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Email of the Week: Dept. of Blindingly Obvious Ideas

Posted on December 5, 2010 in Connections, Transfers, Marketing

From a frequent commenter:

I was thinking about transit websites, and I had a thought that struck me with how blindingly obvious it is, and I’m surprised for some reason I don’t think I’ve seen any transit agency do this before. On the main timetable page, they will generally have a menu to let you pick a route, and give you the timetable and map for that route. But those are leaf pages, they don’t link to anything other than back to the menu. My thought is, the web is all about links, so why not make the structure of the timetable pages reflect that of the route network, and for any route to which there’s a transfer, provide a link to that route’s timetable right there on the page? With fancy web design, I’m sure even more elaborate things can be made, like letting you see what transfers you can make for a particular run of a route.  But in general, this seems like one of those things that can greatly enhance the public’s understanding of how the transit network works, and I’m surprised that I don’t recall seeing this anywhere before.

If you know of a transit agency that does this, please comment with a link to a sample timetable page!

Melbourne: A Frequent Network Map

Posted on November 30, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Maps, Melbourne

Peter Parker of Melbourne on Transit recently sketched some frequent network maps for that city, the second largest in Australia.  You can find a range of efforts for various cities using the Frequent Network category.  My original post arguing for the value of frequent network maps is here.

Although Melbourne is mostly flat and its street network is mostly gridded, it’s striking how few crosstown or “orbital” services they are.  Over the past few years the main government initiative in this area has been the SmartBus program, a set of new frequent orbital routes.  Yet compared to comparably dense parts of Los Angeles, say, the grid is thin.  Continue Reading →

Seattle: Notes on the “Snowpocalypse”

Posted on November 29, 2010 in Seattle

Seattleskyline1croppedAs Seattle moves into the recriminations phase on last week’s snowstorm, locally known as the “snowpocalypse,” let’s put some things in perspective:

Seattle has a particular vulnerability to snow and ice that is unique in North America.  The uniqueness is in the intersection of four factors: Continue Reading →

Thanksgiving English Quiz: Grammar in The New York Times

Posted on November 25, 2010 in Amusing, Journalism

Can this sentence, from the New York Times article on the DeLay conviction, be read as anything other than evidence of the collapse of journalism, and hence of language, and hence of civilization?

To be guilty of money laundering, the prosecution had to show the money had been obtained through an illegal activity before it was laundered.

They succeeded in showing that, so I guess that means the prosecution is guilty of money laundering.

This is the frigging NYTimes!  Are there no editors sharp-eyed enough to change “To be guilty of …” to “To prove …” ?  Predicates need subjects!  Otherwise they run wild and incriminate innocent people.

Update: Commenter GD provides the necessary transit angle on this story:

William Safire is rotating in his grave. The question now is how to harness that energy and power rail transit with it 😉

Happy Thanksgiving to American readers.  If you had to fly in the USA yesterday, I hope it was stimulating.

Seattle + Snow = Futility

Posted on November 23, 2010 in Seattle

Dear Seattle readers, if you still haven’t figured out that you need to stay home, watch this.  Its a slice of life on John Street, Capitol Hill, Seattle, yesterday evening.

 

The transit angle on the story appears at 2:43.  Good thing nobody used the bike rack.

Stay home!

Connections vs Complexity

Posted on November 20, 2010 in Basics, Connections, Transfers, London, Los Angeles, Portland, Sydney

In my first “basics” post on connections, I explained why a network that requires connections (or as North Americans call them, “transfers”) can actually get people where they’re going faster than a network that tries to avoid them.

But there’s another important reason to plan for connections rather than direct service, one that should be important to anyone who wants transit to be broadly relevant to urban life: Unless you welcome and encourage connections, your network will become very, very complex. Continue Reading →

Connection Fare Penalties: Why They Happen

Posted on November 18, 2010 in Advocacy, Connections, Transfers, Fares, Los Angeles, Sydney

Is it fair to have to pay more if your trip requires a transfer or connection?  I’ve argued that it isn’t, but I also have an appreciation of the difficulty of eliminating these penalties.  So when complaining about a fare penalty, try to understand the situation from the transit agency’s point of view.  Not because they’re right and you’re wrong, but because you many need to help them solve the problem that it presents for them.  Continue Reading →

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