OCTranspo forgets their goals
Oct. 26th, 2009 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
c9There's a concept I thought of this morning which I'm sure brighter minds have already thought of. I call it "shrinking to your audience". It's when a company chooses to play to their current customers instead of playing to the customers they want or need.
I'm in Ottawa for work, and I just struggled to get from one spot to another by transit. I have *never* had this difficulty before, in many many trips to Ottawa. I didn't struggle due to bus frequency or routes (though Ottawa has a lot of growing up to do on that front*), but rather due to paying my fare.
In years past, I could purchase daypass vouchers at the Ottawa airport, much like buying bus tickets, and then turn them into a daypass when I boarded my first bus each day. The daypass was cheaper than 4 transit trips by cash, and gave me lots of flexibility while in the city. It also meant that I wasn't paying for $30-40 cab rides to and from the airport, so I was saving the company money too.
Last night upon landing, I learned that there are no more daypass vouchers. I have to buy them with cash on the bus. Problem: now I need to have exact change cash with me each morning, and I get no receipt for work expenses. Oh well.
This morning, I tried to find somewhere to sell bus tickets so I could get back on the bus and get to the office. A brand new, shiny, clean Shoppers Drug Mart didn't have any. Everything else was closed -- and this was right downtown on Monday morning at 7:00! Finally I found a corner store that sold tickets -- cash only! -- and was able to get some transit for myself.
OCTranspo's job is to increase ridership and improve the transit experience for people in Ottawa. Removing pass options, removing payment options, and removing (or not pushing) ticket sales outlets is not the way to do that. It's a shame, because I'm sure the various decisions had all sorts of pros listed. But if you're driving people away from transit - even I felt like just hailing a cab last night when my bus was 6 minutes late and my scarce cash was about to be used up - then you're not doing your job.
Come on OCTranspo. Ottawa city council has proven they're not ready to be the grownups on transit. Can you please avoid following their example?
* I say this because during rush hour there are about 100,000 bus routes that each go right downtown. There is almost no hub-and-spoke connector system in Ottawa, so nobody is being trained for future LRT. Instead, people are offended if they can't get a bus directly from their neighbourhood to their place of work, and Ottawa ends up with insane bus gridlock twice a day. In the 80's OCTranspo was named the best transit system in North America. Today, OC has a great website, but their system leaves a lot to be desired.
I'm in Ottawa for work, and I just struggled to get from one spot to another by transit. I have *never* had this difficulty before, in many many trips to Ottawa. I didn't struggle due to bus frequency or routes (though Ottawa has a lot of growing up to do on that front*), but rather due to paying my fare.
In years past, I could purchase daypass vouchers at the Ottawa airport, much like buying bus tickets, and then turn them into a daypass when I boarded my first bus each day. The daypass was cheaper than 4 transit trips by cash, and gave me lots of flexibility while in the city. It also meant that I wasn't paying for $30-40 cab rides to and from the airport, so I was saving the company money too.
Last night upon landing, I learned that there are no more daypass vouchers. I have to buy them with cash on the bus. Problem: now I need to have exact change cash with me each morning, and I get no receipt for work expenses. Oh well.
This morning, I tried to find somewhere to sell bus tickets so I could get back on the bus and get to the office. A brand new, shiny, clean Shoppers Drug Mart didn't have any. Everything else was closed -- and this was right downtown on Monday morning at 7:00! Finally I found a corner store that sold tickets -- cash only! -- and was able to get some transit for myself.
OCTranspo's job is to increase ridership and improve the transit experience for people in Ottawa. Removing pass options, removing payment options, and removing (or not pushing) ticket sales outlets is not the way to do that. It's a shame, because I'm sure the various decisions had all sorts of pros listed. But if you're driving people away from transit - even I felt like just hailing a cab last night when my bus was 6 minutes late and my scarce cash was about to be used up - then you're not doing your job.
Come on OCTranspo. Ottawa city council has proven they're not ready to be the grownups on transit. Can you please avoid following their example?
* I say this because during rush hour there are about 100,000 bus routes that each go right downtown. There is almost no hub-and-spoke connector system in Ottawa, so nobody is being trained for future LRT. Instead, people are offended if they can't get a bus directly from their neighbourhood to their place of work, and Ottawa ends up with insane bus gridlock twice a day. In the 80's OCTranspo was named the best transit system in North America. Today, OC has a great website, but their system leaves a lot to be desired.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 12:47 pm (UTC)http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0jfsJzA6Bjo/StYZxv2pWbI/AAAAAAAAAQA/7asJnB74ROY/s400/BRT+Poster.jpg
Thought it was appropriate.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 06:01 pm (UTC)I acknowledge all of the problems with such a system, and like you, question whether it is sustainable. However, I still think it's *awesome*.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-26 06:21 pm (UTC)There's a whole separate conversation there around whether it's a symptom of suburbs in general - the only reason those bus routes exist is because people want to live in a giant house in the sticks, but still get the services of the city. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-27 11:54 pm (UTC)