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LRT Safety

EdwardEdm said:
In other LRT safety news... with the onset of the cold weather, I was pleasantly surprised how "normal" my trip around the LRT was today. I didn't see anything I like I have in years past on the trains or in the pedways around Central Station. It felt like riding the LRT pre-pandemic.
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The City is no longer allowing people to stay in LRT stations overnight when it's cold. When the stations close, people can catch a ride to a shelter or stay on a warming bus as long as they like. That combined with expanded shelter spaces (1700).
 
Foolworm said:
They can install the gates at platform level instead.
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Obviously you never take the LRT to Century Park otherwise would appreciate the absolute chaos that would result from having gates on the platform. The volume of people that disembark the train at peak hours is such one would need multiple gates to process all the people in a timely fashion.
 
Glenco said:
Obviously you never take the LRT to Century Park otherwise would appreciate the absolute chaos that would result from having gates on the platform. The volume of people that disembark the train at peak hours is such one would need multiple gates to process all the people in a timely fashion.
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When was the last time you were at Century Park? I was there on Sunday and I will tell you the building is wide enough for multiple gates.

It's not that much different from the at-grade stations where people are forced to either end of the platform -- would that be 'absolute chaos' as well?
 
Foolworm said:
When was the last time you were at Century Park? I was there on Sunday and I will tell you the building is wide enough for multiple gates.

It's not that much different from the at-grade stations where people are forced to either end of the platform -- would that be 'absolute chaos' as well?
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This makes sense. I think there will definitely be stations where more than one fare gate will be required. In fact, at several different stations, it would simply be foolish to have only one or two gates for each direction..
 
Foolworm said:
When was the last time you were at Century Park? I was there on Sunday and I will tell you the building is wide enough for multiple gates.

It's not that much different from the at-grade stations where people are forced to either end of the platform -- would that be 'absolute chaos' as well?
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Multiple as in about six. Four in one direction depending on the traffic flow. I don’t understand your statement about exciting at the end of platforms. At Century Park you have to climb stair with a narrow door to navigate first. Where on earth the gates would be located I have no idea. The passengers back up trying to gain access as it is. Put in a fare gate and the situation would be untenable.
 
Probably just the fact that this got announced would increase safety perception by a little bit.
 
Glenco said:
Multiple as in about six. Four in one direction depending on the traffic flow. I don’t understand your statement about exciting at the end of platforms. At Century Park you have to climb stair with a narrow door to navigate first. Where on earth the gates would be located I have no idea. The passengers back up trying to gain access as it is. Put in a fare gate and the situation would be untenable.
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You should see other cities with full-fledged subways then - the entire platform gets packed cheek to jowl and they manage. Century Park at its busiest is an order of magnitude less crowded, and will only get less so once the extension south opens.

You must be horrified at Vancouver. Many of their stations don't even have six fare gates.

At the very least having platform level gates avoids situations where the backup occurs on the escalators, since they're usually going up.
 
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Speaking of safety, I think the events today are a wake-up call for ETS to move its control centre out of Churchill.
 
I wasn't sure where to put this but I thought this matched well with the theme of Safety and specifically the proposition of putting fare gates at certain stations:

How does the city track it's ridership numbers on the LRT? I rarely if every see people pay for tickets, tap their ARC cards and otherwise. I'm one of the only people I know who does it consistently. There is nothing stopping you from simply, walking onto the train. I've never been asked to confirm payment or show my ARC Card.

University students are (I would assume) one of the largest groups of LRT users, and most of them don't tap their cards. When I've used other non-university stations, especially on the Valley Line, I see people just simply walk onto the train, no questions asked.

So I guess my question simply is, how does the city track ridership? If it is by ARC taps and ticket sales, those numbers are going to well below actual numbers.
 
erudyk_29 said:
How does the city track it's ridership numbers on the LRT?
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Historically, once or twice per year, ETS would have people out on every LRT car (2 per car I believe) with clipboards recording with clickers every boarding and alighting for a week or so. From there they would extrapolate the numbers.
Bus drivers would do the same, but only for boardings.
I'm not sure if the LRT is still done that way. The bus fleet now has a group of buses equipped with automatic passenger counters that can be deployed as when and where as needed to capture passenger data. I haven't observed APC's on the LRT, but it's possible they could have an automated system by now.
 
erudyk_29 said:
I wasn't sure where to put this but I thought this matched well with the theme of Safety and specifically the proposition of putting fare gates at certain stations:

How does the city track it's ridership numbers on the LRT? I rarely if every see people pay for tickets, tap their ARC cards and otherwise. I'm one of the only people I know who does it consistently. There is nothing stopping you from simply, walking onto the train. I've never been asked to confirm payment or show my ARC Card.

University students are (I would assume) one of the largest groups of LRT users, and most of them don't tap their cards. When I've used other non-university stations, especially on the Valley Line, I see people just simply walk onto the train, no questions asked.

So I guess my question simply is, how does the city track ridership? If it is by ARC taps and ticket sales, those numbers are going to well below actual numbers.
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Your experience aligns with mine. I would estimate there's currently a 90% fare evasion rate- I'm not exaggerating. People are not tapping their cards at all.
 
Gus Haynes said:
^I think these observations may not account for the population that has monthly passes. You don't tap those.
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True however, the point still stands. There is a large number of people who aren't tapping, buying passes or buying monthly passes. Fare Evasion is a massive problem in Edmonton.
 
Tapping on the LRT is almost a moot point. The occasional time I've been fare checked on the platform or trains the fact I have an Arc product is good enough. They do not have hand held readers to verify if my fare is valid or not. Sometimes they station peace officers at the top in the fare paid zone on the concourse level to check fares as people exit. This was happening at Churchill yesterday. Doesn't really help with Arc still as someone can tap out I front of them but there's no way to tell
 
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