Grand River Transit

[taylortbb]

Actually, car free rush hour would be an immense improvement in rush hour--I can personally attest. But leaving that aside, I was illustrating the double standard to which applies to people driving vs. not driving.

I mean, I don't drive to work, I'm all for a car-free rush hour for those that can do that. But I can still think that car free Sundays are a much better event than car free rush hours, in recognition of the fact that lots of people do drive to work.

Why is it not just acceptable but "just makes sense" for transit riders to see a significant delay or even complete loss of mobility on Sundays, when a person driving a car would find it intolerable to experience the same.

You're strawman-ing so hard here. I would never suggest that it's acceptable for transit users to have a complete loss of mobility or significant delay on Sundays. Read what I actually wrote. I said that adjusting subway service from every 2 minutes to every 2.5 minutes is an acceptable summer service reduction. If waiting an average of 15 seconds longer for a subway is a "complete loss of mobility" your standards are laughably ridiculous. My point was that service levels should be higher at all times, summer included, but that it is reasonable that summer have lower service levels. Note lower, not low. I'm comparing relative to the high service levels we should have. I think ION should run every 5 mins all day, but I'd accept every 7.5 mins on Sundays. That's not a significant delay, it provides good mobility, but it also recognizes that some periods have lower ridership.

[danbrotherston]

Actually, car free rush hour would be an immense improvement in rush hour--I can personally attest. But leaving that aside, I was illustrating the double standard to which applies to people driving vs. not driving.

I mean, I don't drive to work, I'm all for a car-free rush hour for those that can do that. But I can still think that car free Sundays are a much better event than car free rush hours, in recognition of the fact that lots of people do drive to work.

I mean, car free Sundays are certainly a pleasant way to spend a Sunday, and can lead to structural changes in the future, a car free rush hour means meaningful structural changes throughout society. Both are good changes, but one is certainly a much bigger change to society.

That being said, I experienced at some points of my life in KW a (mostly) car free rush hour, when I commuted on the IHT to school, and it was delightful.

Why is it not just acceptable but "just makes sense" for transit riders to see a significant delay or even complete loss of mobility on Sundays, when a person driving a car would find it intolerable to experience the same.

You're strawman-ing so hard here. I would never suggest that it's acceptable for transit users to have a complete loss of mobility or significant delay on Sundays. Read what I actually wrote. I said that adjusting subway service from every 2 minutes to every 2.5 minutes is an acceptable summer service reduction. If waiting an average of 15 seconds longer for a subway is a "complete loss of mobility" your standards are laughably ridiculous. My point was that service levels should be higher at all times, summer included, but that it is reasonable that summer have lower service levels. Note lower, not low. I'm comparing relative to the high service levels we should have. I think ION should run every 5 mins all day, but I'd accept every 7.5 mins on Sundays. That's not a significant delay, it provides good mobility, but it also recognizes that some periods have lower ridership.

I'm strawman-ing?!? We don't live in Toronto, we're talking about Region of Waterloo. Many buses go from every 15 or 20 minutes to every 30 or 40 minutes, some go to an hour, others stop running either entirely or for much of the day. Ditto for summer. And even more so for overnight. For some people this could mean waiting an extra 30 minutes, or not being able to make the trip at all. Which is precisely what I said. And given that even people who are on the LRT route (which for example only sees a 2.5 minute increase--which I agree doesn't affect mobility) will still depend on connecting buses to reach most of the city, that means their mobility is affected by the other schedule changes. So I think it's much more representative. Yes, some of the city remains accessible, but other parts are cut off. It's equivalent to closing some roads entirely on Sunday.

This is what we experience now, and sure, you couched your response in some context contradicting the status quo but the comment I replied to didn't. It just said, "yeah, totally makes sense to cut back service when ridership is lower".

But even if you look at 5 minutes vs. 7.5 minutes generally, you still see a double standard. If you threatened to add 2.5 minute to an average driver's trip, they would throw a tantrum of epic proportions, and they'd be listened (read: pandered) to. Drivers are pandered to over much less.