General STO News and Rapibus System

[Radster]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It was a Rapibus accordeon bus, though it was not in the Rapibus ROW at the time.

It was on Montcalm street, right near the Terrasses de la Chaudiere buildings.

[Cre47]

They should seriously consider jacking up fines and demerit points for red-light runners (or what I called them red-light bandits) after today's Xth crash due to a red-light bandit motorist.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Cre47

They should seriously consider jacking up fines and demerit points for red-light runners (or what I called them red-light bandits) after today's Xth crash due to a red-light bandit motorist.

What are the penalties right now? Also how much would grade-separations cost?

[Cre47]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

What are the penalties right now? Also how much would grade-separations cost?

I know it is 3 demerit points, while one article said the fine was 162$, though I had saw in prior crashes, several variations (albeit small) of the fine amount.

It might be nearly if not impossible to make the intersection where the accident below grade, due to the fact Highway 5 sits right beside Montclair Blvd and at a lower grade than it. And building a new overpass over Montclair and Highway 5 alltogether (that means removing the existing one over Highway 5) would be too costly. Sorry about not having dollar amounts though.

But a bit as an indicator, the tunnel under Greber Blvd. cost about 10 million $ alone. I think the rail bridge over the Gatineau River was over that amount.

[TransitZilla]

Is there are reason that gates could not be installed at the Rapibus intersections similar to a railway crossing?

I'm not sure what makes red lights so hard to understand. Maybe the signage needs to be improved? Clearly some people are failing to understand how these intersections are set up.

[J.OT13]

I don't get the RapiBus; it's a road running parallel to other roads with the same intersections (with the exception of Gréber). This is no better than bus lanes in terms of speed and capacity, it adds significant safety issues and it was 100 times more expensive than bus lanes.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Cre47

It might be nearly if not impossible to make the intersection where the accident below grade, due to the fact Highway 5 sits right beside Montclair Blvd and at a lower grade than it. And building a new overpass over Montclair and Highway 5 alltogether (that means removing the existing one over Highway 5) would be too costly. Sorry about not having dollar amounts though.

For Montclair the only viable grade separation option is to lower Montclair to the same elevation as A5 so that the Rapibus and railway go over both (e.g. just as A50/Hwy 148 does). That would have the knock-on effect of turning the Montclair-Carrière intersection into something of an interchange.

Besides, the article I read said the collision happened at Maloney and Bellehumeur in Gatineau.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...neau-1.2424009

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Dado

For Montclair the only viable grade separation option is to lower Montclair to the same elevation as A5 so that the Rapibus and railway go over both (e.g. just as A50/Hwy 148 does). That would have the knock-on effect of turning the Montclair-Carrière intersection into something of an interchange.

Besides, the article I read said the collision happened at Maloney and Bellehumeur in Gatineau.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...neau-1.2424009

The link relates to a previous collision back in November. Here is the CBC link for the current collision.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ital-1.2621179

[eternallyme]

I think the most viable grade separating possibility at Montclair - albeit very expensive - would be to raise the Rapibus (and railway) over it and higher over A-5. Lowering Montclair would result in major issues in accessing Carriere and the businesses in the immediate area.

It makes me think - imagine if the Chiarelli LRT plan came to reality, the downtown with trains in mixed traffic would have been a total disaster (much worse than the Rapibus) with accidents very frequently (rear-enders and intersections mainly).

[Dado]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

The link relates to a previous collision back in November. Here is the CBC link for the current collision.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ital-1.2621179

Oops. I misread an email I had received and then didn't look at the date of the article.

My bad.

[agl]

So if I've got this all right, back in 2009 the STO said it was going to spend $750,000 in order to identify and study potential corridors for rapid transit out to Aylmer. Public consultations came around in 2011, resulting in the presentation of 4 potential corridors - Pink Road, Boulevard Allumettières, Chemin Aylmer, and it appears Boulevard Lucerne.

Fast forward to September 2013, where the STO says it will be spending $105,000 of $750K budget on studying 3 corridors (Pink, Allumétières, and chemin Aylmer), after being asked by the MTQ to add elements to the methodology used by the experts that identified the best corridor to use - which was never made public, as far as I am aware (most likely Allumettières).

« Le MTQ nous a demandé d'ajouter des éléments à la méthodologie que les experts avaient utilisée pour déterminer ce corridor-là et nous redemande de faire l'analyse de trois corridors, dont celui du chemin d'Aylmer, des Allumettières et de Pink », a expliqué M. Martin. http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/o...to-lemay.shtml

Now in October 2014, the new Chair of the STO is lamenting there'll be delays due to the request by the MTQ to go back to the drawing board and evaluate in detail 3 potential corridors, after the STO had assessed only one of them. And they're trying to spin it like this is new information, when, as indicated above, it was back in September 2013 that the MTQ requested this further and appropriate analysis.

Après une consultation publique, en 2011, le transporteur public avait présenté quatre corridors potentiels. Or, la STO n'avait analysé en profondeur qu'un seul de ces trajets.
Le MTQ, qui financera une partie du prolongement du Rapibus, demande maintenant à la STO d'éliminer l'un des tracés proposés, et de présenter une étude des coûts et des avantages pour chacun des trois autres corridors. Le choix du corridor et les travaux de planification seront donc repoussés d'environ neuf mois.

- http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/o...-rapibus.shtml

So the STO has been sitting on this for over a year, and continues to provide very little information to the public. When Ottawa studies rapid transit, there is a series of Open houses with billboards detailing methodology, potential routes, recommended route, best alternatives, etc etc. Over here in Gatineau they present four options, then choose by some unknown reasoning to evaluate in detail only one of them, and cross their fingers and hope that the province will pay their share for it, without further engaging the public in the discussion. Ridiculous! At least the province is calling out the city to conduct a proper analysis, rather than pick the preferred route from the beginning and build the evaluation around that. Not that I don't doubt they'll be trying that anyway with the next study.

bleh.

[eternallyme]

Aylmer is tricky due to the ridership patterns and lack of a clear corridor available. Honestly, I would prefer an LRT line along the old railway ROW.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Aylmer is tricky due to the ridership patterns and lack of a clear corridor available. Honestly, I would prefer an LRT line along the old railway ROW.

Yes. This right here.

Too bad, everyone I know who lives in that general area, looks at you as if you're sprouted an extra head if you suggest it.

[Aylmer]

This is fantastic news. The STO's single-minded obsession with the Rapibus is wholly incompatible with Aylmer's urban fabric - even along Des Allumettières, it would have required redynamiting the Gatineau Park (probably over the NCC's dead body) and driving two extra lanes through the politically sensitive Wrightville portion (over the community's dead body).

Along Chemin d'Aylmer, there isn't enough space to implement anything beyond the existing bus lanes, so the only option would be Pink, which is just ludicrous.

The fact that the MTQ is forcing the STO to consider other technologies and that the head of the STO explicitly mentionned compatability with Ottawa's system bodes well for surface LRT (which could indeed fit on Chemin d'Aylmer). What a transformational change that would be for Gatineau...

To be continued...

[1overcosc]

What is with the STO and it's shitty old buses? It seems they have a huge number of buses that are over 20 years old, I've even seen one from 1989 a few times. Does Quebec not have accessibility laws like Ontario does that require low-floor buses? (I've heard Quebec is much worse for accessibility, but I didn't think it was that bad). Not only are they inaccessible, they're dirty, too. I'm not that sensitive to air quality, yet whenever one of those ancient buses passes me walking down Rideau Street, I notice the air momentarily gets really shitty (which I NEVER notice with other buses).

Does the STO have serious plans to modernize its bus fleet? That honestly should be one of their #1 priorities at this point.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

What is with the STO and it's shitty old buses? It seems they have a huge number of buses that are over 20 years old, I've even seen one from 1989 a few times. Does Quebec not have accessibility laws like Ontario does that require low-floor buses? (I've heard Quebec is much worse for accessibility, but I didn't think it was that bad). Not only are they inaccessible, they're dirty, too. I'm not that sensitive to air quality, yet whenever one of those ancient buses passes me walking down Rideau Street, I notice the air momentarily gets really shitty (which I NEVER notice with other buses).

Does the STO have serious plans to modernize its bus fleet? That honestly should be one of their #1 priorities at this point.

At least transit enthusiasts, like myself, still enjoy riding the old MCI/Nova Classics that STO still operates. In fact, for a while this year, they were running 7901 (1979 GM Silverside) in revenue service. And word is that STO picked up a few retired MCI Classics from Calgary Transit (I don't have 100% confirmation on this, though).

[1overcosc]

Transit geeks like riding around on the old buses but the reality is that they are not suited for 21st century needs. Their poor emissions standards, poor mileage, and lack of accessibility are major concerns with their continued operation.

This is one of the few areas in which OC Transpo excels--having a young fleet that is 100% standards compliant.

[kevinbottawa]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Transit geeks like riding around on the old buses but the reality is that they are not suited for 21st century needs. Their poor emissions standards, poor mileage, and lack of accessibility are major concerns with their continued operation.

This is one of the few areas in which OC Transpo excels--having a young fleet that is 100% standards compliant.

I don't know much about transit. Does the City of Ottawa or the Government of Ontario have the authority to mandate that STO buses operating in Ottawa have to adhere to certain standards, especially when it come to emissions?

[1overcosc]

I would have thought so, but apparently not.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Transit geeks like riding around on the old buses but the reality is that they are not suited for 21st century needs. Their poor emissions standards, poor mileage, and lack of accessibility are major concerns with their continued operation.

This is one of the few areas in which OC Transpo excels--having a young fleet that is 100% standards compliant.

I think Ontario now funds, at least in part, bus replacement starting at 12 years of age through the gas tax transfer (one of several possible uses for such). Using that standard, all buses from 2002 and earlier could be replaced now. I certainly wouldn't want to have any buses from before 1997 in the fleet right now even considering longer holding of buses.

That matches the US standard (replacement at 12 years, which is the design life with no rehabilitation), although many transit agencies prefer to hold their buses longer and fund other programs.