Commuter Day 8

Friday August 21

AM: 54 Minutes
PM: 67 minutes

I decided to take the 7:30 bus again this morning. I like getting the extra half hour of sleep at night. It does mean that I have to stay at extra half hour at the end of the day, but I usually end up doing that anyway. Nothing out of the ordinary on the morning commute, though.

This afternoon was a gong show though. I left the office a little early, after the second fire alarm this week hit the building. And I ended up waiting almost 15 minutes downtown for a train to arrive at the train station. I didn't have to wait too long for the bus to show up, though, which was good. I'm guessing since it was still a little early in the afternoon, the trains weren't running on their rush hour schedule, and that's why I had to wait. Also, since I left early, I wasn't able to time the sweet spot this afternoon to get to the bus at the right time. I'll have to try it out Monday.

Commuter Day 7

Thursday August 20, 2009

AM: 56 Minutes
PM: 60 Minutes

You will notice I've missed a few days in my experiment. No I didn't take more time off for ultrasounds. I had some difficulties remembering to start and stop my watch the last 2 days. Tuesday morning I completely forgot, Wednesday I remembered when I was already on the bus, and both days I started to time the afternoon commute, but forgot to stop when I got home until I had already eaten dinner. So those days will just have to be throw away days in the experiment. There will be plenty of more days to gather data to come. However I have noticed, as I've started to put together some algorithms to analyze the data, that I haven't collected any data for a Wednesday commute yet. I started my experiment on a Thursday afternoon, last Wednesday I took the day off of work, and this week I forgot to time on Wednesday. That's okay though. Once I get a few months of data, everything should average out okay.

This morning I decided to take the 7:30 bus again. I don't know why, I've just been struggling to get up early the last week or so. I almost like the 7:30 bus better because of the consistency of the drivers.

This afternoon I was paying closer attention to when I leave the office and when the bus arrives. I think I have discovered the sweet spot to get me to the bus stop at the right time to minimize my wait. I'll try it out tomorrow to see for sure. Today I left the office at 4:55 and had to wait 10 minutes at the bus stop before it showed up, and then almost another 5 minutes before it left. So I figure I could probably leave the office between 5:05 and 5:10 to be sure I get to the bus stop right before the bus shows up, or leaves.

Commuter Day 6

Monday Aug 17, 2009

AM: 55 Minutes
PM: 62 Minutes

I tried something new this morning for the commute. I was really tires when I woke up today, so I decided to sleep in an extra half hour and try taking the bus at 7:37 instead of at 7:11. It made a bit of a difference. I noticed the train didn't seem quite as full as it does when I leave earlier, but the time was still about the same. I think the 7:37 bus drivers are a little more consistent at arriving on time, and not 3 minutes early like the 7:11 driver, so I may try doing the 7:30 commute instead of the 7:00 commute. I may extend my work hours a little later into the evening to compensate, but if I usually end up having to wait in the afternoon for a bus, I may was well stay at the office 15 minutes later instead of waiting at the bus stop for 15 minutes.

Speaking of waiting at the bus stop, that's exactly what I had to do this afternoon. The train pulled up to the station and the bus stop was empty. That meant that the last bus had just pulled away, and I would have to wait the longest time for another bus to show up. So I sat and waited.

Commuter Day 5

Friday Aug 14, 2009
AM: 49 minutes
PM: 57 minutes

This morning, luck was on my side. I left the house the usual time to get to the bus stop. As I was halfway to the bus stop, I saw the bus driving past the stop towards me. (It's a good thing I walk along the bus route on the way to the bus stop). The bus was 4 minutes early from when it was supposed to pick up. Luckily I was able to flag down the bus and get on at the corner, otherwise I would have had to wait 15-20 minutes for the next bus to come the other direction. I told the bus driver when I got on the bus, "A little early today, aren't you?" To which he replied, "No, only about 30 seconds." I wonder if he realizes what time he is supposed to pick up there? It's not a timed stop, where I catch the bus, but it does seem weird that he is the only driver that is consistently 3 minutes early, when every other bus driver on that route is 1-2 minutes late. Anyway, as I said, I was lucky to catch the bus on the corner, because I had no wait time, and was able to make it downtown in really good time today.

This afternoon's commute was more of the same. I don't think I spent a long amount of time waiting for the bus today. It was about the average.

Commuter Day 4

Thursday Aug 13
AM: 59 Minutes
PM: 63 Minutes

If you've been keeping score at home, you'll notice that I didn't post any times for yesterday. That's because I took the day off yesterday. My wife had an ultrasound to see how our 38 week old fetus is doing. The baby was measuring small at the last prenatal appointment and the doctor was a bit concerned so they schedules the ultrasound to make sure the baby was still getting the nutrients it needs. The ultrasound was scheduled for noon, and I really wanted to see how the baby was doing, and get some good pictures of it, so I took the whole day off.

Today's commute was more of the usual. I left early this morning to wait at the bus stop, since the "early" bus driver was out this week. Sometimes he comes 5 minutes early, other days he comes on time, but very rarely does he ever come late... However, most of the other drivers always come late. So this morning I got out extra early, and a different driver pulled up 3 minutes late. So I spent close to 10 minutes at the bus stop this morning waiting.

This afternoon was the same bit of waiting for the bus. I think I had just missed the bus when the train pulled up to the station, so I had a 10 - 15 minute wait for the next train to show up. Still looking for that sweet spot.

Commuter Day 3

Tuesday Aug 11:
AM: 36 minutes
PM: 57 minutes

Today was an anomaly day. I had my wife drive me to the train station rather than taking the bus this morning. And we drove up to the Anderson station, instead of only going to the extreme south station. By not having to walk to the bus stop, wait for the bus to come, and then wait for the train to leave, I was able to shave almost 20 minutes off the commute time. I would take this route everyday, but #1 it would be a bit of a hassle to get the wife and kid (and soon to be newborn) ready just to take me to the train, and #2 I'm trying to save money on gas by using public transportation. I would drive myself to the station everyday, but I refuse to pay $3 a day to park at the train station. Calgary Transit started to charge to park at the C-Train stations in May, and I used to park at the stations all the time before when it was free to do so. But I refuse to pay any money for parking in an area that should be free. So I haven't driven my car to the train station since they've started charging. I've been taking the bus instead. I mean, I already have to pay $83 a month to ride transit, and they want me to pay at least $60 more for parking?! Shouldn't I be rewarded for taking public transportation in the first place, and not putting another car on the streets congesting up the roads? It seems like a pretty blatant cash grab on the part of the City. But anyway, that's how my morning commute went.

The afternoon commute was about the same as usual. I'm still trying to figure out the afternoon sweet spot, where I can get off the train and catch the bus on the way home without having to wait. I usually end up having to wait 10 minutes or so for the bus to take me home. Trial and error, I guess.

August 10, 2009

Morning Commute: 55 minutes
Afternoon commute 53 minutes

Today's morning commute was like the rest of the commutes this week. I spent a bit of time waiting for the bus this morning as I didn't want to miss the bus. The remainder of the time, riding the bus, the train, and walking to the office was like the usual commute.

The afternoon commute was actually quite a bit quicker than usual. I had to wait a few minutes for a train to show up at the stop down town, but as soon as I got to the bus stop the bus was pulling onto the stop. I hardly had to wait at all for the bus ride home.

So far my commuter experiment has shown that the time it takes me to get home in the afternoon can fluctuate quite a bit, while the morning commute is pretty consistent. Of course, the data is really extremely preliminary, and I need to gather a lot more data before I can make any really conclusions about anything, but that's just how things are looking for now.

Commuter Experiment - Afternoon

I've decided to make today's entry an adjusting entry, so that my stats will be presented on a daily basis. Instead of including last night's (or in this case, last Friday night's) afternoon commute with this morning's commute, I will discuss last Friday night's commute now, and then discuss today's commute tomorrow. Since I do these updates first thing in the morning at the office, before I start my work day, I only have half of the daily data that I need to make a full day's post. So it only makes sense to delay the daily post until the next day. So anyway, here's the timing for Friday Aug 7

AM commute: 56 minutes
PM commute: 57 minutes

It was a pretty close commute both ways. I already mentioned in the last post that I was waiting a bit Friday morning for the bus to come, since it's hard to time when it will show up. The afternoon commute saw me sitting on the train waiting to pull in the south station again. I had to wait a few minutes for the bus to show up in the afternoon, but it wasn't a really long wait.
That's it for today.

Commuter Experiment - Day 1

Afternoon commute (Aug 6): 63 minutes
Morning commute (Aug 7): 56 minutes

The first day of my commuter experiment has been an interesting one. My ride home last night was extended by about 15 minutes from what it could have been as I just missed one bus when I got off the train and had to wait for another one to come. I would have made it to the one bus, if the train hadn't stopped midway before my stop. You see I get on and off the train at the end of the line in the south, so the trains alternate at the platform when they arrive, one the northbound side and one on the southbound sides. But sometimes both sides of the platform are occupied with trains, so a third train that is approaching the platform has to wait until one of the sides of the platform is vacant. I think last night I was in the fourth train in line approaching the platform, and had to wait for 2 other trains to clear the platform (which takes a while, since the driver has to clear out one side of the train, lock up the cabin door, and walk to the other side of the train to the driver's cab). So by the time my train finally reached the platform, my bus was just taking off.

The commute this morning was shorter than last night, but I was still kept waiting this morning for the bus to pick me up. It's probably mostly my fault for leaving the house so early, but the morning bus has been hard to time lately. There is one bus driver that occasionally does the morning route that shows up 5 minutes earlier than when the bus is supposed to arrive, and if I don't get to the bus stop early enough, I have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus to come in the other direction. I noticed yesterday that this particular driver was running this week, so I thought I should leave early this morning, just in case. I got to the bus stop 6 minutes before the bus is supposed to arrive, and like 2 minutes before this particular driver usually arrives... and then had to wait until the normal time before the driver showed up. He was driving a lot slower than usual today, so I'm wondering if he was getting complaints of being to fast and missing his schedules stops.

So that is my first day of my experiment. More to come (assuming I remember to keep timing myself)

Cubicle Commute Experiment

Since I've been pretty lazy about updating anything on this blog for about a year now, I thought it might be time to try something new here. I've had an idea floating around in my head for a while that I thought would be cool to experiment, but I wasn't sure if I should just keep it to myself, or if I should put it up on the blog and let everyone else see my results. Not wanting to be called a nerd by my wife and co-workers, I figure by putting it on the blog, I will be sharing my experiment with the world and will only enhace the quality of life for people that work in downtown Calgary, and will be less of a nerd for sharing it than for keeping it to myself.

So here is my experiment idea...

I am going to record the time it takes for me to commute to and from work each day and document it in a spreadsheet. I think the process will be interesting as somedays I am able to get to work fairly quickly, and other days the delays on the LRT are significant.

I live in the extreme south end of Calgary (194th Avenue south) and have to commute to the center of the city to work. Currently my commute to work is composed of several elements, any of which could cause a delay in the time it takes for me to get to work. I walk from my house about 5 minute to get to the bus stop. The bus then takes me to the south LRT station (LRT is the light rail transit system operating in Calgary). The train then takes me to the downtown core, where I walk a couple blocks to my building.

My initial plan is to start my stopwatch when I leave my house, and stop it when I get to my cubicle. By recording the time it takes to commute, and then analyzing the data, I may be able to see trends in the commute time that I can then take advantage of. It will also provide data for anyone reading this blog and also commutes from the south end of the city.

If it works out well, and I can get into the habit of starting and stopping the watch everyday, I may try to expand the experiment and start segmenting the commute in the future. I may try timing the walking time, the bus time and the train time (and possibly the waiting time as well) and see how that works out.

I'm pretty sure it takes me longer to commute home than it does to commute to work, but I think that is mostly due to waiting for a bus on the way home.

So tonight I will begin the first test of the Calgary Transit system and time how long it takes for me to get home. I will then time my commute tomorrow morning and will report on the results sometime tomorrow.