Matt Yglesias

23 Responses to “Better Bus Info”

1. BrianZ Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 10:05 am

   Philadelphia doesn’t even have a bus map. You can get schedules for individual routes that offer an inadequate map of that route. The line of the bus’ path is annotated with intersection names, but there’s nothing to put the route into the context of the city as a whole. If you want a visual representation of how the routes relate to each other, or to trains, or to anything else in the city, you are out of luck. It’s completely ridiculous.

2. Craig Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 11:46 am

   The Cincinnati Transit system suffers from this problem. THe maps don’t show any of the cross streets. I have to use Google maps in conjuction with the bus map to figure out where they go. They could make the information available in a more useful open electronic format so that Google maps and others could incorporate them. They also could have a system map that didn’t make me want to pull my hair out. Go download Cincinnati’s system map at http://www.go-metro.com to see what I mean. The leaf chart on Goodspeed’s blog is pretty cool, but it may be hard for people to learn how to use it.

3. Kyle Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 11:47 am

   I think having google maps figure out bus schedules is something that really helps solve this problem and makes us less dependent on good maps (although they would still help).

4. Andrew Fly Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

   Providence also doesn’t have a comprehensive map, just isolated routes

5. JohnH Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

   As BrianZ says about Philly, I doubt system-wide bus maps matter one iota to anyone or that they can improve much. They’re bound to be more crowded and thus impenetrable than subway maps for any populous city with sufficient bus service, and the examples from the article Matt admire seem equally a matter of taste to me.

   In New York, few people even know there is a system-wide bus map or use it. People don’t plan their travel that way, the way they do with subways. If it’s far enough away that the routes aren’t known, it’s probably by subway. Then I often make use of the bus maps for a single route at a time on the bus stop’s signpost, and they’re usually good. I’ve even used them for guidance as a pedestrian in an unfamiliar part of the city when I wish to walk instead.

   Bus schedules are also quite clear on the signs. They’re just of no use whatsoever, since buses don’t keep to them. Slow downs and bus bunching, especially on crosstown routes, remain a major problem, but that’s to be solved with incentives to limit traffic and with funding that gets people out of their cars, not with cuter colors.

6. James Wimberley Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

   I’ve said this before, here or on Klein: electronic real-time displays at every stop of the next few buses. Standard in Europe, Singapore, etc. Wake up from the eight-year Bush coma, Rip van Winkle!

7. skiddie Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

   I agree with other people about system-wide maps. To a point, they’re useful, but generally they are too complicated. London (where I live) has a pretty good one, so you can plan a cross-city bus trip, but the best tool is that online you can easily get area-specific bus maps (ie, where every bus goes to after it stops in my neighborhood.

   The best tool, though (along with live boards at stops) is the map posted at each stop that shows where each bus goes after that stop. It’s clear, concise and incredibly helpful– in a glance you know what buses you want. In a city that has over 700 routes, that’s not an easy task.

   Matt — your next junket abroad should be to London to use the system for a few days. It truly is great. My local route runs every three minutes, as it has done since the war, according to wikipedia– and the route was laid out prior to the first world war. People know that the bus they need will be where they need it to be, when they need it there. As a result buses are well used.

8. pseudonymous in nc Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

   James W: let’s be realistic here.

   While bus travel in the US remains tarred as being For Those People, you’re not going to get real-time GPS-enabled laser-display boards. Most bus route planners outside big cities are happy to put stops in the middle of a grass verge along a busy multi-lane highway. Let’s put off the whole yuppie techwanking until there’s some core competence with the basics — maps, timetables and the design of stops.

   It does not take a huge effort to print up schedules that tell people when the bus is scheduled to arrive at each particular stop, as opposed to some arbitrary interstitial point further up or down the route. It does not take a huge investment to build bus shelters, or at least ensure that stops aren’t mudpits. This may not be sexy, but it’s the learning-to-walk stage for local transit authorities.

9. Andrew Price Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

   Consider also E.J.Marey’s train schedule design as mentioned by Tufte in the ‘Visual Display of Quantitive information’

   http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi

   http://ieg.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/~aigner/teaching/ws06/infovis_ue/img/technique-images/full-size/marey_train-schedule.jpg

   

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11. mister nomer Says:
    January 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    Here’s what I want to see:

    Color code major routes. So, if people see a red bus in the neighborhood near their home and see one where they work maybe they’ll say to themselves: “Maybe I should take that bus to work”.

    You could even have sponsors for these routes to help defray the cost.

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