It's very much in these plans, so they better get round to building it...
(01-29-2019, 04:04 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: [ -> ]What's the latest on that bus terminal that was supposed to be built beside UW years ago?
They are still negotiating with the university on it. GRT wants something that can integrate all the university routes with ION while the university seems to be wanting to limit the number of buses on Ring Rd.
(01-29-2019, 04:01 PM)KevinL Wrote: [ -> ]Page 74 has the revised bus routes at Ion launch. Nothing too different from what we've seen; there's still no word on the 202 corresponding with Ion ('negotiations with UW continue') and there's a small revision to route 3 (between Alpine and Strasburg it diverts off Ottawa to take Kingswood).
The route maps on GRT's site have also been updated:
https://www.grt.ca/en/about-grt/bus-serv...s-ion.aspx
That revision to route 3 is ultimately good I think - it's great for me personally, it will go right past my house - but I don't think it really satisfies the stated goal of maintaining service provided by the 11. I'm already pretty close to Alpine and Ottawa, and it's a mostly reasonably walk for the entire stretch of Kingswood already. The areas most impacted by removing the 11 are further down Kingswood closer to Block Line. They'll have to go up to Strausberg to get to the 16 and Selkirk is a long and windy* street. And f they're going downtown they'll have to transfer now, though they can hop on the Ion at Mill pretty easily.
Somehow I missed entirely how great Route 16 is going to be for me. I go to Belmont Village erratically and it's an irritating swap to the 8. And a direct ride to Uptown will occasionally be useful. It very much widens the areas of town that I can get to without transferring, so for me at least it's a very strong improvement.
It is absolutely the case that for the first little while at least I'll go out of my way to get to the ION to go uptown though.
* wine-dee like a coil, not win-dee like a breeze
The southern parts of Kingswood will also be able to get the extended 201 on Block Line, and connect to Ion at Block Line station.
(01-29-2019, 04:23 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: [ -> ]* wine-dee like a coil, not win-dee like a breeze
Sidebar:
I thought about this for several minutes, I think the word you're looking for is "winding". But I realize I say wine-dee all the time, without realizing that winding is probably the right word.
Now the question is whether Google Maps will update their transit directions on the same day as GRT, or if that will lead to frustrations until it updates.
(01-29-2019, 04:28 PM)KevinL Wrote: [ -> ]The southern parts of Kingswood will also be able to get the extended 201 on Block Line, and connect to Ion at Block Line station.
That's a good point, thanks. I didn't think to look at the 201. I still think most of our neighbours are getting the short end of the stick, but I am glad that it is not as severe as the original plan.
(01-29-2019, 04:39 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: [ -> ] (01-29-2019, 04:23 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: [ -> ]* wine-dee like a coil, not win-dee like a breeze
Sidebar:
I thought about this for several minutes, I think the word you're looking for is "winding". But I realize I say wine-dee all the time, without realizing that winding is probably the right word.
That is 100% correct! Thank you for adding that.
(01-29-2019, 05:07 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]Now the question is whether Google Maps will update their transit directions on the same day as GRT, or if that will lead to frustrations until it updates.
It hasn't been an issue the last few service changes. But it really depends on how swamped the GRT Open Data APIs are on launch day
(01-29-2019, 05:07 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]Now the question is whether Google Maps will update their transit directions on the same day as GRT, or if that will lead to frustrations until it updates.
GRT publishes data using Google Transit Feed Specification, which includes dates in which different services are active. I just downloaded the current batch and it looks to include information through to the end of April. Google states they prefer weekly updates, so there's plenty of lead time to publish updated information with the new routes including active dates, once that's all announced.
I use Transit regularly, and it does a good job tracking regular seasonal schedule changes and this is basically the same thing, so it's probable that the information will be available to us appropriately.
(Edit to add: By "us" I mean the users of the apps that consume the data produced by GRT)
(01-29-2019, 03:11 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: [ -> ] (01-29-2019, 02:37 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: [ -> ]Is Mayor Jaworsky really this out of touch with how to ride a bus?
https://www.therecord.com/news-story/914...d-for-lrt/
This absolutely should be the goal, transit should be so frequent you don't need a schedule.
But we aren't there yet, even on the most frequent routes we're only approaching that point at rush hour, most routes are still far from it.
That being said, we don't need a new trip planner, namely, we don't need to pay eSolutions Group for more trash software, just make region's public standard data feed work really well so that Google Maps and whoever else wants to consume the feed can give a great experience.
Exactly. Google and Transit App are far better than a bespoke transit app. And we have few 10-minute-frequency lines.
I don't care if GRT has a trip planner because I use Google Maps, but just having high frequency service doesn't help me plan a trip if I don't know which routes and transfers to use in the first place.
(01-29-2019, 04:23 PM)trainspotter139 Wrote: [ -> ] (01-29-2019, 04:04 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: [ -> ]What's the latest on that bus terminal that was supposed to be built beside UW years ago?
They are still negotiating with the university on it. GRT wants something that can integrate all the university routes with ION while the university seems to be wanting to limit the number of buses on Ring Rd.
Idiotic. If the University wants to limit traffic on Ring Road they should look at all the single-occupant vehicles, not the buses.
Although as someone who spends a lot of time on campus, I consider it essential that it be possible for motor vehicles to get to the buildings for drop-off/pickup, even though I usually arrive from Uptown by bicycle or walking. So I’m not sure exactly what measures I would support to reduce traffic; but telling the transit service to stay away is definitely not on the list.
(01-29-2019, 06:40 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ] (01-29-2019, 04:23 PM)trainspotter139 Wrote: [ -> ]They are still negotiating with the university on it. GRT wants something that can integrate all the university routes with ION while the university seems to be wanting to limit the number of buses on Ring Rd.
Idiotic. If the University wants to limit traffic on Ring Road they should look at all the single-occupant vehicles, not the buses.
Although as someone who spends a lot of time on campus, I consider it essential that it be possible for motor vehicles to get to the buildings for drop-off/pickup, even though I usually arrive from Uptown by bicycle or walking. So I’m not sure exactly what measures I would support to reduce traffic; but telling the transit service to stay away is definitely not on the list.
Pickup and drop off of what? It's entirely reasonable for ring road to be closed to everything but buses, service vehicles and delivery vehicles.
We've said this for years, but UW Admin has only ever moved the other direction (limiting buses, and creating more pedestrian crossings of Ring Rd., and limiting pedestrian access along Ring Rd.). My opinion of UW Admin is well known here, this is a major reason why.
There was an tidbit on the fare card in the CBC article
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.4997060
Quote:Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky asked when EasyGo would be available to all riders. Currently, university and college students are able to tap cards to get on the bus, as well as a few other riders testing the cards. Staff said it's anticipated the EasyGo cards will be rolled out to the general public in April.