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Nolan

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Posts posted by Nolan

  1. ^Toronto still has issues with the Bombardier Flexity Outlook, some of the streetcars were poorly manufactured like loose parts, faulty under frames and sides. It all stemmed from bad manufacturing at its Mexican plants.  Also, Bombardier is severely behind its delivery schedule to the TTC, and Toronto actually sued Bombardier. It's probably one of the reasons why Bombardier didn't submit proposals to CATS or another other transit agencie recently. 

  2. The Siemens S70 streetcar version is 9 ft shorter than the regular LRV at 81 ft. CATS should choose the Siemens based on commonality of parts for easy maintenance. 

     

    1 hour ago, jtmonk said:

    I've never been a big proponent of turning Trade St. or any major street uptown into a permanent pedestrian/transit only corridor.  Unfortunately our built environment does not promote such a need at the moment and i fear it would create dead zones.  What i would promote is closing off a portion of a street, such as 3rd street around the park, parts or Tryon, or some other street one day a week, such as Saturday or Sunday, and have some sort of market so that we can slowly introduce this type of concept to the general public and possibly give the City time to create such a corridor that could support being a permanent pedestrian/transit corridor.  I'm not saying that Trade Street wouldn't work, it just needs a lot of TLC before i would suggest closing it off to vehicular traffic, even if it's just a few blocks. 

     
    Actually Charlotte is going to try this concept this Sunday, May 1st. 7th and Brevard streets will closed in Uptown, and open up to foot and bicycle traffic only lining up with various activities and food vendors, and Davidson Street will also be part of this concept through NoDa. http://openstreets704.com/news/

    • Like 1
  3. Usually other cities combine or take up on one another's option on additional purchases on LRVs, like the Tide - Hampton Roads Transit acted on CATS's initial Blue Line option after our first 16 LRVs. However from CATS's FTA quarterly report, the LRVs for the BLE are nearly completed with half of those already completed in storage. 

  4. I believe they can't start the Sugar Creek grade separation until the Eastway bridge is reopened. Closing down Sugar Creek to start the grade separation will eliminate the only thoroughfare to North Tryon and over the RR corridor from East Charlotte.  The Eastway bridge is creating a ripple effect on construction schedule. 

  5. Somewhat related: 538 (who kick butt on all things statistical) has a story on urban vs suburban where they mention Charlotte a couple times: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-suburban-are-big-american-cities/

    Similar article, same topic. Charlotte is listed with 76% of its city limits as suburban. 

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/05/22/urban_density_nearly_half_of_america_s_biggest_cities_look_like_giant_suburbs.html

  6. The state plans ROW acquisition in 2024 for I-77 South, and according to the Draft TIP, the widening will be broken up into two phases, from Brookshire to Woodlawn, and then Woodlawn to SC state line. Each phase was projected to to be around $500 million, and also no new free lanes, each direction will get two new HOT lanes. 

  7. Removing Brookshire is out of the question, because it'll go under construction as part of I-77 HOT lane project. Brookshire will be partially reconstructed from I-77 to the vicinity of the Church/College exits. Also there are long term plans to reconfigure the Independence and I-277 interchange to accommodate HOT lanes already. 

  8. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy SOB, a lot of people here need a crash course in how to parallel park and this just might be the right teacher for them. When I first moved here I was amazed at how many cars were left feet (instead of inches) away from the curb. Is parallel parking such a new and rare thing here that people honestly don't know how to do it properly?

    Sadly, parallel parking isn't a required skill on the NC DMV driving test unlike a few other states, I didn't learn how to until I was in college. 

  9. I wondered why did they allowed three lanes underneath Popular Tent when there's plenty of room for more? 

     

    On the next phase of the I-85 widening, Dale Earnhart has a weird interchange, but it's due to the weaving between the rest area, so now those needing to exit onto the rest area ramp won't have to weave with those trying to get onto I-85 South from Dale Earnhart.

     

    http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-85widening/download/DaleEarnhardtBoulevardInter.pdf

  10. I too love Chick Fil A's little bite sizes of hate irregardless of my political affiliation, I don't think Chick Fil A is capable of an urban design, a drive thru in PM would be horrible. I love Chick Fil A but I dread driving to one, the ones in South End and Cotswold is hell enough just b/c of the layout and the long lines, I often have to go inside a Chick Fil A, which I don't mind, just to avoid the drive thru. 

    • Like 1
  11. The article states that the extra wide shoulder should be open as a HOV lane is only a temporary solution if it happens at all, the next widening phase won't be until 2018, with a completion date of 2019 or 2020. So that if the DOT decides to let that extra spacing to be used as a HOV lane NOW, then they will have to figure out what to do when the lanes drop from 4 to 2 until the next phase of widening. The contractor only did paving to allow the extra room up to Johnston Road, between that and Rea Road there isn't really much room without having to lay down foundation for a road bed in the median. Essentially, the widening project is complete, it just need an extra layer of asphalt which is prohibited by the weather right now. 

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