Grand River Transit

[KevinT]

They were paving at the new UW terminal yesterday. Good to see progress on this again after it was stalled for so long.

[KevinL]

Sunrise Centre terminal is coming on well - just needs shelters and signs, by the looks of it.

   

[bgb_ca]

CTV is reporting an accident between a bus and a car at Block Line and Stratsburg.

Looking at the picture, it appears to be one of the newer 2019 busses. (Looks like it has a white LED in the back)

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/crash-betwe...-1.4963804

Edit: It was 21904. Looks like a light pole was taken out as well. Better picture at https://www.kitchenertoday.com/police-be...us-2400733

[ac3r]

Things at GRT must be picking up again or they are at least anticipating it. A lot of GRT staff (as well as other regional employees) who had their work duties cut in regards to the pandemic were offered to be "redeployed" to other regional facilities, namely Sunnyside Long Term Care and a few other things. A number of bus drivers and others went over there to temporarily work, but some have been requested to return back to their regular work over the next couple weeks.

[KevinL]

The big infrastructure funding has a lot of transit stuff:

-Full kit-out of the UW terminal with canopy and heated shelters

-Full funding of the Conestoga College terminal, including 6 whole buses

-Various stop improvements around the system, including waiting pads and shelters

-I'll quote this one directly as I don't quite get the meaning: "30 new digital information displays at LRT platforms and nine new on-board information displays will make it easier for transit riders to reach their destinations. Upgrades will be made to the mobile payment application, as well as 36 mobile payment validation machines and 25 point-of-sale units."

[tomh009]

Market Trail -- I assume this is from the St Jacobs Market to Northfield?

[jamincan]

This PIC from 2017 suggests it will follow the rail ROW and that there is a stage 2 that will continue to the Research and Technology Park.

https://www.waterloo.ca/en/living/resour...boards.pdf

[trainspotter139]

-I'll quote this one directly as I don't quite get the meaning: "30 new digital information displays at LRT platforms and nine new on-board information displays will make it easier for transit riders to reach their destinations. 

15 LRT stations will be getting 2 displays each for bus connection information at the connecting bus stops. 4 stations will not be getting those displays (Conestoga Mall Station bus terminal already has a display, LWP has no bus connections, UW station will have displays once kitted out, and Fairway Station has real time displays). 

The 9 ION-branded buses will be getting on-board displays, likely similar to those on GO Buses, but could be used to display the next bus information for the next stop. Don't quite know the full details about this one.

Upgrades will be made to the mobile payment application, as well as 36 mobile payment validation machines and 25 point-of-sale units."

iirc, Bus Plus and Mobility Plus still don't have the readers for the EasyGo card installed in them yet. they also want to install more TVMs in strategic places too.

[KevinL]

Thanks! Makes sense now.

[danbrotherston]

   

Well now, all those folks who argue that bus ads are no big deal and don't affect one's transport can now put their income where their mouth is.

Also, I'm kind of surprised this didn't exist before...advertising has pretty much taken over our whole society... yech.

[panamaniac]

Well now, all those folks who argue that bus ads are no big deal and don't affect one's transport can now put their income where their mouth is.

Also, I'm kind of surprised this didn't exist before...advertising has pretty much taken over our whole society... yech.

It’s not new, although these folks may have a new business model, as it doesn’t seem to be their own ads.

[jeffster]

Well now, all those folks who argue that bus ads are no big deal and don't affect one's transport can now put their income where their mouth is.

Also, I'm kind of surprised this didn't exist before...advertising has pretty much taken over our whole society... yech.

I have heard of this before. And as much as I would love to have a couple hundred extra dollars coming in every month, this would be a big 'no thank you'.

I am guess, depending on your car expenses, you should be able to write off 100% of car expenses, since your car is a moving advertisement. I could be wrong though. Doesn't make me change my mind though.

[ijmorlan]

I have heard of this before. And as much as I would love to have a couple hundred extra dollars coming in every month, this would be a big 'no thank you'.

I am guess, depending on your car expenses, you should be able to write off 100% of car expenses, since your car is a moving advertisement. I could be wrong though. Doesn't make me change my mind though.

I doubt about the 100% write off. I’m not a tax expert, but unless the only purpose of having the car on the road is to advertise, I believe one would have to do some sort of pro-rating calculation based on what fraction of the car is being used for advertising. I know for something like renting out a basement apartment expenses such as utilities need to be pro-rated. There is some room for arguing about the ratio (e.g., is it 50% because the building has two units, one of them rented; or is it 33% because one of the 3 floors is rented?), but writing off 100% won’t fly.

As to the advertising, I wonder what the endgame is here. I mean potentially most cars could have advertising on them; but how much impact would any of it have if almost every vehicle is a rolling billboard?

[panamaniac]

I have heard of this before. And as much as I would love to have a couple hundred extra dollars coming in every month, this would be a big 'no thank you'.

I am guess, depending on your car expenses, you should be able to write off 100% of car expenses, since your car is a moving advertisement. I could be wrong though. Doesn't make me change my mind though.

I doubt about the 100% write off. I’m not a tax expert, but unless the only purpose of having the car on the road is to advertise, I believe one would have to do some sort of pro-rating calculation based on what fraction of the car is being used for advertising. I know for something like renting out a basement apartment expenses such as utilities need to be pro-rated. There is some room for arguing about the ratio (e.g., is it 50% because the building has two units, one of them rented; or is it 33% because one of the 3 floors is rented?), but writing off 100% won’t fly.

As to the advertising, I wonder what the endgame is here. I mean potentially most cars could have advertising on them; but how much impact would any of it have if almost every vehicle is a rolling billboard?

I know that advertising is a deductible business expense (i.e. you pay to advertise your business), but I would not see the basis for a deduction when third party advertising is placed on you car to generate income.

[ijmorlan]

I know that advertising is a deductible business expense (i.e. you pay to advertise your business), but I would not see the basis for a deduction when third party advertising is placed on you car to generate income.

In order to earn the advertising income, I would hypothetically incur expenses. So if I were paid to drive around the city showing the advertising, I would expect the gas and maintenance to be deductible. But in this case, I think the idea is that one is driving around anyway so there wouldn’t be additional expenses. If the contract specified frequent carwashing, though, that might be deductible.