A Mississauga Transit Dwell Time Christmas Tale

[StIdes]

What is the deal with Mississauga Transit's dwell times? I used to live in Mississauga for 14 years between 1990-2004, and I remember these annoying dwell times from that era. I now live in the Queen & Roncesvalles area but I took a trip out to Mississauga recently to visit my parents at Mississauga Rd & Dundas for this christmas this past year, a trip I would usually take my car for but unfortunately it is currently in the shop for repairs. So off to Islington station to catch the 1A or 1C for me. Oops it's just called the 1 now, what happen to that A?

Now mind you its christmas day at about 5:00 pm when I get on the 1C when it arrives at Islington. I had to be at dinner at my folks place by 6:00pm so I figured an hour would be plenty of time to arrive at Mississauga rd/Dundas with the super light traffic of 5pm Christmas day. I hop on the bus and the driver closes the door and heads out of the bus bay west down Bloor St. ...and thus begins the story of turtle without the hare.

The bus continues down Bloor at a speed of which I would estimate to be about 40km. Thats fine, its a bus, the speed limit is only 50, buses are known to travel under the speed limit at times, its cool. But when It wasnt cool was when we hit the 6 Lane 60Km/h stretch of Dundas and the bus didnt pick up any speed at all. The few cars that were on the street seemed like drag racers zooming past the bus, tail lights disappearing into the night ahead. That 18 wheeler must have a NOS system! No stops were made from Islington until almost Dixie rd in Mississauga, yet the driver still continued his snails pace.

Ahhh Dixie Rd. the spot I always considered to be 1/3 of the way home from Islington subway when I lived in Mississauga. Its 5:17pm now, figured id by at Dixie by like 5:12pm because of the light ridership/traffic but its ok, I'm still on pace. Well I better think again because its now 5:23pm and the bus is still sittin at the Dixie Rd stop. I was starting to get annoyed. Finally at 5:25pm, after not picking up any additional passengers or even any Dixie connecting routes passing by to even give the possibility of transfers coming over to the 1C the driver decides to press on.

After losing a race to Hurontario with an elderly woman using a walker on the sidewalk (that was sarcasm for you srs bzns guys on here*) we arrived at the Hurontario/Dundas stop at 5:36pm. Cue operation "sit at the stop for no reason for 7 minutes". Finally at 5:43pm the driver lurches away from the stop. "Alright, I got 15mins to get from Hurontario to Mississauga rd, I'm cutting it close, but as long as the driver doesnt take another random 10 minute coffee break along the way I should make it by 6:00pm as traffic lights get much more scarse west of Mavis", I hope to myself.

Too my pleasant surprise after Hurontario the driver discovered that in fact, the accelerator, is the pedal on the right! We raced past (did the speed limit!!) Erindale Station road at 5:52PM, "holy crap I might actually make it!!!". My joy was overcome with frustration when the bus reached the ultra mega uber transportation hub of Westdale Mall (oooh) and the driver stopped to let someone off and then didnt drive away. Im thinking "please god no, you arent actually going to do another one of your crazy dwells at this stop are you?". After sitting there for another 6 mins my question was answered. I was really fuming on the inside and probably looking rather ocd, looking at my watch every 30 secs.

When we finally rolled out at 5:58pm I knew I wasnt making it on time and my dad was probably not going to be too happy with me delaying everyones turkey time by being late. I arrived at my destination finally at 6:03pm. Now my dad wasnt meeting me right at Miss Rd/dundas as my parents actually live a little south/west of there so we agreed to meet at the Tim Hortons about 300 metres up the road. I figure this walk is going to take atleast another 3-5mins so I decide to run as to not be any more late then I have to be.

I jog about 3/4 of the way to the tim hortons when I start to feel a little winded and decide to walk a bit to catch my breath, when I check my pocket and notice I dont have my cellphone anymore. I figured it must of poped out of my jacket pocket while i was running so I go back to look for it. Its 6:08 now im super late and I can see my dads car in the parking lot waiting for me. Well sorry dad late or not I gotta find my cellphone, so I jog back in the opposite direction looking for my phone. Guess what?! I found it!! Well the pieces of it after being run over by a car on Dundas st. Did I mention its also pouring rain out?

Moral of the story? Screw you Mississauga Transit and screw your dwell times. A 15 minute car ride in average traffic should not take a bus that picks up 5 passengers on the lightest traffic time of the year over an hour. 21 mins of dwell time. Thats 1/3 of my time on the bus just sitting there, It's ridiculous, preposterous, and utterly absurd!! I understand that they have a schedule to keep but by god when you run on a holiday or sunday schedule take into account that their is usually very light traffic on those days and adjust the schedule accordingly!! MT caused me stress about being late for christmas and inadvertently cost me my cellphone. Damn you!!! Damn you MT to hell!!!!
Seriously im mad.

 

[rbt]

For every complaint about the bus moving slow there are 5 about the bus not following the posted schedule.

My guess is that the driver was following the schedule (punishment is severe when they don't) and the schedule wasn't made just for christmas day traffic and better fits a more congested time period.

 

[StIdes]

For every complaint about the bus moving slow there are 5 about the bus not following the posted schedule.

My guess is that the driver was following the schedule (punishment is severe when they don't) and the schedule wasn't made just for christmas day traffic and better fits a more congested time period.

Mississauga Transit follows their sunday schedule for holidays. If buses are dwelling for 20 mins out of 60 they need to rethink their holiday/sunday schedules. Ive said it once and Ill say it again, SPEED IS A HUGE ISSUE when it comes to getting people to switch from a car to transit. Do you think any current car driver who road the bus for the first time and experienced what I did to ever want to ride it again?

 

[RedRocket191]

Don't forget about all the people who show up at their stop 5 minutes early (like they are supposed to), only to see the bus blow by them. Don't they have a right to ride too?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

StIdes:

As I daily user of MT I totally share your pain. The problem to me isn't following a schedule per se but a schedule that is set up way too conservatively by IMO purposefully overestimating travel time especially during non-rush hours.

AoD

 

[StIdes]

StIdes:

As I daily user of MT I totally share your pain. The problem to me isn't following a schedule per se but a schedule that is set up way too conservatively by IMO purposefully overestimating travel time especially during non-rush hours.

AoD

Yup thats basically what im saying without the10 paragraph short story. Their schedule making skills suck.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

StIdes:

I think you are quite entitled to a long posting considering your pretty horrible experience. Holiday/off hours survival on MT require pre-planning looking at their schedules - logical estimates on travel time does NOT work at all (and god forbid should you require transfers, you could be in for some very nasty surprises)

AoD

 

[StIdes]

StIdes:

Holiday/off hours survival on MT require pre-planning looking at their schedules - logical estimates on travel time does NOT work at all (and god forbid should you require transfers, you could be in for some very nasty surprises)

AoD

I dont think i'd even attempt to ride the transit in Mississauga on a sunday if it involved a transfer. Unless it was like the 26 to the 19 where I could wait inside the warm terminal while waiting for the bus to come for 30 mins.

 

[drum118]

It is the same old story that the planners and schedulers live on Mars and never ride their system in the first place to understand it in the first place.

They sit in front of the computer looking at the dots from the Greco System looking for the largest clumps of dots to say this is the schedule time.

They have no idea where the large ridership points are, areas with the heavies traffic issues etc.

30 minutes is max traveling time to Hurontario St.

You have drivers with different foot weight that will get you to your stop +10 to -3 minutes for the schedule times on a good day.

When they sent buses out with GPS to do a route schedule time, the drivers will dog it to make sure they have extra time to gab a coffee, food along the line to that smoke break and cell time at the end. No problem with a break at the end, but as how much depends on the route itself.

The policy was that no bus was to arrived or depart a stop for it schedule time and anything late as 3 minutes was on time.

I am on buses that supposed to do the 40km zones as well the school zone where they are doing 10-25km over the limit even when students are getting out of schools. I have watch that needle climb first hand and have tail buses to clock them.

Once all the buses get GPS, then management will be able to deal with a lot of theses issues.

The planners and schedulers need to find a real job.

I have 9 years of data to backup my statement.

 

[CDL.TO]

I can completely understand the OP's story. I rode the 1 last time I used Mississauga Transit and it was extremely frustrating. IIRC, it was on a Saturday afternoon (not a holiday), and just as described about 1/3 of the trip from Islington to Mavis was spent dwelling at stops (after leaving Islington a few minutes late to begin with).

It's clear that this route contains excessive padding in its schedule.

 

[Observer Walt]

I don't ride the #1 bus but I do see them stopped at the corner of Dixie Road, for what seems like unreasonable lengths of time. I have occasionally thought that you could get off the bus, pick up a slice at the Pizza Pizza, and take it back on the same bus to continue your trip.

 

[Dan416]

Those dwell times at Dixie Rd are ridiculous. This story gave me bad memories of taking Mississauga Transit for years and years. Praise Jesus that GO doesn't have such padded schedules. Sitting on a bus like that is just painful and excruciating to me. Gives me shivers just thinking about it.

 

[StIdes]

I can completely understand the OP's story. I rode the 1 last time I used Mississauga Transit and it was extremely frustrating. IIRC, it was on a Saturday afternoon (not a holiday), and just as described about 1/3 of the trip from Islington to Mavis was spent dwelling at stops (after leaving Islington a few minutes late to begin with).

It's clear that this route contains excessive padding in its schedule.

Atleast by only going was far west as Mavis you avoid the hyper terminal of Westdale mall.

I don't ride the #1 bus but I do see them stopped at the corner of Dixie Road, for what seems like unreasonable lengths of time. I have occasionally thought that you could get off the bus, pick up a slice at the Pizza Pizza, and take it back on the same bus to continue your trip.

You know the bus could dwell at Dixie for 10 days in a row for 10 mins a time, but the second you tryed to pull something like that It would drive away in 1 min. Kinda like the old smokers creed that if you want the bus to come just light a cigarette because that bus will be there right after you do.

 

[doady]

Stop blaming the MT scheduling. NONE of these dwell times are in the official Sunday/Holiday schedule for Route 1C:

Islington - 4:57 start
Dixie - 5:15
Hurontario - 5:32
Erindale - 5:42
Mississauga Rd - 5:47
South Common - 5:57 end

If your bus arrived at Mississauga Rd at 6:03pm, that means your bus driver had intentionally thrown your bus 16 minutes behind schedule, enough so that the westbound Route 1 trip that departed from Islington 5:13pm had already passed you by near Mavis, assuming that its driver was not intentionally throwing that bus wildly off schedule as well.

 

[StIdes]

Stop blaming the MT scheduling. NONE of these dwell times are in the official Sunday/Holiday schedule for Route 1C:

Islington - 4:57 start
Dixie - 5:15
Hurontario - 5:32
Erindale - 5:42
Mississauga Rd - 5:47
South Common - 5:57 end

If your bus arrived at Mississauga Rd at 6:03pm, that means your bus driver had intentionally thrown your bus 16 minutes behind schedule, enough so that the westbound Route 1 trip that departed from Islington 5:13pm had already passed you by near Mavis, assuming that its driver was not intentionally throwing that bus wildly off schedule as well.

I know thats the posted time for the bus, thats thething that frustrated most. It was going slower then it should be on a day it could of been going way faster. I guess I could of just had a crappy driver but the moral of the story is even if he was 15 mins late(a common occurrence on the MT), it still should not take a freakin HOUR to get from Islington to South Common. I know this was an extreme case but the arguement is still pretty valid in saying that MT's dwell times are asinine. Have you ever actually rode this bus route?