A Bus Revolution for Toronto
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- Опубліковано 20 гру 2023
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Buses are the backbone of every city's transit system around the world, but often times their implementation can be... lacking, as can be seen in Toronto. So how do we make Toronto's buses better, and why does it matter?
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
200 meters distance between stops seems like madness. In my city (Kraków, Poland) usual distance is around 400-500 meters (of course you will find exceptions) and it feels accurate. With the express lines it is easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and have them stuck behind regular lines using the same bus lanes (as we often experience it with 501 line in Kraków)
You're forgetting Toronto winters, where distances suddenly feel like double their actual length, lol, I totally understand why the city set it up this way.
City of Vancouver has the same problem.
Denver does the same thing, the local buses stop literally every block. Then they have the annoying thing of having the bus stop only a short distance from a major intersection, so the bus stops and blocks traffic crossing that intersection, rather than putting the stop further down so traffic isn't blocked.
@@Hoopsnake Toronto winter isn't that cold. I only wish they shovel the Suburb sidewalks more often to make walking in winter less difficult. Sometimes the temperature is not a problem, but snow piling up at the corner is.
@@Hoopsnake Our winters are not that cold, certainly no colder than Krakow. Besides, walking warms you up and if buses move faster then they get to your stop quicker to pick you up!
I grew up using the vomit comet on a frequent basis. Didn’t realize what a good service that was until I moved abroad and realized how many cities don’t have 24 hour transit.
Coming from Ottawa, I was impressed with TTC's headways. They could use more articulated buses though. During the 900's express bus implementations, passengers reported that their commute times were reduced by 30-45mins. That's really impressive and a great way to increase ridership.
Given how often those busses broke down before they got sold to Toronto, I wouldn't trust it and plan for a bus breakdown when bussing anywhere
While I agree we need more bendy buses, unfortunately I don't think we'll get them because they would require reworking several subway stations that soooo many routes serve, and god forbid we have to spend money on infrastucture.
@@b30233 that would explain why they rather buy Vancouver's run down often broken down on the side of the road busses
We spend a ton of money on infrastructure and modifying bays for articulated buses seems like a good idea.@@b30233
@@RMTransit it's a great idea but sadly it's unlikely to happen with current funding. Broadview station is currently having its streetcar loop rebuilt and the plans to expand the loop + bus bays was canceled due to budge concerns. The land the station was going to expand into is already a municipal parking lot as well so it wouldn't have even been that expensive. :(
Was that a fart at 9:28? 🤣
The Brampton ZUM buses are pretty well done overall. It helps that Brampton has a nice "grid" layout, but you can use the bus as an alternative to an additional car without too much trouble. Something that you see few people talk about is "feeders" for transit; if I wanted to go to Toronto I drove to Bramalea GO or Malton GO but sometimes, if I was JUST taking a GO bus I would WALK to BCC. Because you aren't supposed to park at BCC to take the GO bus (and you know that BCC is SOOO desperately short of parking - NOT, except at Christmas). Biking would be good but no safe way to "park" your bike; a dedicated bike parking solution where your $1800 e-bike isn't prey to the first person with a cordless grinder or a big pair of bolt cutters ...
The TTC absolutely needs to address the issue with bus stops. Some routes are worse than others but there are some that feel like an eternity because they stop. At. Every. Street! Corner! The 24 Victoria Park is a prime example of this. The express network also needs to operate all day, every day! It’s frustrating when one leg of your journey is faster than the return leg because the express route arbitrarily stops midday for some reason…
In the past, I found that express buses didn’t provide much benefit during the off-peak. In the off-peak, there weren’t that many riders on the normal local bus, so it would zip past most stops like an express bus would anyway.
Surprised you didnt mention the Scarborough-Durham BRT. As someone who lived in North York but now lives in Ajax this is probably the biggest thing I'm looking forward to in terms of transit in the GTA thats not just Toronto. A large chunk of the people taking their cars into Toronto come from the suburbs that surround it so if they can pull it off that would be a huge bonus and might pave way for a future LRT or even subway line. Sucks to see that ill be 30 by the time its complete though 😔
I just really hope they improve the feeder routes that go into the BRT like the 302
Its a similar project to VIVA, the issue is projects like this are *very* expensive, and they need a ton of service to make that cost worthwhile.
@@RMTransit The 501 ZÜM is getting an upgrade and it was very busy for a Saturday service. London rarely has buses that busy in the suburbs.
As logical as the argument is to remove stops for efficiency, when I think about the people in my neighbourhood in Scarborough who use transit, they're often elderly wading from apartments into the snow with their walkers and grocery carts and canes. Imagining them having to move even the slightest bit further could be so much more difficult and possibly remove incentive to feel like they can get out of their homes to get around - slightly disempowering and increasing barriers to access. I know they have wheel trans that schedules pick up and drop offs - perhaps increasing capacity for this option would be helpful?
I think Wheel Trans definitely needs to shift and add more capacity. I also think they should switch to the little electric busses they’ve got in Oakville. Alternatively, they could start running “community route” busses that are designed specifically for getting these specific sorts of people from their home to the closest high frequency stop. Maybe they call ahead or there is a set frequency with which the smaller bus will pass but either way this would be beneficial in my personal opinion.
The issue with this approach is that we are already seeing the impacts of the excess stops - which is many people driving when they should be on a bus. Its kind of like rich homeowners blocking housing that "potential renters" would have lived in and can't really argue for when they don't YET live there. Toronto doesn't have that many bad snow days per year as well and when there are such days the recommendation is usually to stay home.
I think an express route from Dufferin mall to cityplace would solve many issues.
@@RMTransit When the local hospital closed the nearest entrance to the bus stop for covid: I had to start driving [my brother] to dialysis 3 times a week.
We had already moved so that he could save 2 blocks walking to the nearest bus stop at the other end of the trip.
Frequency of stops is one thing but also the placement really matters and you need the cooperation of the city for that. Seems like most of our stops are immediately AFTER a stop light so the bus has to stop and sit at the red, then go through the intersection, then stop again, then it gets caught at the next light.
All these places that we know a bus is going to be stationary in the curb lane anyway is where a bus stop should be built - and where the bus would otherwise be flowing in traffic remove them.
That's a good point that I've also noticed, but there's also another thing to consider when a bus is pulled over at a stop/bay before the light, other cars/drivers.
A lot of times I see an impatient driver who decides to turn right past the front of the bus to avoid waiting behind it. I see there being a lot of risk where this driver, in their rush, could hit a pedestrian who just got off and is trying to cross the street. The bus could also, while trying to merge back with traffic, hit this car turning right when they unexpectedly cut in front. I've seen a few buses with 4-ways on and out of service with its bumper in the side of a right-turning vehicle.
There's even the challenge of the bus driver needing to merge back with traffic mid-intersection where not every driver will give right of way to the signalling bus, or the bus driver just might not give a damn and force their way in front of another vehicle. It's a bit of a tricky situation here.
I have a friend who used to live in downtown SF. The NUMBER ONE thing he said all the time about public transport there is that it took an eternity to get anywhere by bus because they would stop at practically every single block and he hated it. I was sent a map of the bus routes he took and was absolutely flabbergasted at the sheer frequency of bus stops-San Franciscans, do you not like to walk anywhere or what's going on??
How hilly it is in San Francisco, perhaps?!
Those cable cars ARE climbing halfway to the stars, you know!!
It's hilly and a lot of the riders are elderly.
London is introducing a Super Loop network which is quite similar to what you are proposing. The first routes were rebranded existing express bus routes, but now they are introducing some completely new routes. Most of them are orbital where the rail network doesn't work quite so well.
Katrina, this is an extremely important point. Other major British cities could also do with express buses running from suburban centre to suburban centre..
It is fairly similar yes!
"Real London" as Reese calls it. Not "Fake London" in Ontario!
Superloop sucks. It should just use the good old X route branding.
The TTC currently treats Yonge between St. Clair and Finch as a supplementary route to the subway. While we’re not back to the pre-COVID peak of 5 buses per hour, headways have shrunk marginally to 25 minutes. I think part of the problem is that every bus goes all the way to Steeles which is not necessary. St. Clair (or Eglinton) to York Mills (or Sheppard) is where the bus is actually needed, as that is where the TTC of the 70s got cheap with station spacing. I could see a world where Yonge between Line 5 and the 401 became car-lite and all that traffic was ordered to take Avenue Road (aka ON-11A).
Yes, but at such poor headways you are almost always better off walking from a subway station. A supplemental route needs to be very frequent.
IF it's not necessary for the buses to go to Steeles, how do people get to Steeles? Where do you put the inter-route stations?
@@RMTransit SBlack53 is on target re the TTC "got cheap with station spacing" in the 1970's. FWIW it takes at least 25 minutes to walk between Sheppard station and York Mills station which are adjacent on the Yonge-University Line -- and longer if in the reverse direction and uphill from York Mills to Sheppard on a hot summer day. Even if a 25' headway suggests hitting the pavement and walking along Yonge Street (hellish as that is between York Mills and Sheppard, travelling under the noise and stink of the 401 highway's 16 lanes) that's really not the same thing. for example, as walking between Summerhill and Bloor where the stations are much closer together. (Same goes for the current plan for the Yonge Line's extension north and the proposed spacing between Finch and Steeles stations. Which is why the local city Councilor Lily Cheng is advocating for a return to the original extension plan's inclusion of an intermediate stop at Cummer Avenue to avert another "got cheap with station spacing" mistake.) Just saying.
Wow! What a fantastic video! Almost everything you say is applicable to major British cities, including Nottingham where I live. Almost every major British city needs fewer but much better furnished bus stops. They need much better bus priorities, especially at traffic lights. Regulated London has plenty of routes which run 24-hours-a-day. The rest of the UK has very few 24-hour routes. Regarding express buses, I would make one addition. Major British cities (not just London with its new 'superloop' routes) need express routes linking suburban centres one-to-another. Is that true of Toronto?
In Toronto, we have a bunch of express routes that bring people between urban centres (due to the location of major stations being there) and the suburbs. Some others link urban centres to other urban centres, and these can get more focus in some cases. While they are limited on their times, they are definitely faster than normal busses. One of my favourites, the 939C, runs from the suburbs of East Scarborough all the way to the major hub of Yonge and Finch, and can easily save 20-30 minutes from the normal route, even when it takes more stops in the beginning. What makes me sad about it is that the 939A, which is a hub-to-hub bus, has 3 times as many busses on the road at the same time as the 939C. That makes sense for the ridership, but considering where I've seen a lot of riders go, I think having twice as many 939Cs would make people very happy.
To be fair I think that London's bus shelters are decent for the most part. Certainly the busiest ones at least.
Even smaller towns could do with much better busses
Toronto has a GO Bus system that link Suburban centres to each other. As an aside the city buses are red and the suburban busses green. A leftover from our British colonial past
The major issue we see in Toronto is "corridor fixation" where routes are often planned around a particular road corridor as opposed to a travel pattern. This is something that really needs work.
I experienced Toronto buses a loong time ago on my first (and so far only) trip to Canada. I don't have a car licence (only motorcycle, but that's beside the point for now); my mother (who was with me) has one but is terribly afraid of driving. And it was winter. In any case, we wanted to go to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg Village, Vaughn. At the time York Region Transit did not serve the area regularly, so, after checking the TTC map and assorted star navigation charts we determined that the best course was metro to Islington station, then the #37 bus north to Islington x Steeles Ave. From there we hailed a cab which then took us to the museum. On the way back, a gent overheard us asking the museum staff to order a cab and offered us a ride back to the Islington x Steeles intersection instead, which we gladly accepted. There it was a (cold) wait for the SB #37 and the metro to the hotel. Overall the experience was good, the bus was punctual and comfortable and the drivers were nice and patient with two foreigners fumbling for their fares with cold hands. The one thing I remember that was a bit annoying was the rather slow speed of the buses on their trek up and down Islington Ave.
A kind Canadian offering you a drive! Good for him! And good thing you got to
The McMichael Collection. It really is an important museum. I recommend it.
Reece, you are so right about reducing the number of stops along a route! Perfect example is along Finch, specifically at Don Mills. There is a TTC stop on either side of the intersection! Yes, I understand that this is often times to accommodate a specific route (transfer), but from a traffic flow standpoint is maddening! Reducing stops also helps with environmental and traffic flow too.
Don Mills only the 39 stops at one the other one is for the Finch express
@@jordencoles5313 Thanks, that was one example I noted. I see this far too often, as it would be much better to have a single longer (bus stop) rather than having two individual stops from a traffic flow stand point.
Calgary for their BRT/Express uses the name MAX and a color to differentiate them. They still have route numbers but everyone knows them by the Max route
In NYC, we also have a mix of express and limited buses. Express buses are coach like, making a few stops before taking everyone into midtown Manhattan. Limited buses are akin to the express buses you have mentioned in this video; not replacing the local stops but making fewer stops to speed up service.
They should have made the express buses double deckers. I can’t stand the coach buses.
@@safuu202 I second this! I’m a big fan of double deckers and would love to see them in NYC. However, our infrastructure doesn’t allow for them in many areas.
8:40 I’ve seen a few RapidBuses serving high-demand local routes and old articulated bus filling in for the RapidBus fleet. Translink is definitely flexible about it.
Yeah same with Brampton Transit, they frequently use their ZUM articulated buses on the busy local routes and on weekends when less total buses are in use.
For sure, but they generally do a good job keeping them on the Rapid routes.
One of the things I love about express buses and that pisses me off that the TTC made some of their express routes rush hour only is that they are great at reducing the crowding seen on the local buses especially since one of the major complaints about the TTC is vehicle over crowding
They don't have enough busses. Waiting to buy new busses on the cheap from Vancouver instead 😅
Minneapolis is doing this (on a slightly smaller scale), and it is already paying off with ridership trending up and the new aBRT becoming the most-used routes. These improvements have accompanied redesigns and road diets so that the corridor becomes more livable along with the new services. The headways and connections at these improved stations are AMAZING especially for regular riders who used the older services. More routes actively under construction now which is really exciting. Hopeful next steps are more signal priority and TOD, but the first steps have been very good!
Yes Minneapolis does appear to be doing a good job with this. Its great to see!
Have you seen the LCD screens on NYC busses? They have the exact same layout as us in Toronto, except they also get an accurate stop/route map, the time, the weather and more! And they had this 4 years ago when I went in 2019! I hope they get a software tech or two to implement that really soon.
That said, Swiss busses also had the news, weather and other cool features, but I think that's less necessary.
Interesting stuff. A lot of what you propose actually sounds a lot like the S-bus lines in Copenhagen. The S-buses are a network of high frequency limited stop routes across the metropolitan region with weekday frequencies between every 5 and 20 minutes depending on the route. The routes are branded with blue corners on the yellow livery and an S at the end of the route number like line 150S, and theres a number of radial and orbital lines. Most lines nowadays are orbital but theyre easy to differentiate since the radial lines end on x50S like 150S and 250S, while the orbital lines end on x00S, like 200S, 300S, 400S, with the higher numbers being further from the downtown core.
In the 90's and early 2000's we actually had many more S-bus routes but many were replaced by the new A-bus system which has consistently higher frequencies, but otherwise are more like Torontos current buses, and in that way I question whether they were a good politicla decission or not.
Also on a similar note the S-buses have to some extent become victims of their own success. The network was launched in 1990 and nowadays one of the lines is being replaced by an LRT (300S) with 2 others having large silver standard BRT lines planned to replace them (200S & 400S), and BRT-lite projects of varying scale for another 2 (150S & 500S), and an additional corridor with both LRT and BRT on the table as well as Metro (350S). Then again the whole network was planned out with plans to over time upgrade the routes to Light rail and BRT.
I love the graphic you used and feel more of these (as needed) in future would be amazing! They definitely help explain a concept to friends and family who may not be "transit literate" 😂
Your comment on the average stop distance in Toronto made me look up the average stop distance in my city, and it's between 300 and 500m, although some stops on the routes, that are going to be converted into tram routes soon, will be removed.
Where is this please? People might want to visit to see what is going on. I am guessing Munich/Munchen.
@@Fan652w Good guess! I was actually born in Munich, but my comment is referring to Kiel. Soon is a little euphemistic though, as the current timeline dates the opening of the first section at 2030.
@@theprodigal72 Many thanks. I am British, and i am lucky enough to live in Nottingham, one of the few British cities to reintroduce trams. I must confess that Kiel is the largest city in Germany i have never visited. From reading magazines such as Stadtverkehr I gather that there is a broad political consensus in Kiel to bring back trams, only the far-right AfD being against.
same thing in Poznan, although there is the stupid thing that busses and trams stop two times at an intersection with another route (before the intersection and after it). Although it does simplify the system by not having any kind of skipped stops, but I don't think it's worth it
Busses are always seen and treated like garbage, even in my fairly sized European city. I commute by car since it’s 30 min faster each way, but would love to take transit. The main issue is that my local bus only departs once an hour (frequency), and when I’m transferring to the the “express” line, that bus stops once every 200 meter (speed).
That, plus the lines are still focused on getting people to/from the city center, but my city is plenty large for some more suburban-suburban lines.
Reece your videos are so good, seriously incredible stuff man
In Germany it's basically the norm to work with a 400 Meter catchment radius - and there may even be intentional gaps, if getting away from a stop is difficult due to traffic.
I found this to be quite an interesting series of suggestions! I hope these express-bus suggestions can be fulfilled.
Thanks for the video!
A lot of what you mentioned could be a game changer in DC and the surrounding area. I have some hope with Randy Clarke in charge, as he seems to give a crap, but I'm also not holding my breath. Where I'm at, most buses run only once an hour. One goes once every 30 during rush, but only in one direction. And they're always off schedule...if they arrive at all. Forget about the stops. A very few have shelters. Almost none have any sort of wayfinding or read-out on arrivals. Bus-only lanes are almost non-existent. And where I'm at, service stops completely by about 9PM. There's one stretch of road that's super, super busy all the time and has WAY too many stops on it. A bunch of the stops seem to be dropped at random, with nothing nearby, no sidewalk, no shelter, nothing. Why is it there at all? You might see one person get on or off in a week.
Agreed on all issues. Reece you have no idea what waiting for the York Mills Bus running along Ellesmere in Scarborough in the 1980s was like as this ran ONCE EVERY HOUR!
Merry Christmas
In a previous video, you recommended the book “Straphanger”. The book emphasizes that transit is about getting from one place to another, and that each transit mode has an appropriate application. Thanks for explaining how even the appropriate transit mode, buses in this case, requires well thought out routes, stops, schedules, coordination, signal priority, redundancy and branding.
I definitely find the short stop spacing the worst part about local transit in North America. In Portland, bus stops are 200-400 meters (1/8 mi - 1/4 mi) apart, and combine that with 15 minute headways and usually needing to transfer once, and you're looking at 30-40 minute bus rides just to travel 5 miles through town.
No wonder people drive so much in such a walkable city!
Edit: We do have FX2 [Frequent Express], which only has stops every 400-600 meters (1/4-1/3 mile), as well as decent signal priority and it is noticably better than the other bus lines
Heck yes excellent bus content!
The most ridiculous stops are on the 63. Stop at King & Shaw, then 1 block later there's a stop at Adelaide. Utter madness. One thing the TTC did right was eliminate a number of redundant stops on the streetcars before the new low floor models came in. You don't need stops at Church, then Victoria, then Yonge, for example.
Streetcars or busses on College, Dundas, Queen & King exc. should just have stops as frequent as the Bloor Subway line that runs parallel to the north of them.
As a bus rider from Hong Kong moving to Toronto, I have to say the 900 express line is not the real express line. Some of the routes are just too long, which affects the time accuracy. They should forecast the demand to create a new express line, using the highway or skip more stops and not just only skip the local stops to claim itself as a express line. "X" can be used to express the express line instead of 900.
But in the end, the subway is important in this city, and they should build more subway lines to solve the bus problem. By the way, the interior design of the buses should be better, the TTC buses are not comfortable for rider.
Honestly, I love TTC. Its a really good system. The main passengers who use these buses are older adults, women, frequent commuters and students. All these classes except students are the ones who prefer walking less. So, I think that the stops, so close to each other, are justified.
Very good point
I live in a city near a city in the uk and l can tell you the best way to get more people to ride the bus is to add a bus ticket cap here the ticket cap is £2 and ever since this was introduced the bus ridership has increased and frequency has as well and this makes it better for the smaller towns near the city someone them even receiving a bus ever 10 mins
Reasonable as always, thanks for this Reece. Please keep it up!! It's true that having a whole dedicated bus lane on Dufferin is not practical. It's good to hear that other options exist.
I must say that the situation at Dufferin and Bloor looks pretty grim. There is no bus platform there at all, just an overcrowded sidewalk. People routinely stand in the bus lane to wait, and then must push onto the sidewalk when the bus pulls in. I think alot more consideration should have been given to bus access and the station rebuild should have included more in the way of bus amenities. Seems like it's too late now with the condo going in on the SW corner. I am not sure how well any Express service will do if it has to get through that intersection. But then I suppose nothing's perfect.
I think we all can give planners an earful- perhaps it should be mandatory they all commute via transit service, that they taste the fruit of their own garden so to speak
Thats a place where aggressive bus priority would be a game changer
The S-Bus network in Copenhagen (named to complement the S-trains) is a "basic" express bus network. Most of them run every 10 minutes or better in the daytime - most are orbital routes, one is a radial route. The S-bus network was originally associated with newer, nicer bus stops, but those were later extended to much more of the Copenhagen bus network, too.
The original S-buses were actually of tourist bus standard, but those were quickly deemed impractical, resulting in a quick transition to normal city buses.
They also mostly do NOT double up regular bus lines, but instead serve direct long-distance routes, whereas the local bus routes are more meandering and weave in and out of the S-bus lines. So an S-bus line might share its route with 3 or 4 different local bus lines along different segments of its route.
With the success of the S-buses, the same style of branding was applied to the rework of Copenhagen's high-frequency inner-city bus lines (A-Buses), and a few years ago an even faster E-Bus network which mostly parallels the S-Bus lines was also introduced. Currently one of the S-Bus lines is being converted to light rail, and two are planned to be converted to BRT within a few years.
Here's a minor miracle no one ever comments on. At the very beginning, you cn see one of the new buses with a single-piece windshield. Mankind finally able to do this after 100 years of bus service! Perfect vision for the driver, much safer.
proud to be building those buses for a living, they are awesome machine
I also think that they should make use of the few sections of road in this city where traffic can actually move at a good pace, not so much to make stops along the way but to cover a good amount of distance in a short amount of time, for example Black Creek Drive (which could be used to get passengers in the NW to Mt. Dennis quickly) and the Bayview extension (a fast connection from the eastern part of mid-town to the city centre).
Good video, watched on Nebula. From personal experience, no shade at bus stops is a huge issue. I used to fry in the sun on the way to work in the summer. Thankfully I work from home now so no getting to work in an office all sweaty and gross.
A lot of these follow the same challenges I see with the local bus service in my community (Cincinnati, OH); there are some great, high frequency, 24/7 routes, and most local routes have a frequency between 20-40 minutes. But of the over 40 routes, half of them are only rush hour / express routes, and most have less than 10 total trips a day. They are planning some BRT routes, which I think is great, but I worry about the implementation especially if dedicated lanes and signal priority are nonexistent.
Dude, you should be sitting on the TTC's Board of Commissioners! Love these videos. Keep em' coming!
I’m hoping DRT can model Torontos 10 min network specifically in scarbrough as the road layout is very similar to Durham.
Yeah, I feel there are two stops on SEPTA's 106 (which will be merged with the 105) basically has 2 stops at Devon station and then there's abnormally long gap to a recovery center (which was mostly a senior living center without an outpatient therapy arm my grandmother used for a hip replacement and caroled at as a cub scout), so cutting stops on busses and historic trolley routes is something I agree with-especially if the ones that remain get a bit more than just a sign
Cant believe you got me excited about buses 😂
i love trains, but i really love me a high-quality bus network. some reasonable stop consolidation would do a lot for a lot of networks in the US!
When I visited Toronto, what was weird was that some of the bus shelters has only an opening at the back, where the people waiting inside would have to walk around from behind to get out of the glass shelter to get in the bus. They should add an opening on the other side too. Mom also said their bus stop signs are narrow compared to Vancouver’s, so seeing a square on the side of a Pole rather than almost blending in with the pole as Toronto is doing, could make signs easier to spot with impaired vision
I like the bus stops with opening only at the back, keeps the cold away compared to the other methods
Having the opening on the back, away from the traffic, means that people in the shelter are much less likely to get sprayed with road slush every time a car goes past the stop.
I think its because of the snow slush from cars and the cold weather
Would love to see a video or videos on bus route designing. I've tried to make routes for my city that diverge from its pulsating-spokes design but it's so difficult to not slip into pitfalls like missing areas et cetera
can you please make an uptdate/ new video on Hamburgs system in which you talk about the busses and the new and improved S-Bahn routing?
love your Videos keep it going ☺☺.
When I go traveling to another city-- I like taking either a subway or light rail as you know where the train is going. On buses I never know if they are going to turn at some street. In addition with buses the wait is always longer than a subway or light rail.
Its also frustrating to be stuck in traffic along with cars when you are on a bus.
Another suggestion: Treat Toronto as a grid-based system (I know it is not fully so), but look at blocks defined by Kipling, Royal York, Jane etc and Steeles, Finch, Sheppard etc.
Express buses traveling right across the city, E-W and N-S stopping only at these major nodes, and then two or three local shuttles wandering INSIDE each rectangular block.
Toronto TTC was deigned as a bus feeder system into the cross-town subway, so we would now have a three-tier feeder system.
Bonus! The N-S express buses would feed rapidly into the even faster subway service!
It does baffle me that the TTC thinks cable tying a route number card to a light pole is a bus stop 😂
love to hear your thoughts on the back deck on ttc buses, so underused even when the lower deck is crammed
I would ask for Simple QR codes so you can scan and get a web page for that stop for the schedule and the next bus timing!
Also I would ask for a self driving bus pilot in areas with few children or old people like cherry street.
Calgary has the MAX lines, which have priority signals, queue jumping, and where viable, dedicated right of ways. They are branded as MAX Orange/Yellow/Teal/Purple (green coming soon while the train is built), but use the same normal buses as the rest of the network. They have level boarding, heated shelters and digital displays showing the next few MAX buses but also any other buses using the stop. Some areas they operate like Reece describes with priority signals and such, and other routes have dedicated tram-like right of ways where there was space allocated for future LRT, reverting to bus lanes and priority signals where there wasn't an existing right of way. Other than the MAX Orange, which doesn't have much of this priority infracstructure, they are pretty fast, and make getting around the south half of the city easier!
Would love to hear your thoughts on the “Rio Grande” project proposal for Salt Lake City front runner and Amtrak. Looks like a really cool project to me! UTA is possibly considering it!
Almaty, Kazakhstan has a good bus network. The city has a tiny but efficient subway that fails to expand so overcrowded buses do all the work.
Great video Reece. I appreciate your in depth knowledge of the Toronto bus network.
What are your thoughts on introducing BRT to rapidly growing/densifying suburbs that have pretty poor local bus networks? Should a transit system invest in expanding the local bus network on major routes before introducing BRT or could BRT be the spine that connects future expansion?
(Speaking from the Metro Vancouver region outside of Vancouver)
I live in Victoria-Vicoria has express buses to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal...connecting to Vancouver (actually not really Vancouver but read on😀). It has express busses that only make a few stops and are scheduled to arrive at the terminal to coordinate with the ferry arrival and departure (the Victoria buses still take only cash-the equipment to accommodate cards or passes hasen't been installed yet but that's another topic). The "Vancouver" terminal is actually located in Tsawwassin...a town that is actually only a couple of miles from the US border-approximately 40 kilometers from the closest LRT station but thanks to scheduled arrivals and departures (like Swartz Bay) and, most importantly express lanes the trip takes less than an hour-and you can buy a day pass or update your Vancouver bus card at the terminal.
Good express service with dedicated lanes on the major routes will go a long long way without costing much...
And with gradual upgrades to high quality articulated buses...it would be very nice indeed
We have some express routes down here in London a long some busy aterial routes like Richmond and Adelaide St. Wellington St downtown is all torn up right now to build the brt infrastrucure and King st now has dedicated bus lanes east of downtown. I saw some motorcoaches driving in the lane which i thought was only for city transit. Lots of changes coming here soon and we really need it.
didn't mention Durham's pulse network but they do branding really well with what is a major corridor and what isn't
Really well said! The TTC is undoubtedly doing a great job in providing a frequent bus network, which outperforms many North American and even Asian cities.
However, when it comes to improvement in service quality, modernization of bus stops and fleets, and the planning of Express bus routes, TTC just makes me feel like they're so reluctant to make any changes so as to catch up the global standard of modern bus service.
Unfortunately for us Torontonians, we have no choice but to travel in the TTC while they are like "Blah, you're gonna pay for my substandard service anyways"
the TTC bus network is also better than any bus network in Europe
I once counted the number of stops on the 116 from Morningside and Kingston to Kennedy. I stopped counting at 300. Obviously we didn’t stop at each one but it was wild
@RMTransit Can you do a video on Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge? The region in quickly growing and go train and LRT expansions are in the works and it would help understanding the plans better!
This might be one of the best analyses I've seen regarding the TTC's bus fleet. They did used to label their express lines as "Rockets," but they never really capitalized on the branding.
And yes, the TTC really does seem obsessed with obscenely tight stop spacing. In fact the surface portions of the new LRT lines would likely be considered merely trams in Europe due to how close the stops are.
I wonder with Yonge and Bloor being overcrowded Streetcar lines in the past, what would it be like if they had the streetcars on top as local service and express with the subway in modern times? The Queen Subway proposal is finally being built with it being part of the downtown portion of the Ontario Line, but 501 Queen still existing, something similar to that I’m guessing ? Does help the Bloor subway isn’t actually on Bloor anyways
I think what we need to focus on is priority lanes for buses and carpools to
a) speed up bus travel
b) cut down car usage
Ideally, in a city as big as Toronto, private automobiles should be used in rare cases.
By incentivising people to use transit, we can increase service frequency and thus profitability.
I am a Canadian who currently lives in Hamburg, Germany. Here, we priority lanes for buses on almost every street.
I live at Kingston and Lawrence and have the 905-express route with a bus lane from Kingston to Eglington and from there, it's regular traffic to Kennedy station. The Express stops at about 1/3 fewer stops. But due to traffic the express and non-express are often nose-to-tail in traffic and you only save a few minutes on the 30-minute run so it may be 22 minutes under ideal conditions. I
If you're using 200 m stop spacing, you'll basically never get to your top speed, spending most of your movement time accelerating and braking.
The new New Flyers are dope.
Pronto Toronto
another big visible but unneeded is the bus lanes on Morningside betwen Kingston road and Ellesmere just a lot of red paint for barely any need. would love some major revitilization to the 85 Sheppard busses
Would it make sense to build a new crosstown regional rail across Toronto and Missauga with stops every 4 km and then use an express bus along the same corridor to provide local service? Or would that still miss too many dense areas?
The route 7 - Bathurst was brutal this past summer... For some reason on that Thursday late in August, we stood there waiting an hour for the northbound route to arrive. I guess Bathurst is a "low priority" road for the politicians, while Jane has myriads of empty buses passing through all day.
You make it sound like the tycoon express bus routes aren’t am overlay on regular routes, when in fact they are. Otherwise I loved the video and agree 100%
We have bus priority lanes in morningside,Eglinton after Kennedy and Brimley and Kennedy and midland and ellesmere
Hey RMTransit
Could you do a video about the 2009 push for better passenger rail in the US?
I've observed bits of skepticism or even outright pessimism regarding recent events involving transit expansion and I feel like a lot of that originated from disappointment brought on by those events from a decade ago (projects in states like Florida, Ohio, etc. fizzled out due to petty political reasons; those states that did get money didn't really do a whole lot with it. As for now, I've seen comments saying that a change of administration in 2024 will similarly cause the whole grant program to come crashing down).
I’d love to see you break down a specific route and point out which stops you’d remove. And then your hypothesis on the increase speed overall afterwards
My idea for the streetcar routes of College, Dundas, Queen & King is to follow the Bloor Subway station layout that is parallel to the north of them.
For example College Street Car stopping at Sherbourne-Jarvis-College-Queens Park -Spadina- Bathurst exc. eliminate any in-between, this follows on Dundas, Queen & King as well.
What are your thoughts on very light rail. Coventry a city near me in the UK is close to building a test track in the city centre.
Some suburban routes have a BIG problem with their cul-de-sacs and street crescent layout. The curvy maze make walking a deterrent to walking to and from home and bus stops. The city has to purchase houses or create pedestrian & cyclist walkways for the streets that route in the wrong direction.
Stops have to located properly to support those walkways.
Same problem with light rail or subway stations and the suburban mazes.
Seeing Reece be snarky at 10:30 was real funny.
Cleveland has a good bus network 25 years ago. From Local bus, express buse, Flyer bus, local neighborhood circulatory bus , feeder bus to Rapid transit, suburban coach bus. Now long local bus to supplement the cuts to all those bus routes and a True BRT that the got rid of Signal priority and pop, now you got to pay on board. I mention above. If I can get a 1999 GCRTA I’ll send you it
Another thing that causes the delays and "bus bunching" that I experience on the 29 Dufferin line is the length of the line. It goes from Dufferin Gate in the south all the way to Wilson Station in the north. If there's problems anywhere on that whole stretch, the buses become bunched together. If they could split the 29 in half around Bloor, St.Clair or Eglinton into separate Dufferin north and Dufferin south lines, it would help reliability.
Can you do a video talking about the public transportation in gothenburg? They have 11 tram lines running 24/7 with high frequency and priority, along with a stupid amount of bus routes of all different kinds run by Västtrafik.
I would strongly support this suggestion. The number and variety of bus routes in and around Gothenburg is truly amazing. And remember that Gothenburg is now building what German-speakers would call an S-Bahn.
Do you ever get an official response from the TTC or other agencies that you do videos on?
10m 00s Agreed about shade, The old TIC-owned shelters had opaque roofs and were totally-closed seamed.
The new advertised-sponsored shelters have a transparent/translucent roof and worse still, gaps in the walls at both the floor level (snow and cold winds blow in) and at the ceiling level (rain blows in and sits on the seat).
While I'm at it, why not use a logical bus-route numbering system, as is done in Paris city, where the two digit route number indicates the two locations at the end of the bus route (Gare St Lazare is the 2x series, Porte d'Orleans is the x8 series).
It took 2 days of taking TTC to school for my 11-year-old to hate the TTC bus service as much as my 40-year-old friends. Your video shows why: busses bunch up and are unpredictable. I have my own reasons to hate busses: they are the enemy of bikes. Try to bike Shepherd and you'll understand why after the bus has cut you off every couple km. Also, not all areas of Toronto are well serviced... it was a long walk to the bus stop in my neighbourhood.
My neighbourhood bus route here in Toronto has three stops within 270m of each other.
Just saying, they have been running Express routes on Kipling since at least 1986. i used to alternated between the Kipling Express or the Weston GO station to downtown.
Reese can you please review the Train Maya! Big topic but worth it
Does the TTC even listen? Many sensible ideas that will hopefully be implemented.
Another thing that can help make buses (particularly express buses) operate more effectively, is to move a lot of the stops to the opposite side of the traffic lights at major intersections. Buses do not have to wait at red lights when boarding passengers.
Pretty the same problems in Montreal, but we have a really worst frequency. There are only 9 true frequent lines, in the entire Montreal island !! and ONLY during the weekdays from 7am to 8pm, before and after and on the weekends it's not good... (there are 22 other frequent lines juste during peakhours, in weekdays, in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening).
STM and TTC needs to improve the service !
the two buses classes are normal for Berlin, because Berlin has like 4 of this buses classes
I come from Berlin and I think that the public transport is so bad in america, that things they are for me normally, in america are super special
I often wondered why TTC did not at least alternate between stops, example an A Stop bus and then a B stop bus that connect at the same stops at major junctions on the road. Last year I was in Calgary which has a MAX bus system that is very good, covering huge distances very quickly with good service. Toronto needs to fix its bus service
Question, do busses in Toronto get dedicated traffic lights, and at least at intersections, lanes?