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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 40m

Metrolinx says they're acquiring land from CN which implies the southern pair of tracks will be dedicated to GO

Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 1h

It says 4 trips, which is 2 round trips. Metrolinx loves announcing the one-way trip numbers because people will misinterpret them as twice as much service as actually planned.

Same thing happened a few weeks ago when they announced 13 trips to Confederation station. It's only 6.5 round trips.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 2h

Hmm good catch

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 18h

A big part of the issue is poor forward visibility in SUVs, which seems to be a fashion choice.

Real trucks don't need high hoods:

A cab-over FedEx truck in downtown Ottawa

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 3d

Yield to oncoming traffic situations are remarkably common on older residential streets with on-street parking. There is no sign required.

Even the loopy streets in my parents' 1980's suburb are narrow enough that you can't pass oncoming traffic at parked cars

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 5d

Fixing the line to Gaspésie makes sense if it's $80M, or maybe if it's $800M and significantly faster than the bus. But spending $800M on a line that's still slower than the bus makes no sense

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 5d

People often complain that I only talk about Canada and the Netherlands in my videos. But those are the only two countries where I have lived and worked, so they're the only countries where I can give such in-depth explanations.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 8d

Transforming from a flawed democracy to an unashamed dictatorship is still a transformation

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 8d

They're not called PXOs in Alberta (that's an Ontario term) but yeah it's a signed unsignalized crosswalk

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 9d

Mobility access is equally good on double deckers and dwell times are not very important on an inter-community route

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 10d

More like "Automatique pour le peuple"

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 10d

That's an En dash (–) not an Em dash (—)

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 11d

Someone keeps reporting my street as 'closed' to Google Maps. It's not closed, I their they're just trying to reduce the traffic on their street

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 12d

I discovered they exist when a LACMTA ticket vending machine gave me 18 of them as change for a $20 bill

Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 12d

My challenge every week is to find somewhere to drive to. I try to drive my car at least once every two weeks to keep the 12V battery topped up.

Nearly all of my trips are more convenient by bicycle

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 13d

The Pickering-Oshawa segment already has a yard, no need to push the train anywhere. I assume GO's electric trains would have a small battery to let them move around the yard off-wire anyway. Even in the long term it's probably not worth electrifying the yard leads.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 13d

Yes you want a simple test bed but Lakeshore East already has that between Pickering and Oshawa.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 13d

That's not really an issue because we want different service types anyway. We can have bi-mode express trains to Hamilton/Niagara in addition to frequent local EMUs to Burlington

The portion of the line where both services overlap is the part they already own.

Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 13d

I suspect the most cost-effective solution in the long run would be to build in-house expertise and run a steady, predictable electrification program that adds xx km of line every year.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 13d

It is insane how often people tell me that GO Expansion is hindered by freight trains.

In reality GO already owns all of the tracks where frequent service is proposed, except for a few hundred metres at Bramalea station. And there is almost no freight traffic in those lines.

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Reposted by Ontario Traffic Man

Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 13d

This "priority removal section" for the bike lane on Bloor W demonstrates that Ford and Sarkaria were never serious about finding parallel secondary routes. Where is the parallel route here? They don't care. www.thestar.com/news/gta/the...

A map of part of the Bloor West bike lane showing that a section beween Islington and Resurrection Rd was prioritized for removal. Nearby streets curve off in various directions, avoiding railway tracks and providing no straightforward alternative.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 16d

The station is obviously designed for far more than 6 trains per day. The problem is that the track speed limit between West Harbour is only 48 km/h, so the existing Route 11 and 12 bus services are faster to Hamilton and the GTA, respectively. So there's not currently any demand for train service

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 16d

Signal priority is already in place. The question you need to ask is: "Is the signal priority any good?"

(I'm pretty confident the answer is No)

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 16d

30 minute service to Niagara would be politically challenging due to the impacts on the Welland Canal. Hourly service seems plausible though, since the canal bridge is double-tracked so trains can be timed to cross simultaneously in both directions.

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 16d

When Metrolinx say 13 trips, that means 6 to 7 trips per direction. They always cherry pick statistics to sound more impressive than they actually are

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