"If I put train tracks down the street, you wouldn’t
park your car on them. If I said this is a bus lane, somehow it becomes fair
game. One person’s use of a road impacts upon another person’s use
of the road. My point is, if we have to make a choice, make the choice for the
bus, not for the car.”
-- MTA Chairman Jay Walder, quoted in the New York Times.
These are heartening words for transit
advocates. Incoming MTA Chairman Jay Walder clearly wants to make big improvements to
the agency's 250 bus routes. But given his time, budget and authority, there is a
big gap between what he can do and what he would like to do for buses.
There are four basic ways to
improve bus service: get passengers on and off faster, move buses faster, and
provide more frequent and regular service. The improvements work together. Reductions
in boarding and travel times mean buses can travel farther in less time, and so
provide more service. After modest initial investments in new buses, lanes and
technology, it is possible for bus operators to actually provide more service
for less money. Another consideration is the relative merits of focusing on system-wide improvements, which improve all of the MTA’s 2.4 million daily trips, versus
corridor-specific improvements, like Select Bus Service, which benefit a relatively
small number of riders.
Let's look at the things that
Walder and the MTA can realistically do for buses.
First up:
contactless or “swipe less” MetroCards, like London's Oyster card, which are
waved over a sensor instead of swiped. These contactless cards speed bus
boarding and can save a lot of time over
the course of a day. They also help reduce bus bunching by making
loading times more consistent on every bus. Contactless cards are a mature technology which the MTA has
already funded, and which Walder helped pioneer in London. So, there is every
reason to think he can hurry its implementation.
Walder can also help with the long-delayed GPS
bus locator system and real-time arrival information for passengers. These are also mature technologies which bus
systems around the world use to reduce bunching, troubleshoot delays, and keep
riders informed. To date, the MTA has bungled GPS tracking, and insisted on
trying to solve the canyon effect caused by Manhattan skyscrapers instead of
deploying GPS and passenger information on the huge majority of routes that don't
go through Midtown, or even enter Manhattan. This is a highly visible and
affordable improvement that Walder would get a lot of credit for.
Continue...
