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Frequent Networks

Comment of the Week: The Frequent Network Mapping Campaign

Posted on September 6, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Maps

From Jeff Wegerson of Prairie State Blue, on the current burst of reader-designed Frequent Network maps on this blog, which began with this post.

It’s almost like Jarrett is running a contest here that not only doesn’t have a prize, it doesn’t have any well defined rules. And that is probably fine at this stage. It’s as if we are in a brainstorming session and told not to be negative to ideas because we want them to keep coming. Something like that.

Someone once said that the essence of leadership is to appear to have intended whatever good thing has just happened.  So I appreciate Jeff’s assurance that I’m keeping up the illusion of being in charge here.

Montréal: The Pleasure of Maps Made by Hand, or by Eye

Posted on September 6, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Maps, Montréal

Google is getting us all used to the idea of automatically generated maps, which sacrifice many opportunities for clarity and beauty in order to be instantly available and automatically up-to-date. But Anton Dubrau, who writes the intelligent Montréal transit blog Catbus, asks:

I guess there is this general question whether frequent network maps should be automatically generated, or made by hand. Which is probably related to the question whether they should be abstract and compact, or geographically accurate. Or whether they should be published today, or … later. It took me more than a solid week to make a map of Montréal’s network by hand.

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The Perils of Succeeding “On Average”

Posted on August 29, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Los Angeles, Maps, On-Time Performance, Philosophy, Toronto, Words, Unhelpful

Two recent comments on different topics got me thinking about averages, and why people like to talk about them more than they like hearing about them.

Toronto transit expert Steve Munro made this comment on the familiar perils of transit operations in that city:

In Toronto, the TTC reports that routes have average loads on vehicles, and that these fit within standards, without disclosing the range of values, or even attempting any estimate of the latent demand the route is not handling because of undependable service.  Service actually has been cut on routes where the “averages” look just fine, but the quality of service on the street is terrible.  Some of the planning staff understand that extra capacity can be provided by running properly spaced and managed service, but a cultural divide between planning and operations gets in the way.

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Toronto: A New Frequent Network Plan

Posted on August 24, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Maps, Toronto

In the midst of all the frequent-network-mapping fervor, here comes the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) with a proposal for consistent all-day 10-minute frequency on a network of critical lines covering high-density parts of the city.  A frequent network map is already in the newspaper, but it remains to be seen if this brand will make it onto their system map, along the lines of similar brands in  Portland,  Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St.Paul, and Salt Lake City among other North American peers.  Anyway, here’s the map:

F456a1d74fd19961fbe397bf35a0 Continue Reading →

Montréal’s New Frequent Network Brand

Posted on August 21, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Montréal

STM réseau 10 minutes max Montréal’s transit agency STM is the latest to introduce a frequent network brand for its buses.  The Réseau 10 Minutes (“ten-minute network”) will consist of 11 all-day services running every 10 minutes or better.  The excellent local urbanist blog Montréalites Urbaines (in French) has been following the story.  Sadly, it is not yet highlighted on the network map, at least not the map for the central city, but these things usually happen in several steps as the idea slowly takes root in different parts of an agency. Continue Reading →

Frequent Network Maps: Ideas from Vancouver

Posted on August 18, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Maps, Vancouver

Fsn-map-vancouver-web-500x420 Inspired by my post on the urgent need for frequency mapping, Vancouver’s transit agency TransLink, via its blog The Buzzer, has been encouraging map enthusiasts to draw their own ideas for what a frequency-coded map might look like.

The most nuanced so far is this one by David M.  He’s sketched a bit of southern Vancouver and Richmond as an example.   Look at the original and note all the distinctions he’s tried to draw.  Continue Reading →

Barcelona: “Treat Buses Like Ambulances”

Posted on June 8, 2010 in Barcelona, Bus Rapid Transit, Frequent Networks

Barcelona BRT_route map_low-res_650pix
The new “rapid bus” network proposed for Barcelona looks a lot like the Los Angeles Metro Rapid:  No exclusive lanes, but strong signal priority, emphasis on fast implementation, and judging from the map, very wide stops.  I would resist calling this Bus Rapid Transit, though, unless you want the term to mean “any and all corridor-wide attempts to make buses a little faster.”  Continue Reading →

Can Local Buses “Stimulate” Development?

Posted on May 11, 2010 in Frequent Networks, Portland, Streetcars (Trams), Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)

One of the troubling side-effects of the streetcar revival movement in North America is that streetcar advocates often need to argue that buses don’t stimulate development, whereas streetcars really do.  But now and then someone says something like this:

Now, in Seattle, I picked my current apartment in large part because it was right next to a trolleybus (the 44).

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