Postby mulad » April 25th, 2014, 6:01 pm
Seems like they've been running more or less fully-scheduled service for daytime hours (before 7am to 4-5 pm) since Tuesday, at least over in downtown St. Paul.
The train signal timing is pretty horrible in downtown St. Paul right now -- the LRVs have had to stop at every single block whenever I've seen them. Hopefully that will change in the next month and a half. Along 4th Street at the intersections with Jackson and Robert, the pedestrian signals aren't even on in the same direction as the train when the train signal is "green" (vertical bar). Things work slightly better at Sibley since a left turn from 4th would send you in the wrong direction, so cars, trains, and pedestrians all share the same phase of the signal. It's fine for trains heading west from Union Depot station to simply wait their turn, but eastbound trains should really be able to trip the signal somehow or ride a wave into the station.
At Jackson (which is a southbound one-way where lefts from 4th are legal but rights are not), I think they should just reorder the signal cycle. Right now it seems to go in the cycle of Jackson -> 4th (car + ped) -> 4th (train only), but it would be better to have it as Jackson -> 4th (train + ped) -> 4th (car + ped).
Virtually the same thing seems to be going on at Robert street, though that's a two-way roadway.
Then there's the intersection at 4th & Minnesota, where the train makes a 45-degree turn. The turn actually makes it so pedestrians could get walk signals on 3 sides of the intersection as a train is going through. I haven't had a chance to sit through a cycle there to say what's best other than allowing that. It's an intersection where 4th changes between a one-way and two-way, and Minnesota is a one-way.
Roughly the same is true at Cedar & 5th (though both streets are one-way) -- pedestrians could have the walk signal in 3 directions as trains are going through. This intersection also has a separate left-turn lane for southbound traffic from Cedar onto 5th. While traffic engineers typically don't like to have a dedicated left turn signal when there's only a single through lane and a single left-turn lane, having a specific left-turn signal here would make it easier to allow the train to pass through unimpeded.
Both of those intersections also have weird zig-zag paths for pedestrians trying to turn the corner of the block where the Central station is located -- you're officially supposed to zig in toward the center of the block, cross the tracks at a right angle, then zag out again, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've seen. Most people just walk straight and ignore the path that they're supposed to take.
Anyway...
Like 4th & Sibley, 6th & Cedar doesn't have a left-turn conflict, so road vehicles, pedestrians, and trains can all share the same phase. However, unlike 4th, Cedar is a busy street for buses. It actually seems to get held up more than it should -- 6th Street is often devoid of traffic, while people sit waiting to cross. This intersection also seems to have gotten an annoying delay between the end of the "don't walk" phase for pedestrians and the end of the green/yellow phases for cars (on the order of 10-12 seconds, which is typically plenty of time to cross). 6th is an oversized street for the amount of traffic it carries -- it would be a great area to widen the sidewalks and reduce the time it takes for pedestrians to cross too.
There are a couple of goofy signals just for cars/trucks using the parking structures on the east side of Cedar between 5th and 7th. For some reason, the Town Square building (between 6th & 7th) more or less has a full set of red/yellow/green traffic signals, while the Alliance Bank building (between 5th and 6th) seems to just have symbolic "train approaching" signals, trusting the drivers a bit more. I suppose we'll see how they perform, but I like the Alliance Bank building approach better. Also, my bus had gotten stopped mid-block at the new lights by Town Square this morning, mere feet from the bus stop where I usually exit the bus. I think a lot of folks were pretty surprised that we stopped where we did -- it didn't look to me like any cars came out, but I may have missed them.
7th Street feels like the busiest east-west route through downtown St. Paul, aside perhaps from Kellogg (which the Green Line doesn't hit). Left turns are allowed from Cedar onto 7th, so there has to be an extra phase for the train. There isn't a dedicated left-turn lane, so again, I'd probably suggest an order of 7th -> Cedar (train + ped) -> Cedar (car/bus + ped).
I don't have much specific to say about the intersections north of this point. The one at Cedar and 10th is pretty weird (where 10th comes from the east to cross the tracks -- not the other, unsignalized 10th on the west side). I don't have any specific thoughts on it other than saying that the pedestrian crossing on the east side of Cedar here should have been set at an angle (the overall right-of-way widens significantly because Cedar is two-way north of this point).
Fortunately, once the trains get past 12th, they have a dedicated right-of-way until getting around to the north side of the capitol at MLK Jr Blvd / Park Street.
Last edited by
mulad on April 25th, 2014, 6:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.