"ETS: Wherever Life Takes You, They'll Get You There (as long as you don't mind being horribly late and as long as life doesn't take you anywhere after 1am or before 6am)"
Ha ha so sad but true.
Also:
"First of all Edmonton was never going ahead with a BRT, they were just announcing a study to undertake the beginnings of a consultation to consider the factors that would lead to a sharing of perspectives from concerned stakeholders that would create directions for future initiatives related to potential improvements and establish conditions for the implementation of BRT. Or some such bureaucratic nonsense."
BRT = Bus Rapid Transit.
Am I being too nerdy? I work for the City, on the same floor as the people who plan out roadway alignments for the "proposed" bus rapid transit. Seems like work is going on but I don't know if we actually one day will see better bus service. If we never officially get bus rapid transit I will be sad. I like the bus, just not how long it takes to get somewhere. I think we could have a great system if we tried.
On another note, it is warm outside yay and there is daylight until 9:00 pm most days oh summer is coming I just know it.
Shadow the cat!
We went to the strat last night and it was okay. It has been too long since last time I was there (6 months maybe?) No pants shitting this time though. Midgets, yes. Pretty typical strat night but haha at about 1 o'clock these two girls and a guy walked in. They must have been 16 years old I would say. Wearing nice expensive clothing (guy had his collar popped) and they really stuck out. Haha. Not wearing any black. We left soon after but I wonder if they survived and/or will ever return. They looked like they had stumbled into a snake pit: "whoa what is happening here take me home to riverbend i want my mommy"
But I like the strat. You can sit down and get a pitcher for 8.50 and just drink and not give a shit and you can hear yourself think because there is no obnoxious loud music (there's a stereo and a tv in the back somewhere but not too loud) and just be relaxed. There's the occasional drunken yelling and loud conversation but it is not too bad. The beer is mostly recycled piss water that always makes me puke but I love it. Oh good memories standing in the alley behind the hotel just puking. Ohhhhhh yeah you should be grossed out by now hahahahaha.
On the house buying front we may be totally screwed. I need some legal advice before we can proceed any further. But for now I have been reading too many blogs and news acticles and opinons of people regarding 'booming' housing market. Will it get higher and higher or will it crash soon? Who knows, but it is driving me CRAZY. I want to get a place so bad but I need to be sure that if the economy crashes I can still afford to keep the place. Maybe Im just spoiled because bah $&@*(#$@&$U#I$J
THe END
13 comments:
Okay, are they doing a full BRT system as in dedicated right-of-ways? or is it going to be partial as in just some queue-jumping and such?
If they're just doing a partial system it really only requires installing some systems and maybe adding a couple lanes into various intersections.
Also, Edmonton does have Express buses, correct? Do these only stop at a number of "bus-stations"? Because you throw queue-jumping on those babies and you have a de facto BRT system.
Halifax implemented two BRT routes pretty quickly. They're nice buses, air-conditioned, high-back seats that are adjustable, etc. They just go between their end point and their start point, nothing inbetween. They only have queue-jumping at a few intersections, no dedicated right-of-way.
Anyway, who really cares... I'm going to buy a Lincoln Navigator once I move to Alberta and it'll all be good because I can mow down school children with my chrome grill. Who needs public transit anyway.
That's pretty funny about the little preppy 16 year-olds stumbling into the Strat. I love it. I hope they've become scared for life. I love the Strat so ever muchly.
Housing is a strange question, does one buy now? I suppose it does work out better than renting in the end, assuming that you don't over pay at the height of the bubble. The problem with the bubble is that no one wants to tell you if it's going to pop or not. It's in their best interest, assuming they have property, to keep the bubble there and inflating. It's like penny stocks! ahhhh. I'm glad I'm not trying to buy a house right now - I don't envy you.
Hey Kyle
I think they are trying to do a full BRT system with dedicated right of ways and such plus queue jumping. We have 'express' buses that are really just a bad joke. For example if you take the #71 Express from Downtown to millgate and leave about the same time as the #8 (the non-express bus that stops every stop), you save about 3 or 4 minutes on what would be a 20 minute bus ride. However.....these buses carry on to Mill Woods Town Centre, but the #71 will wait at Millgate until its scheduled time to leave, then the 8 show up and they pretty much leave a the same time. The #71 is no longer an express bus between Millgate and Mill Woods TC so it stops everywhere too. 8 and 71 get to Mill Woods TC at about the same time. That is how express buses work here.
In my opinion, they could immediately have some form of BRT by having buses that make absolutely no stops between transit centres and do not have scheduled wait times at the transit centre. So then the bus could leave downtown say every 15 minutes, go directly to millgate, pickup/drop off and go directly to millwoods TC.
I am sure that someone has presented transit with this option, as it seems to be more common in other cities. Probably it is due to a shortage of resources mixed with poor transit and city planning. Then again, Edmontonians would rather drive to where they have to go.
Hey Laura, at least you have more than ONE bus that goes to the U. If I take the bus (which hasn't happened in two years mind you because of this issue) to Concordia, it takes me at least an hour and a half. The number two goes by the school only every half hour (if it's not running late)and you have to walk two or three blocks to get to the bus stop in the first place. Personally, I think you U of A people have it pretty dang good especially with this new bus pass that you're getting. 75$ is incredibly cheap for the semester while Concordia kids will be still paying 50$ a month (and at least 1500$ more intuition.) I hear ya about the bus system though. It could be much better. I know my dad, as an ETS bus driver, has had to spend hours at 2am driving around the North end because of "clerical errors" when he taken what is called "the take home bus" for drivers whose shift ends in the wee morning hours. Unfortunately, I would rather drive my car everywhere I go.
Well fuck dedicated right-of-way BRT system. They usually end up approaching the same costs of LRT but without the draw that rail provides for the transit users.
There are numerous articles which came to the conclusion that pedestrians are willing to travel quite a bit farther to get to a rail station vs. a bus station/stop. People just generally prefer using some kind of rail based transit over buses.
Edmonton should really just copy the methods employed by Vancouver and Halifax with their partial BRT (in Halifax it has been wildly successful).
Ottawa is a city that has a full dedicated right-of-way BRT system and it was bloody expensive and not nearly as successful as the proponents had expected.
Someone should kick some sense into the transit planners - actually the drive is probably coming from Council. Quite often staff have little creative freedom when it comes to implementing policies such as these.
If you're interested in learning about the Halifax's system: http://www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/BRT.html
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/04/18/houseprices.html
Yeah I bet no one on council takes a bus ever.
We could do some form BRT right away and its frustrating that we don't have some kind of interim solution even if they are doing the dedicated right-of-way. Blah.
On the news today I heard that the Alberta government has purchased land in Calgary downtown and will do another study on wether or not to run a passenger train between Edmonton and Calgary. The issue has been brought up many times and rejected, but I think the price of gas is making the train look better and better all of the time. Interesting.
while I was supposed to be working at work last summer I ran across the latest feasibility study for a high-speed train between Edmonton and Calgary. I think it was done around 2003. The conclusions was that it was feasible and would be paid off within 25 years.
I didn't say it wasn't feasible, I just said that there was not enough support or interest.
i love my ets. see u on the 61 in sept.
I don't know why they need to do another feasibility study. They have a perfectly good recent one that says Just Do It(tm).
dont copyright infringe on my blog
just kidding. they're in the process of updating their transportation master plan right now. wonder if anything about transit will change
these comments are awesome! keep them coming
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