The unglamorous but essential struggle over the spacing of consecutive stops or stations on a transit line is an area where there’s a huge difference in practice between North American and Australian agencies, for reasons that have never been explained to me as anything other than a difference in bureaucratic habit. In Australia, and in most parts of Europe that I’ve observed, local-stop services generally stop every 400m (1/4 mile, 1320 feet). Some North American agencies stop as frequently as every 100m (about 330 ft). Continue Reading →
Author Archive | Jarrett
Guest Post Policy
Human Transit welcomes guest posts. Guest posts are usually from people who are very familiar with this blog and/or have some proven expertise in the area to be discussed. Explore the Guest Post category to see examples of others that have been accepted.
This blog assumes readers have decent critical thinking skills. They don’t need happy talk or vagueness; they need information and clear argument that explores real issues and trade-offs. Continue Reading →
Los Angeles: Before You Board, There’s a Quiz
Highlight of my transit tour of Los Angeles today: Vermont / Santa Monica subway station. It’s by Ellerbe Becket. Striking, certainly, but an entrance so ominous that if I didn’t know what it was, I’d guess it was a memorial to a horrible event. Enter under a heavy almond-shaped mass that looks like it’s about to fall on you, or perhaps a jaw about to close.
Cul-de-sac Hell, continued
What’s so great about living on a cul-de-sac again? From the Oregonian:
Fallen tree blocks access to Lake Oswego neighborhood Continue Reading →
Bulletin: Young Adults Don’t All Want Cars
A study by GWL Realty Advisors suggests that the next generation may not values cars nearly as much as the current decision-making generation does. From Treehugger’s coverage: Continue Reading →
Almere, Netherlands as Bus-Oriented Development
The remarkable busway network of Almere, Netherlands is impressive from the ground, as we saw in Richard Lenthall’s post, but it’s even more remarkable on Google Earth:
Guest Post: Richard Lenthall on the Busways of Almere, Netherlands
Richard Lenthall is the founder of Sight of the Navigator, a European travel and transit advisory website based in Amsterdam. It aims to improve tomorrow’s journey experience by bringing together transit providers and their passengers.
Transit and urban planners will no doubt be familiar with the “Bus Lane”, the concept of designating a lane or segment of road exclusively for the use of buses and other permitted vehicles. When properly executed bus lanes can save time over the same section of a journey made with a car, and provide operators the means to keep to timetables during the rush hours, both of which can promote the use of public transit. Continue Reading →
Beyond “On-Time Performance”
A San Francisco reporter emailed me yesterday with this question, regarding the city’s main transit system, Muni:
As you know, Muni set a goal in 1999 when the [San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency] board was formed, to have a 85 percent on-time performance standard. That was voted on in 1999 (Prop. E). Since then … the agency has yet to the meet goal or even gotten close to it. The highest it’s been was 75 percent a few months ago. … I wanted to ask if you if there is any danger for Muni to be so focused on this one standard? Are performance metrics evolving and why are they evolving? What else should Muni to be looking at as far as improving reliability?
Walkscore.com and the Lure of the Single “Score”
[Note: This post is from 2010 and has not been updated to reflect more recent developments, including the acquisition of WalkScore by Redfin.]
The Conservative Planner [blog site no longer active] has a thoughtful attack on WalkScore.com‘s methodology for calculating a simple “walkability score” for any neighborhood in America. He’s found several examples where WalkScore has given a high score to a place that’s clearly hostile to pedestrians when viewed on the ground. Continue Reading →
Guest Post: Aaron Renn on Universal Fare Media
(Aaron Renn, who writes The Urbanophile, is an opinion-leading urban affairs analyst, consultant, and speaker, based in the US Midwest.)
When I’m at home, I ride bus and rail transit about equally. But when I travel to a new city, I travel on rail systems frequently, but almost never use the bus. Why?
For me, while I know how transit systems generally work, the specifics of fares and fare media are different from place to place. I know that if I show up at a rail station there is likely to be a station house where I can look at maps, read about fares and rules, and use nice machines with step by step instructions for purchasing tickets or other fare media. Continue Reading →