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+--- Thread: Grand River Transit (/showthread.php?tid=13)
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RE: Grand River Transit - Canard - 02-02-2015
Region of Waterloo Applies for Provincial Grant for Shuttle to New Hamburg
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/regionalGovernment/resources/PW/PA2015-0203.pdf#page=41
RE: Grand River Transit - Lens - 02-10-2015
I think it's time for GRT to eliminate the different schedules for Saturday and Sunday. Unifying them into a weekend schedule would be better for riders that currently deal with a poor level of service on Sundays and it would make the system simpler to understand.
RE: Grand River Transit - Waterlooer - 02-10-2015
(02-10-2015, 11:48 PM)Lens Wrote: I think it's time for GRT to eliminate the different schedules for Saturday and Sunday. Unifying them into a weekend schedule would be better for riders that currently deal with a poor level of service on Sundays and it would make the system simpler to understand.
I totally agree with that. Do you still think there should be a holiday schedule?
RE: Grand River Transit - Elmira Guy - 02-11-2015
As someone who uses transit all the time (I do not, nor have I ever driven), and has family and functions in Elmira, I would very much like to see Sunday bus service to Elmira.
It wouldn't have to be anything as intensive as the weekday, or even Saturday schedules. But I don't think it unreasonable, or impractical to do a two-hour service.
Also, something later than 3 PM for the last bus on a Saturday.
I realize that routes need ridership, but availability also creates ridership.
RE: Grand River Transit - Waterlooer - 02-11-2015
(02-11-2015, 01:04 AM)Elmira Guy Wrote: I realize that routes need ridership, but availability also creates ridership.
Exactly! People don't want to take transit if it only comes once an hour and on certain days. All routes should have Sunday service no matter how little ridership they have. Route 5 east of Uptown still doesn't have Sunday service which surprises and frustrates me.
RE: Grand River Transit - Elmira Guy - 02-11-2015
I would find it a little vexing if I still lived in Elmira, and wasn't able to go see a movie on even a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, let alone on any evening. If I wanted to, well, I couldn't if someone else didn't go, or drive me.
Not saying there should be bus service to every hamlet and village in the region. Although...
But I think a community of over 10,000 people (and to have another 5,000 over the next few years), which is also the 4th largest urban community in the region, warrants an improved schedule and frequency.
I will happily say that wekdays are good. Although they stop service a little early in my opinion, but good frequency during the day.
RE: Grand River Transit - Elmira Guy - 02-11-2015
We must live fairly close to one another Waterlooer.
The best way for me to get uptown, and the only way on Sundays, is the 8 to the 7.
RE: Grand River Transit - clasher - 02-11-2015
It boggles my mind that they still have stops that have signs that say "No Sunday Service or Evening Service". I remember standing outside of Cameron Heights in the 90s waiting for the number 11 that never went by... back then they didn't even bother putting up those signs so how was I supposed to know that the bus I took to/from school just randomly decided to go a completely different way when the sun went down.
RE: Grand River Transit - BuildingScout - 02-11-2015
But if only we had higher parking fees people would stop driving and take the non-existent Sunday bus....
Sorry, I'm being sarcastic here, but I strongly believe we cannot possible talk about making drivers' lives difficult until we have a viable alternative in place. Granted GRT has come a long way since the 90s, when even the main route 7 to UW would move to every 40 minutes frequency mid-day.
RE: Grand River Transit - MidTowner - 02-11-2015
(02-11-2015, 01:17 AM)Waterlooer Wrote:(02-11-2015, 01:04 AM)Elmira Guy Wrote: I realize that routes need ridership, but availability also creates ridership.All routes should have Sunday service no matter how little ridership they have.
Are you positive about this? What if ridership is zero on Sunday? What if a line is specifically designed to serve commuters?
I find ElmiraGuy's rationale about Sunday service to Elmira pretty compelling, but I also think there are a lot of lines and neighbourhoods that can not justify Sunday and evening service. Given finite transit resources, insisting on constantly serving places with poor ridership means diverting resources from places and time periods which can support high ridership.
RE: Grand River Transit - MidTowner - 02-11-2015
(02-11-2015, 09:26 AM)BuildingScout Wrote: ...I strongly believe we cannot possible talk about making drivers' lives difficult until we have a viable alternative in place.
We need to do both at once, I think. Increase ridership by making driving less pleasant and attractive, and then leverage that ridership growth into better transit service. It's not possible to have transit that would fully and completely serve all trips taken in the Region, before there is any ridership at all. I agree that the transit service needs to provide alternatives, but sometimes those can't exist in advance of the riders coming.
I continue to think that artificially cheap parking is one of the big things we can change to promote ridership. "Free" (to the user) parking makes car use seem a lot less expensive.
RE: Grand River Transit - BuildingScout - 02-11-2015
(02-11-2015, 09:37 AM)MidTowner Wrote:(02-11-2015, 09:26 AM)BuildingScout Wrote: ...I strongly believe we cannot possible talk about making drivers' lives difficult until we have a viable alternative in place.
We need to do both at once, I think. Increase ridership by making driving less pleasant and attractive, and then leverage that ridership growth into better transit service. It's not possible to have transit that would fully and completely serve all trips taken in the Region, before there is any ridership at all. I agree that the transit service needs to provide alternatives, but sometimes those can't exist in advance of the riders coming.
I continue to think that artificially cheap parking is one of the big things we can change to promote ridership. "Free" (to the user) parking makes car use seem a lot less expensive.
People will use public transit if what's available is effective. At present time, I have to drive to work, given the dearth of public transit alternatives. You can raise parking fees all you want, and I'm still driving. But now you have someone who feels there is a "war on cars" and will attack you and your public transit initiatives back.
Ok, I personally wouldn't do this since I'm pro-public transit, but 30% of Torontonians also known as Ford Nation would. So why would you insist on doing that?
In other words the stick approach is a huge strategic mistake from public transit advocates. Let the LRT be in place, let the higher density next-to-LRT buildings be built, let the LRT move faster than traffic and maybe then we can start talking about disincentives for drivers.
RE: Grand River Transit - numberguy - 02-11-2015
I believe the Elmira bus service is still a township paid service. GRT is paid for by the cities (Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo). The townships tax do not get levied taxes for GRT, hence they get no service. Elmira pays for its bus service as an exception. For them to get more service, the township would have to pay more, or choose to be levied for the GRT. The leadership and voters would have to make that choice. I don't think it's a GRT decision.
I believe GRT is one of the few Region of Waterloo services that has a differential levy treatment. (LRT/ION is also not levied on the townships)
RE: Grand River Transit - MidTowner - 02-11-2015
I have to cringe when I hear the phrase "war on cars," but I understand that you're right: there are some people who feel that. But they're wrong in this feeling: car users have been waging a war against other forms of transportation for a long time now. It's so distorted that asking them to pay their fair share seems like an act of war to a motorist.
I'm not sure why you brought up parking in the other post, but making driving less convenient really is part of the equation if we want to increase transit ridership, and make our cities work more efficiently. You talk about raising parking fees- well, if someone is driving to his job and not paying for parking, he can be sure that someone else is. Why not remove that subsidy to car usage, so at least transit and personal motor use can be compared on a more even footing?
Respectfully, no one "has" to drive to work. We all take decisions as to where to live, and how to get around. If people choose to live ten or twenty or thirty kilometres from their employment, of course it should cost that person more since there's impacts on infrastructure and the environment as a result of that. I know that that particular choice is a complex one, and transportation is only one part of that, but while we continue to subsidize car travel (and we do, massively), the choices that people make will be based on incomplete information, and won't be efficient ones.
RE: Grand River Transit - BuildingScout - 02-11-2015
(02-11-2015, 10:12 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Respectfully, no one "has" to drive to work. We all take decisions as to where to live, and how to get around. If people choose to live ten or twenty or thirty kilometres from their employment, of course it should cost that person more since there's impacts on infrastructure and the environment as a result of that. I know that that particular choice is a complex one, and transportation is only one part of that, but while we continue to subsidize car travel (and we do, massively), the choices that people make will be based on incomplete information, and won't be efficient ones.
Sorry, but the way cities in North America are laid out one has to drive to work. Houses are in one end of the city, schools at the other, work in a different one, restaurants at another. The only way to thread a needle through them is with a car. I started driving to work when the location of my kids school forced me to drive. There really isn't a choice for me. I've looked into moving closer to the iXpress routes and my rent would double.
This is why I'm such a harsh critic of the ridiculous four-storey limit in Uptown Waterloo and the non-mixed zoning of most of the city. It forces people like me to drive. I expounded elsewhere how easy and convenient is to leave the car behind in Europe. I long for the same thing here. Making life inconvenient for drivers does not make that reality any closer. Things like LRT, mixed zoning and intensification do.