Fagstein » McGill-University http://blog.fagstein.com Can you think of a better name? Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:54:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The transit nerd express http://blog.fagstein.com/2010/04/07/tram-on-the-467/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2010/04/07/tram-on-the-467/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:30:57 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=8821 It's hard to believe, but there are people out there who are more nerdy about public transit than I am.

Take the folks at Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM). They don't just do this as a hobby, chasing after buses with their cameras. They actually study public transit, and their work has results.

When the STM decided it would make a lot of sense to setup a limited-stop express line on St. Michel Blvd., it partnered with TRAM to perform some serious analysis of the plan.

TRAM first used data about existing passengers on the 67 line to estimate time savings in this rather academic-looking document (PDF), even providing different scenarios of where the 467 should stop for maximum efficiency.

After the 467 was put into service, they went back and looked at the average run times for both the 67 and 467 after implementation, and asked passengers to fill out a survey (PDF).

In October, Masters student Julien Surprenant-Legault produced this report (PDF) on the before-and-after numbers.

He explains:

I became involved after the 467 service's implementation on March 30, 2009. [Professor] Ahmed El-Geneidy and I evaluated the accuracy of the previous estimatess, quantified times savings, and assessed customers' satisfaction. We finished the study at the end of July 2009. The study that we have done is unique and is opening a new field of research; therefore, no comparable study presently exists.

As for the results, the estimates were 11% to 19% savings for run time on route 467, and the actual ones are 13%, which is in the expected range. Savings could have been higher without the introduction of the OPUS card, an electronic payment system that slightly slowed boardings. Still, the STM made some improvements to the payment boxes in order to speed up boardings; also, people now have had some time to adapt themselves to the new system. The trip on route 67 originally took 35 minutes, which decreased to 34 minutes after the implementation of route 467. Route 467 run time is 31 minutes (savings of 4 minutes 20 seconds).

A slide from Julien Surprenant-Legault's presentation about the effects of the 467 express route

Surprenant-Legault theorizes (correctly, I believe) that the major reason the improvements weren't as high as predicted was because of the introduction of the Opus smart card between the before measurements and the after measurements. As I've written about before, the Opus card and magnetic-stripe card require additional seconds for each passenger, either to hold the Opus against the reader or insert the card into the slot, wait for it to read, print out a validation and then spit it back out. Instead of passengers boarding two seconds apart, they now board five or six, making the whole trip slower.

One interesting finding in the study is about passengers' perception of time savings:

For route 467 riders, a statistically significant difference exists between their estimates and the actual savings. Real travel time savings were on average 1.5 minutes per trip, while users estimated them within a range of 6.9 to 11.9 minutes. For route 467 riders, a statistically significant difference exists between their estimates and the actual savings. Real travel time savings were on average 1.5 minutes per trip, while users estimated them within a range of 6.9 to 11.9 minutes.

If we assume this same phenomenon could be replicated on other lines, it means making a lot of passengers happy with not much investment.

You can get more about this study from this presentation (PDF) given by Surprenant-Legault.

Transportation Research at McGill hosts weekly seminars about transportation issues. Surprenant-Legault kicked off the winter 2010 session with the presentation mentioned above. The last one of the season is Thursday at noon, featuring Sébastien Gagné, Kevin Beauséjour and Jocelyn Grondines of the STM's planning department. The presentation is in Room 420 of the Macdonald-Harrington Building on McGill's main campus, and is free and open to the public.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2010/04/07/tram-on-the-467/feed/ 3 Toronto’s McGill University http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/05/12/mcgill-in-toronto/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/05/12/mcgill-in-toronto/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 21:30:59 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=1768 (Via Regret the Error):

A profile on April 29 about Francisco J. Ayala, a professor who speaks often in defense of the theory of evolution, misstated the location of McGill University, where he gave a recent talk. It is Montreal, not Toronto.

The shame, oh the utter horrible shame...

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/05/12/mcgill-in-toronto/feed/ 0 Snowball fight tonight at 7 http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/12/20/snowball-fight-tonight-at-7/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/12/20/snowball-fight-tonight-at-7/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:27:46 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/12/20/snowball-fight-tonight-at-7/ It's a bit last-minute, but a snowball fight is being organized (Facebook link) at McGill at 7pm. They're meeting just inside the Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke at the James McGill statue.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/12/20/snowball-fight-tonight-at-7/feed/ 0 What’s in a university’s name? http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/10/30/whats-in-a-universitys-name/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/10/30/whats-in-a-universitys-name/#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:10:20 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/10/30/whats-in-a-universitys-name/ McGill has a bug up its butt.

The university, whose name has apparently been left unprotected for almost 200 years, has begun clamping down on the use of the name "McGill" by organizations on campus. It started with CKUT, which was blackmailed into dropping "McGill" from its name last month. Now they're reviewing all student-run groups, forcing them into mounds of paperwork to justify using the McGill name in theirs.

Concordia University has had a similar policy (PDF) since 2001, with one significant difference: Concordia's policy grandfathered existing student groups, and as far as I can tell they don't sweat the small stuff: Only for-profit enterprises and large groups bother with approval.

McGill's move is just silly. Well-intentioned, but silly. A student club devoted to stamp-collecting at McGill is obviously going to call itself the McGill Stamp-Collecting Club or something similar, just for clarity's sake. The name implies only that it is at McGill, not that it is run by McGill's administration. Requiring such a complicated process as board approval will only create unnecessary work for volunteers and discourage students from creating social clubs on campus.

McGill says they're "reviewing" the policy. Let's hope they come up with some sane guidelines that have more to do with encouraging a vibrant and active student populace than it does with over-regulation and paperwork.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/10/30/whats-in-a-universitys-name/feed/ 0 Uprising 2? http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/20/uprising-2/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/20/uprising-2/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:02:53 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/20/uprising-2/ The folks at the McGill chapter Quebec Public Interest Research Group (read: hippie anarchists) have produced an "alternative" student agenda with activist propaganda.

Called "School Schmool" (education is a tool of the proletariat!), it commemorates the invention of the pipe bomb and encourages vandalism of advertisements.

Those of us with long memories might remember "Uprising", the 2001 Concordia student agenda, which had a similar ultra-activist slant, titles in Broken Typewriter font for that extra edge, the same "alternative" calendar anniversary notes, and encouraged people to vandalize advertisements, dismantle the capitalist system by firing their "bo$$e$" (l33t!), squat in abandoned buildings, steal expensive cars to take for joy rides and then crash into other expensive cars and setup pirate radio stations.

It also, of course, demonized Israel, the U.S., the media, the university, police, heterosexuals, capitalism and just about any large company.

Unfortunately for Concordia's student handbook, it was released in September 2001, which was pretty horrible timing. It eventually helped lead to an unprecedented student revolt that took the student union's executive out of office. (This one probably won't generate a reaction on the same level, if only because it wasn't the official student union agenda.)

Like all stupid student ideas, after five years when everyone's graduated, they start repeating themselves. Embezzlement of student funds, patronage appointments, election fraud, all tend to come and go on a five-year cycle. As do all the election promises that later turn out to be too complicated to accomplish or too impractical to be worth the time.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/20/uprising-2/feed/ 2 Journal still trying to manufacture scandal http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/18/journal-still-trying-to-manufacture-scandal/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/18/journal-still-trying-to-manufacture-scandal/#comments Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:28:01 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/18/journal-still-trying-to-manufacture-scandal/ As Kate so succinctly points out, the Journal de Montréal is taking yesterday's OMG-McGill-is-giving-out-free-cocaine!!!111oneone story and republishing it with little new information to try and get people to agree with them that it's a scandal. So far other media are talking about the story, but with the seriousness it deserves. They're studying a drug, and unfortunately that means people have to take it under controlled conditions.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/18/journal-still-trying-to-manufacture-scandal/feed/ 0 CKUT Radio-Not-McGill? http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/05/ckut-radio-not-mcgill/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/05/ckut-radio-not-mcgill/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:14:03 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/05/ckut-radio-not-mcgill/ Just when you think silly disputes only happen at Concordia, McGill University is refusing to hand over CKUT funding until the radio station comes to a formal agreement with the university over the use of the name "Radio McGill".

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/09/05/ckut-radio-not-mcgill/feed/ 2 CKUT license renewed until 2014 http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/08/15/ckut-license-renewed-until-2014/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/08/15/ckut-license-renewed-until-2014/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:42:25 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=661 The folks at CKUT Radio-McGill can rest easy. The CRTC today renewed their license for seven years until 2014, with only a minor change to its Canadian content rules. The decision also includes "suggestions" (to have board positions be longer than a year) and "reminders" (that board positions must be mostly university community members and at least 80% Canadian citizens).

Oh yeah, and make sure not to be discriminatory and stuff, even though you weren't actually discriminatory before.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/08/15/ckut-license-renewed-until-2014/feed/ 0 Can you get aroused with probes on your penis? http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/07/27/can-you-get-aroused-with-probes-in-your-penis/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/07/27/can-you-get-aroused-with-probes-in-your-penis/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:42:18 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=570 All sorts of medical studies ask strange things of their guinea pigs. Taking new pills, sleeping, not sleeping, changing their eating habits.

But I hope the compensatory indemnity was high for the group who volunteered to have their sexual arousal monitored by taking readings of their penises, in a study to show whether circumsized men are less sensitive. The conclusion: they're not.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/07/27/can-you-get-aroused-with-probes-in-your-penis/feed/ 1 So you can pass out while unconscious? http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/04/02/so-you-can-pass-out-while-unconscious/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/04/02/so-you-can-pass-out-while-unconscious/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:49:19 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=226 The McGill Daily has an interesting look at the science behind alcohol-induced blackouts.

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