Sign of progress

By Mack D. Male ·

The new South LRT extension has been the hot topic at water coolers throughout the city this week:

Edmonton Sun

Edmonton Journal

CBC

When was the last time that so many Edmontonians were talking about the LRT? Nothing like a little controversy to bring a topic to the forefront. I’ve almost heard more people talking about the delays at 51 Avenue than about the downtown arena! And you know what they say, there’s no such thing as bad press…

Yes it sucks to wait at a traffic light. The City will get the issues sorted out though, I’m sure of that. In the meantime, we should capitalize on the discussions that are happening! Explain to Edmontonians that we’re forging ahead with new LRT extensions and that we’ll learn from this experience.

And wouldn’t you know it, since I started writing this post I received a notice that Bob Boutilier, GM Transportation at the City of Edmonton, will be addressing strategies and challenges associated with fast tracking the NAIT, southeast, and west LRT lines at a news conference tomorrow morning. Excellent!

  • anam

    heads up – its not just cars – every time a train comes through it resets the pedestrian lights – I waited 11 minutes to cross 111th street (at 40th ave) – the cars got to go 3 times before I got a walk light.

    also the cross light is so quick – less than 40 seconds – the lights start flashing after 8 seconds – this means that with my kids, I have to do it in 2 parts and stand right next to the train lines – in-between the traffic for another walk signal – I don’t think we’ll be going that way if we have to wait 22 minutes to cross the 111th.

  • mike

    The biggest problem here is the lack of traffic modelling… Surely they could have created a model with pedestrian/traffic flows and determined the LRT peak traffic impacts?

    And what of the three months of commissioning? During that time it was clear to me (I live west of 111 st.) that the left turns needed to go at the same time as the east/west traffic, even with light LRT traffic.

    In the meantime, I’ve rediscovered the Whitemud for even short east/west trips.