Edmonton Public Transit II (October 2023)

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Future mayor Tim knows what's up with transit safety.

https://www.timcartmell.ca/transit_s...to_get_serious

Weird his motion isn't to station a cop at Coliseum Station 24/7 like he suggested in his blog. Seems more effective than turnstiles. Would the turnstiles have a analogue ticket reader and coin deposit and Arc tap reader? Or would you have to get a tap-able card (a new paper ticket) something like NYC's single use for their metro?

[ciudad_del_norte]

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cartmell has voted against LRT expansion unless it's the Capital Line to his neighborhood, has voted against bike lanes, wants to transform Blatchford into another cookie-cutter suburb and has ties to the UCP. I would be very cautious of who you vote for Mayor in the next election.

FWIW my vote for the next Mayor of Edmonton will be Ashley Salvador - that is, once Sohi has decided he's done.

Agreed, Ashley Salvador has really impressed me this term. I can respect Cartmell for representing the southwest, but I'd be wary of him setting the tone for council overall. He's probably got a decent shot, but probably the least likely to maintain a tone where the city actually tries to stand by it's policies and decidedly suburban minded on many issues. Also very wary of a mayor with ties to the UCP and what that means for city policy getting further intertwined with all of the ridiculous games being played at that level of governemtn.

The turnstiles are a waste in my opinion. There may be value to them for somet hings, but I don't see them as a solution to transit safety concerns. The lengths we will go to in order to avoid actually trying to address the root issues of social problems is astounding.

[Rocket252]

I thought I had seen it all with respect to our wonderful LRT but today I witnessed a guy fall onto the tracks at Churchill and had to be helped out along with his large bag of goodies and assorted other things. Luckily the train was not arriving for a few minutes.

Security? Not a single security person on the platform or up the escalators. Where the hell is the security?

A total s**tshow.

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

"Future mayor"

Yes...future Mayor. lol

[foolworm]

Valley Line is live trialling five minute frequencies at peak times now. It makes waiting in the cold much better. I could just take the bus too but may as well get used to taking the train, hopefully they fully implement it before February when the bus is discontinued.

[stilicho]

Originally Posted by snowman123

Hi,

I also broke down and bought an Arc Card. It works pretty well, and I like the Reload idea ! I was worried about not tapping off. So I tested it yesterday, once I read the info on-line.
If you forget to tap off, you are only charged the standard trip rate.
It gets a little more complex if you are going outside the city to St Albert/ Sherwood park. At that point you will be charged that rate.
I still like the paper tickets though. Easy to share and stuff into pockets/ backpacks.
Registering my account was easy. But, when setting up the auto reload I accidentally added another $20 to my card.

It's clunky and I'm glad somebody has noticed this and shared their experience. I've been reporting on the previous thread various glitches and outright failures.

Here's the latest.

I waited until now to report it since I thought there might be a true-up to accommodate the missing exit tap. They clearly state that you will be charged again if you miss the exit tap.

But I wasn't.

If you're unfamiliar with the ARC interface, well, I can't really explain each of the entries to you as they use their own arcane language. This is a failure of User-Friendly 101:



I was using my ARC card when the exit terminals failed. I've seen the exits fail before but never both of them at the rear door at the same time. I didn't have time to run up to the operator to try the one at the front. It was just a shrug and a thought that I would be charged twice through no fault of my own.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they don't honestly charge you twice for a missing exit tap. They claim they will but as you can see, they don't.

I expect they will be losing thousands and thousands of dollars of revenue until they can fix the ARC mess.

[stilicho]

Originally Posted by Harrison

It would be very expensive, but not impoissible, to retrofit stations to permit turnstiles. Some stations on the Capital Line for example, like McKernan-Belgravia, where there are multiple at-grade platofrm accesses, would make it somewhat easy to hop a fence to get onto the platform without going through the turnstile. This would be even easier on the Valley Line where they are basically at street level.

I think they would be great to have, just not sure how much it would cost to add them and retrofit certain stations to make them work properly.

Transit security would be fixed tomorrow if the Chief of Police, City Managers, the Mayor, each of the Councillors, all Crown and King's Bench Prosecutors, Municipal Department Heads and their deputies, and every MLA residing in the metro area were compelled to ditch their vehicles and depend purely on public transit for all purposes regardless of day or time.

Not only would there be zero crime on the system but efficiency and reliability would be through the roof.

And you're welcome.

[Hardhatdan]

What is the point of tap on and tap off if the fares aren't based on distance? As long as you tap in you are paying the maximum (only) fare?

[Coldrsx]

Future-proofing.

[Hardhatdan]

If the functionality is there, please implement it. I cannot afford to take transit over driving because all my trips are so short but somehow if they last more than 90mins it will cost me $7.50. The only way would be to completely get rid of a car and that is not possible.

[Coldrsx]

Maybe that's the point/tire lobby?

[Hardhatdan]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Maybe that's the point/tire lobby?

What?

[snowman123]

In the current ETS fare model, your paper tickets are valid for 90 mins. So I am assuming the same with the Arc card. If you tap on/off over, say a 2 hour timeframe, you would be charged for 2 fares - no different than if you are transferring between bus/ LRT and the operator notices that your paper ticket expired then you will need to pay again.
Where I see this coming into force is that if you get the St Albert bus, you tap on at City centre, and you only ride until the next stop in Edmonton. In that case, if you tap off I am guessing you would pay less than forgetting to tap off, as that trip rate is more expensive ( I think).
But yes, it is setting ETS for all sorts of options in the future. In Sydney, you can use your credit card all day long, and you must tap on/ off.
Although with ETS, if the readers are not working, that would be unfair to charge people more just because the machine is broken.

[stilicho]

Originally Posted by Hardhatdan

If the functionality is there, please implement it. I cannot afford to take transit over driving because all my trips are so short but somehow if they last more than 90mins it will cost me $7.50. The only way would be to completely get rid of a car and that is not possible.

It will not cost $7.50. It will cost $5.50 and that's in line with a lot of cities offering a Day Pass.

Additionally, as I've indicated, the tap boxes on the bus often don't work so you ride for free when that happens.

I don't think, at the moment, the objective could reasonably be called an effort to get people to turn in their vehicles. Our transit system is actually a glorified student busing system. You'll find it hard to get a seat on a full five car LRT train during rush hour to and from the university while on off hours you could fire off a cannon inside any bus or train without hitting anybody.

The stated objective is to create "transit nodes" with high density at and around the stations as they have successfully done in Vancouver. Edmonton is hobbled by the "park and ride" vision which is not really a vision as it requires transit users to drive somewhere, park their vehicle, and take an LRT to another vast, open, empty space. The Davies station fits this pattern.

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by Hardhatdan

What?

@coldrsx, stop typing after drinking scotch....

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by CMD UW

@coldrsx, stop typing after drinking scotch....

It was a reference to the demise of the L.A. streetcar by way of the rubber/tire lobby to make it inefficient, lacklustre and a poor experience to get them out of transit and into cars.

[Hardhatdan]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

It was a reference to the demise of the L.A. streetcar by way of the rubber/tire lobby to make it inefficient, lacklustre and a poor experience to get them out of transit and into cars.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Yea get off the sauce.

[Coldrsx]

It was somewhat of a Joke, but also holds some truth.

https://www.vox.com/2015/5/7/8562007...history-demise

[snowman123]

Has anybody an idea how the bus eta are calculated when you text the bust stop number to ets text ?
I was waiting for a bus DT. Text said 4:04. That went by with no bus. I texted at 4:06, then the next bus was 4:25 or so. Which , was a pain as I left another bus go by while thinking my bus was coming any.
The text is a simple good option, but I fear , It's not that good

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by snowman123

Has anybody an idea how the bus eta are calculated when you text the bust stop number to ets text ?
I was waiting for a bus DT. Text said 4:04. That went by with no bus. I texted at 4:06, then the next bus was 4:25 or so. Which , was a pain as I left another bus go by while thinking my bus was coming any.
The text is a simple good option, but I fear , It's not that good

Google Maps has the live transit feature as well that gives a decently accurate indication of when the next bus will arrive.