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Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 6th, 2015, 10:23 am
by mattaudio
Or 1.99 light cycles, if your begging comes a second too late....

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 6th, 2015, 10:26 am
by EOst
And having to wait through a long, unpredictable light cycle isn't particularly more annoying if you're in a car or a bike or a pedestrian.
Certainly more comfortable in a climate-controlled car, though.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 6th, 2015, 12:27 pm
by Realstreets
I drive, bike and walk mostly E 38th St and north. Strictly on the topic of signal timing, the fact that not all lanes at every intersection along Hiawatha are actuated is the most annoying. I regularly see left turn lanes get signals when no cars are there as well as eastbound traffic getting a ridiculously long green before a train, only to then get another green after the train passes. This also affects people walking or riding a bike too, as it lengthens the overall cycle.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 6th, 2015, 8:19 pm
by IllogicalJake
While getting off at Nicollet Mall today, the speakers were pumping out an old-style train whistle sound effect while the NexTrips displayed "This is a train whistle test message." It was a good 10 seconds of steam train noises, nothing short. That was... odd.

Re: Public Transit News and Happenings

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 3:49 pm
by FISHMANPET
We don't have a fantasy transit thread so I'll post this here.

Holy crap I wish the Green/Blue transfer was easier than it is now. I live a 3 minute walk away from the Lake St Midtown Station and work across the street from Stadium Village Station, and it's a 30 minute trip. I feel like 10 or 15 minutes of that is spent going between Cedar Riverside Station and West Bank station, especially when we're stopped 4 times on that stretch to ensure proper train spacing (yes that actually happened to me, it was announced 4 times).

I think I saw somewhere that Dayton was talking about trying to get jobs accessible to transit in under 30 minutes, and I can't but help think of my situation living and working so close to the core and yet my 2 mile as the crow flies journey takes me a half an hour. There's gotta be a better way to connect these lines.

Re: Public Transit News and Happenings

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 3:57 pm
by Silophant
If you could predict that the spacing stops were going to happen, it would probably be faster to get off at Cedar-Riverside and walk to West Bank. Idk how you'd predict it though.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 4:16 pm
by FISHMANPET
Sort of related, based on the number of times my train has been held to allow for proper train spacing, we're totally screwed once the Green and Blue extensions open. The TPH won't change, but the "entropy" of random delays will be doubled at least.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 4:24 pm
by IllogicalJake
Yeah, I work with a view of the tracks east of Downtown East station. Trains are stopped there pretty regularly coming into the downtown zone, and and most (if not all) of those trains are a few minutes off their scheduled time.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 4:42 pm
by FISHMANPET
On an interesting note, my phone just told me that I could take the 111 home if I left right nowish (well now that I've looked into this probably 10 minutes ago but whatever) which is an interesting choice I suppose.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 4:47 pm
by mattaudio
Yeah you could miss your stop and end up in my neighborhood. :p

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 4:55 pm
by mulad
Some back of the envelope calculations make me think the the traffic signals in downtown Minneapolis are slowing each line by 5,000 to 10,000 hours per year, which translates into upwards of $2 million per year. Metro Transit and the city need to get on the same page about updating the signal priority, since the cost of making the change would be paid back very quickly, like between six months and two years.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 5:00 pm
by HiawathaGuy
Some back of the envelope calculations make me think the the traffic signals in downtown Minneapolis are slowing each line by 5,000 to 10,000 hours per year, which translates into upwards of $2 million per year. Metro Transit and the city need to get on the same page about updating the signal priority, since the cost of making the change would be paid back very quickly, like between six months and two years.
I hope & trust you'll share this information with City & Metro Transit leaders. I've often wondered about that!

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 6:53 pm
by Silophant
Does anyone know what the 'proper train spacing' is? Like, if you're on a westbound/northbound train, and you come to a stop at the junction, are you just waiting for the train in front to clear Downtown East station, or for it to get all the way to Government Plaza station?

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 6:56 pm
by VAStationDude
Westbound northbound trains have to clear Portland Avenue. I really wish the trains could automatically get the next cycle at Chicago rather than waiting through the Chicago and 4th Street lights.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 6:56 pm
by FISHMANPET
I think it's pretty confusing because traffic interacts in weird ways at the junction point, but from my experience it's literally "we can't move into the next signal block because there is a train it." If the train needs to burn time it can do it at DTE or just say screw it and go downtown because we should just be running headway scheduling anyway.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 7:02 pm
by VAStationDude
Btw transferring at cedar riverside / west bank works quite well for able bodied individuals. If the west bound Green Line train I'm on or the one in front of my blue line (monitored on nextrip) is more than three minutes behind schedule into West Bank, I transfer through the neighborhood.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 7:16 pm
by FISHMANPET
How long does that walk take? I should probably start making that trek myself.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 7:43 pm
by VAStationDude
Five minutes if you hustle

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 8:51 pm
by LRV Op Dude
Westbound northbound trains have to clear Portland Avenue. I really wish the trains could automatically get the next cycle at Chicago rather than waiting through the Chicago and 4th Street lights.
Actually, the train only has to clear Park Ave for the other train to move into DTE. Changes are in the works.

Re: Blue Line (Hiawatha LRT)

Posted: February 11th, 2015, 8:56 pm
by VAStationDude
Thanks for the correction. To your knowledge, have there at least been conversations between the city and MT about providing priority or at least tweaking at signals at Chicago and Park?