Improving Wayfinding in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, Part 3: Barrie Transit
This is the third in a three-part series.
It's always fun to write about an transit agency you never have. It's not fun to have to target one agency specifically because of their established practices. Unfortunately, today's target is Barrie Transit.
There's nothing wrong with an agency having their own wayfinding practices, typically when the agency is isolated. If, say, Sault Ste. Marie Transit had a unique wayfinding system, it would make sense since they don't connect to other agencies. However, Barrie Transit is not isolated: it connects to GO Transit, and so its service is an important piece of the Greater Golden Horseshoe Transit network.
While I'm sure long-term locals understand the network well, the unique methods employed for wayfinding are a barrier towards people moving to the city, or those visiting. I consider myself a seasoned transit user, and even I have to keep checking my phone when in Barrie just to make sure I'm going the right way. It is important for there to be at least some consistency region-wide so that transit is easy to use, wherever you are.
In this piece, I will outline three ways in which Barrie Transit's unique wayfinding system is a problem, and then provide a solution of how to fix it.
Laying out the Agency
Before I delve into problems, I will just provide a quick overview of how service is structured. All routes operate from Downtown Barrie Terminal (DBT). Some routes operate just one way from the terminal, while others operate both directions.
With the exception of the 5, all routes end at one other major terminal. In the north, there's Georgian Mall (GM), and Georgian College (GC). In the south, there's Park Place (PP), and Barrie South GO (BSGO, also known simply as 'South GO').
While a number of routes stop at Allandale Waterfront GO's terminal, all these routes continue to DBT due to proximity.
Barrie's Downtown Bus Terminal, also known as DBT.
Problem #1: Route Letters
As I have mentioned in past posts in this series, letters are used in two ways. The most common way is in terms of branches: on the TTC, the 102A goes to Progress/Centennial College, the 102B to Steeles, the 102C to Steeles via Dynamic, and so forth. The second way is directions, like MiWay does: 4 E indicates the bus on route 4 is travelling east.
Barrie Transit combines these two into one system that can be... confusing, at best.
A map of Barrie Transit. The quality may not be great, but the directional mapping (A, B, C, and D) may be visible. If not, a link to the map can be found here.
For all routes except for the 5, 6, 8, and 100, a letter of 'A' does not indicate the branch, but in fact indicates that the route is travelling north. A letter of 'B' indicates that the route is travelling south. The 5 is the only route that operates primarily east-west, with the 'A' indicating westbound, and the 'B' indicating eastbound. This may seem simple enough, but there's a reason I have kept the 6, the 8, and the 100 separate.
The 6 is a large loop route, with service in both directions. The 'A' operates clockwise, and the 'B' counterclockwise. The 100 Express, however, is worse. The 'A' is clockwise, and is nicknamed the Red Express, operating Penetang, whereas the 'C' is the clockwise Red Express via Blake. The 'B' is the counterclockwise Blue Express, via Penetang, and the 'D' is the counterclockwise Blue Express via Blake. If you're travelling to Georgian College, which most customers are, any of the branches work. But if I want to board at, say, St Vincent and Cundles, and which to travel to Johnson and Blake, I must specifically take the 100C, or catch the 100D at the stop across the street. Each operates around every 40 minutes throughout the day, so you hope you know which comes first, and whether or not the 100D is going to sit at DBT for a bit.
The 8 is even wilder. The 'A' runs both northbound AND southbound. The 'B' also runs both northbound and southbound. The route is a figure-8 that rejects the already-confusing established system for something more confusing. There's also a 'Bear Creek Special' detour on this route that runs a few times a day, but because of the lettering system, it can't be properly signed as a branch.
This lettering system is not intuitive, and isn't even consistent within itself: why is the 5A westbound? Usually eastbound is dominant, especially when eastbound is towards DBT. Why is the 100 segmented so much that it becomes difficult to understand? Why does the 8A run both way? Who really knows? I have no clue how this was seen as a good idea, or how it has stuck around. Barrie used to have a rationale numbering system, but no more.
Problem #2: Destination Signs
I don't think route names are 100% necessary, but they are preferred. At the very least, the destination sign should show the destination. Good thing neither is true in Barrie!
Take the 2. Southbound buses travel to Park Place, and the sign reads 'Park Place'. The northbound buses run to DBT, and the signs read... 'Dunlop'. The 3 runs north to DBT, but the sign reads 'Bayview', which is the road it uses to get there, so it makes sense I guess. The 3 southbound however? It runs to Barrie South GO, and the sign reads 'Painswick', a neighbourhood the bus does pass through. The 6 in its loop from DBT to Georgian College. The signs of the B read 'College', even when buses are past the College, and the A reads 'Letitia'. 
Again, these names are not intuitive. There is no reason why sometimes it shows a relevant road, sometimes a neighbourhood, sometimes an irrelevant road, sometimes the destination. The fact that not a single route has a simply sign reading something like '1 to DBT' is actually absurd.
Problem #3: Stop Names
The entire second part of this series was dedicated to stop names. Barrie Transit takes it to a whole other level, as the stops are too simplistic, and if they have additional info, they are inconsistent. Take a look at a sample list of stops from the 4A:
- Maple at Ross
- Wellington Street
- Grove Street
- Canadian Tire
- Bayfield Mall
- 49 Coulter Street
The information communicated in stop names is incomplete at best, and misleading at worse. It doesn't properly address where you actually are, and it assumes you already know the route. Of course you know what Canadian Tire it is! Again, intuition is ignored here. Even if I knew I had to get off at 49 Coulter, no mention has been made of that street prior to the stop being announced.
How would I fix the system?
I have a number of ways to make the system fit in-line with the other GGH agencies. First, and most easily, would be to rename all stops to fit a standard format of 'Street/Cross Street' and the variations I outlined in the past post.
Even if Barrie didn't want to simplify any routes, they can renumber routes in a way that makes them easier to understand and removes the need for the dumb lettering by adding actually destinations. We will use DBT as the base.
First, let's take routes that operate one way from DBT, like the 3. First, a name will be assigned that reflects the roads it runs on, so it is now '3 Big Bay Point'. Buses travelling north will read '3 Big Bay Point to DBT', whereas buses travelling south read '3 Big Bay Point to Barrie South GO'. Even if they choose not to go for the name, '3 to DBT' is super easy to understand.
Now, let's try routes that run through DBT, like the 1. Before giving a name, let's split the route. North of DBT will be the 1 Bayfield, whereas south of DBT is now the 11 Huronia. While this may seem like passengers require more transfers, it will not: the 1 turns into the 11 at DBT, and vice versa. One would know this because they have the same base: '1'. The 4 Springdale and 14 Hurst would do the same, as would the 7 Grove and 17 Ardagh.
For the looping 6, the loop can continue. First, I would make the western half of the loop the 6 Livingstone, and the eastern half the 16 Duckworth. A 6 leaving DBT becomes the 16 at Georgian College, then a 6 again at DBT, then a 16, and so forth, with the opposite happening in the reverse direction.
Now, the figure-8 8 bus I would split into four routes! The northwest part would be the 8 Bell Farm, the northeast the 9 Blake, the southwest the 18 Essa, and the southeast 19 Yonge. The 8 and 18 would interline, and the 9 and 19 as well. Technically, the 8 and 9, and 18 and 19, could interline as well, but I could see it getting a bit confusing. Still, it would be an improvement on the current system. Also, the 'Bear Creek Special' would be more official, now the 18B.
Lastly, for the 100, I would consolidate services. The 100A, B, C, and D all run along Bayfield. This would now be the '101 Red Express' in both directions. The service on Penetang, the former 100A and 100C, could now be the 102 Blue Express, whereas the service on Blake could be the new 103 Green Express. The 101 runs every 15 minutes, and when these buses get to Georgian College or DBT, they alternate becoming the 102 or 103. Every 102 or 103 would become the 101. It's not perfect, but it also improves frequencies to half-hourly at worse on all portions. Also, since the express service via Blake doesn't run on weekends, it can now be easily communicated as "103 Green Express does not operate on weekends".
The new Barrie Express.
Conclusion
Barrie Transit's unique system may have made sense when their transit service was isolated, but Barrie is now an important part of a region, and need to at least have some consistency with the other component pieces of said region. Simple modifications to wayfinding in terms of destination signs, stop names, and numbers would make a world of difference in terms of directions.
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