Can You Spare The Time?

It's been a while since I've said this so I'd like to remind y'all.

If you grab a schedule, you can see certain stops with times listed below them.
Let's say the 15 has Colfax & Broadway (Civic Center Station) listed as 3:00pm.

That means the bus leaves at 3:00pm.
Maybe later but not earlier.

Leaves at....
Leaves at....

If the Driver leaves at 3:00pm, he's ON TIME, not early.
9 other Drivers may leave at 3:01pm for whatever reasons they had for leaving late but the one Driver who leaves at 3:00pm is still on time and not early.

There are times listed where you can read that the bus will arrive at a certain time, say 2:55pm then leave 5 minutes later.
But most of those times you read, are the times at which the bus will leave.

Don't be discouraged by that.

Drivers (RTD Drivers at least) are kept on a short leash when it comes to time points.
That's what we call those times listed in the schedules, "Time Points" or "Time Stops"
We have Street Supervisors who have their computers out in front of them; sitting at random stops making sure buses on a variety of routes are hitting those times, on time or late but never early.
We have GPS on our radios that track our times and let us know when we're late and early.
So we have Dispatch tracking our times as well.

And of course we have our Passengers tracking when we arrive and leave and calling in any discrepancies!

Obviously, there are times when we can't control our arrival times: weather and traffic and passenger loads.
So we can end up being very late.
But the one "time" we can control is NEVER leaving early.
If that schedule reads 3:00pm, we do not leave before 3:00pm.

Many of you think that's when we'll arrive and many times it is when we arrive.
I try to time my routes so that I arrive at those times and keep rolling.
Rather than sit and burn time.
That way I've spread out the "extra time" to the other stops in between, allowing other passengers to get to their stops and get picked up.
Most Drivers have the experience to do this, are familiar enough with the routes to do this and will.

Occasionally we find ourselves having to sit at a stop and burn time.
But when you're on the bus and you see this, please see it as a good thing: we're staying on time rather than leaving early - not taking off before everybody arrives.
If I left Colfax & Broadway a minute early, then I'd be at least a minute early to every other stop down the line and everybody who was expecting me to arrive at their stops that minute later would miss the bus by just a minute.
I know that feeling.
I've arrived at my stops and seen my buses a few cars away, knowing I missed it by only 30 seconds and having to wait another half an hour for the next.

So that's a ton of words to tell you something very simple.
But I wanted to explain what you're reading and what I'm doing with the stops.

Again, this is only the RTD Drivers (not the privates who drive RTD buses) and possibly only me since RTD neither condones nor endorses my blogs!
RTD taught me in training that I'm not to leave EARLY and that those times listed in the schedules are the times we leave those stops.

I'm on time.
You're running because you're late.
Silly Rabbit!

As Always, "Welcome aboard, find your seats, check your watches - Let's Roll!"