January 20, 2010

Friends,

It is with a very heavy heart that we share with you some sad news and the passing of a very good, long-time Friend of Transit.

On Friday, January 15^th, Mary O’Connor passed away while visiting in Washington D.C. 

For those who have been active transit issues over the last two decades or so will remember that Mary was one of the most ardent supporters of transit – long before it was fashionable to be a transit supporter.

Mary’s career was stellar and her imprint on the community fabric runs broad and deep.  Her efforts and successes to promote and implement transit in the City of Tempe and the City of Scottsdale, literally touches thousands of people each day.  Her passion and expertise for transit and love of cities have clearly made the world a little better place to live.  She will be missed by all of us.

Mary’s funeral will be held Saturday, January 23, at 1 p.m. at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 1800 E. Libra Drive in Tempe. Located on the corner of McClintock & Libra, just north of Guadalupe Rd.  The service will be followed by a reception to which everyone is invited.  Please pass along this information to people who may want to know -- Mary touched many lives.

Below is a copy of her obituary:

 

Mary O’Connor, 53, passed away unexpectedly on Friday, January 15, 2010 while in Washington, D.C.  Mary was a proud Arizona native born on August 4, 1956 to John Justin and Theresa Josephine O’Connor.  She earned a BS and an MBA at Arizona State University.  Mary enjoyed successful careers in auditing in the private sector and at the Arizona Office of the Auditor General as well as in transportation at the Cities of Tempe and Scottsdale, until her retirement in July of 2009. She was passionate about city politics and government, having devoted most of her career to working in municipalities, and she was dedicated to her community, serving on the board of directors for the Tempe Community Council and Friends of the Tempe Center for the Arts.  Mary was also active in Women’s Transportation Seminar, the US Access Board, and the American Public Works Association.  She was a loyal and generous friend who would volunteer to drive a friend to the hospital, pick someone up from the airport, and help out in an emergency. She loved to travel (and owned an impressive luggage collection to match). While she loved being retired, she always knew that she wanted to give back to her community. Mary was happiest surrounded by family and friends.  While Mary achieved much in her short fifty three years, most of us will remember her as a loving and dedicated sister, aunt, cousin, friend and colleague who loved books, art, wine, good food, traveling and her beloved cat, “Jack”. Mary is preceded in death by her father John, her mother Theresa and her sister Patricia Ann.  She is survived by her sisters Jacqueline Joan and Judith Marie, her nieces and nephews (Richard, Terri, Eileen, David, Carol, Mark, Mike, Suzi, Katy, Kevin, Kathy, Steve and John) and many loving great nieces and nephews.  She will be missed by the hundreds of people whose lives she touched.  A Memorial Service will be at 1:00pm, Saturday, January 23, 2010 at Church of the Holy Spirit, 1800 E Libra, Tempe (Just N of Guadalupe Rd on the E side of McClintock Rd) followed by a Reception at Hanley Hall Community Center. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the American Diabetes Association, in memory of Mary O’Connor, P.O. Box 11454, Alexandria, VA 22312.

In the News:
ASU grad launches iPhone app for Metro riders, The Arizona Republic, January 14, 2010
Downtown Phoenix emerges as light-rail collision hot spot, The Arizona Republic, January 18, 2010


Don’t forget to visit Friends of Transit on the web at www.friendsoftransit.org! 

 

ASU grad launches iPhone app for Metro riders
The Arizona Republic
Light Rail Blog
Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 01:18 PM 

An Arizona State University grad has launched a free iPhone application to help people ride Phoenix’s light rail system.

For each station, it features a map, bus connections, a train schedule and travel times to other train stops. The app also has “how-to” information for riding the system and using fare machines.

Since he launched the app on Dec. 8, Mitch Karren says 750 people have downloaded it. The curious come from 25 different countries, from China, which has the most subscribers outside the United States, to Mid-East minnow Qatar.

Karren graduated in June 2008 with a degree housing and community development, the exact worst time to jump into Arizona’s turbulent real estate industry. A week later he was laid off from his real estate related job. He decided to enroll in a class to learn how to write iPhone apps.

“I noticed other cities had pretty well established iPhone apps for their transit systems,” he said. “I wanted this to be a service to Phoenix.”

The service has been well received. Thirty-three people posted reviews, mostly giving it five stars. Comments range from “wicked, awesome,” to the one critic who calls it “predictable.”

Karren is seeing a steady 22 downloads a day, with only word-of-mouth for marketing. About 500 users have accessed it 1,500 times. His analytics data tells him Saturday is the busiest day people use the application and the 8 p.m. hour the busiest hour in each day. People are most interested in information for the end of the line stations.

In the spring, Karren plans to update the app with information about surrounding businesses. Ultimately he wants to give people real-time information about where the trains are. In time, he’s hoping to expand the service to Blackberry and Android phones.

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Downtown Phoenix emerges as light-rail collision hot spot
Metro revamping signs to help drivers avoid crashes with trains
by Sean Holstege 
Jan. 18, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Valley's light-rail track runs over 20 miles, but almost half of Metro's crashes in the past year have occurred along a single mile-and-a-quarter stretch that runs through downtown Phoenix.

The L-shaped route from Central Station to Seventh Street is packed with bars, businesses, pedestrians and distracted motorists, a tough environment for even slow-moving Metro trains.

Of the 52 crashes logged last year - an average of one a week since the $1.4 billion system opened in December 2008 - 23 have been in downtown Phoenix. Of those, 17 involved right turns along a few blocks of Washington and Jefferson streets.

Metro recorded five crashes at just one corner: Jefferson and First streets.

None of the crashes was fatal.

Phoenix police Lt. Adrian Ruiz says most downtown accidents happen because drivers get confused by unfamiliar streets and because Phoenix drivers have a bad habit of running red lights.

"I see people every day who disregard the no-left-, no-right-turn-on-red signals," said Ruiz, who runs the department's transit bureau. "Drivers in Arizona are used to seeing where they have to go. . . . They get impatient."

Many of the downtown Phoenix crashes arise from cars making right turns across the tracks. A red arrow prohibits the maneuver, but split-second instincts and years of conditioning tell drivers it is OK to turn right on red.

Phoenix-area drivers are still making mistakes. Police have blamed all 52 crashes involving trains on motorists, not rail operators.

In an effort to solve the problems and reduce the number of collisions, engineers, recognizing an emerging pattern, have begun changing signs and signals at accident hot spots.

Those safety changes have already cost tens of thousands of dollars, and there may be more to come.

Changes to boost safety

Last summer, the city of Phoenix commissioned a $50,000 study to "take a fresh look at things," city traffic engineer Ron Doubek said.

A draft report is due at the end of the month, but city officials decided not to wait before making changes, which include:

• Putting "no turn on red" signs downtown.
• Changing traffic signals at 44th and Washington streets to make it easier for buses to turn across tracks into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
• Giving cars priority where they cross the tracks to get on Interstate 10 at Washington and Jefferson.
• Erecting curbside barriers near downtown clubs to prevent pedestrians from getting too close to the tracks. Only one accident has involved a pedestrian, but engineers worry about their safety.

Although there is no pattern to the 11 Metro crashes in Tempe, the city has added signs at the scene of the first bad accident to warn cars not to drive under crossing arms.

Last January, Tempe resident Brandon Stovall drove a pickup truck under a railroad crossing arm at University Drive and McAllister Avenue.

Although police cited Stovall for ignoring traffic signals, Metro suspected a mechanical failure and spent $122,000 adjusting all five of the system's crossing arms to prevent them from staying up when a train goes by.

Metro spokeswoman Hillary Foose described the improvements, completed in March, as a fail-safe and the accident a fluke.

"Because of that work, that accident can't happen again," she said.

In November, Stovall filmed a 30-minute video of cars and buses repeatedly crossing the intersection while the warning arms were not fully vertical.

"I wanted to show I'm not just some idiot who goes before the arms are fully vertical. Everybody does it," Stovall said. "Now I wait for the thing to raise the whole way, even when there's a green light and people behind me are honking."

The 29-year-old Tempe man says he suffered serious head and back injuries and is awaiting surgery.

In November, he sued Metro seeking damages and alleging the agency was negligent because its crossing arm was opening up even though a train was passing. The case is pending.

Accidents fewer than expected

Metro's first year surprised some for the accidents that didn't happen.

Doubek, former Metro CEO Rick Simonetta and rail critics all expected bigger problems along Washington and Jefferson streets, where cars traveling in center lanes have to diagonally cross the rail tracks to get to businesses.

There has been only one accident at these so-called "slip lanes," but it was one of Metro's most spectacular.

In December, a van was crumpled when it ran a light and got pinned between a train and a power pole.

Just south of Roosevelt Street, on the northern end of downtown Phoenix, southbound traffic crosses the tracks as the street curves around. It's a confusing area because of the different way cars can turn across the tracks, but there have been no crashes there.

Lessons from Houston

Doubek, the traffic engineer who helped design Metro's light-rail intersections, traveled to crash-prone Houston to learn safety lessons.

One incident stayed with him.

In some places there, cars shared the track with trains as the cars prepared to make left turns. Doubek watched one woman pull into the diagonal crossing lane in front of a train as it came up behind her.

"She panicked. She floored it, ran a red arrow and crashed into a guideway in the side street. I'll never forget it," Doubek said.

When he returned to Phoenix, he immediately scrapped the blueprints for the same design.

He dropped another Houston quirk: allowing turns on a normal green signal, rather than only on arrows.

Doubek feared that without arrows, drivers would still turn when the turn signal went blank, as they can do at regular intersections.

In Tempe, a sign change at the McAllister Avenue crossing arm at Arizona State University's Tempe campus involved some basic psychology.

Worried that drivers getting trapped under the rail guard were getting overloaded and confused by the number of signs, the city added a diagram of a trapped car to the signs and painted "do not stop in box" in the street for extra emphasis.

The most complicated intersection in Phoenix is where the tracks pass under Interstate 10, at Washington and Jefferson, Doubek said.

Early on he noticed cars slipping across the tracks to get onto freeway on-ramps rather than waiting in the congested turn lanes.

The problem was that trains had signals allowing them to proceed across the intersection, which is normal when parallel traffic has a green light.

Doubek's team decided the best solution was to let the cars keep merging across the tracks but to stop the trains. It is the only intersection on the entire route where trains have to stop while cars alongside get a green light to proceed.

There hasn't been a crash at that intersection yet.

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