Lynx Blue Line (South Corridor)

[monsoon]

They have been doing teasers about potential terrorism on the line.

Nice. Television news at its finest.

[Spartan]

^I'm sorry I missed that story. Did anyone catch it?

[Raintree21]

The video from WSOC can be found at http://www.wsoctv.com/video/14343752/index.html. There's nothing to it. They spend 3 minutes saying that the TSA is concerned that mass transit is a potential target for attack as is everything else. They make a fleeting reference to the Madrid train attacks as evidence.

[Spartan]

I figured as much. I didn't thing the LYNX line would be high on the terrorist's target list.

[Andyc545]

I'm starting to see some of the LYNX advertisements around now, if anyone has noticed. There was a LYNX ad on Charlotte.com promoting safety and use

[staffer]

I rode the South Line twice last week end to end while in CLT for the APTA Annual meeting. I was quite impressed. Lot of station work to be done S of I-277, especially elevators. Landscaping work stymied by water restrictions, maybe they will pit in drought hardy stuff.

[MZT]

I've observed that the LRTs do move faster than bus #12 does in South End. So I think it will be an improvement for commuters like me.

[atlrvr]

I've just returned from Sacramento where I saw that they run 4-vehicle trainsets during rush hour, and it was moderately full. That is my biggest complaint about Charlotte's LRT system; that they reduced the station lengths to only allow 2-vehicle sets.

[revitalize]

If the demand for longer trainsets is there, I'm sure that the LRT station platforms can be extended. Worst comes to worst they can stop, fill up, move up, fill up, go.

[revitalize]

Just remembered something I wanted to post here. This morning on my way into work, driving north on South Blvd. I noticed the gates down at the Scaleybark station area, with lights flashing, etc. and the LRT at the station. Then I realized some guy in a white van was sitting on the southbound side of South Blvd.,waiting, on the TRACK SIDE of the southernmost gate... not behind the gate, but in front of it, closest to where the train would come through. I can't imagine how this happened - did he squeeze through as the gates came down and realized he needed to stop? I really hope drivers are very concious of the potential to stop around LRT crossings, but you can bet there will be some incidents around this. CATS is doing a lot to promote rail safety especially with drivers but when I see stuff like this it amazes me.

[monsoon]

^We have an entire thread here on how badly designed this entire section was laid out where the tracks weave into the middle of South Blvd then back out. It was don't this way so the city, which decided to invest in some land there not related to the station, could make some money by offering it up as a place for TOD investment. Unfortunately it seems the city also has to cough up some money to get the developers to do this.

I believe we heard the NCDOT was against the way this station was designed and certainly with it's 5, yes, 5 at grade crossings involving South Blvd, Old Pineville Rd, and the two cross streets its much more confusing for drivers than it could have been. And placing the station in the middle of a busy highway also is going to add to the confusion.

There is disagreement on this opinion however so I guess it remains to be seen how well this will end up working. I don't see where anyone could think this was an optimal design.

[MZT]

I would assume the LRT drivers are also aware of how inattentive motorists will be for a while. I know LRT's can't stop on a dime, but I would assume they can stop if there is a vehicle visibly stalled on the tracks ahead, and don't need the kind of stopping lengths that a freight train does.

[monsoon]

I don't know what the stopping distances are for this type train. I can tell you that in the other installation of this model of the Siemans LRT, in Houston (looks just like CATS) there have been numerous collisions with vehicles from the day the thing opened. (I think they had 50 the first year it was opened in 2005) These collisions are due to the badly designed at grade crossings. One collision was so bad that it knocked the train off the track and shutdown their LRT for a while.

There was a collision there just his past week where people got hurt. News about it here Notice in the video the train looks just like the Charlotte trains.

[Justadude]

^ Houston's been ridiculed in the national media for the frequency of train/car collisions, especially when the Super Bowl was there a couple of years ago. Hopefully we can learn something from their mistakes.

[Raintree21]

While the design of crossings has something to do with it, officials cannot do anything about the stupidity of people who choose to ignore the law, warning signs/lights/arms/alarms, and more importantly, common sense. Unfortunately, we will have accidents and the system and community as a whole will suffer because of it.

[uptownliving]

For this intersection on Southbound South Blvd near Clanton Rd I think the problem starts when the light turns red at Clanton Rd and the cars start stacking up at the stoplight. This is when I have seen people stop on the tracks. I think that if they painted a bunch yellow diagonal lines or a cross hatch pattern on the concrete portion of the railroad crossing that would be a nice visual clue that you should not stop on the tracks. Something else they could do is have the cross arm come down when when the light turns red.

[Charlotte_native]

For this intersection on Southbound South Blvd near Clanton Rd I think the problem starts when the light turns red at Clanton Rd and the cars start stacking up at the stoplight. This is when I have seen people stop on the tracks. I think that if they painted a bunch yellow diagonal lines or a cross hatch pattern on the concrete portion of the railroad crossing that would be a nice visual clue that you should not stop on the tracks. Something else they could do is have the cross arm come down when when the light turns red.

[geekUSA1981]

I take that turn from South to Clanton every morning. Interesting thing today, they brought the crossing arms down when there wasn't a train coming. Wonder if they're activating the arms randomly, just to get people used to it? I think people (myself included) got used to stopping on the tracks because they've been there for so long without trains running. However, since they put up the sign about testing, I've stoppped doing it, and it seems most people have done the same. Not sure why it's so hard for people to understand that it's a TRAIN, and you don't stop on train tracks. People never stop on tracks that carry freight and big passenger trains, why do they think the tracks for light rail are different? Oddly enough, some people still don't stop on the old--not in service--not even connected to anything--tracks at Tyvola and Old Pineville! Yet they will stop on an ACTIVE light rail track?!

If drivers and pedestrians can't handle the design of the Clanton/Scaleybark Station area, I fear there will be absolutely no hope for streetcars returning to Charlotte. I mean, can you imagine having trains.....on tracks.....in the middle of the road?!?! Madness. Total madness.

[Raintree21]

Unless the arms are going to go all the way across both lanes of traffic, blocking all vehicles from entering the tracks, having them come down at every red light activation is a bad idea. If there is no train coming, people will begin to associate the arms with no train and will try to go around them. Sounds crazy but people are idiots.

[MZT]

Slightly OT, but I can't help but comment that in industrial areas, sometimes frieght trains run parallel in mixed traffic and it does feel very strange. Especially when there are left turn signals placed directly on the tracks, and you're expected to be there. I had the experience a few times of sitting in a left turn lane, while watching a frieght train in my mirror coming up behind me ...

[monsoon]

Of course it is drivers not paying attention. In a perfect world they would not need to put signal crossings, big red lights and cross arms on these intersections but they do because of it. With that said the design of the Scalybark station was unnecessarily complicated and it is going to increase the chances that a inattentive driver out there is going to cause a serious accident.

[Justadude]

It's largely the same problem that we have at crosswalks. People that have lived in Charlotte for any significant length of time are accustomed to auto-only traffic patterns. They (we) don't see enough pedestrians or trains in a normal day to develop a habit of anticipating and reacting to them. This will hopefully improve over time, but the more the city suburbanizes the steeper of an uphill battle it will be.

[RiverwoodCLT]

I still can't believe that they design the Scalybark station area like they did. It is a design for max. accidents. You have a building blocking you view if you are going south on South Blvd. and can't see a train coming south until you are almost on the track. At the south end of Scalybark station there is a stop light near the tracks. If people are not careful. they may stop on a red light on the tracks, because there is not much room from the tracks and the intersection. The angle that traffic enters and exit the Scalybark station area are not great for the driver

[geekUSA1981]

Anyone know if they still plan to get rid of the left turn lane from South onto Clanton (would basically be used for U-turns, I guess)? It is an absurdly short lane (3 car lengths...?) and I remember hearing a while back that they would be doing away with it.

[Andyc545]

Metro, I definitly agree with you in the designing of this station. The problem with it, the distance in the middle of S. Blvd. is just way to short, and it's going to cause a traffic jam if someone gets stuck on the track, the train can't go anywhere, and there is already traffic blocking in the vehicle on the tracks. If done correctly, there should have been a longer stretch of track in the middle of the 2 one-ways of S. Blvd, this is way to short in distance, and like said, there are way to many crossings on this.

The thing with LRT, I think I've mention this as a problem up in Buffalo in previous posts, is of course traffic- this can be foot or vehicle traffic, blocking the LRT's. LRT does have the right of way, but fortunatly they can be controlled like a normal car and can stop when a vehicle is in the way. The bigger problem is it holds up everything, and LRT's will get clogged up on the rail. The trains are equipped with horns, and I've seen very fustrated LRT controllers honking at foot and vehicle traffic to move, because they have the right of way, up in Buffalo after Buffalo Sabres games.

Yes, LRT does take longer to slow down, and cant stop on the dime, but at least in this section of track when they are in the middle median, they are going much slower than the 55 mph top speeds they can reach.