Transperth buses caught speeding to stay on time

[Herbert]

Just as a postscript, it is also important to bear in mind the significant reduction in average fleet age over the same period:

1996 = 16.41
1997 = 16.41
1998 = 16.41
1999 = 16.39
2000 = 15.53
2001 = 14.51
2002 = 13.75
2003 = 13.62
2004 = 13.58
2005 = 13.12
2006 = 12.71
2007 = 12.53
2008 = 11.99
2009 = 11.35
2010 = 10.73
2011 = 10.37
2012 = 10.12 as at 9 May

E&OE

[PoweredByCNG]

Increasing running time is more viable in this case for Perth, because drivers can simply wait out excess time at the timed stops. Increase of turnaround time (or layover time) would work more for urbanized cities like Singapore, where there is no suitable location for buses to wait out their excess time at timed bus stops and the drivers are forced to drive slow on the roads to shed excess running time. Imagine sitting on a bus at 10km/h along a stretch of empty road, it is certainly not a good experience!

Increasing actual running time would do no favours for public transport in Perth. Prospective passengers already need to take into account the inevitable time penalty that is associated with using public transport as opposed to using their own cars. Remember that Perth is a city with a very strong car culture and therefore there is the expectation that public transport needs to be competitive with private vehicles in order for it to succeed. My opinion is that buses should be kept MOVING whenever possible whilst in service. Timing points should not generally be used as recovery points and need to be scheduled for the highest common denominator (i.e. drivers who keep to the speed limit and/or keep up with traffic on your average day) with the timing between the last timing point and the terminus bearing some element of slackness in order to guarantee connectivity between nodes.

[sgbuses]

My opinion is that buses should be kept MOVING whenever possible whilst in service. Timing points should not generally be used as recovery points and need to be scheduled for the highest common denominator (i.e. drivers who keep to the speed limit and/or keep up with traffic on your average day) with the timing between the last timing point and the terminus bearing some element of slackness in order to guarantee connectivity between nodes.

The emphasis is average actual journey time taken. Passengers care about punctuality as well. And not every driver has the same driving behavior, some will always rush, others will take their time regardless. There is a need to achieve a balance, otherwise it will lead to irregular frequency and uneven loading between buses, which will only make schedule adherence worse.

[Cat]

I'm unsure how accurate the claim of "1 in 4" services running late is...

It seems a bit sus to me...

PTA figures show one in four Transperth bus services ran late between August and March.

August - 82%
September - 83%
October - 83%
November - 81%
December - 83%
January - 88%
February - 78%
March - 74%

http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/AboutUs/Surveysandstatistics.aspx

Which seems to me to be around 1 in 5, maybe 1 in 6...

Never believe everything you read in Ltd News

[kp.nuts]

In true journalist fashion, they would have just picked the March figures (possibly averaged with February figures to make it fair). Which is definitely 1 in 4, so they can't be accused of lying!

[goroundandround]

There's also environmental factors, which affect buses as well as any other road traffic. A clear case in point is the current Great Eastern Highway upgrade, which is not only causing some delays, but is a moving target as the works progress from area to area. The schedules have been changed several times to try to catch up with the reality, but there's still times when all buses are running late 10+ minutes for a span of a couple of hours.
(Mind you, cars aren't travelling any faster, so anyone who gives up on PT in disgust and switches to their own vehicle might come back to using their Smartrider again pretty quickly! The only thing worse than sitting in a bus running late for something, is sitting in your car running late and thinking about where you're going to park when you get there!)

From a drivers point of view, though, speeding to run on time just makes no sense. It's putting your licence and, therefore, livelihood at risk, and it's covering up any endemic problems with the route timing. Plus, realistically, there's not much to be gained by exceeding the speed limit by anything other than completely irresponsible amounts. Doing 10kmh over the limit won't make up more than a minute or two over most routes.

[TWUKEV]

Some timetables are far to slack and others are far too tight. The only solution is this: TWUKEV, if you're reading this, COMPULSORY ten minute minimum turnarounds after EACH and EVERY trip!

Additionally, let me add by saying that I love drivers who can get me to places well ahead of schedule.

Well while I would love to actually agree with you, (and yes we would probably both fall over) ......I think a compulsory 10 minute turnaround is a little much. For some shifts it will need more time than that and some it would be too much. I think as long as the running time is close to correct (and that may require looking at more than the average over months...lets look at same day each week over months) and maybe a small buffer added to the end of the run, then the actual turn around time could be the 3-4-5 minutes we currently should have...no not the 2 minute turn around in some shifts. But there may be some instances that a shift could include a 10 minute buffer for wee walks??

However as we all know time is money. And theres always no money.

The next part of the equation is to make sure that the timetables are accurate so that the average punter can make an informed decision on what service to use. if the timetable is wrong then I think they have every right to get snaky when the advertised times are incorrect.Then there would be no one to blame (within reason)for being late except the passenger that chose that service. If the PTA is of the opinion that the Road Works in the CBD are to blame then redo the dam time tables to reflect reallity so the drivers arent abused or feel they must speed. Again redo the timetables = more $$$

But sadly no of the above is true in our situation at the moment

Cheers
KEV

[TWUKEV]

I'm unsure how accurate the claim of "1 in 4" services running late is...

It seems a bit sus to me...

PTA figures show one in four Transperth bus services ran late between August and March.

August - 82%
September - 83%
October - 83%
November - 81%
December - 83%
January - 88%
February - 78%
March - 74%

http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/AboutUs/Surveysandstatistics.aspx

Which seems to me to be around 1 in 5, maybe 1 in 6...

Never believe everything you read in Ltd News

Just to clarify... the figures for punctuality came from the PTA website as were researched by the journalist. The figures for speeding infringement numbers and locations came from ME from a series of questions on notice from Ken Travers the Shadow Transport Minister to the PTA and Minister. I had been trying to find out how many and where for quite awhile as its obviously an issue for drivers and maybe some 'tweeking' of yellow light times could be done in these locations. We seem to kick drivers for speeding but never delve deeper into why they feel the need to speed???
Cheers
Kev

[plant-ender]

Wow, haven't been in the sandpit for a while but nice to see it's evolving. Is it a boxing-ring now?

There used to be a "factor" that Transperth/MTT used that allowed for recovery time at the end of each run, particularly those in peak hour and the through-routed service. It was from memory called a (forgive me if I'm wrong) "PSI", and it allowed for and had incorporated into it things such as negatively-geared timing points, in the city obviously, and re-allocated that time to beyond and between the final timing point and terminus for recovery. It also allowed drivers to have a wee, a poo, a smoke and/or a stretch at the end of the run on occasion BUT, importantly, as just illustrated it allowed for catch-up time for those through-routed services that needed to keep the Terrace (for example) clear and not clogged up by buses laying over for x amount of minutes during, specifically, peak hour. (The opposite to the 15-20 minute core time layovers to allow transfers that occurred on Sundays)

One thing that really irks me in all this latest "1 in 4 buses run late" media bash is the fact that, yes, apart from major arterial road works such as GEH and elsewhere, the City of Perth has constantly over the previous 15 years narrowed down 70% of the CBD street lane capacity. Is this not a factor that is of some contributory importance? A city grows by, conservatively approx 1000 (net) people per week - some project 2k soon, and yet lane real estate has shrunk!
Did any of these dumb asses go to pre-primary and learn the most basic of math such as 1+1=2, therefore 2-1=1?

Back to the pit....er ring.....kids.

[cat driver]

If the bus driver is speeding to stay on time he/she is an IDIOT.PTA & its contractors know it very well the timmmings on the time table are nearlly impossible to achieve.Bus drivers are putting their licence on line and compromissing safety but vast majority of these types of idiot drivers have always been in bus industry.

We get paid by the hour not by milage.Dont put lives at risk.