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Capital District Coalition for Accessible Transportation (518) 273-1110 (A Grassroots Disability Coalition located in Albany, New York's Capital Region)
Members of: The Council for Community Service of NYS, (CCSNYS) The National Alliance of Public Transportation Advocates, (NAPTA) Americans for Transportation Mobility, (ATM)
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12/05 There is a Federal limitation on how long you should be in transit once your bus shows up. The rule of thumb states that a ride shouldn't take more than it would by someone using the fixed route buses on the street. I've heard this regulation misused or misunderstood by STAR schedulers and dispatchers from time to time. They are translating that into an excuse to tell customers to schedule their times to leave earlier by using the absolute longest times they are allowed to keep you on the bus without it being called excessively late by the Federal Government. That is using the regulation incorrectly. Example: Someone in Brunswick (Troy) wants to be at their Albany destination by 8:30am. They call STAR only to be told they need to request a pickup time for 6:30am to allow 2 hours (or more) to get to their destination because it would take that long on a fixed route bus. This is incorrect use of the regulation.
By those standards, you could even be told to allow 1 or 1 1/2 hours to get from downtown Albany to Crossgates. What happens if that customer does schedule the trip early is that STAR arrives at 6:30am and the person is at the destination for 7:15am. Many times, they then get to sit in the cold/rain/snow in front of a closed building for 1 1/2 hours and wait.
The only way that regulation is supposed to be used is by the government when checking to see if a STAR trip was excessively late. They figure if it would take 2 hours by line bus (with waiting and transfers) then riding on the STAR bus for 2 hours is normal, not late, technically.
STAR should NOT use that regulation to imply customers must allow 2 hours to get everywhere they go on each trip.
STAR normally (not during 5pm traffic) takes:
45 min -1 hour to go from Troy to Albany or the reverse. 15 minutes to go from Latham Circle Mall to Latham Farms 10 -20 minutes to go anywhere in Brunswick, Troy and much of Lansingburgh to Downtown Troy 30 - 45 min to go to Troy from Cohoes 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours - Schenectady to Troy or Cohoes 45 min - 1 hour - Albany to Schenectady 40 min - 1 hour - Troy to E. Greenbush
If you are going out between 7 and 9am or 4pm - 6:00pm, yes, you probably should allow a bit for more time because of traffic AND perhaps others on the bus with you, but NOT 2 hours. It's rare - or should be, that STAR keeps someone on a bus more than 1 hour unless all of your trips are from or to distant areas. Keep in mind that STAR picks others up too. This will effect times. Times above do include perhaps one pickup and/or drop off. You can ask for the pickup time you want. You can tell them not to pick you up before that. You can tell them you need to be at work (or wherever) by a specific time so long as you aren't limiting them.
"To never try, is to never succeed. Reach for your dreams."
Last Updated: 01/02/2008 |
Inflating
the travel time so you schedule earlier
