- ᐅᖃᓕᒫᕐᓂᖅ
- ᖃᓄᖅ ᐅᒃᑐᕆᓂᖃᖅᑐᒍᑦ
- ᐅᑕᖅᑭᓂᖅ ᐃᓚᔭᐅᔪᖅ
Extra wait is how much longer riders wait than the timetable says.
On busy routes, people turn up and wait. In an illustrative example with round numbers, a bus every 6 minutes that comes in pairs can feel like one every 12.
How we work it out
On a frequent route, we take the gaps between buses at each stop and hour. A rider who turns up at a random moment waits, on average, the sum of each gap squared divided by twice the sum of the gaps. We work that out for the gaps that really happened and for the gaps in the timetable. The difference is the extra wait.
Buses in pairs and big gaps
- Buses in pairs: a gap much shorter than the scheduled gap.
- Big gaps: a gap much longer than the scheduled gap.
- Felt headway: the wait turned into "a bus every N minutes".
Trips we could not see
We never turn an unseen bus into a gap. The timetable is cut at an unseen trip, and gaps are counted only inside the pieces on either side. A trip that never came leaves a real gap, and counts.
Where the numbers come from
- OC Transpo live vehicle positions
- STO live vehicle positions
- Published timetables, dated
Method version and change log
A published month never changes. If a method is revised, past months keep the method they were worked out with.
- Version 1 · October 25, 2026. First published. Extra wait, buses in pairs and big gaps on busy routes.