Even Batman Takes the Bus

'Cause I felt bad about not posting, I thought I'd share this cool t-shirt design with you.



What's that about the bus being the "Loser Cruiser"? Would Batman take the bus if it wasn't cool? I didn't think so. :-)

You can get this shirt from the folks over at NoiseBot.com. Check it out: http://www.noisebot.com/justice_cant_wait_t-shirt

Transit travel (and marketing) as a lifestyle

(Cross-posted from Rebuilding Place)


Gee writes (and I appreciate his writing to goad some content forward, given my illing ways lately), slightly edited with my comments inserted:

I am not rich, I don't like driving my car.. but I have no option but to drive the car due to my hours and the costly commute option ($11 per day for me with about 1 and 1/2 hours commute on train one way). My spouse lives close to work but I am far away (we adjusted with one) - so what are my options?

[I would argue it's too expensive for public transit to serve you cost-effectively, probably]

Everyday we keep hearing stories about the DC metro - how it's breaking down, how it does not make any money etc etc ... looking at its policy it no surpirse that it has these problems. Why don't they hire someone from any of the European countries and get the right policies?

Make people want to use metro any time of the day and decrease traffic congestions by continously improving existing lines and adding more lines.

[Yep. And start eliminating free parking at work, at school, at shopping malls]

Want to increase revenues ..here are some simple suggestions that would make our lives easier too:

1) have small grocery shops or small shops like at the gas stations where one can get basic stuff - people using the metro would really use it regularly to buy some of the small things that they may need while going to back home or even to the office (eg milk eggs, even flowers). The metro can earn revenues by subletting their space.

Tom Toles editorial cartoon for the Washington Post.

[Systems like the Hong Kong transit system make 1/2 their annual revenue from lease payments/realty.]

2) Have small coffee / breakfast shops for the morning commuters who regularly use the metro in the stations - and the metro can earn revenues by subletting their space.

[While I don't think the volumes exist at many stations to make this work, who's to say we shouldn't be working to make transit stops much more friendly and convivial places? Why not try to put places like this at various stations.]

3) During non rush hours or weekends or holidays - have easy to use all day family tickets. If I have to buy a seperate tickets for each member of a four member family ( or more if I have guests one weekend and want to use the metro) - and for each place i go to - It is not economical to use the metro. I would rather drive, add to the pollution, the traffic problems... etc etc. But if the Metro offers an all day pass for up to 4 people for $10 - what a great deal. Why will I take out my car, spend the money on Gas, try to find parking or risk getting stuck in traffic when I can use the metro, get some exercise and quality time with the family.

[This also is relevant to transit for people attending athletic events like baseball. An all-family pass for such an event is something to consider.]

4) Have monthly passes for regular Metro users. Washington DC is the only metro systrem I know that fines it regular users with highest ticket prices and no monthly discount for regular users. What a stupid idea to fine your regular users? If I use the metro to go to office (and so contribute to one less car on the road.) I have to go during the rush hour time - their is no way out unless each and every company has flex time.

[I made the point last week that the WMATA system actually charges based on real costs, which economists would say is a good thing. Still there is a way to balance the real costs with the need to promote mode shift, after all we don't want to coax people back into their cars because seemingly it is cheaper to drive than to take transit.]

Become a part and parcel of the commuters' lives instead of a stand alone system and that is how you make money. There are enough examples in this country of how products become successful - take some lessons from corporate America.

I would welcome the comments / suggestions of the readers.

To get people who have mobility choices to choose transit, they have to know it exists

Trying to get on the subway at National Airport. Flickr photo by Burnt Pixel.

1. You don't necessarily appreciate the convenience of WMATA, the Washington area subway and bus system, until you ride transit in other places. (Not that there aren't many aspects of transit that can't be improved -- see below.) Subway to National Airport is so much easier than bus to/from other airports.

At least WMATA, in its services to Dulles Airport and BWI Airport, has a special bus, with racks to accommodate luggage. The bus service to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport is extensive, both by the King County system (Seattle) and Sound Transit (Tacoma). But they are regular buses, with no special accommodations for luggage.

And it is a pain in the a** to lug three bags and stuff them in and around your seat on a full--articulated, which can accommodate 60-80 people--bus.

The same goes for Pittsburgh and its 28X bus service.

The Pittsburgh buses are regular, either mini or full sized, buses without accommodations for luggage.

However, more people ride the bus to Seattle from the airport, even though the usage for the Pittsburgh bus is high, so comparatively it's easier to take luggage to/from the Pittsburgh airport compared to Seattle.

Transit Information Rack, University Book Store, University of Washington, Seattle

Still one thing that I don't think WMATA (or DC for that matter) does very well is use transit points of purchase (bus stops, subway stations) and frequently used places as points to promote and distribute information about transit.

I mention this because I didn't go to many places yesterday--the airport, Pike Place Market, and the University District adjacent to the University of Washington--but I found in each place a massive rack distributing information about public transit (which in this region includes ferry service). Plus, the buses had information displayed as well, including the Sound Transit published Transit Guide.

Rack of transit schedule information, Pike Place Market.

3. By way of comparison, at National Airport in Terminal A, there are two transit brochures, one the schedule for the 5A bus line to Dulles Airport and another general brochure (but no maps or other promotional materials displayed) in an information rack affixed to an information booth.. Granted there is the subway station, which is a promotion in and of itself, but I write frequently that we need to better utilize these stations as places to promote transit.

At the Seattle-Tacoma airport, a large information rack for public transit was immediately adjacent to the Visitor Information desk. I think information about transit was also placed in the various visitor information racks too. Plus the signage pointing people to the public transit ground transportation options was also pretty clear.


Plus, this poster, promoting transit as a viable way to get around, was affixed to one of the boards in the six-sided information rack.

And the signage at the bus stop explained how to use the system very well, and how to get to various places in the region from the airport, using public transit.


This reminds me of my first experience using the subway at National Airport about 20 years ago. I was new to the city and someone asked me how to get to Germantown by transit. I had no idea. And looking at the map of the subway system even today, how would you know you can get to Germantown by taking the red line to Shady Grove?

These transit-promotion materials were available in the various information racks I have come across so far in Seattle. (I know that some of these kinds of guides are made available by WMATA, or the county-based bus systems. But I don't think there are many such comprehensive guides for the DC region. And these kinds of materials are likely inadequately distributed in our region.)

Thoughts on the New 79 (7th St./GA Ave. express) Line

New Metro Extra Bus, Georgia Avenue NW. Photos by Richard Layman.

Hi there... I'm C4bl3Fl4m3 (that's "CableFlame" to those of you that don't read 1337), newest Mad Doctor in the League of Transit Doctors. I'll put more about myself later. Just know that as Dr. Richard writes up more academic style, more formal report style posts about transit, mine are far more informal and deal more with the social aspects.

Today, I'm going to write about the new 79 express bus on Georgia Ave.

For those of you who don't know, for a while, they've been talking about adding an express bus on the 7th St./GA Ave. corridor. Ever since Dr. Richard posted about this last fall (and included a map of the proposed route), I've been very excited about this. See, I live 3 blocks from said GA Ave. corridor near the DC/Silver Spring border. I've complained about the 70/71 (local) service before (namely that it's so unreliable heading to Silver Spring that you can't use it for time-critical use). So the idea of having an express bus that stops near my house and can get me downtown in half an hour (the amount of time it takes me on the Metro) for the price of bus fare? Good times.

So yesterday was the first day of service. And I had to go to my friend Fritter's house for Monday Night Faerie Potluck. Well, he lives on the GA Ave. corridor too, just north of Howard. So I thought, WTF, I'll try out the new bus service.

So I get out of work @ 6, head over to Chinatown on the Red Line and wait at the stop. Now, first off, there was no advertising around the station or the stop that there was a new bus line running. Nothing. No ads, not even a Route Map at the stop. The stop did have the new "Metro Extra" blue sign, however. (To check out the sign, click on this link to go to the WMATA page on it.) I thought I had missed the last bus (they stop running at 6:30), but I waited about 5 minutes, and, sure enough, the new style dark blue bus came pulling up. The bus didn't have the route on the front yet, instead sporting a "Not In Service" banner. However, riders of the buses in the DC are used to this, and it was sporting hand drawn "79" signs in the front and side window.

I had to admit, when I spotted it, I was excited. New bus, new route, first day of service for the route... I was making history. Well, sorta. The bus was shiny and clean and new. I stepped on the bus as the driver announced to each of us that it was a limited stop bus. I nodded as I paid my fare with my SmarTrip card.

And it was then that I noticed the flaw with this service. Nowhere inside did it have a map of the route. Not posted on the walls nor fliers in the racks. And there was much discussion with the people getting on as to "does it stop at _____ street?" Even after we got going, some of the people were still trying to confirm what was going on, and one woman even got off at Convention Center, obviously angry and upset over the confusion and that the bus wasn't going to stop where she needed to.

Another woman on the bus behind me had a flier for the new route. I asked her where she got it. She said "they mailed it to me". Well, I never got such a flier, and if the only way to get a flier of the route (or even be aware of its existence) is via the mail, then there's a problem. Yes, it's on the Internet, but this bus serves lower class, poorer areas whos access to the Internet may be limited or non-existent. Because I didn't know exactly which stop I should get off at, I asked the lady if I could borrow hers, which she let me do.

The bus didn't have many people on it after the first stop or so... I'd say between 5 and 10. As people got on the bus at the various stops, the same questions were asked "where does this bus go?" "will it stop at my stop?" Much of this confusion could be dealt with if 1.) there was more signage and fliers for the route and 2.) people were more pro-active in learning about transit. So many people won't even look at the maps at the bus stops (some of the ones we passed had the map of the route up) or read the schedule to find out when the next bus is coming, or if it goes where it needs to go.

So I rode the bus, and asked the bus driver which of 2 stops would get me closer to my destination. He said the latter, which would cause me to back track. I got off and it was a 7 minute walk to my destination. Perhaps slightly longer, but not on a steep grade uphill as it would have been had I gotten off at Howard Ave. (or St. or whatever).

In short? Unless Metro gets their act together and starts publicizing this route more and getting out information better about the stops on the route, etc., the route is going to fail. Metro will find that there's low ridership and that it's no faster because of confusion of people getting on the bus holding it up while they try to determine if it stops at their stop or not.

Another issue with the bus is that, right now, it only runs during rush hours. However, have you ever taken the 70 during night? Like from the hours of 9 to closing? It's PACKED. And by packed, I mean almost to the capacity of what the bus can carry. It only runs every half hour then, and for the busses that aren't the "accordion busses" (I know there's an actual term for them that Dr. Richard uses, but I don't remember it), it gets dangerously full. (I'm a short woman, 5'1", and I'm too short to use the overhead handholds. I can only hold on at certain places. Because it's mainly poor/lower class people that take the bus, and we have a decent number of poor Hispanics/Latino(a)s in this city, and quite a few of them are short, like me, there's a large number of people that can't use the overhead handholds. And so we're stuck crowding around the few vertical bars and behind the seat holds. It's dangerous.) Anyway, the 79 needs to not just run during rush hour, but the late nights too. Many people who use the bus have jobs that are 2nd or 3rd shift or that run late at night. These people are coming home at night at 9, 10, 11 o'clock. It's Lower Class Rush Hour during those hours, and yet service isn't designated to them at those times.

Basically, I think they're putting the new service at the wrong time. I don't know the amount of people who use it to commute during morning and evening rush hours, but I do wonder if it's anything like late at night. If they want to keep service during rush hour, add it during the Night (as opposed to evening) Rush Hours. If they have to cut the regular rush hour service to do that, then do it. Radical ideas, yes, I know, but I think it would be worth it.

So those are my thoughts on the 79. Have you ridden the line? What were your thoughts? Even if you haven't ridden the line, do you have any ideas on it?

Wi-fi on public transit

According to Wi-Fi to Board the Trinity Railway Express in the Dallas Morning News, wi-fi will be installed on that area's commuter railroad. While it has been successfully tested on Caltrain in California, see "Caltrain Succeeds With High-Speed Internet," wi-fi hasn't yet been rolled out on the Caltrain system for regular service.

The trade publication Metro has a nice article too, "What to Consider Before Equipping Your Transit System with Wi-Fi." According to the article, most people in the field think wi-fi service is best suited for transit choice riders taking long trips, i.e., long rides from the suburbs to the center city.

OTOH, I think there are plenty of routes in the center city and inner suburbs that provide long rides appropriate for wi-fi and transit-choice riders. E.g., S buses on 16th Street NW, the new rapider bus service on Georgia Avenue, PikeRide and Rex in Arlington and Alexandria, etc.

And of course, the area's commuter railroads.

Caltrain image.

We need a transit users conference, now!

Cross-posted from Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space.

For more than a year, I've been suggesting that regional transit advocates need to have an annual conference, and lay out an "unconstrained" transit agenda, and then have the agenda "down" so that it can be pushed at any and every opportunity.

E.g. the Bethesda-New Carrollton Purple Line initiative is somewhat disconnected from the Cross-Wilson Bridge initiative from Branch Avenue to Alexandria. Wouldn't it make sense for these two initiatives to use the same technology?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a transit users conference in Toronto, which brought about the power of "open source"--read civic engagement and deliberative democracy--to Toronto transit. See "Toronto "Transit Camp" engages citizens-users to improve the transit system."

DC1974 sends us a link to an article in SFist, "I wish," about ideas for upgrading and extending the Muni website and information services.

This reminds of the classic paper (later expanded into a book) by Eric Raymond, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" about the difference between traditional and open source methods for creating computer software. This paper predates by many years the idea of Web 2.0 and community-software applications (such as Flickr, Myspace, Youtube), and user-generated content platforms.

The thing is, this is a paper about top-down vs. bottom-up initiatives generally. When I first read it, I was struck by the similarities about how his points on software development relate to civic engagement and democracy.

Another paper summarizes:

In his paper, Raymond discusses the historical model for software development and compares it to building cathedrals, a slow and laborious effort with exacting methods carefully applied. Each brick and beam was carefully planned and the structure was erected with painstaking craftsmanship to meet the planned design and symmetry.

The bazaar, by contrast, was often created ad-hoc and in an evolutionary fashion. The bazaar started with a few street vendors and was later built up by additional vendors and merchants, each staking out a piece of the market place as their own and maintaining and adding to their stall until a full-blown Agora was in place.

Clearly each approach served its purpose well, but the cathedral method is rigid and static. It needs the contribution of each part exactly as designed in order to stand, and has difficulty adapting to any other shape or location. The open-source movement is all about flexibility and evolutionary development.

Raymond went on to review nineteen axioms of open-source development by discussing his experience developing "Fetchmail," a Linux application used to forward e-mail. These axioms are the basic tenets of the open-source community, and Raymond discussed them with detailed analysis and examples in the original paper.

Open source isn't just about "flexibility and evolutionary development." It is also about the power and creativity of the group. Open source links skill to a kind of organized, somewhat ordered, but messy democracy.

"Getting There" is the Baltimore Sun's transit column, and yesterday's column, "Awareness the ticket for better bus use," has a similar suggestion, but about ensuring connectivity between systems. (Note that Cableflame, now a co-writer on the companion Dr. Transit blog, points out that the new WMATA subway maps show the bus links to Dulles (5A) and BWI (B30) Airports.)

Michael Dresser suggests a regionwide system connectivity conference, although he is more focused on the Baltimore region, and the Maryland Mass Transit Administration.

From the article:

To its credit, the Transit Riders Action Coalition is prodding the General Assembly to adopt connectivity among adjoining local systems as a basic principle of state transportation policy. The advocacy group is pointing to such anomalies as a Carroll County system that connects with no other transit systems. Then there's that issue of base realignment, bringing thousands of new jobs to an Aberdeen area with woeful connections to Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia.

The MTA could jump to the head of this parade. Here's a modest suggestion for you:

Convene a "Connectivity Summit" this summer, inviting every regional and local transit agency between Philadelphia and Northern Virginia along with transit activists, disability-rights groups and anyone who wants to participate. Hash out all the issues - from a common fare structure, to a universal "smart card" to a unified schedule database.

The long-neglected local transit systems are eager to join in and are looking forward to working with you."We're all hoping that with the new administration, things are going to get much better," said Carl Balser, chief of transportation planning for Howard Transit. "We have been fairly marginalized in the transit community for the last several years and we're hoping for a renaissance."

Note that MTA doesn't have a ride guide comparable to that created and continually improved by WMATA. I have argued that WMATA should license this system to MTA for the Baltimore region. Afterall, MTA is a funder of the WMATA system.

Anyway, I say we need to go beyond a strict conference on connectivity, and have a true regionwide transit users and advocacy conference, in part along the Toronto model, promoting the idea of the power of the group and "open source" transit and;

2. That this conference be co-sponsored by the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post, which runs the Dr. Gridlock column, as well as the Baltimore and Washington editions of the Examiner, which each run the "Sprawl and Crawl" column by Steve Eldridge.

Note that along these lines, in January 2005, the Philadelphia City Paper did a great cover story on 33 ways to improve SEPTA. See "Let's Go." 33 ways to reinvent, rethink and recharge our beleaguered transit agency. Other cities around the world have cool public transportation systems. Why can't we?

Wouldn't it be cool for the Washington City Paper and the Baltimore City Paper to do this for each respective region, but run the articles the same week?

(Note that Mark Jenkins' piece in the Washington City Paper more than 10 years ago, proposing a Purple Line, was a significant contributor to my eventual involvement in these kinds of issues.)