Fast Trains Expected to Slow Traffic: Light Rail to Halt Vehicles on 16 Streets
By Dianne Whitacre, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Feb. 13–Rush hour traffic on some south Charlotte streets will get a new headache when light rail starts running next year.
New bridges are being built to carry the trains over four congested areas, but drivers on 16 cross streets along the 10-mile route will have to wait behind railroad crossing gates as the trains go by.
Gates will come down about every four minutes during rush hour, stopping traffic as the trains head north and south on a pair of tracks now under construction along South Boulevard between uptown and Interstate 485.
To bridge or not to bridge was a question of traffic volumes, says David Leard, project manager for Charlotte Area Transit System.
New bridges are being built over the four most congested streets — Woodlawn, Tyvola, Archdale and Arrowood. An engineering consultant’s study shows delays would not significantly worsen on lighter-traveled side streets without bridges.
Leard says drivers will wait about 35 to 40 seconds as the two-car passenger trains move by. That’s far less than for freight trains, which pass infrequently but can take three or so minutes at a crossing on the southern end of the route.
Still, George White, a civil engineer who lives near the future Arrowood station, thinks Charlotte drivers will tire of delays caused by light-rail.
He worries about the stretch of South Boulevard between Scaleybark and Clanton roads that will be rebuilt into a pair of northbound and southbound streets with trains in the new median.
The change will force southbound South Boulevard drivers to cross the tracks twice. “Delays will be huge,” White said. “I know it looks good on paper, but if you stop that traffic for a minute or more, you’ve got a mess.”
That dual South Boulevard crossing is city traffic engineer Liz Babson’s most serious concern. “It will add some delay, but these are only two-car trains so the gates won’t be down long.” She compares it to adding a new signalized intersection on South Boulevard.
Overall, drivers will have “a little bit more delay” from trains, Babson said. She’s expecting help from a $1.4-million federal grant that will be used to coordinate traffic signals along South Boulevard with the trains’ crossing gates.
Building the entire track on bridges would have doubled or tripled the project’s $427-million cost, Leard said.
Dangerous crossings
With the quiet, electric-powered trains, tracks crossing at street level also can be a safety issue. Trains will travel up to 55 mph in south Charlotte and 25 mph in uptown and the South End where the stations will be closer together and pedestrians are nearby.Eighteen people have been killed by trains in Portland, Ore., in that system’s 20-year history, including several who were walking on the tracks and two suicides.
Seven people, three of them pedestrians, died in the 10 years that trains have operated in Dallas.
Dallas has 95 crossings at street level and fewer than a dozen bridges. Dallas Area Rapid Transit — DART — has not added new bridges because of traffic or safety problems, says spokesman Morgan Lyons.
DART trains have killed four motorists when drivers tried to drive around lowered crossing gates. Leard says CATS will try to prevent that by building 8-inch tall medians on cross streets, running 15 to 100 feet back from the crossing gates.
Fences will be built along most of the track to prevent pedestrians from accidentally stepping in front of the trains. A tall fence is planned between the freight and light-rail lines to stop people from crossing the three tracks.
Picking bridge locations
CATS originally planned three new bridges, but will build a fourth at Archdale Drive because it and Charlotte Department of Transportation were concerned about traffic backing up.
The busiest roads like Tyvola with 45,000 vehicles a day got a bridge. Less-traveled streets like Clanton Road with about 8,800 vehicles will get flashing lights and crossing gates. The most congested street without a bridge will be East/West Boulevard in the South End, with 16,000 vehicles a day.
Light-rail train traffic will be a new delay for drivers on the northern half of the track because freight trains don’t run in that area. Norfolk Southern, which sold CATS six miles of right-of-way for $14.75 million, operates freight trains alongside the light-rail tracks south of Tyvola.
Trains moving at high speeds will blow whistles as they near Hebron Street, Sweden and Old Pineville roads. A decision will be made later if whistles will be used near Freeland Lane, Clanton Road, New Bern Street and Remount Road.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
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