Better buses

Transit

by David Alpert • May 16, 2008 11:56 am

Metro's next big focus is on improving bus on-time performance, the Examiner reports. That's great—my graph of L2 waiting times shows that it's sadly unpredictable, and it's far from unusual.

Prepay option on the Circulator.
Photo by Payton Chung on Flickr.

The article mentions two major innovations: dynamic dispatching and real-time arrival information. The dispatching would allow supervisors to fix problems like bus bunching by deciding to send some buses express or turn some around to fill a service gap going the opposite direction.

Real-time info would tell riders when a bus is really going to arrive. That will help people decide when to leave home or which route to take based on actual knowledge. Today, unless a bus is very frequent, riders have to plan to reach the bus stop a few minutes early just to avoid missing the bus, and then sometimes they miss it anyway.

Here are a few more ways we can improve bus reliability:

Design streets to streamline buses. DDOT should adopt a "transit first" policy that when it redesigns a street or replaces a traffic signal, they will engineer it to help the buses as much as possible. Bus bulbs allow buses to stop in their lane without having to pull out of traffic and then in again. Electronically controllable signals can allow buses to extend a yellow light to make it through. Bigger bus stops can make it easier for buses to pull into their stops. And in key bottlenecks, we should use bus-only lanes to allow a bus to bypass traffic. Remember, a single bus usually carries as many people as a whole block of road filled with single-passenger cars. Bumping the bus to the front of the queue moves more people faster.
Eliminate bus stops. Many buses stop every single block. What's wrong with every other block or every third? Put clear signs along the route directing people from each intersection to the nearest bus stop. Each stop introduces more opportunities for delay.
Introduce express service. Metro and DDOT created the Metro Extra that runs down Georgia from Silver Spring to downtown DC. They hope to add more of these routes, and they should.
Simplify the bus routes. We have a lot of low-frequency bus routes right now. The lower the frequency, the more a single missing or delayed bus affects riders. We should run more buses on fewer routes. People may have to walk an extra block or two, but will wait less time at the stop. Simpler routes would also make buses easier for riders to go to routes other than their daily commute, easier for tourists, and easier to read the now-nightmarish map.
Speed up boarding. Everyone who's ridden a bus knows how long it takes for a line of people to climb the stairs (sometimes slowly) one by one, and fiddle with the machine to pay. Lower-floor buses make it easier to get on. And we should start installing machines at the busiest stops where people pay ahead of time, allowing them to go right on the bus and even use the rear door. Spot-checked enforcement ensures people don't have an incentive to cheat (as long as the fine for cheating is high enough).
Make buses free with congestion pricing money. One alternative for New York's congestion pricing would have made transit completely free with a higher congestion charge. MWCOG is already floating congestion pricing for the DC region. With the right charges, we could remove fares entirely from buses. That would save a lot of time and even some money by removing the need to install and maintain fare collection boxes in every bus, enforce fare evasion, collect and cash in the money each day, and so on. And the higher ridership would reduce pressure to build more parking lots and wider roads.

7 comments — Share	— tags: buses, WMATA

Many buses stop too often (Oct 29, 2009)
Could a "12 Minute" bus map increase bus ridership? (Apr 22, 2009)
Gotta cut bus service? Let's combine and simplify routes (Jan 14, 2009)
What should our bus stop standards be? (Dec 5, 2008)
Should buses stick out? (May 6, 2008)

Comments

I've occasionally looked at the second hand on my watch while at bus stops, and my rough estimate is that it takes 5 seconds to pull over and open the door, 5 seconds per passenger to board, on average, and 5 seconds to merge back into traffic.

This is the essential problem with bus bunching--the more passengers there are, the longer it takes to board, so the more the bus falls behind schedule, so the more passengers collect at upcoming stops, so the more it falls behind schedule. As a bus falls behind schedule, the time until the bus behind it decreases, meaning fewer passengers accumulate for the trailing bus, and so it speeds up, also decreasing the time between the two buses, until they bunch. Speeding up boarding is perhaps the only way to address bunching. And bunching might be inevitable for transit vehicles with a single boarding door.

You've written earlier, I think, that WMATA claims that riders on a bus absolutely do not want it to wait around at a stop if it's running ahead of schedule or closing in on the bus in front of it. Perhaps such drivers could be instructed to simply drive a little slower?

My idea for speeding up boarding would be a massive give-away of SmartTrip cards along major bus corridors. SmartTrip does speed up boarding significantly. That, and encourage alighting riders to use the rear door.

by thm on May 16, 2008 1:36 pm

Metro, D Dot , M Dot & V Dot need to take a look at the bus system in Europe and Asia which carry more people and are way more Efficient

* Design streets to streamline buses

thats a very good idea

* Eliminate bus stops

Some do have stops every block but not even that many as you make it seem,I've been on most of the routes in dc before and they all dont stop on every block.

How often they stop should depend on the area

* Introduce express service

what would be better is to expand metro extra on really busy routes or run more buses on routes such as all S routes, X2, 80, 90-2, 96-7, E2-3, K6, U5-6, U8, W4, W6-8, B2, 82-6, T18, all A routes, D8, D6, F2, F14, G8, H8, H2-4, J1-3, L1-4, N2-6, P6, R4,

V7-9

* Simplify the bus routes We have a lot of low-frequency bus routes right now.

We dont really have that many low frequency bus routes, what we have is really a lot of buses that go basically the same route for miles until they split up and go different places.

What we need to do is for example the L routes have only one L bus go up Conn. Ave after Woodley Park metro and have that bus run as often as all the L buses did together and from Woodley Park station have that bus meet other buses that that go the present routes. Example L1 from Chevy Chase Circle to Potomac Park, L2 Dupont Circle to Woodpark station in a circle that goes the present route to the woodley park station and then go back to dupont circle with a circular route and the L4 going up Conn. Ave from Metro Center to Woodly Park station.

Metro should run more of the longer buses esp. on all long routes. all L routes, 80 , all X2 trips, all 70 trips, and any other buses that primary stay on one street for a long for time.

* Speed up Boarding

Spot-checked enforcement does not work after using transit in other cities around the world and the us people always try to catch a free ride esp. if its really busy or where the checks dont happen all the time.

Some times on some buses all doors dont work, maybe we should start using buses with 3, 4 or 5 sets of doors like in Europe and Asia.

Sometimes what slows down buses is when people in wheelchairs get on and off that takes about 5 minutes and then the lift brakes sometimes on those buses.

* Make buses free with congestion pricing money

Metro, DC, VA & MD damn sure aint gonna agree do that, plus that would add to the need for more buses, remember what happen that weekend when metrorail was free a couple years ago imagine all buses like that all the time.

by kk on May 16, 2008 4:52 pm

One (perhaps counter-intuitive) technique for increasing speeds and reducing bunching is to do away with schedules altogether. AC Transit started this a few years ago on their Rapid bus routes and got significant speed increases. This PowerPoint reports one route having a 17% speed increase. Wired Autopia blog described the system like this:

Getting Rid of Schedules Speeds up Buses
... Now, buses depart from their end points at a selected frequency (usually every 10 to 15 minutes). The object for bus drivers is to arrive at the destination as fast as possible, even if it means passing another bus. Previously, buses running ahead of schedule would stop and wait until time caught up, frustrating passengers onboard. NextBus, a GPS tracking system, makes running this kind of timetable easier. At each Rapid bus stop, there is a NextBus screen that tells when the next buses are coming, eliminating the need for schedules. This "headway schedule" system allows for AC Transit's Rapid buses to travel at their maximum speeds and to minimize the overall travel times.

by Laurence Aurbach on May 16, 2008 6:40 pm

@Laurence: you're hitting on the exact deficiency of thm's plan...schedules are the main issue. As a former bus driver, mission #1 was staying on schedule. If 90% of the buses in the system were on schedule, it is more efficient and better for the passengers to keep the buses to the timetable. The problem in DC (and with WMATA's long-line system) is that deadheading becomes really, really difficult without causing a big wait for people at a stop. If you can up the frequency of a bus so that a schedule isn't important (on the 16th St. line, maybe), fine. But in order to service the other areas you need to have a schedule that people can more or less count on. The Connector does an especially poor job of this, mainly because it only has one time stop where it can really space things [Union Station].

David also hits on a key point: quick payment. The cash system kills reliability and time, especially at key transfer points downtown. It's time for a SmarTrip giveaway to get everyone on board. The current $.10 surcharge takes a full month to cover for just the $5 payment, and you pretty much have to visit a Metro station to fill it. Fix that and you'll cover a bunch of ills.

The DCist thread also hit on this, but entry in the front and exit in the back is key from a driver's perspective to keeping time. Maybe having DDOT/Metro folks lining people up during rush times could speed the process. We can dream, can't we?

by dino on May 17, 2008 2:03 am

My only concern with the elimination of certain bus stops: ensuring handicapped and elderly riders are not overlooked in the process of deciding what stops can be scapped. I imagine some research and rider feedback would be needed. Drivers could note what stops pickup and drop off elderly and handicapped riders most often. Anyway, just something I hope we keep in mind while getting rid of unnecessary stops.

by Jimmy D on May 19, 2008 9:14 am

I think that watching people cheat the fare system is infuriating, but I'm not sure it's really a huge problem.

It used to drive me up the wall in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) when I was studying there; you had to watch the scruffy-looking kids jump on the back set of doors on articulated busses while you queued up to pay. I never saw anyone get nailed for not paying on a bus the whole time I lived there.

However, do transit systems really lose that much money this way? I figure systems can just use transit cops to hit people with huge fines to make money (rather then to really prevent fraud) and leave it at that. In the US context, this is probably even less of a problem; I'm led to believe we up north rely far more heavily on fare recovery (as opposed to subsidization) than New York or D.C. do.

by Jesse on May 22, 2008 6:52 pm

Assuming they don't go to super-frequent scheduling, similar route timing is surprisingly a factor. For example, the J1 saves 8-12 minutes on a trip from the Silver Spring Metro to the Medical Center metro compared to the J2 and J3 which go through downtown Bethesda first. Very often the J2 or J3 is schedule to arrive 2-5 minutes before the J1. Thus, many people take these buses, increase crowding and slow down those routes. If the J1 always led, then ridership on the J2 and J3 would decrease by 5-10%.

Also, thm's stop timing has a major flaw. Even a 15s delay means you'll be missing more green lights and falling entire red-light cycles behind. The more stops between lights, the more often this will happen. This can add minutes to a trip. The only real comparison is to drive a route during regular commute hours and see how much faster a car can do it. (I'd guess a car is 1-2 minutes faster per mile)

by bsi on May 28, 2008 5:28 pm