Minimizing transfer times means one transfer maximum. One north-south route and one east-west route, and no more. And that means having a complete grid.
Vaughan has 4 continuous east-west corridors: Major Mackenzie, Rutherford, Highway 7, Steeles. And Steeles has no YRT service. That means Highway 7 is the only continuous east-west YRT corridor south of Rutherford. That is not a complete grid. You can increase the frequencies of the north-south routes as much as you want, it won't mean much unless there is more than one east-west route south of Rutherford to connect to.
Compare that to Brampton: Sandalwood, Bovaird, Williams, Queen, Steeles. That's 5 corridors, and they all have service. That's three east-west routes south of Bovaird/Castlemore/Rutherford instead of just one. That is a complete grid. That is why Brampton has 2 times the ridership per capita of York Region.
York Region has 1.5 times the population of Mississauga but its system has half the ridership. It is not the model for successful transit, sorry. There is no evidence that York Region's strategy of prioritizing higher frequencies has worked better than Mississauga's strategy of focusing on better coverage. York Region was already way behind Mississauga before VIVA and it has only fallen further behind with VIVA. York Region Transit is simply an incomplete system. Mississauga was already a more complete system. WIth the extension of 39 Britannia to Renforth, extension of 20 Rathburn to Erindale GO, rerouting 10 Bristol to Kennedy, rerouting 9 to provide full service along Thomas, the introduction of 35 Eglinton, 57 Courtneypark and 109 Meadowvale Express, the removal of 26 Burnhamthorpe from CCTT, it has become even more complete than York.
There are still things they need to do, like combining 28 and 66, full service along Cawthra, 26 to Winston Churchill, but at least they clearly recognize the problem with not having a complete grid. York doesn't care at all. It's still all about frequencies and BRTs and subways, and that's why the ridership will continue will never grow there.
I am only reinforcing what riders are saying and the ones who are can't speak to council or getting the standard brush off. I got the standard bush off on route 19 when it was change in 2000 from 6 minutes south of Sq One with every 3rd bus going to Brampton. Service became 11-13 when every bus going to Brampton to the point you were waiting 45-60 minutes at any given point on the route to only have 3-5 articulated bus show up in a convoy. Articulated buses were only used for every bus after the change.
I don't know where you live and travel to/from on transit as well don't care, if you use transit 100%. But clearly you don't understand how transit function or should function.
Other than a few routes, no route in Mississauga should see service over 30 minutes 7 days a week, including holidays.
Trunk Lines need to be every 15 minutes or less 7 days a week.
Have you every ridden some of these routes to understand how they work, what the ridership is and where the peak points are??? More important, have you every done data analyze, as well time study the routes and system???
Until you do, seeing things is one thing compare to what is taking place in real time 7 days a week is only guessing.
Tell me why Brampton has been running circles around Mississauga for 5 years on all levels of Transit????
I have heard that claim of lack of ridership and the need for smaller buses close to 15 years like you are. The only different between you and me as well the complainers, I have real time data with ridership for 85% of the routes in Mississauga in each route spreadsheet and it show what it cost for each rider to ride those routes. 19 had the best cost recovery to the point it was making a profit where route 8 and 44 were costing $30-$45 per rider. Rode 8 a number of times between Clarkson and Port Credit both day and night where I was the only person on that bus for the full trip and I never include myself in the data.
For close to 5+ years, every time I got on a bus, I noted the time the bus arrived, bus number, number of riders on it as well those getting on with me. I check the schedule at home to see if the bus was +/- off the time I got on. Each route had a benchmark based on connecting buses and load points. I noted time we arrived at each stop as well the number of riders getting on/off just like the consultants that are brought in years until counter were installed on a few buses. I would break the route up into blocks where I could to say X riders got on/off in those blocks as it would show where the peak loads are as well the weak point. The consulting firm would have 1 or 2 people on each bus on X routes they were doing for 3 days.
Clearly you don't, as there is no ridership for the full Cawthra to the point the plan extension to the Transitway is on the back burner. Have you every counted the cars parked at the Cawthra Station as well the riders using it??? The best I seen for cars been 15 and only seen 2 riders get on/off there.
If it surface, ridership will be less than the current 8. The current 8 sees better ridership with better service since been cut in haft with the 14 taking the weak section and very few riders each day on that section.
Moving to a grid system takes time, considering Mississauga has very few grid roads for traffic in the first place due NIMBY, Poor land and transportation planning. Hazel has stated public a number of time over the past 2 decades that one of her great mistake was having the Queensway not only going over the Credit River, but to Erin Mills. It was the goal of the late councilor Jim Tovey to push the extension of the Queensway in his plan reelection for 2018 that runs through the backyard of the current mayor not only to Erin Mills, but to the 403 with an interchange there. Since 2003-2005, I have been pushing for a grid system, but it will have many broken sections due to the road system and riders not willing to transfer from one route to another like the 26, 28, 66, 61, 26, 10, 91, 34, 7, 9. More on this later.
Trying to compare York Region to Mississauga is a Joke as York Region cover a hell lot more area and has many small pockets of residental. Try comparing Mississauga to Brampton or to a city of the same size.
Mississauga is up there in cost recovery and a hell lot better than most places in Canada, or even in the US.
Mississauga only has a 15% transit split and that is only 2% more than it was over 15 years ago, when it should be close to 30% today. This includes GO. The ridership for the Transitway is not even close to the 2004-6 EA numbers and still a few decades down the road.
Route 26 west of Sq One is and has been low ridership since I first started to ride it, well the eastern section has increase to the point there the 76 for it. It still service Sq One on the weekends because riders don't like the way to/from the mall by having it stay 100% on Burnhamthorpe.
Route 10 has been a mix bag for decades and it should continue to Renforth than to Sq One, as well carry few riders. It should go to Winston Churchill by Thomas, but has an issues at Mississauga Rd.
You only got The Lakeshore, Dundas, Burnhamthorpe, Eglinton, Derry Rd, Mississauga Transitway as true east west 100% grid. Dixie, Hurontario, Southdown/Erin Mill/Mississauga Rd, Winston Churchill as 100% north-south
I don't look forward to the LRT even thought I support it and call for it in 2005 along with a few others, as I will waste 12-20 minutes going into/out of Sq One like the old 19 15-20 minutes and have yet to try the 2 and 17, when I can save that time bypassing CCTT today on the 103.
You will never get perfect planning and schedules where all 4 buses meet at X point, due to traffic, riders, weather and the bus drivers who are Sunday drivers or lead foot. You should visit smaller systems where everything meet in one place to see a bus arrive late after a few buses have already left, where some are holding due to communication from either the late driver or dispatch.
You can say what you want about me, but I have made changes to the system over time and that a lot more you will do on this board. I have made changes to other systems as well.
The biggest cost to any system is labour that runs from 75-85% of the operation cost and will continue to do so if not more until the driver is no longer there. Still got cost to keep vehicles on the road. Based on 2010 numbers, drivers were seeing about $50,000 a year and by 2040, they could be earning close to $135,000 if the 2-3% yearly increase stay the courses.
To increase ridership, you need better land use, quality of service and to run 7 days a week to get them to where they want to go to/from in the first place.
