OT: Sens Lounge CIII | Stranger Things Fashion Debate Edition

[GrantLemons]

Whats a good vacuum to buy?

I got https://www.amazon.ca/Shark-Rotator-Professional-Lift-Away-Vacuum/dp/B01BD1BPPS after I moved into my place and had new carpets put in. One of the best purchases I've made in my adult life. My gf has two cats, and they leave shitloads of hair in the carpet, but this thing just easily pulls it out. It's also extremely versatile for cleaning literally any kind of surface in any kind of space. There's basically nothing it can't do.

 

[2CHAINZ]

Whats a good vacuum to buy?

A cleaning lady

 

[Wallet Inspector]

So is there a non-stupid reason the city decided to cancel a bunch of bus routes instead of having them alongside the LRT?

 

[DrEasy]

Exactly.

Folks can handle a long ride on a train or bus. It's the switch overs that are a killer. You just want to get on your ride, sit down, and put on the earbuds until you're at work. Having the average person form the suburbs go from bus to train to another bus...just to get to work? What a royal pain in the butt.

You'd think they would've done the smart thing and just build the entire LRT line in one phase, instead of 3 (or is it 4?). Have the entire ting up and running at once, even if ti took a few more years to complete.

That's the only part I disagree with. You could wait forever till you've gathered the money to do everything just right. It's better IMO to do things in small phases so that you can get things going, have it at least be useful for a portion of the population, and collect money from the users so you can plan for the next phase.

Now what is unfortunate is how they sometimes need to shutdown the whole operation for a couple of years when working on the next phase, like it is going to be the case for the Trillium line.

 

[coladin]

So is there a non-stupid reason the city decided to cancel a bunch of bus routes instead of having them alongside the LRT?

They just don't want any buses in the middle of downtown, as they have removed 95% of them

 

[Qward]

As an outsider that use to visit downtown once a month or so, the amount of buses you have/had was nutso

 

[SPF6ty9]

As an outsider that use to visit downtown once a month or so, the amount of buses you have/had was nutso

It was.

If you ask me, once they 1. fix this stupid door problem that happened again today, and 2. get phase 2 completed; then the LRT should be pretty good.

Having thousands of people bussing into Tunneys at the moment from all over the west end for a stop that is clearly not designed to handle this many people, is going to be an annoyance for years though. If it were up to me, I'd bring back some routes that reach downtown during rush hour to alleviate this until phase 2 is up and running. Don't need to go back to the old cram Albert and Slater with busses ways, but a little additional transport during rush hour could be helpful.

The quality of a transit ride during rush hour seems like it's going to be noticeably lower going forward combined with higher fares. Sounds like a Melnyk business model.

 

[Stylizer1]

The trains will never reach everyone, what's the difference between taking a bus from Chapel hill to Blair and taking it to Jean D'arc or Place d'Orleans? The way the train is set up, at best it will replace the setup for those who took a local bus to the 95/96/97 ect instead of paying extra for an express pass back before they changed the setup while the rail was being built. Express bus convenience is never going to be replicated. The trade off was supposed to be trains shouldn't be impacted by accidents or congestion on the roads meaning more reliable timings.

Express buses were designed to avoid having to transfer on to the 95/96/97 and go directly downtown. The idea was getting people who lived the furthest downtown as quickly as possible. For those who used to take local buses to the transit way can do so with the trains. Express bus convenience should still be available especially since the whole main line isn't complete. Forcing everyone to take a train at this point seems pretty stupid seeing as there were way more buses moving way more people.

 

[PatrickEaves]

UPS: This service is guaranteed 2 day shipping from the United States to anywhere in Canada.

Also UPS: Item shipped Oct 08. Package expected to arrive Oct 15.

 

[Micklebot]

Express buses were designed to avoid having to transfer on to the 95/96/97 and go directly downtown. The idea was getting people who lived the furthest downtown as quickly as possible. For those who used to take local buses to the transit way can do so with the trains. Express bus convenience should still be available especially since the whole main line isn't complete. Forcing everyone to take a train at this point seems pretty stupid seeing as there were way more buses moving way more people.

The whole line being complete won't change things though; instead of transferring at blair or Tunneys you'll just transfer at trim or moody (or wherever you end up). The only advantage to the whole line being up is spreading out where people transfer across multiple stops, but it's the same number of people transferring give or take.

The whole idea of the train is to minimize transfer time and make for more reliable timing (failed so far...) while eliminating a huge amount of traffic downtown caused by buses. It won't ever reach the convenience of an express bus that goes from your local residential area right to your work but that was never the goal.

 

[Stylizer1]

The whole line being complete won't change things though; instead of transferring at blair or Tunneys you'll just transfer at trim or moody (or wherever you end up). The only advantage to the whole line being up is spreading out where people transfer across multiple stops, but it's the same number of people transferring give or take.

The whole idea of the train is to minimize transfer time and make for more reliable timing (failed so far...) while eliminating a huge amount of traffic downtown caused by buses. It won't ever reach the convenience of an express bus that goes from your local residential area right to your work but that was never the goal.

The thing is that the starting points are too congested now. Having the line start in Orleans or Kanata would greatly ease the flow and make it a lot simpler. The city has no idea when and where to pick up and drop of people at present. I think people wouldn't have a problem taking a local bus to say place D'Orleans and then getting on the train right to downtown. But this won't be the reality for 4 more years. In the mean time allow the people furthest to enjoy relative ease commuting to downtown.

 

[Micklebot]

The thing is that the starting points are too congested now. Having the line start in Orleans or Kanata would greatly ease the flow and make it a lot simpler. The city has no idea when and where to pick up and drop of people at present. I think people wouldn't have a problem taking a local bus to say place D'Orleans and then getting on the train right to downtown. But this won't be the reality for 4 more years. In the mean time allow the people furthest to enjoy relative ease commuting to downtown.

I think it's worth waiting till they iron out the kinks before saying the system doesn't work. having to transfer isn't unique to Ottawa...

You are right about the current system putting a lot of people transferring at the same station, they could probably try and fix that by sending half the local routes one stop further (like to St Laurent instead of Blair). I really don't see why someone would be happier transferring at trim or Place instead of Blair or StLaurent though, aside from the reduced volume of other people transferring at the same time when it gets spread out more. That seems like a minor quibble though.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I think it's worth waiting till they iron out the kinks before saying the system doesn't work. having to transfer isn't unique to Ottawa...

You are right about the current system putting a lot of people transferring at the same station, they could probably try and fix that by sending half the local routes one stop further (like to St Laurent instead of Blair). I really don't see why someone would be happier transferring at trim or Place instead of Blair or StLaurent though, aside from the reduced volume of other people transferring at the same time when it gets spread out more. That seems like a minor quibble though.

It's really difficult right now for out of towners. Driving to Trim, then taking a bus to the LRT, then transferring from the LRT to another bus for the final leg....that's a lot of ask of someone who could simply take their car the entire way to work.

 

[Stylizer1]

I think it's worth waiting till they iron out the kinks before saying the system doesn't work. having to transfer isn't unique to Ottawa...

You are right about the current system putting a lot of people transferring at the same station, they could probably try and fix that by sending half the local routes one stop further (like to St Laurent instead of Blair). I really don't see why someone would be happier transferring at trim or Place instead of Blair or StLaurent though, aside from the reduced volume of other people transferring at the same time when it gets spread out more. That seems like a minor quibble though.

Living near the start of the line means you most likely get a seat and are able to work on the bus or read. Standing for 300 to 400 minutes a week isn't as appealing as siting comfortably. I'm not saying people won't figure out how to run and use the system, I'm saying the system isn't up to the task of moving so many people now They should work on the areas directly surrounding these stations. Get that worked out and when the next stage is complete you grow the system by introducing those in the suburbs into it.

 

[BonkTastic]

So glad I don't have to take the bus/train to work anymore.

I'm like 5 mins from work these days, 7 mins if I want to stop for coffee. Makes a MASSIVE work-life balance difference. I have so much time for activities now!

 

[Micklebot]

Living near the start of the line means you most likely get a seat and are able to work on the bus or read. Standing for 300 to 400 minutes a week isn't as appealing as siting comfortably. I'm not saying people won't figure out how to run and use the system, I'm saying the system isn't up to the task of moving so many people now They should work on the areas directly surrounding these stations. Get that worked out and when the next stage is complete you grow the system by introducing those in the suburbs into it.

The same number of people will be sitting vs standing regardless of where the line starts. Trains aren't going to suddenly have more seats when it starts at trim. people stood on express buses too, I know, I was one of them.

 

[Stylizer1]

The same number of people will be sitting vs standing regardless of where the line starts. Trains aren't going to suddenly have more seats when it starts at trim. people stood on express buses too, I know, I was one of them.

There are no better odds.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

So glad I don't have to take the bus/train to work anymore.

I'm like 5 mins from work these days, 7 mins if I want to stop for coffee. Makes a MASSIVE work-life balance difference. I have so much time for activities now!

Agreed. It's a whole lot easier looking at a decade-old car in the driveway when you know you're within walking distance to work and the essentials. Just the time (not) commuting and knowing you don't need to open the wallet just to be mobile is amazing for improving quality of life.

 

[Caeldan]

So glad I don't have to take the bus/train to work anymore.

I'm like 5 mins from work these days, 7 mins if I want to stop for coffee. Makes a MASSIVE work-life balance difference. I have so much time for activities now!

Yeah. I'm like 3-5 minutes from work, do 3 11s Fri Sat and Sunday. And get paid more than I probably should be for what I do. So it's real nice to be spending so much time home with my kiddo. Though I basically never see the wife.

But thats such a trap in my case, because it's such braindead work that I'm looking for something else but in order to do what I want, I'll be taking a paycut(at least for the first 3-5 years) and adding a real commute. Assuming that I can find someone to hire me since I'm going on two years plus now since I have had relevant experience and not getting any younger.

 

[Micklebot]

There are no better odds.

If they live near the star of the local bus, they'll have a seat on the bus till they get to the transfer spot

Seriously, you're down complaining about not getting a seat? good lord...

 

[Here I Pageau Again]

I got https://www.amazon.ca/Shark-Rotator-Professional-Lift-Away-Vacuum/dp/B01BD1BPPS after I moved into my place and had new carpets put in. One of the best purchases I've made in my adult life. My gf has two cats, and they leave ****loads of hair in the carpet, but this thing just easily pulls it out. It's also extremely versatile for cleaning literally any kind of surface in any kind of space. There's basically nothing it can't do.

I'm a big fan of the shark brand. Honestly I find they work as well as a Dyson but are cheaper.

 

[SPF6ty9]

The same number of people will be sitting vs standing regardless of where the line starts. Trains aren't going to suddenly have more seats when it starts at trim. people stood on express buses too, I know, I was one of them.

That won't necessarily be the case. If you're running trains on the same schedule as they have right now, every 4 mins or whatever it is per stop, but there are more stops spread out across a longer line, then there will be room on the tracks to have more trains running at the same time and thereby servicing more people. I assume this is the plan they have going forward (hope so at least).

That said, they probably plan to eliminate more busses at that time as well, so that could have an evening out effect.

 

[Caeldan]

I'm a big fan of the shark brand. Honestly I find they work as well as a Dyson but are cheaper.

Yeah I've had good experiences with Sharks too. Whether bought at Canadian Tire or Costco.

 

[Micklebot]

That won't necessarily be the case. If you're running trains on the same schedule as they have right now, every 4 mins or whatever it is per stop, but there are more stops spread out across a longer line, then there will be room on the tracks to have more trains running at the same time and thereby servicing more people. I assume this is the plan they have going forward (hope so at least).

That said, they probably plan to eliminate more busses at that time as well, so that could have an evening out effect.

Fair point. They likely will keep the same frequency.

 

[maclean]

I appreciate the amazing logistics work public transport providers do here already, but reading all this just really drives home how efficient the system is. Though I have to say, there's no way I could make it through a long trip during busy times sitting and not giving up my seat to an old person