Does DDOT not recognize the closure of the Jefferson drawbridge?

[mtburb]

As of today, the "next bus" times on Google Maps still assume that the Schaefer Highway bus crosses the Jefferson Avenue bridge over the Rouge River-when it has been permanently raised since that incident nearly a year ago! Also, the latest schedules [[from February) also still show the route crossing the bridge! I wonder how DDOT is rerouting the Schaefer bus around the bridge-I know SMART route #125 [[which uses the same bridge) is currently rerouted via I-75 and Dearborn Street because of the closure of not only the Jefferson bridge, but the original detour via the Fort Street bridge is no longer possible [[because that bridge is closed too, but for entirely different reasons, in addition, the DDOT Fort Street bus, which usually crosses that bridge, is being rerouted via Dix Street).

[DetroitPlanner]

It is not DDOT that does not recognize it. It is google.

[mtburb]

It is not DDOT that does not recognize it. It is google.

Actually, even the route map doesn't recognize the closure: http://www.detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/d...SchaeferMS.pdf

[poobert]

Kind of off-topic, but while we're talking about what a bag of suck DDOT is, a friend told me a couple months ago that the schedules really aren't followed at all anymore. Anybody know if this is true? He said he would just show up at the stop and hope for the best.

There were always late buses, but is it true that the schedules are essentially disregarded?

I gave up riding a couple years ago, despite living off a major line that gets me the where I need to be. Ironically it is faster to ride my bike 45 minutes to my destination - a time that I've waited for the bus itself.

[professorscott]

a friend told me a couple months ago that the schedules really aren't followed at all anymore. Anybody know if this is true? He said he would just show up at the stop and hope for the best.

There were always late buses, but is it true that the schedules are essentially disregarded?

If you take the drivers who actually show up for work, and the buses that actually make it out on to the street, those all make an attempt to keep to a schedule, but it's impossible. So if you're catching the bus very early [[5:00 to 6:30 a.m.) or at shift change [[between 1:00 and 2:30 p.m. on many routes), you have a fighting chance that a bus may show up approximately when the schedule says it will.

The difficulty is on any typical weekday, 65% to 85% of the buses actually leave the barn in the morning, which is a shockingly bad percentage. 99% is so-so, 95% is very bad. This means, right away, there's a 15% to 35% chance that the bus you want simply isn't coming.

Meanwhile, the one behind him, who is coming, has to pick up double the passenger load, so gets farther and farther behind. After a couple hours of this, you get the impression that the schedule means nothing, because by now it doesn't.

If you can solve the two problems of absenteeism by drivers and the garages not having the parts required to keep the buses running - and the parts problem is the bigger one - you can put this back into the upper 90s where it ought to be, and magically the apparent random distribution of buses goes away on its own.

[Dumpling]

There was an article in a major Detroit daily recently that stated that
Wayne County will begin work on the Jefferson Ave. Rouge River bridge
soon and that it should reopen in [[I think) 2015. All of the bus
schedules for buses crossing the Rouge River will be back to normal
at that time.
A little off topic, but Rouge River is bustling with lakers these days catching
up after the long frozen winter. And they are quiet - no horn blast to
alert the bridge operator. Am thinking maybe they will install an electronic
radar radio Bluetooth wifi bridge opening system - the captain of the laker pushes a remote control - onsite operator assistance needed only when the bridge is malfunctioning. So the horn blast and full time bridge operator will become part of the past.

[antongast]

I wonder how DDOT is rerouting the Schaefer bus around the bridge

There is no reroute. The route just temporarily ends a couple blocks further west on the River Rouge side of the bridge. The Schaefer bus only crossed that bridge in the first place because DDOT owns a small chunk of property on the Detroit side of the bridge that serves as a turnaround. It is possible that someone somewhere is being inconvenienced by this, but I'm a bit skeptical.