Posts Tagged ‘lrt’

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Examiner Column: 111th Street Intersections

May
06
2010

What follows ran in today’s Edmonton Examiner as my monthly column. It follows up from this previous post.

I heard loud and clear that last week was challenging for many motorists encountering LRT on the south side, especially those who use 51 Avenue.

The transportation department remains focused on optimizing the performance of all intersections along 111 Street.

However, we all need to accept that these intersections will not operate like they did before the LRT opened.

The wait for left turns and east/west-bound traffic will be longer all up and down 111 Street. This was not a traffic engineering error.

The disruptions we saw at 51 Avenue last week were clearly the result of an error. Fortunately, last week’s traffic was moving better after a significant change to the signal timing.

I personally visited 51 Avenue several times during the first part of the week to see the problems for myself and understand the transportation department’s approach to the problem.

On the bright side, travelling north/south will be faster since that is the dominant flow of traffic and trains. In fact, a number of constituents have told me their commute by car up 111 Street is faster than before the train opened.

One way to think about this is that opening LRT is like building a six-lane freeway in terms of its capacity to move people, so when you’re crossing 111 Street in a sense it’s like crossing the equivalent of a 10-12 lane road.

Many have contacted me to ask why the major intersections were not tunneled under or bridged over, and the decision was made during the planning phase based on computer modeling of each intersection. Each grade separation costs millions to implement, and cause more serious disruption so they are used very sparingly.

Other citizens have asked whether the experience at these intersections will change the city’s intentions to run the new southeast-to-west line on the surface, including through downtown.

This is a fair question that we will have to explore. The initial plans involve limiting many of the left turns, which wasn’t done on the South LRT.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions at 780-496- 8132 or at don.iveson@edmonton.ca.

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term, Road Maintenance, Transit | 4 Comments »

LRT Traffic Issues at 51 Ave

Apr
27
2010

Though the new extension of the South LRT has otherwise gotten off to a smooth start, there were significant problems at 51 Ave yesterday and again today. I’ve been in touch with the senior staff at the Transportation Department and they are keeping us apprised of their work and I visited the intersection twice during evening rush hour yesterday. I spoke to one bus driver who was delayed 21 minutes turning from westbound to southbound.

I received the following update from the Manager of Transportation Operations this afternoon which outlines significant changes that changes are being implemented and the timelines:

- signal phase structure is being modified – rather than separate eastbound and westbound phases, the east/west movements will occur at the same time, and then in turn east/west left turns will occur at the same time

- this change in phase structure will allow a reduction in the overall signal cycle from over 3 minutes to less than 2 minutes due to combining movements on the two pedestrian crossings, in combination with other signal phase duration changes

- in combination, these changes will minimize the risk of a signal phase being skipped more than once, however additional work needs to be done to further optimize the operation

- we are working with LRT to see if we can have a more regularized arrival pattern at the intersection – the current LRT train operation is highly random which affects phase skipping

- with the replacement of the central control computer later this summer, additional flexibility will be provided through the ability to more directly intervene in signal timings in the field

Instructions have been sent to EPCOR regarding the required changes with direction to implement as quickly as possible – worst case scenario will be some time tomorrow, but we will keep you posted once we have more information.

We did observe delays of up to 15 minutes in worst case for eastbound and also observed pedestrians crossing 111 St without waiting for the signals, both factors which are not acceptable and risky.

I can assure all those who have been impacted by this problem that resolving this is a top priority.

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term, Road Maintenance, Transit | 14 Comments »

Update: downtown arena rezoning application

Apr
10
2010

This is the April instalment of my Edmonton Examiner column, from this week’s paper, reproduced here for the record:

The Katz Group proposal for a Downtown arena and related development remains a work in progress, which has contributed to uncertainty both for members of City Council as well as the public.

I can relate my thinking about it based on what I know so far.

Firstly, I’m still not convinced that there’s any crisis with the Coliseum/Rexall Place. I believe it could last another 10-20 years without major renovations.

Secondly, with regard to planning a ’sports and entertainment district’ downtown, I don’t have any real objection to the general concept. I gather a rezoning application was submitted very recently but I haven’t seen the specifics, and it likely will evolve with input from City planners. Whether I could support the planning permission (in terms of urban design) remains to be seen. There will be at least one public open house as well as a public hearing before council before any planning permission is granted.

Third, and separate entirely from the urban planning questions, are the financing questions: I, for one, am not keen on using the city’s borrowing power to finance any part of the development.

City borrowing power is prudently limited by both city policy and provincial law, and we need all of what’s remaining for the next phases of LRT expansion. I also don’t think it’s appropriate in general for the city to provide financing for-profit enterprise. We partner with not-for-profits all the time, but private enterprise has traditionally fended for itself.

Further, I’m not keen on the city owning any part of a new arena. If there is a new arena development it should survive financially on its own merits. Main reason why is that I really don’t want the city to wind up on the hook for developing a new arena every generation to meet the tenant hockey team’s specifications.

It’s unclear how the public will be formally consulted on the financing question. I am receiving a lot of input on this question and would be happy to hear from readers of this article.

I’ve posted a few notes on my blog about this and you can view the arena items by typing www.doniveson.ca/tag/arena in your browser and feel free to provide comments that way as well.

The Katz Group has launched a website at www.revitalizedowntown.ca with their perspective on the project.

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term, Arena | 5 Comments »

West LRT Follow Up

Dec
16
2009

I had indicated the other day on this blog that I was hesitant about the proposed Stoney Plain Road LRT alignment, at least the part between 156 St and 121 Street. I had a number of questions, most of which were addressed in one of the most cogent presentations I’ve ever seen from city staff.

The video recording is not posted yet on the city website, but the PDF of their presentation is downloadable at this link.

Some of the potential upsides of 107 Ave that I had been interested in exploring were discussed, and the main one was the cost difference. On closer examination, the spread between SPR and 107 Ave was not $200-300 million, it’s more like $30 million cheaper to build 107 Ave, but it would be more expensive to operate because it’s further and would require more Light Rail Vehicles.

WLRT alternative route cost comparison

Admittedly, there is an interpretation of the slide above that would lead one right back to 87 Ave route, but the slide below is the best visual representation of what’s wrong with 87 Ave from an urban point of view.

WLRT existing land use intensity

I do think there’s still a lot at risk with this choice, but I think that Council is aware of those risks and will work to mitigate them. I was reminded of an earlier amendment I proposed to our Transportation Master Plan that established a policy of ‘precursor’ premium bus service on planned LRT routes, which if followed through on will be positive for SPR.

So after yesterday’s debate, I felt able to support the bylaw. Much of the concerns citizens and councillors still have will be dealt with at the next phases of more detailed design and engineering (like snow removal, managing the construction disruption, etc.). Many people would like to see that level of detail before a route is settled on by council, but it’s very expensive and, therefore, impractical to do this for all the alternatives. So now we can study SPR and if a fatal flaw emerges in that analysis Council and the public will know about it.

Incidentally, the bylaw also included the plan for Downtown to Millwoods and a small change to the NAIT line to shift the tracks onto the airport lands instead of running up 106 Street, which is a big step toward airport redevelopment.

My main message yesterday is speaking to the bylaw: now we have a plan to show Ottawa and the province, and we can press the question of whether they will invest in Edmonton or not. Our citizens want LRT, but it won’t get built without at least one more order of government in the mix.

So who’s in?

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term, Smarter Planning, Transit | 15 Comments »

Hope Springs Eternal for Light Rail City

Nov
19
2009

LRT tightIn answering questions from Councillors during last week’s LRT routing debate, Transportation Department officials showed us a conceptual map of the full potential build out of our region’s LRT network to illustrate some points about connectivity.

It caught all of us by surprise — pleasantly so. I called it the ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ map. I also asked for a copy to share as it’s now in the public realm. Enjoy.

A couple of important qualifiers: this was for modeling purposes only, and does not presuppose Council’s ultimate decisions about alignments currently under debate (SE and W) or future projects (NW and E).

This map (prepared by our consultants Steer Davies Gleave) has roots in earlier decisions Council gave with respect to the overall LRT Network Plan as well as the ‘Urban Style’ system commitment of more frequent stops and low-floor technology. I wrote about these decisions previously here.

The issue at this level is not whether a given line or station go here or there, but how eager are we to bring a vision of this ambition to life? It’s certainly not up to the city alone — projects like this require the alignment of at least two and, properly, three orders of government. It will require the relentless pressure of citizens on Councillors, but more particularly on MLAs and MPs.

I’m game.

Here’s a thumbnail [updated Nov. 30 to correct some typos]; click on it to view at full size:

Potential Future Edmonton LRT Network_A1

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term, Smarter Planning, Transit | 18 Comments »

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