Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Express691]

The problem with pedestrians is most prominent at Granville and Georgia. People are still in the middle of the street on the red light.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by Express691

http://globalnews.ca/news/2173015/noise-...tPostID=1c3f896a6f65aacd9a9541f294a42094

Related to the problem of soft announcements is trains inside the Dunsmuir tunnel. I wonder how they could fix such a ptoblem.

So I'm not the only one that noticed. That curve in the tunnel HAS gotten a lot louder in the past few years. I think with TransLink at the wheel the bigger question is what maintenance has NOT been happening?

[Waders]

Originally Posted by Express691

http://globalnews.ca/news/2173015/noise-...tPostID=1c3f896a6f65aacd9a9541f294a42094

Related to the problem of soft announcements is trains inside the Dunsmuir tunnel. I wonder how they could fix such a ptoblem.

In some MKI trains I traveled, the new announcement was so loud I felt like covering my ears.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Express691

The problem with pedestrians is most prominent at Granville and Georgia. People are still in the middle of the street on the red light.

Thanks for the update.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Right turning cars would share the bus lane, not cross over the bus lane (i.e. not like crossing a curbside LRT track).
The problem with letting pedestrians go "first" is that they'll trickle and the slow poke walkers will take up the right turn cycle.

But letting the right turning cars use the bus lane completely defeats the purpose of having the bus lane. From the article:

Slow Streets found the average delay experienced by buses on Georgia Street during rush hour is two minutes long, but can sometimes get up to an excruciating five minutes, and can mostly be attributed to vehicles turning right being held up for multiple lights by pedestrian crosswalk traffic.

...which is why I asked how it would work in the first place. Allowing right turners to use the bus lane wouldn't solve the problem. So how do you configure the bus lane so as to solve the problem?

[s211]

Originally Posted by Express691

The problem with pedestrians is most prominent at Granville and Georgia. People are still in the middle of the street on the red light.

I loved it during the Olympics when they had officers controlling pedestrian traffic and turning back the self-centred @sshats that would enter the intersection with mere seconds left on the counter. They'd also get the stragglers to haul fanny. Seriously...

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

But letting the right turning cars use the bus lane completely defeats the purpose of having the bus lane. From the article:

...which is why I asked how it would work in the first place. Allowing right turners to use the bus lane wouldn't solve the problem. So how do you configure the bus lane so as to solve the problem?

Yeah, that's why they'd have right turn arrows to try to clear the right turning cars from the curb lane - but nothing is perfect.
That's why most real BRT systems have the bus lanes in the middle with platforms.
It's much easier to prohibit or regulate left turns than right turns.
If you did it for right turns, you'd have the Hornby bike lane scenario.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

letting the right turning cars use the bus lane completely defeats the purpose of having the bus lane.

think of how it works on Broadway, but with lights. you can use the right lane when close to the corner you are turning on. by having the right-turn-lights the cars turning right will clear for the buses who can go straight. and it will solve the problem of people turning right blocking the bus-only-lane.

it a very simple idea that people are over complicating.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by MIPS

So I'm not the only one that noticed. That curve in the tunnel HAS gotten a lot louder in the past few years. I think with TransLink at the wheel the bigger question is what maintenance has NOT been happening?

That clip was staged to be loud, they have the windows open and are standing up. Obviously NDP TransLink critic George Heyman needed an axe to grind for the piece to be considered newsworthy. This was an entirely dishonest piece of news reporting.

I'm not refuting that being on the Skytrain in the tunnel is noisy, but you can't fix a staged problem. There are just as many people covering their ears from external noise as there are from the announcements being too loud on some cars. If they want a short-term fix, they would see if the MKI cars are louder in the Evergreen line tunnel and only run the MKI cars on the line with the less noisy tunnels. The long-term fix is obviously to stop using them.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

a third SeaBus is/has some apparently.

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/08/third-seabus-to-go-into-service-thursday-afternoon/

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

think of how it works on Broadway, but with lights. you can use the right lane when close to the corner you are turning on. by having the right-turn-lights the cars turning right will clear for the buses who can go straight. and it will solve the problem of people turning right blocking the bus-only-lane.

I'm not convinced. Intersections like Georgia and Howe already have an advance green for traffic turning right to head south and the buses are still delayed there. If all you needed was an advance green for right turners then restricting the lane to buses would be redundant.

[Sheba]

The Buzzer Blog just reposted an old Skytrain youtube video.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

I'm not convinced. Intersections like Georgia and Howe already have an advance green for traffic turning right to head south and the buses are still delayed there. If all you needed was an advance green for right turners then restricting the lane to buses would be redundant.

Well, at Howe is a special case. It is probably the busiest right turn in Downtown.

But elsewhere, right now, at rush hour, all 3 lanes are travel lanes (heading East). So when one guy decides to turn right, he is holding up a lane of traffic. So a bus might be in the curb lane behind 20 other cars behind one car turning right. So that car basically doesn't turn right until the light is red and the bus is still 20 cars back. If it were a bus lane, then the bus would be right there behind the guy turning right, so he would be next through.

Being behind 3 cars turning right is better than being behind 20 with 3 of them turning right.

At not rush hour, you have people weaving lanes around parked cars. And buses get caught in that too. Buses need to change lanes so they have to wait for traffic. Where if they just had their own lane, they could just go.

Just ride the 99 for an example. The bus takes less time to go between Commercial drive and Granville in rush hour than it does midday. Even with people turning right. From my own personal experience I would say it is 5 minutes faster when the curb lanes are dedicated bus lanes.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

Well, at Howe is a special case. It is probably the busiest right turn in Downtown.

So I guess my question is: what needs to be done to make it work?

Just ride the 99 for an example. The bus takes less time to go between Commercial drive and Granville in rush hour than it does midday. Even with people turning right. From my own personal experience I would say it is 5 minutes faster when the curb lanes are dedicated bus lanes.

Point well taken. But I think the stretch along Georgia is shorter and more congested with both cars and especially pedestrians, so right turn are a bigger part of the problem there.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

So I guess my question is: what needs to be done to make it work?

Turning from Georgia to Howe is a must and cannot be removed. I think they would have a million dollar opportunity to add another right-turn lane when they re-do the square.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Turning from Georgia to Howe is a must and cannot be removed. I think they would have a million dollar opportunity to add another right-turn lane when they re-do the square.

Yeah, if they could do that then it would solve a lot of problems.

[Millennium2002]

There were reports tonight that a suicide happened on the Expo Line at 29th Avenue Station.

Unfortunately, I don't think the message was passed around very well, as some people decided to blame TransLink again for all its ills.

Hearing that makes me feel like TransLink is in an impossible situation... give too little info and people think it's just terrible blah blah blah... give too much and people get all touchy and offended by it. Like really... people's expectations need a reality check.

[WarrenC12]

Suicides are never publicized. Usually they are "medical emergencies".

[st7860]

scanbc said someone was hit by a train and vancitybuzz said medical emergency

[Express691]

Originally Posted by st7860

scanbc said someone was hit by a train and vancitybuzz said medical emergency

Yes; well I guess this all comes down to company regulations. ScanBC can say whatever can describe the incident, but Translink's policy states that they have to say medical emergency in order to respect the family of those involved in the incident.

There were people complaining about being late for work because someone was stupid, which implies that they are assuming that that individual was completely fine with no mental health problems.

As for the extent of the situation, All trains were single tracking between Patterson and Broadway with no stopping at 29th. There was a bus bridge to connect Joyce-29th-Nanaimo and Millenium line trains were short turned at Columbia.