Talk:OCTranspo's "new year" of efficiencies?

Original reporting

I am the person that experience this. So I am the original informant. Any questions? Just leave a blurb on my w:user:CyclePat page... or leave it here! 03:10, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Clean it ?

Things about how your discussion with the driver went well aren't really that interesting. The whole story is a little too ... not so important, to anyone outside of Canada I guess, maybe trimming it down to just the fact that this bus driver agrees that this is wasting money. And btw, it's a little sensationalist, since there is ALWAYS people to pick up, and this well, can be considered a waste, but imagine you're a guy on the street looking for a bus and there ain't any. It's kind of biased reporting, but whatever. --80.172.138.55 20:45, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I think the issue here is not how long I waited, it's more about how many buses were on the road!!! --72.57.8.215 22:27, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Well if you mean "sensationalist" in the sense of sensationalism, as per attempting to arouse (as by lurid details) a quick, intense, and usually superficial interest, curiosity, or emotional reaction. (as per the definition from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary), I couldn't possibly comment on that. Except I can say that considering this was a part empirical study but also a part personal experience it may have had an angle toward my "political views." I think it is the duty of a writer to keep this "curiosity" in the reader. The main idea here is to realize that OC Transpo could have done something about this one day Holiday, clearly knowing there would be thousands of people off work. (I could have gone into more empirical data and examples: ie.: Gotten data for how much it cost to run a bus, calculate it times the amount of extra buses. Compared it to the amounts spent today. Etc. As for "interesting" conversation with the bus driver (I figured it's the time of elections here in Canada and it would be an interesting subject to add, my left winged conservative ideas. Anyway, we are talking about Xpress buses. There will usually always be a regular bus that pass to pick you up. So yes I did empathise (with myself!). So I don't know what other angle their is to take... (I'll reread my text and see) Had the bus been late (kind of like today but probably a little more) and had I waited many more minutes (like today...), I don't think it would of bothered me. What bothers me is the idea that all those buses where running, spuelling fuel fumes, and possibly (maybe even almost hitting a child, like the pm. bus almost did when a kid decided to run) (Though it is possibly the regular cost of things, the question is, why are the buses there in the first place!) Again, the 2nd of January, a "New years" holiday for most of Ottawa, would have been according to me a totally acceptable day to have reduced bus schedule. This is also because it would have reflected the same principal that happens on the weekends. That is, of course, no government workers on the weekend, hence no express buses. The idea of having express buses where founded in large part because of "government workers." Today, I jumped on the express and only 2-3 seats where left. (meaning there must have been an average load for drivers.) All this to suggest, perhaps... a reduces schedule instead of a holiday schedule would have been more appropriate for Monday (seemingly a holiday for most people). w:user:CyclePat --72.57.8.215 22:19, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup before develop

While Original Reporting is encouraged, personalization of articles is not. As we are a wiki, no one can "claim" articles as their own; nor do we mark an article as being written by someone on the article page (Original notes are denoted here on the talk page). Please remove any and all personalization ("On my ride home today...") that isn't quotes. Thank you. --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 01:15, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm fairly new to this. Can you please site your source on wikinews policy. I believe this gives the location of the interview and is fair use. --72.57.8.215 04:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

The source is fine, absolutely fine... I think What MrM is concerned about is the first person references in the article. Instead of "On my ride home today", it might read, "A passenger returning to his home today", etc... As a stylistic note, you might not use "Today", you might use "Thursday" or whatever. --Chiacomo ^(talk) 04:47, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

meuh! not as interesting anymore, but changed a few things. --72.57.8.215 05:11, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you! --72.57.8.215 05:12, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Primary Authors Comments

"This morning when I caught the bus, it took me about 22 minutes to get from Orleans to Downtown. Nobody else got on the bus except for me and my father and usually it takes me about 32 minutes. It was great, however I question the efficiency of our bus scheduling" w:user:CyclePat Copied here from article page by Chiacomo ^(talk) 05:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I'll see if I can talk to someone from OC Transpo either than a driver

I've sent a request for OC transpo to comment on this article via their comments online about 2 days ago. I haven't received a response. I guess I'll have to schedule a rendez vous interview with Brian young, OC transpo's supperintendant. That might give another angle right!?! --72.57.8.215 12:12, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I decided to publish this

I`m w:user:CyclePat, and the last few edits where done by ... moi. --131.137.245.200 20:54, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Everyone Else

I think that it should be mentioned that not everyone has holidays same as the government. I had school, and I am sure all retail workers had work on Jan 2.

I was greatly upset by Octranpo’s cuts during the week of the 26-30. Because service was a Sunday schedule on the 27, I had no way to get to work at 8 am. This is just a symptom of the fact that OC ignores non-government workers, and those who do not go to and from downtown during rush hour.--Mabba18 19:41, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Numbers?

There has to be a problem with the numbers in the news story. It says something like 729 express buses operating for 7 hours. There's no way 729 buses were assigned to express routes. I gather you might mean there were 729 buses on the road during the rush-hour time periods of 6am-9am and 3pm-6pm (or thereabouts) totalling 7 hours. This ought to be fixed. 209.71.200.236

I guess this is original research from looking at their web site. I counted all the express routes running that day. then I counted all the runs. I multiplied,... and well there where so,,,, probable mistake. maybe a bus might have done two runs? I'll check my spread sheet. I can't remember. original research thought... I dunno if that counts? Does it?--72.57.8.215 04:20, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

---

I see where there may be a mistake... The numbers here are for the amount of bus runs in the morning + afternoon. Adding to about 729 buses... bus runs!!! So how many buses where there really out there? Probably less considering one bus can probably do 2 to 3 runs in the morning. So we should divide that by 2 for the morning... 729/2 = 365 or 729/3 = 243. Well say there was 243 buses in the morning. At a cost of 42.59$ per hour x 243 = 10'346.94$/per hour. So most bus do about 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. So an average of 6 hours. 6 hours x 10'346.94 $/hour = 62'081.64 $. A big difference from the suggested, $186,246 I had suggested for the same 6 hours. Sorry. I forgot to factor in the fact that one bus can do more than one run.