I have to agree with you on that. Metro Transit has this thing for clock-based headways and it's pretty rare for them to not do them. I don't know if that's a policy decision or what. Clock based headways make it easier to not check schedules if you know the bus always comes by 8 minutes past the hour but I wonder with more transit information if that is not as important now. I've heard other transit systems routinely do oddly timed frequencies that meet their cycle. Some of the Bloomington routes used to have alternating 30-60 minute headways. I'd prefer an even 45 minute headway to 30-60. I think Route 75 used to have a 30-60 minute cycle and now has a 45-minute headway but I can't think of any others off the top of my head.According to Google it would add 3 minutes to the route. I think 35 minute frequency would be worth connecting to the transit center.The quick answer is that to provide 30-minute frequencies on the current Route 83, it takes 3 bus drivers to operate the route at once. If the route was extended to Rosedale but kept 30-minute frequencies, it would take 4 bus drivers. So to extend the route to Rosedale would make the route 33% more expensive to operate. If you are interested in more of how that works, you can look up cycle time for transit service.A little off topic but what is the deal with route 83 stopping at HarMar and not continuing to Rosedale? Seems a shame to stop just short.
It would certainly make the route more useful and attract more ridership, but Metro Transit must not have felt they had enough budget to extend the route that far when they created the route in 2014 when the Green Line opened.
I also imagine they timed the route to connect with the Green Line 35 minute frequency wouldn't make as clean of transfers. Though when it started in 2014 with 10 minute frequency on the Green Line it didn't matter as much. The current 15 minute frequencies on the LRT lines makes everything more difficult.