May 27, 2008
Metro Considering Spacing Out Bus Stops
We'd be remiss if we didn't point out a story from this morning's Examiner which quotes Metro Assistant General Manager Gerald Francis saying the agency is considering spacing out bus stops on many Metrobus lines in order to improve bus service. Perhaps Francis and company have been reading DCist comment threads? The too-frequent spacing of bus stops, which occur at nearly every block on some lines, has been a rallying cry for District residents for years.
Of course, WMATA is still just considering such action, and as we know, that means a plan must first be drafted and then debated for months and months and months before you could end up seeing stops on your route moved. Still, since we already know where most of you stand on this issue, we know you'll want to suggest which lines ought to be at the top of the list in the comments. After all, we're starting to suspect Metro officials might actually be reading them.
Photo by cstein96
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Thank god!
the S lines running down 16th st-those stops are literally a block away from each other nearly the whole way from Walter Reed until downtown...
50s, same as S lines
Yes! Finally, I know they are coming up on restructuring the 30 line but that line runs so slowly because of the amount of stops that are on it. Walking an extra block will not be that much harder, and i would much rather do that then not have to walk and wait an extra 30 minutes.
I say all the stops on the 70 line between my house and downtown. :)
you dont know pain till you've ridden a 50 all the way down u t s r q p rhode island etc. All because fat-booty women can't walk an extra blocks-and you know they stink from all the sweat between their many fat folds
Yes - all of them! Especially the 16th Street and 14th Street buses, L buses, etc.
Frankly I'm more excited about the prospect of Nextbus coming back online.
There is no line worse than the 50 series. It doesn't stop about every block, it stops every freaking block. If you miss a bus, a slight power walk will let you beat it to the next stop. A light jog will let you beat it to your destination.
The S bus actually saves me 20 minutes, and that's with 4 extra blocks of walking. Bus stops should be no less than half a mile apart. You will still only have to walk a quarter mile in either direction to get to a stop.
We can't overlook the health benefit of this - some of the folks who ride the X2 (and can barely fit into the two-person frontward-facing seats) could use the extra walk.
I'm not sure if registeringsucks' idea of 1/2 mile spacing works in all instances, but I say a minimum of 4 blocks between stops would do a world of good.
"Bus stops should be no less than half a mile apart. You will still only have to walk a quarter mile in either direction to get to a stop."
That's an awful idea. For one thing, walking a quarter-mile just to wait for a bus is a real kick in the shins, and would decrease ridership. Secondly, your geometery works only if someone lives right on the bus route. If someone lives off the bus route by several blocks, their walk could easily top a quarter mile. Finally, a lot of people who use the bus live in neighborhoods where walking one block is dangerous enough.
It sounds like some routes could use a little loosening, but to hold out a quarter-mile as some goal is wrong in my opinion.
You want do to door service, get a freaking car. A quarter of a mile is a 5 minute walk. That's a kick in the shins to you?
A quarter mile walk is perfectly doable in the dense parts of the city - i.e., lower NW and NE (can't speak for SE).
As for the dangerous part, they can do whatever they want after dark. During morning and evening rush hour, though, buses should not stop every 100 yards.
Bear in mind that WMATA will soon offer door-to-door MetroAccess paratransit for people physically unable to walk to a bus stop.
From either experience or by reading things, I'd say the buses on 16th St, 14th St, and Wisconsin Ave would benefit from steps taken to speed up service. But instead of spacing out all bus stops, why not institute an additional express service which only serves bus stops every .5 mile or so? (I believe they have something similar set up on Columbia Pike in Arlington and Georgia Ave in DC, they may only run during rush hour, I'm not sure.)
That way the people who want to get where they're going quicker will make the effort of walking to one of the few bus stops served by the express service, while those who can't or aren't willing to walk to those stops can pick up the same slow bus that stops on every corner just like they're used to.
A quarter of a mile is a 5 minute walk. That's a kick in the shins to you?
My point was that it's annoying to walk a quarter mile just to sit and wait for a bus that you don't know when will come. That wait is an inherent trade-off of riding a bus, but part of that trade-off is that the bus will stop in more convenient locations than a subway. And besides, as I pointed out, the people that currently walk a quarter mile to the bus would likely then have to walk a half mile. In the middle of a DC summer, (even in the morning) a half mile walk can really suck.
buses should not stop every 100 yards..
I agree. But nonetheless, I don't think the answer is to jump all the way from 100 to 800. I think that in most areas, every-other block or so is a good distance. I don't know about the buslines you ride, but the ones I ride already have stops spaced out at approximately two to three blocks, and I think that's fine.
From my observations, most bus passengers don't ride buses for much more than 2 miles or so, and the added efficiency won't be felt very much by them. These passengers are better served having stops closer to their origin and destination. A distinction needs to be made between those lines that generally carry most passengers a long way (i.e. Georgia Ave. route) and those that are more like jitneys, taking people to and from a metro stop. The former would benefit the most from "express" routes, the later must remain "local".
That i.e. should be an e.g.
IME every other block works well in gridded cities, but DC is not that. Maybe instead of a hard-and-fast rule, a target distance between stops could be set and the lines could be looked at on an individual basis.
We can't overlook the health benefit of this - some of the folks who ride the X2 (and can barely fit into the two-person frontward-facing seats) could use the extra walk.
I might say keep the X2 as is because that line has been responsible for some of my most entertaining bus rides. Still tops is the guy who got on trying to sell frozen shrimp out of a stryofoam cooler.
i agree with those who say we should be adding express routes to the major lines. in addition to the georgia avenue and 30s express buses, we need them on 16th street, 14th street, the x2, the connecticut buses, the 38b....all the high-use lines should have a rush-hour express.
x2 please! 45 minutes to go 2 miles is a bit much.
A larger issues is the number of people who pay with cash. Having 40 people bunched together at one stop won't be much quicker than 20 at two stops- with everyone using cash. When are the paper transfers gogin away? i thought that was part of the plan when they supplied thousands of free smartcards to low income folks?
This is a LONG time coming.
East Capitol Street from Lincoln Park to the Capitol is literally half bus stops in quite a few blocks. I rarely see more than maybe two people at one of these stops. Makes no sense whatsoever.
"A rallying cry for District residents for years"? Really? So is that what all those protests have been about?
In terms of bus spacing - what Reid said. 2-3 blocks makes sense for most bus trips, which tend to be more local in nature than Metro trips. Half a mile makes sense for express routes, which can be overlaid on local routes.
Also, techne, DC is on a grid (those lettered and numbered streets). The grid just happens to be criss-crossed with a whole mess of radial avenues. But to your point, I agree that stop location should be based on more than a formula. There are other factors to take into consideration (for example, transfer points and proximity to major activity centers).
As far as spacing goes, I think the best thing to do is just eliminate every other stop in those really dense areas. That way the most you have to walk is 1 extra block. I think the idea of 1/2 mile spacing is kind of silly. If the stops are too far spread out, it kind of defeats the purpose of having public transportation.
Plus, if you're young and healthy, the extra 1/4 mile is no big deal, but if you're older or have an injury or are on crutches, it makes a huge difference.
A neat solution would be to have an express schedule (less stops) during rush hour and revert to the normal stops the rest of the time. Call it the S2-E from 7 to 9:30 and go back to the S2 the rest of the time.
Can DC also hire Blackwater to secure the major downtown intersections and kill everyone who blocks the busses path? Seems like they're pretty good at that.
Hmm, I guess I'm biased. I live in Adams Morgan, so I take the 42 and the 90s a lot, and it's the 60-90deg curves in the roads around 18th and Columbia that lead to at least 3 easily eliminatable stops. But I guess that's the only such intersection with that problem.
About F*ing time. I've been saying this for years. What's the point of having a bus stop every block? DC is fat enough already.
I like having a stop on my block. If you get rid of that then I'm driving.
14th street zip line.
If I wanted to walk the metro then I would. That is why I like taking the bus, because I don't have to walk.
Yes to express! I think that would be a great way to go- particularly given the needs of people with disabilities, elderly, and those who travel with small children. Agreed on the cash users; however, a problem I've always experienced is that as a fairly exclusively bus user is that I don't have anywhere to fill up my SmarTrip. I guess you can do it on the bus but it is an awkward process and cash only. Would be nice to be able to add money at GIant (where you can buy cards) or online if your card is registered.