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asked by flaggerdownThis is a common confusion (and frustration) for riders. There are two primary points to keep in mind.
First, are you boarding at a timepoint or a stop in between? Timepoints are listed at the top of every route's schedule and are times that drivers must adhere to. If the bus is running ahead of schedule, the operator must wait until the scheduled time before they can depart a timepoint. If the bus is running behind schedule, the timepoints help dispatchers decide if that bus should be "turned" to help restore on-time service.
If you are not boarding at a timepoint, any times given by the Trip Planner are estimates. When STOPwatch reports that a bus will depart your stop in six minutes that estimate is based on the current location of the bus and an algorithm. This algorithm calculates a departure time for your stop based on the specifics of the corridors the bus is traveling along. The realities of sharing the road with other vehicles, stop lights, traffic, heavy passenger loads, passengers fumbling for ID/fare, etc. cannot be accounted for in the algorithm. Situations like the benevolence of other vehicles to let a bus back into traffic or a backed up four-way stop, are just a couple of the challenges faced. This is likely why you'll see the disparity you're describing above.
Second, there are things you as a rider can do to improve your experience. Buses send out data every 30-seconds. If you receive information that the bus will arrive in six minutes, send another request two minutes later to get an update. If your bus hits a series of green lights, the departure time will likely change.
The word "departure" is a well chosen description. STOPwatch gives you the time the bus will depart a stop, not arrive. We encourage all passengers to arrive at their stop five minutes before the departure time. If MTD operated along a railroad track, service delivery would be different. But the unpredictability of the shared road make it imperative to be at your stop five minutes before.
This isn't the first time we've heard these concerns. We think a re-education or a new layer of marketing is in order. Any thoughts or suggestions? -
This is a great idea that we have looked at recently and actually put into service in the past.
The two main issues we discovered were passenger confusion and expense to operate. Stops were limited, as you suggested, along the way. But passengers would often request to get off the bus prematurely because they wanted to go where the bus wasn't. To operate an express route introduces an additional layer of costs. Some revenue must be generated to support the operating costs. Since this route would serve campus, a prepaid population, revenue generation is unlikely.
Have you considered riding the 2/20 Red? It goes through campus via Lincoln/Nevada/Green/Wright/White. During the weekday it serves Market Place Mall and on Saturdays it serves north Prospect as well.
Thank you for your suggestion. It has been brought to the attention of our planners and the Director of Service Delivery. -
asked by 26376
MTD is in close coordination with Parkland College to facilitate continued service during the construction of the Student Service Center. MTD will move its boarding location once construction begins and will keep it in the same spot throughout. Construction is expected to last two and a half years.
After the construction is completed, MTD and Parkland College will decide on a mutually agreeable location. The stop will be close to the student center and MTD will work to return amenities swiftly.
Thank you for your question and congrats to Parkland College on their bid! -
Yes, the operator should have stopped the passenger from depositing a fare. Imagine he or she was distracted by the environment, especially if it was a heavy boarding, and did not stop the passenger in time. Here is the definition of an iStop:
"iStops are MTD designated stops located in the University District where it is unnecessary to pay a fare or show your UI ID for certain routes: Gold, Illini, Silver, Teal, and Yellow...Signage at these stops shows the iStop symbol."
Thank you for your question and for riding MTD. -
asked by Thorphin
There are only two settings of brightness for the LEDs, both are fairly bright to increase visibility at all hours. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, we'll consider an adjustment.
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Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Testing needs to be done on both the buses that are serving those stops as well as the audio files for the next stop announcements and the audio advertisements (if there are any for those stops).
We need riders like you to identify issues like these! There is so much technology and so many routes that we need eyes and ears on the street to help identify problems. Thank you riding MTD. -
asked by insertwittyhere
AT MTD, we strive for consistency. There are policies in place for daily operations and rules of conduct. We stress safety, quality service, and respect and courtesy towards our passengers. There are over 200 operators who report for work at all hours of the day.
Needless to say, it's a challenge to keep all drivers on the same page much less monitor their actions. Our Operations Department posts bulletins and notices frequently regarding changes to rules of conduct as well as reminders. There is also an intranet messaging system that facilitates service communications.
Additionally, there is at least one Street Supervisor on the street at all times of service. During peak hours, there are often two Street Supervisors surveying operations and making themselves available for assistance.
If you'd like to bring a specific behavior and/or operator to our attention, we'd be happy to discuss MTD's policies as well as look into the actions of the operator. We have cameras on the outside and inside of all our buses to monitor and take appropriate action. You may call and ask to speak to a supervisor (217.384.8188) or fill out a feedback from on our website (http://www.cumtd.com/about-us/feedback). Thanks for riding! -
Thank you for your question. MTD is aware of this issue and you are correct, it only affects the new, 40-foot hybrids.
ThermoKing is the manufacturer and supplier of the heating and cooling systems for our buses.The ThermoKing units are all controlled by a computer located inside the bus. A temperature sensor reads the inside temperature of the incoming air duct and reports that data to a computer.
On the 2003, 1997, and 1996 series buses, these ducts are located by the rear doors. When the duct is located in the back of the bus, it gives the ThermoKing system an accurate reading of the temperature inside the bus.
When MTD was designing the manufacture of the 40-foot hybrid buses, the ThermoKing system had to be moved because of the location of the battery electronic packs mounted across the roof of the bus. ThermoKing was required to move their unit closer to the front of the coach. With the sensor on the return air duct closer to the driver’s area, the computer receives temperature from there instead of the back of the bus. It's been conclusive that this does not give an accurate reading of the temperature throughout the vehicle.
MTD, New Flyer (the bus manufacturer), and ThermoKing are all aware of the issue. Some changes have already been made to improve it. The ducting was changed and the temperature sensor moved. Future changes are being tested and must be implemented by the engineers at ThermoKing and New Flyer.
We assure you that MTD will continue to work with our manufacturers to improve this issue. Thank you for your patience and for riding! -
Thank you for your question. The clock inside the Student Dining and Residential Programs (SDRP) building at Ikenberry is updated and controlled by Housing's computer. STOPwatch real-time information displayed there is synched to our system.
The MTD kiosk outside is also connected to our servers. The clock and STOPwatch departure times are calculated and informed by our data. Data is pulled from the same source, but updated at slightly different intervals. The kiosk outside pulls data once every minute, while the screen inside the building pulls data every 30 seconds. This is why it may appear to be inconsistent.
After your question, our software developers ran a diagnostic and confirmed that both systems were functioning properly. Our developers are also researching possible updates to the kiosk, so the case is never closed.
Thank you for riding! -
This is a bit complicated to explain, so hang on to your hat!
If you look at the 12 Teal schedule, you'll notice that Orchard Downs has 20-minute frequency, while the rest of the route has 10-minute frequency. That is due to the higher demand within the campus corridor (between FAR/PAR - Illini Union - Illinois Terminal). To keep up with the high demand, an extra bus is added to the rotation of Teals in service, but it operates differently.
The operator of this unique trip serves their first timepoint at 8:11 am at FAR/PAR. The bus continues as a westbound Teal until the Illini Union. At 8:18 (or :18 after), the operator turns "Not In Service" and does what is a called a "dead-head" to FAR/PAR. "Dead-heads" are built into several MTD routes. They give a bus the opportunity to travel off route, without passengers, to arrive at a specified location quicker. For this operator, they dead-head to FAR/PAR in time to go back in service as a 12W Teal and depart at 8:31 am (or :31 after). The driver will then run the full Teal route. At 9:00 am, the route arrives at FAR/PAR and the operator has an 11-minute layover. This extra time is for recovery, in case we get behind schedule, and gives students time to board and the operator a small break. Then this bus does it again, takes off at 9:11, operates until the Illini Union, goes "Not In Service" and does a dead-head to PAR/FAR. Rinse and repeat. This operator will continue to run students into campus, and help maintain the 10-minute frequency until 2:31 pm. This unique trip will always be on the :18 and :31.
For the remainder of the weekday service day, a bus continues to run this shortened, every other, dead-head operation but in the opposite direction. This is what your :20 12E Teal is doing. This trip will dead-head from PAR/FAR to the Union to help maintain the frequency for students leaving campus to return to their dorms at the end of their day.
Phew! I hope this helps to answer your question about the Teal. At the least, it gives an inside look into run cutting. That's transit industry lingo for taking a full schedule and dividing it into individual bus trips. Thanks for riding! -
Thank you for bringing this to our attention! Our Software Developers thought this issue had been corrected, but turned out a bug in the system prevented a permanent fix. We need riders like you to help us stay accurate!
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asked by thelowedown
MTD annually posts our full budget as well as the results from financial audits. You are welcome to download PDFs of these documents on our website. The documents are under the heading, "Financial Documents."
http://www.cumtd.com/about-us/publicdocuments
You'll find that our funding comes from the national, state, and local levels. It is worth noting that Illinois Terminal leases out space to several tenants including Amtrak, Burlington Trailways, Danville JARC, Greyhound, LEX Lincoln Land Express, MegaBus, Peoria Charter, Subway, and State Senator Michael Frerichs' District Headquarters. The tenants allow Illinois Terminal to be completely self sustained. Any "profits" earned go towards the maintenance and upkeep of Illinois Terminal. -
In the late 1970s Women's Wheels was established by the University of Illinois. This van service was borne out of growing sexual assault awareness. This was a student organized effort through the Volunteer Illini with a University-provided van (one). Overseen by the Office of Student Affairs, the service was only for female passengers and was operated only by female drivers. It was a shoestring operation with a constant uphill funding battle. There were no cell phones back then, so passengers made a telephone call to the office and then the operators were contacted via radios. Service on Women's Wheels often didn't begin until September or October because it took that long for students to get themselves organized after the Fall semester began. Then, during finals, student volunteers were often unavailable so service was unavailable. Sometimes staff women in the Office of Student Affairs would drive the vehicles during finals time. Eventually, driving opportunities were given to men because there were not enough women available.
The program later moved under the Dean of Students Office as part of Women's Studies and was renamed NiteRides. At that time, both women and men passengers were carried and women and men were drivers. The service also became more reliable.
MTD took over operation of the service in 1999 and it was renamed SafeRides. Today, SafeRides operates three vans and calls are dispatched to operators from MTD radio control supervisors.
Thanks for your interest and please don't hesitate to submit another question! -
All destination signs, on the front, side, and back, should read "2/20 C" or "2/20 U" Red depending on the direction of travel. Last service year, the Red's directions of travel were designated by north or south. We received many complaints that these designations were confusing because in many portions of the route, the Red would be moving in a direction opposite to its labe. For example, when the Red is going from the Meijer in Urbana to Lincoln Square is would be labeled "south" when it was in fact travelling north. So at the start of the 2011-2012 service year, we changed the Red directions to "C" and "U" to designate if the bus was travelling towards Champaign or towards Urbana.
Thank you for bringing this error to our attention. It has been forward to the persons responsible for correcting it. -
Not quite. Currently, we are in the middle of our annual Combined Charities Campaign that is going on throughout Champaign County for public employees to give to a charity of their choice. This annual giving campaign is bolstered by fundraisers. One fundraiser, that took place Friday, October 28 and will happen again on Friday, November 4, is the opportunity to donate $5 to wear jeans to work. Their donation goes to the charity, Bus Passes for Human Services.
You can learn more about the Combined Charities Campaign, sponsored by United Way of Champaign County, in this post on our blog, The Inside Lane: http://www.cumtd.com/the-inside-lane/2011/10/24/combined-charities-campaign-2011-2012/
So while uniforms will are still required seven days a week, donating to charity gives cause for a break! Thanks for your question. -
You'll make them blush! Did you hear that MTD will get 13 more 40-foot, hybrid diesel electric buses at the end of 2011, beginning of 2012?
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asked by Thorphin
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. Our Planners looked into the issue this morning and added the 7/70 Grey to the STOPwatch information for that stop (MTD4625). It should be available beginning tomorrow, October 20, 2011.
We need riders to help report incorrect or missing data. Our technology is only useful it works! Thanks for riding. -
asked by flaggerdown
Thank you so much for sharing this story! All of the details you provided are also fantastic. This will be forwarded to the operator's supervisor for positive notch on his/her record.
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Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. MTD tries to be vigilant and discover all technological errors, but there is so much of it! We need riders to share the things they see on the street at all hours of the day. Your comment has been forwarded to several people. Thanks again!
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asked by Thorphin
We are experiencing high ridership demand across our system. Ridership was up 10.2 percent in August (compared to August 2010) and September ridership was up 7.5 percent. Many routes are having to travel long stretches with standing room only available.
In the case of the 9A and 9B Brown, our Operations Department has responded to the rise in demand. Three AM trips of the 9B Brown are being backed up with extra buses during peak hours: 8:18, 8:48, and 9:16 am. In the afternoon, the 9A Brown is being served by an additional 60-foot articulated bus beginning at 3:00 pm. Please let us know what times you are riding and we can look into the data for those trips.
Although it is a good problem to have, the increase in ridership is posing a challenge to our fleet. MTD is particularly vigilant of service performance at the beginning of the academic year. The goal is to make adjustments early and quickly. There is a finite number of equipment and manpower, not to mention storage. Buses, as you may imagine, take up a lot of room. All 16, 60-foot buses are in service seven days a week at all hours (except when they are brought in for maintenance). The remaining 30-foots and 40-foots are also in constant use. When they are not in service they are kept at the garage for training of new or returning employees or the buses are in for maintenance.
Some good news to look forward to is the delivery of 13 new 40-foot hybrid diesel-electric buses. Although the arrival of the new buses will result in the retirement of 15 year old buses, the addition on new equipment garners flexibility.
Thank you for your question and for riding MTD. All departments are working hard to evolve to the increased ridership and continue to provide efficient, quality service. Please stay connected with us and continue to share the issues you see on the street.
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Champaign-Urbana Mass...’s Bio
CUMTD provides public transportation to the cities of Champaign, Urbana, and Savoy as well as the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Illinois.
