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Timothy Tao

Bus Scheduling, Part I: Run Times, Layovers, and Propagating Delays

Introduction Reliability is a major concern for both OC Transpo and its passengers. According to OC Transpo's own surveys, reliability of service is the primary concern of its riders, while Transit Committee is dominated with discussion of reliability: fleet, scheduling, customer satisfaction, plans, and more. It's

Funding OC Transpo

Introduction It is orthodoxy in Ottawa's transit advocacy circles that OC Transpo is underfunded. Advocacy groups from Ottawa Transit Riders and Strong Towns Ottawa to Free Transit Ottawa and Horizon Ottawa use phrases like "underfund", "properly fund", and "neglected to fund" to

New Ways to Bus: no new paradigm for OC Transpo

After two years of consultation, recommendations, and delays (mostly delays), New Ways to Bus goes into effect today, the 27th of April. These changes are extensive, with "changes" to nearly every route. Whether that's your frequency, routing, or travel time, OC Transpo is selling this as

Route 90 snapshot: 24 March-20 April

This article presents a "snapshot" of service quality on Route 90 between the 24th of March and 20th of April. Data sourced from Transsee. Cancellations During the analysis period, the overall cancellation rate was 5.4%. Northbound trips saw a slightly higher rate at 5.5%; southbound trips

How do we measure reliability?

Introduction At Transit Committee (TC) on the 10th of April, reliability was the big issue of the day. Reliability statistics, reliability breakdowns, reliability plans, the discussion was centered around reliability even if the solutions were not found that day. In light of this, and in light of my own criticism

Transit Committee - 10 April, 2025

Introduction On Thursday, the 10th of April 2025, Transit Committee held its third meeting of the year. Video link here, the meeting begins at 20:45. This meeting was a head-turner, and featured some good discussion of OC Transpo's reliability problems, and the hard questions needed to

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. III

Introduction On the first of April, the city released its Transportation Master Plan update. This is the third and final article in a three-part series on this joke. The first, link here, covers the contents of the plan. The second, link here, is a detailed rant on why this

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. II

Introduction On the first of April, the City released its draft Transportation Master Plan, or TMP, and befitting this date, it's a complete joke. The TMP is a document that guides city planning on all transportation matters; this one is intended to go through 2046, though the document

Transportation Master Plan: failure at City Hall, Pt. I

Introduction The City's new Transportation Master Plan (TMP) for transit and roads came out on the first of April after a last-minute delay from the day before. That the TMP was hastily pushed for a release on April Fool's is a level of symbolism that

Route 44 snapshot: 24 Feb-23 Mar

This article presents a "snapshot" of service on Route 44 between the 24th of February and the 23rd of March. Data collected from Transsee. Cancellations Over the period of four weeks, southbound cancellations were 6.2% and northbound cancellations were 4.6%. Overall, the cancellation rate was 5.