19 July 2013

NO Bus Stops on Athllon Drive? (Kambah/Wanniassa)

| Piratepete
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It has come to my attention that between the bus stop on Athllon Drive at Farrer and the stop at Greenway (just before the bridge over the lake opposite Learmonth Drive) there are no bus stops! This means that residents of Kambah & Wanniassa cannot catch an express (i.e. 312/314 etc) bus to and from work unless they want to walk an hour to the closest stop.

This seems crazy considering there are stops every 100m or so everywhere else.

The perfect place for a stop where the bus can pull in off Athllon with the space already available would be next to the Wanniassa shops (just after the roundabout near Red Rooster).

Is there somewhere to lodge requests with ACTION?

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tim_c said :

Yes, that’s why it’s an “express” service – it wouldn’t be express if there was a stop every 100m.

But there is a stop every 100 metres, except for some reason on Athlon.

Thanks everyone for the varying input. I do have a bus come through our suburb and the bus stop is 5 mins away from my house. The problem is it only comes hourly & tootles through the suburb before I then have to change at Woden onto the bus directly to civic. I would happily walk to Athllon to hop on an express that comes every 5 minutes and stay on it all the way to Civic. As someone said above the residents of Mawson, Pearce & Farrer all walk out to Athllon to do the same – why can’t we be given the choice?

As for tim_c’s comment #1 – it is an express and it does stop all the way along the roads before arriving where I am talking about so one more stop wouldn’t make any difference to it being an express.

Antagonist said :

JC said :

The bulk of the people in those suburbs would have to walk a distance to get to Athllon Drive anyway. Also can I draw you attention to the fact that there are no stops along Adelaide Ave too. Same issue. But it makes no sense to have bus stops along express bus routes.

Bulldust. There are already regular stops along this stretch servicing suburbs such as Philip, Mawson, Pearce and Torrens and Farrer with plenty of patronage. Yet for some reason, the stretch of Athllon between Kambah and Wanniassa has no stops – the same stretch which now has point-to-point cameras installed. People are happy to walk to Athllon Dr to use the stops at Philip, Mawson, Peace, Torrens and Farrer. But for some reason you think that residents of Kambah and Wanniassa will not walk. Have they all had their legs broken? Are they in some way different to those people using the other stops along the same route? You sir, are a bullshit artist.

Residents along the Wanniassa/Kambah stretch of Athllon Drive have been asking for stops for as long as the routes were moved off the Tuggeranong Parkway and onto Athllon Drive 20+ years back. Of course this would not be a problem if we all lived in Gungahlin now, would it?

Many here are assuming that people only would walk to the suggested stop(s); which would limit the effective radius. Given that the express routes provide a very regular (5+ mins) and direct service, I reckon that many would cycle, park and ride, kiss and ride or even transfer buses at these types of stops.

The worst bit about the inner suburban bus services is having to plan for a bus time and route and then drifting around one or, often, several suburbs before getting to a destination or more direct service. NXTBus might help but the need to plan trips will still put many off.

JC said :

The bulk of the people in those suburbs would have to walk a distance to get to Athllon Drive anyway. Also can I draw you attention to the fact that there are no stops along Adelaide Ave too. Same issue. But it makes no sense to have bus stops along express bus routes.

Bulldust. There are already regular stops along this stretch servicing suburbs such as Philip, Mawson, Pearce and Torrens and Farrer with plenty of patronage. Yet for some reason, the stretch of Athllon between Kambah and Wanniassa has no stops – the same stretch which now has point-to-point cameras installed. People are happy to walk to Athllon Dr to use the stops at Philip, Mawson, Peace, Torrens and Farrer. But for some reason you think that residents of Kambah and Wanniassa will not walk. Have they all had their legs broken? Are they in some way different to those people using the other stops along the same route? You sir, are a bullshit artist.

Residents along the Wanniassa/Kambah stretch of Athllon Drive have been asking for stops for as long as the routes were moved off the Tuggeranong Parkway and onto Athllon Drive 20+ years back. Of course this would not be a problem if we all lived in Gungahlin now, would it?

I can see where OP is coming from. Surely that Expesso route could make one extra stop on Athllon with minimal impact to times. However, have you looked at 61/161 or 64 to see if they work for you?

Innovation said :

Not having done that route for a while, I suspect that the extra five to ten minutes travel is more as a result of the diverted bus route than stopping to pick up and drop off passengers. Similarly, a couple of extra bus stops on Athlon Drive is not going to noticeably increase travel times and will allow whole communities (not just a few neighbouring houses) to get to these stops under their own steam and catch more direct routes to their destination.

Doesn’t really matter. The diversion was put in place to serve those stops, which as I mentioned was sensible because they are used by large numbers of people. The end result is an increase in travel times.

Now I know where you are coming from and you are probably right a few stops on Athllon Drive probably won’t have much effect, simply because there is not the traffic next to the road to utilise the stops anyway.

JC said :

The bulk of the people in those suburbs would have to walk a distance to get to Athllon Drive anyway. Also can I draw you attention to the fact that there are no stops along Adelaide Ave too. Same issue. But it makes no sense to have bus stops along express bus routes.

A good example is the route city to Belconnen. In days gone by that used to be 15 minutes, it now takes 20-25 because the buses go down Haydon Drive and stop at the hospital, CIT, Uni, CISAC etc.

Now in this case it makes sense as all those destinations (well except maybe CISAC) are major traffic generators, but a few homes 200m either side of Athllon Drive are better served by their local buses then making express buses stop more.

Not having done that route for a while, I suspect that the extra five to ten minutes travel is more as a result of the diverted bus route than stopping to pick up and drop off passengers. Similarly, a couple of extra bus stops on Athlon Drive is not going to noticeably increase travel times and will allow whole communities (not just a few neighbouring houses) to get to these stops under their own steam and catch more direct routes to their destination.

The perfect place for a stop where the bus can pull in off Athllon with the space already available would be next to the Wanniassa shops (just after the roundabout near Red Rooster).

It is already on their list. Refer to here: http://www.transport.act.gov.au/catch_a_bus/park_and_ride_initiative

A Park & Ride facility near Wanniassa Shops (with a new bus stop) is being considered “in the coming years”.

I seem to recall (happy to be corrected) that a few years ago they did look at putting a bus stop near the Red Rooster

BimboGeek said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

the system is pretty much flawless [cough,cough] so there is no need to try and cater for every miscellaneous journey for every resident.

All praise the lovely bus network!

Do you expect public transport to pick you up & drop you off at the exact points you want to go at any given time?

KB1971 said :

Have you looked at other routes other than the 300 series?

There are a few that head into the city from various parts of north Tuggeranong and plenty into Alden so you can catch an inter town bus.

That was supposed to be Woden, I missed the auto correct on my phone,

wildturkeycanoe said :

The 61 and 161 go through there every half hour, right past the Red Rooster. Just because it isn’t express, doesn’t mean you can’t catch it and take it to an express pickup point. As has been well and truly pointed out to me, the system is pretty much flawless [cough,cough] so there is no need to try and cater for every miscellaneous journey for every resident.
I’d just drive it was that big an issue.

You cynicism aside, who ever said “there is no need to try and cater for every miscellaneous journey for every resident” is 100% right. In fact I would go as far as to say it is the fact that Action doesn’t do this that many people think the system s shit. That perception may well be true, but the simple fact it the system CANNOT cater for every miscellaneous journey.

wildturkeycanoe said :

the system is pretty much flawless [cough,cough] so there is no need to try and cater for every miscellaneous journey for every resident.

All praise the lovely bus network!

Light rail will fix it so do not worry. Toot toot!

The bulk of the people in those suburbs would have to walk a distance to get to Athllon Drive anyway. Also can I draw you attention to the fact that there are no stops along Adelaide Ave too. Same issue. But it makes no sense to have bus stops along express bus routes.

A good example is the route city to Belconnen. In days gone by that used to be 15 minutes, it now takes 20-25 because the buses go down Haydon Drive and stop at the hospital, CIT, Uni, CISAC etc.

Now in this case it makes sense as all those destinations (well except maybe CISAC) are major traffic generators, but a few homes 200m either side of Athllon Drive are better served by their local buses then making express buses stop more.

Have you looked at other routes other than the 300 series?

There are a few that head into the city from various parts of north Tuggeranong and plenty into Alden so you can catch an inter town bus.

wildturkeycanoe5:30 pm 19 Jul 13

The 61 and 161 go through there every half hour, right past the Red Rooster. Just because it isn’t express, doesn’t mean you can’t catch it and take it to an express pickup point. As has been well and truly pointed out to me, the system is pretty much flawless [cough,cough] so there is no need to try and cater for every miscellaneous journey for every resident.
I’d just drive it was that big an issue.

None on Hindmarsh drive between Parkway and Woden town centre either.

Yes, that’s why it’s an “express” service – it wouldn’t be express if there was a stop every 100m.

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