Grand River Transit

[ijmorlan]

I just realized this is at Fairview, not at the downtown terminal. But now I’m confused by your earlier message where I thought you said the sign was correct. To me it seems like signs at Fairview for the 7 should list 7C, 7D, 7E only; or they could just say “7” since most people getting on there won’t care which one they get (anybody who cares is probably better off taking the iXpress).

Unless you change the way the buses enter and exit the Fairview terminal, this isn't possible. As the buses are currently routed, the Connaught/Wilson 7s always depart facing Kingsway, while the Weber 7s always depart facing Fairway. This is for good reason, because that is the direction those buses need to go to get onto those streets.

The fact is that many, many people at the Fairview terminal need to know whether the bus is going down Wilson, Connaught or Weber. In fact, you have it exactly backwards. If a passenger is interested in a C D or E in particular, taking a 200 and switching at Charles St. will frequently get them to their destination faster. If on the other hand, they need to go to, say, Weber/Fergus, telling them the bus is a C D or E after it departs north from Charles St. does not give them useful information at all.

People already ask which flavour of 7 they are boarding. Having a 7C sit at a stop labelled 7B will just compound the confusion.

This will all be cleared up when the Wilson and Weber portions are replaced by other routes, but by that time, there won't be a 7B at all. That makes the decision to label the stops 7B and 7A/F at Fairview even more mind-boggling.

I think everything you say makes sense. Part of the problem is that I had forgotten that the 7 splits up near Fairview, so I wasn’t thinking about that aspect. So I think what you’re saying is that somebody boarding at Fairview doesn’t care about 7C/D/E, but they do care whether it goes via Wilson or via Weber. So maybe the stops should be labelled either “7” or “7C/D/E”, with one stop saying “via Wilson” and the other “via Weber”. In any event, I think we’re in agreement on the radical notion that a bus labelled X should stop at a stop labelled X.

I have long (since before iXpress) though that the 7 should just pop on to the expressway to get from where Charles and King meet down to Fairview. Then have a local milk run handle all the stuff currently handled by the 7 that would be skipped by my idea. The 7 was painful for getting to Fairview — the last bit of King St. tended to be not too bad in the speed department, and then you’re at the expressway, maybe a 2 minute ride from Fairview. Then the bus turns off and winds through a residential neighbourhood for 10 minutes. And this is the main spine route that runs the length of the city?

The introduction of iXpress was an alternative way of providing a reasonably fast route to Fairview, but I’m not sure it invalidates my idea. In any case as you point out something different will be done soon.