6 ms·
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 faste
by alexhutcheson 7y ago
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 existing riders are very invested in keeping buses the way they are. To be clear, their concerns are valid - for a variety of reasons, it may be difficult for many people to walk an additional block to their local bus stop, vs. having a stop in front of their building. Many of the current riders are also long-time residents who are more likely to go to community board meetings, contact their city council members, and protest changes in other ways. If you're a policymaker, it's hard to weight the costs that would be imposed on this vocal set of people vs. the benefits that would accrue to a much less vocal group of people who would benefit from a faster and more consistent bus.
- burkaman 7y agoI think it can be done if you pair changes like removing stops with other improvements that bus riders will appreciate. For example, in my neighborhood the city recently introduced a dedicated bus lane down a major road, and removed a couple stops at the same time to streamline the bus route. I've been following the results somewhat closely, and I haven't heard any complaints about missing stops, only complaints from car drivers. It's hard to complain about your stop moving a block at the committee meeting if they have hard data that everyone's commute is an average of 10 minutes faster.
- lmilcin 7y agoThat's why most efficient public transports use two tier system. There is long and short distance tiers. Long distance can be metro or express busses (busses that skip most stops). This gets you relatively close to the destination where you have option to take a bus that has very short distances between stops.
- mirimir 7y agoI vaguely remember reading about buses that board ~like subways, through multiple doors, from ~stations. Maybe in Brazil?
- frandroid 7y agoToronto now has open boarding (i.e. you can enter at any door) through all its streetcar lines and many bus lines. The new streetcars have totally separated the drivers from the passengers, so payment is more of an honour system + fare cops* proposition, compared to the old "show the pass/pay the driver" paradigm. Boarding speed and fare evasion have both increased. *: "Revenue Protection Officers", a totally non-Orwellian job title.
- jerven 7y agoGenève and many Swiss towns does this. Bus tickets are from a machine (sometimes in the bus, otherwise at the stop) or SMS or app. Most locals have an yearly pass. Fare control is done by six or seven controllers getting on the bus at once. Check is very quick. In the night they will be joined by a security guard. Boarding is very fast because of it. Also makes it easy to get in with a baby carriage or wheelchair (relatively).
- asdff 7y ago
- jellicle 7y agoFor some reason car drivers always think that bus service needs to be reduced (fewer stops) in order to provide "better" bus service. The studies show that decreasing stops has minimal effect on transit times. Two stops with ten people each only takes a bit longer to board than one stop with twenty people. You save a couple of minutes across the entire length of a bus route. And each stop removal increases rider commute times - now I have to walk 5 minutes longer to get a bus that's 2 minutes faster. Overall commute: 3 minutes longer. Plus each stop removal decreases the number of people served - if the old stop was a ten minute walk and the new one is a fifteen minute walk, you'll just stop taking transit altogether. So in general, stop removal is not at all a panacea and is often a 100% negative to transit riders. What actually works: getting rid of ride-hailing and other things that tend to clog the streets with empty, dead-heading vehicles; dedicated bus lanes and general banning of single-passenger automobiles; congestion charges; making sure transit is frequent and inexpensive so that it works well for people; etc.
- kevindong 7y ago> The studies show that decreasing stops has minimal effect on transit times. Two stops with ten people each only takes a bit longer to board than one stop with twenty people. You save a couple of minutes across the entire length of a bus route. As someone with only empirical evidence: 2 stops with 10 people each vs. 1 stop with 20 people isn't a fair comparison. The fair comparison is 10 stops with 1 person each vs. ~2 stops with 5 people each. Over a longer route, the majority of a bus's travel time comes from stopping at/departing a stop. When I lived in Chicago, I would sometimes take a bus to work. The route I took, 29, had a minimum of one stop per block. In some cases, there were two stops per block. In one particularly bad case, the distance between the stops was literally <500 feet (150 m) [0]. [0]: Go to this link, select route 29, and look between Cermak Rd. and 23rd St. for the two stops in between: http://www.ctabustracker.com/bustime/map/displaymap.jsp http://www.ctabustracker.com/bustime/map/displaymap.jsp
- xtiansimon 7y agoI 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.