10-18-2016, 09:27 AM
(10-18-2016, 08:28 AM)kitborn Wrote:(10-17-2016, 11:13 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: It should get full priority, and the schedule should be planned to use the priority, with a reasonable buffer so that minor problems don’t immediately put the schedule off for the rest of the day. But yes, there should be a schedule and no transit vehicle should ever run “hot” (meaning, leaving a pickup point before the scheduled time).
What I would say is that the schedule should be as fast as possible, subject to being realistic in the face of reasonably foreseeable and reasonably common circumstances.
A early bus/train is no bus/train.
Incidentally, this is why GRT's service standard is asymmetrical: to be within -1 and +3 minutes of schedule. You could take the position that there's no excuse for being even 1 minute early, though I would see that as impractical given the amount of attention this would require from drivers at every stop.
(I've heard complaints over the years about a GRT bus running through stops early, and every time I encourage those people to talk to GRT customer service. While it's possible to be a handful of seconds early with the best of intentions, virtually every driver I've seen makes allowances for people who are almost at the stop. To be more than a minute early is to ignore the schedule, and GRT management will talk to drivers who do that.)