(06-24-2019, 06:44 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(06-24-2019, 05:48 PM)jeffster Wrote: So the changes to the route closest to my house changed enough that my kid can no longer use the bus for his summer job. It used to be a 700m walk to the bus stop, and the bus would stop about 10 meters from his work. Now the closest 'drop off' is about 2 km. He could choose to take the bus to an Ion station, then transfer to another bus after that, but the travel time went from 7 minutes to over an hour, and if he works too late, he'll miss the bus to the Ion.
Oh well. Disappointed but not surprised, they have to make the routes profitable and better access to the Ion stations. I'm pretty sure that it only affects a handful of users, not like my kid would be using it every day (he relies on Daddy Taxi Service).
On the other hand, since our route does go to an Ion stations, and my daughter has an appointment at GRH (KW) this week, we can avoid the $15 parking fee. My dentist is on King as well, so if I need to have any major work done, I can just use transit now.
I really must question this. There are several conflicting statements. What trip has gone from 7 minutes to over an hour. And where does your son work that had a bus stop within 10 meters, and is now 2 km.
Given that its very hard to go 2 km on transit in 7 minutes.
Further, just an FYI, even on our brand new train, 7 minutes only goes about 1.8 km, which is about a 25 minute walk.
The bus turns down a different road after his pickup, in a different direction but the closest drop off is much further, and in fact, only about 200 m from his original pick-up. The old route literally drop him off right in front of his work and only went on 2 streets, but with the way the new route would go, he's be dropped off on the other side of the street, rather than in front of his work on the same side (this is if he takes the bus, the Ion, then the Xpress).
BTW: You math is way off. The LRT can run its route in 43 minutes for those 19 km which is 27 km/h. Your math (1.8 km in 7 minutes) works out to 15 km/h, or about 12 km/h less than actual. Travel distance from the bus stop to his work was 2.2 km (2.9 km from our home), 7 minutes means the bus was traveling, on average, at 19 km/h, or about 2/3 the speed of the Ion. Even that seems low, but factoring in lights and bus stops, I guess that is accurate.
Also, perhaps you misread what I wrote -- if he were to take the bus only, he'd be saving 200 metres. If he took public transportation all the way to work, he'd hop on the bus, be dropped off at an Ion station, get off at the 3rd Ion station, then walk about 200m to the closest Xpress route, wait for that bus, and this would drop him off 400m from his job. Looking at the GRT trip planner, it was almost an hour.
Since his job is close to DTK, I really don't want him walking home from there, especially at night. And really, I would't want him walking around the Charles and Benton garage, and King and Frederick area at midnight to get onto the Ion (the ride home would take longer as the walk is further). Too many crazy people in that area. Either way, though, when I looked for the trip back home, his end time would take over 90 minutes to get home (up from 7 minutes) -- just a lot of walking, transfers and waiting.