Quote:
Originally Posted by jsbertram
The downside is that people on the 3, 8 or 20 who need to get downtown now have a two-seat ride (via Skytrain or another bus), and whatever 2nd vehicle they want to transfer to is likely already full.
It's easier to send the 'lightly used route' buses downtown using a small loop that includes a portion of either Granville or Hastings since that is where most commuters are going, and to make transfers easier.
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it is easier, but much more expensive. I don't deny the unconvenience of the direct route lost, but this needs to be weighted in regard of whether it is the best allocation of the Translink resources or not in an environment of many competitive demands for the same tax dollar.
One have to notice that
- Skytrain is recognized as the choice of people to go to DT over staying on the bus 3, 8 or 20.
- bus 19 still offers a direct DT acces from Main
- bus 22 still offers a direct DT access from Chinatown
- there is a bus "every other mn" or so on Hasting
- artics bus are more expensive to operate than standard bus
and see how much of an inconvenience it is vs either cost saving, or or redeployment of the operation in other part of the network.
this
passup list can give us a hint on that topic:
waiting a couple mn a transfer at the corner of Hasting#Main is not fun, wait an extra 2 mn because the first bus is a passup is not helping yes...but what about waiting an extra 30 mn in scary surrey the 502 to Aldergrove because you have been victim of a passup?
You are also, right that if people needs to transfer, we must make sure there is some room on the system for them.
The Skytrain
The busiest segment is Broadway-Main, it is 10% less travelled West of Main, that provides some unused capacity (7000 passenger/direction/day if the rtm is right) able to absorb extra bus rider.
The bus on Hasting
in lack of anything better, the passup can provide a decent proxy on the load.
Well the bus stop on hasting are usually not prone to passup (you an see some, but remember that you have ~ 1500 buses per day passing on hasting West of main, so really the chance to experiment one is minimal and consequences are benign).
bus 3 passup:
bus 20 passup:
bus 16 passup:
bus 135 passup:
You can see that the Hasting segment is not the greatest concern. and that bus 3 seems pretty empty on Hasting.
135 is an exception, and it is worth to note that the most severe passup location are Main#Hasting east Bound, then Commercial#hasting both direction (what suggests than 20 bus rider already transfer to bus 135 to go to DT, when not using the Skytrain)
the saving on shortening bus 3, 8 and 20 could be redeployed (notice it concerns artics buses, it is suggested
here that they cost 25% more to operate than standard buses, so it could means more hour could be redeployed on route operated by standard bus)
- on route 135, and 16 renfrew (to address crowding on Hasting and Renfrew
- adding some trip on Main and Victoria (where the real crowding issues of bus 3 and 20)
- as well as the connection improvement proposed in this post, which could make the whole number 3 road part of the FTN (what is not really because the short turn of many trip at marine#Main).
- ...
...and because all the saving is in a congested area, and redeployment in less congested area, it could means even much more redeployed km.bus than saved (what is mattering to the customer).
Eventually all that could make enough people happy to justify the inconvenience of some.
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