I don't mind waiting 20 minutes to 30 minutes for a bus if I have to. But when you're standing on a line at the Studios and you see bus after bus go past and you're approaching almost 45 minutes of waiting it can be FRUSTRATING.
Disney should put the buses on a printed schedule so you have an idea of when the next bus is arriving. The way it is now you have no idea that previous bus left 2 minutes before you got to the stop or 20 minutes.
While it may seem that this would work, it really would not serve WDW very well as it would greatly reduce the amount of flexibility in the system. First of all, if there is a delay of a bus on a particular route, the phenomenon of bunching will soon occur. If the sight of three buses to the same place within a few minutes is annoying now, it will be even more prevalent and annoying under the fixed schedule system. As an example, the intercampus bus system at Rutgers University is advertised as running every so many minutes based on the time of day, but, in reality, as the contract between the University and the bus company that provides the service calls for a certain number of trips to be completed by each driver, the buses are actually scheduled to depart at certain times from the main stop on each campus. (This is generally not known by the campus population, though, and they just assume that the buses will be kept apart to maintain the interval.) Once I learned about this, I very quickly understood why I sometimes waited only 2 minutes for a bus right after missing one, but at other times I waited 25-30 when the same interval was in effect. The most glaring example of this that I ever saw was when I was in the dispatch booth chatting with the dispatcher about my findings that day and saw
all six of the buses serving a particular route pulling up at the same time across the street. Since the buses had each accumulated several minutes delay throughout the day, they were now piled up on top of each other. While this worked out nicely for the passengers who each had a bus to themselves at that stop, the passengers on the other side of the route who had to wait up to 40 minutes in the freezing cold and were possibly late to class or other commitments were probably not as thrilled. By the way, the interval for that route at that time of day was scheduled as every 6 minutes! Once the buses piled up, it was very tough to split them back apart as the company's drivers often ignored the University dispatcher's instructions to hold at the main bus stop due to the fact that this could result in lost trips for each driver. Lost trips meant lost money as the University deducted a set amount for each lost trip from the check that was sent to the bus company each week. As a result, the company's dispatchers at the outlying campuses were often reluctant to order the drivers to split. With dynamic dispatching, some of those buses could have been used to fill the interval on other routes and, when the next bus from another campus came in, it would have been ready to restore the interval on the route that had the pile-up. I believe that WDW did previously put a certain set of buses on each route and scheduled them to run at 20-minute intervals, however, as the buses would inevitably get delayed for one reason or another (traffic, loading of Guests in wheelchairs, waiting a few moments for a running Guest, etc.), bunching of the buses occured.
Under a fixed schedule system, a fixed number of buses is assigned to a particular route. If a bus has to be taken out of service for any reason, the wait time for that particular route will be greatly affected. It would be impossible to bring in a bus from another route without affecting
its wait times. Of course, a replacement bus could be brought in, but it wouldn't just magically appear and, even after it went in, it would be quite a task to restore the wait times and bring the queues under control. Dynamic dispatching enables a bus from another destination to pick up the slack for the out-of-service bus as it allows for a better distribution of buses to meet the needs of the service.
Also, with fixed schedules, you can forget about two or three buses coming in for one destination at the same time to clean out a queue. If there is not enough room for you on the 9:30 bus, then too bad, so sad. You would simply need to wait for the 9:50 bus. If you were trying to travel to somewhere like Pop Century at park close, you might as well bring a comfortable pillow and blanket, because you would be at the bus stop for quite a while. Of course, the schedules could be suspended during obvious peak travel periods and dynamic dispatching brought into effect. What happens, though, if a sudden and unexpected surge of Guests occurs? Let's say, for example, a tour group of 700 billion Brazilians suddenly decides to go to Downtown Disney. By the time that the last ones finally got there, the first ones would be heading back to their resort. (I actually saw a surge like this when I was working at All-Star Movies while directing buses due to construction on the bus turn-around! While there may not have been 700 billion of them, it certainly took a number of buses to clear out that group and the other passengers who had been waiting for the Downtown Disney bus.) If you don't think that this is a problem, the Rutgers University system is an example. During the exam periods at the end of the semester, some of the routes are jam packed during times when large classes (which tend to be required for some popular majors) are having exams at one time, instead of in small sections. You really need to make sure that you allow enough time because, even with the articulated buses with their capacity of about 130, there are generally more people waiting for a bus than can fit on it. If you get left behind, it is an 18 minute wait for the next bus! I probably don't need to say that being late for a final exam is infinitely worse than missing an ADR!
Of course, some might say that the solution is to just drive from point to point. At Rutgers University, all on-campus residents, commuters, and faculty and staff get a permit that allows for parking on one campus and one campus only. Depending on your status, you are then assigned to specific lots on that campus. If you decide to drive to a campus or lot other than the one to which you are assigned, you are likely to get fined at least $50 (usually more, as the parking inspectors are very creative at finding several vioations at one time). As most people who take the risk find out, the chance of getting caught is almost 100% as the parking inspectors are out day and night and do not care if you parked in that lot for a whole day or only a minute with your flashers on. (My girlfriend at the time was once given three tickets totaling $170 at 4AM because of where she parked when she came to visit me! I don't think she ever paid them because she went to a different college, so the threat of Rutgers blocking her transcripts and preventing her from registering for classes was pretty empty, but still... ouch!) Likewise, though, driving is not an option for everyone at WDW. Some people may not want to drive, while others may not be able to drive. Whatever the reason, the bus system still needs to be accomodating to everyone.
I don't intend to make it seem that the Rutgers University bus system is the epitome of all evil and the Disney Transport bus system is perfect in all things all the time. However, given the complexity of the system, the large area that it covers, and the number of Guests that are carried, I have to say that Mickey Mouse and his helpers do a very good job of running the buses efficiently. Of course, there are ways to make things better, but it is always easier to improve when you are already doing well than when you are stumbling. My comparisons between the two systems were a basis of my letter to Rutgers University Parking & Transportation Services on ways to improve the system by borrowing some ideas from Disney. That letter actually even got me a job offer from the department, where I remained employed until I graduated. The bus system really improved a lot after many of those suggestions, as well as later ones, were implemented. The fact that the current contract rules out dynamic dispatching, though, remains the one stumbling block to bringing the Rutgers system closer to Disney standards.
I am sorry that this post is so long and I hope that it didn't put anyone to sleep. I have been interested in public transportation since I was little and, with the insight that I gained from my work experience, I hope to shine a light for those whose contact with transit is a little more casual. Sure my passion for the subject has led to much sleep deprivation (because I really should be asleep right now, especially as this is the second version as the computer ate the first one!) and loneliness (maybe someone from the singles roll call thread is also interested in public transit
), but it is what I know and have always enjoyed.
