What should our bus stop standards be?

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What should our bus stop standards be?

by David Alpert • December 5, 2008 5:46 pm

Remember the debate in Chevy Chase DC about bus shelters? One resident opposed any bus shelters in front of her house because they "make the neighborhood feel urban." Neighbors suggest that instead of forcing people to stand in the rain, perhaps shelters in that area could reflect the local character.

Not our future bus stop standards. Dubai photo by elvis_payne on Flickr.

WMATA is embarking on a project to develop guidelines for bus stops. They hope these guidelines will not only affect Metrobus stops, but also Circulator, Ride-On, The Bus, ART, and the many other individual local buses across the region. And there's a public meeting on the topic on Wednesday, December 17th, 5-7:30 pm at WMATA headquarters, 600 5th Street, NW.

But design is only one part of the scope of this project:

These guidelines will assist WMATA and its member jurisdictions in applying a more uniform method for stop location and design. The current spacing of stops along routes, and the impact of consolidating bus stops along corridors where stops are currently spaced very close together, will also be examined as part of this project.

Many of our buses stop every single block. Each stop helps the riders who live right on that block, but slow down everyone else. We need to ensure that buses are still accessible to the elderly and people with disabilities; at the same time, many people would ride buses (and thus not contribute to traffic) if they moved faster. We need to find a balance.

John Catoe's general strategy, which he implemented in LA, is to combine some local buses with express buses. Still, there are many bus stops which we should still eliminate from our current routes today, before we have expresses, and on routes which will never see express service. This project aims to determine standards for when it's right and wrong to consolidate stops, beyond simply whether or not some neighbors scream loudly enough. In general, I think every third block is a reasonable spacing, since anyone only needs to walk along the route one block to reach a stop.

What do you think the standards should be? What other standards do we need, and what flexibility do we need to deviate from standards, for our bus stops?

The meeting is structured as an open house, open from 5 to 7:30, with presentations at 5:30 and 6:30.

8 comments

Tags: bus shelters, buses

New bus stop design taking shape (Nov 18, 2009)
Many buses stop too often (Oct 29, 2009)
Gotta cut bus service? Let's combine and simplify routes (Jan 14, 2009)
Better buses (May 16, 2008)
Should DC take over local bus routes? (Oct 28, 2010)

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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david: maybe we should look at a maximum distance between stops. the three blocks between 17th, 16th, 15th, and 14th are some pretty big blocks.

in most places, though, i think your idea is just about right.

by IMGoph on Dec 5, 2008 8:46 pm • link • report

Yeah, I was thinking about the blocks like on 16th, not the long "crosstown" type blocks like on U. I agree that those stops should be every block.

David

by David Alpert on Dec 5, 2008 8:56 pm • link • report

Maybe we should have a minimum and maximum distance between stops on a route by route basis; Some of the streets are very long while others are very short and then some places it may make sense to have stops on every block if they are very busy streets to cross.

Having x amount of blocks between stops will not work on all routes this needs to be a case by case basis.

Maybe they could have some lines where there are more than one route ex. 90/92, S1/S2/S4, X1/X2/X3

Have one route stop at every stop and the other stop every 5 stops or something like that then have a major stop with a shelter at the 5th stop and do this for congested areas and when outside of those areas they stop at every stop.

by kk on Dec 5, 2008 9:37 pm • link • report

For the shelters -- Don't block any lines of sight. Let them shield us from rain (which is transient and not always predictable) but not wind, since bus shelters that block wind tend to turn into campgrounds. Don't use glass (the campers break it). Don't fill up the sheltered space with a bench; leave room for people to stand.

by Turnip on Dec 6, 2008 7:32 pm • link • report

Montgomery County reviewed all of their bus stops a few years ago to try and optimize placement and pedestrian safety.

http://www.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2002/200223/wheaton/news/107325-1.html

by Delegate Alfred Carr on Dec 7, 2008 9:16 am • link • report

L.A. County (I think it's L.A.) has a program inplace where there are lights in all its bus stops and the lights are run on solar energy...pretty cool and makes for a good safety factor as well.

by Adams Morgan on Dec 7, 2008 6:59 pm • link • report

With Metro Rail people always complain about the lack of express trains. Why not express buses, with stops every mile and, and local buses with more frequent stops. Or lines that follow the same route with alternating stops but where both lines stop at Metro stations or other connection points.

by David C on Dec 13, 2008 5:20 pm • link • report

I'm always appreciative of the bus shelters on Rockville Pike. Without them, somtimes it looks like I've been swimming after it rains. And the stop spacing on Md355 is well done.

by Matt on Mar 24, 2010 5:46 pm • link • report