Rear door boarding is a great idea. It should probably be implemented in conjunction with fare pre-payment. This would make it good for, say, express bus routes that have few stops.

It does raise an enforcement issue, but the option of going to more of a proof of payment system could handle such a change. NYC has proof-of-payment with their Select Bus Service program - this means you can board or exit via any door - the service runs express routes, and fare payment is done in advance at a kiosk at the bus stop, and enforcement is via random inspection.

by Alex B. on Mar 11, 2011 11:54 am  

I have been hearing from Metro folk about all kinds of enhancements to the SmartTrip system for, well as long as the system has existed. So I'm not holding my breath.

by Ken Firestone on Mar 11, 2011 12:00 pm  

Will people be able downloand tranist benefits online too? I ride the bus much more than the metro and find getting my transit benefits a pain.

by Kate on Mar 11, 2011 12:02 pm  

Rear boarding isn't really necessary. Given the number of people who already do it, encouraging it more isn't a great idea.

Asking people who pay cash to wait at the end of the line, or out of the way of the machines, is much easier and would speed things up. Already done in many cases.

Why the large drop in bus passes?

by charlie on Mar 11, 2011 12:11 pm  

Metro reported that they are selling about 14,000 electronic bus passes per week, compared to 32,000 per week for the paper passes back in December before they were eliminated.

This really isn't surprising given that purchasing a SmarTrip bus pass is way more of a hassle than getting the paper pass mailed to you every week was. So you used to be able to order the passes online and have them delivered to you every week, and now you have to go to a physical store and hope that someone at the CVS knows how to work the WMATA machine and doesn't just tell you "it's broken"? What an amazing increase in convenience for customers!

Did they actually even talk to anyone who used a paper bus pass before making this change? Because it doesn't really look like they did.

by MLD on Mar 11, 2011 12:11 pm  

This is another one of those things like getting directions from google maps that always seems to be about to be implemented in a few months. Unfortunately, this has been going on for years. Does WMATA ever hold anyone in the organization accountable for results? Sorry, I forgot it is a Union shop, so the answer is obvious.

by jim on Mar 11, 2011 12:29 pm  

I'm with Ken -- let's see how much longer they can kick this can down the road.

by Gavin on Mar 11, 2011 12:30 pm  

Why doesn't WMATA just install more than one smartrip reader at the front of the bus--i.e. to the left of the door as you enter? I've seen European buses that have as many as three "payment kiosks" at the front. Even on Sprinter-sized mini "neighborhood" buses I've seen this in Barcelona for instance...

I think even Chicago has installed more than one reader for their Chicagocard on CTA buses. To me this is a no-brainer...

by petrograd on Mar 11, 2011 12:33 pm  

here is another question:

is the eternal bus transfer still in place?

That is, if you swipe your card at least once every two hours, you can ride all day for free...

by charlie on Mar 11, 2011 12:35 pm  

We can also encourage people to exit at the back door. Muni announces it every time someone pulls the cord.

I don't advocate going to a proof-of-payment system, but wasn't the Circulator originally such a system? (they used to advertise board any door). Is it still? I believe the streetcar system will be as well.

by guest on Mar 11, 2011 12:41 pm  

Online loading definitely needs to be implemented ASAP; especially for bus passes.

I like the idea of an additional SmarTrip target at the front of the bus, so that cash-paying customers do not hold up the entire queue.

(I'm also a bit surprised that SmarTrip transactions and balances are not currently primarily calculated on the server side. Doesn't this add a very significant security flaw to the system?)

by andrew on Mar 11, 2011 12:50 pm  

@andrew: No, because everything is encrypted with public/private keys.

by Michael Perkins on Mar 11, 2011 12:57 pm  

How about going to Smartrip only payment (no cash accepted) on some lines, the S9, which only runs at rush hour anyway seems like a good candidate.

by Steve S. on Mar 11, 2011 1:01 pm  

What Petrograd said. When I used the bus in Copenhagen decades ago, they didn't have electronic fares, but if you had a monthly pass, you could just walk to the left, flash your pass at the driver, and bypass the person futzing with change.

No backdoor boarding. Front door entry and backdoor alighting should be more encouraged/enforced to keep traffic flowing.

by spookiness on Mar 11, 2011 1:02 pm  

I know a couple people have said we should encourage exiting at the rear door. Not sure if they ride the bus regularly, but they should be aware that the recorded announcements have been recommending that exact thing to bus riders for a couple months now.

The problem is that no one listens to those announcements, and very few care.

I regularly ride the D buses from Trinidad to points downtown, and I witness again and again the entirety of the passenger stream going in and out of the front door.

Last week, I boarded a bus at Neal Street and Montello Avenue NE, heading towards Union Station. The seats were mostly full, and one person was standing in the aisle, 3 seats up from the back door.

When we got to the stop at Florida and Montello Avenues, a woman who was sitting in the seat directly in front of and on the same side of the bus as the rear door got up and brusquely told me and the other woman standing in the aisle to move out of her way so she could exit the bus (via the front door - where others were waiting to board).

I pointed out that there was no one standing between her and the rear door, and that it was closer for her to use. She snarled at me and said, "I don't care, I want to use the front door!"

I replied (snarkily at this point, since I wasn't happy that I was having to deal with this level of stupidity first thing in the morning), "I'd like a million dollars too, but that ain't happening for me either." It got the attention of most of the people on the bus, for sure.

Long story short, the woman shoved us out of the way so she could leave by the front door. The 5 people who boarded had to wait for her to get out of the way, and the back door sat open and unused for the whole wasted time we sat there.

The efficiency of making the doors "one in, one out" is utterly lost on some people, for who knows what reason. Educating those people might be a fool's game - the stubborn aren't easily changed.

by Geoffrey Hatchard on Mar 11, 2011 1:12 pm  

Then use cattle prods, tasers, turnstiles, or put spikes in the floor.

by spookiness on Mar 11, 2011 1:47 pm  

I second allowing transit benefits to be added online. Currently, I only use the bus, but every month I have to trek down into a rail station to re-load my transit benefits, and I never use the rail. It's really annoying...

by MG on Mar 11, 2011 1:50 pm  

Yes to online SmarTrip loading. With that, they should also enable you to recoup funds from a lost or stolen card.

by Bob See on Mar 11, 2011 2:03 pm  

But aren't we going to run out of SmarTrip cards anyway? If so, won't there just be a whole new system?

by Adam L on Mar 11, 2011 2:17 pm  

@Adam L: New system is planned for later, like 2014 I think.

@Bob See: Being able to recover your funds faster was one benefit staff mentioned

They didn't mention being able to download your benefits but I don't see why that would be an issue.

Back door: Use a swing-open gate, you can push open to get on, but you have to pull open to get off. It's a nudge to use the back door.

@spookiness visually accepted passes are not coming back in DC. There was too much fraud and the IG just had a report that metro wasn't recording data accurately. And since that data goes into how much money changes hands to pay for regional bus service I don't think we'll be having any system where you don't swipe a card or put cash in.

@Steve S: How about instead of prohibiting cash just make it really expensive like $2 or $2.50?

One of the things Metro mentioned was encouraging people to load fare value somewhere other than at the bus farebox. I'm wondering how we can do that without giving a discount to the hundreds of thousands of rail riders too, which would break the budget.

by Michael Perkins on Mar 11, 2011 2:55 pm  

Front door gates make sense, and I've seen old pictures from other cities in the 50's (pre-exact fare) that had turnstiles at the driver's position, but would there be some bypass for passengers in wheelchairs? Or would such a thing in principle be an ADA violation and in turn be impossible to implement?

by Jason on Mar 11, 2011 4:38 pm  

I've often thought that having a second target to swipe would really speed things along, and prepaying online or at more kioks outside rail stations is long overdue.

As to encouraging people to exit via the back door:

Turn styles would almost certainly not pass ADA requirements, and swinging doors doors would take up too much space. Retractable doors that slide behind the driver and front door might work. Though, people in wheelchairs would still need a way to bypass the sliding door to get back out, and if we make a way for them to bypass them, then wouldn't many able bodied people do that same. I suppose the doors would be enough of a deterrent that most of us who are able bodied would take the back door, leaving a few to go against the grain.

Otherwise, if we didn't allow for people in wheelchairs to exit the front door, we would need to install wheel chair lifts at the back door, and in addition to that, we would need to widen the aisles, losing seats etc...and that's maybe too costly or unpopular...

by retrostyleguy on Mar 11, 2011 5:25 pm  

One problem with getting people out the rear door is that buses are really designed to be boarded/exited so you are stepping on to the curb. For anyone with any kind of mobility issues or even just a little older and afraid of falling, the fact that the rear door is often a big step down into the street is a problem. Plus, I don't think drivers pay much attention to what might be blocking the rear door. If you aren't stepping into the street it's often into a tree box or a trash can. Add to that the number of times they seem to be broken and I can see why people often avoid them.

We might be more successful at getting people to use the rear door if the drivers paid more attention to where the rear door was going to let people off.

by Kate on Mar 11, 2011 11:15 pm  

On exiting via the rear of the bus: I would exit via the rear door much more often than I do, except that so often the rear door is somehow perfectly positioned ... over a planter box. Then add a baby in one hand and a stroller in the other -- the tell-tale signs of a stay-at-home dad -- and exiting via the front door becomes the lesser of two evils.

On boarding through the front: In a workshop a couple of years ago when WMATA was exploring ways to improve the S buses on 16th Street NW, I suggested to them offboard fare payment via kiosks at stops. In 16th Street's case, okay, it wouldn't be worth the cost to install at every stop along the way, but what about the S9's stops? If, where needed, you could somehow make the fare-payment kiosks multispace parking meters as well (think of how Circulator passes can be purchase from multispace meters downtown), it may well be worth the investment, with the collateral benefit of reminding drivers that they could have taken the bus instead. Such as system could potentially do a lot to ease crowding during boarding, and I'm sure I wasn't the first to recommend it.

WMATA staff seemed completely clueless as to what I was talking about, as if it were beyond their ability to comprehend. (This is not hyperbole.)

by Dustin on Mar 12, 2011 7:43 am  

Chicago recently removed its "Go Lane" attempt at having an additional front-door boarding lane for passengers with smart card. People would touch their card, oblivious to any error or misread, and go into the bus. Also, the fare readers (set up as one fare reader and a satellite) weren't actually able to read two transactions simultaneously, so misread cards were pretty common.

Surprised as well to see that the system isn't server-side. Perhaps that explains why things like "virtual tunnels" (now three in Chicago) or the one day travelcard cap (as in London) are easier to implement elsewhere.

by Payton on Mar 13, 2011 4:33 pm  

@ Dustin

Couldn't have said it better; 9 out of 10 trips I make on a bus you can not exit from the back door because of obstacles preventing it.

1 trees
2 trash cans
3 bike attached to poll, trashcan etc infront bus stop
4 truck/car
5 newspaper stand

On H street NE it is impossible to exit via backdoor because of the construction due to the barricades.

Trees should be atleast 2 feet from the start of the sidewalk - this way people getting out of a bus or car have room.

Trash cans should be placed beside the actual bus stop sign creating no way the drive can miss it.

Car/Trucks blocking bus stops should be towed and ticketed whenever a policecar drives past.

Bikes should removed if attached to poll/trashcan etc infront bus stop

Local Governments should work out construction plans with transit agenecies to avoid problems at bus stops.

by kk on Mar 13, 2011 4:45 pm  

The article doesn't make sense (to me). Why are rail passes going to take longer?

by TGEoA on Mar 13, 2011 9:56 pm