Calgary Public Transit II

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by Aegis

I'm not sure if CT views it that way, but if so.. there's a major problem there. The community is already built, and people want convenience or else they won't use transit.

Maybe in not so many words, and perhaps without the suggestion to move, but I can guarantee you that they do.

There is a reason that bus routes are "inconvenient" in such communities. It is entirely linked to and an intrinsic trait of the way they are built. The long and winding route that serves the community is close to the best possible way to run one using the infrastructure that has been designed and built. To make it more convenient to any significant degree would involve:

1. Bulldozing a strip of homes and roads in a direct line from the edge of the community that is the furthest from the station all the way to the station, and have a bus run along it.

2. Increasing the frequency twofold or threefold by either adding service hours or taking them from existing routes. An increase would be paid for by taxes that people have said they don't want to be raised, or fares that people have also said they don't want to be raised. The funding and fare strategy item that went to council on Monday has said as much.

Originally Posted by Aegis

So what do we do? Say "you are stupid for living there, go move somewhere else if you want to use public transit"? That hardly seems reasonable. Governments invest millions of dollars putting the train to Crowfoot, but then skimp on the necessary and important details like making it convenient for people to use.

Completely agreed. Those details involve land use - they must. There's only so much you can do with a limited transit budget.

Originally Posted by Aegis

CT should respond to what the customer wants/needs, not dictate to the customer what they need.

That's all well and good - until a limit is reached as to what people are willing to pay for it, or you add service somewhere at the expense of another area's customers.

Originally Posted by Aegis

If the purpose of feeder routes is to feed the train, then why are they viewed independently of the train?

Of course, but they aren't viewed independently really. I'm not sure what you're getting at here.