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CV92

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Everything posted by CV92

  1. Efforts have been made to minimize the wait time between the 72 and 87/88, not the 70. Not as ideal as having them line up with the 70, but from the accessibility perspective I understand why. The 70 involves the walk over the fairly long pedestrian overpass which could be strenuous for someone who's mobility isn't 100%, especially in only 5 minutes (and that's if the bus is on time - not a guarantee when a full bus of ferry and airport passengers is thrown into the mix). On that note, it also has potential to help address crowding issues by sending the airport bound passengers to the 72 instead of the 70. This is even more pertinent for the duration of the Covid world we are in. Is it ideal? No, definitely room for improvement with more resources and I can write my ideas here when I have more time.
  2. You described exactly what I just did ? Precisely. The 19 (formerly the 16 but was renumbered to 19 when the existing 16 began service) ended at Hillside Mall because there's not really anywhere else to end the run. They could have ended it at Vic High which could have theoretically given them more options for where to send the bus after (IE back downtown), but Hillside Mall is only a few minutes farther, and if the bus was to be headed towards UVic to start a route there, it would end up passing by Hillside anyways. As you state, the end of a School Special coincides with an increase of service on regular routes that renders the specials unnecessary. The 29 ended following a significant bump in service to the 12, and the 19 ended when the current configuration of the 2 took effect. I don't remember offhand when the 18 ended but I imagine it would have ended under the same premise. Every other part of your response I completely agree with you as more than sufficient justification to keep the Riders Guides on board. I see so many people in a day do exactly this, though. There's no doubt in my mind that you know proper transit hygiene etiquette (you are on this site after all!), but not everyone does, and the amount of people I'd see in a day take a Riders Guide while coughing into it and their hands which are turning the page, licking their finger to turn pages, etc, only to put the guide back in the rack, is discouraging to say the least. At the end of the day, if I have to choose public health or individual convenience, I'll prioritize public health. A number of non-BCT transit systems that I've ridden in the past couple years (Vancouver, Regina, Portland, Honolulu, Reykjavik, London, Dublin) do not generally have their printed timetables available on board the bus. Removing printed timetables from vehicles seems to be the direction agencies are going, especially with the recent health pandemic. I think you have said it as well as others, the ultimate goal is to have a system that runs so frequently and reliably that a passenger does not require a timetable. Until that happens, at some point there may have to be a higher degree of passenger responsibility for planning their trips in advance, and also having alternative routes planned in the event of delays. While I haven't seen it in more recent Riders Guides, in the past the guides would advise passengers to do exactly that. Yep, a number of those trips still exist to assist with capacity issues. The 26A, as it was turning itself around via Oak and Cloverdale, serviced two stops that the regular 26 did not. It made sense to number those trips differently. I'm not sure why you're suggesting a 30/31/83/32/35 be pulled off that route in order to run a 6? That's the exact reason why there's another bus coming out to run that trip on the 6 - so that there is no lost service on other routes. Northwesterner hit the nail on the head. You can't look at an individual paddle and judge the system's effectiveness. You have to see how it interacts with the system as a whole. Subject to the priorities of the agency, what doesn't make sense individually is more than likely justifiable in the broader picture.
  3. 26A was the short turn 26 that ran between UVic and Uptown, and turned around via Oak and Cloverdale. It was replaced by the 16. There was no point in Matt mentioning it, because in the situation we are discussing, no bus would ever be displaying 26A on it's sign ?.
  4. I'm not aware of transit ever being a major election issue in Dawson Creek, although I have seen subject crop up every once in a while, but it does that in pretty much every system. The Dawson Creek design is the result of the amount of investment they've been willing to make in the system. There are smaller communities in the Province with lower populations that have far better systems and enjoy much more public and political buy in. Campbell River is actually an exceptionally productive and highly performing transit system for a city its size. CR also has around double the population of Dawson Creek and different geography, so you can't really compare the two. Kamloops is quite well set up for Transit, and they're fortunate to have ridership generators like the University to further assist building the system. They also always seem to have someone on City Council and/or a Provincial MLA who really advocates for transit in the region. Kamloops has the third highest ridership of all BC Transit systems, after Victoria and Kelowna, and based on population served, Kamloops is actually a more productive system than Kelowna.
  5. To be clear, I didn't say I wanted to get rid of the print guides altogether, but I think it would expand the reach of the guides to have them available off of the bus. It's extremely rare to have someone come board a bus to grab a schedule and not ride said bus. Pretty much everyone that takes a schedule on board a bus is also travelling on that particular bus, which means they already figured out how to catch that bus regardless of whether or not it had a print guide on board. Having them available in other public, high traffic areas increases the information dispersal to current and potential riders alike. If you have them available at a large amount of locations, and on a diverse enough geographical spread, you actually make it easier to avoid the challenges you describe. Instead of standing at a bus stop wondering if and when it will ever arrive just so you can grab a print schedule, you just have to go to the closest bricks and mortar schedule outlet to pick it up. Unlike buses, buildings don't appear for a brief moment and then vanish for an hour or more ?. If you aren't able to access a print schedule until you're actually on board a bus, they aren't accessible enough, and in my eyes the arrival of Covid is further justification to re-examine how the print schedules are administered and distributed. What's the date on that contract?
  6. In my mind there's definitely no place for the Riders Guides on the buses going forward. It provides an unnecessary touch point. Plus, with everything going online, the number of people that care to have a printed copy is diminishing. Let's be honest, us Transit enthusiasts are in the minority. For most people, online trip planning apps are more than sufficient and frankly all the average passenger is looking for. I suggest make them available at a few select places in town - the Transit office, BC Ferries terminals, public libraries, recreation centres, and city/municipal halls are a good starting point. Maybe see if some private businesses also want to carry them, like major shopping centres. However, keep them complimentary. It's not fair to charge a fee - the people most likely to need the print copies are members of the vulnerable sector such as low-income earners and seniors who don't have the capacity to access the information by other means.
  7. @InfiNorth The system has always been characterized by low service levels and what appears to be a total lack of political support. Unless I'm forgetting somewhere, Dawson Creek is also only one of two BC locales with conventional transit service that does not offer a HandyDART option. You hit the nail on the head when you talk about mobility equity. It seems like political (and given no publicized resistance, also public) support for transit in Dawson Creek is at an all time low. Like I said, it's never been great, but it also wasn't too long ago that they began offering Friday night and Sunday service. Unfortunately those initiatives never made it past the trial phase. One can only wonder what continued investment in the system could have done to prevent the downward spiral it's in now. I just looked at the revised schedules. It's preposterous to think anyone would willingly spend $56/month for this abomination of a service, but this is what strong anti-transit politics will get you. For the sake of the system, I hope the next municipal election brings about a positive change in political climate. Regarding the Victoria Daypass issue - there's always room for improving how the system works, especially with equity in mind, but increasing the cost of any fare product is not the solution in my mind. Happy to discuss that more in the Victoria thread.
  8. For those interested, the current Rider's Guide has finally been posted for download on the BCT website. There are enough CNG Vicinities slated for Victoria to replace the final 4 Darts and 2 Arbocs that are currently plated and only used as a last resort.
  9. In broad terms, trippers are short pieces of work/short vehicle blocks that typically only run one or two trips during the peak rush hour period. An average 20-year old Flyer would be between 1 and 1.5 million kilometres. (Edit: I originally said 1.5-2 million km based on an old Riders Guide from when the deckers were new, but revised it down based on realistic yearly mileage for the Victoria system and the fact that the average Flyer does a lot less highway driving than the average decker.)
  10. Both 8105 and 9753 are alive and well. 9702 not so much. Barring something unexpected, June 1 was the last day of service for the Arbocs and Darts on fixed-route transit service in Victoria.
  11. Are you talking about Wallace between Stelly's X and W. Saanich? It goes that way so that it can service the stop in Brentwood Bay Village. If the southbound trips routed via Stelly's X and also Verdier, it would lose the W. Saanich and Wallace timing point, the only stop in the village area. That stop is a major destination for passengers coming from Saanichton and beyond. Many passengers bound for the Village area and the Verdier loop take the 72 (from the north and south) to Saanichton and transfer to the inbound 75. I don't dispute that the route is unintuitive for a new user. With major expansion resources I agree that there is room for change. Presently however, it is quite well used and because of that I would caution against making any sweeping changes to the 75 until such resources are available. Right now, there just aren't enough hours allocated to the 75, 81, and 83 to streamline things without inconveniencing and/or stranding a significant portion of the existing ridership. The fact that it doesn't look pretty on paper is not justification in and of itself to significantly alter a well-established and well-utilized route. Reports intended for public consumption will be posted either on the Transit Future page or the Transit Commission packages. Links to both pages are below. https://www.bctransit.com/victoria/transit-future https://www.bctransit.com/about/funding-and-governance/victoria-regional-transit-commission/meetings
  12. I elaborated in my earlier post why the 75 doesn't route run bi-directionally by Stelly's. The 81 is bi-directional through through Stelly's. To clarify what I said above, on weekdays, there are northbound buses that route through the residential area past the ferry terminal. It goes the same direction as the southbound buses through the Verdier loop and then doubles back on itself through Wallace and West Saanich. These are denoted by the destination sign display "75 SAANICHTON EXCH VIA VERDIER"
  13. Give the route another ride out there and you'll see pretty quick why the buses only route one direction through the Verdier loop. IIRC it was bi-directional at one point but as service levels increased that became problematic. Also, buses only route one way on that segment of the route, but is served by buses going both directions. Both inbound and outbound 75s route through Brentwood Bay. Inbound at all times, outbound during the weekday PM peak. During times when the outbound 75s don't route to Verdier, many passengers hop off at the top of the hill and transfer to an inbound trip if there is one coming within a short while. If it's a longer wait, most will walk as it's all downhill. I will say that there could definitely be some work to the scheduling to make this connection more reliable, but that would require additional service hours especially for the weekends. In the meantime, for the commuter who heads home when the outbound Verdier trips aren't operating, they at least don't have to walk up hill. In my mind, the contemporary reasoning for differing inbound and outbound routing around Stelly's would be to set the buses up to allow service to both the ferry and the village. Not sure if there's additional historical context on this one. If 75s routed bi-directionally around Stelly's, you would lose service to either the Fairgrounds and Stelly's main entrance, or to Brentwood Bay Village. If they significantly ramped up service to the 75 and/or extended the 81 or 83 to downtown, you could maybe start playing around with this routing a bit more, but that brings me to my last point... From what I understand there is general satisfaction with the design of the 75, 81, and 83 amongst the locals that use it (and they are very well utilized). However, there is definitely the desire for additional 75 Saanichton via Verdier trips during the PM peak and higher service frequency on the 81 and 83.
  14. They will only be used for HandyDART service, not fixed-route. From my perspective, the obvious intent here would be to minimize the risk of injury to drivers and attendants from having to push loaded mobility aids that can often weigh 200+ lbs up a ramp. Let the machine to the work.
  15. 6002-6004 departed yesterday for Kelowna, and with that all the loaner Novas have returned to whence they came. 9463-9466 left last week, and 9302-9304 the week before.
  16. I'm not going to defend the use of Arbocs, because I do agree with you - I don't feel that they should be out in service at all, but just because there was a Vicinity on the route earlier today, does not mean there was one available when this particular Arboc left the yard. Buses are moved between garages if needed to meet demands for service system wide. Here's a picture of the Arboc barrier from a media release that went out today: That's not how the system works with the GPS. More likely is that the vehicle broke down or was otherwise disabled while on the road, and ended up back at the yard without being removed from that trip.
  17. Well said! UVic has over 20,000 students and the highest transit mode share in the region. There's no wonder that it is so well serviced and still experiences a massive amount of passups. System expansion in Victoria has not kept up with population growth. Up until this past September, the system had not had any major expansion since 2008. Between 2008 and 2019, the expansion was only incremental, barely a drop in the bucket, and that's including one or two years where service was actually reduced. If decision-makers were actually serious about addressing reliability issues and making a dent in reducing traffic congestion on the Westshore, I would estimate they would need to put at minimum another 40-60 buses on the road tomorrow. The routes that move between the Westshore and the rest of the region are the only ones where it is not abnormal to be running 30-45 minutes late. Significant reliability issues through schedule maintenance are just as important as increasing service headway, span, and coverage. The 50 is jam packed, and there's isn't much more one can do in the way of increasing headways on that route. That's one of the reasons behind why they added an extra trip on the 47 and 48, and are looking at the feasibility of having other Westshore-Downtown routes in the future: capacity issues of the 50, and reducing travel time. You can run the local connector service as often as you want, but you're not going to build ridership or confidence in the system if you're forcing them into the likely situation of being passed up, by funneling all those passengers to the over-stretched Route 50, which is already over capacity even without an effective local connecting route network. Look no further than the Core to see the effect that a well developed transit network can have. The areas of town that are served by major routes - the Quadra, Hillside, Fort, and Shelbourne corridors, house an immense number of residents and jobs, yet it is an anomaly for any of these corridors to experience what one might call "congestion." In fact, policy and proper development have actually allowed the removal of some general traffic lanes in recent years with little to no negative effect. Contrary to popular belief, the areas that suffer the worst traffic problems are not the parts of town where they are building bike lanes and wider sidewalks. Rather, the problems lie where the single-occupant vehicle is prioritized over all other transport modes. This is why it is so important to me that politicians and administrators seriously consider reducing or eliminating fares (coupled with stronger enforcement of policies preventing joy-riding), as a means of driving transit investment. Look no further than the UPass implementation of 2001. Ridership went through the roof, and I say with complete confidence that I believe our system would have only a fraction of the service it currently does had the UPass not come along. The system right now is bursting at the seams, but it's clear that the demand generated by having fares as they are currently set is still not enough to really wake the people up who control the purse strings. If lowering the cost at point-of-entry is what it takes to drive ridership to the point that politicians have no choice but to aggressively expand service, then that's what should be done. When reducing infrastructure costs, making cities more sustainable, and having a healthier population is the goal, then increasing transit's mode share is the way to go.
  18. Most of the Arbocs are scheduled in the Peninsula for the Spring. The Route 53 is the only route in the system that cannot take a 40 foot bus, so for any paddle with a Route 53 trip scheduled, if there are no Darts or Vicinities available, it must run an Arboc.
  19. They have installed a barrier to protect the driver's compartment on these vehicles. At the moment they are used as a last resort.
  20. It's possible, but there are other possibilities as well, especially as those departures are early enough that it's unlikely those trips would be cancelled due to equipment or driver shortage. More than likely you were impacted by schedule delays caused by foreseeable and unforeseeable events. For example, the buses could have been running late due to them getting caught in construction or blocked by an MVI, and the bus you caught was the one you intended but running very late. The construction at the bottom of Blanshard can delay 27/28s by 10-15 minutes if they caught the construction site at the wrong time, which could easily add up to a delay of 20-25 minutes by the time it crossed over Johnson and Cook. Throw an MVI or another construction site into the mix, and the schedule falls behind even more. Plus, drivers also have to use the washroom and eat occasionally, so if they've done multiple trips of getting caught in construction and traffic, eventually they will have no choice but to take a few minutes to tend to bodily needs. Next Ride is not a failsafe in terms of showing the reality of what's on the road. There are 4 contingency buses from Abbotsford that do not currently have it installed, and for rest of the fleet, there are occasionally component failures that cause that particular vehicle not to show up on the public website. While it would be rare, it is entirely possible that there were two more buses shortly behind the one you ended up boarding, but they weren't showing up online for the reasons mentioned above. Victoria is getting 80 brand new buses total this year, not 80 XN40s.
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