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Can Dial-a-Ride Get High Ridership from Low Density?

Posted on December 19, 2009 in Demand-Response

In this post, I argued transit can’t be judged on the low ridership of
services where ridership isn’t the goal, and explained that every transit system has “Coverage” services, designed to achieve a perception of equity and/or to meet the severe needs of small numbers of people.  Coverage services generally cover low-density areas where ridership will always be relatively low.

In the comments, David Marcus asked a really important clarifying question, one that I hear often from elected officials in low-density places:

Could the empty-running coverage-oriented buses be replaced with some sort of dial-a-ride system running full?

Continue Reading →

Why is New York’s Transit “Always in Trouble”?

Posted on December 17, 2009 in General

New York City transit supporters are on fire today as their transit agency, the MTA, announced deep service cuts.  Service cuts are happening all over the US this year, as the economic crisis has cut into most of the local funding streams on which agencies rely.  In many cases, including California and New York, the problems have been compounded by raids on state transit funding streams to help balance state budgets.

There seems to be plenty of blame to go around for New York MTA’s especially dire straits.  The New York Times offers three expert views on their “Room for Debate” forum, though the three don’t seem to be disagreeing.  Two emphasize the need for more secure government funding, while the third points out the need to push back harder on labor costs, and it sounds like they can all be right.  None of them says that service cuts are a good thing. Continue Reading →

Doggie-bags from Overtaxed Restaurant Analogy

Posted on December 10, 2009 in San Francisco

26-36In the last post, commenting briefly on how some San Franciscans were lamenting the deletion of the uncrowded and redundant bus line 26-Valencia, I compared the 26 to a restaurant ….

Yes, we all like to ride uncrowded buses.  I really enjoy dining in uncrowded restaurants too.  And yet the odd thing is, however much I patronize my favorite uncrowded restaurants, they seem to go out of
business sooner than the crowded ones do.  I wonder why that is.

As always, the danger of fast posting is that you end up with comments that are much smarter than the post.  Commenter Spyone, for example, explained some of the economics of the restaurant business. Continue Reading →

San Francisco: Loss of Empty Buses Mourned

Posted on December 8, 2009 in Cuts, San Francisco

26-36Streetsblog San Francisco reports on the first day of the most substantial bus network changes in 30 years, including the first Monday without the 26-Valencia bus line, which was finally abolished after a century of semi-redundant operations.

As I explained here, the 26 ran infrequently along Valencia Street, just one block west of very frequent services on Mission Street, so it’s long been the case that if you don’t see a 26 coming, it’s usually faster to walk to Mission than wait for the next 26. Continue Reading →

Boston: The “Rapid Transit and Key Bus Routes” Map

Posted on December 6, 2009 in Boston, Branding, Maps

Boston map slice As several commenters have mentioned lately, Boston’s transit agency recently published a new network overview map, part of an overhaul of the information system.   The new map is similar in function to a subway network map but with some key bus lines added.  Here’s a slice, but you can get the whole thing, in much better resolution, here.

Most large transit agencies with extensive rail transit publish a map of just the rail transit services.  These tend to be the fastest, most frequent, and highest-capacity services in the network, so it makes sense that if you zoom out to a full-system overview, these are what you should see. Continue Reading →

Think Tanks, Binary Thinking, and “Bus vs Rail”

Posted on December 5, 2009 in Language, Philosophy

The Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida is under fire in Florida’s legislature.  State senator Mike Fasano (R), who chairs the committee overseeing spending by the state Department of Transportation, proposes to cut off funding to the transportation think tank.  From the St. Petersburg Times article, it sounds as though Fasano is just looking to cut spending generally, by citing projects that supposedly make CUTR’s work look arcane and unimportant: Continue Reading →

On Subways to the Sea

Posted on December 4, 2009 in Los Angeles, Rail Transit

2307208664_020b2e28ca This friendly little graphic, which I found on Dan Wentzel’s Pink Line blog, promotes the “Subway to the Sea,” an extension of the Los Angeles Purple Line subway, largely under Wilshire Blvd., all the way to the beach at Santa Monica (map here).  I like it as a logo, but it also serves to explain why relatively few subways in coastal cities go all the way to the beach, and why they often stay back from the ocean a bit. Continue Reading →

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