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January 24th, 2012
What do you think of this Guelph? Important? Waste of time? 3 minutes is not enough time or too much?
Thank you,
Cam
view comments (4)
Wednesday Jan 18th - 2012
January 18th, 2012
Good afternoon all,
The following is an update provided by Michael Anders on operational improvements Guelph Transit has or intends to make to address on-going implementation issues. I have added the bold/italic for emphasis of key points.
• Community Bus – A stop at the Elliott has been added to the North Route. This was implemented yesterday. Brochures were sent to the Elliott.
• Route 55 – This was an express route historically serving the College/Stone corridors travelling to the UC. It will be put into service again starting tomorrow to address volume issues in that area and provide relief to the 1 A/B and 2 A/B. This should assist in buses running on schedule and transfers being made at the UC. University students should already be familiar with this route. It will run from 7:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. The service will be 15 minute frequency at all times. Info will be updated on our website and temporary stops will be put out tomorrow.
• Route 2 A/B – We have had Guelph Transit’s Planning Committee driving (on street) a number of options to reduce running time while maintaining the current service level. We will have a recommended alternative by the end of this week. In order to have the time to communicate the revisions appropriately, the changes would be implemented the last week of January. The option chosen will also address the issue of providing service to the front door of ARC Industries.
• Route 5 – There is a extremely heavy volume of traffic during very specific time periods going north in the morning and coming south in afternoon. As a result, a number of buses on regular service are filling up and going “out of service” and doing drop offs only. The core issue is not with the route structure but with available capacity. To address the capacity issue I am sending out extras during certain periods of the day to the hot spots. This is helping but there are instances when students are not able to get on the first bus that goes by.
• Route 20 – We will be looking at the route and bus stop structure when revisions to the 2 A/B are finished. This route will be updated no later than the 3rd week of February
• Legion Stop – A new resource has been assigned by the Legion to deal with this issue on their behalf. We have spoken with them and outlined the simple infrastructure fix that is needed for accessible off-loading on their property. We have agreed to meet in the spring to discuss how to move forward.
• Out of Service Stops – We are doing an audit of all old routes to ensure that where a stop has been taken out of service, all bus stop signs, info posts, and shelters and benches (where installed) have been removed or will be marked for removal in the next week.
Michael has conveyed these improvements will wrap up the tweaking he believes can be done to improve the new service model. There is concern that these efforts may not be enough to fully address the demand placed on the system by students in the Gordon Street South corridor. I was reminded that Transit’s carrying capacity in this corridor was exceeded on a somewhat regular basis with the previous routes. That this problem continues has only exacerbated our riders negative opinion of the new routes and service model. We are providing more extra buses as indicated above, but this is being accomplished by reducing our spare ratio. The consequence of this is it reduces our ability to maintain the fleet. This is clearly not a long term solution. I have asked staff to make queries on quickly acquiring an additional four buses, the quantity believed necessary to address the Gordon corridor. We will pursue this course of action depending on the information received. I will advise as more information becomes available.
Regards,
Derek J. McCaughan
Executive Director
Operations & Transit Service Area
The Corporation of the City of Guelph
1 Carden Street
Guelph, ON
N1H 3A1
T: 519-822-1260 x 2018
F: 519-822-1751
Wednesday Jan 18th - 2012
I recieved this emai yesterday: January 17th, 2012:
Dear Councillors and Mayor:
Just to provide you a brief update on one of the action items from the Student Orientation Summit, through collaboration with Community Engagement staff, neighbourhood meetings will be set up to review citizen concerns and to provide information on the various initiatives that Police, City and University staff are using to address unwanted behaviour.
Initially, four meetings will be set up in areas of the City where past concerns have been received. I will forward the dates and locations of these meetings once they are confirmed. If these meetings are successful, we will consider holding meetings in other areas of the City.
Please note that police, City and University staff are continuing to review other action items identified during the Summit and are preparing for St. Patrick’s day.
Yours truly,
Doug Godfrey | Manager
Operations & Transit |Bylaw Compliance and Security Department
City of Guelph
T 519-822-1260 x 2520 | F 519-822-1751
E doug.godfrey@guelph.ca
Wednesday Jan 18th - 2012
January 17th, 2012
Starting today, the Community Bus North Route has been updated to include a stop at the Elliott in front of the Ellington Building (168 Metcalfe). The Community Bus connects in St. George’s Square every hour and is fully integrated with the rest of the Guelph Transit conventional route system. The stop at the Elliott occurs at 0:47 after the hour from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Saturday (i.e. the first Community Bus trip leaves the Elliot at 8:47 and arrives in the Square at 8:57 and the last trip leaves the Elliott at 3:47 and arrives in the Square at 3:57)
We will arrange to have brochures delivered to the Elliott for distribution to the residents.
Further information on the Community Bus routes (north and south) is available at guelphtransit.ca.
Please contact me if you have any questions on this route change.
Thanks.
Michael Anders | General Manager, Community Connectivity and Transit
Transit Services | Operations & Transit
City of Guelph
T 519-822-1260 x 2795 | F 519-822-1322
E michael.anders@guelph.ca
Wednesday Jan 18th - 2012
Article from today's Guelph Mercury:
Roll out of waste carts will largely depend on where you live
GUELPH — Whether you will need to implement a wholesale change to how you handle waste might depend on which side of the street you live.
The city has released a map on its website indicating how it will implement the three-year phase-in of the new waste collection system. In many cases, residents on one side of a given street will be switched to a cart-based system in 2012 while those on the other will continue to use three different colours of bags.
“I’m going to feel somewhat sorry for people on one side of a street who have to look across at a neighbour who isn’t making the switch until 2013 or ’14,” said Coun. Cam Guthrie, who will be among those rolling carts out to the curb before the end of this year.
More than half of council members will find themselves in the first wave of cart-users.
“To tell the truth, I’m kind of excited to be going first,” Coun. Todd Dennis said.
The carts will be introduced in phases across the city, with several areas coming on stream in each of the three years.
“They’ve spread it out across all six wards so we’re all going to take a bit of abuse as it rolls out over the next three years,” Dennis said.
Guthrie said it has already begun.
“People are ticked,” he said Tuesday. “People are really ticked about this.”
Guthrie said he has already had one resident say he will “absolutely refuse” the carts and take his waste instead to the Waste Resource Innovation Centre on Dunlop Drive.
“He said if he can get 10,000 people to do the same thing the city would have to pay attention,” the councillor said.
City councillors voted in December to affirm an earlier decision to switch all three waste streams to carts; a move which will see the city spend $5.2 million on the wheeled receptacles and replace the current fleet of collection trucks with automated trucks.
An exhaustive public education campaign will soon get underway, with residents to begin receiving their wheeled carts in mid-September.
“Collection using automated trucks and carts will begin first Monday in October,” Dean Wyman, the city’s general manager of solid waste resources, wrote in an email.
Wyman said the map found on the city’s website is “generally accurate,” with staff finalizing precise streets and addresses to be included in the various phases.
Guthrie was one of two councillors to vote against making the switch at that December meeting – along with wardmate Coun. Gloria Kovach – and said as a resident he’s still not happy with it.
“These things are going to take up a lot of space and I’m still very frustrated that we had to go with this system,” Guthrie said, adding there were other options for council to explore which might not have cost millions of dollars. “We were given brand-new information that night and I don’t think (the rest of council) made an informed decision.”
Wednesday Jan 18th - 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuOS97_hPoU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This email is in refrence to my comment about "Unicorns and Rainbows".
Cam
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Wednesday Jan 18th - 2012
January 18th, 2012:
Good morning, you may recall our conversation regarding xmas tree collection at Committee meeting at the end of last year. At the time we acknowledged sub-performance of the delivery of this service last year and committed to performing it better for the current year. I have received the following email from Rod Keller advising that he and his staff have fulfilled this commitment.
Regards,
Derek
From: Rodney Keller
Sent: January 17, 2012 2:11 PM
To: Derek McCaughan
Derek,
Having spoken to Sam Mattina, I can confirm that the Christmas Tree Collection Program is now complete, as designed. In other words, every residential street has seen PW work crews go down them collecting trees starting on 9 Jan and completed on 13 Jan. Over 4100 trees have been collected and chipped. There have been minimal complaints (ie. 50-75% less than last 2 yrs) about trees not being picked up. The mild weather has been in our favour as the work crews (collection and chipping) have been able to work full out on this task.
Of note, we are still getting spot reports of trees showing up on the boulevards, after the fact. I conclude that this is a result of residents not following our advertised guidelines. We are dealing with this issue on a case by case basis.
All in all, it is my staff opinion that the program worked very well this year, with timeliness being the critical factor. This was a direct result of mild temperatures and good planning beforehand. It is my opinion that this program still needs to be evaluated in the “off season” with a view to confirming the status quo or changing the service.
A more detailed internal report is forthcoming.
Rod
Rod Keller | General Manager
Operations & Transit |Public Works Department
City of Guelph
T 519-822-1260 x 2949 | F 519-821-0839
E rodney.keller@guelph.ca
on Saturday Feb 4th - 2012
posted by Jeff
Has this proposal been passed as is, or were there any revisions. Just trying to determine the impact on my work procedures.
on Thursday Feb 2nd - 2012
posted by Jim
Sorry Cam but a total waste of tax payers money and time. If this is what city hall considers important enough to put time, money and effort into, then we are really in a sorry state of affairs.
on Thursday Jan 26th - 2012
posted by Doug Roach
What makes City Hall think that they have the right to control more of my life than I do?
This has nothing to do with climate change and junk science.
The City can't control it's own finances. What makes them think they can control the weather?
If we turn off everything in canada for a year, the affect on global co2 would not be measureable.
I for one have made a choice to ignore the city and it's intrusion into my life and conduct my affairs as I see fit.
on Wednesday Jan 25th - 2012
posted by Les McPhee
Is it not a sad statement that City Hall thinks that the only way to accomplish things is to make them illegal and punish the taxpayers whom they are supposed to be serving?
What ever happened to positive reinforcement, influence and encouragement?