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The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

nytimes.com

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Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#61

Post by asdff »

mirimir wrote: post #44
alexhutcheson wrote: post #7

In New York, specifically, it's not much of a mystery - the incredibly close stop spacing and inefficient boarding procedures make it so the bus is barely faster than walking. Most buses stop almost every block, they board through a single door, and they use the two slowest payment methods available in almost any system (cash and magnetic strip cards). However, I don't expect this to change anytime soon, because many…

I vaguely remember reading about buses that board ~like subways, through multiple doors, from ~stations. Maybe in Brazil?

orange line in LA, built in 2005.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#62

Post by asdff »

The bus is pretty usable in LA. Most major roads have a bus line going up and down them every 10 minutes. High capacity routes are given articulating busses.

Despite the proportions of ridership being low, functionally it is pretty high, and the entire transit network does hit capacity during rush hours.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#63

Post by xtiansimon »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #7

In New York, specifically, it's not much of a mystery - the incredibly close stop spacing and inefficient boarding procedures make it so the bus is barely faster than walking. Most buses stop almost every block, they board through a single door, and they use the two slowest payment methods available in almost any system (cash and magnetic strip cards). However, I don't expect this to change anytime soon, because many…

I work in NYC and the Select bus has all door boarding. I'm sure you already know that. What surprised me was finding the 14A, which is one of the routes I take weekly, just switched over to Select service.

What's more, NYC is rolling out contactless payment for subways. Some of the select buses _appear_ to be equipped for this service as well. Currently, to use the Select service you must buy a ticket curbside at the stop.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#64

Post by xtiansimon »

pgrote wrote: post #2

In our area it has been a cycle for the last 10 years. Lower funding means route contraction. Route contraction means lower ridership leading to lower funding. Lower funding leads to route contraction. Wash. Rinse Repeat. It is a metro area where most of the jobs are spread out among distinct suburb areas. The remaining routes do not travel among the suburbs with regularity; the focus is on suburbs to downtown and wi…

This sounds like NICE bus in Nassau County, Long Island, NY. Nassau county bus system was subcontracted to MTA about 8 years ago. NICE is a for-profit company [1] and they are constantly tweaking the schedules. Bus frequency here was 30 minutes during peak and 60 minutes off-pead, 5 days a week with reduced Saturday and more reduced Sunday schedules.

Now, in addition to eliminating routes which predated their contract, they have dead times in the middle of the day, gaps after "peak" times (which in my case put a 2 hour hole between 1800h and 2000h on my line). And they've canceled service on Sunday and on some lines both Saturday and Sunday.

In the latter case I'm sure NICE would say the LIRR is an alternative, but on the weekend that runs every 2 hours and costs $9 one way versus $2.75

And if you're fortunate enough to make some use of the system, there is no expectation it will still work for you later, because of the contraction cycle the parent described--Every 6-12 months schedules change.

I can't help thinking of companies like Walmart who move into areas, drive out small businesses, and then decide to pull out of town. Of course, it's a free market and they can do that, but in the case of public transit in the hands of private for profit companies it's a terrible burden on anyone who doesn't have a car.

And Nassau County has some of the highest taxes in the nation. Go figure.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transdev

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#65

Post by xtiansimon »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #17

Fun fact for folks in Seattle, San Diego, Tampa, Washington, D.C., Spokane, etc: Professor Kari Watkins, mentioned in the article, is the co-creator of OneBusAway. OneBusAway, or OBA, in case you aren't familiar with it, is an open source real time transit information system, and includes a full backend, plus iOS and Android client apps. OBA had belonged to the University of Washington until recently, when it was spu…

I think transit apps is a really interesting problem. Transit App was a favorite until a redesign they did a few years ago. And they have never tackled the user interaction challenge of making transfers make any sense.

This space has very tangible information/ux problems.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#66

Post by aaronbrethorst »

xtiansimon wrote: post #65
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #17

Fun fact for folks in Seattle, San Diego, Tampa, Washington, D.C., Spokane, etc: Professor Kari Watkins, mentioned in the article, is the co-creator of OneBusAway. OneBusAway, or OBA, in case you aren't familiar with it, is an open source real time transit information system, and includes a full backend, plus iOS and Android client apps. OBA had belonged to the University of Washington until recently, when it was spu…

I think transit apps is a really interesting problem. Transit App was a favorite until a redesign they did a few years ago. And they have never tackled the user interaction challenge of making transfers make any sense. This space has very tangible information/ux problems.

There's a ton that could be done to improve this problem. If you ever want to pitch in, come join the mailing list or the Slack group.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/onebusaway-developer...

https://onebusaway.herokuapp.com

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#67

Post by Twixes »

mirimir wrote: post #44
alexhutcheson wrote: post #7

In New York, specifically, it's not much of a mystery - the incredibly close stop spacing and inefficient boarding procedures make it so the bus is barely faster than walking. Most buses stop almost every block, they board through a single door, and they use the two slowest payment methods available in almost any system (cash and magnetic strip cards). However, I don't expect this to change anytime soon, because many…

I vaguely remember reading about buses that board ~like subways, through multiple doors, from ~stations. Maybe in Brazil?

What do you mean by through multiple doors? Pretty sure that all buses are boarded through multiple doors.
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