Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassic Lab
If I recall, the ultimate constraint to North Central bus service is the downtown core itself, specifically the number of busses it can handle. I believe we are nearing the number of North Central busses that the city considered the maximum. So there are only so many more busses that can be accommodated.
That said, there is still a great deal of capacity. I think it involved measures like decreasing the frequency of the #3 to redirect those slots to the #301 and transitioning both the #301 and #3 to be entirely articulated busses during the peak. If a significant number of those 75 7:00-8:00 AM Centre Street busses, say 60, were articulated, then there would be a great deal of room for ridership growth.
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Keep in mind, there isn't much curb space in some, if not most, of the blocks with 301 stops. Adding articulated buses without decreasing frequency only adds to the space requirement downtown, which is the main constraint. (Double deckers anyone?
) It really sucks when the bus you need is stuck at the lights on green because there isn't any curb space in the next block for it to stop.
And if they decreased service on the 3 towards the 301, there would still be the south leg of the 3 to deal with. I don't know what the ridership is like on that section, so maybe a reduced frequency would be ok there, but if it isn't and would require the current frequency, they'd have to route buses to do the south leg starting downtown anyways, which would actually add buses to the downtown road network.
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