A Carless culture: The bus, part I
A Carless culture’s a series of posts that examines how we can make de-car-ing a sexy and viable travel solution for Angelenos. [pics from MTA]
The bus has a really, really bad rep in SoCal. I mean, Roger, gone green, who’s a big fan of de-car-ing in general, says buses right now are like “cattle cars†for the poor. Russ concurs: The bus is often considered “a thing for low income people.”
But how to change that?
We have a bit of a chicken or the egg problem here. Most of the bus system’s so fraught with problems that people don’t take ‘em. On the other hand, the bus system has a hard time getting funding unless ridership’s increased.
These are the 2 major probs I see and others have mentioned:
1. Reliability. MTA buses quite often fail to show up, let alone show up on time. Sez Groby: There is such a thing as a schedule (emphasis mine). Roger recommends running the buses frequently enough so that we can do away with schedules altogether.
2. Ease of use. The problem here has to do with the fact that we have like a dozen different bus systems, all run by different municipalities, and all with different fares, routes, transfer options, stop locations (Unify stops, recommends Groby), etc. etc. Meaning that if you take 1 or 2 buses to get to work everyday and already have the routes and bus numbers worked out, cool. Otherwise, good luck.
Even the MTA trip planner’s pretty much useless — about a third of the time, I get an error message; another third, I get a circuitous route when there are clearly better ones.
So — What to do to fix these problems?
I see 2 major courses of action:
1. Appeal to and work with the MTA to make some serious changes. This includes using their feedback forms, calling them when they fuck up, maybe joining their Citizens Advisory Council if you have the time, etc. etc. [Update, 7/24/06: Apparently, one can't just join the council, though you can put in your 2 cents at their general meetings. More info on how to get involved with the MTA here.] More broadly, it means trying to get more of our public funds to go towards improving our public transportation system instead of building more big highways.
2. Appeal to and work with other companies and orgs to make happen what MTA seems unable to do. First up on my list: Getting Google to do a Google Transit Trip Planner for Los Angeles. Google’s already done this for Portland, so it’s possible we can get Google to make LA its next stop.
Why? WorldChanging gushes that Google Transit “combines the best of Google maps with the best of current transit trip-planners. It tells you where to walk to, what lines to take when, plots it all out on the map (both walking and riding, with flags to differentiate), and tells you how much it will cost. It even compares the cost of your trip to the cost of driving (for instance, going from the airport to downtown costs $1.80 by transit and $4.27 by car!)”
This type of tool would be especially useful if it took into account all the dozen or so different bus systems in our area, to provide a unified tool that transcended beyond them. Google, please help us! You can appeal to Google by emailing labs-transit_feedback@google.com — something I’ll be doing later today. After all, they just opened a new office in Santa Monica!
There is a third thing to do: Ride the bus whenever possible. Yes, even with all its flaws. You gotta ride it to know it — and to change it.
More on this and other positive news about bussing it tomorrow –
Update, 7/11/06: Here’s The bus, part II.
Here is a way cool, and hopeful look at, yes, driverless automated future buses, and alt-transit that is being field tested in Europe. I think the future is here, we just need to let our processing filters be adjusted a bit…
http://www-rocq.inria.fr/imara/
Cheers~
Comment by Chris Martell — July 10, 2006 @ 11:23 am
Hallo from Europe. There’s a lot of cool ways to transport people above ground. We may have to keep the normal buses for a while though :-). Since I’ve travelled on comunal transportation in several european cities I think the best way to make a bus ride, well, luxurious is to have buses that are well kept enough to feel new, that they are scheduled to come often, and that they come on time. Simple as that, but pretty hard in reality.
Vi hörs!
Comment by Malin (the Chocolate Lover) — July 11, 2006 @ 6:09 am
there is a system called BRT - Bus Rapid Transport. more info on http://www.gobrt.org/whatis.html
i think it started in brazil:
- the buses got dedicated lanes
- the driver had a remote control for traffic lights
- the busgoers bought their tickets in advance
voila, quicker and simpler for bus-goers at a fraction of the prise of a metro/underground (for the town hall). but then it requires that one already has a lot of lanes of which one can spare one in each direction.
Comment by Johan — July 11, 2006 @ 9:00 am
Less than 10 years ago bus travel in Dublin was a nightmare with old run down busses, unreliable timetables, and traffic jams. It has improved alot in the last few years. First of all they bought lots of new double decker busses, single deck busses dont have the capacity for a city. Then Dublin City Council introduced Quality Bus Corridors which allow the busses to drive past all the traffic jams. Next they put more busses on many of the routes so for example I now only have to wait 15 minutes for an 11 bus when just a couple of years ago I had to wait 30 minutes. It’s an on going job so some people still say the bus service is awful where they live but things are getting better.
At rush hour its standing room only on the busses, assuming they arent already full by the time they get to you.
Comment by Declan — July 11, 2006 @ 10:34 am
Johan — The BRT looks so cool! It seems somewhat similar to our proposed expo line.
And Declan — Really encouraging to hear that hope may become reality not too far in the future.
I just realized that none of the commenters on this post live in LA — I think one of our major challenges here is that we have no “hub” to the city. LA’s like a bunch of scattered little urban areas haphazardly connected via freeways… One of the challenges is making each urban area more likely to serve all the necessary day to day functions for its residents. Wish us luck –
Comment by Siel — July 12, 2006 @ 6:57 pm
While Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is all well and good, it’s only practical in smaller cities and suburbs. For example, I’ve read that the BRT in Curitiba, Brazil (the place where BRT is credited to have originated), is already past capacity and there are plans (maybe already under construction) to upgrade the system to light rail.
Any corridor in the city of LA, with the exception of a couple West Valley/North Valley corridors, is fit for light or heavy rail. BRT can be a great component of LA’s transit system, but it is _definitely_ not the answer to our problems.
Strange that I came upon this site today. As I was driving home (North Valley) from school (Downtown LA), my car suddenly jerked forward. I realized that I’m having some severe transmission problems and will be forced to take Metrolink, the Red Line, and a bus to and from school for the next few days/week(s?)
I’ve done it before — and it’s really not that bad — it’s just that I have to carry around a LOT of equipment for school, and lugging it onto a crowded bus on Alvarado and Wilshire at rush hour is pretty hectic. Who knows, though. Maybe I’ll be all right with it. It’s surely a whole hell of a lot cheaper than driving.
Comment by Rico A — July 26, 2006 @ 5:29 pm
I have to say I’m quite ignorant of the differences between BRT and light rail — I s’pose cuz I rarely have the opportunity to use either of these, living in LA. Stay safe out there Rico — and get a good backpack with the moolah saved from not driving :)
Comment by Siel — July 28, 2006 @ 12:37 pm