Grand River Transit

[clasher]

The 204 on Queen Street isn't going to be "express" speed through that part of town no matter where they put the stops. It's pretty much a crawl during all the rush hour times.

[Pheidippides]

With the Queen traffic and with the construction on Highland not wrapping up until 30-Nov-2015 and the addition of a signal at Highland and West new users to GRT/iXpress might be in for a bit of a bad first experience!

[Canard]

Can you make a map that shows the population densities in the area where this stop is? I don't really get the issue here

[Spokes]

Can you make a map that shows the population densities in the area where this stop is?  I don't really get the issue here

With regard to the innitial issue of the stop being at Mill vs Courtland, there is a greater population base at Courtland (4 residential buildings).  But it's more than just that for me, Courtland is a major artery and a connection to Victoria Park as well.

Maybe they wanted the stop to be near the Iron Horse Trail?

[panamaniac]

Can you make a map that shows the population densities in the area where this stop is?  I don't really get the issue here

With regard to the innitial issue of the stop being at Mill vs Courtland, there is a greater population base at Courtland (4 residential buildings).  But it's more than just that for me, Courtland is a major artery and a connection to Victoria Park as well.

Maybe they wanted the stop to be near the Iron Horse Trail?

With the proximity of the trail and the pathway by Joseph Schneider Haus, it's a bit of a wash wrt to pedestrian access to Victoria Park, I would think.  I wonder how far west (south?) of Courtland the stop would need to be place to prevent problems wrt the right turn lane from Queen onto Courtland? 

[Canard]

I'm just saying you might get more reaction or understanding if you made a map that showed a gradient from like blue to red, red being the most densely populated area, and a big black dot where the stop is. Picture worth a thousand words kinda thing.

I have no idea what any of the issue is here and to me it just sounds like "I want the stop closer to me" (even if that's not the case) - but that's probably why there's zero movement either from the media or GRT or Counsel about it.

[mpd618]

I have no idea what any of the issue is here and to me it just sounds like "I want the stop closer to me" (even if that's not the case) - but that's probably why there's zero movement either from the media or GRT or Counsel about it.

Fortunately, the only part of this statement that is true is the first one. There has been some coverage in the media, Council actually amended the recommendation to investigate the stop placement in this area, and GRT is looking into the issue.

[Markster]

So part of the confounding factor was that my initial complaint was based on this:
   

Given that, it just didn't seem to make sense to put a stop at Highland, a stop at Mill, and skip Courtland. A stop at Courtland instead of Mill would be quite reasonable a substitution to spread the stops more evenly.

And then we found out about the Highland and Mill stops being split stops.
I too, have been curious to map density along the route, so I've gone and done it, and made a rough, hand-done map.
Red: areas of high rises (~100 households/ha)
Yellow: areas of low rises or townhomes (~35 households/ha)
Green: areas of single family homes (~15 households/ha)
Blue: Commercial districts
Red Pins for the 204 stops

GRT's Proposal
Eastbound:
   

Westbound:
   


And for comparison
My Proposal
   

[Spokes]

The stops at Lawrence and Belmont are pretty tight together, no?

[Waterlooer]

The stops at Lawrence and Belmont are pretty tight together, no?

Agreed, and it services the same mall as well. I feel like the past few iXpress's (203 especially) aren't that "Xpress"... they feel like normal bus routes but with fancy stops.

[Spokes]

They had the right idea with the original one, and then it's gotten worse and worse. People here don't like having to walk to bus stops

[zanate]

They had the right idea with the original one, and then it's gotten worse and worse.  People here don't like having to walk to bus stops

Apples to oranges, though. The 200 was overlaid on the 7's route, and for most of the route they overlap. Riders have the choice between a high frequency local and a high frequency limited-stop express.

As soon as the 201 came in, GRT made it clear that stop spacing would be a compromise between travel speed and the lack of overlapping local service along the same corridor. The problem isn't so much that the spacing should be wider, the problem is branding. "iXpress" all but spells out "express", and it's causing these routes to have an identity crisis.

Express is not the need, though. The need is for reasonably quick buses that don't stop at every single cross street, but will serve the major intersections and nodes, with direct routing and with good frequency.

That's not express. That's just good service, and it's what you need to make the grid work.

[clasher]

Maybe it's time to get rid of the silly iXpress branding?

[BuildingScout]

Why silly? Most reasonable transit systems have regular and express routes.

[Waterlooer]

@Markster: Not sure if you've seen this yet but the 2015 GRT Preferred Plan now shows temporary 204 iXpress stops, including one at Charles St. Terminal. http://www.grt.ca/en/aboutus/resources/2...ll_map.pdf