Safety

The safety of GC LRT is of grave concern. Translink names the system in Portland, Oregon USA as its exemplar. That system is known as MAX and is operated by TriMet. Fortunately the USA still leads the World in data gathering and evaluation.
Look at the best of that available:

  • The definitive work on mass transit safety is 'Transit's Safety Challenges' by Dr. John Semmens (32 years with the Arizona Department of Transportation Research Center). Semmens examines official U.S. Government statistics and concludes that in the U.S. light rail kills at a frequency rate 130% more than buses and 40% more than autos.
    Click here to view the FULL REPORT
  • The definitive work on Portland's light rail covers the first 20 years of operation and shows that MAX kills at a frequency rate 248% that of autos.
    Click here to view the FULL REPORT

There is no evidence that these reports have ever been seriously disputed in the literature. Our repeated challenges for light rail supporters to provide reputable quantitative proof to the contrary go unanswered. This includes the Queensland Minister for Transport, the Honourable Rachel Nolan MLA and Gold Coast City Council Development Chief, Cr. Ted Shepherd.

Under the circumstances we contend that the proposed GC LRT is too dangerous to be built. If built it means that the State of Queensland supports killing of its own citizens and visitors.

The last words concerning at grade configurations rightly belong to the celebrated American advocate from Portland, Randal O'Toole: 'People who advocate light rail and commuter rail should ask themselves: Do they really want to be responsible for the extra deaths, not to mention property damage that their expensive transit systems will cause? Ironically the people who favor rail transit are often the same people who insist that life is sacred and priceless.'

Safety depends on a number of important factors:

Please follow the above links to access detailed information on these.

 
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