Well, in Switzerland, most urban buses are notoriously slow, but you know when you board and you know when you UNBOARD because schedules are almost always on time. And that is a huge stress relief! Slowing busses to make sure they're on-time is often necessary, except when the right-of-way is category B (separated, priority at intersections: LRT and BRT) or A (fully separated, like trains and subways). But being slow AND unreliable like most bus routes in North America is a big no-no.
This is a good point: slow AND unreliable is bad. Either on their own are bad, but both is a definite issue we see all too often.
So often, it seems like municipal gov'ts have accepted the (false and unnecessary) view that transit is a last resort, so it doesn't need to be made to work well. Past that, they don't really seem to want to add anything TO transit systems to genuinely make them better, and it ties in with the BS "War on Cars" arguments that the only way for transit to get better is for cars to get worse.
I've talked about it before but Toronto's suburban buses are largely good not because they are fast but because they are frequent. Go to a stop and a bus will come shortly. It's not traditional "reliability" in an OTP sense but it has a similar effect (at higher cost)
Yeah, the challenge I find with things here in Ottawa though, is infrequent frequency. Basically, buses are scheduled infrequently, but then either bunch up or get cancelled, so you can get situations where you get one bus an hour instead of every 20 minutes, or even on a bus that's every 10 minutes, you get no bus for a while and then three buses within 2 minutes.
This gets exacerbated at later stops on the "loading" portion of the route, for lack of a better term, as buses show up full, so you get stuck waiting even if a bus arrives.
Some of it is a capacity issue (they need more buses/drivers), and some of it seems to be a scheduling issue (not planning for actual route conditions).
Speed, frequency and reliability all combine to influence transportation choices.
Here is an example for travelling 2.5 miles from my home to a doctor in Brooklyn, NY:
According to Google Maps”
-By auto: 25-28 minutes. Heavy traffic affects reliability, and availability of Taxi or Uber. No parking available at most timers at either end.
-By bus: 31 minutes, including 9 minutes walking. Heavy traffic affects reliability. Average frequency: 15 minutes.
-By subway: 23 minutes, including 15 minutes walking. Average frequency: 3-5 minutes.
So I take the subway, assured that I can complete the trip within 30-35 minutes. For bus, my wife allows an hour. The last time I drove my wife there was a nightmare, due to city construction and traffic.
Feels odd to think for LA and Calgary (and Edmonton) having high floor level boarding LRV/LRT they didn’t just go on a metro style service with grade separation, practically acts and called as one and has underground and elevated segments for it
Ugh, this is my main compliant of the ION train in Kitchener/Waterloo. It goes through so many turns and intersections. I feel however choose the alignment for the LRT is an idiot.
Having attempted to use the local bus and MAX for errands in Portland, I understand why the car ownership here is the same as in California despite having way more transit for its population
Well, in Switzerland, most urban buses are notoriously slow, but you know when you board and you know when you UNBOARD because schedules are almost always on time. And that is a huge stress relief! Slowing busses to make sure they're on-time is often necessary, except when the right-of-way is category B (separated, priority at intersections: LRT and BRT) or A (fully separated, like trains and subways). But being slow AND unreliable like most bus routes in North America is a big no-no.
This is a good point: slow AND unreliable is bad. Either on their own are bad, but both is a definite issue we see all too often.
So often, it seems like municipal gov'ts have accepted the (false and unnecessary) view that transit is a last resort, so it doesn't need to be made to work well. Past that, they don't really seem to want to add anything TO transit systems to genuinely make them better, and it ties in with the BS "War on Cars" arguments that the only way for transit to get better is for cars to get worse.
No, transit can actually just be made better.
I've talked about it before but Toronto's suburban buses are largely good not because they are fast but because they are frequent. Go to a stop and a bus will come shortly. It's not traditional "reliability" in an OTP sense but it has a similar effect (at higher cost)
Yeah, the challenge I find with things here in Ottawa though, is infrequent frequency. Basically, buses are scheduled infrequently, but then either bunch up or get cancelled, so you can get situations where you get one bus an hour instead of every 20 minutes, or even on a bus that's every 10 minutes, you get no bus for a while and then three buses within 2 minutes.
This gets exacerbated at later stops on the "loading" portion of the route, for lack of a better term, as buses show up full, so you get stuck waiting even if a bus arrives.
Some of it is a capacity issue (they need more buses/drivers), and some of it seems to be a scheduling issue (not planning for actual route conditions).
The TTCs secret is a super high scheduled frequency that is super bunched but still ends up being useable
Does OTP mean On Time Planning, or something else?
On time performance!
Speed, frequency and reliability all combine to influence transportation choices.
Here is an example for travelling 2.5 miles from my home to a doctor in Brooklyn, NY:
According to Google Maps”
-By auto: 25-28 minutes. Heavy traffic affects reliability, and availability of Taxi or Uber. No parking available at most timers at either end.
-By bus: 31 minutes, including 9 minutes walking. Heavy traffic affects reliability. Average frequency: 15 minutes.
-By subway: 23 minutes, including 15 minutes walking. Average frequency: 3-5 minutes.
So I take the subway, assured that I can complete the trip within 30-35 minutes. For bus, my wife allows an hour. The last time I drove my wife there was a nightmare, due to city construction and traffic.
Feels odd to think for LA and Calgary (and Edmonton) having high floor level boarding LRV/LRT they didn’t just go on a metro style service with grade separation, practically acts and called as one and has underground and elevated segments for it
Ugh, this is my main compliant of the ION train in Kitchener/Waterloo. It goes through so many turns and intersections. I feel however choose the alignment for the LRT is an idiot.
Having attempted to use the local bus and MAX for errands in Portland, I understand why the car ownership here is the same as in California despite having way more transit for its population