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On the day the new Go Time system gets launched, I use it to find out why, for 30 minutes, none of the four buses that are supposed to drive by don’t show up at all. It was a sunny day, with no accidents reported, but yet four buses that were scheduled to pick people up didn’t appear “as scheduled.” As a result, I missed a medical appointment (yes, I could have called a cab but that was money I wasn’t willing to spend, besides I had given myself an hour to get there). In the end, what is usually a 45-minute drive home became a 1.5 hour commute, also making me late to pick up my child. I can understand one bus being late, even two, but four buses not showing up at all? What’s the reason for that? In other cities I’ve never experienced such unreliable transit, and those have much larger areas to cover with much larger populations. Tell me, where do my tax dollars (or my $80 a month bus pass money) go? It sure isn’t to make sure the buses run on time, or even show up! —Rubyjaye
This article appears in May 19-25, 2016.
I can help with the explanation of where your municipal tax dollars go. Approximately 10% of municipal tax dollars goes toward transit.
The average assessed value of a single-family home in Halifax is $223,200, with a municipal tax bill of $2,619 ranging between $1,000 to $4,000. The taxes you pay provide a variety of daily services and help create a healthy and vital community. Some of the important services your municipal tax dollars support include transit, garbage collection, recreation services, policing, fire and emergency services, libraries, streets and roads.
Approximately $600 of annual rent for apartment dwellers goes toward municipal tax. Condo owners pay, on average, $1,800 per year which is almost as much as a single family home.
You’re welcome.
You have to provide more detail OP. If you’re dealing with 4 missed in a half hour, I can only assume the route 1…given the frequency. This is plausible at rush hour considering that there is only 45 minutes scheduled each way. This is a tall order off peak…a real stretch in peak traffic. Understand that there’s a lot this city could do to facilitate bus travel that wouldn’t cost a dime. Enforce tow away zones 7 to 9 and 4 to 6 along bus routes and take a hard line with parking/stopping in bus stops. Also, this maybe unpopular with businesses but most large cities strictly forbid on street deliveries during the day….overnight only. This would eliminate the SGR/Barrington/Göttingen St. choke points. I once witnessed a traffic controller at a work zone stop a fully loaded route 80 and hold it up for 15 minutes. He could have easily let the bus go as it would have meant an extra 30 seconds. 30 seconds vs 15 minutes? It’s this wholesale ignorance/stupidity that is beyond the control of the Driver or Planner. Rejig the system? Great! Instead of using a sledge hammer to kill flies…try addressing the basic dysfunction in this city. It isn’t the transfer that counts, it’s what happens in between that counts.
This city seems to have a rather schizophrenic view of itself. It seems in some aspects to be stalled in the 70s or 80s. Sleepy Provincial capital where little happens. BS, this city is growing fast and has big city problems. HRM has to step up and take a more holistic approach to getting the bus down the road. Until then, we’ll have to be the Ugly Prom Date and keep waiting!
You mean continues to be broken. I don’t think it has ever worked properly.
This morning the fancy new go time told me “4 minutes” after 5 minutes I called again and it told me 27 minutes. I was calling from the stop, nothing went by. This is the worst transit system Ive ever dealt with.
It is terrible. And now if you call, they ask if you’ve been waiting for at least 30 minutes; otherwise they have no answers… and the data supplied by H^L^F^X is also wrong. If you call and tell them that, they blame Google for manipulating the data…
This sucks.
It really pisses me off when I get to the bus stop on SGR 10 minutes early, to see the back end of the bus drive away on me. Then I have to wait 30minutes – often 40 minutes if the next bus is on time – for the next bus.
And in much larger cities the routes are on streets that are well planned and straightforward and not a hot hodgepodge mess as they are here in halfalaugh.