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Bus Network Redesign


A. Wong

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The City of Edmonton is doing a major overhaul of its bus-route network in an effort to get more people to take transit.

The city has released a draft plan of its transit strategy, approved by council last year, that shows the new bus network.

"This initiative is redesigning our bus routes from scratch," Sarah Feldman, director of planning and scheduling at Edmonton Transit Service, said Thursday.

Feldman said the city got input from thousands of Edmontonians and the majority said they want more frequent bus service.

In the proposed redesign, the number of main routes is slashed from 200 to 100. 

"We've thinned them out, so we've reduced overlap and we've straightened some routes," Feldman explained. "They're not winding through, for example, all the neighbourhood collector roads." 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-1.4599301?share=a4103d4d

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1 hour ago, Matt Dunlop said:

Is that really going to BOOST ridership? 10 minute walk may be okay for able bodied people but people with walkers, wheelchairs, crutches, or people having to walk in snow and ice won't like having to walk 10 minutes to a bus stop if they live in a rural area. 

It's a good thing Edmonton doesn't have bus service to any rural areas then.  

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  • 8 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/23/2018 at 5:43 PM, Firebrand said:

Why hasn't ETS put the terminus labels on the stops? Often times it's a coin toss of which direction I'll end up. Sure, you can check using your phone but there are some old school passengers who check the signs on the stops, or someone's phone is dead.

"Old school" passengers know which stop to use I guess as we've never* had terminus labels on stops. I guess map reading skills are going away in this day in age? For the last 22ish years I've figured out which stop to use by looking at a map.

*Pre-Horizon 2000 (June 29, 1997, 20 years ago) some bus stops would have listed the routes and terminals. That vast majority would not have. With the Horizon 2000 changes a new bus stop sign was introduced which now included route numbers. At bus terminals the bus stop signs are different and do indeed include destinations.

Personally, I feel having the route numbers that serve the stop to be good enough. Perhaps if have you have no sense of direction or are unfamiliar with an area I could appreciate that one could have a bit tougher of a time picking out which bus stop to use. 

What have you so far experienced with ETS in regards to this "coin toss" that you don't know which direction you'll end up going?

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1 hour ago, M. Parsons said:

*Pre-Horizon 2000 (June 29, 1997, 20 years ago) some bus stops would have listed the routes and terminals.

Peak hour routes used to be listed on the bus stop in red lettering. I miss that. But yeah, old school passengers basically know which way they are headed so destinations would not be needed on the sign. Lots of stops didn't have any routes on them, which meant that every bus that went by there would make that stop if required to do so.

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  • 10 months later...

The final version is out. 

https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/bus-network-redesign.aspx

And a wicked interactive map.

https://platform.remix.com/map/081f7fe?latlng=53.52032,-113.61242,10.355

Completely revamped numbering scheme with:

1-9 covering the frequent transit network
31 on it's own (Riverdale peak hour bus)
51-56 are crosstown routes
100 routes NE, and north of 137 Ave
500 routes SE
700 routes SW
900 routes Central and West

Branches exist (ie 4A, 4B, 121, 121A)
Expresses have an X designation (ie 120X) and often start off a series or are every 10 numbers (ie 500X, 930X, 940X)
Community routes generally blend in with the quadrant numbering, again, except for the 31. 

Not sure what contracted routes will become (Beaumont, Fort Saskatchewan, Spruce Grove, Waste Management Centre), the Airport bus, or LRT.

Given that 200's and 400's are St. Albert and Strathcona, I could see Contracted services and LRT living somewhere in either the 300, 600, or 800 series range.

A temporary route will be in place of the Valley Line LRT although it is not shown on the maps, or even mentioned in council documents. 

Significant revisions to ETS's policies that guide service development to bring them in line with new thinking, and the new network.

I am quite liking what I see at this point. I was recently looking at some work Winnipeg is doing, and I can see a lot of inspiration from what Edmonton is doing in Winnipeg's plans. 

It sounds like there will be a new bus stop sign design. Apparently to better match international standards, which is odd because when they redesigned the bus stop signs for Horizon 2000 it was to make them easier to understand with the internationally known image for a bus incorporated into them, and ETS has even changed the text on the image from "ETS" to "BUS" in recent years. Regardelss, this is in line with what Edmonton Transit did in 1976 and with Horizon 2000 in 1997 by introducing a new bus stop sign. They also introduced a new livery in 1976 and 1997. While ETS has done the name change, could we see a new livery? Personally, I'm a tad doubtful. I think the time for a new livery might be with the regional transit commission as that progresses.

Roll out date is August 30, 2020. This is actually pushed back a bit. Original plans were aiming for July 2020. 

Council still does need to approve this, and then after that ETS has a hell of a lot of work ahead of them as August 30 will only be 9 months away. 

Also before council will be alternative transit for areas losing fixed route service that they currently have. The recommendation is on demand 15 passenger vans, contracted out, until a later time that ETS has the facilities (space, new garage) and resources to run the on demand service in house.

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On 11/11/2019 at 9:07 PM, M. Parsons said:

The final version is out. 

https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/bus-network-redesign.aspx

...

I am quite liking what I see at this point. I was recently looking at some work Winnipeg is doing, and I can see a lot of inspiration from what Edmonton is doing in Winnipeg's plans. 

The only difference is, that Winnipeg Transit is wholly dismantling their network, with some two-second solutions which might be good for the most dense sections of Winnipeg, but the suburbs (consequently with some of the higher ridership), are suffering. With minimal public discourse and debate, budget cuts, and other non-transit related issues of Winnipeg. If i still lived in Winnipeg, my neighborhood would've had massive cuts. And my friends still there, they'd be horrified by losing their transit service, as WT proposed it.

I do have one question though, about Edmontons proposed changes. With LRT at NAIT, and bus routes coming from Eaux Claire and Northgate skipping the LRT, would it not save money to have them transfer at NAIT, and fill the LRV's, to then be able to re-allocate buses to other parts of Edmonton instead of service directly to Downtown? After all, the LRV's can handle 600-750 people per 3-car consist (based on Calgarys), and much like how NW Calgary extended the train gradually and forced all buses to transfer at University, Brentwood and eventually Dalhousie - wouldn't it help to build ridership in the long run, and maybe save some buses from rush hour traffic? Well, that and to fill up the trains too, for ridership purposes. 

Or maybe a route that connects Castle Downs/Eaux/Northgate? With three transit centres in close proximity to eachother, maybe a single circular bus route connecting all three, may generate enough daytime (or at least, rush hour) ridership to make it feasible to implement?

Other than that, ETS re-design doesn't look bad at all. It's alot less brutal than Winnipeg's. :p

 

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16 hours ago, armorand said:

I do have one question though, about Edmontons proposed changes. With LRT at NAIT, and bus routes coming from Eaux Claire and Northgate skipping the LRT, would it not save money to have them transfer at NAIT, and fill the LRV's, to then be able to re-allocate buses to other parts of Edmonton instead of service directly to Downtown? After all, the LRV's can handle 600-750 people per 3-car consist (based on Calgarys), and much like how NW Calgary extended the train gradually and forced all buses to transfer at University, Brentwood and eventually Dalhousie - wouldn't it help to build ridership in the long run, and maybe save some buses from rush hour traffic? Well, that and to fill up the trains too, for ridership purposes. 

Or maybe a route that connects Castle Downs/Eaux/Northgate? With three transit centres in close proximity to eachother, maybe a single circular bus route connecting all three, may generate enough daytime (or at least, rush hour) ridership to make it feasible to implement?

Eaux Claire and Northgate are on the same road, so those are connected by a couple of routes, at least currently. I didn't pay attention to them in the new redesign.

I would say a lot of people from Castle Downs would want to connect to one of those two transit centres, but to transfer to other buses going elsewhere.

 

NAIT LRT station doesn't have any space for bus dropoffs currently. Also, that part of the train system is not running optimally 4 years after opening. It is better and faster for riders to go downtown to their destination. The traffic around NAIT is already a gong show, and buses would have to cross (and get held up at) that intersection to get to NAIT station too. They could just go down 106 Street to Kingsway/Royal Alex Transit Centre and that would be a better option currently.

 

In regards to the new proposed routes, I am happy with what they have because there is new bus service coming into my newer neighborhood, meaning less of a distance to walk for me.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 3 months later...
8 hours ago, Nico Sander said:

ETS has released pictures of the new bus stop signs on their Facebook page! The design seems to be similar to the current signs with a list of routes serving the stop and bus stop numbers included. First day of the new system is April 25, 2021!

C23D9216-BC5F-422D-AB47-DA9FD93178AB.png

They’re actually sticking to those route numbers shown on their interactive map?

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1A and 1B should share 85-90% of their route, however, we speculate because of planning for detours in the Jasper Place area for LRT construction, the portion of the route 1 is missing from Downtown to West Edmonton Mall. The entire Jasper Place area has been significantly screwed up on this version of the map.

If you read up a little, the route number explanation is on the bus stop page:

https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/new-bus-stop-signs.aspx

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Now that I understand how the numbering system is done for the route numbers I’m not against it for the most part. I still think that routes with A and B at the end of their route number should just be given a different route number since they aren’t using all available route numbers, but that’s just my opinion. I am fine with the X at the end of express route numbers.

The new bus stop signs remind me of our bus stops here in Metro Van, but I do like the inclusion of the frequent service icon on the signs next to frequent routes, which is something I wish TransLink would add to their signs here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

9 minutes ago, Urban_96 said:

When does the new Regional transit Authority (TransEd) officially start?  Is TransEd the network redesign. or is that another change taking place later?

Clearly, you didn't even attempt to Google "TransEd" or "Edmonton regional transit authority".

TransEd is the P3 that is building and operating the Valley Line SE LRT.

Nothing to do with RTSC or the network redesign. 

ETS Network Resign launches April 25, 2021. Purely City of Edmonton.

3 separate things.

The RTSC is hiring for a CEO at this point, so anything is still a ways off for the RTSC to actually start being involved in bus service. Likely 2022.

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A handful of new signs have been installed along Jasper Avenue as part of the street scape redesign:

20201105_193955.thumb.jpg.66154cf8592b8c619ecaebdec5ff2a6b.jpg

Many have also appeared on 109 Street South of Whyte Avenue. There is a good opportunity for a photo of a new sign with an old bus shelter at around 68 Avenue in particular hehehe.

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