transit

5 Ways to Make Buses More Reliable (CommonWealth Magazine)

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/5-ways-to-make-buses-more-reliable/

Too many buses show up too early, too late, or not at all

THE REMARKABLE RESILIENCE of bus ridership through even the worst months of the pandemic has underscored the critical importance of this surface transportation mode to provide access to jobs and opportunities, especially for those not privileged to be able to work from home. Buses disproportionately carry low-income, essential workers who tend to have inflexible work hours and locations. For those with other options, a single bad experience can cause them to avoid using buses, furthering a cycle of low ridership and increased traffic congestion.

That’s why it is essential that MBTA bus services become more reliable. Too many buses show up too early, too late, or not at all. Buses often bunch together as some get stuck in traffic and leave long gaps in between, forcing riders to wait up to three times as long as the schedule indicates, only to be met with an overcrowded bus and then another one (or two or three) right behind it.

While the MBTA is currently in the process of redesigning the bus network, which should include major reliability improvements, we don’t have to wait until next year to start making progress. The challenge of keeping buses on time in dense urban areas with variable ridership and traffic conditions is not unique to Boston, so we can look to transit industry best practices to ensure more buses show up on time and keep moving. Here we discuss a few essential changes to achieve even spacing of buses and minimize waiting time and overcrowding.

 Headway maintenance

Busy frequent routes in mixed traffic tend to have variable travel times that make schedules hard to follow. There are often enough buses to carry the number of passengers arriving each hour, but the uneven spacing between buses results in overcrowding and is an inefficient use of resources.

As an effective way to deal with these issues, the MBTA should deploy a “headway maintenance” operation where buses simply stay 10 minutes apart. This makes service easy to understand and use and keeps wait times short, so that transfers are easy. Headway maintenance would also prevent the worst overcrowding, which is typically caused or worsened by bunching and long gaps that are common today. Rapid transit lines (and the shuttle buses that fill in for them during planned shutdowns) already do this: instead of having scheduled times, dispatchers work to ensure the spacing (headway) between trains is consistent and low enough so nobody has to wait too long. Implementing this on buses would mean that every operator is responsible for monitoring the spacing ahead and behind them using computer aids and managing their speed, and thus would be very low cost. (This practice could also be adapted to trains to smooth out arrival times and reduce instances of overcrowding and stop-and-go trips, especially on the Green Line.)

Pulse points

In less dense areas where service is less frequent, there is another option for keeping wait times short: the pulse. A pulse point is a central hub where several routes all arrive and depart at around the same time, so that people can transfer between all the routes conveniently. An example of where this could work well is Central Square in Lynn, which is a hub for most of the bus routes serving the North Shore. There is already regional rail service nearly every half hour, with trains arriving from Boston at 25 and 55 minutes past every hour and trains departing for Boston at 4 and 34 minutes after the hour with only a few gaps. There are also five bus routes that terminate at Lynn and run just about hourly, together with the Number 455 bus which passes through on the way from Wonderland to Salem every half hour and the relatively frequent 441/442 buses toward Wonderland or Marblehead.

What would a pulse schedule look like at Lynn? Without changing the rail schedule at all, the 455 bus could pass through on the hour and half hour in both directions, with the other buses arriving at 5 minutes beforfe the hyour and departing 5 minutes after the hour. This allows riders to connect from the terminating routes such as the 426, 429, 435, and 436 to trains going to Boston or to the 455 bus to Wonderland and Salem. It allows riders coming from Boston on the train or from Wonderland on the 455 bus to connect to those routes, with only a 5-10 minute wait. Likewise, it allows connections between the train and the 455 bus, allowing riders headed for the outer part of the route past Lynn to save a considerable amount of time compared to taking the Blue Line and changing to the bus at Wonderland.

These connections can be made even better if the schedule of the trains is adjusted to make the inbound and outbound trains arrive closer together, which would allow for connections to/from trains in both directions. Early morning, evening and weekend buses could also wait an extra few minutes to depart if any route is running a little late.

Pulse systems could be applied in other places where MBTA or Regional Transit Authority bus routes meet at a station, including Waltham (MBTA), Fitchburg (MART), or Framingham (MWRTA), or anywhere two or more bus routes meet. Indeed, Brockton Area Transit (BAT) in Brockton already operates a pulse system centered on the BAT Center across the street from the Brockton station, but the MBTA train service isn’t coordinated with the buses.

Dedicated bus lanes

Third, in order to maintain even spacing between buses – which makes them more reliable – and ensure the success of pulse systems, the issue of traffic congestion must be addressed. The number one reason why buses are late and run invariably between destinations is because they are stuck in traffic.  While various strategies can be used at the street or vehicle design level to keep buses moving, the most effective is dedicating road space to buses.

Dedicated bus lanes, a key element of bus rapid transit, allow buses to travel without obstruction with the same fluidity as trains, thus making them inherently more reliable. When riders wait to board a bus at point A, they know exactly how long it will take to arrive and then reach point B because it will not be subject to the variability of traffic. It will also be a smoother, more comfortable ride that is less subject to crowding because buses are able to complete their runs more quickly and provide more trips. A bus that is not in traffic is a faster, safer, more reliable bus.

Metro Boston has already experienced the benefits of dedicated bus lanes, with over 14 miles and counting of the lanes in communities ranging from Lynn to Everett to Roslindale. These bus lanes have not only shaved valuable minutes from bus trips; they have made the buses far more reliable. When combined with other bus rapid transit elements such as level and all-door boarding, transit signal priority, and center-running lanes, these benefits become amplified.

Dedicated bus lanes are not just good for bus riders, they are good for all users and overall traffic flow of the road. By alleviating the conflict between buses and other vehicles as they attempt to merge in and out of moving traffic at bus stops, bus lanes can lend themselves to the improvement of overall traffic flow, decreasing idling and minimizing dangerous emissions on the corridor. They can also create opportunities for shared bus-bike lanes which many of the Boston area bus lanes have incorporated. With dual-side door buses (that is, buses with doors on both sides), the operational flexibility of the road with bus lanes is significantly increased because buses are no longer restricted to curbside boarding on the right and that space is opened up for other critical uses like protected bike lanes, parklets, delivery and drop off zones, or outdoor dining.

Transit signal priority

Traffic signals play a very important role in bus and light rail reliability. While there are many thousands of traffic signals in Greater Boston, only a small number of locations are responsible for most cascading delays and reliability impacts.

Signal priority is the simple act of ensuring that transit vehicles are given a green light as they approach an intersection. This technology is inexpensive and can keep buses moving with minimal impacts to pedestrians and other vehicle users.

With a small one-time investment focused on high volume bus corridors, station busway access points, and a few dozen hotspots, bus reliability will greatly improve.

Intersections which delay transit service should be prioritized for signal upgrades. Since we can’t install this technology everywhere right away, as a general policy, all signal cycles should be kept simple and short so that they are easy to understand and nobody has to wait too long. Short signals minimize transit delays while also limiting the need for extra vehicle lanes to act as car storage, which further improves safety for transit riders and other pedestrians. Transit signal priority is often only needed at the longest and most complicated signals, where it is best complemented by a queue jump lane – a very short bus lane – that allows buses to bypass traffic waiting for the signal, access the bus stop, and merge back into the traffic flow.

All door boarding

The time that a bus spends at the station or bus stop to let passengers on and off – known as “dwell time” – is one of the most overlooked factors impacting bus service reliability. Because fare collection is only possible through the front door of MBTA buses today, the process of boarding passengers can often be lengthy, not to mention unpleasant, with passengers frequently lined up or bunched together in all weather, waiting to board one-by-one and tap their Charlie Cards or insert cash at the front door farebox.

A 2015 study by ITDP found that 40-70 percent of delays on MBTA key bus routes happen at bus stops, even more than delays caused by congestion or intersections. Demonstrations of “all door boarding”, where passengers are able to board all at once through both the front and back doors, have shown travel time reductions up to 30 percent as well as notable improvements to bus reliability – because the buses were able to leave the station on time – and overall rider experience.

All door boarding is most effective in combination with off-board fare collection or no fare collection at all. While controversial in its application, the MBTA’s Fare Transformation project seeks to enable all door boarding through placement of fare card validators at both front and back doors, thus enabling a limited version of the benefits offered by this bus improvement. A more effective strategy is to place validators at bus stops, especially at stations where boarding volumes are high.

A frequent, reliable and integrated transit network is what people want, need and deserve. If “moving more people in fewer vehicles” is truly a goal we embrace as a Commonwealth, then prioritizing reliable, efficient bus service is imperative. To support public health and economic recovery and make our region more resilient in a post-pandemic era of climate change, the focus of our streets must change from movement and storage of vehicles to movement and activity of people. Similarly, the operation of bus service must shift to focus on minimizing waiting and travel time by ensuring frequent service with easy, predictable connections, so that everyone can participate fully in their communities.

Jeremy Mendelson is a co-founder of and lead bus service planner for TransitMatters; Julia Wallerce is Boston program manager for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, and Acardy Goldmints-Orlov is a member of TransitMatters.

Podcast 50f: The Bike Tour comes to an end + local transit insights

Some strange twists as a train mishap leaves me walking around Northampton, Mass., and exploring/spending the night in Holyoke, Mass. This episode includes musings on transit with two old advocate friends I bumped into. Then it's off to some new adventures. Spoiler alert: I've been in Colorado since then.

INTRO: In late August I moved out of my apartment in Boston, put about 8 boxes into storage, and took a bus to Brunswick, Maine with my bike and camping gear. By popular request for tour updates, I decided to record a series of brief, daily, mostly unedited episodes to share here. Let me know what you think! More updates still coming...

Podcast 51.2: Free Transit follow-up with listener feedback (Fixed Missing Audio)

Here is some listener feedback on free transit. First I chat with transportation activist Eli Damon from Northampton, MA, who wrote in about free transit and also shares some insight into the transit environment in Western Massachusetts. Then I read a listener email.

UPDATE: Corrected version. The previous file was missing the interview due to an editing error. If you downloaded the show in the first few days, try this one instead. Hopefully the repost will make it appear in iTunes again. Thanks to listener Dan for pointing out the error.

Podcast 51: The Case for FREE Public Transit Everywhere

Despite its tremendous value and egalitarian mission, public transportation remains the only essential public service that charges a fare. The only reason we still collect fares is because we always have, ever since the early days of horse-car transit. Now, user fees make up only a small portion of total revenue yet create a significant barrier to people of all incomes and lifestyles, slow down transit and cost millions to collect -- all without any justification.

I explain why cities and towns everywhere should provide free transit services and debunk the five main arguments for the status quo.

Note: I have come to these "radical" ideas throughout my years of transit service planning and advocacy. Please listen to the episode before sending me hate mail. Thanks! But please do send me your thoughts and I will gladly share them (anonymously if you'd like).

Riders seen waiting in line pay, regardless of weather. Buses spend up to 30% of their travel time waiting to collect fares, depending on the volume of passengers.

Comments? Suggestions? Please visit CriticalTransit.com or email feedback@criticaltransit.com. Follow me Twitter @CriticalTransit and follow and support my work in Boston via TransitMatters.info. Your support goes a long way!

CT 49 - MBTA, News, Fares, Solutions & Why Everyone Depends on Transit

Recent MBTA news and advocacy battles encouraged me to record a podcast to counter the dominant narrative. Let's review what's causing this mess and how to stop the bleeding and operate a reliable and effective network.

Why a well functioning and affordable T should matter to everyone, because we all depend on transit even if we never use it (some of the reasons). And right now it's neither.

The population of Boston has increased 10 percent since 2004 and T ridership is up 30 percent on major lines, causing severe overcrowding, yet no significant improvements have been made since at least 2000, and service quality is declining. People cite transit as a primary reason the want to live in big cities.

The MBTA is chronically underfunded, promoting inefficient operating practices such as a reliance on overtime, deferred maintenance and an inability to plan for upgrades. Instead of addressing these problems, the control board has chosen to vilify transit workers.

Rapidly rising rents and declining wages have forced large numbers of people to move to places with slow, infrequent and expensive transit service. We have repeatedly cut service and raised fares on these "low ridership" services, while ignoring others with great potential.

Fares impact everyone, including those most vulnerable to rising costs, middle class riders who are more likely to choose other options, and everyone impacted by increase traffic on our streets (i.e. everyone). Bus, subway and commuter rail fares have more than doubled since 1991, while the gas tax has increased only 3 cents. Like transit, roads and highways are heavily subsidized, yet only transit riders are being asked for more. Governor Baker says a fee is a tax, but apparently not if it's a transit fare.

Finally I discuss several alternatives to raise revenue -- focusing on better and faster service -- without increasing the fee for users. But no efficiencies will fill the $7 Billion budget gap -- and that's just to reliably run what we have, never mind desperately needed upgrades. A transit network is a valuable public service, not a business, and it's time we started treating it like one.

Comments? Suggestions? Please visit CriticalTransit.com, email feedback@criticaltransit.com. Follow me on Facebook and especially Twitter @CriticalTransit and follow and support my work in Boston via TransitMatters.info. Your support goes a long way!

Podcast 48: Jeff Wood from The Overhead Wire & The Direct Transfer

Expanding our focus beyond Boston, we speak with Jeff Wood, a San Francisco-based consultant (The Overhead Wire) and operator of The Direct Transfer, a daily news source on transit, cities and urban design. Jeff also hosts Talking Headways, a weekly transportation podcast, and his work includes media, cartography, data analysis and research on transit modes and land use strategies. He also contributed to a new TCRP report on transit and land use connections (PDF).

Some topics include finding and pursuing a vision for transit, urban politics, gentrification and displacement, big project management, and achieving better bus service. Are private transit and taxis good for cities? Is there a transit space race? And an update on San Francisco's implementation of off-board fare payment on trains and buses.

Check out the Transit Matters podcast for more transportation news, analysis and interviews. We're working to build a more reliable and effective transit network in Boston. Visit Transit Matters to learn about our mission and our vision for transit, become a member and get involved.

Follow me @CriticalTransit for more frequent info and thoughts. Share this podcast: tell your friends and colleagues, and subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified of new posts and episodes.

Podcast 47: urban planning, transportation, environment and social justice with Nick Pendergrast

Critical Transit resumes with Nick Pendergrast, sociologist, one-time urban planner and co-host of Progressive Podcast Australia. Nick is a lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.

We talk about transportation and urban design, housing, demographics, social and environmental justice, related structural issues, and the importance of connecting public transit and urban planning with other progressive issues. Also, how we might go about solving the housing and transportation crises in our cities, and dealing with anti-development NIMBY types and people fearful of gentrification.

A few links from today's show: Becca Bor (clip on the history and structural issues around car-free transport); animal-only bridges in Germany; Beeliar Wetlands and Roe Highway Development (facebook); and why electric vehicles won’t solve the suburbs' transport woes (covered on Critical Transit episode 38, and we'll revisit this issue soon in the context of self-driving cars). 

Listen also to my interview on episode 114 of Progressive Podcast Australia.

Follow me and my work on Twitter, Facebook and through my local organization TransitMatters.

Subscribe to the blog and podcast to be notified of new episodes and share it around.

 

Expanding and Replicating the Cape Flyer

Last weekend I finally took my bike on the Cape Flyer train to Cape Cod as part of a camping trip, and it was fantastic.

Now in its third year, the Cape Flyer has made getting to the popular vacation peninsula possible for car-free people (it's wasn't impossible; just not usually worth the hassle) and reasonable for those who aren't interested in the 12-mile traffic backups at the bridge. As a result it is very popular yet could benefit from improvements and potentially be a model for similar services elsewhere.

Where it excels

First off, it exists. The only other car-free options are a bus that sits in the same traffic as cars and a very expensive ferry. I won't even suggest biking because those bridges are possibly the scariest place I've ever tried to bike. Many people in Boston have never been to the Cape because it's just a pain to get there.

Useful connections are available in Buzzards Bay and Hyannis to island ferries and local buses, so you can actually go beyond the station, removing a major barrier to vacationing by transit. Because it's all coordinated, it actually works out and you won't miss the train because a shuttle is stuck in traffic.

The train is reasonably convenient with stops at South Station, Braintree, Brockton and a parking lot in Middleborough. The schedule, while very limited, provides for a Friday evening train and then an 8am outbound train Sat/Sun morning and 6:40pm return train Sat/Sun, which works for a weekend getaway.

An entire coach is dedicated for bikes and there's plenty of room for whatever junk you "need" on your vacation. There's no way I would try fitting my bike and all my camping gear under a bus and risk not being able to get back.
 
The price is reasonable. There's a cafe car and decent wifi.

Opportunities for Improvement

Frequency: As a weekend vacation oriented service, the limited schedule necessitates careful planning and leaves no room for error (miss the return train and you may be out of luck). There's also no chance of stopping in Buzzards Bay for a few hours to walk or bike the canal path before continuing over the bridge.

The service could be expanded by offering limited weekday service (one round-trip each in the morning and evening) and adding trips on the weekends to permit flexibility in travel plans and create a new option for Cape Cod residents to visit Boston.

Additional stations would offer more options to those traveling by bike and provide more convenient bus and shuttle connections. A station is currently being built under the Bourne Bridge on the south (Cape) side of the canal, which opens up more options and keeps both bikes and shuttle buses from having to use the dangerous bridge. Sandwich and West Barnstable have old train station which could be reactivated.

Travel Time: Once the train reaches the cape it operates with speed restrictions because the track south of the canal is designed for slower freight trains. The 2-hour 20-minute trip could be significantly faster with some track upgrades.

Local Transit: The Cape Flyer ends in Hyannis and cannot easily be extended further east as no rail line exists. While there are useful bus connections at the Hyannis Transportation Center, most are slow local, hourly routes designed more for local residents' needs like work and food shopping than those of visitors. Investments in more frequent connecting local transit service and new express/shuttle service to points east and west would make traveling beyond Hyannis more feasible and give travelers more options. Either way, more information about these transit options should be more readily available on the train and in places riders are likely to be at other times (before planning their trip) like South Station or, uh, the internet.

Opportunities for similar services

The Cape Flyer has been a profitable venture so far, aside from one-time capital expenses (new stations, track upgrades, etc.) and could be a model for other experiments in regional rail service. The Berkshires and White Mountains come to mind. It's also a good time to rethinking our "commuter" rail system and how the schedules could better serve all types of regional travel (increased frequency, better stations, shuttles, coordination with local transit, and more).

Transit Tip 14: Beware of useless bike lanes

There's a tendency among bike advocates to champion the delineation of a "bike space" even without any actual space being created. You know, "if there's room for a bike lane" without changing anything else on the street. At best you get no benefit, and at worst you're given a "safe space" that isn't safe at all. This bike lane is almost entirely in the door zone, which is why these users are staying to the far left. But cars will pass too closely (up against the line) so they really should be riding outside the bike lane for safety, but then motorists become arrogant and hostile as they think you're being a jerk.

JP-CentreSt-nreionline-com
JP-CentreSt-nreionline-com

That's when cars are parked flush against the curb. Even in the summer they often intrude into the bike lane. But in the winter the lane is completely taken away for car parking. Bike lanes in Boston are only open 1/3 of the year. And it's always the bikers and pedestrians who lose out; car drivers get plowed streets and the same ability to park their personal property: who cares if anyone else has trouble getting around?

You can see the city's priorities. They claim to be a "world-class bicycling city" where "the car is no longer king" but what this street design really does is appease some bicycle advocates while maintaining a car dominant streetscape. Fail.

This major business district is also a major transportation corridor. The 39 bus seen here is one of the highest ridership MBTA lines, yet all winter it struggles to pass arrogantly parked cars, often waiting for opposing traffic before it can cross the centerline. Buses often can't pass each other.

In a fairer city, cars that park outside the designated space would be ticketed and towed immediately. Better yet, restrict parking in certain spaces that can be used to store the snow that the city should be removing from sidewalks.

Transit Tip 13: Make a Snow Plan

It's been a day of heavy snow here in Philadelphia. While viewing the city from its trains and buses was quite pleasant, a snow storm presents significant challenges for transit operators. Depending on the timing of the storm, either buses and streetcars will be stuck in heavy traffic or they will be empty and running on time as nobody goes anywhere. SEPTA bus 44 in Ardmore, PA

It makes sense to reduce scheduled service on most lines to match reduced ridership and make more buses (and drivers) available to respond to special needs that will arise - Some lines will require snow routes that add significant time and require an extra bus. Other needs include stalled buses, extra trips, rail replacement shuttles, evacuations and more.

Vehicles take a lot of abuse during a blizzard and that means many may be out of service the following day. Don't run the risk of having to run 70 percent of normal service on several subsequent regular days because you couldn't be bothered making a snow plan.

Plan ahead and communicate. Everything in a snow plan, from route detours to service reductions to plowing busways, can be planned ahead of time and strategically implemented early.  That means employee shifts can be different, supervisors will know what to do and what scenarios to watch for, and customers will know where to find a snow route -- but only if the information is made available in advance, such as in timetables and maps.

Meanwhile, we can look to Hampton Roads Transit for a completely inexcusable three-day bus shutdown as the agency is apparently afraid that someone will slip and fall while boarding a bus.