Posts Tagged YYC
Pride Worth Catching? Part 2: A comparison
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Politics on June 2, 2010
I’ve had some more questions about my experience with public transit, particularly in Calgary. Given my travels across Canada, I have used systems in a number of cities, hence I feel it would be adequate to compare experiences across the country in relation to Calgary.
In these travels I’ve had the pleasure of using public transportation in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Trois-Rivieres and Saint John. Some experiences have obviously been far more enjoyable than others on a number of levels, but there are some things that Calgary could stand to learn from each.
My personal issue is with the value-for-money of the transit system. It’s been said that if fares go up, then service should step up and vice-versa, but to have it both ways is incredibly foolish and can cause reduced ridership (something Calgary has suffered of late).
An excellent example of a value-added transit system is Vancouver’s TransLink system (which I used heavily while in Vancouver working during the 2010 Winter Olympics). An integrated system more formally known as the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, TransLink provides bus and train service through Vancouver, the SeaBus commuter ferry to North Vancouver and the West Coast Express commuter train service. Given the cost of a single fare zone ($2.50), of which Metro Vancouver is divided into three, the access options for information (by phone, mobile web (including an iPhone App) and SMS) and services available throughout the fare zones, a one-zone fare in Metro Vancouver proves to provide more value for less cost compared to Calgary Transit (with much of Calgary fitting geographically into a single fare zone).
Another example is with the Trois-Rivieres transit system, the Société de Transport de Trois-Rivières, where while they are a smaller area with a higher fare ($3.00 to Calgary’s $2.75), they offer a reasonable level of service within respectable hours. One thing they do that I did like and wish was done more often is they published at what times past the hour the bus would run by the stop, i.e. x:15 and x:45. The information is available on their website (French of course), but is useful all the same. Another thing they provided at the time I was using the system was printed booklets with schedules and maps for ALL ROUTES, not just select ones.
While not quite as notable an example, Saint John Transit has done a reasonably good job of covering this wonderful New Brunswick city, save a couple areas, but they do offer one thing that Calgary Transit didn’t, which is a fairly reasonable degree of communication with their riders, including things like bookmarks being made available on the buses to notify of fare increases and releases in the newspaper and on the radio to keep people in the loop.
In effect, Calgary has much to learn in terms of communicating with their passengers, providing better communication of stop times, maximizing the level of service provided for money, making information accessible across more media than their (non-mobile) website and by phone, as well as stepping up with the safety with the system. The number of serious incidents on Calgary Transit over the last few years makes this an area that Transit and Calgary city council can ill afford to ignore.
This is of course assuming that the incoming council does a value-for-money audit and picks up on things that could be done to better ensure Calgarians are getting their money’s worth from a public transportation system that does not currently serve well for what is being put in through taxes and transit fares.
Pride Worth Catching?
Posted by Calvin in Annoyances on May 16, 2010
If there’s one city service that I find especially useful, it’s Calgary Transit. While I use it every day, I tend to take issue with a great deal of the things that the city does with it, to the point that I come off as unfairly beating up on them.
I have good reason though. Despite recent fare hikes and changes, Calgary Transit has actually been reducing service to help keep costs down. My big issue there is that they’re cutting a service that’s overpriced, inefficient and provides an overall level of service that leaves much to be desired. Recently, routes have been cut back to reduce the number of operating hours in a bid to cut costs, which was done while at the same time hiking fares without sparing a thought (as was mentioned above).
Along with the cutbacks on routes, the service was inefficient and lacking in coverage to boot, with come parts of town still only getting service once every 45 minutes-1 hour on weekdays, despite the fact that these are high-traffic commercial areas and even housing developments that have existed for a decade or two (ample time to adapt service to help the people living in them by the way). As mentioned, some areas are barely covered at all, with one such example being the busy Deerfoot Meadows commercial area in the City’s southeast. There’s no doubt hundreds of Calgarians that work there, many of whom could use better transit service. Alas, the only service they get is the circle route that runs once every half hour for most of the day (of course including wiggle room for the almost inevitable delays), which brings me to the next issue.
The Calgary Transit system seems to be almost constantly riddled with delays. Personally I’ve experienced them to be anywhere between 5 minutes and 2 hours (yes, I said hours), making relying on Calgary Transit for getting to work, school or even to pick up groceries a crap shoot at best. Why would I take a bus that could end up being 2 hours late and possibly cost me my job when I could get a car and drive to work, even if transit is cheaper?
As to the issue of cost, why am I paying $85.25/month for a pass to a system the size of maybe a single TransLink fare zone (for which a monthly pass costs $81 (more if you add on more zones)) and getting service I’d expect in a city maybe 1/2 – 3/4 the size of Calgary? That doesn’t even include the fact that routes are all too often riddled with ridiculous delays and lacking service times.
The worst issue of all by far is the pretty serious safety issues with taking transit, which can make one’s commute a living hell. I’ve had to take transit to different parts of the city for commutes to and from work, and it’s almost a sure thing that I could see myself facing a drunk or two, a group of people deciding they want to be assholes, or even downright bizarre stuff like a guy deciding to take a joyride between two C-Train cars (death wish anyone?). There’s been a handful of incidents over the past few years of people being injured or even killed in incidents on Calgary Transit property, with the only thing Transit has had to show for some of the incidents being grainy video from cameras that appear to be few and far between. I’m not saying this is cause for having the police and transit peace officers riding the rails all the time looking for troublemakers, but you would think that safety would be taken a little more seriously.
Of course, this is only the way I view the system, but it’s the culmination of a number of grievances that are impossible to ignore.
UPDATE: It turns out that when Barlow gets closed for a new runway at the airport, that’s it for transit. Calgary Transit says people just aren’t interested in taking public transit to the airport. Tell that to the workers and people that don’t drive. CT, I have to call your bluff yet again. Show me where it says people aren’t interested, or work out a better solution. Prove me wrong.
