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The Istanbul transit system is probably impossible for an Ottawa transitway planner to ever imagine, but as I hear the tram bell ring from my hotel room, I can\u2019t help giving it the old college try.<\/p>\n
Imagine this. The Ottawa O train has a dedicated rail line and one train arrives at the station every 20 minutes, that\u2019s about 300 people max every 20 minutes.\u00a0 The Istanbul I line goes through the centre of Istanbul is not on a dedicated line.\u00a0 It shares the roadway with other vehicles, but the tram arrives every 60 seconds, and it is double hitched.\u00a0 Double hitched means it\u2019s the equivalent of two O trains every time it arrives at the station.\u00a0 So every 60 seconds, the I line carries the same number of people as O train carries in 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
The total number of passengers the I line carries each day is greater than Ottawa\u2019s downtown busway \u2013 on a shared, not dedicated line.<\/p>\n
How could that possibly be? I can hear the Ottawa transit planner bark.\u00a0 As an Ottawa guy, I can\u2019t help but agree. It can\u2019t possibly be correct.\u00a0 I have seen a dog lie down on the Istanbul tramway line in the dead centre of Istanbul and the driver be obliged to slow down and ring his bell before the dog would move.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen a young man park his honking, black SUV in the middle of the tramway, waiting for his girlfriend, the tramway driver had to stop the tram, get out onto the street and yell at the driver, the driver still wouldn\u2019t move, so the tram driver shrugged, got back in the tram and started to roll very slowly and very deliberately straight for the SUV.\u00a0 The SUV moved.<\/p>\n
So how can a shared surface tramway line carry so many people?\u00a0 When every Ottawa Transit Planner knows you must have the tram line separate from traffic or even better a tunnel under the street.\u00a0 Well, the reality is you don\u2019t.\u00a0 What you do need is frequency of service and capacity.\u00a0 Both of which Istanbul has.\u00a0 Every 60 seconds a double hitched Bombardier pulls up at a station it\u2019s the equivalent of ten Ottawa buses.\u00a0 How many buses is that every hour?<\/p>\n
What you also need is efficiency of loading and unloading.\u00a0 Both of which Istanbul has.\u00a0 Every Istanbul tram stop has a separated platform which has turnstiles and is policed.\u00a0 No one gets on an Istanbul tram that doesn\u2019t pay and the tram stop and starts at each surface station with subway type speed.\u00a0 Compare this to Ottawa bus stops.\u00a0 Lots of non compliance and loading\/unloading so slow that riders need a newspaper to pass the time.<\/p>\n
The third thing you need is no parking on streets with tram lines.\u00a0 Outside of the tram stop which is on a separated platform in the middle of the street, trams can share the road with buses, cars, bicycles, motorbikes, but drivers shuttling around looking for curb side\u00a0 parking spots are simply too great an impediment to the flow of all traffic. Thus, there\u2019s no curb parking on Istanbul streets with tram routes.<\/p>\n
To Review:\u00a0 Frequency.\u00a0 Capacity.\u00a0 Efficient stations. Policing.\u00a0 No curb parking. \u00a0That\u2019s it.\u00a0 That\u2019s all. It ain\u2019t complicated and it works.<\/p>\n
The idea that you could have available a six lane road through the city and not install a successful surface tramline service with greater capacity than Ottawa\u2019s present busway when Istanbul does it with four lanes would be seem as ludicrous to an Istanbuli transit planner- as a dog lying down on the tramway line does to an Ottawa transit planner.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll take the dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"