9626 replies to this topic

[Cats4Hire]

The only thing that I didn't like was the constant announcement of "Four Downtown" each time the driver started to open the door.

Is that at least loud enough to be heard outside? I could understand that but if not do they want blind people to just keep getting on buses until they hear the correct sign/direction?

 

Either way the rest does seem like an improvement. The original one was pretty annoying when stopped at some intersections and you would hear "Government street. On Government Street. Douglas Street. On Douglas Street. Government Street." etc

[Nparker]

... The original one was pretty annoying when stopped at some intersections and you would hear "Government street. On Government Street. Douglas Street. On Douglas Street. Government Street." etc

Ack! That was/is abysmal and totally useless.

[kenmuir]

Is that at least loud enough to be heard outside? I could understand that but if not do they want blind people to just keep getting on buses until they hear the correct sign/direction?

 

Either way the rest does seem like an improvement. The original one was pretty annoying when stopped at some intersections and you would hear "Government street. On Government Street. Douglas Street. On Douglas Street. Government Street." etc

Same volume as the regular announcements.  A blind person boarding wouldn't realize they were on the wrong bus until the next stop to board or deboard passengers.  I'm pretty sure it played just as the doors were opening, but as I was on the upper deck, I couldn't tell for sure.  I do know for sure that it played before I saw people disembarking from the rear doors.

[spanky123]

Apparently the new bus lanes on Douglas aren't speeding buses along quite as quickly as staff thought. The culprit is ... bikes. You would think that staff would have modelled that out before we spent millions on the changes.

 

https://vancouverisl...-says-1.4245817

[Victoria Watcher]

that’s what the union says. any word from customers?

[spanky123]

that’s what the union says. any word from customers?

 

Have much have the schedules changed? Are we seeing 10 minutes cut off each of the times?

[phx]

Apparently the new bus lanes on Douglas aren't speeding buses along quite as quickly as staff thought. The culprit is ... bikes.

 

Oh, boo hoo.  Maybe now the bus drivers/passengers understand what is like for car drivers to be stuck behind a slow bus.

[Cats4Hire]

that’s what the union says. any word from customers?

it doesn't feel all that much faster and I've yet to be in a bus caught behind a bike for too long. Maybe cut a couple minutes? Then again I purposely arrange my schedule to be out and home as early as possible and I never found the morning rush hour to be all that bad. The 30/31 turning directly off Carey to Douglas instead of going around Uptown feels like it impacted the trip more than the lanes.

[Mike K.]

Meanwhile passenger vehicles continue to use the bus-only light at Uptown to cross the highway. It’s all so silly, really.

[nagel]

Meanwhile passenger vehicles continue to use the bus-only light at Uptown to cross the highway. It’s all so silly, really.

It is silly we don't have camera enforcement.

[Cats4Hire]

To be fair the signage is terrible. Until you're at the intersection there's nothing indicating only buses can turn left and by the time you see the "right turn only except buses" sign it's too late to move to the right turn lane.

 

I also noticed yesterday the light goes red if a right turner is there long enough anyway yesterday. No one was in the left lane yet it still changed for the two cars waiting to turn right.

[Mike K.]

Maybe painting the turn lane would help keep passenger vehicles out of that lane?

 

But if you're turning onto the highway northbound and the light is being triggered, that's not good! That needs to be fixed.

[Mike K.]

 

Want a preview of BC Transit’s live bus tracking technology for the Victoria Regional Transit System?

 

As the live bus location and passenger volume system is undergoing final testing, routes 4, 8, 30, 39, 70, 81 and 88 are currently displaying the live location of one bus per each of those routes (at the time of this posting) and the passenger load.

 

Head over to https://nextride.vic...ansit.com/Home/ and check it out!

[Cats4Hire]

Nice! I just noticed the website had changed the expected Victoria time to Spring 2019 so I'm glad it doesn't seem too far after all

[Cats4Hire]

it doesn't seem to auto-update on PC but does on my phone. When I came home there seemed to be a 7, 9 and 26 being tracked. I was watching the 7 on my phone and 9 on PC just to see if they ever updated the passenger count or if I'd need to refresh for that and noticed the 9 was near Tillicum Mall until I refreshed and it jumped up to Markham while the 7 has continued moving. Both are still "light" passenger count though.

 

Also it seems on my phone I can only get 1 route at a time to display. All the routes will be visibly there but the tracker icons go away while on PC I turned them all on as well and they all worked.

Edited by Cats4Hire, 10 January 2019 - 01:10 PM.

[Cats4Hire]

PC is now autoupdating. Have watched a 26 from Dockyard (now at Uptown) and it has changed from Light to Medium back to Light. Curious if anyone knows the numbers for each level. Is Light basically you can easily get a seat, Medium you have to sit next to someone else, Heavy you have to stand?

[Mike K.]

Good question!

[Rob Randall]

It's not the vehicle load, they display the weight of each passenger as they board.

[tedward]

Not sure if I haven't been paying attention or it is new, but the bus I rode home yesterday had a digital sign where the old "Next Stop" light usually is on the ceiling near the driver. It displayed the text of the next stop. Nice because it stays up so you can just glance up and see. 

[Cats4Hire]

Not sure if I haven't been paying attention or it is new, but the bus I rode home yesterday had a digital sign where the old "Next Stop" light usually is on the ceiling near the driver. It displayed the text of the next stop. Nice because it stays up so you can just glance up and see. 

I've noticed them installed on a few buses since I think August but they haven't been on (as far as I've seen) until now so that is new. Do you know if it gave any extra information? Like say "Douglas at Finlayson - Mayfair Mall" or just the stop name?