05-26-2017, 10:41 AM
(05-26-2017, 09:58 AM)MidTowner Wrote: They're heavily padded, but it would be hard to determine whether a driver's choice might be because he or she is running early, or for some other reason. Sometimes a driver will stop at a very new yellow, or slow down because (I guess) he sees a countdown close to zero, and I wonder if that's overcaution, or to try to waste time to get back on schedule.
What I can say is that, taking the 200 between (roughly) downtown and Conestoga Mall, it is typical in both directions (near or in rush hour) for them to wait at multiple stops to get back on schedule. At one point I was timing this for my own curiosity's sake, and it was sometimes as much as five or six minutes of this kind of waiting, on a trip scheduled to take about thirty, but more usually three or four. That's big: that could imply that the schedule is padded ten percent or more for real-world conditions.
The 200 is very generous (others seem to be, too, but this is the one I take regularly), and it is readily obvious for some trips, and when student ridership is light (reading week, exam time). The summer schedule seems to allow the same time as the winter schedule, even though boardings consume a lot less time. As a result, it's commonplace on a trip of any length for the bus to idle at a stop for several minutes, so it's not early.
Yes, I've seen them slow for a close yellow too, but this was basically a complete stop, at 2 on the countdown timer. Then three to four seconds after green before we moved again.
I mean, there could be other explanations, but as a passenger, still very frustrating. There are few options for layover on this route at stops due to it following busy two lanes roads so.
In any case, it would be good to do a more rigorous analysis of this.