Herding Aspects of Buses

[W. K. Lis]

• Front door exiting
  Able-bodied people who use the front doors of buses and streetcars to exit, when they are quit possible to use the center or rear doors.
  Use the front doors only to enter as you pay or show your transfer to the driver. If able-bodied, use the center or rear doors to exit the vehicle. Maybe a bouncer should be stationed near the front door.
• Nearside stop
  If the bus or streetcar stop is located on the nearside of an intersection, and there are no traffic lights, the location is fine. However, there are problems with when there are traffic lights at the intersection. Passengers could enter the vehicle but then when they are ready to move on, a red light will delay the vehicle until the green light. To make matters worse, newly arrived passengers at the stop could delay the vehicle even further, having to board just as the traffic light turns green.
  Traffic light intersections would be better off if they had far-side stop boarding, if possible.
• Traffic light priority non-existent
  Even with far-side boarding, a transit vehicle has to wait for a green light before proceeding past the intersection.
  True traffic priority for transit vehicles should be implemented, especially in a transit friendly (lol!) city like Toronto. In addition, left-turn signals should be delayed until after the LRT signal allows the LRT to proceed first.
• Pay as you enter
  The pay as you enter payment procedure was implemented with the introduction of PCC streetcars. The passenger deposits their fare or shows their transfer as they pass the driver when they enter.
  Prior to that, it was a pay as you pass payment procedure used on the Peter Witt streetcars. The passengers would board at the front door without paying. Instead, there was a conductor beside the center doors, who also sold tickets. Passengers would pay the fare or show the conductor their transfer. A valve or flap door at the front prevented passengers from exiting at the front door. Passengers would only exit at the center doors. When the Yonge streetcar was replaced with the subway, the Peter Witt’s were converted to pay as you enter.
  Before the Peter Witt streetcar, there was a driver and a conductor. The conductor sold tickets and collected the fare.
  The problem is that the pay as you enter system causes delays since there is only one door. The driver has to handle collection and driving.
  In the near future a do-it-yourself system would allow passengers to board any door and use an on-board machine to collect or verify their fare. We will see if this helps, but I can see front door exiting remaining a problem. In the meantime, have your fare ready. Don't hunt for it after you get on.
• Stopping at every stop
  If the vehicle is full and no one has pulled the next stop request cord, and the vehicle is the pack leader, why stop?
  There should be some indication on their computer console telling the driver their position in the pack. Their mirrors don’t help that much.
• Not moving to the back
  Again, don’t use the front door to exit. Move to the back. There are seats available in the back. More people can get on when you move to the back.
• Illegal parking
  It's rush hour, why do they still park? Are they more important than the 40 or 50 people they’re inconveniencing? Put cameras on the vehicles and get the driver the power to issue tickets. More Green P parking lots should help.
• Snow banks
  Snow banks push parking vehicles out into traffic. They park so far from the curb that they block streetcars. Don’t park if you end up blocking vehicles.
  Charge them big time. Streetcars are rail vehicles; charge them for blocking the railway. Again, put cameras on the vehicles to record the st#{}d who block them and charge them big time.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Traffic light intersections would be better off if they had far-side stop boarding, if possible.

What happens when a bus approaches an intersection as the light turns red...they sit there doing nothing, wait for green, cross the intersection, and stop again. How is this an improvement?

It's also often better for everyone if the bus pulls over in a bus/right turn lane so cars aren't stuck behind the bus while it's [un/]loading...you can't put bus cutouts on the far side of intersections.

 

[W. K. Lis]

What happens when a bus approaches an intersection as the light turns red...they sit there doing nothing, wait for green, cross the intersection, and stop again. How is this an improvement?

It's also often better for everyone if the bus pulls over in a bus/right turn lane so cars aren't stuck behind the bus while it's [un/]loading...you can't put bus cutouts on the far side of intersections.

But if the intersection does have a true traffic priority system, the bus should be able to keep it red for the other traffic and get a go ahead signal for itself until it gets across the intersection. However, I only seen a version of this only on Queens Quay.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Transit priority is only useful in some places. I don't see how useful it'd be at, say, Finch & Don Mills when there's buses coming from both directions at very high frequencies...I can see traffic getting very snarled if green lights are bouncing around like ping pongs and not letting enough cars through.

Bunched convoys of buses also can't properly use far-side stops without perpetually risking the back buses getting caught in the intersection when the light changes - such a problem cannot happen if they all stop before the intersection. On a busy route, the stop would have to be many bus lengths beyond the intersection, which also makes transferring a longer walk, reduces the chance that you'll cross the street in time, etc.

 

[Panzerfaust]

When I saw the title I was expecting something out of a nature documentary.

"Why, what is this? Over there, behind the newspaper vendors. Ah yes, it's the beautiful 29 Dufferin. As you can see, it is traveling as a pack, typical behaviour for this gentle beast. The four buses shall advance down the street all together as a defense from predators, with a large gap between them and the next herd. You see, the other herd does not want to disturb the first, for that is how fights break out. That's all our time today, but tune in next week for our look at the extremely rare animal known as the 501 Long Branch. Bye for now"

 

[RedRocket191]

A solitary killer, the fire truck stalks its prey...

 

[ShonTron]

When I saw the title I was expecting something out of a nature documentary.

"Why, what is this? Over there, behind the newspaper vendors. Ah yes, it's the beautiful 29 Dufferin. As you can see, it is traveling as a pack, typical behaviour for this gentle beast. The four buses shall advance down the street all together as a defense from predators, with a large gap between them and the next herd. You see, the other herd does not want to disturb the first, for that is how fights break out. That's all our time today, but tune in next week for our look at the extremely rare animal known as the 501 Long Branch. Bye for now"

LOL!

<Cue the whistling tune of Hinterland's Who's Who>

The 98 Willowdale-Senlac is a rare beast indeed. Like the 120 Calvington, 14 Chaplin and the 115 Silver Hills, its numbers have dropped drastically thanks to disturbance by Conservative activity. Their territory is the wild North York suburban plains. Rarely are they ever sighted, unlike their more numerous cousins on neighbouring streets. They exhibit strange behaviour in the TTC surface route kingdom - they actually have a habit of running on schedule. We can be thankful that they didn't face the same fate as their extinct related species, like the 163 Rustic Road. Their numbers may once again increase and again be a viable part of the system.

For more information about the 98 Willowdale-Senlac, contact your local Yellow Pages.

 

[Kitsune]

From a excerise from one of my creative writing classes, I was living on Dundas at the time ................

The silence was deafening, not a sound could be heard, except for the odd shriek from the cold metal wheels slicing upon the slim steel ribbons. The silent beast started his slow, methodical journey in the silence of the night, with no one else around. Another squeal as the silent beast makes a sharp turn, piercing the silence of the night. Off in the distance, a gun shot could be heard, and some ones brief cry for help was gone, another soul lost. The silence took over again, as the sounds of siren could be heard heading towards the sound of now lost soul. The silent beast continues, until it hears a bunch of party rebellers staying well up into night, in an area where silence can never be heard, where the heart of the city beats methodically beats. Onward the silent beast goes, no one dare near it, for at this time, everyone feared its ghastly gallows. It crawls to a stop, as the blinking eyes allow another silent beast to cross its path. Soon, it bares down upon a deserted market, where the rats could be heard searching for crumbs the hoard had dropped when silence is never heard. Another shriek, another turn as men could be heard hollering to each other over some sort of argument. The silent beast continued, its journey nearing an end, as it soon met up with another silent beast, the slow switch could be heard hitting another steel ribbon, and the silent beast was done another trip.

 

[urbanfan89]

This will make a great "Hinterland Who's Who" parody!