Fredericton Transit: Changes ahead?
Posted by Lamespotting on 06 Jul 2009 at 04:00 am | Tagged as: Fredericton, transit
It’s been a while since I last posted about Fredericton Transit, but I have noticed that a few things have changed, while others haven’t. I’ll tally up a score to see how they’re doing.
New destination signs
They have replaced all their old fabric scroll destination signs with LED signs. These are great as you can now see which bus it is from 2 blocks away. I even saw a bus with the route number on the back of the bus. They have even replaced the signs on the Mulroney era clunkers (I suspect the sign would be worth more than the bus on those).
The new signs may also be compatible with their GPS and route management system which could change the signs automatically at the end of the route. Some systems have a sign inside the bus that displays the address of the next stop. For accessibility purposes, they can also announce the stops with a robotic voice. No idea if Fredericton Transit is getting either of those. 1 bonus point for improving the passenger experience.
Off-peak price reduction
It has been announced that a pilot project will see the bus fare reduced during non-peak times to 50 cents. This pilot will run until October. I could comment on this, but it has already been said much more eloquently at Wreckage Found Floating. The bus is still free on Sundays 
Scorecard on other promised and expected changes
I’ve taken a few key points out of the report and some other places that are key to building a better transit service. These changes will either improve the overall system or increase passenger comfort so which will increase ridership. I’ve assigned a point value to each.
Wi-fi
No update on this. Last word was that it’s still in trial phase. It’s too bad they don’t put a sticker on the door to identify which ones have the wi-fi so passengers can test them. 0/1 points.
Webcam
Whenever I walk by a bus, I look to see if I can see the camera. I have yet to see it. I also don’t see it on the city’s web page despite the fact that it has been promised to be there ages ago. I suspect it doesn’t actually exist. I am only counting this one because they promised it, not that it is actually all that useful. 0/1 points.
Geolocation
Still no sign of it. 0/1 points.
Rebranding
No sign of this either. 0/1 points.
Service Advertising
There has been no new advertising, I suspect they are holding off until the rebranding has been finished. 0/1 points.
Route simplification
Maybe September? The new electronic destination signs will make this easy. 0/1 points.
Old on-board ads
Still there (Obsolete and incorrect “Ambulance is now free” ads specifically) 0/1 points.
Sunday Service
There has been no discussion of this at all. 0/2 points.
North side route
There has been no discussion of this at all. 0/3 points.
Improved evening service
There has been no discussion of this at all. 0/2 points.
Accessible route
The consultant’s report suggested that they designate some routes as being accessible as they now have a significant amount of their fleet that are of the low floor variety. I would assume that they would make the run that goes to the hospital be the one that’s designated as accessible. This will reduce strain on the dial-a-bus service that is subject to many complaints of unavailability. This may be announced for the usual route adjustments in September. 0/2 points.
Score
With little in the way of communication coming from Fredericton Transit, we can’t actually tell what may be going on behind the scenes. I’ll re-visit this scorecard once they announce the route changes for September.
Total: 1/16 = 6% = F
A number of these initiatives certainly sound interesting, but I worry that the more ‘glitzy’ ones might be given priority over the fundamental issues that make the system less useful.
Reading some of the issues identified by UNB students in the Student Transportation Survey I released earlier in the summer, they identified things such as bus routes that go east-west across the city, the listing of routes and stop times at the pick-up locations, an easier to understand schedule (or an online version that would allow best-route calculations), proper shelters for the winter, and proper snow clearing at drop-offs in the winter, among others.
I feel that issues like these should be given more priority over wi-fi-, geolocation- and webcam-type initiatives, simply for the sake of usability. Once these have been addressed, then I feel it would be time to look at dressing up the service with a few more frills.
-Ryan
Hey, thanks for the link!
For most of the winter months, my bus stop was a five-foot-high snowdrift. At least I’m young and agile enough to climb snowdrifts instead of standing in the middle of the road waiting to get run over.
I just graduated from UNB and all of the items on Ryan’s list are things I would want. I’m used to living in much bigger cities, so I’m not sure what kind of budget Fredericton has to work with or what kind of service improvements are realistic under the circumstances, but I’d be a lot less snarky if I thought they were actually listening to transit riders’ concerns.
Ryan,
A properly configured geo-location system will be very useful as it can provide real-time info to users, such as “best route right now”. The wi-fi is just a byproduct of the geolocation system as the GPS device uses wi-fi to send the location back to the head office. I’ll admit that the camera is completely useless as a service improvement, but can be useful as an advertising tool.
I’m hoping that they make some serious route adjustments in September which will make the schedule and routing more clear.
I take back my comment about there being no online best-route calculator. Please see the link titled Transit Trip Planner as located on: http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/transitschedule.asp