Commute Tracking

The quest for the best route.

2024-12-14

Background

From the various SkyTrain stations to UBC, there are several bus routes available. As a resident coming from Richmond, the ones I consider are:

I wanted to know the answer to a very simple question: which one is the best?

To answer this question, I simply logged my commutes to UBC everyday, and used a python script to parse the GeoJSON files. It would determine which bus route I took, and how long the journey was split across the different legs. As I come from Richmond, I require one bus to the SkyTrain station, one SkyTrain ride into Vancouver, and one bus route to UBC. 3 legs in total.

The spreadsheet I use looks like the following:

spreadsheet

SkyTrain Stations to UBC (Westbound, Total Average)

ubc-routes
The red time denotes the SkyTrain duration (it is a constant for each route). ubc-routes-duration

UBC to SkyTrain Stations (Eastbound, Total Average)

skytrain-routes
The red time denotes the SkyTrain duration (it is a constant for each route).. skytrain-routes-duration

SkyTrain Stations to UBC (Westbound, 08:00)

The red time denotes the SkyTrain duration (it is a constant for each route).. ubc-routes-duration-08

UBC to SkyTrain Stations (Eastbound, 17:00)

The red time denotes the SkyTrain duration (it is a constant for each route).. skytrain-routes-duration-17

Conclusions

Typically, the 84 and R4 are the fastest routes. At different times of day, the fastest routes are different.

Unfortunately, for the academic year that I did this (2023W), my start time was consistently at 08:00 everyday. My end times were also off-peak at around 14:00. At these times, none of the buses are particularly crowded or slow. Hence the R4 makes a large portion of my commutes; it was the most frequent and convenient.

This is also limited by the fact that this data goes out of date quickly. TransLink doesn't always run the same buses on the same routes, so some may be more or less crowded, leading different timetabling. For example, I would not take the 84 these days as they do not run 60 foot articulated buses anymore.

As I go back to classes in 2024W T2 (January - April of 2025), I will definitely revisit this project with new and updated data.

Personal Anecdotes

The question I pose in the introduction is which of these bus routes is best. However, I don't define what best is. If we mean the fastest route, I believe I've answered that question already. However, some buses are more comfortable to ride than others. I typically will avoid the R4 during peak times due to how busy it is. I used to like the 84 because of its capacity during these busy times; it is not nearly as crowded. Of course, things have changed over the last year as I've mentioned above. I suspect that the 25 might be a viable alternative to the R4, now that they are using articulated buses.


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