Bus Stops: Better Fewer, But Better
I noticed in Hamburg that many German bus stations smartly include signs that provide information (provided by GPS I assume) about when which buses are arriving. This seems like a strategy that’s full of win—very useful to riders and beyond its practical usefulness it’s just psychologically reassuring in a way that can make the bus much more appealing to casual users:
Rathausmarkt Bus Station, Hamburg, Germany (my photo available under cc license)
In Berlin having acquired some experience riding the 100 and 200 bus lines over the past couple of days I can say that another good idea from German bus service is that the buses seem to stop less frequently than our buses in DC. Fewer bus stops means faster travel times which are good on their own terms and also allow for more frequent service (since a given vehicle can make more trips per day if it goes faster) which is great as well. Washington is doing some experimenting with limited-stop bus service on Georgia Avenue and 16th Street but beyond those extreme cases it seems to me that most bus lines could easily afford to have 1/3 or 1/2 of their current stops eliminated and they’d still be stopping pretty darn frequently.
41 Responses to “Bus Stops: Better Fewer, But Better”
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September 28th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
In Denver, at least, there are both “local” and “limited” buses on major routes. The locals have stops about once every two to three blocks, while the limiteds have most of their stops a mile or so apart except for particularly dense areas.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
We have similar sort of signs in PDX at some of the light rail stops, and I’m pretty sure we used to have displays in some of the downtown bus stops. I’m not sure why they haven’t gotten wider deployment. It’s sort of unfortunate, because I suspect we spend quite a bit of money on decorative nonsense instead of these sort of usability enhancements.
Also agreed about reducing the number of stops. We have frequent service lines that run every couple minutes during peak hours and stop every 2 blocks. Seems like that could be changed to every 4 blocks without causing anyone problems.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
NYC buses have taken things to the opposite extreme, making on-demand stops anywhere along the route at night even if the requested stopping places aren’t normal bus stops. It’s considered a safety measure.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
They do this in San Francisco as well, on both BART (subway) and many (if not all) MUNI bus stations.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Right on about fewer stops. I also support having pull-offs so buses don’t block a travel lane when stopped.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
As I recall, there are streetcars in the north eastern part of the city … They were part of the old East Berlin transit; the lines may have been extended a bit in the years since reunification, but are still mostly only in the northeast.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
London Transport also has those signs at many bus stops. They make a huge difference.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
An added benefit of having an express or limited bus is that it can actually stop at the (spread out) stops so that it doesn’t depart early. This is, after all, the most frustrating thing about the bus — the uncertainty when you arrive at the stop and a bus isn’t there as to whether the bus is late (OK) or whether it has already come and gone early(really sucky). It’s probably not feasible to have a bus idle for 45 seconds every two blocks, but it IS doable to idle for 2-3 minutes every mile or two.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Stops along major bus routes in Edinburgh in the UK have ETAs for the buses as well. It’s incredibly useful if you’re out late, in that you know whether or not you’ll miss your bus if you walk further down the route where you may have more options available to you.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Fewer stops on bus lines would be hard on the elderly, disabled and infirm for whom walking is difficult.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
All that information on the sign is available on your cell phone. That was the plan anyway.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
As Mattyoung says, that info is available in DC. There’s a terrific iPhone app that tells you, with GPS precision, when the next buss is going to arrive at any stop in DC.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
you know whether or not you’ll miss your bus if you walk further down the route where you may have more options available to you.
And that’s the thing: if you have staggered routes that run mostly parallel with a few crossing points, combined with good maps and decent timing data, then you don’t feel tied to a particular bus stop.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Minneapolis-ST Paul is very similar to Denver described by the first poster. We have express buses and regular buses. The system works fairly well and as a result there are a lot of middle class people on the buses.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
In DC, the Woodley Park – MacPherson Square Circulator route is limited stop. It’s my favorite bus in the city.
Matt, David Alpert at greatergreaterwashington.org has been documenting the struggle to get WMATA to publish its schedules in a non-proprietary format. Basically, WMATA wants to charge for the data in case anyone else ever finds a way to make money off it. It’s a pretty good example of how a cash-starved transit agency seems to be sabotaging its shot at greater ridership.
His latest update is here:
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=3640
September 28th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
All that information on the sign is available on your cell phone. That was the plan anyway.
As Mattyoung says, that info is available in DC. There’s a terrific iPhone app that tells you, with GPS precision, when the next buss is going to arrive at any stop in DC.
Right. And who (in the US) mostly takes buses? Poorer people who are less likely to have phones with enhanced services, especially iphones!
There’s also a political component to eliminating stops. Bostonians will remember that a few years ago there was a proposal to eliminate some stops on the B line (Commonwealth Ave.) trolley between, I think, Kelton St. and Washington St., and again between Washington and Chestnut Hill Ave. for all the reasons MattY notes. By the time the local city councilors and state reps and state senator got involved (not MY constituents – the opposite of NIMBY) I think the whole proposal got shot down.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I live in an urban city in New Jersey and ever since taking the bus here in high school and the sluggish rides, frequent stops and long cold waits at the bus stop, always tried my best to avoid taking buses when away on vacation. I saw these when I was in Sweden, in particular Malmo and Uppsala. They systems were so well run that I went out of my way to take advantage of them. Fewer stops made them easier for tourists because I knew when four stops were and they were all well labeled. I was even able to see that I had another 25 minutes wait for the bus so I went back to the bar and had another drink.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
In my friends’ and my limited experience with the WMATA scheduling / online service, it doesn’t actually work. We think it must run off of timetables or something, because it will say “bus arrives in 5 mins” so you run from your house to the stop and then there’s no bus for 20 mins.
I like the Circulator as well — it’s cheaper and runs more often up 14th street than the combined 52/53/54 buses. But aren’t Circulators run by a separate company / entity than WMATA?
September 28th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Well, I guess NJ Transit could do that here in Southern NJ. But under the “time” column they’d have to use a random number generator that kept randomly changing the time to various values between 0 and 60 minutes.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
What they don’t have “Next Bus” in DC?
We’ve had in SF for years…lots of Germans too
September 28th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
@SP Gass #5
Pulling out of lane works only if the drivers are courteous to the bus. Which given the monumental quotient of jerk drunk every morning by American drivers is simply a fantasy. Bus bulbs are the way to go (projections from the normal curb the width of the parking lane so that the bus stops right in traffic and doesn’t have to merge in.
It has all the advantages of street cars (i.e. they are in the way of the traffic) without the disadvantages (i.e. they can’t go around one of those drunk on jerk drivers who’s waiting for a parking place).
September 28th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Pfffth. Come to Zurich. In most highly-used bus routes, they have these monitors inside the bus! At each stop it tells you the connecting lines (bus, light rail, train), and an up-to-the-second time of when it will arrive based on GPS. And on a couple of lines, they’ve even installed monitors which allow companies to buy ad space and run commercials (though without sound and subtitled)
September 28th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
John McCutchen:
NextBus is available in DC. Like everywhere else, it’s only available via the iPhone, for a fee.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
It’s not only available on iPhone. It’s available on any phone with a web browser and it costs zero dollars. http://www.wmata.com/mobile
Learn it. Love it.
This doesn’t mean it’s available to everyone, but it’s available to other smart phone users.
tsg’s point is an absolutely vital one. Every bus I get on in DC has two or three people on it who can barely walk. I think the express/local distinction is a good way of going about it, though. There’s no downside that I can figure.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Bus bulbs are the way to go (projections from the normal curb the width of the parking lane so that the bus stops right in traffic and doesn’t have to merge in.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those. We have dedicated bus lanes/parking lanes/snowplow lanes here.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
http://www.ctabustracker.com
September 28th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
of course here in SoCal these helpful signs are only on the freeways.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
All the buses also have a device that forces the traffic light in front of them to stay green.
It helps keep that “minutes away” stay that much more accurate.
The thing I’ve never understood about WMATA’s next bus is why not have it accessible in an SMS format? As it is, I have to spend a minute before I can even enter my bus stop number over the phone.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
yankervitch: It is (didn’t know that until just now, either). Text “nbus WMATA [stop#]” to 41411. You have to know the stop number; you can’t do route/direction/intersection like you can with a browser, but I think it still works.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Actually, in the US, Federal ADA law requires bus stops to be every other block.
It would be nicer if busses instead of having grand routes did smaller routes… They’re less likely to get behind that way. But most systems prefer bigger, longer routes because that matches the drivers’ time and users not wanting to transfer.
But longer routes mean less certain timing and less likely for the route to actually serve a community area… All the busses in my town just go away from the town, and only one near me goes to a transfer station. Grids aren’t served well by busses.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Stops here (Seattle-ish) are mostly every two blocks, too. It occurs to me that the cheapest fix would be just to take out the occasional stop, leaving a 4 block space — but users would probably be much more happy with 3 block spacing, requiring moving many *many* bus stops, and the larger cost of that solution makes it less likely to happen.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Chicago’s bus tracker (linked above) is pretty remarkable. It’s been right within a about a minute every time I’ve used it. They’ve also been gradually moving most stops so they occur just past an intersection rather than just before. Making them less likely to miss the light, or cause drivers behind to do so.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
In DC, the average distance between bus stops is about 200m. In most european cities it is about 400m and AFAIK nobody has ever complained about it.
In the very dense city of Paris which is entirely served by a quickier metrorail network, bus is mostly used by people who are not that hurry and prefer not to walk too much, especially elderly and disabled people. The average distance is 300m though, still much more than what we see in DC and other US cities.
I don’t think that having 2 routes is such a good solution. Just one bus every 5 min is much better than one express every 10 min and one local every 10 min.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
when the next buss is going to arrive
But man, wiping all the lipstick off your cheek is a real chore.
Anyway, as others have said, I think limited stops would be a real hardship on the elderly and handicapped. In fact, I often have this thought when Matt, Ezra, et al., discuss their urbanist preferences. I find them generally persuasive, but to my mind they don’t take seriously enough the effect on those with bad knees. I assume this is because they’re enfants terrible — but not all of us are.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Yes, the psychological value of these is huge. Pre-GPS versions of the one in your picture have been in use for decades at main bus terminal locations (Brussels, Amsterdam, many German cities). Remember the real trail blazer was BART in the early 70s–yes,it is easier with rail, but they were the first ones with real-time “how long till the next departure” info.
Awklib is correct that Zurich is ahead of the Germans. The real issue isn’t the tracking/display technology, or spacing of stops, it is how to operate urban buses to a very precise timetable with extremely high reliability. In Manhattan you see seven buses bunched together, (some packed, some empty) then nothing for 15-20 minutes. The Swiss designed street/curb/traffic light layouts to optimize bus/tram flow. It is almost as reliable as a rail system with a totally dedicated right-of-way.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Also, I’ve heard of these bus lines allowing you to buy your ticket via text message. They make it a bit cheaper as well. You don’t have to wait at the stop while everyone sorts out their dimes and nickles.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
of course here in SoCal these helpful signs are only on the freeways.
They have ‘em on all the Orange Line stops, and Long Beach Transit has them, too. It would be great if Metro could get them on all of their bus stops.
Those of you touting iPhones, etc., well, those are great for a handful of people on the bus, even if we discount the fact that the vast majority of the people taking the bus aren’t carrying around that sort of tech, is just way easier to be able to glance up at a screen and see how long it is instead of loading up an app.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Especially considering that people taking the bus are overwhelmingly tilted toward the bottom end of the income distribution.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:53 am
I find odd the notion that we should design entire bus systems to exclusively serve the market of people who can walk two blocks to catch a bus, but can’t walk three blocks for the same purpose.
In other words, for those with serious mobility issues, you need things like paratransit. But for almost everyone else, they also get the benefits of faster and more reliable bus service.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
GPS only tells the bus where the bus is. If the bus wants to tell anyone else where it is, it needs to use the cellular network.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Right. And who (in the US) mostly takes buses? Poorer people who are less likely to have phones with enhanced services, especially iphones!
There’s a technological solution to this, too. You put an identifying number on each bus stop sign, and people can use an ordinary cell phone (which even many poor people have now, and will have more of in the future), enter the number on their keypad, and the computer at the other end gives them the information for the stop they are at.
That could also be extended to text messages (and judging from #29, already has in some areas).
Then you print the instructions on the bus stop sign, so that everybody at the bus stop, even non-regular-riders, has it available. No need to put up electronic signs at every stop (although, of course, you could still do so for the highest-traffic stops, to make it even more convenient).