.
jordanmkasla2009
Active Member
Much of the timidity comes from the fact that the operators don’t have full clearance to operate them as they would in normal service yet. There’s still a few defects that need fixing before they can gun it everywhere on the on-street section. Another thing to note is that right now there’s also Alstom/Crosslinx/Metrolinx personnel on-board directing what to do and what to test and such so they can gather metrics and diagnostic data for train control software modifications or hardware adjustments and such.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
If ML had employed any planning on the Eglinton Line, which has become abundantly clear it didn't, it would have employed U-turn routes along the median of Eglinton. These are employed in many cities where there are no left hand turn lights at intersections but rather U- turns are made between lights using a separate lane and controlled by lights themselves........the cars can make a U-turn when there are no LRTs on the area of the route. Yet another failure on ML's execution of this line.
Even still, with today's technology in light coordination, there is no reason why the LRTs shop be stopping for any red lights if the City decides to make transit a TRUE priority.
Even still, with today's technology in light coordination, there is no reason why the LRTs shop be stopping for any red lights if the City decides to make transit a TRUE priority.
smallspy
Senior Member
Since I guess you weren't around when those original conversations happened.....
The original planning for the line called for Michigan Lefts at almost all of the intersections. By the time they showed that to the public, the response was so overwhelmingly negative that they were removed for the EA.
The line as it is - from Weston to Kennedy - more-or-less follows the EA.
Dan
cplchanb
Senior Member
I can see why they were rejected... it looks so complex just to make a turn, not to mention doubling up on the signalling for LRT crossing.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
When you say that the Michigan Lefts were received overwhelmingly negatively by the "public", I can only assume that means a negative reception from drivers. More proof that Toronto put the needs of drivers ahead of the needs of transit riders.
T3G
Senior Member
How would Michigan lefts have helped, except in eliminating the nonsensical practice of prioritizing left turning cars over transit vehicles? If anything, it would make the problem worse, from the perspective of the LRT, because now you've just doubled the number of possible collision points. Left turns being given priority is a trivial problem; the far bigger one is idiot motorists that don't look over their shoulder when crossing a tram ROW.
I don't know how to make this problem go away. Rumble strips, maybe?
I don't know how to make this problem go away. Rumble strips, maybe?
MrGoose
Active Member
Get rid of those intersections for carsaltogether.
Anyone would would use the Swift/Credit Union intersection can simply drive 400m to the Sloane intersection
Altogether, these 5 left turns are totally unnecessary. Maybe you can have pedestrian crossings but theres no reason why we need to permit these left turns so people can save 3 minutes instead of just making a u-turn at the next arterial or just going around.
Transportation department just has a terminal case of car brain.
T3G
Senior Member
That would be ideal. However, would that make the problem go away at the major intersections? From my experience, people who have a general green (i.e. not a dedicated left turn phase), but are waiting for gaps in traffic, often do very stupid things.
smallspy
Senior Member
You can assume whatever you want.
But the people who attended the meetings were a mix of residents, transit users, and other people who cared enough to show up. If you didn't show up when you had the chance....how else do you plan on making your voice heard?
The idea was that the signals at the major intersections was going to be simplified - there would be no need for dedicated left-turn phases, only straight through and right turns.
The Michigan lefts were going to be paired up and signaled, but the signals would be set up so that they would have to wait for an LRV to pass before triggering.
Dan