First Trolley/Traffic Accident
Owen has been warning us that the new trolley system that Metro likes to call light rail would cause plenty of accidents.
So he won't be surprised by this bit of news:
11 News warned Houstonians about the possible collision course between the new light rail trains and cars. Wednesday night the impact was clear as police investigate Houston's first such accident. It happened at intersection of Main and Gray in downtown Houston.I don't think even Owen predicted we'd have accidents before the system officially opened. I'm sure we can expect more of the same.Police say that around 8:30 both the Metro railcar and a Jeep Cherokee were travelling north on Main. Then, police say, the driver of the SUV, Christa Moreno, made an illegal left turn going in front of the railcar. The rail car clipped the back of a vehicle.
(Update) Owen comments here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/03 23:16 | Danger Train | Technorati
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Comments
Dang! You beat me to it...
I've posted on it as well, though. The gist is, I think that with so many side streets cut off, thus limiting opportunities for making left turns, we'll see many more of these kinds of collisions.
Posted by Owen Courrèges @ 01:54 on 11/20/03
...For a while, certainly.
There were correspondingly nasty casualty when first the Eastside and then Westside lines opened in Portland. The Airport line would probably've experienced the same thing, 'cept that it runs parallel to the 205.
When the Interstate line (which isn't yet an interstate line, but that's what they chose to call it anyway) we'll probably see the same reports.
Again.
Sigh.
Neither motorists nor pedestrians are accustomed to the damn things when the first start running.
And then you have the assholes who try to drive around the gates, too. I've seen it happen, more than once, though hopefully never while aboard a train myself.
Posted by ben @ 03:00 on 11/22/03
I don't think there will be gates in Houston, at least not in the intersections I've been driving across regularly. These truly are streetcars, which is why I refer to it as the Metro Trolley.
Houston is going to get its ass ripped when the Super Bowl writers descend on the place in about two months. It's not going to be pretty.
Posted by Kevin @ 11:56 on 11/22/03
Kevin,
There are gates wherever the trains turn onto other streets. There's one on Main just after Blodgett, and another at Greenbriar and McGregor.
Trolleys usually don't have dedicated lanes or gates; Metrorail has both. That makes it worse than trolleys.
Posted by Owen Courrèges @ 18:58 on 11/22/03
Ah, that makes sense on the gates. I've only traveled across the silly thing downtown, where it's made things a mess by cutting the traffic capacity of Main. Ugh.
Posted by Kevin @ 19:12 on 11/22/03
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