Quote:
Originally Posted by eternallyme
Route 85 definitely works well, it is quite frequent most of the day and most trips use artics. Any overcrowding could be solved by any of:
* Increase the 85 frequency even more
* Increase north-south service perpendicular to the Carling corridor
* Rapid service along the Carling corridor, such as a limited stop version of the 85 and provide bus lanes or transit priority measures
As well, I do recommend that the service hours be increased on the 101, with more late evening service on weekdays and Sunday service at least during the daytime. In order to maintain transfers to routes to the southeast and speed up overall service, during the LRT construction, some peak period trips should be converted to a new route 100 which could run along part of the Southeast Transitway (perhaps interline with another route like 146 or 148 to allow service as far as Billings Bridge), while other 101's should operate to Place d'Orleans bypassing Hurdman for a faster trip.
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I work at Carling/Maple and I can say that Carling bus service is decent in that area.
The main problem with the 85 is its very poor reliability in the PM peak. For some reason that I don't quite understand, the 85 is decently reliable in the AM (never more than a few minutes late, almost never early), but in the PM it's all over the place.
Some trips in the later part of the AM are a bit overcrowded (it drops to mid-day frequency at 8:30 which is a bit too early), but other than that it rarely suffers from overcrowding.
The Preston Street portion of the 85 is one of the few areas of the city where stop spacing is reasonable. Unlike most other mainstreet areas the stops are not so absurdly close together that it has a massive drag on travel times. It does a good balance between good access to most of the street and efficient travel. Now, the area around the Civic Hospital has **way** too many bus stops. When you have two bus stops in between legal street crossings, it's too much.