What Is Rts Fixed Route Bus Services

Guest blog by Nicholas Russo ; an RIT graduate, civil engineer, & passionate urbanist

On May 17, 2021, a re-imagined Regional Transit Service kicked off in Rochester. As a hired Transit Administrator for the first week of the rollout, I had a immediate view of how the new bus routes and infrastructure were set upward and how they functioned, and too got to hear the thoughts and experiences from transit users. In this post, I'll recount my time visiting iii of the new Mobility Hubs around the metro expanse, as well as my motorcar-free week in Rochester! I am currently living in Massachusetts, and then I was excited to have an excuse to visit my old higher town, and get paid for information technology!

For those who may exist unfamiliar, the Reimagine RTS initiative began several years ago, with the ultimate consequence of more than efficient autobus routes, including iii new Crosstown lines (which I made extensive use of during the calendar week), and an all-new On Need service. The On Demand service is like micro-mass-transit, with shared vans that tin can be called for pickups and drib-offs anywhere inside specific On Need zones. There are no fixed routes or bus stops in the On Demand zones.

The existing fixed-route coach service is named RTS Connect. The RTS Connect fixed-route services that run to On Demand zones now terminate at Mobility Hubs. These are more formalized bus connection points that are all served by an On Demand zone, besides. Here's the map to assistance y'all visualize the new system.

The Week Begins

My journey started at the Albany-Rensselaer train station, where I finally got to try the gyre-on bicycle storage service. I packed a week'due south worth of supplies into my camping haversack, and climbed on lath the train. Once I arrived in Rochester, information technology felt great to throw my backpack on, hop on my own bicycle, and become myself over to my host's house for the week. No waiting for an Uber or walking to the Transit Heart. I was very grateful to also make information technology to the Flower Pedal Populaire Sunday wheel ride to kicking off my week. It was neat to catch up with so many people, and run across how the city has grown over the past few years!

On-board bike storage on the Empire Service

My RTS Transit Ambassador schedule for the calendar week was ane for the early birds: five:00am-ane:00pm for Monday and Tuesday, so 6:00am-9:00am the remainder of the week. Reporting for 5:00am at the Hylan Bulldoze Mobility Hub meant that I needed to program my alarm time for the 45-minute cycle ride to Henrietta with a little buffer time, and time to leave of bed and become ready for the day. three:30am information technology was. My bike rides took me mostly on a directly line forth Winton Route, which was eerily tranquility at four:00 in the morning.

The standard Ambassador uniform for the calendar week was a bluish RTS-branded apron, black RTS-branded mask, and a lime green RTS-branded visor. Hopefully information technology was clear that I wasn't someone just loitering all solar day at the passenger vehicle stop. Each Ambassador too received a pocket-size swag-pocketbook with sunscreen (give thanks you!!), sanitizer, and data well-nigh the new bus lines and On Demand zones.

Showtime

Monday morning started quiet, dark, and empty at the Henrietta Transit Hub on Hylan Drive, where I was assigned. The Hub consists of two metal and plexiglass shelters facing each other beyond the street at the Wegmans driveway archway. The shelters are enclosed on 3 sides, with the side that faces the street open except for a center plexiglass slat.

For beingness on a suburban arterial, it was incredibly quiet and peaceful watching the sunrise and listening to the hundreds of seagulls and geese making their morn rounds. As the way went on, though, the traffic and noise levels became dangerously high at times as cargo trucks zoomed by at forty miles per 60 minutes no more 20 feet away from my seat. I would honestly advise flipping the shelters around and having the opening face up away from the street. Keeping the noise and fumes out would create a much better ride experience.

My dwelling house base for the first half of the calendar week

The first customer of the morning was a recent graduate from RIT, and an even bigger fan of transit than I was. He informed me every bit he walked up to the coach shelter at five:50am that he wanted to be the first customer to attempt the new On Need service. The On Need hours begin at half-dozen:00am, and at that hour two RTS-branded passenger vans collection upwardly and staged at the far edge of the Wegmans parking lot. The client boarded and went off to continue riding the new motorbus arrangement for the twenty-four hours.

I was also happy to be joined by boyfriend Ambassadors across the street, and an RTS supervisor who was on duty for the day at the Hub to make certain things ran smoothly. Every bit the morn progressed, I was extremely grateful that he was in that location and had straight access to acceleration communications, as I'll explain.

Connection Hub-Bub

Many of u.s.a. are used to having commencement-day jitters, bugs, and hitches with new programs and initiatives, and Reimagine was no exception. Existence a completely new service, On Demand had a quiet offset on Mon morning time. Those who did attempt out the rider vans sometimes found themselves waiting at the Hub long beyond their scheduled pickup fourth dimension, only with no articulate reason why. When someone called client service, the representative found that they were indeed scheduled to exist picked up at the Hylan Connection Hub at their specified fourth dimension. Simply the On Demand vehicle was nowhere to be seen.

Luckily, RTS's supervisor who was assisting us that day was able to speak directly with acceleration and the operators. It turned out that the location of the Connection Hub was incorrectly placed on the vans' GPS units as being at the terminus of the coach routes (at Walmart on Clay Route), and non at the Hylan Drive shelters. Then, operators were driving to Walmart when instructed to pick up a passenger at the Hylan Connectedness Hub. This was ironed out as the week went on.

Some other change that was unexpected by some passengers was RTS Connect bypassing the Marketplace Mall entrance, which was where the stock-still-route buses previously would pass through. The new routes were laid out to run directly down West Henrietta Road to Hylan Drive, without diverting into the mall property. While this was more efficient from a autobus scheduling standpoint, the change proved to be less efficient for many passengers who were taking the bus to the mall. They now had to walk from the Hylan Drive Hub, and then halfway around the outside of the mall, to go within. This feedback was passed forth to operators who and then updated the route by Tuesday morning time to once again pass through the mall entrance.

Hopping Effectually Hubs

I offered my flexibility to the Administrator supervisors during the week, and they took me up on the offering. Besides Henrietta, I helped to staff the Connection Hubs at Dewey Ave & Ridge Road, and Irondequoit Plaza. Each offered their own unique logistics that show merely how various the neighborhoods around Rochester are.

On Wednesday and Th morning, Dewey Ave proved to be an important Connection Hub for commuters who work at the industrial centers on the west side of the city. This hub really served as a stress-test for the On Demand service, which had an On Need zone comprised of all of the industry on the west side between Ridge Road and Lyell Ave. The flexibility of the On Demand service meant that choice upwardly and drop-off times were not guaranteed, and it became apparent early on in the week (before I was at that hub) that passengers would need to book additional "buffer" time for pick-ups and drop-offs to be on fourth dimension for piece of work. It was an evolving state of affairs as the week went on.

Another slice of the puzzle involved the "long" and "brusk" fixed-route lines that served the Dewey Connectedness Hub. The long and brusk lines are basically overlapping double-decker lines, with one line running all the mode to the far finish of Dewey Ave at Northgate Plaza, and another stopping curt at the Dewey Ave Connection Hub at Ridge Road.

Irondequoit Plaza was the quietest hub of the calendar week in my opinion, mostly since I was stationed in that location on a Sat morning. There were not any commuters to speak of in this chamber neighborhood, and a smattering of early-forenoon Wegmans shoppers did alight from the fixed-road buses that terminated hither. It was a good opportunity to conversation with some of the bus operators as they laid over at the hub.

Finally, I ended my week on Sunday morning back where I began, at the Hylan Drive Connection Hub in Henrietta.

As I reflected on the calendar week during the sunny and tranquility Sunday morning, I was grateful to exist on the ground to run into how this organisation worked in the existent world. Every bit someone from a metropolis so pocket-sized that our buses only run once an hour, it was so much fun to become fully immersed in a city-wide jitney system serving thousands of passengers a day. I'chiliad looking forward to my next return visit, when I can be a full-time passenger on the RTS buses, and think how vital our public transit is for a healthy and strong urban center.