Northern Light
Superstar
Con't from above:
Most of the Dawes route is not subject to serious congestion but there are two other points at which it can be an issue. One is Dawes approaching Ferris (the Victoria Park intersection). Cars here routinely back up in PM Peak and weekend mid-days up 300 meters. This occurs primarily because the capacity of Victoria Park between Dawes and St. Clair is constrained. While tweaking of signal times might help, there are 2 other key measures that could provide additional capacity.
1) Remove street parking on VP from Dawes to St. Clair. Parking is legal adjacent to the current retail during off-peak periods, and is impactful at those times, but also results in cars overstaying/stopping during peak periods.
2), In the above photo, you can see the beginning of the left-turn lane for St. Clair Avenue (NB to WB).
Two problems occur here with one set of movements, leftturns at Glencrest and to the strip plaza on the west side of VP here.
Forcing the plaza to be RIRO (right-in, right-out) onto Victoria Park and blocking all left turns to/from VP from the southerly plaza entrance to Glencrest would result in significantly better traffic flow which
would expedite the Victoria Park bus, and indirectly the Dawes bus by getting cars off Dawes Road and onto Victoria Park more quickly. It would also free up froom to add 1 more car length to the left turn lane further alleviating congestion.
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The remaining congestion point is St. Clair EB on appropach to VP, primarily in evening peak service. That one is more challenging to address, particularly prior to total intersection reconstruction. (the intersection is offset which makes changes difficult).
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The issue of boarding is only an issue at very busy stops, perhaps 2-3 per direction at peak times. But each stop, results in at least 15s more dwell time than needed, and up 30s due to the boarding procedures earlier noted.
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The impacts of the changes I noted above could reasonably achieve the following:
Looking at afternoon peak, it would be possible with the current 5 buses, to run a 35 minute schedule, with a 5 minute terminal time.
This turns a scheduled service of every 10 minutes into an every 7 minute service. Which is a significant increase in capacity with zero net new vehicles.
Not every route in the system has that amount of wasted potential; but note, I didn't propose to cut a single stop location, to add TSP anywhere, to eliminate one traffic light, or establish 1M of new reserved transit lane.
Which is to say, many routes will have comparable gains available by similar or other means.
Just by procuring proper vehicles, operationalizing better boarding policies, assertively tackling the left turn question, and parking where its obstructive to service, and tightening schedules, its not a stretch to imagine a benefit akin to 20% fleet expansion (or greater).
Add driving the spare ratio back down to 15% and you get a range of 25-30% more effective capacity with zero net new vehicles.
I also ignored the issue of deadheading here as it would represent a material cost to re-open an existing, dis-used garage, and/or develop a new one for the purpose of cutting deadhead time.
Most of the Dawes route is not subject to serious congestion but there are two other points at which it can be an issue. One is Dawes approaching Ferris (the Victoria Park intersection). Cars here routinely back up in PM Peak and weekend mid-days up 300 meters. This occurs primarily because the capacity of Victoria Park between Dawes and St. Clair is constrained. While tweaking of signal times might help, there are 2 other key measures that could provide additional capacity.
1) Remove street parking on VP from Dawes to St. Clair. Parking is legal adjacent to the current retail during off-peak periods, and is impactful at those times, but also results in cars overstaying/stopping during peak periods.
2), In the above photo, you can see the beginning of the left-turn lane for St. Clair Avenue (NB to WB).
Two problems occur here with one set of movements, leftturns at Glencrest and to the strip plaza on the west side of VP here.
Forcing the plaza to be RIRO (right-in, right-out) onto Victoria Park and blocking all left turns to/from VP from the southerly plaza entrance to Glencrest would result in significantly better traffic flow which
would expedite the Victoria Park bus, and indirectly the Dawes bus by getting cars off Dawes Road and onto Victoria Park more quickly. It would also free up froom to add 1 more car length to the left turn lane further alleviating congestion.
***
The remaining congestion point is St. Clair EB on appropach to VP, primarily in evening peak service. That one is more challenging to address, particularly prior to total intersection reconstruction. (the intersection is offset which makes changes difficult).
***
The issue of boarding is only an issue at very busy stops, perhaps 2-3 per direction at peak times. But each stop, results in at least 15s more dwell time than needed, and up 30s due to the boarding procedures earlier noted.
***
The impacts of the changes I noted above could reasonably achieve the following:
Looking at afternoon peak, it would be possible with the current 5 buses, to run a 35 minute schedule, with a 5 minute terminal time.
This turns a scheduled service of every 10 minutes into an every 7 minute service. Which is a significant increase in capacity with zero net new vehicles.
Not every route in the system has that amount of wasted potential; but note, I didn't propose to cut a single stop location, to add TSP anywhere, to eliminate one traffic light, or establish 1M of new reserved transit lane.
Which is to say, many routes will have comparable gains available by similar or other means.
Just by procuring proper vehicles, operationalizing better boarding policies, assertively tackling the left turn question, and parking where its obstructive to service, and tightening schedules, its not a stretch to imagine a benefit akin to 20% fleet expansion (or greater).
Add driving the spare ratio back down to 15% and you get a range of 25-30% more effective capacity with zero net new vehicles.
I also ignored the issue of deadheading here as it would represent a material cost to re-open an existing, dis-used garage, and/or develop a new one for the purpose of cutting deadhead time.
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