Generic ongoing KCATA thread

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normalthings
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by normalthings »

KCPowercat wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:50 pm In hindsight we shouldnt have made grand the transit corridor. Cordish and TMobile have too much power to close off grand and redirect too many routes.
In fanciful imagination world, Grand would have been a great place for a below ground rail line through downtown.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by alejandro46 »

https://www.kansascity.com/news/busines ... 75688.html

TLDR: KCATA is exploring being able to develop properties, issue abatements, etc. Not sure what they are able to do yet. JoCo leaders complain nobody rides the bus, also build sprawaling suburb inaccessable except by car.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

Does anybody else struggle with the Transit app? It seems straightforward and easy but I swear everytime I refresh a new and much different option is presented to me.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

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KCPowercat wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:29 am Does anybody else struggle with the Transit app? It seems straightforward and easy but I swear everytime I refresh a new and much different option is presented to me.
Are you talking about the main screen that appears when you launch the app? It's going to show you routes that are active and nearby and going in a logical direction of travel (if you're standing near the end of a route it won't show you an option to go further in that direction). If you're GPS isn't accurate, the list of routes close to you won't be either. Are your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled? Some smartphones use those services to provide a more accurate location since GPS can struggle indoors and where there are lots of tall buildings.

You can "favorite" routes and those will always show at the top of the list. You can also turn off other services in the Settings menu if you, perhaps, only care about the streetcar or KCATA-operated routes.

The data in Google Maps and Apple Maps is identical, but they both have different ways of displaying transit information (you have to dig a bit for real-time information -- basically plan a trip first -- which is the opposite of Transit app).

https://help.transitapp.com/
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

I like the front screen better. It's when I put in a destination and it gives me best options. Seems when I refresh there my options jump around. Might just be gps changes as I'm walking when I do it and gos updates of the bus.

It's still very useful it just takes some getting used to how it's laid out

Wish you could favorite a direction of travel on the routes too so it defaulted to that direction
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by DaveKCMO »

April and May MAX/Bus/Flex ridership is up over those same months in 2020. Average daily trips is 28,061. On-time performance was 87% in May.

Paratransit demand increased quite a bit, but was hampered by driver shortages: https://thebeacon.media/stories/2021/06 ... -pandemic/

Eliminating social distancing on board and adding a subcontractor has helped improve paratransit performance.

News coming soon about modernization of existing Flex services, starting in the Northland. Zones and spans will grow, new features will be added.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

Has there been any noted improvement with on time performance since fares have went away? Stops seem to be so much quicker (sometimes annoying when just far enough away from the bus you used to be able to rely on paying customers lining up and being able to run to the bus).
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

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KCPowercat wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:25 pm Has there been any noted improvement with on time performance since fares have went away? Stops seem to be so much quicker (sometimes annoying when just far enough away from the bus you used to be able to rely on paying customers lining up and being able to run to the bus).
Too early to say. Whatever we gained by zero fare we lost with rear-door boarding and capacity restrictions. Both of those policies were revoked at the end of May -- we're now one of the few bus-only agencies with all-door boarding -- so June might be more telling.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

Last few buses the driver has announced boarding only through front door ?
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by DaveKCMO »

KCPowercat wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:50 pm Last few buses the driver has announced boarding only through front door ?
Report that, please. It sometimes takes a while to change a decades-old operating procedure with 350 drivers.

https://ridekc.org/contact
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

Will do if run into it again
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by GRID »

Just an observation.

I was in KC for nearly a week and I hardly saw any city buses even during peak hours which seemed odd. KC used to have many more buses moving around downtown, midtown etc. I know about all the new max lines etc but even the Main street max will go away when the streetcar is extended. As a person growing up riding the bus, it just seems like KC's bus system is a fraction of what it once was, even back in the 90's, let alone the 70's. That little transit center in east village hardly ever had more than a bus or two at any given time. It was nice seeing the max buses redirected down broadway since that major road has very little bus service now.

Regardless of the max lines along troost, prospect etc, It seems like KC is putting too much emphasis on the streetcar and letting the larger more comprehensive bus system dwindle.

This is not a knock on the streetcar at all. I think the streetcar is great (just need to make it harder to drive vehicles along the route on Main and in the river market).

I would be curious to know how the KCATA compares to the past. I read somewhere that the system is down to less than 200 buses now and a good portion of them are not full size buses anymore. No matter how much streetcar is built, a robust comprehensive bus system is the backbone of a transit system.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by normalthings »

GRID wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:59 am Just an observation.

I was in KC for nearly a week and I hardly saw any city buses even during peak hours which seemed odd. KC used to have many more buses moving around downtown, midtown etc. I know about all the new max lines etc but even the Main street max will go away when the streetcar is extended. As a person growing up riding the bus, it just seems like KC's bus system is a fraction of what it once was, even back in the 90's, let alone the 70's. That little transit center in east village hardly ever had more than a bus or two at any given time. It was nice seeing the max buses redirected down broadway since that major road has very little bus service now.

Regardless of the max lines along troost, prospect etc, It seems like KC is putting too much emphasis on the streetcar and letting the larger more comprehensive bus system dwindle.

This is not a knock on the streetcar at all. I think the streetcar is great (just need to make it harder to drive vehicles along the route on Main and in the river market).

I would be curious to know how the KCATA compares to the past. I read somewhere that the system is down to less than 200 buses now and a good portion of them are not full size buses anymore. No matter how much streetcar is built, a robust comprehensive bus system is the backbone of a transit system.
Inflation eats the KCATA budget every year. KCMO itself can’t add another tax for transit. It has to be a regional ask. Streetcar is the only mode giving the wider region a taste of transit. Bus service is still cut due to covid.

As far as I know, replacing Max with streetcar will save KCATA ~$4 million per year. streetcars replacing bus lines = more money for buses
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

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First off, those max lines are just normal modern day bus routes. There is nothing about them that makes them BRT. So why not just make all the KC routes that have full size buses use those buses. I'm just not sure I understand the point of the different branding. The stops are nicer but the buses and routes are just normal urban bus routes.

I hope they move the main street max to Broadway. Why not run it from the river market down grand to perishing to Broadway to Westport/Plaza. It would be a really nice alterative to the streetcar and hit a lot of areas that really have terrible transit like the actual core of westport and the core of the plaza.

There used to be several routes that would go up and down broadway and main so a bus would come every few minutes on those streets. Now there is almost nothing.

It's 2021. Hard to believe metro KC has not come up with a reginal funding mechanism by now.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by DaveKCMO »

There isn't enough money to justify running frequent service on Broadway when it's a short walk to Main for more frequency. Main MAX will run 15m service Monday-Saturday from RM to Waldo until streetcar begins, then the Brookside-Waldo stretch will become a frequent local bus route timed to connect at 51st or Plaza. North of 51st will simply be redeployed to boost service across the KCMO system.

Hopefully the KCMO sales taxes return to their pre-pandemic levels soon and we can go back to 100% pre-COVID service levels with RideKC Next as a baseline.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

Okay what am I doing wrong in this transit app. This happened twice today. Go to main screen put in the location I'm going. Chart pulls up telling me which bus is coming next (makes sense, not a MAX but another one) at a stop less than a block away from me. That bus is 2-4 minutes away and not worth waiting for so continue walking. 45 seconds later a MAX bus goes roaring by that stop. Does it think I can't make the stop in time? It goes off realtime bus location right?

My guess is the app doesn't think I can make it to the stop in time? With so many buses running the same route downtown it's not feasible to check every route and where the next bus is so I've been trying to rely on the timeline chart telling me which bus is next/closest.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

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KCPowercat wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:09 pm Okay what am I doing wrong in this transit app. This happened twice today. Go to main screen put in the location I'm going. Chart pulls up telling me which bus is coming next (makes sense, not a MAX but another one) at a stop less than a block away from me. That bus is 2-4 minutes away and not worth waiting for so continue walking. 45 seconds later a MAX bus goes roaring by that stop. Does it think I can't make the stop in time? It goes off realtime bus location right?

My guess is the app doesn't think I can make it to the stop in time? With so many buses running the same route downtown it's not feasible to check every route and where the next bus is so I've been trying to rely on the timeline chart telling me which bus is next/closest.
I'm pretty sure it assumes you're not going to run to a bus stop with less than 5 minutes before it arrives. Did you do a trip plan?
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

The stop was 20 feet from me when I checked. Told me nothing of the max bus less than a minute away.

I click on the green where to box and select where I'm going and get the timescale project timeline looking screen.
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by flyingember »

KCPowercat wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:09 pm Okay what am I doing wrong in this transit app.
You're relying on the transit app when you shouldn't be

If the bus was 45 seconds away that's within two city blocks of the stop. You could have visually seen it coming if you weren't focusing on a screen
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Re: Generic ongoing KCATA thread

Post by KCPowercat »

Is there a reverse ignore option in here? Like block people from seeing my posts? Asking for me.
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