response 1 of 158:

Apr 17 17:41 UTC 2002

In June, we are introducing electronic transfers.  They will continue to be
issued at no extra charge, and will be valid for 90 minutes from the time they
are printed [our fareboxes can print them out as you board, but we haven't
done that in the past].  However, you can no longer use them for a RETURN trip
on the same route.  

response 3 of 158:

Apr 17 18:03 UTC 2002

June Service Changes for Weekday Service
3 Huron River   6:15 trip from Blake ends at St. Joe.  Last bus to Ypsilanti
will leave WCC at 6:10. Options: use 7 to connect to 4 at Arborland. Last
bus from WCC at 9:58, with 10:10 and 11:10 trips to Ypsi from Arborland.

5 Packard      5:55 and 6:25 trips from Meijer discontinued. Use Route 22
for service until 9:42 pm

7 South Main-East  9:58 trip from WCC ends at Arborland.

14 Geddes-East Stadium   6:15 trip from Pioneer discontinued

16 Ann Arbor Saline    10:45 trip discontinued.  Last bus at 9:45

16 Ann Arbor Saline     11:14 pm trip from Meijer discontinued

22 North Connector      Timepoint change- :42 past the hour changes to :39

response 5 of 158:

Apr 17 21:57 UTC 2002

Right now it costs $.75 each way for me to take the bus downtown, or $1.50
for the whole trip.  Parking costs about $1/hour, so if I'm going to be
downtown for 1-2 hours (the length of one class meeting), it pays to take
the bus.

If, however, the price goes up to $2/trip, it will be about even with
driving.  So I (and others) may be inclined to drive more and take the bus
less.

Just thought I'd point that out.  But otherwise, a 25-cent increase is very
reasonable.

response 7 of 158:

Apr 18 00:35 UTC 2002

I read that the actual cost per ride is about $8, not $1.  Most of the fare
is paid by government subsidies.
Colleen, has anyone discussed running smaller vehicles to save on fuel?
Today I heard that in 2003 a pilot program will begin in which a few vehicles
will be run on some hybrid system that includes natural gas.  I saw a new
natural gas pump at the garbage truck parking yard, on Summit near Main.
What is this for? There is already a program in Chicago for natural gas buses,
which are way less polluting.  I don't know if they are less noisy.

response 9 of 158:

Apr 18 01:46 UTC 2002

re #7 smaller vehicles don't, in general, save on fuel.  Our diesels do much
better than gasoline vehicles.  Also, in the overall cost, the driver is much
more expensive than the fuel.  Same driver = same cost, no matter what the
vehicle size.  And yes, our fare box revenue only covers about 13% of the
actual cost of running buses.  

The AATA was turned down for the pilot project on natural gas vehicles.  

re #8, come to our public meetings.  We've started with the simple
information on the buses already.  We're trying to balance service cuts
(about $715,000 worth)  with fare increases in an even-handed way.

response 11 of 158:

Apr 18 03:45 UTC 2002

Um, The bus fares *HAVE* increased in the past 10 years.  Especially in
Ypsi.

I remember when my father was a driver for AATA.  One of the things that
they proudly pointed out to the new drivers at the time was that they had
never laid off anybody before.  A few months later, the entire crew of them
were laid of.  

My other big gripe is the fact that I cannot get a bus to where I live after
7 pm on weekdays, and not at all on the weekends.  I would think that they
would get a bit of traffic out where I am just due to the fact that it's not
a very monied area.  I do see people waiting for busses during the day.  I
just think that it sucks that the the outer areas just don't get service
like they ought to.

On the other hand, I'm thrilled that we have at least some form of public
transportation hanging around.  I think that we'd be very lost without it.

response 13 of 158:

Apr 18 11:15 UTC 2002

I don't understand why smaller diesel vehicles cannot be used.  Other than
the Ypsi-Ann Arbor routes, I have never seen more than 10 people on a bus,
even during rush hour, and it is usually 3-5.  Smaller diesel vehicles would
produce less pollution and less noise.

Very sorry to hear about Ann Arbor not having natural gas buses - so which
vehicles are using the gas pumps?

response 15 of 158:

Apr 18 13:25 UTC 2002

One thing most people don't realize is that buses do not go around in
circles on the same route all the time.  The "empty" #13 may become the
"crowded" #5 the next time it leaves downtown.  Scheduling vehicles and
drivers to minimize "out of service" time is an art.  If you get on the
inbound #12A (I think) you leave downtown on the #4.  We try to minimize
the number of "on-the-bus, off-the-bus" exercises by through-routing.
You can get from northeast Ann Arbor to southeast Ypsilanti on one
bus, if you can figure out the through routes.

It is also wasteful of capital, and personnel to have a small bus to
run the route for part of the day, and to substitute a larger one
during rush hour.  It is less costly to buy and use one big bus, than
to buy a small bus and a big bus for the same route.  

The "use a smaller bus" crowd usually forgets that the big buses
would have to sit, parked, during the middle of the day.  The routes
that serve low-use neighborhoods, and the route that runs on the east
side of Ann Arbor, routinely use the smaller buses.  The rest use big
buses to minimize the transfers and capital costs.
 

response 17 of 158:

Apr 18 18:15 UTC 2002

Most of the time when I have reason to go to downtown Ann Arbor, I take
the bus because I detest dealing with downtown parking.  I would take
the bust lots of other places if I didn't have to get on one bus, ride
into downtown Ann Arbor, get on another bus, and then go to my
destination.

I work near S. State and Morgan roads.  I live near Packard and
Eisenhower.  Looking at the route map, it appears that I would be able
to take a bus from where I live to State & Ellsworth without having to
go downtown first, but that also leaves me with about a two-and-a-half
mile walk or bike ride from State & Ellsworth to my job.  This wouldn't
be quite such a big deal if that walk or bike ride weren't down State
past the airport.  Of course, this also assumes that the bus driver
sticks to the route; I have been on buses where the driver skips the
part of the route where my destination is and gets quite irritated when
I point this out.  What would it take to get a bus stop added somewhere
in the vicinity of Morgan and State?

response 19 of 158:

Apr 18 18:46 UTC 2002

I would like to know why you take a #4 from Arborland to Ypsi at 10:10 and
11:10 but the last #4 to Ann Arbor from Arborland is at 9:46.  If I take the
#7 from WCC at 9:58 I can't get a bus to get me the rest of the way home. 
If push comes to shove, right now I could take that last #7 all the way to
Blake and walk home from there (further than I like to at the time of night,
but doable), now I won't even be able to do that.  There goes my being able
to take evening courses.

response 21 of 158:

Apr 18 19:46 UTC 2002

I've thought about taking the bus when I go downtown instead of driving,
but if they routinely skip stops I better not risk it.  I had that
problem in Houghton, too.  I occasionally watched the bus sail right by
without stopping to pick me up because it was running late.

response 23 of 158:

Apr 18 21:33 UTC 2002

Re #13:  Smaller buses would:

a.)     Require a new fleet of buses to be purchased.
b.)     Not save a significant amount of money, because fuel is
        a small expense compared to the driver, maintenance, etc.
c.)     Would leave the system with insufficient capacity for events
        which do use buses to capacity (Art Fair/football shuttles?).

All of this is obvious from cmcgee's statements or first principles.