Suburban buses needn't baffle inexperienced riders

Transit

Suburban buses needn't baffle inexperienced riders

by Jamie Scott • November 9, 2011 3:34 pm

In many suburban jurisdictions, bus systems feel like an afterthought, with tiny bus flags at the side of a road and confusing or even nonexistent information about which bus to take.

Image by mikebot on Flickr.

Most suburban routes run less frequently than Metrobus routes in DC, making them harder to use. But it would cost a lot of money to increase frequency. Meanwhile, for a very small investment, jurisdictions like Fairfax County could make buses much easier to use with simple wayfinding improvements.

Bus stop flags should identify the routes that stop there; believe it or not, at least in Fairfax, they don't today. And buses should add automated announcements of the next stop.

Since the buses are so infrequent, better wayfinding is even more critical. If a rider misses a stop or misses a bus while waiting at the wrong stop, he or she could end up waiting an hour for the next bus, or have to take a very long walk to the destination.

Fairfax's county government offices are difficult to access by public transit. Only two Fairfax Connector routes serve them. But not all residents can afford to or want to own a car, and those who can't or won't drive are at a decided disadvantage in being able to fully participate in society.

I had to visit the county seat two years ago to register to vote in Virginia; my permanent address was then my parents' house in Kingstowne. I had to register in person during office hours, but my parents both worked. Living in the District and lacking access to a car, I took the Metro to Vienna and then took a Fairfax Connector to the county office.

I had never been to the county offices before and I wasn't familiar with the area. The stops weren't announced, so I had to be extra careful about when to get off. I ended up getting off the bus too early and had to walk the rest of the way.

When I left the office, I walked to what I thought was the stop for the bus back to the Metro. The bus stop sign didn't have the route number. Suburban streets also aren't marked as clearly as city streets, so finding the intersection where my bus stopped wasn't as easy.

It turns out I was at the wrong bus stop, but as the bus approached, I was able to hustle to the correct stop, which luckily was nearby. If the stop flag had been marked, I would have known at which stop I should wait. If I had missed the bus, I would have had to wait at least 30 minutes for the next one.

When traveling after dark, it can be hard to identify bus stops while on the bus. Announcing the stops would make it easier for riders to know where they are. Stop announcements don't always work, but having them fail sometimes is better than not having them at all.

Adding route numbers to bus stops signs would require a minimal investment, but would make it much easier for riders to know if they are in the right place. Fairfax Connector route numbers are often shown on shelters, where they exist, but not on stop flags. Metrobus, Montgomery's Ride On and Arlington's ART, on the other hand, show route numbers on almost all stop flags. Ride On's even show the route's ultimate destination, so you don't find yourself on the correct route but going the wrong way.

Automated stop announcements require that buses be equipped with GPS, which is a bigger investment. Ride On is piloting real-time tracking, which would be useful for the Connector. GPS tracking could also bring NextBus' ability to predict how many minutes until the bus arrives to Fairfax Connector riders.

More attractive, easier to understand bus service can make suburban communities easier to navigate and reduce the need for driving. These two wayfinding improvements won't suddenly bring residents out of their cars. But they can make life easier for current bus riders and make buses a better option for those hesitant to ride.

29 comments

Tags: buses, Fairfax, Fairfax Connector, real-time bus, Virginia, wayfinding

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Jamie Scott is a resident of Ward 3 in DC and a regular Metrobus commuter. He believes in good government, livable communities and quality public transit. Jamie holds a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Policy at Georgetown.

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To clarify - metrobus stops at FFX county have bus numbers - Fairfax county connector stops do not. While Fairfax has its Fairfax County Connector system, there are also many metrobus lines that traverse the county as well.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Nov 9, 2011 4:06 pm • link • report

Adding route numbers and schedules would be a great improvement. Quite frankly, it should be mandatory for any bus stop. However, in Fairfax, the stops at least feature the Connector logo. Bus stops in Prince William are plain white with in black letters the words BUS STOP. Nothing else.

I am not sure about the announcement of the next stop. On a LED sign it might work out, but I would oppose audible announcements. That would be an annoying disruption of the peace in the bus.

Meanwhile, the shuffle of the bays at Franconia-Springfield is also a disaster because the bays have multiple buses leaving at the same time. This leads to buses standing at different bays that schedules, which leads to plenty of confusion.

Finally, why weer you registering to vote in VA while living in DC?

by Jasper on Nov 9, 2011 4:08 pm • link • report

Announcing of stops isnt just a convenience issue....it's the law.

ADA law. Find yourself a blind friend, get him on the bus, get him lost, and enjoy the thousands of dollars in lawsuit monies. Make it rain baby.

If buses are too old to have automated systems, the driver MUST announce every stop.

This isn't optional.

Also, a more immediate course of action would be "excuse me driver, could you tell me when we reach x stop".

by JJJJJ on Nov 9, 2011 4:15 pm • link • report

I could not agree more with this article. Riding the bus in the suburbs can be very stressful. I recently had to travel from Centreville to Vienna metro in the late afternoon, and finding the correct bus and bus stop on my mobile phone was very hard.

I would like to add three suggestions to yours that would make suburban bus travel more pleasant:

Fairfax Connector should publish its data so that its buses can be added to Google maps. This will make it easier to plan a trip using their buses. Speaking of publishing data, transit sites need to make sure their data is up to date. To give an example, GoDCGo currently shows a WMATA bus line 12 in Centreville on its map that has not existed for years.

Connections between multi-agency buses could be much better. Virginia Regional Transit's Dulles2Dulles bus always seems to arrive at Dulles airport when Metrobus 5A to DC has just left.

Buses should not be afraid to cross county lines. Fairfax residents would benefit from buses to Dulles airport or Dulles town center.

by Max on Nov 9, 2011 4:16 pm • link • report

Jasper:

At the time, I was a student at Georgetown but my permanent address was Fairfax County.

I think audible announcements alone would be annoying. I've heard Circulator drivers do it and it's usually garbled and too loud. I'm thinking the announcements should be the same as on Metrobuses, with the LED screen and voice.

by Jamie Scott on Nov 9, 2011 4:32 pm • link • report

Next stop announcements don't require fancy gizmos; they just require the driver announcing the next stop or being mindful (if there aren't many passengers) of where each passenger is headed. I've had some great bus drivers who've functioned as much a conductor as an operator.

by Bossi on Nov 9, 2011 4:36 pm • link • report

@ JJJJ:Announcing of stops isnt just a convenience issue....it's the law. ADA law.

That may be, but it's an unenforced law. The only place where I've ever heard understandable stop announcements was in Kyoto Japan - and my Japanese does not go further than domo arigato.

Anywhere else in the world, every single audible bus stop annoucement sounds like "GRBRBGBRBBGBRBBG GBGBRBRBGRRBGR". For every single stop.

So, until there are bus drivers that can enunciate (in the local language), and speaker systems that do not deform, no audibles for me please. If I want to listen to "GBRBBGBRBBGBGBRBGBB", I'll listen to System of a Down or Slayer.

For the time being, that disqualifies virtually every bus in the world.

That said, I would not know the name of my bus stop.

by Jasper on Nov 9, 2011 5:12 pm • link • report

@ Jamie: At the time, I was a student at Georgetown but my permanent address was Fairfax County.

And here we are regularly complaining that students don't take an interest in local politics...

by Jasper on Nov 9, 2011 5:13 pm • link • report

@ Jasper:

That's a fair point. At the time I didn't realize that I could have registered to vote in the District. I also wanted to be able to help Virginia go for Obama that year. Either way, I had to change my voter registration, which had been in WV. But that's beside the point.

Regarding compliance with ADA and automated stops, I also rarely hear drivers announce the stops themselves. But I have seen drivers help blind passengers before or tell a rider when the bus approaches a particular stop, if they have asked.

by Jamie Scott on Nov 9, 2011 5:23 pm • link • report

I drove bus in Seattle, both city and suburbs, for some years awhile back before automated stop announcement systems.

The ADA requirements didn't force us to announce every stop, just major landmarks and transfer points, or any stop specifically requested by a passenger. That typically translated to every stop around major commercial areas and every few stops elsewhere.

by dal20402 on Nov 9, 2011 5:35 pm • link • report

I have never had trouble understanding the audible stop announcements on Metrobus or Ride On.

by Roger on Nov 9, 2011 5:53 pm • link • report

Jasper, I dont know what kind of 1970s bus you ride, but every modern bus (and train) has crystal clear announcements.

Just because the DC area likes to pretend blind people dont exist (ie, perfectly clear doors closing message, but no stop message) doesnt mean the technology and law isnt there.

As I said, it's a fairly simple lawsuit. Someone with standing needs to start hitting that cash pot. It's a bottomless pit of delicious taxpayer money just prime for the taking.

by JJJJJ on Nov 9, 2011 7:11 pm • link • report

I've taken Fairfax Connector sometimes and I only seem to get on at major stops or at a Metro station where they identify which routes stop at that stop, but nothing anywhere else. It makes it harder for identifying routes that turn at the next intersection or anything of the sort. I still wonder why PG and Fairfax still lack proper bus stop signs with actual route numbers. Also, I do agree that they should look into getting voice announcements and providing schedule data to help trip planning. What's ironic is that PG County has had Nextbus for years but very few people seem to know that it exists. Even their website (god awful one at that) lacks this information and their Nextbus site still lacks the changes and new routes.

by Ken Conaway on Nov 9, 2011 7:59 pm • link • report

JJJJJ,

I take Fairfax Connector routinely and in the rare occasion a driver announces the stops it is totally inaudible. And some of these are brand new (less than 1 year old) buses.

by Joshua Davis on Nov 9, 2011 8:30 pm • link • report

This article brings back memories. A little more than ten years ago, when Arlington's ART bus system was born, some conventional thinkers inside our building held that if we provided information at the major stops that would be enough. Why it was more than others, such as Fairfax provided. Luckily our marketing people said wait. A bus stop is a golden opportunity to not only inform riders but advertise where this bus goes and when. This thinking prevailed and a commitment was made that every stop flag would not only identify each route but that each stop would have a map and schedule information. Today, all 450 ART bus stops have this info thanks to our marketing folks who produce the signs and our Commuter Store staff who go out and put them up and change them. Not only that but plenty of our stops have real time info and more. Go to www.ArlingtonTransit.com and click on Rider Tools to see all of the ways ART helps people get around. The same commitment was made for every Metrobus stop on Columbia Pike. Thanks for sharing the story.
Chris
Chris Hamilton
Arlington County Commuter Services

by Chris Hamilton on Nov 9, 2011 8:52 pm • link • report

http://web.archive.org/web/20081013064453/http://www.cudc.kent.edu/d-Service-Learning/PDFs/TWE%20screen%20short.pdf

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_rpt_46-a.pdf

http://www.embarq.org/sites/default/files/EMB2011_From_Here_to_There_web.pdf

by Richard Layman on Nov 9, 2011 9:43 pm • link • report

Chris -- what you say, I say like this: "our transit infrastructure is our primary touchpoint for marketing transit, for users and passersby. So if it is high quality and thorough it promotes transit. If it isn't, it doesn't. And we've wasted our investment."

cf. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/34786415/

by Richard Layman on Nov 9, 2011 9:45 pm • link • report

I used to have to transfer from the 310 to the 410 to get where I was going on Sundays, and missing the bus was a drag. I bided my time at the 7-Eleven until the next bus came along.

It would be nice, when bus routes pass near each other, for the buses to wait up to 3 minutes or so for the next bus to connect. That goes for Metrobus in DC too, but it's less crucial in the city.

by Omar on Nov 10, 2011 2:54 am • link • report

Fairfax and Prince George's counties are in the minority at this point in time when it comes to stop announcements and displays. Ride On, ART, and CUE all have displays and I think PRTC does too on their local routes. PG has always underfunded transit, both their own system and their contributions to Metro, so they get a bit of a mulligan there.

Fairfax's excuse in not doing so would be one that I'd love to hear but they seem to run Connector in a shroud of secrecy. Remember when they claimed their Google data was bundled with WMATA and yet they still haven't joined nearly a year after WMATA did?

by Jason on Nov 10, 2011 8:28 am • link • report

@Omar:
Actually, such a timed-transfer exists in the Metrobus system.

When the Greenbelt area bus routes were redesigned last December, the community wanted to be sure that people from each neighborhood on the west side could get to each neighborhood on the east side (without waiting up to an hour to transfer).

The result was the creation of the timed-transfer between route G12 and route G13/G14/G16 at Greenbelt Center (Crescent Road and Gardenway). Eastbound buses arrive at the stop and wait for 5 minutes before departing.

I actually find this frustrating, because it adds 5 minutes of just sitting at the stop to my travel time. But then, I'm a very rare user of the timed-transfer; I ride straight through on the same route on my normal commute.

by Matt Johnson on Nov 10, 2011 9:04 am • link • report

@ JJJJ:Jasper, I dont know what kind of 1970s bus you ride, but every modern bus (and train) has crystal clear announcements.

Fairfax Connector 305. Half of the buses has severe maintenance issues. Some can't get up to 55 mph, some can barely get up hills, others leak when it rains. Oh, it's a joy. NOT. And that's aside from the circuitous route.

That said, it's not like metro's announcements are crystal clear. Half of them garble up in the speaker system, and the other half suffer from lack of enunciation. Don't think that a tourist will understand "Urng Lin-Nah Crlton".

by Jasper on Nov 10, 2011 10:08 am • link • report

@Jasper:
In all fairness, many tourists wouldn't understand "Orange Line to New Carrollton", either.

But it would be great if WMATA could bring automated stop announcements to Metro. I'm hoping they'll hire the guy who does CTA's announcements.

Randolph and Wabash is next. Doors open on the right at Randolph and Wabash. Transfer to Metra and South Shore trains at Randolph and Wabash. ... This is an Orange Line train to Midway.

by Matt Johnson on Nov 10, 2011 10:59 am • link • report

@ Matt: Sure. That would be useful. The London Metro also has a brilliant voice (although I think they fired her for being naughty at some point). But since buses stop more often than trains, I'd think it'd drive people insane. I like the LED screen that WMATA has in (some?) buses. They are very helpful.

Anything audible is a lot more complex. Not only sound quality is an issue. The message is an issue as well. As is the volume. There are places where metro is so loud I can not hear my ipod at max volume [e.g. the tunnel between Reagan and Braddock]. There long stretches where my ipod does not get over the roar of an accelerating bus.

I can imagine a lot. In fact, I've lived it, in Kyoto. They even had English announcements there at the more touristy stops. Fantastic. But it's not something you can easily implement. As an engineer, you should appreciate that.

Let's start with putting route numbers and schedules on bus stops, and with LED screens. I would welcome those, because it would actually help me. Suburbia is very generic in the dark.

Perhaps then start thinking about the requirements that would allow audible announcements in new buses.

Meanwhile, normal maintenance is my hope for the Fairfax Connector. Honestly, it is not safe when buses do 35 max at the Fairfax County Parkway during rush hour.

by Jasper on Nov 10, 2011 11:42 am • link • report

LED stop announcements would be a good start, but they need to be automated. Half the time the displays on Metro trains don't even update, or have the wrong stops/line altogether. If you want some transit envy, visit Munich. All the trams, trains, and buses have the LEDs so, even not speaking German, I can get off at the right stop. But recorded audio is also helpful. Because automated announcements are clear and consistent, I don't need to understand German to know when my stop is being announced. Though, major stops/stations are announced in English as well.

by Colleen on Nov 10, 2011 5:19 pm • link • report

@Jasper:

I think it's only the oldest of old metrobuses that don't have the LED stop announcements. The screens on the metro are useless though as most of them only display the train color and not the stop.

by MLD on Nov 10, 2011 7:39 pm • link • report

@ MLD: it's only the oldest of old metrobuses that don't have the LED stop announcements.

Read my posts. I don't ride metrobus. I ride the Fairfax Connector. The bus service of the second richest county in the nation. And let me assure you that even the newest Fairfax Connectors do not have LED screens.

by Jasper on Nov 10, 2011 9:09 pm • link • report

@Max - Fairfax Connector might be releasing their GTFS data in 2012. https://twitter.com/#!/ffxconnector/status/70457200610516992

by Kevin on Nov 10, 2011 10:11 pm • link • report

Jasper, have you ever looked at the other side of the bus stop signs in Prince William County? They have not only route names, but also the destination of the routes served.

by Ginger on Nov 11, 2011 7:01 am • link • report

Just posted a two-parter series on improving my hometown's suburban bus system, Golden Gate Transit, and I didn't even think about LEDs.

Wayfinding and overcoming long headways are crucial to utilizing transit in the 'burbs, and there are a lot of good ideas in here that could be applied to any suburban bus system.

by OctaviusIII on Nov 11, 2011 1:53 pm • link • report