Buses leave cars in the dust

By: Jen Skerritt, Winnipeg Free Press

It's rare to see a speeding bus and even rarer to see one easily bypass cars. But on Monday, a city bus zoomed past cars on Donald Avenue on a newly-constructed transitway at 80 kilometres per hour.

The bus, emblazoned with a blue-and-red "rt" logo, is one of Winnipeg's new rapid-transit buses that will ferry passengers from downtown to the Fort Rouge station on the bus-only road in a total of seven minutes, including stops. That shaves off at least 10 minutes from navigating Confusion Corner, said city service department manager Bill Menzies, where buses are sometimes delayed as much as 20 minutes due to traffic congestion.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/buses-leave-cars-in-the-dust-123798249.html

I know some sandbox members don't buy the time improvement claims. Is it even possible to shave 10 minutes from a bus trip between Jubilee and downtown?

Geez...whenever I go down Donald it seems like most cars are going 80 clicks...or is it just my imagination.

sure SOMETIMES. Its excruciating going down there. Like oh I dunno... WHEN THE CITY IS DOING CONSTRUCTION.

Otherwise its about an 11 minute bus ride.

There may be a little underhanded trickstering going on at Transit.

I wanna know why the busses are going down Osborne (through the construction of the bridge) at 20 kpm...holding up traffic btw. The advised speed limit is posted at 40 kpm.

Can it be that when they compare numbers, RT will look soooooo much better in comparison to the regular route times?

Having been on some of those buses, the bus drivers are very leery about hitting the traffic cones thingings and the people crowding the sidewalk. I have seen several close calls on the bridge with pedestrians walking right on the edge of the congested sidewalk and almost getting hit by bus mirrors.

Kinda stupid eh? We HAVE a way to fix the traffic in that area ( the RT route) but we simply are not going to turn it on until next spring because then we wont have to update schedules.

WTF?

Dean. I've witnessed the buses doing that when there were no pedestrians around....mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
Plus, if the drivers are having a difficult time driving between those cones, they should not be driving a bus.

btw. it's just an observation on my part.....just so many buses going so slow for no apparent reason.

yeah I am only talking the rush hour. dont know about anythings besides that.

The headline will read "empty buses", zooming past cars with 1 person in them!
What a huge waste of infrastructure money. This money could have gone to finish the Human Rights Museum! lol

University Crecent @ Pembina to downtown at 7am

16 minutes on a current bus schedule. I'd like to see them even come close to shaving anytime off that because of this new corridor.

How much money is being "invested" in this project, and are the riders going to pay extra for this shaving 5 minutes of bullcrap? No!
Why do we have these morons in looking after this?
Does the government ever do a COST/BENEFIT analysis? I don't think they have any clue!

grumpy old man wrote:I know some sandbox members don't buy the time improvement claims. Is it even possible to shave 10 minutes from a bus trip between Jubilee and downtown?

GOM, you don't want rapid transit, remember? Why should you care?

jimj_wpg wrote:

grumpy old man wrote:I know some sandbox members don't buy the time improvement claims. Is it even possible to shave 10 minutes from a bus trip between Jubilee and downtown?

GOM, you don't want rapid transit, remember? Why should you care?

So you are censoring people now?

For the record, my position all along has been one of ambivalence. I'm not certain we need one, and I don't have the expertise to judge without input and feedback from people more engaged in the issue than I.

I can tell you what I don't care for: your conspiracy theories...

grumpy old man wrote:I can tell you what I don't care for: your conspiracy theories...


The new Winnipeg Jets. Canada's team!

And I don't support bringing back an NHL team to this city.

That's fine. We're all entitled to our beliefs/opinions. That's what makes each of us unique individuals.

The only good thing about this new bus corridor is that it takes the bloody buses off the regular streets.

Is it just me or have bus drivers become complete a$$holes in the last couple of years?

Not only the drivers but the idiots that make the bus "priority signals" decisions as well. Can anyone please explain to me who decided it would be a good idea to give buses going south at Confusion Corner onto Pembina Hwy a priority signalat the same time that vehicles going eastbound on Corydon (into Confusion Corner) have a GREEN light? This was added in the spring and it's nucking futs. You have cars backed up along Corydon waiting to get through the intersection, the light turns green, 6 cars go through into the little "que" area before Osborne, then as soon as there is any delay in being able to go through the intersection you get a bus come flying through while the signal is still GREEN for cars on Corydon.

I'd love to see MPIC's decision on fault if a vehicle entering that intersection on the GREEN light is involved in a collision with a bus. There is ZERO indication when entering the intersection from Corydon that a bus may cut across your path at anytime.

Why is there a delay in the east-bound traffic if the cars are lined up waiting to cross? The bus route acts as if the bus lane is a west-bound road with a left-hand turn onto southbound Pembina. It's the regular green-opposing-green situation. If it truly is a transit-priority signal, then the busses should be turning BEFORE the 6 cars east-bound from Corydon Ave get their green light.

There is a delay because the lights at Osborne are not synchronized well with the lights at Pembina. This means that when the light turns green at Corydon and Pembina it's still red at Osborne. Since the vehicles sitting in the little queing area across the intersection are still sittining there, there is usually only room for 4-6 cars to cross the intersection from Corydon and wait for the light to turn green at Osborne. In the meanwhile there are drivers still sitting on the green at Corydon eastbound waiting for space to be created before they enter the intersection so they aren't caught sitting in the middle of Pembina if the light turns red.

It's during this "waiting" period (as well as the entire green light for Corydon) while the light is still green that the buses have the priority signal to continue going S. on Pembina. If you don't go through that crossing regularly like myself you'd have no idea that a bus may enter that intersection at ANY time while you still have a green light. The first time it happened to me just as I was about to enter the intersection I was like WTF, he has a red? It took me a couple days for my wife to look around and see that they have a priority signal. Also, due to the angle of the streets there it is VERY difficult for drivers on Corydon to even see the traffic signals on south bound Pembina and realise what's going on.

I'd love to know what genius approved this measure.

Just realising how difficult it is to describe the situation in writing lol. It's really is a confusing corner to describr without seeing it.

Are you sure there is a priority signal there?

If you are speaking of the buses that are in the middle area, I don't believe there is a light for them....they just go whenever it suits them.

http://goo.gl/maps/RKC5

I'm pretty sure it's there, now I have to go look again. It could be that when google was there it wasn't in yet. Or my wife gave me the wrong info when I asked her to look. Or your correct and they go whenever they feel like it.

If that's the case, who gave buses the authority to cross an intersection on a red light whenever they feel like it?

It doesn't really affect me as a regular through that, knowing what to expect. But what happens to someone new to the area going through there first time? They're not going to be expecting a bus to cross their path at any time.

Even if a bus has the right of way they still must yield to traffic. They should not just be bulldozing through traffic be damned...

Actually, I looked again (streetview) and there is a Priority light for buses coming from Osborne onto Pembina and/or Corydon.

http://goo.gl/maps/GNpW

Your wife was correct.

Ya, good luck seeing that one if your going eastbound from Corydon eh? Your first clue that something is off is when a bus is suddenly entering the intersection from your left as you try to enter the intersection while you still have a green light.

Some poor bastard is going to drive smack into the path of an oncoming bus one morning. It's only a matter of time.