OKC just completed construction and opened their light-rail trolley system in the central business district.?ÿ?ÿThe trolleys share a dedicated lane with other traffic on the city streets.?ÿ Seems as though the trolleys stopping for red lights has caused the timing for scheduled stops to be thrown into disarray.?ÿ The transit-system has asked the city for almost a million bucks to upgrade the traffic light software?ÿand?ÿtweak the system to allow the trolleys to always make a green at an intersection.?ÿ
Now I've only been to a couple of rodeos and one or two county fairs and such high-brow thought might be above my mental capacity...but one might think that somebody would have thought about this before they started running these things up and down the streets.
I smell a short-sighted engineer somewhere in this woodpile...or a traffic study firm that knew about it all along and is in the process of hiring.
I had a part in that project. A large part of the design topo was mine. I had previously had a piece of the very similar Portland Streetcar. The engineer for both was the same Portland office of a national firm (URS).
Houston, TX has had a light rail system to connect suburban dwellers to the downtown area.
Some must use bus to connect to a rail stop.
Their system will automatic turn on red lights and still it does not give proper time for some drivers to avoid the quick action of the gate and train.
I take extra caution when approaching the rail crossings during my trips thru those areas.
Anyway, this is not a new issue as the systems have been in many urban areas for many years and the rail designers apparently use this same procedure on each new installation.
Heck of a business strategy.
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Most likely some politician made the decision to proceed against all protestations. And now that same politician will blame the designers. That's what they did in Atlanta.
In spite of outward appearances to the contrary Streetcars and Light Rails are fundamentally different things. Streetcars are fairly low tech. They have a human driver who stops for reds and goes for greens.?ÿ
Modern light rails are far more connected. They have the capability to operate themselves (although they usually have a human brakeman for the comfort of the riders). To be able to do so they have to be connected to all the traffic signals and to a central control center. Wireless connections are not considered reliable enough for?ÿ transporting people. So building a light rail system involves lots of infrastructure (the Portland light rail track system extends to 14 feet below street level, the streetcar rail bed just 14 inches) and lots of infrastructure means utility relocations along the entire route. And that's were all the money goes.?ÿ ?ÿ
So if you want a low cost people mover you deal with traffic lights like the rest of the traffic.?ÿ If you don't want to deal with traffic lights your construction cost goes up manyfold.?ÿ?ÿ
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