Grand River Transit

[Viewfromthe42]

So it seems that the iXpress stops are moving for the advancing King closure. I haven't checked what the southbound setup will look like, but for anyone who's seen Bridgeport's right hand lane in the afternoon, I'm curious how well - or poorly - it will work out that GRT is moving the stop from King at Bridgeport to Bridgeport at King. It's also a narrow sidewalk that will make waiting, or ramp loading, quite a pain for all involved.

[Markster]

They're moving the stop off of King St? Huh, I wonder why they're doing that.

[tomh009]

(...) quite a pain for all involved.

Many aspects of the LRT construction cause pain, whether for transit riders, car drivers, pedestrians or business owners.

I think all of us here it will all be worth it: short-term pain for long-term gain.

[neromanceres]

Thanks Markster. I didn't notice that feature.

I'm one of those local oddballs who uses a Blackberry (I refuse to capitulate!). Does the Google Maps approach work well with the Blackberry?

If you're using a BB10 device you can install Google Maps for Android, that's what I did on my Z30.

I followed the instructions at http://forums.crackberry.com/android-app...ns-985344/ to get Google Play installed, which allows you access to the full range of Android apps. Then using Google Play I installed Google Maps. There's a few steps to getting Google Play installed, but I feel it was worth it.

Another option is to side load the snap application:
http://crackberry.com/how-use-snap-black...-apk-files
http://redlightoflove.com/snap/

Nice thing about snap is that it's a native BB10 application so it won't cause the phone to lag so much like the Google play app.

[Viewfromthe42]

(...) quite a pain for all involved.

Many aspects of the LRT construction cause pain, whether for transit riders, car drivers, pedestrians or business owners.

I think all of us here it will all be worth it: short-term pain for long-term gain.

Absolutely, but this individual stop placement choice seems very poorly thought out, unnecessary, and only worse for all those involved. That said, as of this morning, the 200 was still stopping on King rather than Bridgeport.

[timio]

Concrete for the 204 iXpress stops has been placed for many of the stops along Victoria and Highland. I didn't see one at Westheights (east branch) and Highland, but it may be off to the side somewhere.

[KevinL]

Just got word on the #7 detours starting Tuesday due to the Park Street railway closure - route will be Victoria-Strange-Dominion-Park northbound, Park-Strange-Victoria southbound.

[timio]

No concrete pads placed at Highland / Westheights yet. There is reconstruction of that stretch of Highland for 2018 or 2019, so they may be holding off until after that time before putting in something permanent.

[tomh009]

2019 would be an awfully long time to wait ...

[timio]

Mind you, there's no concrete pad or shelter on the Conestoga Mall-bound 202 iXpress stop on Westmount at Erb and that's been running for 2 years now.

[kitborn]

Just got word on the #7 detours starting Tuesday due to the Park Street railway closure - route will be Victoria-Strange-Dominion-Park northbound, Park-Strange-Victoria southbound.

It will be interesting to see a 40ft bus take right turn onto Strange Street from Victoria. Not a 90 degree turn.

[Markster]

The intersection handles it well. (Having watched it happen) That intersection is over-built, with large turn radius even for that movement.

[KevinL]

Fall schedules are posted.

I have discovered to my chagrin that 'Route 22 Sunday service' only refers to the portion west of Forest Glen Plaza; it will be interlining with the 11 on the inbound leg downtown. :/

[Pheidippides]

A couple of GRT related issues before committee tomorrow. Perhaps someone could explain their meaning and importance in lay terms?

Grand River Transit Real-Time Data Availability

Integration of Grand River Transit Automatic Vehicle Location System and Electronic Fare Management System

[mpd618]

A couple of GRT related issues before committee tomorrow. Perhaps someone could explain their meaning and importance in lay terms?

Grand River Transit Real-Time Data Availability

Real-time data on bus locations will finally be available to anyone who wants it, including many local would-be app developers and third-party platforms like Google Maps and Transit App. GRT was hesitant about releasing it prior to doing its own analysis and data release regarding schedule adherence, worried that the public would get there first and try to make them look bad. Which is kind of paranoid but a pretty frequent kind of concern when it comes to bureaucracies and open data. At any rate, now they've done that analysis and tested the data with their own apps, so now they're ready to release it more widely.

Integration of Grand River Transit Automatic Vehicle Location System and Electronic Fare Management System

This is kind of boring. Turns out that it's easier if the existing CAD/AVL system (used for counting passengers, tracking buses, managing schedules, etc.) integrates with the new fare management system, rather than having two systems side by side. This requires doing some custom work.