Thoughts on Google Transit
As you may have heard, the TTC has joined York Region Transit, GO Transit, Hamilton Street Railway, Burlington Transit, Brampton Transit (it's a secret!), Grand River Transit and Guelph Transit by sharing its data with Google (Guelph Transit is currently offline because the city is one giant construction zone right now). If you want to plan a trip using transit in areas served by these services, just use the same Google Maps interface you would use to plan other trips, but be sure to select the transit option.
I've been a long-time fan of Google Transit (much to the chagrin of a certain someone who, despite leaving negative comments and not responding to rebuttal, is still a cool person), but the benefit of this system over the in-house travel planners that many agencies have developed is two-fold. Google Maps is available to most mobile device users allowing you to plan trips while on the move, whereas the in-house planners often use web code not supported by all mobile browsers. Secondly, Google's trips plans span multiple agencies, so a trip between two random points within the coverage area is just as easy to plan as a trip between two other random points within the coverage area.
Now, Google has a few limitations which users should keep in mind before using.
Read more »Labels: brampton transit, burlington transit, durham region transit, GO Transit, GTTA plan, guelph transit, hsr, mississauga transit, oakville transit, ttc, york region transit
+1 for Guelph Transit
Transit Toronto is reporting that Guelph Transit will be improving frequencies on all routes to 20 minute headways this Monday, bringing an end to the insanity that has plagued the city for some time. As you might recall, Guelph Transit operates a network where all buses arrive and depart the downtown terminal at the same time, making it fairly easy to make connections. The city found that rush hour congestion was preventing buses from making the timed connection, and they decided to decrease frequencies during the peak hours to improve reliability - a move that won no applause form many in the transit community.
With 20 minute service, the community will see a more convenient transit service and higher frequencies without the loss of reliability that 40 minute service provided.
Kudos to Guleph Transit for ending this horrible experiment, and as I said to close the last post on the subject, I hope this is the last folly the citizens of Guelph ever embark upon.
Labels: guelph transit, municipal sillyness
20-minute countdown - Guelph Tribune
Remember when the City of Guelph reduced transit frequencies during the peak periods from every 30 to every 40 minutes?
Guelph Transit runs a timed-transfer or "pulse" system, where all routes meet at the downtown terminal then leave at the same time. Peterborough and St. Catharines also run similar systems, but last spring, Guelph found that congestion was preventing some routes from making the rendezvous. In July, the city decreased peak-hour frequencies to give buses more time to complete their runs, and in the process, became the only city I can think of that offered more fequent service in the off-peak than in the peak period (unless you count homebound service on the Georgetown line, but that's another post).
According to an Guelph Tribune editorial, the council committee responsible for transit is recommending that the city move to 20-minute frequencies this summer, finally bringing an end to this fiasco. Perhaps it's also time to look at eliminating the pulse system. While it is very convenient for transfers, missed connections would cost 20 minutes under the proposed system, 40 minutes under the current system, and 30 minutes under the old system - however, that would depend on how well buses can keep on schedule when running at 20 minute frequencies.
I'm glad that this misadventure has come to an apparent end, and like the Springfield Monorail, I hope this is the last folly the people of Guelph ever embark upon.
Labels: guelph transit
Longer Wait for Buses in Fall - Guelph Tribune
Longer Wait for Buses in Fall
Doug Hallett, Guelph
(Aug 7, 2007)
Guelph Transit says it can no longer manage to provide 30-minute bus frequency during peak travel periods and so will revert to 40-minute frequency next month.
"Overall customer demand has increased while traffic patterns have made it increasingly difficult to deliver connections on time," says a new report from Guelph Transit to city council.
It says 40-minute service intervals in the peak times will address longstanding customer complaints that buses fail to meet their connections in St. George's Square, forcing riders to wait 30 minutes for the next one to arrive.
As of Sept. 2, there will be 40-minute service from 7:15-9:15 a.m. and from 1:15-7:15 p.m. Outside of those hours, 30-minute service will be maintained.
Population growth in the city over the years has made it necessary for Guelph Transit to extend its routes, the report says. And "with the addition of more stop signs, stop lights and other traffic calming measures, the ability to sustain 30-minute service has been increasingly difficult."
Aside from ensuring connection times are met, the report says 40-minute service will mean increased schedule accuracy, will give bus drivers more time to complete their routes and could reduce the need for extra buses on various routes.
As well, it says, "our aging and disabled population often feel stressed and hurried to embark, disembark or make their transfer to a connecting bus." The 40-minute service interval will allow these people "to feel more comfortable riding conventional bus service during peak periods."
The change to a 40-minute service standard is one of several outlined in the report. Other changes, which also start Sept. 2, include:
* a new 54 Arkell route to meet needs in the area bounded by Arkell, Victoria, Clair and Gordon roads. This bus will connect riders with service into the University of Guelph
* Improvements in service to the U of G on the 51 Gordon route, made possible by time efficiencies on that route made possible by the new 54 Arkell route
* Better connections at the U of G from the perimeter route
* changes to the 52 University/Kortright route, including "express" routing at certain times of day to go along with continued 15-minute service on this route on weekdays.
I think that Guelph has the wrong idea here. Other than the fact that having less frequent service in the peak periods doesn't make sense to me at all, I believe that increasing frequencies are more important than co-ordinating transfers, mainly because increasing frequencies also minimizes the amount of time you have to wait at a stop for a connection. This service change may be more convenient for seniors, who generally are able to devote more time to their daily activities, but the agency runs the risk of turning away the rest of the population. University students are a key demographic that need to be attracted to transit early, as this is the age where they form habits which will last for the rest of their lives.
Labels: guelph transit, service changes
