ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[taylortbb]

How does the park and ride thing at the Fairview Station work? Can you park there all day? Do you need some sort of permit to display?

Yes, you can park all day. No permit required as far as I know. I think park and ride isn't that popular with our system, so any sort of permitting hasn't been required. The lot is apparently less than half full most days.

[Coke6pk]

Its odd. A monthly pass is cheaper than parking downtown... I'm surprised more people don't do it.

Coke

[MidTowner]

You're right. If someone is coming from the 401 and parking downtown, they might save $40 or $50 (depending on the lot) by hopping on the train at Fairway, and probably not spend more than a few extra minutes.

[Bob_McBob]

You're right. If someone is coming from the 401 and parking downtown, they might save $40 or $50 (depending on the lot) by hopping on the train at Fairway, and probably not spend more than a few extra minutes.

If you're coming off the 401 and heading downtown, Google estimates 7-14 minutes from the Fairway Rd expressway exit in a car at 8:30 AM. The ION station is 5-7 minutes of driving and another 20 minutes on the bus or train, plus up to 10 minutes of waiting. The cost difference is about $66-88/month depending on the exact lot, and extra gas probably adds another $12. Would you pay an extra $80-100 to avoid 14 hours of commuting? I think a lot of people would, and many appreciate having their car available for lunch and errands as well.

The "problem" with park and ride in KW is downtown parking is way too readily available to justify a GRT pass in addition to paying for a car, even though it ends up being significantly cheaper. It obviously works for whoever is using the lot right now, but I'm not sure there is a whole lot of demand unless the downtown parking situation changes considerably. I do think more people would use it if the region highlighted the cost difference since it's significant to some people, many of whom are probably not doing the math on an extra $90 for a pass.

[danbrotherston]

You're right. If someone is coming from the 401 and parking downtown, they might save $40 or $50 (depending on the lot) by hopping on the train at Fairway, and probably not spend more than a few extra minutes.

If you're coming off the 401 and heading downtown, Google estimates 7-14 minutes from the Fairway Rd expressway exit in a car at 8:30 AM. The ION station is 5-7 minutes of driving and another 20 minutes on the bus or train, plus up to 10 minutes of waiting. The cost difference is about $66-88/month depending on the exact lot, and extra gas probably adds another $12. Would you pay an extra $80-100 to avoid 14 hours of commuting? I think a lot of people would, and many appreciate having their car available for lunch and errands as well.

The "problem" with park and ride in KW is downtown parking is way too readily available to justify a GRT pass in addition to paying for a car, even though it ends up being significantly cheaper. It obviously works for whoever is using the lot right now, but I'm not sure there is a whole lot of demand unless the downtown parking situation changes considerably. I do think more people would use it if the region highlighted the cost difference since it's significant to some people, many of whom are probably not doing the math on an extra $90 for a pass.

This and so much this.

Never mind price, congestion wise, it's also no problem.  People here love to complain about the traffic, but it really has nothing on peer cities.

[MidTowner]

Congestion is the main factor. For all intents and purposes, there is none. I didn't check a map for estimated driving time, so thanks for doing that. And I believe the results: slow downs are uncommon, if it takes fifteen minutes it takes fifteen minutes.

[tomh009]

If you're coming off the 401 and heading downtown, Google estimates 7-14 minutes from the Fairway Rd expressway exit in a car at 8:30 AM. The ION station is 5-7 minutes of driving and another 20 minutes on the bus or train, plus up to 10 minutes of waiting. The cost difference is about $66-88/month depending on the exact lot, and extra gas probably adds another $12. Would you pay an extra $80-100 to avoid 14 hours of commuting? I think a lot of people would, and many appreciate having their car available for lunch and errands as well.

Not to argue the overall case, but please allow me to pick some nits. Let's assume 10 minutes' drive from the exit, plus maybe five minutes in the parking garage to drive up, park and exit, for a total of 15 minutes. For transit, it's a five-minute drive (says Google), a couple of minutes to park, an average five-minute wait for the train, plus 17 minutes to the Frederick station, for a total of 24 minutes. A difference of nine minutes; multiply by two (per day) and then by twenty (per month) and it's a total monthly difference of 360 minutes or six hours. I'm not quite sure how you arrived at 14.

However ... a lot of people seem to be willing to spend 90 minutes each way commuting to Toronto. That's a whopping 30 hours that people don't seem to account for at all.

[Bob_McBob]

I'm not quite sure how you arrived at 14.

I used city hall since it's in the middle of DTK and took the average trip times Google Maps was reporting (10.5 minutes vs. 6+20+5 minutes) with an average of 20.5 working days per month. I also intentionally didn't include parking time since all travel time on the other end is highly dependent on the exact station or lot and ultimate destination.

The math in your comparison is a little off. The LRT trip you described adds up to 29 minutes, or 28 minutes' difference each day vs. the car trip. That makes it 9h20m longer than driving at 20 working days per month, or closer to 11 hours if you ride all the way to city hall. Either way it's a difficult case to make for many commuters because half an hour per day really adds up. The drive is just not long or congested enough to convince people to ditch their cars at the park and ride.

[tomh009]

Duh, yes, I missed one of the five-minute bits in the LRT journey. Thanks for catching that. The estimated difference is indeed 14 minutes each way.

[Acitta]

Collision at Charles and Cameron this afternoon.

                   

[panamaniac]

SUV driver trying to make a u-turn?

[jamincan]

Aren't all the intersections along there controlled? This shouldn't be possible without running a red light unless I'm mistaken.

[jeffster]

Aren't all the intersections along there controlled? This shouldn't be possible without running a red light unless I'm mistaken.

No, you're not mistaken. One of two things: illegal left on red light, or the LRT ignored the white dash line. My money is on that it was an illegal turn, being that a slim majority of people in this city shouldn't own a car or be licensed to drive.

Sadly, science hasn't cured stupid yet.

[Acitta]

Someone who was on the ION that was involved said on Facebook that the car made a u-turn.

[Bob_McBob]

I was thinking it must be an illegal u-turn on Charles.