Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#11

Post by mtmail » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:05 PM UTC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Transit_Feed_Specifica... is the most used file format. Public transport companies used to submit their information to Google Maps and similar (the 'G' used to stand for 'Google'). You can find those searching for 'GTFS ' in various open data portals.

Alternatively OpenStreetMap is a huge global dataset. Buses are a small part of https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_transport It's easy to extract bus stops https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_API (https://overpass-turbo.eu/) but you're probably interested in routes as well. It's a rabbit hole of complexity, e.g. a bus terminal is multiple bus stops, some buses skip stops based on time of day, weekday, season (school buses), some stops are just for drivers to take a break or refuel, direction of route matters.

The transport view on https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/21.3308/-157.8868&laye... is a pretty nice visualization. For specific questions on OSM tools there is https://help.openstreetmap.org/ and a mailing list https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-transit

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#12

Post by ar0 » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:05 PM UTC

Here is an interesting article about this subject, suggesting a 400m-rule for walking distance to the next stop: https://humantransit.org/2010/11/san-francisco-a-rational-st...

The city of Zurich, Switzerland recommends a tram stop every 300m-600m: https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/vbz/Deutsch/Ue... (page 19)

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#13

Post by dreen » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:09 PM UTC

London also has bus route 389 - the entire route is I think 1.5 miles, with something like a dozen stops

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#14

Post by g_sch » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:10 PM UTC

In NYC, it depends heavily on the bus line. Some stop nearly every block (which can be as little as every 100m) whereas some have more widely-spaced stops.

The buses here are notorious for running very slowly (and thus behind schedule), and one of the proposals to speed some some slow buses is to eliminate stops on lines where they are densely clustered. It's become a subject of considerable debate, as residents and in particular older and disabled people are usually against consolidation, whereas most others accept it as a necessary cost of improving service.

The M14, which runs along 14th Street in Manhattan, is an example of where this is happening right now. Currently, the bus spends around 25% of its time standing in stations because it stops pretty much every block. There's a plan to eliminate some of its stops, but it's unclear whether it will succeed. Here's a good read on the subject: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/04/19/never-stop-stopping-r...

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#15

Post by soneca » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:11 PM UTC

In São Paulo It is usually between 200m and 600m, ideally 400m.

But it is very irregular. There are lines with up to 1km between stops

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#16

Post by lelima » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:13 PM UTC

I live in Dublin and I take the bus everyday, is mad, I'm talking sometimes less than 50m.

The stop in front of my house and the next one is only three houses away, Georgian style, so no mansions or huge houses.

The transport in Dublin is horrible and is on top 5 of most expensive public transport systems. (No subway)

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#17

Post by cafard » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:16 PM UTC

In Washington, DC, the distance varies considerably, but 200m sounds about right for the average. WMATA does have a "next bus" service that I see people using.

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#18

Post by esotericn » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:20 PM UTC

I live in London and I wouldn't say my local bus stops are spaced at 200m intervals.

In Zone 2, sure. Not in the suburbs.

Definitely density related.

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#19

Post by glenneroo » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:26 PM UTC

In Vienna, Austria stops are (AFAIK) very rarely less than ~300m away from each other, granted I'm horrible at guessing distances so perhaps I'm way off.

Re: Ask HN: How close together are your bus stops?

#20

Post by mxbr » Tue, May 28, 2019, 1:30 PM UTC

For Berlin, there is an interesting visualization of this question:

https://verkehrsluecken.tagesspiegel.de/en/