Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion - Page 409

tybuilding · #**8161** Posted **Mar 7, 2011, 10:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeeCee

Does anyone have any good pictures of the inside and/or outside of the Edmonds OMC? I'm looking to base a project off of the track layout and the switch to the main track..

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=49.206425,-122.95516&spn=0.00219,0.004136&t=h&z=18 a good satellite view would help more I think.

Gordon · #**8162** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 4:56 AM**

There seems to be a piece of land being cleared to the left of the map , I wonder if that will be for the OMC because they will need more space as the fleet grows.

Spork · #**8163** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 5:12 AM**

That is a field for the school there.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=s610nc4...&dir=358.9474817376828&sty=b&FORM=LMLTCC

jsbertram · #**8164** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 8:10 AM**

Carrie Nee prefers to stand during her half-hour commute on BART from San Leandro to downtown San Francisco. Although the trains’ blue fabric seats are plush and comfortable, Ms. Nee refuses to sit on them.

“I would love to sit down, but it just grosses me out. They’re disgusting,” said Ms. Nee, a 26-year-old records clerk.

Riders on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system have long complained about germs in the hard-to-clean cloth seats. As Bob Franklin, the BART board president, acknowledged, “People don’t know what’s in there.”

Now they do.

The Bay Citizen commissioned Darleen Franklin, a supervisor at San Francisco State University’s biology lab, to analyze the bacterial content of a random BART seat. The results may make you want to stand during your trip.

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/us/06bcseats.html

The seats on Skytrain may not have such a problem, but I've never understood why Translink bought the new buses with the blue cloth seating.

Millennium2002 · #**8165** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 8:33 AM**

Ehh... I guess that was because the padded vinyl fabric that came afterwards wasn't available at the time of purchase? I do agree that they should swap out that cloth fabric soon as it does get dirty pretty easily with no easy way to clean it.

Fabric remains on these buses:
- some 2001 New Flyer D60LFs, originally equipped for service on 98 B-Line
- most buses ordered between 2006 and early 2008

New vinyl started to appear on all buses delivered between mid and late 2008 and thereafter.

Whalleyboy · #**8166** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 8:37 AM**

well skytrain is switching its fabric seats to vinyl though

bardak · #**8167** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 5:28 PM**

The Orion coaches both old and new have fabric seating too.

aberdeen5698 · #**8168** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 5:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Carrie Nee prefers to stand during her half-hour commute on BART from San Leandro to downtown San Francisco. Although the trains’ blue fabric seats are plush and comfortable, Ms. Nee refuses to sit on them.

I can't help thinking that it's people like this who use anti-bacterial wipes on everything in sight and who are a big part of the reason we have new waves of drug-resistant bacteria that the hospitals are having such a hard time fighting.

LeftCoaster · #**8169** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 8:10 PM**

What is she eating dinner off the seat of her pants? Who cares, just wash your hands.

SpongeG · #**8170** Posted **Mar 9, 2011, 8:44 PM**

u can get bed bugs from the fabric seating - its a little overblown but a lot of people are switching from fabric suitcases to those hard case ones for the same reason to avoid bed bugs out in the public world

Millennium2002 · #**8171** Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 3:22 AM**

Yeah... I have a bit of concern in that area too. In a way though... it's hard to avoid seats made of cloth... like my university has tons of couches and seating that use this material. I guess it's just luck and the lack of people coming from bed-bug areas like the DTES that they haven't been infested yet or anything like that.

Waders · #**8172** Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 3:25 AM**

Yikes! Now I have to watch out what I touch on Skytrain and bus.

Spork · #**8173** Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 4:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

I can't help thinking that it's people like this who use anti-bacterial wipes on everything in sight and who are a big part of the reason we have new waves of drug-resistant bacteria that the hospitals are having such a hard time fighting.

Completely agree.

The newer busses were ordered with fabric because, as far as I can recall, it felt more natural/comfortable. They only switched to the newer vinyl when people complained that they were slipping off (no joke).

LeftCoaster · #**8174** Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 4:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

u can get bed bugs from the fabric seating

Hmm I never thought of that, its a decent point.

Conrad Yablonski · #**8175** Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 6:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Hmm I never thought of that, its a decent point.

Bed bugs are endemic planet wide and there isn't a major hotel in Metro Vancouver that hasn't had an infestation.

This is all kept very quiet-exterminators come in unmarked trucks and never talk to anyone just do their job and leave.........

FWIW-I too was grossed out by the fabric seats on the new busses/could see problems coming and am Happy to see them switched over.

nname · #**8176** Posted **Mar 12, 2011, 3:30 AM**

APTA Q4 report is now online: http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2010_q4_ridership_APTA.pdf

Average weekday ridership for SkyTrain: 381,100, with almost 12% increase in ridership over the same period last year...

Zassk · #**8177** Posted **Mar 12, 2011, 3:37 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by nname

APTA Q4 report is now online: http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2010_q4_ridership_APTA.pdf

Average weekday ridership for SkyTrain: 381,100, with almost 12% increase in ridership over the same period last year...

Nice... a 39% increase year over year, which appears to be the biggest growth of any jurisdiction in the report.

Would be nice if Edmonton was listed, to see their growth as their network grows.

madmigs · #**8178** Posted **Mar 12, 2011, 4:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zassk

Nice... a 39% increase year over year, which appears to be the biggest growth of any jurisdiction in the report.

Would be nice if Edmonton was listed, to see their growth as their network grows.

Keep in mind for the yearly stats that Canada Line only started in the middle of Q3. Comparing Q4 2010 with Q4 2011, however is a more fair estimation of alrt growth over the year.

punface · #**8179** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 2:27 AM**

Jarrett Walker of HumanTransit.org's most recent blog post states he is going to be working for Translink for the next six months:

From his blog (http://www.humantransit.org/2011/03/next-move.html):

Quote:

I've just accepted a six-month part-time assignment at Vancouver's transit agency TransLink, to help them with a range of policy and planning issues. So I'm getting ready to relocate from Sydney to Vancouver. (As always, you can track my movements under the photo in the next column.)

squeezied · #**8180** Posted **Mar 13, 2011, 6:11 AM**

Oh that's great news! I wonder how our professor Patrick Condon will take it.