I would like to see a transit system in Ottawa that is accommodating to going other places than downtown. Sure, most riders use the bus to go downtown, but that is basically the only place that the bus takes you. Many years ago, OC Transport spoiled their riders with the one bus system, by this I mean that it only takes 1 bus to get downtown, from pretty much anywhere in the city. Yes, this is great if you need to get downtown, but if you need to go anywhere else, the system isn't very accommodating. Also, ridership would be at risk if they tried to implement a different system.
I believe that a grid system would work best. Keep the existing transit way in place for rapid movement of passengers in an East-West and North-South directions. Once a rider arrives at a hub that is near their neighbourhood, then they could transfer to a local route. Having bus running a grid throughout the city would make it easier for riders to get to destination others than downtown.
This would also eliminate the rush hour bussing nightmare going through the core. Having to spot you bus in a row of 20 buses isn't always easy. Also, you need to determine whether you should run to your bus that is 8 buses back or wait till it shows up at the front of the line. I've waited a few times to see my bus just drive on by without stopping to pick people up.
Operating in my new fashion would mean that you can hop on any of the bus that shows up downtown. It may not reduce the number of buses that are running through the core per say, but it would certainly speed up each stop since you would either get on the East bound bus or the South Bound bus, in the other direction I guess it would only be west bound.
It would make the whole system a lot more efficient. Yes, we would have to listen to the people complaining about having to transfer now, but after a few months people would be use to it and I believe that ridership would increase since the system would be better.
4 comments:
The city of Ottawa is NEVER going to make up its mind on transit. We are already 10 years behind, and counting...
I wonder how feasible a grid system would be, part of the problems of building a city around a windy river! You can almost get anywhere in the city, by that I mean, you get almost there the first bus and then the second gets you to the anywhere. I hate busing to school because I get really close and then have to wait for a localish bus or make a 20 minute walk.
You are right,
Since we don't have a City that is build on a real grid. The concept may be a little flawed,
But I think that if each major Street that go North-South or East-Westactually had a bus that went the entire stretch, it may make the ride a little easier to figure out for commuters.
Take Hunt Club for an instance, tere is no bus that go the entire distance, I know that when I lived in Nepean, it would have made a route easier to bus when I worked on Conroy. Because the system would have taken me through downtown, it was less of a hassle to drive there.
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